Well, we didn’t expect to start 2021 with another full national lockdown and although all schools around the country are now closed, Early Years settings are currently fully open – so at Kempshott Under Fives we are working hard to stay safe and to make preschool fun and positive for our children, despite these strange times.

Our main focus this term is on wellbeing for the children. As routines have changed at home for most families, we are focusing much more on the area of personal, social and emotional development. It’s very obvious that the children are all loving being at preschool, and we are spending much more time in the garden and on nature walks – rain or shine – which makes for very happy children when there are puddles to splash in!

Last term we spent time looking at winter and the seasons, so all of our outdoor activities this term will continue to enhance our children’s understanding of the world with more weather and seasons activities in the garden and on our walks. We are also continuing to encourage the children’s growing independence by practicing putting on scarves, hats, gloves and wellies before going outside.

February will be a busy month for us - we have Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year and Pancake Day to look forward to. As well as pancake races, we’ll be having pancakes on the snack table and there will be lots happening on the craft tables during Valentine’s Week. 2021 is the year of the Ox so we’ll be celebrating Chinese New Year with some food tasting and we’ll be trying to use chopsticks too!

Our new Tuesday afternoon sessions have had a great uptake this year - Tuesdays are now all about less toys with a specific focus on messy play, outdoor phonics and preschool yoga.

And of course we are incredibly lucky to have our staff member Alison, who is a speech and language specialist, working hard with the children each week to fill the gaps which have been made by the speech and language services delaying or cancelling appointments due to covid. 

Like most preschools and nurseries, we do have some children opting to stay at home during lockdown – so we’re sending some preschool fun home each week through the children’s Tapestry accounts so they can still get involved with all of the things we are doing at preschool – including our scavenger hunts, French lessons, yoga, phonics and messy play.

You can see weekly updates and lots of photos from Kempshott Under Fives on our Facebook page “Kempshott Under Fives”.