Welcome to our August Newsletter

We hope you all enjoyed the Summer term and managed to take a well-deserved break at some point. 

Congratulations

Sending our very best wishes to Charlotte, Becky and their families as they welcome their new arrivals. We look forward to meeting them soon.

Makaton

We have been delighted to hear the introduction of the Makaton signing is progressing well. You can find our Makaton board in the main Foyer just next to Adele’s office. As well as “Sign of the month”, it’s also full of other useful signs to aid communication and links to a range of child friendly signing websites. On our staff training day scheduled for Friday 9th September a further 12 staff will be undertaking Makaton training.

New teams

The start of the new term will see some changes within the room teams, your child’s Keyperson will have discussed this with you if relevant. If you have any queries please ask.

Babylab – Infant and toddler interactions quiz

Our friends at the Babylab have asked us to share this with you, please help them by taking part if you can. You can access the quiz here.

International Mud Day

International Mud Day was on Wednesday 29^th June. All the children (and staff) had so much fun.  

Frolicking on the mud slide, painting with mud and general having a wonderful time with mud glorious mud !!!

Graduation

On Saturday 6^th August we held our annual graduation ceremony for our School leavers. It was a wonderful event which saw us come together to celebrate their time with us at Pre-School. We are immensely proud of all of the children and wish them every success in their next steps. It was lovely to hear how much the Pre-School has meant to individual families and we were genuinely moved by the gratitude shown. 

The Tombola which was held in Alexander’s memory raised £150 for Matilda’s Mission. Thank you to families who took part and the staff team for their generous donations of prizes, the charity were once again grateful for our continued support.

Drive by Goodbye

On Wednesday 24^th August the staff team will at 5.45pm line the pavements outside the Centre waving and cheering as our graduating families drive/cycle or walk by as we celebrate the end of their Pre-School journey. Once again we wish all our children every success on their next adventure.

3 Peaks fundraising challenge

Sammy and Jenny from Pre-School 3 along with other members of the Pre-School team will be completing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in memory of Alexander. They are completing the challenge to raise funds for SUDC UK a charity dedicated to raising awareness, funding research and bringing together families affected by Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.

Staff training day

A reminder that staff training day will be held on Friday 9^th September and Pre-School Centre will be closed.

Baby room – Splashing fun

Whilst the weather has been very warm, we've been exploring water in a variety of ways. Allowing the babies to experiment and discover water play in the low tray, the paddling pool and through ice.

 We encouraged the babies to splash and move around the water using their whole bodies to explore. The babies were able to use their hands if they were little unsure and for those who had more confidence, could splash on a larger scale too following their individual interests. 

Some babies may not have had this opportunity previously and it provided them with new experiences which have expanded their Cultural capital. 

Cultural capital in EYFS is about building on these early experiences. It gives children other opportunities to be curious, explore, try new things and experience awe and wonder. 

Crèche 1 – Let’s get physical

We have spent time in the forest area exploring the uneven ground. It has helped developed our confidence and large gross motor skills. We have balanced, taken big steps and learnt how to move on uneven surfaces.

The children were able take risks and move out of their comfort zone, especially when negotiating taking steps down, using one foot at a time. Supported by the team the children practised balancing on the logs and indicated if they needed help by gesturing with outstretched arms. We are very proud of them as they learnt new skills.

Crèche 2 – Challenge accepted

As the weather has been so nice recently there has been lots of outdoor play. We have utilised the barefoot walk in the forest to help the children practise developing skills and learning new ones. Some children struggled going down the steps and therefore with lots of practice they persisted in their learning and felt proud when they received the praise for succeeding and felt the self-satisfaction of completing the challenge. The uneven ground provided challenges for the younger children and they persisted by either going down on their hands and knees or steadying themselves to gain better balance. 

To further extend their learning we are providing more opportunities to access the barefoot walk but we are also planning on creating a little sports day for the children in the garden. 

Nursery 1 – The magic of malleable play

This term we have explored lots of malleable play, where we have learnt about mixing, colours and textures. We made our own playdough by mixing together flour, water and salt in different quantities to form a dough. The children then used the dough to make “birthday cake, pizza, pancakes and healthy cupcakes. We made goup with Cornflour and water (also known as oobleck) we mixed in different colours to observe the change.

Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it is a pressure-dependent substance. If you increase the pressure on the oobleck, it increases the viscosity or thickness. But if you poke at it quickly, it feels like a solid. And if you hold some in your hand, it will ooze out of your fingers like a liquid.

During the recent hot weather we have frozen different objects and used our hands and tools to help free them from the cold ice. The ice-age dinosaurs were the favourites as the children tried to work out how to free them so they could eat the edible leaves around them.

Nursery 2 – So many adventures

We have been making the most of the beautiful weather, developing gross motor skills and physical ability whilst learning about sun safety. The children have thoroughly enjoyed the physical challenges of the stomp helping to instil resilience and perseverance. Our children have had great fun completing rounds of the stomp which can be rather tiring, with bumpy ground, slopes and wicker tunnels. Our efforts are rewarded with team coins to post into the Nursery tube, which promotes colour recognition and counting skills. We were delighted when we won the weekly challenge! 

We really love to explore campus and relish the learning opportunities our excursions can bring. We have visited the fountains to cool down and the roundabout to observe vehicles. We have picked fruit to taste and walked around the pre-school perimeter to find and investigate insects. We would love to hear about your adventures at home or further afield! This provides great opportunities for discussion with the children, encouraging our language and communication skills. 

As some of our children are preparing to transition to Pre-school we have been visiting our new rooms, meeting our new key people and friends. This is such an exciting time for our children, but it can also be a little daunting. You can also further support your children at home with the upcoming transition by chatting about it in a positive way, and of course we are here to support both children and families alike. We look forward to being together and enjoying our Nursery family over the summer. 

Pre-School 1 – Wellbeing and Friendships

We have continued with our focus on mental health, PSE and supporting the children as they prepare to transition to school. Joanne has been leading small groups of children in guided meditation. Using a combination of music and controlled breathing they developed an awareness of how they can control their bodies and thoughts to feel calmer and more relaxed. In our busy lives the ability to do to this is increasingly important. 

On International friendship day they discussed with Caroline, what makes a good friend? Being kind and sharing were very important to them. This led onto what we like about our friends, kindness, cuddles and playing funny Grandma games were just a few of the things mentioned.

The children are currently fascinated with junk modelling and have made some amazing creations. We are however in need of more recycling materials to support their creative development. Could we please request you save any clean empty boxes, tubes and other suitable materials and bring them to Pre-School 1.

Pre-School 2 – Using Natural resources

In Pre-School 2 we have been collecting and using lots of natural resources in our activities. We had a treasure hunt in the garden area looking for interesting leaves and flowers which we could use. The children shared information about flowers, herbs and vegetables that they are growing at home. 

We made our own tree sculptures using leaves, twigs and playdough. We added fresh herbs to our playdough and created a potion making station using lots of natural resources. 

During the hot weather we created flower ice bowls to cool us down. 

We learnt about animal habitats and recreated them for our small world animals. 

We created a display by painting our own sunflowers following on from us planting our sunflower seeds. We used real sunflower seeds to add to the middle of our paintings. 

Our plans are to visit the allotment and orchard on campus over the summer. We hope to collect some fruits to make fruit kebabs, ice lollies and crumble.

Pre-School 3 – Magical Potions

The children have been exploring Potion Making. The children can use their imaginations to transform everyday objects into something magical. A simple bowl of water can become a magical potion. This type of play helps children to tap into their imaginations and see the world in a new way. The resources we used were from our own herb garden, and they had the opportunity pick their own.

Magic potion play has so many benefits, from allowing children to explore different smells, textures, and colours to developing problem solving skills through role playing activities and increasing their creativity abilities.

This type of play helps children to understand that the world is full of possibilities as well as making them aware of the natural world around them. It opens up their imagination and helps to develop a connection to nature through the use of natural and non-toxic ingredients. Furthermore, it allows children to search through nature for potion ingredients and learn the way of mother earth's natural materials.

Potion play also allows children to strengthen their emotional responses, encourage cooperation and helps to create empathy. It allows children to express themselves in a less structured environment and can also be a great way to teach children about the benefits of outdoor play.

They can explore, make mistakes and take risks in a safe setting that is the magic of potion play.

So, the next time you're looking for a way to engage your child's imagination, why not try setting up a potion-making station in your back garden? They're sure to have a blast – and you might just be surprised by what they come up with.

Reminders

A reminder to parents to please administer sun cream to your child prior to them attending their session. 

Can you please also ensure that the Pre-School has a named bottle of sun cream in situ for your child to be able to use as and when required.

Pre-School Website and Newsfeed 

We would like to remind parents that you can access regularly updated information from our website www.lancaster.ac.uk/pre-school and our twitter feed https://twitter.com/LUPSCentre