Category: News

Last Monday we met at Hope railway station and caught the 9.40 to Edale! The children were very excited but very well-behaved and we had perfect weather for it. When we got there we went down the dark, dark tunnel. Lots of great echoey noises were made, then we walked down to the playing field. There is a lovely playground with swings, a very tall slide, climbing equipment and big logs to climb on, not to mention the wonderful tunnel in a hill to hide inside. After playing for a while we had snack, sitting on our jackets. Soon after, the Edale key stage 1 children joined us then all the children played together. We had a perfect morning! The return train was even on time...

Congratulations to all the Preschool parents who put together an excellent float to go in Hope carnival parade yesterday; it won first prize! The children who took part in the parade were beautifully behaved all the way round the procession route, waving at all the crowds en route. What lovely weather we had too. Preschool's well dressing pictures have been displayed all week outside Preschool and in church. The dinosaur one has been a particular favourite! Well done also to the children who went to Hope Primary School's sports day and represented us so well in the running race.

Last week the Preschool children experienced lots of musical activities at Preschool. Many of the children love to explore different sounds. They often choose to play with our music basket during free play. We decided to dedicate a week to a variety of musical activities. Luckily, Preschool has a lot of musical friends so we invited a few of them along to play for the children and they also kindly allowed the children to "have a go!" Heather came on Monday with her guitar and ukelele and played sing-a-long tunes that the children could also dance to. On Tuesday I brought my cornet which I have been learning for a few months now. The children marched along to the piece I played, then had a go at blowing to see…

[caption id="attachment_581" align="alignright" width="300"] I've got one![/caption] We picked fresh garlic leaves together then prepared the leaves by tearing them up, ready to cook. The children then took turns to beat the eggs and enjoyed watching the omelette cooking on the camping stove. Everyone tried their omelette sandwich. Many of the children had second-or even third- helpings! [caption id="attachment_582" align="alignright" width="300"] Tear up the leaves[/caption]

The children enjoyed another visit to Watson's farm to look at the animals, particularly the new baby lambs. They all had the chance to touch a new lamb and to explore the farmyard where there were also pigs and piglets, cows and a bull, tractors and other large implements. It was fun to read the numbers on the sheep and lambs, there to tell which lambs belonged to which mother. The children also noticed how the lambs fed from their mothers and discussed the different food provided for the sheep. During the week we all made Easter baskets and painted hard-boiled eggs, kindly donated by Amelie's dad. I hope the eggs all got home safely! The baskets were filled with eggs that the children managed to find during our Easter…

The children have taken part in a week of activities themed around Red Nose Day. We have done "silly dancing" to such classics as Who Let the Dogs Out, Crazy Frog and Crocodile Rock! We have painted giant red noses, made delicious red nose carrot cakes, listened to funny stories, created red noses out of egg boxes. On Thursday we had a dressing up day. We have talked about why we were raising money to give to the people who need it. On Friday we finished the week with a walk, inviting parents and friends to come along. After an invigorating walk, we called at the Mud Kitchen for a play and a brew.

We can now reveal that we have been rated "Good" in our recent Ofsted inspection! The full report is now available to read on Ofsted's website:- https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/CARE/EY395513    

On Thursday afternoon this week we have been learning paper-engineering. The children had enjoyed reading the Three Billy Goats Gruff with pop-out pictures. So it seemed a good idea to teach them how to make their own pop-up pictures. They really enjoyed creating a scene, then added different stick-on features, then created pop-up items in the foreground. On Friday we transported wood chip from the cemetery to our mud kitchen and created a nice new floor. The children used buckets to scoop up the wood chips, filled strong bags then dragged them together up to the mud kitchen. They worked well together to get the job done. They enjoyed playing with the wood chip afterwards, finding many different uses for it.   Show and Tell brought some interesting items into…

The children were invited to bring their favourite book to show everyone last week. It was interesting to see the wide array of interests they have. From books about the body to Why the Grinch Stole Christmas. It's good to see that literature is so valued by our pre-schoolers and their families.     We have been practicing counting skills in the woods recently. The children have been independently finding sets of items; sticks, leaves, conkers, etc. We asked them to collect a specific number, then to check accuracy by counting. The children had number cards to match to their group sizes. Many of them said how much they enjoyed this and would like to do it again!

Recently, a few of the older children have shown an interest in outer space. This was probably triggered by observing satellite dishes on some of our local houses! I found some songs about the planets on youtube, which we have enjoyed watching and they have sparked more discussion about the planet names and the information astronomers have supplied about the individual planets. [caption id="attachment_516" align="alignleft" width="268"] Mars, with meteorites![/caption] We have listened to Jupiter by Holst, from The Planets Suite. The children used this music as a starting point for imaginative movements; inspiring sword-fighting knights, dinosaurs, trolls and monsters. What imaginations they have! We have talked about music pace (faster and slower), volume and tone (sad-sounding, happy-sounding). On Thursday afternoon the children painted a planet picture. The younger ones painted…