18-22nd March 2019

local
​Dates for your Diary 
Tuesday 30th April 2019= Inset day 
Wednesday 8th May and Thursday 9th May= Parent exchange meetings

Please note...
As of next term, which starts on Tuesday 23rd April 2019, our session times will be running from either 9:15-12:15, 9:15-13:15 or 9:15- 2:45. Meaning morning sessions and morning session with lunch will be running for an extra 15 minutes.  Session booking forms will be sent out at the start of next week w.c 25th March and can we please ask that these are returned by the end of term 5th April. 

Café
Thank-you very much to all of those who attended/donated towards our coffee morning on Tuesday 12th March, we are always very grateful for your involvement and generous donations. It was a lovely morning and both children and parents/carers thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The money raised funded our trip to the local farm. 
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Life cycles of butterflies
The children have been showing lots of interest in butterflies over the past two weeks and have been asking lots of questions in regards to where they come from, what they eat and if their babies look like them. Supporting children to learn about life cycles is a perfect way to help them understand the world around them and to connect with nature. 
We started off by using a set of sequencing cards in order to help the children to understand each step in a butterflies life cycle which helped them to visually make those connections of each step, "Caterpillars turn into butterflies but I didn't know they were eggs first". It was amazing to see the astonishment on the children's faces when they began to process the important steps of how a butterfly is formed. 

Following on from this interest, the children used what they had learnt from the life cycles to create their own versions of butterflies and caterpillars using a wide variety of craft resources. Completing this activity linked to several areas of development; using imagination, mathematics- counting how many sequins they wanted to stick on and self-confidence- being praised for the fantastic work they had produced.  Once the children had created their butterflies or caterpillars we put them up on display, valuing and respecting each of the children's pieces of work and it allowed the children to engage in many conversations with both peers and adults in regards to why they made theirs look like it did. 

Trip to Chew Valley Country Farm- 22/03/2019
The children have been showing a huge interest in farms and the animals they contain over the past weeks and we thought taking them on a trip to the local farm would help them to embrace the environment around them and allow them to get up close with real life animals!

We had a fantastic day and started off our morning by exploring the play park, where the children engaged in imaginative, role play activities such as being crocodiles crossing the water and exploring the climbing equipment, demonstrating great confidence in their ability to maintain their balance and move across the apparatus. 

It was then time for us to head to cuddle corner where we were allowed to handle the animals including; bunnies, guinea pigs, pigmy hedgehogs, chicks, chickens, mice and tortoises. This was a great experience for all of the children and helped them to understand about living creatures and how we need to look after them "These are so cute and fluffy"  "They like to have their shells touched it tickles them" "Bunnies and Guinea-pigs like to eat straw and little nuggets to keep them healthy". We then moved next door where we learnt about the baby Pigmy goats and Lambs. We were told that pigmy goats need to live in pairs as they become lonely on their own and that baby lambs only spend very short periods of time away from their mummies before their mummies get really sad and call for them back. The children enjoyed holding the baby goats and lambs, feeling the textures of their fur and petting them on their laps, however the goats spent most of their time running and jumping around the barn, making everyone laugh!

We then explored the rest of the farm, learning the names of animals we weren't familiar with such as; wallabies, artic fox, meerkats and looking at a wide range of birds. It was then time for lunch which we enjoyed eating at the picnic tables and then it was time for a small play in the park before the grown ups arrived. 
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"I've had so much fun today, it was good"