Nursery News 31st October 2022

NURSERY NEWS

31st October 2022 – Edition 276

Find out About

  1. Welcome back after Half Term
  2.  School Photographer Visit.
  3. Walk in the Dark.
  4. BBC Children in Need.
  5. End of Term Arrangements
  6. Open School Activities.
  7. Local Visits
  8. Doing up their own coats.
  9. What are the children learning about this week?

 

  1. Welcome back after Half Term

I hope everyone enjoyed their break from school. It is important that our young pupils have a chance to rest a little and recharge their batteries! Now we arrive back, we have just seven school weeks before we break up for Christmas. We have quite a few things going on in school this half term, so I thought I would share with you dates and times that might be of interest to you.

 

2. School Photographer Visit.

A school photographer will be here on Wednesday 2nd November, for Big Nursery children, and Thursday 3rd November for Little Nursery children. If your child is in Little Nursery but does not attend on a Thursday, and you would like your child to come in just for a photograph, please arrive on Thursday at around 9:30am, sign in as a visitor, and be prepared to stay and play for a short time with your child, until staff can organise for your child to be photographed by the photographer. Our photographers name is Victoria Mitchell and she is based in Dunstable. She uses colourful backdrops and props within her photography.

 

3. Walk in the Dark.

Miss Howe is organising a ‘Walk in the dark’, an activity for children and their parents to attend together, after school, on Thursday 17th November at 5:00pm. Children will need to arrive, wrapped up warmly, ready to search the Nursery Garden for hidden soft toy animals. Children will need to bring a torch, because the garden is very dark in places! We will provide for refreshments for everyone who attends. Brothers and sisters are very welcome too. If you plan to come, please send an email to Mrs Selth  cselth@willownursery.co.uk entitled ‘Walk in the dark’ detailing your child’s name and how many adults and children will be coming, so we can buy enough food….

 

4. BBC Children in Need.

Friday 18th November is Children in Need. Parents often ask us what we are doing for Children in Need. –So as in previous years, we will collect money in Charity buckets, should anyone wish to donate. We do organise activities with a Pudsey Bear theme, and we try to share with the children that we are fundraising to help other children. Sometimes the Nursery children want to dress up because they see their older brothers and sisters dressing up for their school’s event. We are happy for children to dress up, or not to dress up. We do not wish any family to feel under pressure.

 

5. End of Term Arrangements

The last day of regular Big Nursery and Little Nursery will be on Thursday 15th December. Friday 16th December will be our Christmas Party Day. The School will be open for the Christmas Parties only on this day.  Much fuller information will be given nearer the time, but we are aware that parents need notice to organise childcare etc. Especially if they are working parents.

So as an outline:

Little Nursery’s party will be from 9:00am to 10:00am.

Parents do not need to stay.

Big Nursery’s party will be from 11:15am to 1:00pm

Again, parents do not need to stay.

 

6. Open School Activities.

We would like parents to come in to school and see how we teach your children. Parents hear about the activities that take place during choosing time through our newsletter, but often parents are unaware of the quality of Grouptimes that we offer towards the end of each session. So, throughout the Year we are going to invite parents in to school to join in/observe our grouptimes.

So to begin, we would like to invite all Big Nursery parents to join us for ‘Music’ time. Each parent of a child in Big Nursery will receive an email today detailing the date and time of the Music session that you can choose to attend. If you would like to join your child to participate in our Music Activity ‘Pigs on Holiday’ then please just turn up at the date and time specified and you will be made very welcome. There is no need to book. Sessions last 25 minutes.

Little Nursery want to be involved too. On the week beginning Monday 12th December Little Nursery Parents are welcome to join their child for a Stay and Play session. Parents are welcome to stay and play with their child during one of their child’s normal booked morning sessions (between 8:45am and 11:45am) on Monday 12th, Tuesday 13th, Wednesday 14th or Thursday 15th December. You are welcome to stay for the whole morning, or just stay for a short time. We hope that the children will be settled well by then, and this will give you an opportunity to see what your children do whilst at nursery, and give you the opportunity to join in with them too.

Mrs Patterson teaches Big Nursery Green Group children ‘Basic Skills’ on a Wednesday morning. The children move to a quiet space in Room 5 where they work in small groups (approx. 8 children) to learn reading, writing, mathematical skills and problem solving. We would like to invite Mrs Patterson’s Green group parents in to observe a 30 minute reading/writing activity on Wednesday 23rd November. A further invitation letter will follow to Green Group parents so that we can match up time slots, so parent can join their child’s small group. Red Group have Basic Skills in the Spring Term and Yellow Group have Basic skills in the Summer Term. Eventually all parents will be invited to observe Basic skills sessions when their child is being taught.

7. Local Visits

All main Nursery Children will be going out of school in very small groups (max 8 children) during week beginning Monday 14th November to explore their local environment, from Goldstone Crescent to the postbox at the junction of Wilbury drive. Staff to child ratio will be 1 adult to every 2 children more information will follow in next weeks’s newsletter.

 

8. Doing up their own coats.

We try to help children to learn a whole range of skills in school, including Self Care skills. The weather is getting colder now. The children continue to have the choice to play outside every day should they wish to. In Big Nursery we have been focussing on teaching the children to put on and fasten their own coats. Please encourage this at home too. It is important that you show your child what to do if the sleeves on their coat are inside out. If a coat has a hood, it helps to show your child to put their hood on their head first, then the sleeves are in the right place for your child to find the arm holes to their sleeves by themselves. At this age, children will often say ‘I can’t do it’ and expect their parent or teacher to do this for them. Putting their own coat on moves them further towards independence with their self-care skills. We ask all children to ensure that their coats are fastened before they go outside to ensure they keep warm.

 

9. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme in Little Nursery is the Bakers Shop. In Catkins the children will be creating some Halloween artwork. They will drizzle glue across paper to make spider webs and then they will sprinkle glitter over their glue to make their spider webs very sparkly. The children will learn the difference between big and little as they use sponges to paint pumpkins of different sizes.

In Room three, the children will be making and tasting toast with Miss Gaffney. They will choose white or brown bread and when it has been toasted, they will choose to spread either butter or jam on their toast. Miss Gaffney will be making cardboard cookies with the children and adding chocolate chips to them, they will count the chips as they are added.

Outside, the children will be making dens with Mrs. Brinkley. They will have tunnels to crawl through and sheets to sit under.

In the link, Mrs. Watson will have the baker shop role play set up for the children to play as the baker and the customer. There will be bread, cakes and rolls as well as tills, baskets and trolleys for the children to use.

The theme in Big Nursery is Colour and Light

In Room one, Miss Howe will be playing the ladybird game with the children. The game requires the children to match and count the spots on the ladybirds as they play. Children will be encouraged to wait patiently for their turn. The children will be working towards fast recognition of up to three objects without counting them.

Mrs. Cashmore will be supporting the children in following the rules in school. The dark tent will be set up for the children to explore colour and light but the children will be asked to enter the tent two children at a time. Mrs. Cashmore will explain to the children that this is to keep the children safe in the tent and that they will have to take it in turns so that everyone is able to play.

In Room two, Mrs. Patterson will be supporting the children with spinner painting and box modelling. She will follow the children’s ideas on box modelling and help them to find and use any resources that they may need. Mrs. Patterson will fill the tough tray with dyed spaghetti for the children to play with.

Outside, Miss Skai will be playing a hungry bird game with the children and they will be looking for coloured ‘worms’ (pipe cleaners) to wrap around their sticks. Children will widen their vocabulary by talking about where they found their ‘worms’ and the colours that they have collected. Children will be encouraged to support each other in spotting ‘worms’ hidden around the garden.