Whats On

Pre-School returns on Thursday 4th January 2018 for children in the main hall (Squirrel Room) and Tuesday 9th January 2018 for new starters in the Hedgehog Room

Welcome back to Pre-School! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you a happy and healthy New Year.  All the staff would like to thank everyone for the kind wishes and gifts that they received. We would also like to take this opportunity to welcome our new starters and their families to the brand new ‘Hedgehog’ room. The main hall, for the 3-4 year olds, will now be called the ‘Squirrel’ room.

Themes this half term

During this half term the children will be exploring their sense of touch and hearing. There will be ‘feely’ boxes full of different textures for the children to touch and a variety of textiles and materials for them to create a lovely picture. We will be making huge ears to wear so that we can listen to the everyday sounds all around us. The children will also have the opportunity to play a listening and matching game in small groups.

The children will learn about the different sorts of weather that we experience and the seasons. We are having a week where we focus on different modes of transport so there will be lots of play with the Brio, cars and garage, airport and boats to float in the water trough. During this week we will also be chatting about road safety whilst playing with the bikes and scooters, zebra crossing, lollipop man/lady stick and outfit.

In our last week of this half term our focus will be all about emotions. To help the children understand the different emotions that they experience we will read books with them, look at posters, complete puzzles and chat whilst looking at emotions cards and pebbles.

In order to ease the transition into ‘Big’ school for our leavers in the summer we have devised a star chart which is on display above the Registration table. This chart consists of aims and objectives that we will be working towards each child achieving before going to school – they include such things as putting their shoes/coat on, carrying out simple tasks, dealing with their own toileting needs and working towards writing their own name. Each time a child achieves one of these aims it will be celebrated with the whole group at Registration time and a star will be placed next to the appropriate aim. We will have 2 terms to work on these aims and I’m sure that by July there will be a sea of stars!!

Lastly, please remember to encourage your child to bring in something of special interest to show at Registration time, such as a leaflet of somewhere they have visited or a photo of a special family event, and of course we always love to chat about any WOW stickers to celebrate those special achievements! This is an important part of your child’s development as it helps to promote self-esteem and encourages a sense of belonging for the child.

We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Just a quick reminder for names to be clearly marked in coats and jackets and on the OUTSIDE of lunch boxes and change of clothes/nappy changing bags. This will save the staff lots of time and will be greatly appreciated.

Please also remember to bring in a named and filled water bottle for your child each session – they will have access to their drink bottle throughout the session. This is also the Infant school practice so it will help with the transition when your child leaves us and goes to Big School.

Lastly, if your child is potty training please inform us and we will work with you. However, it would be appreciated if Pull ups are worn ONLY when a child is at the stage of being almost fully potty trained.