Spring and Mothers Day

Hello everyone,

Last week we had a very exciting surprise. Some eggs arrived in the classroom. We talked about what might be inside them and then talked about how we could get them to hatch. The children helped to prepare the eggs and set up the incubator. We are all really excited to see the eggs hatch. We have a counting down sheet to hatching day. Chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch so it should happen on the last Wednesday of term.
I found a newt in the school pond whilst changing the pond water and the children were really interested in using the magnifying glass to look at the newt.  They first thought it was a tadpole.
We have been using the primary colours to mix paint and to see what new colours we have made. The children really enjoyed this and were telling me what colours they made using which colours. The children extended this by continuing to come to the tuff spot and explore what colours they could make after the activity. We placed paper onto the colours we made and when dried the children cut them out into butterfly shape. They are on display in room 1.  We have all become really good at using scissors.
In the hall this week we have been playing ball games. We were catching different sized balls and throwing them into a bucket.
Jennie Jigsaw talked to us this week why it is important that we sleep at night time and what happens to our bodies when we sleep.

This week we will be busy making our Mother's day surprises involving cooking and threading. We will be reading books about mum's and talking about what is special about our mums.
We will be observing the eggs to see if there is any change and looking after the eggs by topping up the water in the incubator.
Hopefully we will see some change in our frog spawn.
It is the big pedal for the next two weeks so we will be having some bike/scooter obstacles courses to do outside and we will be talking about bike/scooter safety.
On Friday it is Red Nose day so we will be designing our own red noses, having red snack and learning about other children in different countries. We will be looking at similarities and differences.

Jennie Jigsaw: We will be continuing to talk about Healthy bodies.

Letter and sounds:- We have got our rhyming pairs game out in classroom 1. We will be continuing with initial sounds of words and musical instruments.

Home Learning:- When you are at home or out and about see what numbers you can find. Can you tell your adult which number you find? Can you bring in the numbers you find for our number board.

Notices:

 Stay and play is on Wednesday starting from 8.30 till 9.00ish. Hope to see lots of you there.

For the next two weeks it is the  big pedal whereby children can ride their bike or scooter to school. We will be keeping a tally and adding our numbers to the school.
The data is then used in a national and local competition to see which schools are able to get the greatest percentages of Bicycle and Scooter use during the fortnight.

On Friday it is Red Nose day, the children may come to school dressed in red. This can be accompanied by wearing a funny accessory or item of clothing. A small contribution from children made on the day to help support this worthy cause will be most welcome.

It lovely to see so many WOW's coming in. 

Julia and Preschool Team

Frogs, Spring, Chicks

Hello everyone,

Last week we went to school pond and collected some frog spawn. We put it in classroom and children drew some pictures of the frog spawn. We are going to be watching the frog spawn to see what happens. We have been reading lots of frogs stories and talking about the life cycle of a frog. 

We have been very busy this week tidying our pre-school garden and doing some gardening. The children have really enjoyed potted up plants, emptying our small pond and sweeping up. 

We sang the song of 5 green speckled frogs and have begun to make a display which will go in the number area. The children came up with how to decorate the frogs. 

We have been talking about spring and what happens in Spring. The children brainstormed their ideas and the painted a large spring picture which is up in the Messy area. 

Jennie jigsaw has been talking about healthy and unhealthy foods to us. We have come up with our own lists. 

This week we will be continuing our topic of frogs and spring through stories, poems, songs, crafts and different activities. Hopefully this week we will be getting our chick eggs and putting them in the incubator ready to hatch in 21 days. We will be talking about chicks and observing the eggs. (Surprise for the children.)

We will also be exploring mixing colours and what happens when you mix different colours together. 

We will be starting to prepare our surprises for Mothers Day towards the end of the week. 

Jennie Jigsaw- Healthy Bodies

Letters and sounds- Exploring initial sounds of words, Musical instruments.

Home learning:- Can you find something that reminds you of spring? Could be a picture, book, video or something you have created.

Notices-

Stay and play is on Friday 17th March from 8.30 till 9.00am. Be lovely to see you there.

It was lovely to see so many come to the bedtime story event on Friday evening. We all had a great time. 

Thank you 

Julia and Pre-school Team

Bedtime story event

Thank you to all the Pre-School, Reception and year 1 families who supported our bedtime story and hot chocolate evening on Friday! It was a huge success, super fun and a great way to celebrate world book day and the love of reading!!!!!! We were bowled over by the amount of you who came along in your pjs with your teddies!
We will definitely do this more often - I hope you all managed to get to sleep!!!!!!!

 Mrs. Johnson and Julia Nineham

Spring and frogs

Hello everyone,

Last week on Tuesday it was pancake day. At group time we learnt how to make a pancake mixture up followed by having pancakes for our snack. The children really enjoyed their pancakes. After snack the children had pancake races outside using 1st, 2nd and 3rd language. The children had a little obstacle course to go round. Have a look at our pancake display in classroom 2. 

On Wednesday and Thursday morning we had our trip to the library. We went on a bus which the children throughly enjoyed and were very excited about the bus. When we got to the library we met Mary and Liz. Mary read us some stories in the children's area and then we split into two groups. One group went for a tour of the library whilst the second group choose a book to take back to pre-school. We then swapped over. At the end we sang if your happy and you know it. Photos up in classroom 1 from our trip to the library and the books we choose from the library in the book corner.

On Thursday it was World Book Day, it was lovely to see all the children dressed up from a story they like. They were all able to tell me who they had dressed up as. We took a group photo which will be up this week. Thank you to all the children that bought in their favourite book to share at group time. At the end of story we talked about why we liked the book. Please see display in classroom 1.

This week the children have decided they would like to learn all about frogs and spring along with some gardening outside. They would also like to feed the birds and make a house for the birds.

We will be looking at what things happen at spring and how it changes from winter. We will be reading lots of stories about frogs and exploring the life cycle of frogs. We have got a frog number game we will be doing. We will be making a display of the song 5 green and speckled frogs. The children will be collaging the frogs and writing numerals to go on our display. We will be creating a spring picture on the large board in the messy area. The children will be thinking about the things that  happen at spring and then painting a picture from this. 

We will be looking at the book of one year with Kipper especially the month of March. March is all about daffodils so we will be looking at the daffodil bulbs we planted outside in pre-school garden and then making our own daffodil using a variety of resources. We will hopefully be going up to the school pond to find some frog spawn. 

Jennie Jigsaw- We will be continuing our them of healthy bodies.

Home learning:- Can you find something that reminds you of spring? Could be a picture, book, video or something you have created.

Notices:-

Stay and play will be on Thursday 9th March from 8.30am till 9.00am ish. Be lovely to see you there. 

On Friday 10th March we have got our story telling session with hot chocolate in the main school hall from 6.00-7.00pm. Children can come in their pyjamas and bring a teddy. Please return your slip if you would like to come so we  have rough numbers. This event will be with Reception and Year1 children at school. 

If you would be able to help make the hot chocolate please come and let me know. 

It is lovely to see so many WOW'S coming in. We love to share these at group time. 

Our favourite books

Hello everyone,

Last week we learnt all about Fairtrade. We watched a video called Pablo the banana, He talked about where bananas come from and how they are grown. He then talked about what Fairtrade was. The children really enjoyed this video. We read the story of Charlie and Lola and Fairtrade chocolate along with Handa's Surprise. By the end of the week the children were able to recognise the Fairtrade logo and the meaning of Fairtrade. We made our own Fairtrade logo in classroom 2 and displayed all the items with the Fairtrade logo on which we have found at home. The children talked about what we could make using bananas and then voted on which one to make. Banana cookies had the most votes so the children made these use as many Fairtrade ingredients as possible. At snack time we have been trying different fruits including Sharon fruit, pineapple, Mango, strawberries, special oranges. It was lovely to see the children try a new fruit.
We made a tally with our favourite fruits and then used purple mash on the computer to make a graph. The children had a go at writing the numerals and we talked about the most and least favourite fruit. On Monday the children talked about what they did at half term in small groups and then drew a picture of what they did. This are on display in classroom 1. During Jennie Jigsaw time we labelled our body parts and sang head, shoulders, knees and toes. Afterwards we played games in the hall and then observed what happened to our bodies after exercise.

This week we have got a busy week with lots of lovely ideas planned. On Monday we will be preparing for our trip to library with starting of with the story of Lulu goes to the Library.
On Tuesday it is pancake day which will be celebrating. We will be having pancakes for snack with a variety of fillings. We will be learning how to make pancakes and sequencing the instructions of how to make them. We will be listening to the story of Mr wolfs pancakes along with the cd of story and games. Outside we will be having pancake races and using vocabulary of 1st,2nd and 3rd. The children will be designing their own pancake with their favourite filling.
On Wednesday and Thursday morning we will be having our trip to the library. We will be going on the bus to the library. After the library will be recalling our trip to the library and sharing the books we choose with each other.
Also on Thursday it is World book day, so we will be doing lots of fun activities around this.
Throughout the week we will be looking at story settings, events and characters, being aware of how stories are structured, suggest how the story might end and joining in with repeated refrains and rhymes.

Jennie Jigsaw: We will be continuing our theme of Healthy bodies. We will be playing lots of fun games and obstacle courses in the hall.

Letters and sounds:- Join in with repeated refrains and thinking of words beginning with different letters.

Home learning: Can you bring in a picture of a place you would enjoy reading books? It can be inside or outside and as imaginative as you would like . If you have favourite book you would like to share with your friends please do bring it in and we will read it. On a piece of paper you may like to write down one of your family's favourite book.

Notices:

It was lovely to see so many parents at parents evening this week, if you would like to come and see me please let me know and we will sort a convenient time  to meet to discuss your child's progress.

Stay and Play is on Wednesday 1st March starting from 8.30am till 9.00am ish. Please do come along.

On Wednesday and Thursday morning it is our trip to the library. We will be going on the bus.

On Thursday it is World Book Day, so children can come to preschool dressed as a book character.

Have great week

Thanks

Julia and Preschool team

Fairtrade

Hello everyone,

We hope you all had a wonderful half term. We are looking forward to hearing the children news about their half term. 

This week are are going to be learning about Fairtrade. It is Fairtrade fortnight and as a school we are taking part. We will be learning about what is fair trade through an early years film about Pablo the super-banana along with some other stories. We will trying a range of different fruits during snack time which have the fair trade symbol on. We will be baking a recipe using Fairtrade ingredients and looking at where different foods come from along with lots of other activities.

Jennie Jigsaw-

This half term Jennie will be talking to us about how we can keep our bodies healthy. This week we will be naming the different parts of our bodies and whats happens when we exercise. We will be playing lots of games in the hall along with Head shoulders knees and toes.

Home learning:-

Can you find a product with the Fairtrade symbol and bring it into Pre-school for our display?

Notices:- 

Don't forget it is parents evening Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st February. Please do come and see me if you would like to make another date and time which is suitable.

Stay and play is on Friday 24th February starting from 8.30 onwards till about 9.00ish. It would be lovely to see you there.

Next week is our trip to library, Please return permission slips if you have not already done so. 

Any questions please come and see the preschool team. 

Have a great week.

Julia and the preschool team

Fair Trade Fortnight...

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all having a fantastic half term. When we come back to Pre-school next week we are going to be looking at Fairtrade as it is Fairtrade fortnight. Over the holidays see if you can find a product with the Fairtrade logo on and bring it into Pre-school when we come back next week.

I will be writing a more detailed blog on Sunday about what we are doing next week and notices.

Happy Half Term

Julia and Pre-school team