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Encouraging hands-on exploration and stimulating sensory experiences this week children explored a variety of items. The varied textures, shapes, and colours helped to engage their senses and promote fine motor skills. Activities inspired by this included, using sticks and conkers to make playdough hedgehogs, fork printing, and cutting and sticking tissue paper onto handprint hedgehogs. […]

Using autumnal coloured paint and tissue paper the children painted and decorated apples, paper snakes, and the salt dough leaf prints they made this week. At the allotments children tapped golf tees into apples using mallets, played with ducks in water, made ‘food’ at the mud kitchen, and climbed stacked wooden pallets.

For so many people Autumn is their favourite time of year. The beautiful colours, natural treasures, the smell of autumn, fallen leaves and autumn crafts. Autumn begins in September and is a season famous for its harvest times, turning leaves, cooling temperatures and darkening nights. This week the children enjoyed opening conker husks to see

Early years foundation stage nutrition guidance On the 25th April 2025 the Department for Education (DfE) published the Early Years Foundation Stage Nutrition Guidance. The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (the document that sets the regulatory requirements that all early years settings in England must meet) says that children are provided with meals,

What a fun sports day we had with the pre school children and parents/grandparents cheering on their friends. In groups, the children lined up at the start line, waiting for the signal to go. Eagerly they waited for the countdown and were quick off the mark as soon as they heard ‘Go!’ Sports day is all

Last weekend (one of the hottest so far) a group of volunteers worked together to transform the allotments. Using pallets, they built a mud kitchen and created a climbing structure, used posts replacing the old ones for the hammock and shelter, mended raised garden beds and replaced the post to the gate. They have created

We were grateful for shade on our last trip to Abbotsbury Subtropical gardens before we finish for the summer. Abbotsbury Explorers used mallets to press petals onto paper to make colourful patterns. Carrying scissors and a bag to collect fallen leaves we then set off to a part of the gardens we rarely get to.

Helping Marj pull up potatoes proved hard work, so the children took a break in the den and cooled down with ice pops. Some of the potatoes were taken home to cook and the rest were hidden in soil where the children enjoyed digging them up. Lots of water play was enjoyed again this week

After the initial downpour at the swannery, the weather brightened allowing the children to ride on the go-karts, talk to the man and admired the walking sticks he makes, sit in nests and make nests using salt dough and other materials. At Pre-school the children transformed the empty sand pit into a shop selling old

It was all about trying to keep cool this week. Fortunately children automatically seek shade, and when there wasn’t any they helped to create it. From picking berries to feed the birds, making dens, painting the wall, and playing with water. Bringing the ride-on toys inside the children re-enacted traffic congestion in Abbotsbury.