Weekly Round up - 6 October 2023

As the week draws to a close we've been grateful for the weather allowing us the opportunity to spend time outside on the field and in the shelter.

The den building has been popular, with children in both rooms creating their very own habitats to play in and explore. In Honeys, the reading area was transformed into an undercover crawl space allowing children to fit themselves into small spaces and experience a colourful, sensory world. The children from Bumbles worked together connecting poles and using different resources with clips to create a camouflaged camp in the garden. This gave them a chance to problem solve and work out which materials would be best for building a house and why. For sensory play the children explored the properties of dry rice, very similar to playing with sand but a change from the usual. The sand tray was filled with dry rice and a range of resources that allowed children to scoop, sieve, pour and touch. This type of activity supports physical development of fine motor skills and helps children's early understanding of maths - spatial reasoning. How many scoops of rice does it take to fill up a cup? Why does the rice 'collapse' when tipping it out a bowl?

It also supports them with creating and thinking critically, have and develop their own ideas and develop strategies for doing things. Children generate new ideas and approaches to something mathematical that might have been initiated by an adult. They build new mathematical learning on what they might already know, they recognise links and begin to talk about cause and effect. Children make choices and decisions about how to approach mathematical tasks, planning and monitoring what to do and being able to change strategies where necessary. Such a large amount of learning from a small amount of rice! Next week sees the start of our next topic - Healthy Eating.

To promote this and to encourage children’s discussions around this topic, we are asking parents/carers to upload pictures of their child eating healthy foods and using a toothbrush at home, to their Tapestry account. We'll be setting up activities that explore making healthy choices with our foods and encouraging good oral hygiene. To encourage this, we're running a competition for next week to see who has the healthiest lunchbox!! The winner will receive a prize of a delicious fruit basket!!

For more ideas about what to put in your child's lunchbox visit - www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes  For more information about supporting healthy gums and teeth visit - www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-teeth-and-gums/taking-care-of-childrens-teeth

Unfortunately, we've noticed that more children are being collected late at the end of their session which is having a negative impact on the Pre-School. Our policy clearly informs parents that there will be a charge if children are not picked up by midday or 15.00. Our Pre-School is a charity and to enable us to keep costs low, our staff are required to carry out their duties within a specific time frame. Some of us also have children that need collecting from schools and are subsequently fined if we do not leave on time. Even being a few minutes late can have financial implications to the setting with having to cover the costs for fines and overtime. Please be respectful and ensure you are not late as you will receive a fine, whatever the reason. We've also been asked to remind parents that there is absolutely no parking permitted onsite or in front of the gates. Access to Perryfields infant and junior schools is required at all times and blocking the gates is a health and safety hazard. Parents who do not abide by these rules are at risk of breaching their contract with the Pre-School which could result in the loss of their child's place.

On a positive note, we are pleased to announce that Sophie was given a Highly Commended accolade at the Nursery World awards ceremony last Saturday! Although not the winner, she did take second place in the Practitioner of the Year 2023 category which is absolutely fantastic!!! She couldn't be more pleased and the whole team are honoured to be working with such a talented childcare professional. Well done Sophie!!!🎉🎉🎉

Have a great weekend