Weekly Bulletin 14 February 2024

14th February 2024

Dear Parents

Wishing all our families who are celebrating Chinese/Lunar New Year a very happy time. The children have continued to enjoy activities around this event and have been celebrating in different ways, including doing a Lion dance in the Rainbow room. We do this using our own lion’s head and body, which is rather like a pantomime horse, with a lead person wearing the head and other children following behind as the body. Each class also has the opportunity to be part of an orchestra, playing instruments to a steady drum beat, whilst the lion dances.

Chinese New Year provided the opportunity for children, and staff,  to enjoy wearing traditional costumes

The Homerton orchestra gets ready to play to the steady beat of the drum whilst the other children perform the lion dance.

Nest children made dumplings with the help of one of our Chinese families in The Nest – a big thank you to them.

And East and West Room heard all about Chinese New Year from one of our

Mums – thank you again.

Children made fans and then performed a traditional fan dance together to music.

Today children have been treated to a concert, given by Dong, playing the traditional Chinese instruments called a Guzheng and a Guqin as well as a drum.

Dong playing the Guzheng which made a very beautiful sound

We all accompanied Dong playing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ on the drum

Dong playing the Guqin

There have been a number of other celebrations taking place this week, including Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, Carnivale and Valentine’s Day. Children in some classes made masks for the Carnivale festival, celebrated in various countries, especially Italy.

Our varied Carnivale masks – each child has made a unique and different design, thank you to Antonella and our parent in South Room for inspiring us to celebrate this festival.

East Room enjoyed making and eating pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday.

A big thank you also goes to staff who put on a performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears today. Please see photos in the learning section.

Next week is half term for us, holiday club is running for those children who are already booked in. Thank you to Mel, Bridget and all the team for running this club.

After half term we have a quite a number of events for both children and parents to enjoy – I just wanted to highlight a few so you can get the dates in your diaries early – Please look at the Diary date section below.

A performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears took place today…. As you can see, from the photos below, everyone had fun both performing and watching! Children guessed who was playing Daddy Bear behind the mask. A big thank you to all the staff involved for joining in so enthusiastically and giving children the opportunity to see live performance.

Dates for your diary

Term restarts on Monday 26^th February 2024

Tuesday 5^th March – 7.30pm-8.45pm Maths workshop – for parents led by Mitali Peckham our East Room teacher – please book a babysitter.

Wednesday 6^th March 9.30-10.30 – Coffee Morning with Bernie our special Educational Needs Coordinator and Victoria North our Specialist Support Teacher – please come along if you would like to hear more about our additional educational support provision, at Homerton, and also a chance to meet other parents.

Mid-March Parent Consultations for Nursery children in East, South and West Rooms – please sign up for a time slot on the sheet outside your child’s room.

Wednesday 20th March 8.45-9.30am – Eggstravaganza – Parent and child event focusing on life cycles held in the main Nursery garden for all parents and children to attend.

Wednesday 27^th March – Easter Raffle – Please donate a raffle prize for this event if you can, some ideas for this might be – Colouring books, Crayons, New Toys, Books, Eggs, Smellies.