Around the world....Africa

Hello everyone,

Last week we had a great week exploring China and celebrating Chinese New Year. On Monday we went on an aeroplane to China. We checked in with our passports and got a stamp. Throughout the week we enjoyed listening to some stories and poems about Chinese New Year. On Wednesday morning William's mum came in to visit us and talked about her time in Hong Kong. We also learnt to speak some Chinese words. We looked at a children's Chinese outfit, pictures of Hong Kong, A story about a little girl in Hong Kong and a Chinese game they play. On Thursday morning Zoe's mum's friend came in to talk about where he lived in Beijing. We looked at maps, pictures, Chinese food and culture. He also showed us how to do do Chinese writing and he wrote all our names in Chinese to bring home. 
On Thursday and Friday afternoon we made a lucky pocket to bring home. This is a traditional in Chinese New Year which we found out in our poem. We decorated our wallets with Chinese writing and we wrote a wish to go inside. 
Throughout the week we tried lots of different foods including stir fry, noodles, prawn crackers, fortune cookies, lychee's, spring rolls, Chinese tea and egg fried rice. We even had a go at using chopsticks at snack time. 
On Tuesday morning Wren bought in a Chinese pot with tea inside. The tea was in a sphere shape and we had a go at predicting what would happen when we put it in hot water. We had lots of great predictions. We found out the sphere shaped opened up into a flower in the hot water. We enjoyed using the magnifying glasses to look at it. 
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had made some dragon puppets. We watched a video of dragon dancing to celebrate Chinese New Year. They also used drums and symbols for musical instruments. On Wednesday afternoon we did our own dragon dance with our puppets and played the drums and symbols in the hall. 
We have also been making lanterns and praticing our scissors skills. We learnt that the streets in China are decorated with lanterns. 
We enjoyed looking at the Chinese flag and making our own flag and having a go at using black paint to do Chinese writing. In the role play area we have enjoyed playing Chinese restaurant. 
On Tuesday afternoon we also made the Great Wall of China outside using the crates and wood planks.
Throughout the week we have enjoyed playing outside, looking after the pre-school animals and challenging our learning with a variety of activities inside.

This week we are going to be flying off to Africa for the week. We have got a special visitor coming on Monday to talk about Africa. We are going to be exploring the safari and the animals which live there. We are also going to be making some African jewellery. We will be sharing the story of Handa's Surprise and trying out all the different fruits. We will be looking at the houses they live in and compare them to our houses. Also looking at some African musical instruments and making some of our own. We we be lots of learning outside this week too. It's going to be another brilliant and exciting adventure this week. If you have any African resources you would like to share, please do bring them in.

Home learning

Can you bring in something you have made or have which is about the African Culture?

Letters and sounds:- 

We have nearly finished learning all the picture names of the Read Write Inc cards. We will continue to learn the last of Read Write Inc Pictures. We have been doing lots of games with Fred frog which involves oral blending and segmenting  We will have also been doing some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds.

Notices

Don't forget to bring in your child's WOW moments. We love to share and celebrate these with everyone. There are spare WOW's by the WOW board in the corridor. 

On Friday 31st January at 5.00pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

 This week Stay and Play will be on Friday 31st January  from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

This term swimming will take place on a Friday morning. The children swim on a 2 week rota. Swimming will be this week.  

On Friday 31st January we have POWSA bingo for the family in the Main school hall from 5.30pm and eyes down at 6.00pm. This is a great fun family evening out.

On Tuesday 4th February there is a POWSA meeting in the school staff room at 7.30pm. Come and join us and help plan our spring events. Any questions come and ask myself. 

The sign up sheets are up in the corridor for parents evening. If these times and dates are not convenient, please come and see me to arrange a different date and time. 

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you hang up coats in the mornings, all important post will be there. 

Heres to another exciting  and exploring week.

Julia and Pre-school team

Around the world...China

Hello everyone,

WoW what  a brilliant week we had exploring Spain. We started our week off by traveling to Spain on a boat. We all used our imagination and we went through passport control and then on to a ferry. We all had our passports stamped. We had a storm whilst on the boat and we got to eat on the ferry. The children continued their role play in the boat throughout the week. We have been making our own passports by drawing a picture of our faces in the photo box. We talked about our eye colour and colour, length of hair. We had a go at writing our name in the signature box and also how old we are. We all remembered we live in England. At snack time we have enjoyed trying Spanish foods including chorizo, Spanish omelette and olives. On Tuesday morning a group of children made a tapas dish of potato's, chorizo and cheese. It was lovely to look at the Spanish plate that Wren bought in to show everyone. The children really enjoyed this snack. On Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning we looked at different types of boats and then we had a go at making our own boats using a variety of materials. We then had a go at testing them out to see if they float.  On Tuesday morning we had a visit from a Spanish teacher and we learnt hello, bye and head, shoulders knees and toes in Spanish. We enjoyed wearing the magic Spanish hat to talk in Spanish. Throughout the week we have enjoyed making maracas out of paper plates and a variety of different sounds including rice and pasta. We looked at the Spanish flag and how it is different to our flag. We made our own flags. On Thursday we met another Spanish teacher and learnt how to count in Spanish. On Thursday William bought in a book about Lanzarota. We enjoyed sharing his story and found out there was a volcano there. The children were really interested in this. We took this idea further and made our own volcano science experiment with bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and red food colouring. On Thursday we made spanish fans using pastels and folding paper. We also watched some Spanish dancing and had a go ourselves using different fabrics. On Friday afternoon we had great fun playing football on the school field and a game of bingo. 

This week we are going to be flying off to China to explore China and celebrating Chinese New Year. We will trying out lots of different Chinese food. Making some lanterns, exploring Chinese writing, stories and a visit from a parent to talk about living in Hong Kong along with lots more exciting activities. We have got a Chinese restaurant role play area as well. If you have any Chinese resources please do bring them in. 

Home learning

Can you bring in something you have made or have which is about the Chinese Culture?

Letters and sounds:- 

We have had great fun this week making a rhyming soup with a magic wand. We will continue to learn the Read Write Inc Pictures. We will also start with some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds.

Notices

Don't forget to bring in your child's WOW moments. We love to share and celebrate these with everyone. There are spare WOW's by the WOW board in the corridor. 

On Thursday 23rd January at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

 This week Stay and Play will be on Thursday 23rd January  from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 25th January from 10.00-11.30am. Younger and old siblings very welcome to join us. 

This term swimming will take place on a Friday morning. Children who attend on a Friday morning will receive a swimming letter this week. The children swim on a 2 week rota. Swimming will be this week.  

The sign up sheets are up in the corridor for parents evening. If these times and dates are not convenient, please come and see me to arrange a different date and time. 

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you hang up coats in the mornings, all important post will be there. 

Heres to another exciting  and exploring week.

Julia and Pre-school team

Around the world...Spain

Hello everyone,

Wow, what a great first week back of the new year. It was lovely to hear all about the children's Christmas celebrations with their families. The children have drawn a pictures of their Christmas memories. These are on display in the classroom. We have been really busy talking about where we live and the country we live in. We talked about where we live and the capital city of London. We looked at some pictures on the internet of London Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace. We also enjoyed finding out about the Queen.  From looking at pictures of London Bridge and Buckingham Place we used different types of construction to have a go at making some models. We enjoyed reading the stories of 'The Queens hat and The Queens Bag'. From these stories we had a go at designing the Queen a new hat and making a new handbag for her. We have talked bout our country flag and the colours on the flag. We painted some Great Britain flags with hard buds and blue and red paint. We also made some London buses. On Monday morning with made cheese on toast for snack. On Wednesday afternoon in small groups made the English traditional pudding Spotted Dick. On Thursday we had the pudding for snack with custard and we thought it was yummy. So much so we had seconds. On Friday for snack we made sandwiches. We spread the butter and put our favourite filling in. We ate them for snack and Ted suggested we had tea to go with our sandwiches. The children really enjoyed tasting tea. On Thursday afternoon we made parachutes with paper and string with playmobil people. This idea came from the story of The Queens Bag. The children really enjoyed testing out their parachutes. On Friday morning we looked at English money and talked about the coins. We did some rubbings of the coins. On Friday afternoon we planted some onions in or veg patch. Throughout the week we have looked after the animals and enjoyed visiting the guinea pigs in their new home.
We have also enjoyed talking about places we have visited in England and looking at where they are on the map and how we could get there. 
We have enjoyed playing in the travel agents and booking each other a holiday. 

This week we are going to sailing to Spain!! We have got our own passports to get stamped and to fill in our own passports. We will be tasting lots of yummy Spanish foods and finding out about the Spanish culture.. We are going to be doing some dancing and making some musicals instruments. We will be having a visit from a Spanish teacher to learn some Spanish and listend to a spanish story. Its going to be a great week. If you have any Spanish resources, please do bring them in. 

Home learning

Can you bring in something you have made or have which is about the Spanish Culture?

Letters and sounds:- 

We have had great fun this week making a rhyming soup with a magic wand. We will continue to learn the Read Write Inc Pictures. We will also start with some alliteration. We have been thinking of words beginning with different sounds.

Notices

Don't forget to bring in your child's WOW moments. We love to share and celebrate these with everyone. There are spare WOW's by the WOW board in the corridor. 

On Wednesday 15th January at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

 This week Stay and Play will be on Wednesday 15th January  from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

On Saturday 18th we have got our first community makeover of the year from 10.00-5.00pm. Please come and join us. Any questions please come and see Julia. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 25th January from 10.00-11.30am. Younger and old siblings very welcome to join us. 

This term swimming will take place on a Friday morning. Children who attend on a Friday morning will receive a swimming letter this week. The children swim on a 2 week rota. Swimming will this week.  

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you hang up coats in the mornings, all important post will be there. 

Here to another exciting week.

Julia and Pre-school team

Happy New Year

Hello everyone,

We would all like to wish you a Happy New Year and we hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Thank you for all the lovely presents which we have all enjoyed sharing with our families.



This term we are going to be exploring different countries around the world and celebrations which happen in different countries. This week we will be talking about how we have celebrated Christmas and New Year with our families. With our key workers we will be mark making a picture of a memory from the Christmas holidays and talking about our celebrations.
Alongside this we will be discovering our own country and talking about our capital city London. 
If you have any connections with countries around the world and would like to come in and share you experiences, please come and see me. 

Home learning

Can you bring in a picture or pictures of your Christmas celebrations?

Letters and sounds:- 

We will continue with our rhyming door by adding new rhyming words and playing rhyming games. We will continue to learn the Read Write Inc Pictures. We will also start with some alliteration. 

Notices

Don't forget to bring in your child's WOW moments. We love to share and celebrate these with everyone. There are spare WOW's by the WOW board in the corridor. 

On Tuesday 7th January at 3.10pm we have got our story session. Please come and join us. 

 This week Stay and Play will be on Friday 10th January  from 8.30-9.00am. Everyone is very welcome including younger and older siblings. Hope to see lots of you there. 

Our next Saturday Stay and Play is on Saturday 25th January from 10.00-11.30am. Younger and old siblings very welcome to join us. 

On Tuesday 7th January is a POWSA meeting to discuss future fundraising events. It is in the main school staffroom at 7.30pm. Please see Julia for more details. It would be great to see you there. 

This term swimming will take place on a Friday morning. Children who attend on a Friday morning will receive a swimming letter this week. The children swim on a 2 week rota. Swimming will start next week. 

Please remember to check your Child’s post pocket when you hang up coats in the mornings, all important post will be there. 

Here to another exciting term.

Julia and Pre-school team