13^th April – 22^nd May 2026

We bounced into the term with lots of excitement, shiny new resources and inviting new areas to explore. One of our favourite additions has been our growing area, where our Little Owls have been busy planting fruits and vegetables, getting their hands muddy and discovering just how magical it is to watch things grow. Add in plenty of loose parts play and it is safe to say the term has started with curiosity, creativity and lots of fun!

We have also been very lucky to welcome some very special visitors who have made this half term extra memorable. Geoff and Maisie, the Essex therapy dogs, brought plenty of calm cuddles and happy smiles, while Pippin and Millie, the miniature donkeys, trotted in to support wellbeing in the most adorable way possible. It is not every day you get to spend time with such wonderful four-legged friends!

We also enjoyed celebrating Earth Day and Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday with a range of exciting activities covering all areas of learning. From talking about how to care for our world to exploring nature through play, the children showed wonderful curiosity and thoughtful ideas about the world around them.

Our learning about metamorphosis has continued to fascinate us all. We watched our caterpillars patiently spin themselves into cocoons and, as if by magic, emerge as beautiful butterflies ready to flutter off on new adventures. We are still eagerly waiting for the tadpoles to complete their own amazing transformation into frogs, and our Little Owls are keeping a very close eye on every tiny change so that nothing is missed.

Our role-play area has been full of imagination too, transforming first into a busy veterinary surgery and then into a hospital as we explored the topic of people who help us. The children have loved taking on different roles, caring for animals and patients, and using their imaginations to bring the space to life. We cannot wait to see what it turns into next!

Our final half term is already looking wonderfully busy. We will be starting with our annual Fun Run with The Boxted Runners, which is always such a fantastic event. For some of our Little Owls, this term will also bring exciting school transition opportunities, with visits from new teachers and trips to their new schools. There is lots to look forward to, and we know it will be a term filled with confidence, adventure and special memories.

What a wonderfully busy half term we’ve had at Little Owls! Spring has definitely arrived, and with it came new life, new learning and lots of excitement.

We have been on a real adventure with lifecycles this half term, so much curiosity and so many wow moments!  The children were captivated as we watched our chicks hatch. Not to be outdone, our frogspawn has also been keeping us fascinated as it slowly transforms into tadpoles. There’s nothing quite like watching the lifecycle of real animals unfold to spark awe and curiosity.

World Book Day was a fantastic celebration of stories, imagination and creativity. The children loved sharing their favourite books, dressing up, and diving into the magical world of reading. We also celebrated #VHC day (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), The children enjoyed a day filled with themed activities and inviting play opportunities inspired by this beloved story. So much creativity, exploration and storytelling all wrapped into one colourful day.

British Science Week is always a highlight, and this year was no exception! The children got stuck into hands-on activities that encouraged them to predict, explore and wonder. There were plenty of “oooohs” and “ahhhhs” as we experimented and discovered together.

We also spent some time this half term thinking about the special people in our lives. The children enjoyed planting sweet peas and creating beautiful Mother’s Day cards to show appreciation and love. We also celebrated Eid by making cards full of sparkle to share with our families and friends — such a lovely way to learn about different celebrations.

We finished the term with an extra burst of springtime magic — hopping through Easter egg hunts, creating colourful cards, dancing our wiggles out, and sharing cosy stories. We even had a special visit from the farm, complete with a tractor, fresh produce and lots of hands‑on learning that had the children buzzing with excitement!

Some of the Little Owls team went on a little adventure last half term and popped over to the Childcare & Education Expo at Olympia! They came back bursting with fresh ideas, new inspiration, and a wish list full of exciting resources we can’t wait to explore.

A massive thank you to everyone who baked and supported our fundraising bake sale. Your support means so much and helps us continue providing exciting experiences for the children.

What a joyful half term it’s been — full of growth, learning and community.
We can’t wait to see what adventures the next one brings!

The past few weeks have been full of curiosity, creativity, and connection. From birdwatching to storytelling, from exploring emotions to celebrating love, the children have been busy discovering the world around them and the world within them. Here’s a peek into what we’ve been up to.

We took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, and our young nature detectives were absolutely captivated. Armed with curiosity (and some very enthusiastic pointing!), the children spent time outdoors listening for chirps, scanning the trees, and noticing the colours, sizes, and movements of different birds. We spotted Robins hopping across the grass, cheeky sparrows darting between branches, and even a few pigeons who seemed very interested in our snacks. The children loved talking about what they saw and sharing their ideas about where birds live, what they eat, and how they move. To make our birdwatching even more exciting, the children created their very own binoculars, they became the star of the show. Children used them not only for birdwatching but also for spotting friends, searching for treasure, and pretending to be explorers on grand adventures. It was a brilliant way to support creativity, fine motor skills, and imaginative play. We also made simple bird feeders to help care for the wildlife around us. The children mixed seeds, talked about what birds like to eat, and proudly hung their feeders in the garden. Over the next few days, they kept a close eye on who came to visit—there was so much excitement each time a bird landed for a snack.

National Storytelling Week, a magical celebration of tales, characters, and imagination. The children listened to stories old and new, acted out their favourite parts, and even helped create group stories full of twists, turns, and giggles. Puppets, props, and cosy reading corners helped bring stories to life. The children explored new vocabulary, practised turn‑taking, and discovered the joy of storytelling—whether they were listening, retelling, or inventing their own.

One of the highlights of our recent weeks has been our Parents Stay and Play sessions. It was wonderful to welcome families into the setting and watch children proudly share their favourite activities. There was so much joy in the room—parents building towers, joining in imaginative play, exploring crafts, and reading together. These sessions gave families a chance to see learning in action, and the children absolutely glowed with pride as they showed their grown‑ups around. The atmosphere was full of chatter, creativity, and connection. We loved seeing families play, laugh, and learn together.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, we’ve been celebrating love in all its forms—love for family, friends, pets, nature, and even favourite toys. The children created beautiful heart‑themed crafts, cards, and paintings, each one filled with care and creativity.

From storytelling to birdwatching, from exploring feelings to sharing special moments with families, these weeks have been full of imagination, learning, and joy. It’s been wonderful to see the children’s confidence grow as they explore, create, and connect.

We can’t wait to see where their curiosity takes us next.

Another term is over and the end of this term always brings the most excitement as we get prepared for all the festive celebrations!

We started the half term strong with our wonderful Ofsted inspection report being published, we are very proud of our report, the team, our Little Owls and their families, we did it together!

After the half term break fireworks filled the skies and also filled Little Owls with lots of learning opportunities, we danced like fireworks, we threaded fireworks, we created fireworks and we made sure that we stayed safe around fireworks!

Nursery rhyme week is always a favourite at Little Owls and as always, the Little Owls team did not disappoint. Such a variety of activities to entice the children, challenging them and developing skills, pouring tea from our teapot, building Humpty Dumpty’s wall, washing Incy out and finding twinkly letter stars in the sand! You will be able to see lots of the activities on our social media pages. Nursery rhymes are great for supporting early language and communication and developing those early literacy skills.

The Little Owls embraced road safety week too, learning about signs they might see when out and about, the traffic light sequence and our zebra crossing was put to good use too as we practiced crossing the road safely. When you are out and about what signs can you see and what do they mean?

I have said before in the blog that we never know where our learning will take us as we follow the children’s interests, well we followed the children’s interests into the deep dark wood, that’s right an absolute classic that we all love The Gruffalo! The team love to run with a theme and in the moment activities came thick and fast, dressing up, recipes, cave building, creating, so much fun. Hearing the children retell the story to each other was so lovely for the team to hear. It is important in the early years to nurture a love of reading. At Little Owls, we support this by reading to the children, retelling stories and encouraging role play you can support this at home too.

The build up to Christmas then started with the trustees creating wonderful hampers for the 12 days of Christmas raffle. A huge thank you to everyone that donated and purchased tickets, you raised a fantastic   £326!!! These funds are so important to enhance our provision at Little Owls and we can feel a little revamp of the reading area coming! The Little Owls decorated our trees, and I think we can all agree they did a fabulous job, just a little help with the higher branches! Christmas books appeared on the bookshelves as did puzzles, festive crafts started to be created, and the activities hit a whole new level of sparkle! Some of the children wrote letters to Santa and even though he is so busy he managed to reply, it was a magical letter to share with the children. Our Little Owls are always helpful, and they kept busy helping to wrap gifts and write cards. We then ended the term with our Christmas party, fun, dancing, games, food and friends, best combination ever! The children and the team had such a lovely time.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone for all your support, kind words and gifts, it always means so much to the team.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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!!!