Nursery News – 25th November 2024

NURSERY NEWS

25^th November 2024 – Edition 353

Find out About:

A .Applying for a place at Primary school- A reminder.

B. School Photographer.

C. Donations of Fruit for Snacktime.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

A. Applying for a place at Primary School- A reminder

This applies to all children in Big Nursery

The deadline for on time applications is 15^th January 2025.

We have heard from the admissions officer at Central Bedfordshire Council. She has told us that 15 of our families have yet to apply for a place at Primary School.

We are asked to remind all parents that they must apply before the deadline. We know everyone still has a few weeks left, but there is nearly always at least one Willow parent each year who fails to apply, and their child is left without a place when Primary School places are announced in April.

B School Photographer.

The School Photographer has collected all photo orders.

We will let parents know when photo packs are ready for collection.

C. Donations of Fruit for Snacktime.

The government provides milk for all children in nursery. We offer this during our mid-morning snacktime. We also like to offer a small portion of fruit to all children, partly to give them a boost to their energy to keep them going until lunchtime, but also to encourage them to sit for a few minutes to eat their fruit, drink their milk, practice their manners- using ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ appropriately, and chatting sociably to their friends.

Snacktime also gives a break within the child’s choice of activities. This is useful when we have extremes of temperature outside, either when the weather is extremely hot or very cold. At snacktime we encourage all children to go inside and have their snack. This means we can encourage a short rest time inside.

We need parents help to make this work. We ask parents to donate fruit that can be shared with all the children. We ask that all parents consider donating a small bag of fruit once every half term, and this will ensure that we have enough fruit for all children to have a snack.

We suggest donations of apples, pears, bananas or satsumas, as these are the easier fruits to share amongst a large group. (Generally we cut an apple into 4-8 pieces dependent upon its size, a banana provides 2-4 portions, and a satsuma is usually 2 portions.)

We happily accept other fruits and vegetables that can be shared, but please consider the preparation time required….. We prefer a bag of prepared carrot batons to a bag of uncut carrots!

We often receive lots of donations at the beginning of term, then donations begin to trail off. We are unable to offer a fruit snack if we do not have enough fruit to share with all the children. This was the case for three days last week.

I know the cost of food is increasing rapidly these days, but if all families donate a small bag we will have enough fruit. The children really look forward to their snacktime.

D. What are the children learning about this week?

The theme this week is shop role play.

It will be an exciting week in Nursery as the children will have shop role play spaces set up in different areas. The role play areas will be adapted to suit the children’s different stages of development and staff will tailor the teaching areas to suit the needs of the children.

Some children will have a greater knowledge of what happens when we go shopping, or when we order items online and get them delivered to our houses.

Other children may have a simpler perception of shopping, where they might go to a shop and put items in their basket. Staff will use these teaching opportunities to incorporate the children’s prior knowledge of what happens when we go shopping and add to them as they model different scenarios. They will give visual and verbal prompts to the children to expand their role play and communication skills. Children will learn how to build on their imagination, using real life experiences that they have had with their families.

Role pay opportunities such as this are perfect for supporting the children with learning good manners, children will be reminded that when we buy thing in shops, sometimes we have to queue and wait for our turn to pay. It is also a good time to remind our children that we should always try and remember our manners and say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ to all people that help us, including shop keepers.

There will be lots of opportunities for the children to expand their skills through play, as they write shopping lists, interact with other children and recall familiar experiences.