Top Tip for Talking
Join in with your child's play. A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives a clear context for works and meanings. Makaton signs for the term Good; thumbs up in front of yourself Thank-you; Move hand from chin in a forwards motion Dates for your Diary Thursday 23rd May 2019- Preschool closure for polling station; EU elections Shop Keepers The children have shown lots of interest in being shop keepers over the past week, creating their own shopping lists and visiting the pre-school shop where they could purchase the products on their lists. Children have enjoyed using their imaginations and imitations from previous experiences to take on different roles during their play such as The Shopkeeper and shoppers. Wet weather and water play We have been embracing the wet weather we have been having recently, splashing in big puddles and making mud hot chocolate and mud pies. The children haven't let the rain stopping them from having fun, they have got rain ready applying water proofs and wellies and embraced the Great British weather. They have really enjoyed splashing in the big puddle that is created at the bottom of our garden, using two feet to jump in and observe how big of a splash they could create " 1,2,3 SPLASH". They have also been observing what the wet weather can do for animals, farms and plants, tuning in on what is happening in their surrounding environments "When it rains it helps the plants and the crops to grow so that they will be ready to harvest". There has also been lots of team work to open our very own preschool café, with a menu that consists of mud hot chocolate, mud pancakes, mud pies and muddy juice. The children went off in different groups to collect the ingredients for specific dishes "For our pancakes we need mud, leaves and lots of water" the pots and pans they were going to use "This big one will be best because we can the most in here" and to have café workers who will announce when the café is open and closed. All of the children have loved exploring our water play this week, using the new resources provided to develop and challenge their fine motor skills, creating motions such as tipping, pouring, squashing and squeezing. Some of our new resources consist of pipettes, different sized jugs and squeezy bottles. The children have demonstrated high levels of attention while exploring the water tray, remaining engaged for long periods of time. They have enjoyed learning how to operate the pipettes, placing the plastic bit into the water while squeezing the top and letting go of the top when it is in the water "This is really tricky, you show me what to do". Once modelled how to operate these, all of the children were independently able to use them, squirting them on the floor and walls. Little Rabbit Foo Foo story Many of you may already be aware of our story for this term; Litttle Rabbit Foo Foo, hearing your children re-telling the words and turning people into "Goonies". Little Rabbit Foo Foo sets off on a journey riding through the forest, when he scoops up field mice, worms, a tiger and goblins and bops them on the head. A good fairy then comes down and says "Little Rabbit Foo Foo I don't like your attitude scoping up the field mice (repeated for the other animals and Goblins) and bopping them on the head, you've got 3 chances to change, or ill turn you into a Goonie". Unfortunately Little Rabbit Foo Foo didn't use his listening ears to listen to the good Fairy and "POW" got turned into a Goonie. The children have really enjoyed this story, re-telling it without using the book and completing all of the actions which coincide with the words! Tummy Ache; board game We have been exploring a new board game this week called tummy ache, which links into the Early Years Public Health programme we are currently taking part in. The aim of the game is to select different cards which are face down to build up a plate for dinner, which doesn't consist of things that could give you a tummy ache. Now these aren't any ordinary things. Tummy ache cards consist of, spider spaghetti, beetle waffles, spider juice and many more. If the children pick up a tummy ache card they need to shout "Tummy ache" and place it onto the correct space on their board. The children have really enjoyed this game and it has supported them to take turns, play as part of a group, engage in conversations and use their knowledge of the different food groups to state which food belongs to which group. School readiness We have been supporting the children with their school readiness skills recently, encouraging independent dressing (putting on own coats/jackets/shoes) and supporting with own bottom wiping. These skills will help to support your child when they move onto primary school as ratios are higher and are the skills in which teachers would like us to support the children with before they transition across. If you would like any support or advice in regards to school readniess, please talk to one of the pre-school team.
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Welcome back to Term 5 We hope you all enjoyed your Easter break. Makaton signs for Term 5 Thank-you Good- Thumbs up in front of yourself Early Years Public Heath Programme Over the past week we have been taking part in week 1 of our Early Years Public Health Programme which was looking at the different food groups, exploring eat well plates. The children really enjoyed taking part the activities planned around week1 and started off by making a big eat well plate, colour coding it into the different food groups; Green= Fruit and Vegetables Yellow= Carbohydrates Blue= Dairy Pink= Protein Purple= Fats and oils Once we had had made and coloured in our eat-well plate, we began to look at the variety of foods the children had in their lunchboxes, using small coloured dots to highlight which colour food group that specific food would be in. The children really enjoyed sticking the dots to their pots/packets and very quickly began to pick up which colour represented which food group. It was lovely to hear the children talking amongst themselves about the eat-well plate and the coloured dots, choosing pretend food from our home corner and selecting which food group that type of food would belong too. Week two of our early years public programme is looking and talking about Portion sizes, which will begin on Tuesday 7th May 2019. Bug Hunts The children have shown lots of interest in looking for bugs over the past week, using magnifying glasses to study them up close, counting how many legs they have and what colour they are. This has supported children's mathematical skills, allowing them to count different amounts of legs and wings and understanding of the world, furthering their knowledge and understanding of insects and their habitats. The children became very excited when they were digging in the mud on a bug hunt and a centipede popped out "Wow what is that its moving so fast and has so many legs". Together we counted how many legs it had; 32 and then used our bug book to find out so more facts. While digging in the mud the children also came across lots of woodlice, talking about their hard shells and tickly legs. They then decided to build them "safe houses" filling up their boxes with leaves and flowers so that the bugs could stay hidden and safe "We need to be careful with them, we don't want to squash them do we". Dinosaurs We have had a slightly different approach to the Dinosaurs this week, adding them into a tuff tray with some of the natural materials they might of lived amongst all of those years ago. To the tuff tray we added; sand, leaves and sticks. The children really enjoyed having these materials mixed in with the dinosaurs, acting out role play scenarios with them, pretending they were looking for dinosaurs bones in the sand "Do you think under the sand would be where the bones were hidden". Fire Whistle Over the next couple of weeks we are going to continue learning about and practising our fire drill. This will enable the children to become familiar with the procedure we need to take if a fire was to break out. When the fire whistle is blown and the children hear it, they have to leave their toys behind and do their careful walking outside to the shed, where the register will then be called. The children have to respond "Yes" to their name and once everyone is accounted for, we will talk to the children about what might happen next. Lots of the children are aware that if a real fire was to happen we need to call 999 and ask for the fire brigade. However most of the times the children will hear it, will just be a practise! Makaton sign Thank-you Dates for your diary Please note that we have had to change our inset day from 30th April to Thursday 2nd May 2019 as the hall is going to be used for a polling day. Additional Info Please could you ensure that your child's lunch boxes and water bottles are labelled with their names to ensure the right lunches/drinks are provided for the children. Parental Job interests Over the last couple of weeks all of the children have been showing lots of interest in the jobs that other people take part in. Following this interest we very kindly had a visit from one of the children's mummy's on Monday, who is a Nurse. She described in child friendly language her job role and how she helps poorly children get better and brought along pictures of the hospital in which she works at. She also brought along some bandages and showed us how to correctly put a bandage on someone, which was really fun! The children then took it in turns to bandage each others arms and legs. After this we learnt a little bit about medicine and the different types of syringes nurses use to administer medicine to poorly children. We learnt that a purple syringe is the one we use to put into our mouths to take medicine such as Calpol and the white syringe is used to give us injections/jabs. The children then thought of some questions they could ask the nurse and listened attentively to her replies, speaking about her visit throughout the rest of the day. A great big thank-you for visiting preschool, we all really enjoyed your visit. We have also been implementing into our everyday routine and speaking to the children about stereotypes. The analysis of over 150 articles, books and interviews suggest that children between the ages of 2 and 6 learn stereotypes about toys, skills and activities that are “typically” associated with each gender; these are boys’ toys and those are girl’s toys. As a pre-school team we are supporting the children to understand that you are entitled to explore and play with whichever books, toys or activities interest you and that it is ok for both genders to take part in the same games. If any of your family members or parents/carers take part in a job that isn’t "gender typical" we would love for them to come and visit pre-school and have a chat with the children about their jobs! If any parents/carers or family members would like to come in and talk to the children about their job roles, please speak to a member of the pre-school team who will happily organise a date with you. 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. 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. "I've had so much fun today, it was good" Makaton sign of the week Thank-you People who help us Over the past two weeks the children have been portraying a huge interest in people who help us, especially fire fighters and police officers. We have been exploring the different roles of these important figures in our community and been taking part in several role play based activities, using appropriate props to support the children’s play. The interest in this has taken place both inside and outside with children building a police station using the open-ended resources and dressing up to take on each role and inside where we have had the small world, emergency vehicles and fire station out to explore. Supporting this interest helps children to make connections between themselves and the outside world. It aims to make them more aware of the different jobs and roles people take on in their own homes, in school and in their local community. It also encourages children to notice places and people in their community and, show them that they are part of a wider community and opens possibilities for them to consider future careers. Also, it can play a major role in helping to break down gender stereotypes and ensuring equal opportunities for everyone. When asked lots of the children would tell us “Policemen put badies in jail and take them away”. As much as this is correct it is also important that when exploring people who help us that we don’t make children scared of these officers, they are there simply to reach out to if they are scared or need help. Bird Boxes We have had a special visitor visit preschool recently; Nigel who has very kindly made bird boxes with the children. He supplied the resources to make the bird boxes and fascinated all the children by using his tools to construct them. The children were put into small groups which allowed them to each have a turn putting the boxes together. First, Nigel explained what each of his tools done in the process of making the box and supplied the children with a pair of safety googles. Nigel then supported the children to line each side of the wood up before, fixing in the screws and drilling them into place. The children absolutely loved using the drill, while being supported by adult, demonstrating fantastic listening skills by following the instructions provided “Wow Nigel let me use his real-life drill, it was so much fun”. Once we had completed each step of the instruction’s we had two completed bird boxes, one which was suitable for Robins and one suitable for Great Tits. From this lots of the children began asking questions in response to the different types of birds, extending their knowledge and understanding about this species. We are looking forwards to putting our bird boxes up at Forest club soon and hopefully we will get to see some Robins and Great Tits!! Thank-you for a fantastic afternoon Nigel! Chinese New Year
We have had a busy couple of at weeks at preschool preparing and celebrating Chinese New Year. The children have enjoyed taking part in lots of craft activities, building a dragon for Dragon dancing, making pig masks to celebrate the year of the pig, making paper chain hand held dragons and exploring a sensory activity of noodles and chopsticks, practising how to hold the chopsticks in the correct way in order to pick up the noodles! Our mat time song for the past week has been Happy New Year, in Chinese and all the preschool children have picked up the words really quickly and have enjoyed singing it each morning! Gung Hay Fat Choy (In the tune Frere Jacque) Gung Hay Fat Choy, Gung Hay Fat Choy, Gung, Hay, Hey, Gung Hay, Hay, Gung Hay Fat Choy, Gung Hay Fat Choy, Gung, hay, hay Preschool have enjoyed learning and exploring The Chinese New Year story, gaining an understanding of how each animal became involved in the story and learning Makaton signs which supported us to tell our story. We have also used our senses to explore Chinese food, creating a “yummy” stir fry to try at snack time. The children helped to prepare the stir fry, chopping up the different vegetables with adult support, smelling each of the different smells and using good describing words to describe what they could smell. Once it had been cooked, each child was offered a small bowl of stir fry for snack. All off the children were willing to try the food and enjoyed learning how to use chop sticks to pick up their food “These are like little sticks, that you pinch together to eat”. Our social snack time allowed us to listen to the different crunches the vegetables and prawn crackers were making and to answer any questions the children had in regards to Chinese New Year. On Friday preschool took part in a Dragon dance holding the dragon they had created above their heads and walking around the room singing Gung Hey Fat Choy. What a lovely way to end the term! We hope you all have a great week off and we look forwards to welcoming everyone back on Monday 25th February 2019. Top Tip’s for talking
Use open ended questions: Open ended questions can give you opportunities to continue a conversation. For example, "I wonder what the little boy wants?" Can encourage children to respond in full sentences. In contrast, the closed question "Does the little boy want the car" leads only to a Yes, No or I don't know answer. Story Focus Goldie locks and the three bears. Farm animals The farm animals have been a huge interest of all off the children the past couple of weeks, building farmyards, talking about the life cycle of different animals and taking on the role of specific animals, moving around just like the animals would. The children have enjoyed creating the sounds of the different animals, doing so by singing Old Macdonald which helps to support children create speech sounds and build the muscles around their mouth. Farm animals haven’t just been a hit inside, children have used their imaginations to build farms outside, using open ended resources to build pens and gates to keep the animals in their pens. We have also been observing the tractors that have been passing by pre-school, using our senses; sight and smell, to guess where the tractors are going and what they might be transporting. Forest Club Please note that as of Term 4 which begins on Monday 25th February 2019, Forest club will be held on a Friday. If your child does not attend a Friday session but forest club is something, they may be interested in doing, please do not hesitate to inform one of the preschool team. The children have been very busy at forest club over the past 2 weeks, playing what’s the time Mr Wolf, helping each other climb up and down banks, digging for bugs and re-building the den that we had created back in September. Working as a team, the children explored the exploring area to collect sticks and logs to re-build our den making it “bigger” and “much better” than it was before. They began to prop the logs against a tree to build an outer shell, in order to weave sticks in and out of and cover with leaves and branches to stop “the rain getting in”. Logically placing the logs against the tree, enabled the children to build and balance, promoting them to use their problem-solving skills and self-confidence. The children have also been observing the horses in the field, watching them gallop around and create big loud “neighs”. They have also been able to pet Magic and feed him some grass, as he is very confident to approach the fence where the children are standing, wanting to say Hello! All off the children were aware that to safely feed Magic, we must keep our hands flat and let him take the grass from our hands when he is ready too. They have also enjoyed stroking him, talking about and describing the texture of his fur, exclaiming it is “spikey on the short bit” but very “soft and cuddly” everywhere else. Please note that Monday 21st January 2019 is an inset day
Top tips for talking Get down to your child's level when talking to them. It is easier to talk to each other if you are face to face. Whether it be playing on the floor or the grass, kneeling at bath time or sitting together at meal times. Being down at your child's level makes it easier to keep eye contact when talking together. Story for term 2 The story for this term is The Christmas story. This story explains the reason in which we celebrate Christmas day in a way that the children will understand. We have been learning lots of new names such as, Mary, Joseph and the Shepard’s. Forest Club The children have been very busy at forest club over the last couple of weeks, finding natural materials to create Christmas tree’s and helping each other climb up and down slopes, using both their fine and gross motor skills to help them do so. The children enjoyed making a Christmas tree out of pine cuttings that had fallen from the tree’s, using descriptive language to talk about how the leaves felt and how we could change them to fit in with our tree. While creating the tree, the children we were able to demonstrate their mathematical knowledge, exclaiming that the shape of the tree looked like a triangle. Its been a great couple of weeks for exploring, the children have been working together to help each other climb up and down slopes, using long sticks to pull peers up and using their language to guide each other where to place their hands and feet while moving up/down the slope. Making sleighs and filling them with presents The children have been using open-ended resources to make sleighs, logically slotting and sticking boxes and materials together to achieve a desired outcome. All of the children worked together to create the sleighs each imputing how exactly they wanted it to look. There was lots of scissor work involved in this task, cutting cello tape and string, which supported the children’s fine motor skills. They also added reins to the sleigh, pretending that Rudolph the red nose reindeer was guiding it through the sky. All of the children demonstrated lovely imaginative and role-play based skills during this activity. Recognising letters We have supported the children in recognising letters this term, using the pictures on their name cards to help support recognition. We began by recognising the pictures on each individuals name card, helping the children to become aware of what their name looked like. The activity was then extended by hiding the children’s names around the room and asking them to find it, using their pictures as prompts to help them do so. Furthering on this task for those who we believe could recognise their names; we chopped the pictures from the cards and again hid them around the room. Many of the children were able to recognise their names and were able to phonically sound out the first letter of their name. We have also had lots of letters out during our free flow play, placing the tile cards in the sand tray which was a huge hit, with the children asking adults to support them in finding the first letter of their name. We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new year and we look forwards to you joining us in Term 3 ready for lots more fun! Top tips for talking
Get down to your child's level when talking to them. It is easier to talk to each other if you are face to face. Whether it be playing on the floor or the grass, kneeling at bath time or sitting together at meal times. Being down at your child's level makes it easier to keep eye contact when talking together. Story for term 2 The story for this term is The Christmas story. This story explains the reason in which we celebrate Christmas day in a way that the children will understand. We have been learning lots of new names such as, Mary, Joseph and the Shepard’s. Café morning- A big thank you to all of those who helped to create such a fantastic Christmas coffee morning. We had a great turn out and all had lots of fun. The children enjoyed taking part in Christmas activities; pining the carrot on the snow man, making Christmas crafts and building an igloo which when having a torch placed inside shone stars upon the ceiling which the children were very impressed about. It was also lovely to see parents/carers enjoying themselves, exploring the cake sale and joining their children at preschool to explore activities and have fun. We raised a fantastic £260 from this café morning and are ever so grateful for all of the kind donations that were made. Splashing in muddy puddles As we enter the winter months, the weather starts to become colder and we very often see rain. However, this does not stop us from having fun! Many of the children have enjoyed getting ready to explore the rain this week, preparing to stay dry by putting on their waterproofs and wellies. Once they were ready to take on the rain, they had so much fun splashing in muddy puddles “This is so much fun I love the rain” listening to the wonder sounds each splash made “wow that was a good noise, ready, steady, splash”. The Children have also enjoyed filling up different sized bowls and containers, using their knowledge of mathematical terms such as heavy and light to collect the rain and fill up a tuff spot. Obstacle course Over the past two weeks, the children have been interested in taking part in obstacle courses, climbing over and under different objects and balancing on planks of wood. Taking part in obstacle courses can have a positive impact on your child’s development. They help to, • Further development of balance, distributing weight and moving in a variety of ways • Improve their social, problem-solving skills and confidence. • Develop stronger bones and muscles. • Improve their bodily and spatial awareness. For those who wanted to extend on our obstacle course we added bikes, scooters, and some foam numbers to each area of the course, supporting children to recognize numbers and understand the correct order of numbers, supporting mathematical development. The children very quickly understood the start of the obstacle course was number one and when you reach number 5, it means that it is the end of the course. “Number 1 is the first number when we count so I think that is the number where we need to start” Elfie- Our Christmas Elf A very special friend has joined us at preschool this week, a magic Elf that the children chose to call Elfie. Elfie has been sent from Santa to make sure the children are having lots of fun at preschool. After being at preschool for the day it is then Elfie’s job to fly back to Santa each night to tell him what activities the children have been doing and just how much fun they are having. Elfie can only fly back to Santa using his magic powers and if anyone touches him these powers will disappear so it is important that we just look at Elfie using our looking eyes. Keep a look out for Elfie each morning, as he is sure to be somewhere different each day! Christmas crafts All of the children are very busy at the moment making some lovely Christmas crafts for you to receive at the end of term. As you can imagine they are all very excited and proud of the different things they have created. However, do not worry that they have not come home yet; we still have many crafts to make and like to keep the crafts a surprise for Christmas. All crafts will be sent home on the last week of term! We also look forwards to sharing our Christmas story with you all and enjoying a Christmas party on the last day of term, Thursday 20th December 2018 A great big thank you to all of you Super Hero’s out there who supported the JDRF charity day last Wednesday at Preschool. With your support we raised an amazing £100.05 .
The children had great fun day taking on the role as superheros, flying around, painting shields, making superhero characters, decorating cakes and biscuits, saving their friends, creating capes and den building. The children also enjoyed meeting and looking after our guests, Olivia and Kangaroo who were diagnosed Type 1 Diabetic when they were 12 years old. The children listened intently about Olivia and Kangaroos daily routine and how they wear a special pump box to supply Insulin medicine through their wire and how they need to weigh all of their food, as without these things they can become very ill. The children also asked their own questions to Olivia and Kanga, listening attentively to their responses. We were amazed how the Preschoolers as young as 2 years old, remembered throughout the day to check to make sure Olivia & Kangaroo were ok, making sure they were well and taking their medicine by reminding Laura to check on them regularly throughout the day. All of the preschool children were very kind and caring and demonstrated this through their actions and thoughts during our day. What a great day we had Superheros!!! Thank-you again for your very kind donations and efforts throughout the day . For more information or leaflets see Laura Williams |
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