Nursery News 30th September 2024

NURSERY NEWS

30th September 2024 – Edition 346

Find out About:

A. Important dates

B. Parent Consultations

C. Forest School Program

D. Willow Lending Library.

E. What are the children learning about this week?

 

 A. Important dates

It is time to give parents an overview of the term, as most families are now enrolled and attending in Big Nursery and Little Nursery.

The school year has three terms, Autumn, Spring and Summer. Each term has a Half Term break in the middle of the term. So dates for this term are:

Mon 28th October 2024 to Fri 1st November 2024: Autumn Half term – School Closed

Mon 4th November –Teacher training day- School Closed.

Thursday 19th December 2024 Last normal school day of the Autumn Term.

Friday 20th December 2024 School open for Christmas Parties only                            (As a guide: Last year Little Nursery Party 9:00am to 10:00am Big Nursery Party 11:15am to 1:00pm, but this may change slightly when we begin planning for this year)

Monday 6th January 2025 –Teacher Training Day- School Closed

Tuesday 7th January 2025 First day of Spring Term- School open.

We have some other notable dates to share with you. Further information will be included in these newsletters nearer to the time, regarding each event.

Wednesday 6th November and Thursday 7th November-School Photographer to visit.

Thursday 14th November 5pm- Open School Event ‘Walk In the Dark’.

Friday 15th November ‘Children in Need Day’ We make a collection for this charity.

Wednesday 20th November Open School Event Big Nursery Green Group –Parents to watch Basic Skills Literacy Session.

Week beginning Monday 2nd December Open School Event: Big Nursery Parents invited in to watch their child’s Music Session.

 

B. Parent Consultations

We aim to offer all parents the opportunity to have a Parent Consultation with their child’s keyworker once per term

Little Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations during week beginning Monday 21st October, 2024

These consultations are offered to talk about how your child is settling in. They are not compulsory, but if you would like an appointment please arrange this with your child’s keyworker when they are outside before morning sessions, or after afternoon sessions.

These consultations will be on the telephone, will last 5 minutes and will be available at the following times:

Monday 21st October Mrs Brinkley’s Orange Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 3:55pm

Tuesday 22nd October Miss Gaffney’s Blue Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 4:20pm

Wednesday 23rd October Mrs Cashmore’s Little Yellow Group Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations, between 1:00pm and 1:25pm

 

Thursday 24th October Mrs McGrath’s Little Yellow Groups Consultations, 5 minute telephone consultations between 3:15pm and 3:35pm

Big Nursery will be having their Parent Consultations (on the telephone) during week beginning Monday 4th November, 2024. Dates and times for appointments will be detailed in Nursery News 348 (published on Monday 14th October).

 

C. Forest School Program

Mrs Brinkley has started teaching our Forest School program to Big Nursery Yellow Group. I just wanted to tell you a little about Forest School at Willow.

 

Mrs Brinkley spent a year studying to become a Level 3 Forest School Practitioner. In order to support her work in school, all other school staff studied to become Level 1 Forest School Practitioners.

 

What is a Forest School? -this is a quote which outlines what a Forest School is and the ethos of them:

‘An inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem through hands on learning experiences in a local woodland environment’ (Forest School (England) network 2002)

 

Whilst we have some trees and shrubs, we acknowledge that we do not have a ‘Forest’, but Forest School teaching and learning is all about participating in activities in the outdoors, learning new skills, building strong relationships and thinking creatively. Mrs Brinkley has planned 7 activity sessions that Big Nursery children will take part in during their final year at nursery. Mrs Brinkley will work with a small group once a week for 7 weeks. We aim to have worked with Yellow, Green and Red group children by Summer 2025.

 

So, for your information, these are the seven activities the children will be participating in:

 

1.Fairy/ Gnome Dens. Children will use natural materials that they find in the garden to build a small den for an imaginary fairy or gnome.

 

  1. Making Fairies or small people. Children will be shown how to make a fairy using twigs and clay. Children will be encouraged to make their own character, using their imagination to add hair, wings or other accessories.

 

3.Larger Dens. Working as part of a small group children will build a den from tarpaulins and ropes. Children will then join Mrs Brinkley inside the den for a story together.

 

  1. Clay Faces. Children will mould a flat circular clay shape onto a tree trunk. Children will then add natural objects to the clay to create a face. Children will be shown how to make marks in the clay using sticks found in the garden. Children will compare their own features with those of their friends. Children will discuss similarities and differences.

 

5.Bug Hunt. Children will look around the garden areas, trying to find bugs to put into their bug collecting pot. They will tip their collections out onto a white paper surface, then use a magnifying glass to look carefully at the bugs. We will be teaching them about being careful with the wildlife and to look after nature.

 

  1. Mud Kitchens, Mud Potions and Mixtures. Children will be provided with pots and spoons. They will have the opportunity to mix soil with sand and water to make liquid mud. Children will then be able to add leaves and grass, and anything else that they find in the garden, into their mixture.

 

  1. Making Woodland Medals. Children will be shown how to use a hand drill to drill a hole in a small disc of wood in order to make a medal. Children will decorate their medals using felt tip pens

Mrs Brinkley’s Thoughts….

I am really excited to be now teaching our children ‘The Forest School Way’. The children are enjoying the new experience and their ideas are extending learning further. Forest School learning has so many benefits to the child’s learning and covers all areas to support the overall well being of the children.     

Welcome to Forest School learning Willow!

 

D. Willow Lending Library.

Miss Howe worked hard last year to create ‘Willow Lending Library’ which has proved to be quite a success. We want to invite all new parents to explore our Lending Library:

 

Willow Lending Library

Welcome to Willow outdoor lending library. We are open every day from 8.15-8.45am and from 3.00pm-3.30pm.

Please choose 1-2 books with your child and write the names of the books under your child’s name in their colour group folder before taking them home to read together.

You can change the books as frequently as you wish.

Please look after our books.

*Please ensure that you have left the library area at 8.45am prompt before children start to enter the school gates in the morning. THANKYOU J

 

Top Tips for Reading with your child

  • Let your child choose what they would like to read.
  • Make sure there are no distractions.
  • Sit close together. Encourage your child to hold the book and turn the pages too.
  • Look at the pictures. Talk about what can be seen on the page.
  • Ask questions and talk about the book. Give your child time to talk.
  • Have fun – there is no right or wrong way to share a story.

Free tips and advice in more than 20 languages on ‘sharing books with young children’ can be found at:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-with-your-child-3-4years/#!?q=&sortOption=AtoZ&pageNo=1

 

E. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is ‘All about me’ and staff will be working with the children to teach them about the similarities and differences they may have with each other. Staff will talk to the children about themselves, each other and being part of the Willow Nursery community. We feel that it is important to have a strong sense of identity and this comes from knowing about yourself and those that are close to you.

During some activities, children will be encouraged to look at themselves in mirrors, to see their key features and will be encouraged to talk about what they can see. Staff will model language for those that are unsure of naming features such as cheeks, chin, eyebrows, etc. Other resources we may use to maximise the learning opportunities are playdough, potato heads, puppets and chalk drawings. Through using these tools, we can encourage the children to share similarities and differences they may have with each other. Children will be encouraged to celebrate their differences because this is what makes them unique. We have received lots of family photo’s from parents for our display board and these are often a talking point for the children. If you haven’t yet sent in a family photo, there is still time to do this. The children get very excited to have the opportunity to share their own experiences with their friends and their photo’s are a tool we use to support this.