18 March 24
Last week:. Following on from our amazing Book week on traditional tales we investigated all about the story of 'The Gingerbread Man'. We were delighted to welcome Iman Issa from Canterbury Mosque to share with us traditions surrounding Ramadan. We had lots of crazy fun celebrating red nose day.
This week: Inspired by Luna finding a daffodil in the garden, we are celebrating signs of Spring, we are going on a Spring walk and having some alliterative fun making Spring scones.
Book: Spring Watch
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Jump
Rhymes: Spring Selection Box
Cooking: Scones .
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Have a go on a Spring walk together.
11 March 24
Last week: We had an amazing time listening to all of the different teachers share stories with us from around the World. We had a fantastic Crafter-noon, we really appreciated you all coming and we hope that you enjoyed yourselves.
This week: Following on from our amazing Book week on traditional tales we are investigating the story of 'The Gingerbread Man'. We are delighted to welcome the Iman from Canterbury Mosque to share with us traditions surrounding Ramadan.
Book: The Gingerbread Man
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Running
Rhymes: Spring Selection Box
Cooking: Scone / Gingerbread persons. we had so much fun we thought we would have another go this week.
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Have a go at making some Gingerbread at home.
4 March 24
Last week: Following on from Mr Wolf's Pancake story, we shared the traditional tale of the 'Three Little Pigs'. We made yummy vegan sausage rolls and learnt lots of rhymes about pigs. We have also been busy making one or two surprises for our lovely Mums.
This week: Is book week, we are dressing up and sharing lots of different stories.
Book: Fairy Story and Traditional selection box. & My mum is Fantastic.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Mama by the Spice Girls.
Rhymes: Spring Selection Box
Cooking: Scones / Gingerbread Persons
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Have a go at making Mum breakfast in bed on Sunday.
Mother's Day Craft-er-noon 2.15
Wednesday 6th March 24
Traditional Tales - Book Week 4 March
As long as you feel confident and comfortable please wear whatever you would like everyday throughout the week.
26 February 24
Last week: Inspired by Gracie's 'Bottomless' Pancake cake experience' we talked all about Pancake day discussing in detail our favourite toppings. We had a go at making our own pancakes, it was great fun cracking the eggs and mixing in all of the other ingredients. We talked about stereotypes and why the characters in the story did not want help Mr Wolf, whether they were right or wrong.
This week: Following on from last weeks story we are sharing the traditional tale of the 'The Three Little Pigs'. We are also going to be busy making a few surprises for Mummy next week.
Book: The Three Little Pigs
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Justin- Who is Afraid of the Big Bag Wolf
Rhymes: 3 Pigs Rap
Cooking: Vegan Sausage Rolls
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Have a go at making your own sausage rolls at home.
19 February 24
Last week: It sounds like you all l had a wonderful time relaxing with your families.
This week: Inspired by Gracie's 'Bottomless' Pancake cake experience' we are finding out all about Pancake day and discussing our favourite toppings. We will be talking about stereotypes why the characters in the story did not want help Mr Wolf.
Book: Mr Wolf's Pancakes.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Big Bad Wolf.
Rhymes: Pancake selection box.
Cooking: Pancakes
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Have a go at making pancakes at home.
5 February 24
Last week: Inspired by Bertie's love of Zog, we investigated Dragons. We shared the story of 'Puff the Magic Dragon' and created some wonderful dragon puppets, interesting sprout soup and yummy sugar 'wee beasties'.
This week: We are joining in with the main schools 'Arts Week' thank you to everyone who has already sent us photographs of their attempts to recreate Pieter De Hooch famous 'A Courtyard of a House in Delft' . We appreciate all of your efforts. This week we will be combining Arts week with Chinese New Year, we will be thinking about what we would paint if we had a magic paint brush and imagining what it would be like to have a pet dragon.
Book: The Magic Paintbrush.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Kung Foo Song
Rhymes: Chinese New Year Selection Box
Cooking: Chinese Noodle Soup
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Have a movie afternoon in half term make some pop corn and watch 'how to train your dragon'.
Coming Soon
Art Week 5th-9th February- Partnership with Parents
This year we will be taking part in the National Gallery's 'Take One Picture' competition.
Using the picture 'A Courtyard of a House in Delft' by Pieter De Hooch as inspiration,
I would love each family to try and recreate the picture as a photograph either a dressing up historical type version or modern version, you can either take a picture of yourself and your child outside your own front door of if you are feeling adventurous find somewhere locally around Faversham. If you can find a third person - Dad / Granny to stand with their back to the camera that would be even better. Try really hard not look at the camera you should be looking at each other. This is just meant to be a fun family challenge. I plan to make a huge collage through an open door. If however, by some amazing stroke of luck we win your picture will be on display in the National Gallery, so if this is not for you please don't don't worry about sending me anything. The usual Hedgehog email will be great.
29th January 24
Last week: we found out all about how to keep ourselves safe when we use a computer. Inspired by our Natural Thinkers training, we were excited to explore the new 'Happy Hut' in the garden and we really enjoyed making bird feeders, wind wands and a special house to keep the hedgehogs warm. Our lovely Deputy Manager Mrs Scott has Scottish relatives so as nod to 'Burns Night' we made Shortbread, flags and coloured special pictures. We enjoyed listening to his famous 'Mouse' poem when he called it the 'wee Beastie'
This week: Inspired by Bertie's love of Zog, we are investigating Dragons further, we will be sharing the story of Puff the Magic Dragon and creating some dragon collages.
Book: Puff the Magic Dragon
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Puff the Magic Dragon.
Rhymes: Snowman Selection Box
Cooking: Sprout Soup- following on from last weeks Little Red Riding Hood where the Wolf ate the smelly soup in the end.
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Inspired by Burns night why not share your favourite poem with your children.
22nd January 24
Last week: We shared the story of penguin, we had fun learning a new song and dance routine.
This week: we have been sharing the story of 'Dididuck's Famous Friend' and
we discovered that people are not always who they appear to be as the ‘Famous Friend’ the animals in the story
were excited to meet was in fact their Teacher ‘Wise Owl', pretending to be someone else. This
made us think about other stories where people pretend to be something they are not for
example the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ in Little Red Riding Hood. We talked about that even though it is
Granny’s house it wasn’t Granny in the bed. We sensitively shared that sometimes the internet
can sometime be like this and we should always turn the computer off and tell a grown up if
we see or hear something that frightens us like the Big Bad Wolf.
Book: Little Red Riding Hood.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Red Riding Hood from film.
Rhymes: Snowman Selection Box
Cooking: Honey Sandwiches for Granny
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Why not have a go at making your own wind wand.
15 January 24
Last week Inspired by Grace we had great fun, painting our nails and bathing the babies. It was nice to meet Rev Peter and he told us all about the special presents baby Jesus got from the wise men.
This week: Inspired by Benjamin we are sharing the story of Penguin and thinking all about how we can be a good friend.
Book: Penguin
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Ben by Michael Jackson
Rhymes: Snowman Selection Box
Cooking: Penguin Biscuits
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Why not have a go a painting your nails at home.
8 January 24
Last week we had an amazing start back to the term, it was lovely to hear all about your Christmas presents, what a lucky bunch you all were. We were excited to see the snow and shared the story of the 'Snowman' and we made some beautiful colourful Snow-persons in our key groups.
This week: Following Marks Mum's visit we will be having a visit from Rev Peter and making Crowns for Epiphany.
Book: Betty and the Yeti
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Black Betty
Rhymes: Snowman Selection Box
Cooking: Rock Cakes and special gem biscuits.
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Make a crown at home for your teddy bear.
4 January 24
Last week we had lots of fun at home unwrapping our presents.
This week: Inspired by the weather we will be investigating everything to do with Winter. Following Marks Mum's visit we will be making Crowns for Epiphany.
Book: Snowman
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Snowman
Rhymes: Snowman Selection Box
Cooking: Snowman Biscuits.
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Go for a Winter walk.
The Christmas Jingle and a Mingle
Wednesday 13th December from 2-3pm,
This is an informal fun event where we can share with you some of the Christmas songs we have been learning. We have a little story, a few party games and craft activities.
Everyone is welcome, please collect your child from Pre-School and meet us in the hall.
To avoid congestion may I respectfully ask everyone to please park off site.
If you or your representative cannot attend please don’t worry your Little Hedgehog will be having loads of fun back at Pre-School as starting on the 11th December we will be having party snack and games each day so that no child misses out on the fun.
11 December 23
Last week: Inspired by Rosalie's visit to the Natural History Museum we found out all about Dinosaurs. We had a fantastic visit to the Church on Wednesday where we met Rev Peters and saw the crib, we were surprised to discover two tiny Hedgehogs under the altar.
This week : We are going Christmas crazy we are posting our letters to Father Christmas. We will be learning our songs as we prepare for the Crafternoon on Wednesday.
Book: The Jolly Christmas Postman.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Stop Wait a minute Mr Postman.
Rhymes: Christmas Prime Rhyme Time
Cooking: Christmas Cookies
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Make paper chains to decorate your home.
4 December 23
Last week inspired by Broden enjoying the Gruffalo spin game we shared the story of the Gruffalo, we went on a Gruffalo hunt to see if we could find him in the woods and we made some delicious Gruffalo Crumble. It truly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Little Hedgehogs as we have been busy making beautiful angels for the school Christmas tree. As part of the RE Christmas Festival Day, we were very lucky to welcome Ms Burgess Mum Rev Burgess and Mrs Norris, Bertie's Mummy who works Tesco's to tell us all about how they celebrate Christmas. We were thrilled to have the snow on Friday as you can see from the photos.
This week: Inspired by Rosalie's visit to the Natural History Museum we have been finding out all about Dinosaurs. We will be going to the Church on Wednesday to see the crib.
Book: Harry and The Dinosaurs Christmas Wish.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Walk Like a Dinosaur
Rhymes: Christmas Prime Rhyme Time
Cooking: Mince pies .
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Go for walk to post a letter to Father Christmas
27 November 23
Last week inspired by Rosalie and her cuddly hedgehog we investigated everything to do with Hedgehogs we shared the story of Hug and made some yummy Hedgehog bread. We were very excited last Thursday as we got to put up the decorations and decorate the Pre-School tree.
This week inspired by Broden enjoying the Gruffalo spin game we will be sharing the story of the Gruffalo, going on a walk to the woods to see if we can spot him and making tasty Gruffalo Crumble. It truly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as we have been making beautiful angels for the school Christmas tree and writing letters to father Christmas. As part of the RE Christmas festival Day, we are very lucky to welcome Ms Burgess Mum who is a vicar and Mrs Norris, Berties Mummy who works Tescos to tell us how they celebrate Christmas. A big thank you to them both for taking the time to talk to us.
Book: Hedgehog- Gruffalo
Disco Dough & Write Dance: I wish it could be Christmas everyday.
Rhymes: Christmas Prime Rhyme Time
Cooking: Gruffalo Crumble - mince pies .
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Go for walk to see the Christmas lights.
20 November 23
Last week: we walked to the War memorial in the church yard for Remembrance Day. We had a fantastic visit from Berties Daddy who told us all about life in the Navy and showed us his medal. We learnt all about how to keep our teeth clean with Poppy from the Childrens Centre. On Friday we had a lot of spotty fun with Pudsey Bear and iced some yummy biscuits.
This week: Inspired by Rosalie we will be investigating everything to do with Hedgehogs.
Book: Hedgehog-Hug
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Falling
Rhymes: Pudsey bear Selection Box
Cooking: Hedgehog Bread - Iced Spotty Biscuits.
Partnership with parents encouraging your child's learning at home:
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Complete your Pudsey Bear home work.
13 November 23
Last week: We joined in with the main schools Movie Mayhem STEM week, we carried out a range of different exciting activities inspired by some of our favourite movies, Lego Movie especially for Mark and Oscar Madagascar for Fireworks, Up Balloons. We made delicious Ratatouille and conducted an exciting Frozen Ice experiment.
This week: we will be going to the War memorial in the church yard for Remembrance Day we will be having a visit from Berties Daddy who is bringing in his Medal he got when he was in the Navy. We will be learning all about how to keep our teeth clean with Poppy from the childrens centre and on a Pudsey Bear Hunt on Friday. Please feel free to wear spots if you fancy it.
Book: Bear Hunt
Disco Dough & Write Dance: In the Navy
Rhymes: Pudsey bear Selection Box
Cooking: Seasonal Soup - Honey Sandwiches
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Complete your Pudsey Bear home work.
6 November 23
Last week: we all had an amazing time exploring everything to do with Scooby Doo, and we had an exciting walk to see the village bonfire.
This week: Inspired by our visit to the Bonfire and joining in with the main schools STEM week we will be carrying out a range of different exciting activities inspired by some of our favourite movies, especially for Mark and Oscar the Lego Movie, Madagascar for Fireworks, Up Balloons. We will be making Ratatouille and conducting an exciting Frozen Ice experiment.
Book: Red Rockets
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Katy Perry Firework?
Rhymes: Bonfire Night Selection box
Cooking: Seasonal Soup - Bread Stick Sparklers and Ratatouille
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Make some pop corn and watch your favourite film together.
30 October 23
Last week: we all had an amazing time for half term and we have come back full of enthusiasm for the new term.
This week: motivated by Benjamin's fantastic fancy dress costume and inspired by the PTFA's fun run we are investigating all things to do with Scooby Doo.
Book: Funny Bones
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Scooby Doo - where are you?
Rhymes: Scooby Doo Selection box
Cooking: Seasonal Soup - Pumpkin Pie
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Go for a walk to see how many pumpkins you can spot.
16 October 23
Last week: We shared the story of Hug and Dangerous and thought all about the names we call each other we decided that our favourites were friend and kind.
This week: Inspired by Rosalie's conker collection we will be investigating everything to do with Autumn. We will be going on an Autumnal walk and creating beautiful collages.
Book: Owl Babies
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Falling by Harry Styles
Rhymes: Owls at Midnight
Cooking: Seasonal Soup - Autumn coloured biscuits.
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Go for a family walk to kick up some lovely leaves.
9 October 23
Last week: inspired by the book River brought in Ed's Egg we had a fantastic visit from Little Hedgehogs old friend Logan’s Grandma Mrs Digby – Baker and her chicken and piglet. We welcomed the start of Autumn and Black history month, we shared Benjamin Zephaniah’s Hedgehog poem and made some yummy seasonal soup.
This week: Following on from sharing Dangerous and Hug we will be learning all about Jungle Animals.
Book: Walking through the Jungle.
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Jungle Boogie
Rhymes: 5 Cheeky Monkeys
Cooking: Seasonal Soup - Banana Bread Buns
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Go on line and look at some jungle animals, if you have been to a zoo before get out some old photographs and talk about your day out.
2nd October 23
Last week: We shared the story of Zed's Bread and The Scarecrows Wedding. Inspired by Mrs Biddle- Hugo's Nanna we had a wonderful Harvest Craftenoon with our lovely Grandparents . We were quite overwhelmed by all of your generous gifts for the Faversham Food Bank. We made yummy bread with Mrs Ashmore and Miss Newman.
This week: Inspire by the book that River brought in 'Ed's Egg' we will be continuing our investigations into Harvest and meeting a real life chicken with Mrs Digby Baker Logan's Grandad. We will be learning about how to use kind words to our friends as we share the story of Dangerous.
Book: Dangerous & Ed's Egg
Disco Dough & Write Dance: Friends.
Rhymes: If your Happy and You know it
Cooking: Seasonal Soup - A Hug in a Mug
Ways to support your child's learning at home.
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night..
3) Have a go at developing those fine motor skills by creating a pasta necklace.
25 September 23
Last week: We shared the story of 'Crocodiles Don't Clean There Teeth' and thought about how to keep our teeth clean. We sang new songs and cleaned 'Shiny's teeth. We discovered that milk and vegetables make our teeth healthy and strong.
This week: We will be getting ready for Harvest.,
Book: Rosie's Walk and The Scarecrows Wedding.
Disco Dough : I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester
Rhymes: Dingle Dangle Scarecrow
Cooking: Bread
Ways to support your child's learning at home.
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night..
3) Try sorting food from your store cupboard into groups which will make your teeth 'happy' or 'sad' .
18 September 23
Last week: We shared the story of Giraffes cannot dance and thought about different ways to develop our resilience. We made delicious chees straws and made a good start on our coping wheels painting the plate in a range of stunning colours creating beautiful patterns. We were very excited as we celebrated Mrs Linters very special Happy Birthday.
This week: We will be sharing the story of 'Crocodiles Don't Clean There Teeth' and thinking about different ways to keep our teeth clean.
Book: Crocodiles Don't Clean There Teeth.
Disco Dough : Crocodile Rock
Rhymes: Row Row The Boat
Cooking: Banana Smoothies
Ways to support your child's learning at home.
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night..
3) Try brushing your Teddy's teeth. .
11 September 23
Last week: We shared the story of Elmer and started to develop our understanding of Diversity as we learnt all about how we are different. We have invited every family to share their heritage with us so that we can add all of the information to our 'Heritage Wall' to help us in planning an exciting, rich and bespoke curriculum . We iced yummy Elmer biscuits and designed our own elephants. Ocsar told us all about his chocolate Birthday cake and we had a go at making one. We all took home books to read, please bring them back in on your child's first session of the week.
This week: We are having fun at Pre-School. We will be sharing the story of Giraffes cannot dance and thinking about different ways to develop our resilience.
Book: Giraffes Cannot Dance
Write Dance & Disco Dough: 'I Cannot Dance' - from High School Musical.
Rhymes: Elephants have Wrinkles.
Cooking: Cheese Straws
Ways to support your child's learning at home.
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night..
3) Make a favourite colour collage.
4 September 23
Welcome Home Little Hedgehogs
We have missed you and we are delighted to reconnect with old friends and meet new families. We cannot wait to get to know you all, we are going to have lots fun and many exciting adventures together.
Firstly we must start by saying a big thank you for all of the amazing cards and gifts we received, as a team we were totally overwhelmed by your generosity and kind words, we are simply doing our job. We are super proud of all of our leavers who are starting school we just know you are going to fly, please send us a picture of your first day.
A gentle reminder please:
1) Wear shoes that can be done up easily and that you can run and dance in.
2) Label everything and bring in some wellington boots.
3) Inform us of any medical changes / dietary requirements / allergies your child may have.
4) Key People everything is staying the same Mrs Ashmore, Miss Burgess, Miss Molly and Mrs Scott will be continuing with their children.
5) SEND Mrs Lay the SENCO will be coming in doing her usual start of the year observations to ensure that every child within Pre-School has their needs met and that they make progress from their individual starting points. If you have any concerns or questions please come and talk to Mrs Ashmore.
Last week: we were having fun on holiday.
This week: We are having fun at Pre-School. We will be sharing the story of Elmer, designing our own elephants and discussing our favourite colours.
Book: Elmer
Write Dance and Disco Dough: Nelly the Elephant, Getting To Know You - From My Fair Lady. Rhymes: Elmer's Counting song.
Cooking: Iced biscuits
Ways to support your child's learning at home.
1) Learn the rhyme of the week - good rhymers make great readers.
2) Share a story every night.
3) Play Thumbs Up Thumbs Thumbs Down each tea time as a family discussing your child's day for example:
Thumbs up this Pizza is delicious. Thumbs down I don't like olives.
Thumbs up my favourite animal is a dog because they are friendly, thumbs down my least favourite is a chicken because I don't like feathers. This simple activity will develop your child's voice and and vocabulary.
4) Decide on your favourite colour then each member of the family can look for it as you go on a walk.
Are You Ready Starting School 24?
Top Tips for Starting School
September seems a long way ahead but it will come round in the blink of an eye, as an Early Years team we have developed a list of activities to be working towards to enable your child to be more independent when they arrive in the reception class next year. However please remember you are your child’s first and most important teacher and every child develops at their own rate please don’t worry if your child cannot do everything on this list. It is not that your child cannot do it, its just they cannot do it yet.
Good luck and have fun these are the wonder years
Humpty Dumpty,
Incey Wincey,
Baa Baa Black Sheep,
Twinkle Twinkle,
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Jack and Jill
Hey Diddle Diddle.
17. Wash and dry hands properly.
18. Open packets/ lids off yogurt if they a packed lunch.
19. Hold knife, fork and spoon for school dinner.
20.Use a jug to pour out a drink for themselves