Weekly roundup - 10 May 2024

Hooray - the sunshine has finally arrived and we have certainly been making the most of it. Remember those sun hats and apply a high factor sunscreen to the children before they arrive at Pre-School so they are fully protected. It's also a good idea to cover any bare shoulders as these are often easily sunburnt so a light T'shirt will be suitable during the hot days. Shoes that are suitable for indoor and outdoor play should be worn at Pre-School and if children need to change into wellington boots, velcro or easy to fasten shoes are a better option instead of boots or trainers with laces. Children aged two to three are typically showing an increasing desire to be independent, such as wanting to feed themselves and dress or undress (EYFS link, Physical Development) and are also growing in independence, rejecting help (EYFS link, Personal,Social and Emotional Development).

Our children have continued to plant seeds this week and enjoyed watering them in our outside area. The caterpillars have now transformed into chrysalises which is prompting interesting questions from the children "How can they eat in there?", "Why are they upside down?". We are keen to watch them develop into butterflies and are looking forward to meeting Catty, Ginger, Rainbow, Isabelle and Bingo. The children finally agreed on the names after lots of suggestions and it's been lovely to hear some of their ideas and creative options. 

We have had to remind one or two children over the past couple of weeks about the use of unwanted language and would like your support with this issue. Children learn new language through interactions with their peers, from speaking and listening to their parents and from what they see on TV, films and the internet, which is often unsupervised. Our modern world of overexposure to social media and unregulated activity online can introduce children to a wide range of new vocabulary including some language that is unwelcome. It's important for us to be positive role models for our children and consider how the use of some words may be offensive or upsetting for others. While we can't stop our children from being exposed to all bad language we can do our best to reduce the impact of them using it. For more information about keeping children safe online visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/ 

On a positive note, Viktoria taught the Bumbles about Name Day which is a tradition in many countries of Europe, including her original home of Slovakia. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name - today was Viktoria! She also introduced the children to the world of Ice Hockey, a sport that some children hadn't heard of before. Viktoria explained how the Ice Hockey World Championships were currently taking place and that she was keen to get home and watch the Slovakia vs Germany match this afternoon! Great Britain are also playing tomorrow and you can get more information about this by visiting https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2024/wm. 

Another Vicky came in to Pre-School to meet the children and celebrate our recent Outstanding judgement from OFSTED. Vicky Ford, the local MP for Chelmsford visited the setting this afternoon and was treated to a (cold!) cup of tea made by some of the children. She was keen to find out about how our families are using the new government funding for two year olds and chatted to the children about what they enjoyed most about Pre-School. Check out the link on our Facebook page if you've not already seen it - https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1006780754140089&set=a.360292822122222 

Next week it's more farm related activities, songs and stories. Photographs of the children are being taken taken on Wednesday so you might want to remind your child to brush their hair!

Have a great weekend.