This week we enjoyed some healthy baking in pre-school.  We made apple and honey flapjacks where the children helped to chop the apples and then mix all of the ingredients together.

We talked about what other fruits we could use in a flapjack recipe, and why we may use honey instead of sugar.  This lead on to lots of discussion about what we know about how bees make honey.  Did you know that a honeybee has 2 stomachs? One is specifically used to carry the nectar.

We have talked about what we enjoy for a healthy meal or what we can pack for a healthy lunch at pre-school.

The children have been using this as inspiration in our mud kitchen area and serving us lots of leafy salads!!

Next week we will be looking at other ways we stay healthy, such as washing our hands and brushing our teeth.

A reminder that on Tuesday 23^rd we have our whole school sports day starting at 1pm.  The pre-school will take part in a couple of races at the start.

Also, there is a sign-up sheet for our parent consultation week in pre-school entrance.  Please sign up if you would like an informal chat about your child and how they are doing in pre-school.

If there is not a date suitable, please do come and see us to arrange an alternative.

Parents of children moving up to Reception in September should have received an information pack from school and an invitation to attend the parent's welcome meeting on Wednesday 17^th at 2.30pm.

The Pre-School Team.

Another wonderful week has flown by in Mousehole Class, and the children have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm, creativity and hard work across the curriculum!

English

In English, we have been exploring verbs and the suffixes -er and -or, thinking about how these can change words and their meanings. The children have also planned, written and performed their own Kennings poems. We were so impressed with their imaginative ideas and confident performances, which brought lots of fun and creativity to our classroom.

Maths

This week in maths:

• Year 2 have been learning about mass, volume and capacity, using practical activities to compare and measure different amounts.
• Year 3 have continued their work on fractions, learning about the whole, as well as ordering and comparing fractions. They have shown great perseverance when tackling some challenging concepts.

PE

The children enjoyed another exciting session with Cricket Chris, developing their cricket skills further by learning how to bowl the ball accurately. There was some fantastic concentration, teamwork and determination on display.

Computing

In computing, we have been exploring desktop publishing, learning how to organise text and images effectively to create attractive and informative documents.

History

We had an exciting hook lesson to launch our new history enquiry question:

"How have children's lives changed?"

The children became history detectives, sorting different children's objects into the time periods they thought they belonged to: Tudor, Victorian or Modern Day. They enjoyed discussing their ideas and making predictions before finding out the answers.

To deepen our understanding, we then worked collaboratively to create large-scale artistic representations of a Tudor child and a Victorian child. The children absolutely loved this activity, and the finished pieces are now proudly displayed in our classroom for everyone to enjoy.

Art

In art, we began our new unit on sculpture. We started by exploring what sculpture is and how sculptors create three-dimensional artwork. Using the boxes kindly brought in from home, the children experimented with cutting them into different shapes and discovering ways to join them together without using glue or tape. They showed fantastic problem-solving skills and creativity as they investigated different construction techniques.

These are just some of the highlights from another busy and successful week in Mousehole Class. The children continue to amaze us with their curiosity, resilience and willingness to embrace new challenges. We look forward to sharing more of their learning with you next week!

April/May

We hope you had a lovely Easster and enjoyed the half term with the sunny weather. 

In the ARC we use a 'Totally Communication System'. This involves using visuals, symbols, Makaton, AAC devices, sound buttons, photographs and objects of reference. This enables the childreun to have the use and means of communtication in many different ways. 

During activities we play games where the child needs to choose between a few items pointing to the correct visual/symbol of their choice. Once this is established, the child and adult plays with the choosen item (making a choice). When the game is coming to a natural end there are symbols for 'more or finished'. We use these and makaton to investigate whether the child is ready to finish or do more.

When we engage the children in group activities such as 'Fun with Food', the children have visuals to help explore their senses. This encourages the children to look, touch and if they want to taste the item of food. At the end of the session the children can both sign and point to the correct symbol to indicate whether the 'liked or didn't like' the food.

Our morning routine starts with a song to encourage and invite the children to come and sit down. At this point we using symbols and the AAC device to find out the day, weather and the season we are in. We also look at who is packed lunch/school dinners and how the children are feeling. Here the children can put their picture up onto a appropiate visual. 

The children enjoy using different means of communication and this enables them and the adults that work with them to have a better understanding of their wants and needs. 

For our final couple of weeks in pre-school, we explored the exciting world of minibeasts!

We have learnt lots of interesting facts about how many legs the insect may have, whether they have wings or not, and what colours or patterns may be on them.

We painted water-colour minibeasts and enjoyed our minibeast garden tuff tray as part of our explore and learn time.

It's been a fun half term learning all about what we can find in a garden, and how we plant seeds and care for them.

The children's young sunflower seedlings have started to be sent home, we would love some photos later in the summer if they flourish into successful sunflowers!

This year pre-school will be entering an art competition at Liskeard show.  Inspired by our recent learning the children have started their 'Spring Time Garden' art to enter into the competition.  

After half term we will be moving on to a new enquiry question, 'How do I stay healthy?'

We will be looking at healthy foods, hygiene and exercise. Perfect timing as we will be practicing for Sports Day when we return too.

More details about Sports Day and other key dates will be available shortly after we return.

On Thursday the children in pre-school got a treat from Miss Edwards when they were able to toast marshmallows over the campfire.  All the children listened well to the instructions to safely hold their marshmallows, and then gave 10 blows to cool them down before eating! Yummy!

We hope everyone has a lovely half-term week and enjoys the planned sunny weather.

We will see you when we return on Monday 1^st June.

The Pre-School Team.