HENLEY PARENT NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2016
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It is lovely to be able to start this latest newsletter with some good news! I mentioned in an e-mail previously that Lucy Kelly is joining us as Room Leader in Caterpillars in March. I am now pleased to confirm that Elaine Masters is also joining our team as our Cook, covering Sharon’s maternity leave, and this now completes our team. We have decided to make some changes to the room teams at this time and so Lowenna & Steph will be swapping rooms, with Steph moving to Caterpillars and Lowenna moving to Butterflies. If Steph or Lowenna was your child’s key carer, you will already have been informed who their new key carer will be. However, if you have any queries, do let me know.
I understand that some parents are interested in finding out more about what the Pre-school children are learning in their weekly Spanish lessons with Nerea of Lingotot. Nerea has provided us with an example of the support booklets which contain the vocabulary covered in each lesson. There is a different book for each term, and these cost £4 each. There is also a CD which contains some of the songs which the children sing during the lessons. This also comes with a booklet with the lyrics in both Spanish and English and this costs £15. If you haven’t already seen these, do ask to have a look next time you are in Pre-school. If anyone is interested in ordering either or both of these items, do let me know.
We will be celebrating World Book Day on 3rd March as follows:
Caterpillars are looking at the story ‘Rainbow Fish’. Children are invited to come to nursery dressed in rainbow colours and they will be taking part in a craft activity to make their own fish using CDs and brightly coloured card.
Butterflies children are invited to dress up as their favourite book character and they will be choosing their favourite book to read as a group.
In Pre-school the children’s council will be choosing a story for which they will then make the props in order to re-enact the story. The children will also be making up their own stories and are invited to dress up.
We are planning a tea party on Friday, 4th March to which all mummies will be invited, to celebrate Mother’s day. Full details of this will be confirmed separately.
We plan to take part in Sport Relief this year on 18th March to raise money for this charity and I will let you have details a little nearer the time.
Finally, I should like to remind everyone of the importance of not letting anyone into the nursery if you do not know that they are a parent of a child currently attending nursery. We have, unfortunately, had a couple of instances recently when strangers have been let in through the gate by parents either arriving or leaving nursery. We take the safety and security of the children in our care very seriously and so please do help us to maintain this at all times.
Many thanks,
Julie
Notes from the Caterpillars room
The children in the Caterpillars room have been very busy with lots of exciting activities and celebrating different events.
For Chinese New Year we had sweet and sour chicken with rice and a side of a prawn cracker for our lunch, which went down very well with lots of the children wanting seconds! We experimented with noodle play using chopsticks and other utensils – messy but great fun!
The children loved having pancakes for morning snack on Shrove Tuesday. The older children also had a treat of a little maple syrup on top, which led to a bunch of very sticky children!
We have been busy making cards for Valentine’s Day and will soon be making something special for our mummies for Mother’s Day.
We have enjoyed a variety of sensory activities such as pasta painting, shaving foam play and water play and of course we have been spending plenty of time outside each day. We will be focusing on some activities based around the garden such as making bird feeders, hanging decorations etc.
Best wishes,
The Caterpillars team
Notes from the Butterflies room
We have been having lots of fun in the Butterflies room. We celebrated Shrove Tuesday by having pancakes for snack and had a great time tossing pancakes.
We celebrated Chinese New Year with a themed lunch of sweet and sour chicken – and we used chopsticks. We made a big dragon by decorating a cardboard box and using a large sheet, which was a lot of fun.
We have made some lovely flowers using our handprints for Valentine’s Day and will be making special gifts for Mother’s day too (we don’t want to tell you what and spoil the surprise!).
We plan to make Bara brith with the children to celebrate St David’s Day, and wheaten bread for St Patrick’s Day. We are also looking forward to preparing for Easter by making cards, cooking Easter biscuits and having an Easter egg hunt.
Best wishes,
The Butterflies team
Notes from the Pre-school room
To celebrate Chinese New Year we did some noodle painting, looked at Chinese writing and listened to Chinese music. These activities help support the children in learning about different cultures and ways of life.
For Valentine’s Day we made cards which encouraged the children to talk about who they love and to demonstrate the use of their fine motor skills to create their own designs.
This term we have been focusing on discussing healthy food and how it grows. We made fruit smoothies to encourage healthy eating and discussed where different fruits come from.
Next term we are going to be making Mother’s Day cards and a little surprise for our lovely mummies.
We will also be focusing on a topic of ‘all about me’ so that we can discuss our families and home life. This will give the children the opportunity to learn about similarities and differences between each other.
Best wishes
The Pre-school team
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