Dear
Parents
New
flooring
Next
week the new flooring will be laid in the Sunflowers room. This will mean all
the rooms will have had the new floors fitted!
We
will start moving the furniture out of the Sunflowers from Monday. From
Wednesday the Sunflowers and Bluebell children will join up in Bluebell room.
We will be back in Sunflowers on Monday.
We
are also getting new furniture in Sunflowers in September.
For
those parents who missed last week’s email:
Nursery
News
From
August/September some of the teams are having a change around:
The
Sunflowers team will become Jess, Becci and Sophie. Jess’s day off will become
a Friday and Sophie will stay as a Monday. Becci will be in all week.
The
Bluebells Team will be Donna, Leanne, Rose and Chloe. Donna will keep her
Fridays off, Leanne will be off on Wednesday, Chloe will be off Thursday and
Rose is in all week
The
Buttercup team will remain as Charlotte, Julia, Nilem and Magda. Their days off
will be Charlotte on Monday, Julia on Thursday, Magda on Tuesday and Nilem on
Friday.
Megan
will remain as our floating staff member and Alison will also be covering in
different rooms until she starts Forest School in November.
If
there is any change to your child’s key person due to the staff moves you will
be informed by your room in the next few days.
Learning
Journey update
The
Interactive Learning Diaries will be started from August/September time. You
will receive your passwords to log on later in the term so the staff have time
to get everything up and running. For those of you who missed the newsletter
previously explaining what the Interactive Learning Diaries are, here is some more information and you can always ask
your key person!
From
September it will be easier to see what your child has been learning at Nursery
and how this links to the Early Years Foundation stage.
Using
a secure online program called the Interactive Learning Diary, ILD, we will be
able to record observations, add photos and videos (videos!!!) and link them
all to the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Each
parent will then be given a password enabling them to see their child (and only
their child’s) learning journey.
Parents
will be able to add their own observations, photos and videos so that we will
be able to create a picture of each child’s development at both nursery and
home.
This
system will enable the staff to link to the Early Years Foundation Stage much
quicker, to do more frequent observations that are less time consuming and
spend more time with the children and less time on paperwork.
The
system is very secure, with the same level of security as internet banking. You
can see them in action at http://www.interactivelearningdiary.co.uk/
Forest
School
After
the October half term we are going to start running Forest School sessions for the
Sunflowers. Lee, who already runs the Forest School at our
Markenfield Road Nursery will be leading the sessions with Alison.
The
children will take part in the Forest School sessions in groups of six, on a
1:3 ratio. They will be accompanied by a qualified member of the Forest School
team, Lee and Alison.
Your
child's forest school sessions will run once per week for six weeks, during
term times only. The duration of these sessions will be 1 ¾ hours per week.
At
Castle Nursery we pride ourselves in giving all of the children within the
setting the opportunity to explore the outside world. The Forest School has
been set up in order to enhance that experience.
Forest
School is not just about taking the indoor classroom outside, but letting the
children explore a new and exciting environment, whilst learning new skills
that they may not have access to during their everyday lives. Forest school is
based on the actual process of learning rather than the content of the lesson
plans. This means that genuine Forest School practice is allowing the children'
sessions to be unplanned, unexpected and ultimately unlimited. The children are
given every encouragement to direct their own learning. As good practitioners
we are able to do this by stimulating outdoor play through 'scaffolding' a
child's learning, this is achieved through simply observing how a child behaves
in the outdoor environment.
A woodland
environment is central in supporting this dynamic approach to learning ,the
dynamic nature of an outdoor environment - an infinite source of smells,
textures, sounds and tastes; a range of visual stimuli from near to far, high
to low, very big to very small.
Later in the
term we will be giving out more information and permission letters to the
Sunflower Parents. To start with, the sessions
will run on a Wednesday morning but as we get up and running we are hoping to
add in more sessions on other days. Forest School is optional but I hope you
will be able to see how beneficial it will be for the children’s learning.
Parents with CRB checks (we can help you get these) will be able to join in the
sessions as well.
To give you
the best idea about Forest school we are running a parent session on Sunday 12th
October from 10-12. More information about this session will follow!
Breakfast
club
One
of the points raised on our annual survey was about extended opening hours.
So
from September we will be offering breakfast club, giving you the chance to
drop off from 7.45 am.
There
will be a charge of £2.50 per session and sessions will need to be booked 24
hours in advance so we can organise staffing.
Menus
There
are no planned changes to this week’s menu.
This
week’s activities
Each
key person will be responsible for designing an activity based on their key
children’s needs; however, all children who are in on that day will have the
opportunity to access the activity too.
If
the key person is on holiday or off, another staff member will be able to lead
the activity in their place so that the children do not miss out.
For
more information on the Early Years Foundation stage, the guidance we use to
support our planning and practice, please visit:
Buttercups
Monday
– Charlotte’s group are exploring a variety of musical instruments as they
build listening skills
Tuesday
– Nilem’s group is developing and understanding of size and shape as they
fill and empty pots
Wednesday
– Julia’s group will be promoting gross motor skills as they build towers with
blocks
Thursday
– Charlotte’s group is exploring natural resources in the sand pit
Friday
– Magda’s group will be playing together as they blow bubbles in the water
Charlotte
is off Friday, Julia is off Monday, Magda is off Tuesday and Nilem is away all
week
Bluebells
Monday
- Leanne’s group are playing with the small world people as they talk
about their families
Tuesday
– Donna’s group is developing counting skills as they use compare bears
Wednesday
– Donna’s group will be looking at the alphabet as they read ABC books together
Thursday
– Rose’s group are talking about favourite foods as they play with toy foods
Friday
– Chloe’s group will be working together as they build dens outside
Donna
is off Friday, Leanne is off Wednesday, Chloe is off Thursday and Rose is in
all week
Sunflowers
Book
of the Fortnight
21st
July – 28th July – Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jnr
4th
-11th August – Super Daisy by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt
18th
– 25th August – My Mum is Great by Marks and Spencer
1st
– 8th September – My Dad by Family World
15th
– 22nd September – Always and Forever by Debi Gliari and Alan
Durant
The
Sunflowers will now be doing one weekly focused activity to ensure all the
children have the opportunity to take part in it.
This
will work alongside their weekly planned activity list which you can see in the
room.
This
week’s activity is to mix together water and bubble bath and use straws to
create bubbles.
The
learning intentions for this activity are:
To
understand simple cause and effect.
For
the children to discuss what they see happening
To
develop an understanding of their physical actions
The
Sunflowers letter of the week is : M
Jess
is off Friday, Sophie is off Monday and Becci is in all week
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