Weekly Bulletin 20 November 2024

20th November 2024

Dear Parents and Carers

Raffle Wednesday 11^th December. Thank you to everyone who has started making donations towards our Christmas raffle. A couple of parents have asked me about what they should donate.  We have raffle boxes, both for children and adults, so if you would like you can donate a child’s toy or book please, for the adult raffle boxes some suggestions might be something to eat or drink, bath products, books etc.

Tickets, costing £1.00, are sold on 11^th December, and the raffle is drawn that afternoon.  Please donate raffle prizes by 29^th November to allow time for Tracey, and her sister Sharon, to wrap them for us.

As I said in my last bulletin any money raised will be going towards paying for our Nest garden to have artificial grass put down, as it gets very muddy. I am pleased to be able to let you know the project is due to start early in the New Year, so the Nest children will have a much bigger area for play from the Spring Term onwards.

Planning in the Moment and Learning Journeys

Thank you to everyone who attended our Nursery parent’s evening and play talk last week.  During the evening I talked about our planning and recording system so I thought you might like to hear a little more about it here.

The Nursery classes have just started doing ‘Planning in the Moment’ for children. This is an in-depth recording of individual children’s learning.  Each week in the Nursery classes we particularly focus on four children, we look at their particular interests and their learning styles, supporting them to further develop these. We ask parents for help to contribute to the ‘Planning in the Moment’ sheet, in order to get a full picture of the child, both at home and school.  Class staff will ask you to complete a quick sheet of questions when it is your child’s turn for ‘Planning in the Moment’. If you would like to learn more about ‘Planning in the Moment’, there is a book available, written by Anna Ephgrave, an early year’s expert.

In the Nest the children also have their learning recorded through Learning Journeys written by their key worker staff members.  These might focus on a particular activity that a child has been involved in, or a skill that they have been learning.

We are very happy for you to also take photos of, or record any particularly special events at home, to go into your child’s Special book.

Please find below the link to the TED talk I mentioned, given by Molly Wright aged 7, and entitled ‘How every child can Thrive by Five’.  It is a fascinating insight into a child’s view of our adult world and well worth a few minutes of your time.

https://youtu.be/aISXCw0Pi94?feature=shared

This week’s photos particularly feature maths activities which we have been doing… In East Room children have been deciding what to call their soft toy owls that we send home with the children on a rotational basis at the weekends. Giving the owls a name provides an opportunity for children to vote for their favourite name, by placing their own photos under the name they prefer. The staff then support the children with counting the tally marks and working out which two names are the favourites in the class. The winning names were Sophia and Cherry for the East Red/purple children, and Owl and Pickle for the East Blue and Purple children.

    Potential owl names for the children to choose from

Children come up to vote for their favourite

Counting the number of faces in each column

Mitali has also been doing some maths activities with the children using our ‘Feed the dog’ game. This is a very simple but fun turn taking game where children roll a dice and then feed the dog the same number of dog bones as the number on the dice….an easy one to try at home maybe?

South Room children have been having a lot of fun exploring colour mixing using red and green powder paint, sprinkled into shaving foam, and then mixing them together to make brown. I think the smiles on their faces show how much they were enjoying themselves!

The Children in all the classes have also been having fun role playing the ‘Whatever Next’ story, ahead of the staff performance of this, which is taking place on party day for them in December.

The Bear and Owl enjoy a picnic on the moon

I think Jacqui was also having a lot of fun joining in with the story and being a playful adult.

This last picture is a particular favourite of mine as the bear lands the space rocket back down on earth with a bump!

The Nest has also been doing lots of creative activities linked to Literacy, music and dance.

They read the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ first and then painted and collaged their own versions of the story.

They have also been dancing to the Baby Shark song and in keeping with this chilly weather investigating ice with sea creatures hidden within it.

Wednesday 4^th December – Christmas Story trail for all parents and children around the garden 8.45am-9.30am – East Blue children, and any children from the Nest who attend on a different day/time, please come in to enjoy this event with everyone. 

Wednesday 11^th December – Christmas Raffle and Children’s Party Day – more information on this will follow.

Friday 20^th December – Last day of the Autumn Term

Monday 6^th January 2025 – The Centre is closed for a Training Day on Intensive Interaction which focuses on adults observing and joining in with children’s play and interests

Tuesday 7^th January 2025 – Term restarts for the children

Just a reminder that the car park is for staff use only.  Parents with bikes and children please enter the Centre via our passageway, or the park entrance, in order to keep the children safe and away from cars coming in and out of the car park.

As it has suddenly turned so much colder please remember to provide your child with warm and weather appropriate clothing, including 1-2 spare sets of clothes in their bags as we go out in all weathers.