Two Year Old Room

May 2026 - Walk to School Week

Thank you to everyone who shared photographs for Walking to School Week. The children very much enjoy the fresh air and physical activity as they travel on foot, on a bicycle or scooter. They have noticed different things on the way such as road markings, numbers in the environment and wildlife, trees and plants, arriving at school energised and ready to learn.

May 2026 - Animal Ark

We were very excited to have a visit from Ark Farm. They brought large and small animals for the children to see and touch. We learnt how to stroke and brush some of the animals gently.
It was such a fun learning day for all our Birchwood children. We saw sheep, goats, a donkey, a pig, ducks, a dog, a cockerel, rabbits, guinea pigs, a mouse, a gecko, a chinchilla, a hedgehog and a tortoise.

March 2026 - Ducklings

The arrival of the eggs this week created lots of excitement. We viewed the eggs in the incubator and watched the first egg hatch on Tuesday. 🐣 Four more ducklings arrived soon after. By Friday we hatched all five healthy ducklings. 🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥
Many of the children have held and stroked a duckling while others were a little nervous.
The children learnt to be quiet and gentle around our ducklings, showing care and concern for living creatures. We noticed how “fluffy”, “soft”, “yellow”, “cute” and “splashy” they were. We will be sad to see the ducklings return to the farmer, but know they will take good care of them, feeding “pellets” and “water” and letting them “swim in the pond.”
The Living Egg experience offers the children a hands-on opportunity to explore the life cycle of ducks from incubated egg to duck, feeding, holding and swimming them, and learning new vocabulary.
We have also explored other duck related resources and books. We have sung Five Little Ducks together each day and explored our Core Book, Find the Duck (Claudia Zeff, Author, Stephen Cartwright illustrator), the children love to find the duck in every picture and then look for the other objects shown hidden throughout the story.

February 2026 - Dinosaur Roar!

'Dinosaur roar, dinosaur squeak, dinosaur fierce, and dinosaur meek.'

Dinosaur Roar! by Paul Stickland and Henrietta Stickland is a joyous, rhyming, modern classic and global bestseller.
The writing flows with a rhyme and rhythm that rolls of the tongue, and illustrations that are colourful and fun, Dinosaur Roar! is the perfect book to read aloud or sit down and enjoy with young children.
Originally published in 1994, Dinosaur Roar! is now seen as a modern classic, a book that every pre-school child should have.
The children enjoy revising this story book with dinosaur props and can name many of the dinosaurs.

January 2026 - Where's Spot?

Eric Hill's Where's Spot? was the first ever lift-the-flap book - and his ground-breaking innovation continues to delight and surprise readers with interactive fun. Spot has now been a trusted character in early learning for over 40 years.

Lift each flap to find all sorts of funny animal surprises, before discovering where cheeky Spot has been hiding. This is the perfect first book for little ones - the playful text is a wonderful spur to read and respond together, and the hide-and-seek flaps encourage curiosity and interactivity. The children enjoy the surprise of discovering who is behind each flap and are beginning to anticipate what might happen next.

December 2025 - Christmas Time

It feels very magical with the Christmas decorations up around us at Preschool. The children have been developing their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they hang the baubles on the trees. We have also enjoyed singing and reading Christmas themed books, wrapping gifts and exploring glitter and foils, while wearing our Christmas jumpers.
Thank you to all who supported our Christmas Extravaganza event. It was amazing to see so many of you having lots of fun as you took part in many of the Christmas activities. We finished the evening outside with songs around the Christmas Tree kindly donated by #LoveHatfield.

November 2025 - Autumn

Thank you for supporting our Autumn Treasure Collection.
The children were very happy to share their contributions and have enjoyed exploring the natural treasures collectively.

We have explored the collection and talked about where they grow and where we found them. Many children found treasures in the garden and some ventured out to the park. We also investigated some mathematical concepts. The children have lifted up pumpkins and various leaves and pine cones to feel and compare weight and size and hammered golf tees into pumpkins.

November 2025 - Incy Wincy Spider

The children have enjoyed exploring the spiders and resources supporting the core book, Incy Wincy Spider. They are able to sing and join in with the actions when singing together as a group.
Reading to children has astonishing benefits; comfort, reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, and feeds the imagination.

October - Pets and Bugs in the Natural Environment

Interacting with animals and bugs in the natural environment supports children’s learning and development, and gives children the opportunity to learn how to be gentle and responsible for others.

Young children discover their world through seeing, hearing and touching. Stroking and interacting with animals at close proximity teaches children how various textures feel. The various animal noises will help children identify the animals’ unique sounds.

Motor skills are constantly being developed throughout a young child's life. Motor skills are simply anything that uses their muscles. Gross motor skills involve large movements such as running or climbing, and fine motor skills are small movements such as holding a brush to groom an animal, or using tweezers to feed them.
Spending time with animals is great for learning lots of new words – like whiskers, snout and paws. Children will usually return home at the end of the day and chatter away to the family about the animals.

Young children begin to develop the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, and this includes animals too! When a child is asked questions such as, “Do you think Bijou likes being stroked?” and “Do you think the snail is hungry?” can help children to consider the animals’ feelings.

October - That's not my...

Usbourne touchy feely book collection by Fiona Watt

The children have enjoyed exploring the That’s not my …. Usbourne touchy feely book collection. They are learning to handle books respectfully, hold the books up the correct way, turn the pages one at a time, gently explore the sensory tactile pages and listen to the story.

The importance of reading for children cannot be underestimated. Reading for pleasure can benefit a child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, and their mental health.

September 2025 - First week at Preschool

Welcome to Preschool 2’s for the new term. The children are settling well as they build relationships with the staff, explore the environment and respond to the routine and rhythm of the day.