Weekly Roundup - 3 November 2023

A spooky start this half term with Halloween activities for us all. The staff in both rooms dressed up along with many of the children and it was very entertaining to see so many variations of witches, pumpkins and wizards! Our activities have included spooky playdough, sticky spiderwebs, wand making and carving pumpkins.

Lots of opportunities for finding out about why and how we celebrate at this time of year while incorporating some learning intentions. The children listened to one of our favourite stories, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler. The connection between the story and our theme (Magic, Witches and Wizards) really held children's interest while they were dressed up as some of the characters. They heard lots of rhyming words and joined in with the familiar phrases, helping to support their early literacy skills.

Both rooms explored pumpkins and used tools to scoop and scrape out the flesh and seeds. On Wednesday, some of the children told us about how they'd been out 'trick or treating' with their friends and families. Crystal brought in her face paints and created some interesting designs on the staff and children too! 

Many of us have consumed all sorts of sweets and sugary snacks over Halloween and we reminded the children about the importance of brushing our teeth and limiting unhealthy foods. Our winners of the healthy lunchbox competition were pleased with their prizes of fruit boxes and again, thank you to everyone for making such an effort. We're currently reviewing our policies and procedures and with our drive to support children's good oral health we are no longer giving or distributing sweet treats for birthdays. This is to encourage healthy eating. We'll continue to celebrate children's birthdays by making and wearing birthday hats and singing the Happy Birthday song. We hope you will support us with this.
Superstar Sports and Moo Music returned this week to start our Busy Bodies project of staying active. The committee have also arranged a Welly Walk in Pollards Meadow, Lawn Lane at 10.00am on Saturday the 18th November where children can come along with their families for an informal walk around the field and join in with some simple activities. An email was sent out this week so do get in touch if you haven't received this and would like more information.

Next week our theme is transport and travel and we'll also be celebrating Diwali, Bonfire Night and Remembrance Day. Do upload pictures to Tapestry of any events you attend that represent these occasions as we like to share these with the children at Circle Time.

Have a good weekend.