3-6th May

This week we have been enjoying celebrating the Royal Wedding in a variety of ways.  This has included dressing up to encourage linking with the home environment - helping the children feel a sense of familiarity between preschool and home.  Looking at the Royal Wedding has also allowed us to explore traditions.  The children have come in dressed up in their own role play clothes, which helps them develop their imaginative skills as they 'pretend' to be princes and princesses.  We've also explored the traditions within weddings, i.e. bride, groom, cakes, bouquets, etc.

This week we have also been very kindly given some tomato plants from a grandad, planted up ready to grow on.  We talked about what grows on these plants - we have one in a hanging basket hanging down, and one that will grow upwards.  The children will need to care for and water these to ensure that they grow well.  We can talk about caring for and nurturing living things as they do this.

The children have really enjoyed using the new pond viewer to find out what is in our pond.  They found lots of toys in there!  They couldn't find any tadpoles but we will add some more shortly.  You might have noticed the greenhouse viewers on the noticeboard outside.  In these the children are growing salad leaves (if you turn them round you will see that they have germinated).  From this they learn about how seeds grow into plants.

We also took the children over the to the field where we had a physical activity hour.  We practised games we have learned in our yoga sessions, such as 'fish and chips' and 'traffic lights' (ask your child for an explanation or a demonstration).  These games are great for encouraging the children to follow instructions and for helping them develop their spacial awareness.

This Thursday was a Polling Day so we were closed.  We took the opportunity to update the children's profiles - please read the latest updates, find the profiles in your child's drawer.  You are welcome to take these home overnight, to have a detailed look at them.  But please could we ask all parents to ensure that the profiles are back in the trays on Thursdays for updating.  These are the only copy we have, so please take care not to misplace them as they take staff a long time to do.

We hope you all enjoyed the extended break - welcome back for the new term!