We are fast approaching the end of term which is quite staggering to believe and we hope to make it as special as we can for the children who are attending. For those who are not here we look forward to seeing you over the week to say goodbye and wish you well for the next stage of your learning journey. the graduation photos are back and are amazing – big thank you to Mandy Goff and her husband Bill for sorting all the orders and collecting them to ensure they came in time!

The ladies here have done the most wonderful job of working through these hard times and have come through smiling and laughing as always and have made the time here very memorable for your children , despite reduced resources, staff, toys, carpets and cushions! The children have not missed any of the equipment or resources and that is due to the wonderful ladies here, thinking of new ideas and activities and never letting their commitment slip.

This week is a perfect example – building, number work, potions, road signs, zebra crossings, new craft ideas, exploring the back garden, baby frogs, making a giant town on the floor, making rainbow fish, painting rainbows, making glasses, dressing up in school uniforms, junk modelling, princess play, police play, shops and tills and music!

More info will follow next week on our plans for the Autumn Term, we will have a staggered start and some of the social distance procedures are likely to still be in place, we are waiting for the guidance to be published but please rest assured we will keep everyone safe and work in the “new normal” offering your children a wonderful time here.

The children have enjoyed a lovely week again regardless of the changes in weather! The two “bubbles” are very settled with their ladies and we have a good working pattern now with procedures and the “new normal”! We really don’t know yet what life will look like in the Autumn but as always lots going on behind the scenes so we will be updating you all via newsletters and email as usual.

We still follow our usual day in our bubbles so we have two circle times which are planned for each day and we are still learning and enjoying our time together. This week we have been writing, painting with cars, danced to music, learnt about how to take care of animals and about pigs in particular watching video’s of my pig! We have also recreated stories, written labels and made giant pictures of ourselves and decorated them.

We have danced outside and worn wigs and hats, we have been building with big blocks, we have made clocks, dens in the garden, had the bikes out and played board games too. Snack is a bit simpler than usual sadly due to no cooking happening in our kitchen! We are planning to get stuck into some baking next week though and we have been gardening and tidying up too with the children and harvesting our first strawberries.

Next week we will start to take the graduation photos during the session and will be sending out a proof and will be letting you know how to order them – we are sad that our usual events won’t be happening but we will endeavour to make the very best of the last few weeks for all the children.

Welcome back from the half term holiday, we hope you all had a lovely week off!

The children have settled back in and we are working on new areas this half term to support development through lots of activities and play! We are focusing on developing confidence and listening and attention skills. This is a really important area and we will be sharing ideas with you on how to develop these skills at home – we are seeing a trend of these skills taking longer to develop than they did a few years ago and some research recently points to the use of electronics by us as parents and by the children as a possible cause! It is a worry so we will be looking for some lovely ideas so that you can help at home. We are also working on our strength and co-ordination, how to be safe and healthy. A focus next week on World Book Day and literacy activities here and hopefully a trip to the library if we have enough parent help for the reds and blues. We are learning to recognise numbers and letters and to represent them on paper and will be learning about the natural world around us and developing our imagination!

This week we have loved weather craft and science on the red table, we have also enjoyed animal craft in the green room during free flow – this group of children love to make and create and learn about a topic!

Reds and Blues have been very busy – lots of pancake fun – real and pretend! Lots of listening and attention games, recognising numerals, planting primroses and our seed bombs that we made last half term. We have also practised our writing by making name badges.

The Greens have been working on learning to follow directions by playing games and learning number songs, they have been learning about growing looking at flowers and enjoyed a story sack as well.

We were lucky enough to be given three trees by Tesco so we have also planted those in our garden.

Next steps are coming out from your key person so please support your child to learn at home and help their progress here.

Next week we will be making lots of craft from stories, we will be getting stuck into our mud kitchen, doing more gardening and enjoying a bi-lingual story.

Donations wise – we would love some fruit/herbal tea bags, pipe cleaners, old keys, the plastic lids from empty wet wipe packs, fresh herbs, flowers, bulbs, vegetable seeds and cress seeds please.