Our Theme This Month Is Planting and New Life and Our Colour Is GREEN, So Children Are
APRIL 2016
Dear Parents
Welcome to the Nursery News for the month of April. We hope you all had a lovely Easter break. It is great to see the longer evenings and there are definite signs of Spring in the air. As the summer term approaches it is always a busy and exciting time for the children with much of the focus being on Outdoor play. Remember to check the notice boards and your child’s home tray every day for information on what is happening in the nursery
Our theme this month is Planting and New Life and our colour is GREEN, so children are encouraged to help build up our colour windows as well as the interest tables by providing interesting things from home.
We would appreciate any help parents could give us with our supplementary Spring Planting theme by providing things such as seed trays & plants, plant pots, seed packets, real or artificial flowers, hand trowels and forks, small watering cans, patio sets, even a garden gnome or two would be interesting. As part of our work for Eco-Schools we would love to increase the number of indoor plants we have around the Nursery, so if you have any extra plants or cuttings we would love to give them a home.
Please bring your vouchers and place them in the collecting boxes in the entrance hall. Your support is critical to ensure that we can purchase some lovely new resources for our nursery. So please ask your friends, family and neighbours to keep collecting for TRINITY NURSERY SCHOOL.
School Fund
School Fund is due for this Term 3 and the money bags will be put in the tray on our first day back. Parents have the option of paying for the full term which is 12 weeks 5/4/16-24/6/16 = £66 or if you prefer by 2 instalments each for 6 weeks – 4/4/16-13/5/16 and then 16/5/16-24/6/16. For your convenience payment by bank transfer is available, please ensure your child’s name is clearly stated on the reference/comments section. (Trinity Nursery School, Bank Account No: 08950128, Sort Code 93-82-03, First Trust Bank). School Fund for the first 6 weeks will be due by Monday 11th April.
Happy Birthday this month to Ritchie Orr Maggie McCullough
Oscar Browne Emma Caldwell
Ruairidh Hunter Peter Gordon
Riley Noble
Congratulations to the Willis Family
Marina will be a wonderful big sister to Sarah
Monkeynastix for the third term will begin on Monday 1th April and will run for 8 sessions with the last session being Monday 13th June.
On Thursday 7th April we will welcome back Karen Shiel from RSPB who will help the children conduct an exciting Mini beast Hunt in the Nursery Garden.
During April we will invite two farmers to visit the Nursery as part of our healthy eating Farm to Fork Trail. The Yellow Room will meet Gwen McKee from Fresh Fields on Friday 8th April and on Tuesday 12th April Red Room will meet Sheila Lyttle from Roy Lyttle Ltd. Both farmers are local to the Ards Peninsula area. Both classes will learn how the farmers prepare their land, plant vegetables and how they are made read for us to buy in the supermarket. This will be an interesting visit and will help us with our own vegetable planting in the Nursery Garden. We hope to follow this up with some cookery – yum!
We hope you have been doing lots of ‘clearing out’ over Easter. Our Cash for Clobber day is Friday 8th April so please leave any bags filled with clothes, shoes, bedding, bags, belts etc in the Nursery at any time on Wednesday 6th or Thursday 7th April.
On Friday 15th April the Yellow Room are holding a very special day to celebrate Thailand. We will have lots of fun activities and a very special banquet whilst learning all about the culture and the people who live there.
On Thursday 28th April at 7.30 pm we have our very special Yummy Mummy night in conjunction with Action Cancer. This has been a highlight of the Nursery calendar and a night not to be missed for our busy mums. Look out for more details coming soon and encourage friends and family to join you too. There is no charge for this evening of information and pampering but we would encourage you to give a little something to Action Cancer. Tickets will be available from the office.
During the summer term the Nursery will once again be assessed for our Eco-Schools Green Flag Award. This is a rigorous process so please help by reinforcing everything “GREEN”. As well as our paper, mobile phone and ink cartridge recycling we have also set up a plastic bottle collection box which we hope the children will use frequently. Look out for lots of photographs and I will inform you when we know the date of our assessment.
On a Health and Safety note, could I ask parents to be careful outside in the car park where we have noticed some children climbing up the steps to the raised area adjacent to the cars. Please encourage your child to hold your hand as you are leaving the nursery and approaching a busy road. Also, please remember not to park on the kerb in order to ensure that pedestrians, especially those with prams. We would be grateful if this message could be passed on to all those who help with your children – grandparents, nurseries etc.
Dates for your diary
School will be closed for the May Bank Holidays on Monday 2nd and Monday 30th May
Graduation Ceremonies will take place on
Tuesday 21st June for the Yellow Room and Wednesday 22nd June for the Red Room
PARENT’S PAGE
We will be using the theme of Planting and New Life to introduce your child to different areas of learning. If you would like to follow this up at home, here are a few activities you might like to try.Language and Literacy
§ Visit the library and borrow information books on the theme of life cycles, eg frogs.§ Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and make a family version based on your favourite fruits and food.
§ Read The Tiny Seed also by Eric Carle and talk about the changes that took place. Discuss the differences between Spring and Summer.
§ Put on your willies and go for a rainy day walk. Think about and share all the rainy day words such as splash, pitter, patter, drip, drop, splish, splosh!
§ Talk about the clothes we wear on a rainy day and help your child to understand the concept of waterproof fabric and clothes.
Out and About
§ Visit a garden Centre. Look at the range and variety of flowers and plants on offer. Look at the different sizes of plant pots and the different materials they are made of – try tapping them gently.§ Take a walk through a park and notice the growing grass, variety of colourful flowers and the leaves budding on the trees.
§ With the clocks changing to Summer time talk to your child about the brighter evenings and playing outside for a little longer in the evening.
Growing
§ Have fun sprouting some shoots of your own. Draw or paint faces on broken egg shells. Keep them steady in an egg carton. Next place wet cotton wool in the egg shells. Sprinkle some cress seeds over the cotton wool. Finally, place your egg shells on a window sill and keep the cotton wool moist. Wait and watch as your faces grow green hair. /Rhymes and Song
Five little FroggiesFive little froggies sitting on a well
One looked up and down he fell
Froggies jump high
Froggies jump low
Four little froggies dancing to & fro.
Four little froggies….
I’m a Little Flower Pot
(Tune: I’m a Little Tea Pot)
I’m a little flower pot mum put me out
(point to self)
If you take care of me, I will sprout,
(pat head and point to self)
When you water me, I will grow
(make sprinkling motion with right hand)
Into a pretty flower, don’t you know!
(raise left hand up slowly and make wide circle with hands or arms)
Plants
(Tune: The Farmer wants a wife)
The farmer plants the seeds
The farmer plants the seeds
Hi, Ho and Cherry O
The farmer plants the seeds.
The rain begins to fall
The sun begins to shine
The plants begin to grow
The bud all open up
The flowers shine at me.
Do the Raindrops Fall?
(Tune: Do your ears hang low?)
Do the raindrops fall?
Do they trickle? Do they plop?
Can you hear them on the roof –
Drizzle, drizzle, drop, drop.
Can you watch them on the window?
See them falling from the sky?
Do the raindrops fall?
§ Five little Peas
Five little peas in a pea-pod pressed
(Clench fingers on one hand)
One grew, two grew and so did all the rest
(Raise fingers slowly)
They grew and grew and did not stop
(Stretch fingers wide)
Until one day the pod went POP! (Clap loudly on POP)