Welcome to Stepping Stones 

at Knowle Primary 

Contacting Stepping Stones 

School telephone: (01752) 365364

Email: steppingstones@knowle-plymouth.co.uk

Please contact us on one of the above to report your child's absence or ask any questions. Alternatively, you can always catch a member of the team on the Nursery door at the start and end of each session 

Who's Who

Mrs Gemma Ritchie - Nursery  Teacher (works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

Mrs Melissa Smith - Nursery Teacher (works Wednesday, Thursday and Friday)

Mrs Laura Hill - Nursery Teacher (works Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday)

Mandy Hogden - Nursery Assistant (works Monday and Tuesday) 

Julie Lockley - Nursery Assistant (works alternate Wednesdays and every Thursday and Friday)

Rachael Tucker - Nursery Assistant (Full time)

Sarah Preston - Nursery Assistant (Full time)

Tracey Cole - Nursery Assistant (Full time)

Simone Christie - Apprentice (Full time)

Sport's Week 

As a part of our 'Sport's Week' we have been taking part in different races and thinking about ways in which we can keep our bodies healthy. We have made some yummy bread (shaped like a snail due to our focus book being 'The Snail and the Whale'!). We have also brushed some very dirty giant teeth, washed some dollies, sorted foods into 'healthy' and 'unhealthy' groups, and made some healthy doughnuts! We've had lots of fun. Check out some of our photos below:

Pirates! 

In Stepping Stones this half term we will be learning about 'Pirates' in our new topic: 'Treasure Island'. We have had so much fun so far! We have been reading the book, 'We're Going on a Treasure Hunt' and we have been role playing being a pirate too. Arrrrr me hearties!! 

Caterpillars

We have been busy in Nursery finding out all about caterpillars and their life cycle. We have even had our own caterpillar pets that we have been looking after. We watched them turn into a cocoon and over half term, whilst they were staying at Mrs Smith's house, they turned into butterflies and were released. We had fun finding out about them. We made butterfly art, we acted out the different parts of the life cycle in our key worker groups and we modelled our own caterpillars out of playdough. We also focused on the stories: 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and 'The Crunching Munching Caterpillar'. 

Earth Day

On Thursday 22nd April, Nursery celebrated 'Earth Day'. We collapsed our timetable and focused our activities on this special event. We began by discussing 'recycling' as a part of our group time. During this time, we talked about what recycling is and why it is important. We then sorted lots of different items into the correct bins. The children worked hard and demonstrated good discussion. After this, as a part of our continuous provision, we did some junk modelling and also made some bird feeders, to encourage wildlife into our garden. We poured bird seed into some feeders that we made from recycled items and we also made some yummy bird snacks by pusing bird seeds into apples. This was fiddly and a great test of our fine motor skills! We had a really fun day! 

Easter!

Wow! A huge thank you to everyone who helped their child to make an Easter Bonnet for our competition...they were all fantastic and we were overwhelmed by the efforts made. Take a look at the amazing bonnets below.

Congratulations to the winners: Dolly, Stephanie, Isaac, Jessica, Ronnie G and Lainey.

We had lots of fun getting ready for Easter. We made cute Easter cards, we made yummy chocolate nests and we decorated some hard boiled eggs using pens too. 

The children all enjoyed reading lots of books as part of World Book Day 2021 - both fiction and non-fiction. They looked fantastic! A big thank you to everyone that dressed up.

European Languages Day 

We enjoyed celebrating 'European Languages Day'. The country we focused on was Italy. We ate some yummy pizzas for our snack; we made delicious looking gelato in the playdough and sand areas; we created towers using spaghetti and penne pasta; we made our own 'crafty' pizzas; we played 'restaurants' in our very own Stepping Stones Pizza restaurant and we also created the Italian flag with some excellent finger painting. Check out some of our pictures below:

Mrs Ritchie and Mrs Smith have been so impressed with how well the Stepping Stones children have settled into Nursery - whether it has been their very first time at our setting or if they have returned after a break, everyone has settled brilliantly. Our preschoolers are demonstrating a fantastic 'learning attitude' already and have taken to carpet times with their new teachers like ducks to water.  

Below you can see some photos of some of the fun things that we have been up to both inside and outside: