Pre-School - Hedgehog Class

 

 

Welcome to Hedgehog Class

Class teacher: Mrs Bolt

Teaching assistants: Chloe, Becky and Katy

 

Let’s Explore Autumn

   

 

This term, in Pre-school, our play will be inspired by four wonderful stories that capture the magic of Autumn and spark children’s imagination:

• Room on the Broom – encourages kindness, teamwork, and problem-solving as children join the witch and her friends on their adventure.

• The Gruffalo – develops story recall, descriptive language, and number awareness as children explore woodland creatures and settings.

• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – supports physical development, rhythm, and language through movement and sound as we act out the story together.

• Owl Babies – helps children explore feelings, belonging, and family relationships while supporting emotional expression and communication.

We will also explore some lovely new Autumn stories - ‘The Leaf thief’, ‘1,2,3, Autumn’,‘One Fox’ and ‘Autumn’. We will also share ‘Percy the Park Keeper’ seasonal stories to help think more around the season’s changes. Each of these stories links beautifully to different areas of the EYFS curriculum — encouraging creativity, curiosity, and confidence as we explore the world around us this Autumn

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Communication and Language

Children will develop their listening and speaking skills through our focus stories, especially 'Owl Babies' and 'We’re Going on a Bear Hunt'. They will listen to others in small groups, enjoy familiar stories with growing attention, and begin to use more complex sentences. Through conversations and story recall, children will understand the use of everyday objects and use language to talk about past experiences.

Physical Development

Inspired by 'We’re Going on a Bear Hunt', children will explore movement and coordination as they climb, run, and balance in different environments. They will practise walking on slopes and steps while maintaining balance, develop spatial awareness, and use tools such as paintbrushes and scissors with increasing control. Children will also learn to recognise their own physical needs — when they are hungry, tired, or ready to rest.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Through stories like 'Owl Babies' and 'Room on the Broom', children will start to think about friendship, teamwork, and understanding emotions. They will seek companionship with others, share play ideas, and begin to appreciate the similarities and differences between themselves and others. We will encourage children to express their feelings appropriately and respond sensitively to others’ messages of appreciation or criticism.

   

 

Literacy (Reading & Writing)

Using 'The Gruffalo' and 'Room on the Broom', children will enjoy listening to and joining in with stories and rhymes. They will start to anticipate key events, recognise repeated refrains, and begin to enjoy books independently. Through drawing and mark-making opportunities, children will start give meaning to their pictures and begin to imitate early writing patterns from left to right.

Phonics fun!

In Pre-school this term, we engage in fun activities to support our phonics development. We really focus on our speaking and listening skills, learning to distinguish the sounds we hear, patterns of speech and sounds of speech. We will have great fun using our bodies to make sounds like clapping, stomping, patting, rubbing and clicking our fingers. We will learn to do this loudly, softly, fast and slowly! We will start exploring environmental sounds and body percussion with a selection of stories around nursery rhymes and stories like: '5 Little Ducks', 'The Wheels on the Bus', 'Old Macdonald had a Farm' and 'There was a Crocodile'.

‘Widgit’ in Pre-school

We use ‘widgit’ signs and symbols to help us learn the new words and vocabulary in our stories. These are published on the website and we strongly recommend that you look at these are home with your child. If your child speaks two or more languages it is really important for their development to speak about these words in all their languages and not just in English.

Makaton

Miss Potts comes to play at Pre-School on a Monday and Friday to show us how to use Makaton. This is to help us express and communicate our wants and needs. Last term, the whole class learnt how to say yes please and no thank-you, say what fruits they like to eat and make choices independently using their Makaton skills.

What a busy term we have ahead of us!

Mrs Bolt and the Pre-school team

Pre-school room

We have a wonderful, light and engaging environment for the children to play, learn and explore in. We have lots of exciting new resources for the children to share and a wonderful interactive whiteboard to enhance learning opportunities. We have created lovely, calm areas to explore mark -making and our senses as well as purposeful zones to further develop specific skills. Our continuous provision - the space where they use and explore independently, provides the children with endless opportunities to develop their skills in each of the seven areas of the EYFS.

Outdoor Learning

Throughout the day, the children will have time in the outdoor areas. We have free flow sessions on to the patio area and learn to explore in the 'big garden'. There is so much to see and do outside, from bikes, trikes, balls and hoops to water, soil and exploring all aspects of growing, weeding, planting and harvesting. The children will be hands-on with various seeds, plants, soil and herbs. They will get messy - please consider this when dressing your child for the day.  The children will have constant opportunities to choose resources independently, to explore collaborative play and decide how they want to develop their ideas and play in the outside area. We will respond to these interests and use natural resources, risk-taking equipment and will be out in all weathers, so please provide a coat, wellington boots and appropriate foot wear each day.

Children in pre-school learn through:

Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning.

• Playing and exploring- children investigate and experience things, and 'have a go'
• Active Learning- children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• Creating and thinking critically- children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.