The very hungry caterpillar

Hello everyone,

Wow, what a fantastic first week back. We have had an amazing week exploring our extended outside area. The children have really enjoyed the new climbing tree and the stepping stones. We have planted our potatoes outside. We have planted some plants and sown some seeds in our large flower bed. The children have really enjoyed watering all our plants. On Monday morning we talked in small groups about what we did in the Easter holidays. On Monday afternoon we went pond dipping in the wildlife garden. We found some pond bugs. We used magnifying glasses to look at them. On Tuesday we went bug hunting and found lots of different bugs like worms, slugs, snails, spider and woodlice. We took pictures of them and drew them. It was great fun. On Wednesday we went on a bike ride around the school grounds on the balance bikes. On Friday we went to the roundhouse and listened to some stories and sand some songs. Everyday we have been looking after our pet chickens. We have been feeding them and collecting the eggs. The children have really enjoyed this.  We have also been colouring in our own bug using Purple Mash on the computer. Sharon bought our tadpoles back and we have been looking how big they have got and now they have 2 feet. We have been sharing some bugs stories and information books and singing some songs. 

This week we will be sharing the story of The hungry caterpillar and looking at the life cycle of a caterpillar. The children will be making their own butterflies using paint. The children will be exploring mixing different colours together and to see what happens. We will be talking about the prime colours. 
We will also be making fruit salad to bring home using the different fruits in the story. We will talking about which food are healthy and unhealthy in the story. 
We will be finishing our bugs on Purple Mash this week as well. The children will also be making sandwiches for snack and making a tally of which sandwich each child would like.  We will continue to plant some more vegetable seeds and watering all our plants. 

Letters and sounds

Last week we played the odd one out, the children were very good at telling me the odd one out when rhyming with some pictures. The children have come up with some more rhyming words for our door. 

What noises can you make with your voice?
Children to think of different noises they can make with their voice.

Metal Mike

Encourage a small group of children to sit in a circle or facing the front so they can see you and Metal Mike (a toy robot computer). Have ready a bag of pictures of objects (e.g. cat, dog, mug, sock) and sound out and blend the phonemes in their names. Ask each child in turn to take out a picture or an object from a bag. Hold it up and tell the group that Metal Mike is a computer and so he talks with a robot voice. Ask the children to name the object as Metal Mike would and demonstrate it for them in a robotic voice (e.g. ‘c-a-t’). Feed the object or picture into Metal Mike and encourage the group rst to listen to you and then join in as you say the word exaggerating the sound of each phoneme, followed by blending the phonemes to make the word. 

Home Learning

Can you bring a picture in of your family and extended family?

Jennie Jigsaw

This week we will be talking about the people in our families and what jobs they do. It would be great if you could bring in a picture of your family and extended family. 

Notices

As the weather is starting to warm, please could all children bring sun hats to school. We do have a box of spares if needed. If you have applied suncream to your child before school please could you let a member of staff know. If you have ticked to supply your own suncream, please could you make sure children have this when they come to pre-school ready for us to apply.

We raised an amazing £705.20 at Spring Fest on Friday. It was lovely to see so many of you there and everyone having lots of fun. 

It was lovely to see some of you at Stay and Play on Friday.  This week Stay and Play will be on Wednesday 25th April from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there.

On Saturday 28th April 10.00-11.30am, it is our Saturday stay and play morning. Older and younger siblings are very welcome to come too. We hope to see lots of our families there.

On Tuesday 24th April at 7.30pm in the main school staff room POWSA are having a meeting about future fund raising events. If you would like to get involved, please do come along. If you have any questions come and see Julia. 

Have a great week

Julia and Pre-school Team