Spring term:
Hope your Christmas was a good one and Happy New Year to all parents and children old and new. It will be another busy term and we will begin with “Winter” as our theme.
Our first activity to be centered around “Winter” will include splatter painting and making a papier-mâché model, so we’d really like your old newspapers please! Alongside reading stories connected to our theme, we will also take on board the children’s own interests and idea’s. Our “Letter of the Week” will be ‘Ii’ and our “Number of the week” will be ‘8’. Also please watch our outside notice board to see what the next “Winter” activities’ will be!
Home Activities:
To encourage the learning that your child will get from the above activities, there are things that you can do together at home:
* Have your child practicing putting on their cold weather clothes.
* To experience different weather conditions and talk about how they feel.
* Get them to talk about birds, animals that they see in their garden or on walks and the changes they see in the countryside as Winter changes start to show.
* Bring into Pre-school objects/books relating to anything to do with winter you might have, so that we can look at them together as a group at Circle Time.
Stories:
You could read together; maybe even take a trip to the local library to find some of these books that relate to our theme:
* Snowball: Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet
* When will it snow?: Kathryn White
* One Snowy Night (A Tale from Percy’s Park): Nick Butterworth
Clothing:
Due to the unpredictability of our weather, please make sure that your child has appropriate outdoor clothing such as a jacket and wellies or sturdy outdoor shoes.
We aim to allow the children free flow access between indoor and outdoor environments as long as it is safe to do so. Plimsoles are a good, safe footwear for indoors. Please label all your child’s clothing & footwear.
Due to the nature of the activities that we do and the fact that we don’t want to restrict their play too much, we would suggest that best clothes are not worn to Pre-school as they do tend to get messy!
We recommend Pre-school Sweatshirts and T-shirts as it takes away the worry of what to dress them in and helps them to feel part of the group.
Sweatshirts = £8:00 / T-shirts = £5:00. Also Book-bags can be purchased for £3:50.
Footwear for Pre-school:
Quite a lot of children are now wearing wellies or large clumpy boots all day, this is not suitable footwear to wear all day as it makes their legs and feet very hot and sweaty. More importantly it is not hygienic for outdoor wellies to be worn inside due to the potential to bring germs into Preschool, therefore we suggest the children bring in a change of footwear such as plimsoles or other shoes to change into. Wellies also need to be changed in the lobby area not on rugs inside the hall.
Important:
If someone different is collecting your child, could you please make sure that Pre-school is aware of who this will be by writing it in the Parent Book. Also, if you change your address or phone numbers could you please let us know so we can ensure emergency contact details are kept up to date.
Notice Board:
Our notice board in the lobby is one of the ways that we can keep you informed of all the relevant information such as policies, procedures and activity plans. This is to ensure that your child’s time at Pre-school is safe, secure and as much fun as possible.
Healthy Eating:
We have a healthy eating policy at Pre-school and therefore encourage all parents to support us in this by sending their child into Pre-school with a healthy and manageable lunch. (No Chocolate Bars, Sweets or Fizzy Drinks).
Sickness:
If your child has sickness or diarrhoea, they should not attend Pre-school for 48 hours after the symptoms have gone, as they may still be infectious.
Also, if your child has a very heavy cold and/or cough please keep them off Pre-school so infection is not spread to others. Please ring or text us on Pre-school’s number 07855 279 934 by 9:15am if your child is unable to attend for any reason!
Children’s Toys:
Again if it is at all possible, could you please try to limit the amount of toys/objects that your child may bring into Pre-school. This is because they may be lost, broken or get mixed up with our own toys and therefore very upsetting for the child concerned.
Feedback:
We really appreciate your feedback, good or bad!. We value parent contributions which hopefully will help towards making us a better Pre-school. If you have any comments or suggestions about our Pre-school, please do not hesitate to speak to Karen.
World Book Week:
Week commencing 4th March 2019 we will be participating in “World Book Week”. The aim is to create an opportunity for young children to enjoy books and experience a wide range of language through rhymes and stories. We are planning a number of activities linked to the children’s favourite stories and rhymes, including dressing up as their favourite story book character, We would also like parents to come and share their own favourite stories. More details will follow in due course!
Learning Journey’s:
We will be scheduling ‘Parental Consultations’ for all parents/Carers during the Spring Term. This is so your child’s Keyperson can go through their ‘Learning Journey’ folder with you and discuss how they are progressing. However, if you would like to see your child’s ‘Learning Journey’ before this, please speak to your child’s Keyperson to arrange a suitable time. Details to follow in due course.
Dates to remember in 2019:
First day of Spring Term: Monday 07th Jan
Feb Half Term – Last Day: Friday 15th Feb
Feb Half Term – Return: Monday 25th Feb
End of Spring Term: Friday 05th April
First day of Summer Term: Tuesday 23rd April