Happy New Year

  Welcome back. It was so lovely to see the children this week full of enthusiasm and happy to be back. They have settled straight into their learning and have spent lots of time playing and learning with their friends. It is always at this time of year when we start to see the children blossom and really understand how to access learning in the unit. Their communications and language skills have developed and their ability to 'have a go' has become a natural thing for them to do with confidence. 

It has been very cold this week, but it has not stopped us been outside. the children have continued to use the outside environment for learning. Unfortunately, this has meant that they have been a little wet. Please be reassured that we will change the children if they get very wet.

 Next week we will carry out a number of experiments related to changes in temperature. 

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Mrs Robinson:) 

This weeks photo's were taken by the children.

Mele Kalikimaka

 We have finished!

Thank you for all your kind gifts we appreciate it very much. Have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing you on the 7th January 2025.

Mele Kalikimaka 🎄🎅🤶🎅🎄

XMAS

 Well Xmas is definitely here now and the children are beginning to get excited about the show and all the other fun things we are doing. Sometimes it is hard for the children as the routines change. Please don't worry if your child is a little unsettled this is completely normal, we all like our routines.

We will be singing our songs for you next week. This will only last approx 10 minutes but this is long enough for the children to be on the stage. We will look after your child if they become upset as seeing family in the audience is sometimes hard. 

We had our xmas lunch today and the children had crackers and sang song to the kitchen staff who work really hard for us all year round.

Please speak to me if you have any queries about next week.

Christmas concert

The children are looking forward to performing for you on the 17th and 18th of December. Please can you dress your child in Christmas clothes on Monday 16th, Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th December as we will be performing the concert for the school on the Monday. This can comprise of any Christmas festive clothes that you have at home. Please do not go out and buy new clothes for this. Red, green and/or white will do.

Have a great weekend

Mrs Robinson 🎄🎅🤶

 This week in Foundation our focus was on The Three Billy Goat Gruff story. The children used puppets to retell the story and we have drawn a story map. We loved joining in singing while listening to the audio version of the story. 

Next week we will be having our Christmas lunch on Friday. If you want your child to have this please make sure you have ordered it in the office. The xmas dinner is a very noisy time in the dining hall and the nursery children often find it a little overwhelming. Please do not feel this is compulsory for your child to attend but speak to me if you are concerned.

 Christmas has arrived in foundation and this week we have created a Christmas card factory. The children have enjoyed writing cards, putting them in envelopes and posting them in our post box. We have learnt about the Christmas nativity story and have continued to practice our songs for the show.

The children are looking forward to performing for you but please do not be surprised if your child doesn't sing or gets upset if they see you, this is completely normal, and we will make sure that they are ok. It can be a little overwhelming to be in the hall with lots of adults. Hopefully they will all be ok.

  This week we have been practicing our songs for the Christmas concert. The children are very enthusiastic, and I am sure they will have been singing the songs at home. They are looking forward to performing for you on the 17th and 18th of December. Please can you dress your child in Christmas clothes on Monday 16th, Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th December as we will be performing the concert for the school on the Monday. This can comprise of any Christmas festive clothes that you have at home. Please do not go out and buy new clothes for this. Red, green and/or white will do.

We do one performance in the morning and one in the afternoon to allow families who need the flexibility to attend. We will provide more information about tickets next week.

Unfortunately its that time of year again when we all get the winter bugs. If you feel your child is not well enough to come to school please keep them off. This also helps reduce the spread of illness to others.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Robinson 🎄

 This week we have been supporting the children's understanding of relationships. Looking after each other and being kind to each other. We have had stories that have supported emotional behaviour and we have learnt that kind things make us feel good.

On Monday we talked about Remembrance Day. We listened to a story called "Poppy's Day" on CBeebies. This is a child friendly story all about remembering. The children were excellent at understanding elements of this story, and it was a good example of how we should remember others. We also closed our eyes for a minute to remember people who help us and keep us safe. The children made their own poppies using paper, scissors, glue and tape.

We had lots of crazy socks on Tuesday and finally finished our week with a spotty day, all in support of anti bullying week and children in need. It has been a very special week when we have learnt the importance of understanding others.

Have a good weekend.

Mrs Robinson

DIWALI

 This week we have celebrated Diwali with the children, which is the Hindu festival of light. 

The world Diwali means 'rows of lighted lamps' because houses, shops and public places are decorated with small oil lamps called 'diyas'. Diwali always falls sometime between October and November, but the exact date varies each year as the Hindu calendar is based on the Moon. The children really enjoyed learning about this festival, and we created our own Rangoli patterns and diva's.

The children have come back full of energy and ready for learning after their break. It's good to see that lots of the bugs from last term are gone, fingers crossed.

We have talked about bonfire night and the amazing noisy fireworks.  The children have spent time looking at our bonfire now that it has burnt out. One child commented on the fact that the nails had not melted as they were made of metal. 

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Robinson.

 This week we have had big changes in our environment. We had observed that the children were not engaging in our seasons area so we decided to change it to a hospital. What a difference this has made to the learning and interactions that are taking place. The children are learning to take responsibility for each other and they are using language to effectively communicate. IT IS AMAZING!

After the holidays all children need to be wearing the winter uniform which is the navy tracksuit. the children should not be wearing trainers but should be wearing school shoes. Please make sure that all their uniform is clearly labelled.

I hope you all felt reassured after our parent consultations this week. Please do not hesitate to contact if you have any concerns regarding any issues in Foundation.

I hope to see some of you at our bonfire night. Have an amazing half term.

Mrs Robinson:)

Mrs Phillips thought it was Friday, yesterday so she was very sleepy. We had to wake her up.

We had a no shoe day to see if the children's behaviour changed. 

 We have postponed our study of Stephen Wiltshire as spiders have taken over learning this week. The children have enjoyed learning facts about the spiders and their webs.

Autumn has arrived in force and we are all feeling the change in temperature. We are fortunate that this has not stopped the children wanting to be outside and we always ensure that the doors are open regardless of the weather. Can you please make sure your child has wellies after half term as the rain makes the garden very wet and we don't want this to stop learning opportunities.

Next week will be parent consultations. Please sign up if you have not already done so. This will be an opportunity to reassure you that your children are settled, happy and engaged in their learning. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have concerns throughout the year as it is always better to resolve things at the earliest opportunity.

I cant believe that we will be breaking up next week although I think we are all ready for a little rest.

Mrs Robinson

SPIDERS

 We have been lucky again with the weather and had a great outdoor week, lets hope we get one more before half term.

 We have been looking at seasonal changes and collecting things that have fallen from the trees in our wildlife area. The children have been bringing things in for our Autumn table and it has become a hive of activity with lots of learning through communication and language. The children have used all these resources for maths, creating patterns, sorting with shape, colour and size. Please continue to bring things in from the environment as we will always use these resources in the setting.

We have had a week of spiders and webs, the children have been learning songs and creating lots of webs and spiders. They have learnt interesting facts about spiders and some have even stopped screaming when they see them.

Next week the children will  be learning about Stephen Wiltshire to celebrate Black History Month. I will included some of the art work next week for you to see. Please ask them what they know about the artist as they will be able to tell you about his life.

If you have not already sent a family photo in could you please send one to me. This can be by email if that helps.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Mrs Robinson

   Its was lovely to see some of you at the Harvest coffee morning today. The children have enjoyed practicing the songs throughout  the week and I think you will agree they performed really well.

We have  been observing the changes in the trees as they start to change colour. The children will continue to observe and record changes in the environment. We will be focusing on cobwebs and spiderweb's over the next couple of weeks.

The children have enjoyed junk modelling using recyclable boxes. Could you please bring in your recycle stuff so that the children can be creative with them. They have made robots and have used scissors, tape, paper and string to create all sorts of amazing things. 

 We are going to be writing poems about  spiders, we will be reading lots of rhyming books that the children really enjoy and their favourite songs.

Please send in your family photo if you have not already done so.

Have a great weekend

Mrs Robinson

What has happened to the weather?

 Another busy week in foundation, the children have been learning poems about Autumn. We have used the conkers that they have been bringing to school for maths activities and they are really enjoying using natural resources in this way. 

 During our circle time the children have been counting the children in the group using different methods. They have counted how many girls and boys separately then all together. We have also started to try and identify our own name. They are finding this a bit difficult so please try to show your child their name written down as often as possible so that they can identify with it. We are working at sitting together in a group. This is an important part of your child's development. Being able to have two way communication and be able to sit amongst others and participate in a group all seems very easy but it is a huge thing to ask of a 3/4 year old.

We have created a family board and would like you to send in a photo of your family for us to display. Please can you only send one that is not precious as the display is at their height and the pictures will be touched continually. If you would prefer you can email your photo and I will print it.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Mrs Robinson