Harvest week

Hello everyone,

Once again thank you to all the parents that attend the information morning on Tuesday. If you were unable to attend please read the previous blog. 

Last week we enjoyed visiting the school orchard with our buckets and collecting pears. We talked about what else we could see at the orchard. The children found some lovely pears along with some bad pears. We talked about the differences. We bought our pears back to preschool in preparation for cooking this week. Some of us wanted to draw pictures of our trip to the orchard. These are up on the wall in classroom We also did some pear threading using a needle and wool. The children were brilliant at threading on the cut out pears. We have also been playing a sounds lotto game called crash bang wallop and the children really enjoyed recognising the different sounds in our environment and wanted to play more games of this. On Tuesday afternoon we went out on a drumstick sounds walk. We used plastic piping as drum sticks and went outside to find the different sounds we could make with our sticks on different objects around the school grounds. We have gone to soft play this week when the weather has not been so good. On Thursday afternoon we made an obstacle course in the school hall. We enjoyed moving in different ways including jumping, sliding etc.  We have been learning a harvest poem to say at the Harvest festival this week with the Reception class. 

This week we are going to be cooking with our pear harvest from the school orchard. We will continue with our harvest poem along with the story of Farmer Duck, Oliver's Vegetables and Superpotato. For snack time we will be having lots of different snacks which we harvest e.g. cereal, popcorn, apples, pears, carrots, bread and will be talking about where they come from. 
We will be making a Scarecrow and thinking about what we will need to make one. This will be on display at the harvest celebrations. We will be creating our own harvest artwork for the display at school. Here is just some of the things we will be doing plus lots more using the children's interest. 

Letters and Sounds

This week we will be giving others a set of clues to guess an animal along with using our voice to make slow/fast quiet/loud and long/short sounds.

Jennie Jigsaw

This week we will be talking about kind hands and kind words. Remembering how important these things are when playing with friends. We will be making our own poster using our handprint for this.

Home learning 

Can you find or make a picture, object or something which reminds you of Harvest?

Notices

On Wednesday will be our first stay and play session. This is an opportunity to come to preschool early and have a play, looking at the display and talk to the preschool team. The door opens at 8.30am and finishes about 9.00am. Younger and older siblings very welcome to come to. Look forward to seeing lots of you there. 

On Friday 29th September we will be going the school with their harvest assembly. Pre-school and Reception  will be sharing our harvest poem with all the parents. You are very welcome to come. This is at 9.15am in the main school hall.

On Saturday 30th September from 1.00-4.00pm there is a community make over day at the Roundhouse. If you would like to volunteer with helping to clear or tidy the roundhouse area. Please come and ask for more information. 

On Tuesday 17th October is an The Prince of Wales School open day for children starting school in September 18. There will be a tour of the school and a Parent question and answer session. To book a place please ring the school or email office@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk 

If anyone has some empty spare jam jars please bring them in. We will be most grateful. This is for our Autumn Fest. Please see poster on the Prince of Wales school Facebook page. 

Any questions please do come and speak to the preschool team. 

Julia and Preschool team 

Coffee and information morning

It was lovely to see some many parents this morning for the information session, I hope you found it useful. If you are unsure of anything from the talk this morning, please do come and see me.
Here is a brief outline of what we talked about this morning if you were unable to attend.

Library Bag
The children will have the opportunity to choose a library book from the library at pre-school to take home to share. On the library bags is a key ring with the child's name along with the 7 DASP citizenship caterpillars. We talked about these and to become familiar with them in preparation for going to school. Also there is one of Jennie Jigsaw which is our Personal, Social and Emotional development  programme we do. There will be a deposit of £2.00 to get a library bag. This will be refunded when you return the library bag at the end of the year. We will be starting this on Monday. 

Changing Bags
In the next couple of days the children will come home with a changing bag which will need filling with a whole set of spare clothes. These bags will only come home if child has needed to be changed. 

Blog
The blog is one of our main ways of keeping you informed about what we are learning about a school. It is really important you check the blog to see what's happening at pre-school on a weekly basis. If you are unsure about how to access it, please do come and see me. I generally update the blog on a Sunday in preparation for the week ahead. I talk about what we have done last week, what we are going to do this week, notices, Sounds and letters and Jennie Jigsaw,  along with some home learning.


Keyworkers
Over the last 2 weeks we have been getting to know the children and also them getting to know us. From this we have now given each child a keyworker. A letter about keyworkers  will come home in the next week along with who your child's key worker is. 


Stay and Play
Once a week on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday will be a stay and play session. This is an opportunity to come an play with your child in pre-school along with the opportunity to have chat with me. We open the door at 8.30 and siblings are very welcome to come to. 


Labelling of clothes and shoes
Please could all your child's clothes and shoes be labelled.

Shared Books
Over the year we will send a group of books out which we have shared at pre-school and think you might like to share at home. We have started this already with Shark in the park. When you have read the story at home, it would be lovely to have a comment by your child's name of what they thought of the book and please return it to preschool so the next child can share it at home.


Parent meetings
In October there will be an opportunity to come and talk to me about your child's learning and settling in year 2. Dates of this is to follow. Please feel free always to come and catch me at anytime if you have a question or would like discuss something. 

WOW'S

We talked about the all important WOW moments. Wow moment slips can be found the year 2 hallway. If you are unsure where to find them please ask a member of staff. We value these wow moment and celebrate with the children their achievements and news. Please keep them coming in. It is opportunity for you as parents to tell us your child's news and achievements which will contribute towards their learning journeys. 

Saturday stay and play mornings

Every half term there will be one Saturday morning for about 2 hours whereby pre-school will be open for you to come and have a play, look at your child learning journey and chat to the pre-school team. These will be advertised on the preschool blog. 

POWSA

WHAT IS POWSA? 

For those who have never attended a POWSA meeting before the thought can be intimidating but we are all friendly parents who want to help the school offer the best of opportunities to all the pupils who pass through it's doors, whilst having a little fun along the way. We give up a little bit of time every now and then to help provide some of those extras that help make our school such a fantastic place and if you would like to learn more we would love to see you. The next POWSA meeting is on 7th November 2017 which is the POWSA AGM. Any questions about POWSA please do come and ask myself.  

Preparing for Harvest

Hello everyone,

Last week we had a fantastic time reading Shark in the park along with the different variations. By the end of the week the children were joining in with the repeated refrains throughout the book. Can you remember the little boys name? What was his favourite toy?
We made our own sharks with sharp teeth and decorated them. They are up on display in the classroom. During this activity we  worked hard on our scissor skills. Also we made our own telescopes and went outside on a shark hunt. We used positional language e.g. down, up, left, right and sideways. Some of us even saw a shark!!! There is a display up in the classroom. 
On Tuesday we re potted our spider plants. We really enjoyed using the  spades and getting messy with the compost. Pictures will be in Nature diary. 
On Friday we took down our beanstalk. We had a competition of who could find the longest bean. We lined them all up in size order. Sebastian then had a good idea of opening the beans up to see what was inside. We found lots of different colours and sizes of beans. We have put them to dry so we can grown them next year. Pictures will be in nature dairy.
Jennie Jigsaw came and saw us this week and asked us about our favourite toys, colours and foods. 


This week we will be starting our preparations for Harvest week which starts next week. We will be going to the orchard to harvest some goodies for cooking with next week. We will be doing some Harvest threading. 
For gardening this week we will be planting some bulbs. As we are doing this activity we will be talking about what bulbs need to be able to grow. 
 We will be playing a variety of number games which involve recognising numerals and counting. 

Home Learning:- Can you find or make a picture, object or something which reminds you of Harvest?

Jennie Jigsaw:- We will be talking about how we can look after our classroom.

Letters and Sounds:- Continue our sounds lotto game

Notices: -

 Don’t forget if you have any WOW’S at home please bring them into share with us at pre-school. 

On Tuesday 19th September at 9.00am there is a information session which is all about the things we do in year 2 preschool e.g. trips, Stay and Play, Jennie Jigsaw, Library bags, changing bags, letters and sounds, EYFS and lots more. I look forward to seeing you all there.  If you are unable to make Tuesday and would like me to go through the information, please do come and see me. 

Our POW School Grounds are in need of some love, care and attention. For this reason, we will be running a series of ‘Community Make-Over Days’. Each day will focus on a specific area as follows -

30/09/17 - Roundhouse Area (Forest School)
14/10/17 - Wildlife Garden
18/11/17 - Roundhouse Area (Forest School)

Sessions will run from 1pm-4pm. People are free to come and go as they please. All children must be accompanied by a responsible adult and all attendees must sign in and out.

This invitations is open to parents/carers, past and present (so get tagging) and all members of the community that would like to help make our outside environment special again.

Many thanks

Julia and Pre-school team

Shark in the Park

Shark in the Park!

Hello Everyone, 

We have had a great first week back and all the children have really settled in well into year 2 of preschool. Last week we painted pictures of ourselves which are now up in the classroom on display. In group time we shared our holiday snapshots home learning with our friends. These are now up on display. Some of us met Jennie Jigsaw(puppet) and told her our name. On Friday afternoon we read the story of 'One year with Kipper'. This books looks at the different months and what happens during the month. In particular we looked at September. Kipper went blackberry picking. We decided to go blackberry picking in the school grounds. The children loved finding the blackberries. We bought them back to Pre-school and washed them and then ate them for snack. We the made our own blackberry pictures using tissue paper and pastels. These are up on display in the classroom along with some photos of our blackberry picking adventure.   

Jennie Jigsaw: This week we will continue with our Jigsaw topic of ‘who am I?’ and ‘what do I like?’ We will be talking about our favourite toys and things to do. 

Home learning:- Have you got a favourite toy or a favourite activity you like to do?

Shark in the Park: Our net steps this week is joining in with repeated refrains and using scissors. We are going to be reading the series of Shark in the park  which has a lot of repeated refrains and positional language. From reading the stories we are going to make our own telescopes to retell the story using them outside on a walk, making sharks to practice our scissor skills, and a shark/duck water game with lots more planned. If you have any empty Kitchen rolls please bring them in as they will be helpful this week. 

Letter and Sounds:- We will be playing a sounds lotto game. 

Notices:

Don’t forget if you have any WOW’S at home please bring them into share with us at pre-school. 

On Tuesday 12th September at 7.30pm in the Main school there is a POWSA meeting. POWSA is our Parent Fundraising Association who organise events like the Christmas Fair, Bingo, Summer Fair ETC. 

WHAT IS POWSA? 

For those who have never attended a POWSA meeting before the thought can be intimidating but we are all friendly parents who want to help the school offer the best of opportunities to all the pupils who pass through it's doors, whilst having a little fun along the way. We give up a little bit of time every now and then to help provide some of those extras that help make our school such a fantastic place and if you would like to learn more we would love to see you. 

A letter has gone home about popping along for a coffee and information session about Year 2 of preschool on Tuesday 19th September.  It would be lovely to see you all there.

If you have questions please do come and see me or a member of staff. 

Here to a great second week. 

Julia and Pre-school Team

Welcome back to Year 2 preschool

Hello everyone and welcome back to the new school year with lots of fun and exciting exploring and learning. 

This week we will be focusing on settling back into preschool in year 2 and will be a time for the children and yourselves to get to know us. 

The adults who will be working within the year 2 classroom is myself, Sharon, Karen, Helen Cleaver and Colleen. 

We will also be talking about what you have all been doing in the holidays and if you have any pictures or writing you would like to bring in, please do. 

For our SOUNDS AND LETTERS PHASE 1 we will be listening to sounds you can hear indoors through different games. 

Our JIGSAW them this half term is ‘Who am I?’. This week we will be introducing Jennie Jigsaw and the chime bar. Also telling each other our names and talking about what we like to play with along with our favourite toy. If the children have a picture of their favourite toy, please bring it in for our display. 

We will also be painting pictures of ourselves for our class board. 

Every week there will be a blog about everything that is happening at pre-school and home learning you may like to do. This is normally published on a Sunday evening. 

If you are staying for lunch please place your lunchbox on the trolley ready to go to the fridge.

There will be a coffee morning within the first few weeks back and I will be doing a talk about what we do in Year 2 e.g. book bags, changing bags, Keyworkers, Jennie Jigsaw, Sounds and Letters, EyFS. Please look out for the letter and hope to see lots of you there as there will be lots of useful information to support your child. 

Please bring any WOW's for our WOW board you have and if you need some WOW slips, please come and ask one of the staff. 

Please do come and see myself if you have any questions.

Heres to a great first week back. 

Thanks

Julia and Pre-school team