Who can believe we are at the first half term holidays already?!

As always it has been a super busy but fun term. Our new Little Owls have settled in so well to preschool, it’s hard to believe they have only been with us a few weeks and our returning Little Owls, well its like they have never been away.

We spent the first few weeks really getting to know the new little owls and their families.  Embedding our routines, supporting and modelling this for the children. We shared pictures, stories and we played, we played lots, we really enjoyed finding out about favourite toys and activities and the things that would really engage them. Playdough and painting usually come out on top and this year was no different, both have so many developmental benefits and are really good fun. Playdough – TLC Messy Play – TLC

Our older Little Owls were keen to show us how much they had grown and all the new things they could do, they shared summer adventures with us, new things they had learnt and what their new favourite toy or activity might be. They do grow up so quickly in the summer holidays!

The conker drop of 2025 did not disappoint; such a great resource and the team must get more creative every year to find a new way to use it. This year using the conkers to form letters was a hit, making conker families was fun, conker painting was messy, we even managed some conker subitising, and everyone loved a conker hunt to see who could collect the most!

A few of the Little Owls were mesmerized during space week, we created planets (having some glitter sparked the interest of a few), inviting tuff trays with rockets and the opportunity to make play dough aliens made it so much fun. The team enjoyed finding themed stories, “Aliens love underpants” and ” Whatever next” were at the top of our list, What would be your number one Space story?

Pumpkins! Who doesn’t love some pumpkin play and again the team have to get more and more creative! The winner by far is always when we get out the tools, there is always a queue for hammering the golf tees, absolutely fantastic for development too. This year the Little Owls were also curious to use the knives to cut up the pumpkin, we used the pieces in the mud kitchen for soup and pies! At snack time we tried some roasted pumpkin seeds, some came back for more so that was a positive!

We ended the half term with a celebration of Diwali, diva lamps, colours, fireworks, rangoli patterns, mehndi designs, dancing and the story of Rama & Sita. We hope everyone celebrating had a wonderful time.

As you are all aware back in September we had our OFSTED inspection, it was really no different to any other day at Little Owls and the children just enjoyed having a visitor in setting!  We would again like to say thank you to those that spoke to the inspector on the day, wrote letters or emailed, you gave us such wonderful feedback and it really is a great boost for the team. We will share our report with you as soon as we can, hopefully not much longer!

Have a wonderful half term everyone and we will see you all on Tuesday 4^th November. Dare I say it we will be starting the Christmas countdown!!!