Haxby Playgroups

26/05/2026

🎨🖌️ A Wonderful Morning of Painting and Creative Exploration 🖌️🎨

We got the paints out, and before we began, the children talked excitedly about what they wanted to create. Their ideas included crocodiles, flowers, Christmas trees, and rockets! 🚀🐊🌸🎄

The children showed fantastic social skills as they took turns, shared resources, and were mindful of each other’s space. They treated one another’s artwork with kindness and respect, celebrating each other’s ideas and creations. 😊

As they painted, we explored different brush strokes and experimented with a range of shaped sponges, including hearts, flowers, squares, and triangles. This led to some great mathematical learning as we noticed that triangles have 3 sides and squares have 4 sides. 🔺⬜

The children discovered that the sponges absorbed the paint and could be used in different ways—pressing them onto the paper to make prints or sweeping them in large circular motions to cover bigger areas. The paintbrushes were used to create lines and patterns, and some children even counted the marks they made as they painted. 🎨🔢

22/05/2026

🦒✨ Shadow Den and Animal Exploration ✨🦁

Following on from last week’s activity, we extended our learning by creating an even bigger and better shadow den! The children each chose an animal to take into the den and began exploring how shadows are created.

Using a variety of coloured lights, the children investigated how shadows changed depending on where the light was positioned, how close or far away it was, and the direction it was shining from. We observed how the size of the animal’s shadow grew larger or smaller as the light source moved. 🔦🐘

The children were fascinated by the different colours of light and enjoyed experimenting to see what would happen. This led to an excellent discussion when we asked the question: “What colour is a shadow?”

As the coloured lights changed, the children began to notice that the shadow itself always remained black or grey. They discovered that this happens because the animal blocks the light, creating a dark shape behind it.

19/05/2026

🎨👗 Creative Design and Imaginative Learning at Playgroup 👗🎨

Inspired by the patterns and pictures on our own clothing, the children became fashion designers for the day and created their very own unique dresses! We carefully looked at the different prints we were wearing, noticing lines, spots, stripes, dinosaurs, insects, and lots of other animals. This sparked wonderful conversations about colours, shapes, patterns, and the creatures we could see.

Using old pillowcases, the children transformed simple materials into wearable outfits by cutting holes for their heads and arms. They then decorated their dresses with their favourite designs, choosing to add dinosaurs, bugs, animals, dots, and stripes. Each creation was completely individual and reflected the children’s own ideas and interests.
The children were delighted to model their dresses and talk about the inspiration behind their designs. Activities like this encourage imagination, independence, and problem-solving while showing that everyday household items can be turned into something truly special.

🏡 Why not try this at home? All you need is an old pillowcase, some scissors (with adult supervision), and lots of creative ideas. We would love to see the fantastic designs your children create! 😊✨

11/05/2026

🧁 Don’t forget it’s our cake sale at Ralph Butterfield on Friday at 3pm! 🧁
Donations of nut free cakes will be greatly appreciated (made or bought!)

🌟 Headlands cake sale will be rearranged shortly 🌟

07/05/2026

Last night, we all participated in a creative music training event with 's Fund. This training will assist us in our daily practices as well as during intervention periods, using music to enhance learning and wellbeing.

05/05/2026

01/05/2026

🧁 A date for your diary! 🧁
Cake Sale - Friday 15th May at 3pm

28/04/2026

*Update*

Headlands preschool will be open as usual tomorrow.

Thank you for your understanding today.

28/04/2026

Good morning,

Unfortunately we have no water at Headlands so we are unable to open today. If anyone will really struggle with childcare please let us know and we might be able to accommodate a couple of children at Ralph Butterfield. We apologise for any inconvenience.

17/04/2026

Join the Committee!

Haxby Playgroups is a small, friendly charity that thrives because of the support of its parents, and we would love you to consider joining our committee. As a charity-run setting, the preschool cannot operate without a committee in place, so your involvement is essential to keeping it open for all our children.

It’s a great way to be involved in your child’s preschool, have a say in how it’s run, and help shape its future. The commitment is manageable, we meet just once each half term, and together we make decisions about the day-to-day running of the preschools and organise simple fundraising activities that keep Haxby Playgroups running. Whether you can offer ideas, time, or just a willingness to help, your contribution would make a real difference to the children and families in our community.

If you or a family member is interested in joining the committee, please email [email protected]