Welcome to our November/December Newsletter

Please find below some interesting links to support your child’s learning at home:

• Parental Engagement & Home Learning
• Tips for Parents to Support Their Child at Home
• Online Safety Advice

Baby Room

Over the past few weeks, we have been celebrating the change in season and this also provided us with the opportunity to explore Halloween.  

We walked around the campus noticing the difference in colours and scenery, the crispness of the leaves and how the branches of the trees were becoming bare. We have made a natural basket in the room which is often put out for the babies to explore, included in the basket are some conkers, and lots of other natural resources to look at, feel, and touch.  

We have enjoyed exploring Halloween, which has brought lots of new experiences and words. We decorated the room with pretend spiders, a ghost to watch and giggle at, balloons to reach and grab, and some spooky sensory bags for the babies to explore some new creatures and textures. We have been introducing our babies to the Rainbow Sensory Room.  There was so much to experience, including bubbles, lights, and musical instruments. The Rainbow Room offers a sense of calm and comfort, whilst allowing the babies to explore and discover a range of sensory resources, which the babies have enjoyed using. Whilst enjoying the Rainbow room have taken the opportunity to do singing with the babies either in small groups or 1 at a time.

Crèche 1

In Crèche 1 this month we have introduced ‘Sing and Sign with Me’, allowing the children to develop their communication and language through learning different signs related to certain songs.  

So far, the children have enjoyed learning the sign for spider as we sang the nursery rhyme Incy Wincy Spider.  We are progressing onto new signs which relate to different nursery rhymes.

We introduced the lock box house to hide the relevant prop relating to the song and sign we are learning.

The children had lots of fun knocking or ringing the doorbell to find out who is inside! Once we find who’s hiding inside, the children are so excited to sing and we encourage copying the sign which, so far, has been a huge success.

This has been a valuable learning experience providing opportunities for new language, reinforced by repetition of this in our daily routines. 

We have been encouraging home learning of Sing and Sign with parents via the  ParentZone app, and we would encourage our parents to share favourite songs from home too.  

Crèche 2

As autumn has approached, Crèche 2 have been exploring lots of autumnal activities, both indoors and outdoors.  
 
The children have enjoyed playing, exploring, running, jumping, and lifting the fallen leaves up from the ground to throw into the air; this used lots of energy and the children found it fascinating. The children are consistently developing their physical skills during these activities. 

Indoors, the children have enjoyed exploring a variety of tuff trays containing different materials and textures such as pumpkins and squashes. The children enjoyed looking at the different colours and sizes, before extending their skills by using paints and brushes to decorate the pumpkins and squashes. We have really enjoyed helping the children engage and extend their learning throughout this term. 

Nursery 1

In Nursery 1 we have explored Bonfire Night in several ways, including watching fireworks on the iPad, talking about the sounds, shapes, and colours that they make.

We then used cardboard tubes to print with paint some firework pictures, which helped the children to recall their weekend experiences of visiting the firework displays. The children followed instructions and used their own ideas to decorate slices of apple with chocolate and sprinkles.

We also celebrated Diwali by painting dots using cotton buds and making candles with decorations. To do this, we had to teach the children how to carefully place the cotton buds in the paint, everybody listened really well and were able to follow our instructions.

We will be looking at ways we can celebrate Thanksgiving in a few weeks.

Nursery 2

In Nursery 2 we have been celebrating some significant events and festivals during this term, employing lots of Halloween fun, discussing bonfire night, and enjoying sparkly activities.

We had to find all our spiders in a web with tweezers, spooky paintings with our pumpkins and made skeleton pictures, helping the children to develop and strengthen their fine motor skills.

We have also listened to firework sounds and used large ribbon wands moving to music to help develop the children’s large gross motor skills.

We’ve also listened to firework sounds and used the large ribbon wands moving to the music to help develop our large gross motor skills. We did an experiment with vinegar and bicarbonate soda to create a reaction fizzing and bubbling together, alongside making fantastic rockets from tubes and ribbons.

The children also enjoyed sharing stories from home with each other such as holidays, events, and new experiences. We have created a book to look back on and re-visit these experiences which is on our bookshelf in the room. This will encourage more language and dialogue between the children and facilitate them to remember past events.

Pre-School 1

Pre-School 1 has been exploring different cultures, following recipes, and tasting new foods. 

In the room we have made new moon biscuits for the Chinese Moon Festival, chocolate sparklers for bonfire night, and crumpet pizzas with vegetable toppings to encourage healthy eating. 

These activities encourage the children to taste new foods and be included in the different cultures and festivals.

The moon biscuits gave the children the opportunity to learn about the moon and understand why the Chinese community celebrate this festival. Watch a video about the Chinese Moon Festival.

The sparklers gave the children the opportunity to explore bonfire night if they were not able to participate in any celebrations. Additionally, this also allows the children to start understanding the concept of how simple processes work and how we need to follow steps to create something we enjoy.

We will be furthering this experience by creating snow globes for the room and decorating gingerbread men, allowing the children to contemplate how to make something. 

Pre-School 2

As part of Black History Month, Pre-School 2 have been learning about some influential people, we explored different instruments, cultural music, successful singers who made the music famous, and influential sports stars. 

We particularly focused on Garrett Morgan, an early inventor from the USA.  We learnt about his many early inventions which are still used today, such as the three-way traffic system he created after witnessing an accident. This system later became traffic lights. 

The children have amazed us by retaining information, re-enacting during their play, and then relaying it to their parents. They fully understood the traffic light concept, linking of colours to the actions of stop, get ready, and go, and have then linked those concepts to a game outside of standing still, jogging on the spot, and running, changing their actions to the appropriate colour as the light changed. 

Our very own inventor Chris has created a 3D set of interchanging traffic lights, with the children’s help, to use during outside play and in preparation for road safety week. 

Pre-School 3

Over the past term, we have been working on understanding our emotions. The children have been using the Colour Monster to describe their feelings, and using happy breathing techniques to control their emotions when they are feeling overwhelmed. 

To extend this further, we have been exploring the outdoors. On World Mental Health Day we made nature bracelets using sticky tape and autumnal items found in the garden. Outdoor activity is good for our well-being, and we shared with our parents’ statistics about nature connectedness. 

If this is something you are interested in, find more information on how connecting to nature benefits our mental health.

Pre-School 3 recently explored Hallowe’en through a variety of spooky and fun activities that were planned to encourage group involvement, physical activity, and promote curiosity. Highlights included digging for skeleton bones and scooping out super slimy pumpkins.

Upcoming Events

A newsletter containing all Christmas information will be available at the end of November providing dates of events that the Pre-School Centre will be hosting.

Reminders

Pre-School Website and Newsfeed

We would like to remind parents that you can access regularly updated information from our website and on our Twitter and Instagram.

Main Door Access

Can we please ask ALL parents to ensure that when accessing the Pre-School Centre they use their access cards/fobs. We are experiencing a high volume of disruption due to the doorbell being used so frequently, for which office staff are being interrupted having to open the door.

If any parents have lost their door access card or fob, please inform the office so that a replacement can be purchased for £5.00, and lost cards can be de-activated.

Any Library cards that have been replaced will need to be activated on our system.

Can we please remind parents that when their child leaves the Centre that your door card/fob is returned to the office on the last day of attendance.

Contact details

Please remember to provide us with any new contact details, you can do this via the ParentZone app or by calling/advising the office.

Appropriate Outdoor Clothing

Can we please request that with the weather changing parents provide appropriate outdoor clothing and footwear for their child/ren.