Archive for April, 2023

Summer Term 2023 Newsletter – 1st half

Posted on: 24th April 2023

Welcome back to the start of the summer term. Have all the chocolate eggs been consumed?!

Please ensure you look at the term dates and holiday clubs at the end of this letter.

Holiday forms are attached and need to be returned by Friday 5th May.

Below is the topic each room is exploring this half-term and the exciting activities your child/ren may be involved in. If you feel you can help in any way towards the topic/activities please see Linda, Bernadette, Louise or Debbie.

Field mice room: Pre-school children

The topic is – Living things! Week 1 –animals , week 2 – insects, week 3 – birds, week 4 – seeds, week 5 – fruit and veg, week 6 – life cycles.

Personal, Social & Emotional Development: Over the next 6 weeks the children will look at spring animals and how to care for them (hand reared or by a parent). When the caterpillars arrive the children will study them, watching as they become bigger and bigger and record their growth in their journals. Again, we will incubate and hatch some baby chicks – hoping for less cockerels this year! The children will be discussing their favourite fruit and vegetables and trying some of their friend’s favourites.

Communication & Language: using the finger puppets and small world resources the children will be encouraged to retell the story of ‘owl babies’. Learn the rhyme ‘5 fat beans’ and play ‘I went shopping and I bought…’ The letters G/O/U/L/F/B will be looked at and discussed with activities planned around them.

Physical Development: Gross motor skills will include moving in different ways such as a caterpillar, spider, bird, butterfly, frog…Curling up into a little ball before unfurling to become a bird or a flower. Fine motor skills will be developed by using tweezers, cutting fruit and vegetables and planting seeds.

Literacy: Non-fiction books of life cycles will be looked at as well as stories such as ‘Tiny seed’, ‘Owl babies’, ‘Jaspers beanstalk’ and ‘Walking through the jungle’ read and re-enacted with the children. They will be encouraged to anticipate “what might happen next”. They will write their name labels for their sunflower pots and add entries into their learning journals as the caterpillars and chicks grow.

Maths: Sequencing of life cycles and growth will be discussed and observed by the children both through books and real life experience. When planting their seeds the children will count how many seeds there are and how many pots they will need for everyone. As the flowers grow the children will measure them and keep a record to see who’s has grown the tallest? Number rhymes such as ‘5 little ducks’ will be sung and association with numbers 1e. 2 and 2 dots and 2 objects.

UTW: Looking at habitats of insects the children will learn about where insects live and what they eat. Additionally their lifecycles will be studied and seen 1st hand – tadpole – frog, egg – chick and caterpillar – butterfly. The children will plant their own sunflower seed and tend to it for the ½ term.

Expressive arts and design: using different materials the children will be encouraged to make from clay ‘owl babies’ and a nest for them from other materials. The playdough will have glitter/sawdust added for texture and exploration. After examining and tasting the fruits and vegetables the children will create paintings with them. Inspired by their sunflowers the children will be encouraged to paint a replica of Van Goughs ‘Sunflowers’.

Free play: Within the water tray there will be underwater animals and diver, ducks of varying sizes/colours as well as fish/buckets/scoops/tubes…..A role play garden centre will be created where the children will be able to add numbers/prices to forms and labels alongside acting out being the customer/shop assistant and filling out paperwork. Whilst outside the children will explore the garden looking for insects and use our ‘bug watches’ to observe them. The bird feeders and bird bath will be set up and an observation post set up to record which birds visit.

Rising threes:

The topic is Dinosaurs, diggers and dirt!

PSED: Settling in with our new children who have just transitioned from the Dormouse room or just joined the setting. The ‘hello’ song will be learnt alongside the rooms routines such as registration and snack and Field mouse room rules and boundaries.

C&L: The children will be encouraged to talk about the topic and ask questions about dinosaurs – where they lied/what they ate. The children will be asked to bring in a photo of themselves playing outside and these will be transformed into a tree using handprints for the tree.

Lit: Fiction and non-fiction books will be read and story times will occur outside. Mark making will be encouraged in the mud tray alongside bark rubbing and tracing activities.

Phy: Gross physical movement will be encouraged through Yoga and Sticky Kids. Fine motor skills will be encouraged by creating dinosaurs with pasta and playdough, washing the dinosaurs using a toothbrush and making mud pies. .

Maths: Using number blocks the children will be encouraged to measure the dinosaurs and using pre-cut shapes create a dinosaur. In the mud tray, they will create patterns using shells/pebbles/pine cones/flowers and stone towers before counting them to see whose is the tallest.

UTW: Fossils will be created using salt dough and an erupting volcano from papier-mâché. Dinosaurs will be frozen in ice and the children will explore the properties of water as they watch it melt. Whilst out on a nature walk the children will collect different coloured item to study when back at Brambles.

EA&D: Using blocks dipped in paint/hand prints dinosaur pictures will be created and named after the children.

Dormouse room:

Plants and flowers:

Week 1 and 2 – insect hunting, Week 3 and 4 – seeds and plants, Week 5 and 6 – life cycle of a caterpillar

PSED: Together the children will explore the garden looking for insects and playing with the toy insects in the tuff spot tray with soil. When the caterpillars arrive, the children will care for them before releasing the butterflies into the garden. Using leaves to print with the children will construct a climbing wall plant.

C & L: After exploring the garden the children will be encouraged to talk about what they found outside. As they plant cress seeds they will be encouraged to talk about what they are doing and what they can see. The lifecycle of the caterpillar will be discussed.

Physical Development: Whilst in the garden the children will be encouraged to move around imitating an insect – slowly like a snail/quickly like an ant. Whilst listening to music and using scarves the children will be encouraged to move around emulating butterflies.

Lit: The stories of ‘The very busy spider’ and ‘The hungry caterpillar’ will be read and the crochet props from the story books used alongside each story. A cosy den will be made in the garden for the children to utilise whilst sharing stories.

Maths: An insect number line will be made with the children counting the insects in the garden to complete it. When the children are planting their seeds they will be encouraged to use their numbers to count and again when sorting the fruits and vegetables from ‘The hungry caterpillar’ book.

K&UW: Whilst exploring the garden the children will see the habitats of the insects, watch their plants grow and see the changes of the caterpillars as they emerge into butterflies.

EA&D: The children will make their own spiders and webs, caterpillars and butterflies as well as pictures of flowers from collage materials.

 

Staff:

Pam – our cook – has unexpectedly left the nursery but we wish her well in her new role. Mr and Mrs Waters will be filling in until June when Sarah will take over the role of cook again. The children do not seem to mind who cooks their dinners so long as they have a hot meal on the table!!

News:

Our next trustees meeting is being held on Thursday 4th May at 1pm. This will be @ Brambles. If any parent is interested in joining the trustees, please see Debbie.

Thank you to all who helped towards raising over £800 at our duck race on Saturday. This is an incredible figure and is not possible without continued parental support.

If your child has just joined Bernadette and Lindsey in the Rising 3 area they will be eligible for 15 universal hours of funding from the beginning of the autumn term. Debbie will give out EY2 forms just before summer and will then need to see a passport or birth certificate to validate the children’s details. If parents both work 16 hours or more (or if you are a single parent and working 16 hours or more) you should be eligible for an extended 15 hours. Please visit www.cornwall.gov.uk website, search for 30 hour funding and complete the forms to see if you are eligible. You should then be given an 11 digit number beginning 500 which Debbie will need to validate on the funding portal. Once you have a code you will receive an email every 3 months where you need to go back to the .gov website and revalidate your details. Please be aware this email can go into your junk mail! If the code is not revalidated it stops and will only reactivate when you reapply.

Summer:

Now the summer is finally approaching can all children please have a named sun hat and named bottle of sun cream in their bag hung on their pegs. A change of clothes will also be necessary as ‘water’ will feature quite a lot this term and the children love to get wet and dirty in the mud kitchen!!!

Now the warmer weather is approaching the children will spend most of the day outside. If your child is not well enough to be outside, they are not well enough to be at nursery.

Our annual sports day will be held at the end of the term (Tuesday 18th July provisionally). All Dormouse children who are walking will have a small session from 10-10.20 am, Rising 3’s 10.30-11.00 am and pre-school children 11.10 – 11.50 am. There will be a BBQ for pre-school parents (ONLY) and nearer the time a form will be sent out to ascertain numbers.

IF YOUR CHILD IS GOING TO ATTEND THE SPORTS DAY PLEASE LET DEBBIE KNOW SO THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF MEDALS WILL BE ORDERED.

Term dates:

17.04.2023 – 26.05.2023 first half of the term

1st and 8th May are bank holidays and we will be closed.

30th May – 2nd June half term. PLEASE FIND an ATTACHED HOLIDAY FORM

05.05.2023 – 21.07.2023 second half of the term

(17th – 21st July is unfunded).

24th July – 18th August, summer holidays. PLEASE FIND An ATTACHED HOLIDAY FORM

4th September is the start of the autumn term.

Holiday forms to be returned by Friday 5th May.

Thank you.

Holiday club: May 2023

Please ensure these forms are returned by Friday 5th May.

Please tick the requisite box if you know your child will be having a hot lunch during holiday club. This will allow us to have an estimate of lunches to order ingredients for and the dishes being cooked. You will still be able to order a hot lunches on the day if necessary.

Name: __________________________________________

May half – term:

Day

Start time

Finish time

Lunch

Tuesday 30th

Wednesday 31st

Thursday 1st

Friday 2nd

Summer holiday

Day

Start time

Finish time

Lunch

Monday 24th July

Tuesday 25th

Wednesday 26th

Thursday 27th

Friday 28th

Monday 31st

Tuesday 1st

Wednesday 2nd

Thursday 3rd

Friday 4th

Monday 7th

Tuesday 8th

Wednesday 9th

Thursday 10th

Friday 11th

Monday 14th

Tuesday 15th

Wednesday 16th

Thursday 17th

Friday 18th

 

Spring 2023 Newsletter – 2nd half term

Posted on: 24th April 2023

Welcome back to the second half of the Spring term.

Please ensure you look at the term dates and holiday clubs at the end of this letter.

Holiday forms are attached and need to be returned by Friday 3rd March.

Below is the topic each room is exploring this half-term and the exciting activities your child/ren may be involved in. If you feel you can help in any way towards the topic/activities please see Linda, Bernadette, Louise or Debbie.

Field mice room: Pre-school children

The topic is – Toys! week 1 –my teddy , week 2 –St Piran, week 3 – toys with wheels, week 4 – toy animals, week 5 – dinosaurs and week 6 – Easter.

Personal, Social & Emotional Development: Over the next 6 weeks the children will be learning the dance for St Piran’s day and working together in pairs. Discussions will be held about being kind to each other and exchanging of gifts at Easter time. Following on from last term where the children looked at baby photos of themselves and the differences this term they will be looking at animals and how they are different. Elmer the elephant will be discussed, how he is different but still the same and how he may feel being different. The children will be encouraged to try out new activities, concentrate and persevere at them.

Communication & Language: The children will talk about Easter and St Piran and the history behind our celebrations. New words will be introduced such as ‘patron saint’. Letters will be written to Elmer and small world toys incorporated into discussions about everyday situations. The chorus of ‘Trelawney’ will be learnt and ‘Kernow bis Vyken’ (Cornish for Cornwall forever).

The children have been looking and learning their phonics ready for school. They will be looking at C/K, E, H, R, M and D this term – one letter a week except for C & K which are looked at together. If you would like to continue this at home your child will have been discussing and thinking of words which start with the nominated letter, forming the letter in the air before then writing it down several times on a piece of paper. Please be aware if you are left handed and your child is right handed (or vice versa) when it comes to crossing letters such as f/t/x/E/F/A/J/T/X the direction of the letter crossing would be R-L for right hand writers and L-R for left handed writers.

Physical Development: The children have been learning the dance for St Piran’s day and if you would like to practice at home it is a walk of 1 2 3 steps and then a hop (details of the parade are at the end of the letter). Additional gross motor skills will involve moving like animals and across obstacle courses. Fine motor skills will be developed through the formation of letters, threading, small world equipment and constructing with small parts.

Literacy: The story of ‘St Piran’ and ‘The Easter story’ will be read and discussed. The tray game will be played where there are a range of objects and the children find the ones which begin with the particular sound of the week. ‘What’s in the box?’ will be played where a practitioner will describe an object and the children will try to guess what it is.

Maths: During small world play the children will sort objects/animals into sets, count them and then place them into different shaped fields whilst using positional language. During week 2 the children will look at different flags, symmetry and colours and then paint their own. Shapes will be looked at including – oval for Easter and circles during week 3 (wheels).

UTW: By looking at maps of Great Britain the children will chart the travels of St Piran from Ireland – Wales-Cornwall. During week 5 the children will be encouraged to bring in toys they had when they were younger or toys they have now or toys from an older sibling or from a parent. These will then be sequenced into toys I liked as a baby, what I like now and what I may like when I’m older. The remote controlled cars will be explored and the interactive screen utilised using the pre-writing programme.

Expressive arts and design: Using a range of media the children will create a large Elmer, Easter cards and eggs, print circle pictures, flags and puppets.

Free play: Within the water tray there will be assorted boats and water wheels, fishing games and pouring equipment. Whilst the sand tray contains dry sand; wheeled toys, sieves and jugs will be used. When the sand has water added; shells, pebbles twigs and dinosaurs will be added. The role play area will become a toy shop where the children visit and ‘buy’ a toy. A till, money, catalogues, stickers and pencils will be available for the children to incorporate into their play. There will be scented playdough, clay, gloop and other tactile experiences for the children to experience.

Rising threes:

The topic is Spring; week 1 – how we grow, week 2 – baby animals, week 3 – life cycles, week 4 – Plants, week 5 – insects, week 6 – Easter.

PSED: The children will discuss how we grow and the healthy food, exercise and sleep we require to aid this. They will further discuss unhealthy foods and why we should not eat too many of them. The theme of positive behaviour and being kind and helpful to each other will continue through the term.

C&L: ‘5 little speckled frogs’ and ‘Little Arabella Miller’ will be learnt and sung along with ‘5 little pears’. Whilst looking at different insects in the garden the children will discuss why they are good for the eco system. During week 2 they will pair and learn the names of animals – lioness and cub, cow and calf……

Lit: Whilst looking at growing things the children will write labels for parts of a flower and look at how tall Jack’s beanstalk grew. Easter cards will be made and the children to ‘write’ their names.

Phy: To promote fine motor skills the children will manipulate playdough into nests, make clothes peg birds and use these to pick up ‘pipe cleaner ‘worms, complete tracing activities and chop fruit for a fruit salad.

Maths: During cooking activities the children will use scales to weigh out ingredients, count a given amount and sort the vegetables they like into groups.

UTW: The children will take part in a spring walk around the field – ‘what can we see growing’? will be asked. The lifecycle of the chicken will be discussed ready for next term when some eggs will be hatched and they will continue to check the hen coop for eggs. Birds will be made using different media and magnifying glasses used to look for insects in the garden.

EA&D: Using different mediums the children will paint their hands and create chicks, create egg box daffodils, paint flowers using vegetables, create a handprint rainbow and make musical instruments.

Dormouse Room Spring Term Part 2.

Topic: Nursery Rhymes:

5 little ducks /Zooming to the moon & Twinkle twinkle little star /5 Little Men in a flying saucer

5 Little Speckled frogs /5 Little monkeys Hot cross buns & 5 currant buns

 

PSED: For our younger children they will be exploring the nursery rhymes through our treasure baskets which will be filled with objects from each nursery rhyme.

C&L: We will be reading, singing and hearing lots of language as we teach and encourage the children to sing along with us. We will use visual props and aids to help them to learn our new songs.

PD: We will be exploring the different ways we can move around: looking at how to swim as we cross the pond, taking big and slow footsteps as we walk across the moon, moving sideways as we fly through space, how we can hop like a frog and how we can jump up and down on the bed.

Literacy: Each nursery rhyme will have a book related to it which the children can look at individually or we will share as a whole group.

Math: All the nursery rhymes that we will be learning will involve the numbers 1-5. We will be using and repeating them throughout our play, our singing and when communicating. They will be reinforcing them around the environment so the children will feel confident about numbers and use them and number language in their play.

KUW: We will watch some of these rhymes on our big interactive screen and the link will be put on our Brambles Facebook group so you can sing along at home with your child. We will also use this opportunity to look at the celebrations which happen at Easter.

EA&D: We will be supporting and encouraging the children to use their own knowledge of the songs. They will be further encouraged to link this knowledge into the environment around them as they investigate and explore all the activities relating to the nursey rhymes.

 

Staff:

Sarah has taken over the lunches for this term as Pam had a family bereavement. We hope to see Pam again at Easter. Sarah will continue at Brambles after Easter as bank staff.

 

News:

Our next trustees meeting is being held on Monday 6th March at 3pm @ Brambles. If any parent is interested in joining the trustees please see Debbie.

If your child has just joined Bernadette and Lindsey in the Rising 3 area they will be eligible for 15 universal hours of funding from the beginning of the autumn term. Debbie will give out EY2 forms just before the summer holidays and will then need to see a passport or birth certificate to validate the children’s details. If parents both work 16 hours or more (or if you are a single parent and working 16 hours or more) you should be eligible for an extended 15 hours. Please visit www.cornwall.gov.uk website, search for 30 hour funding and complete the forms to see if you are eligible. You should then be given an 11 digit number beginning 500 which Debbie will need to validate on the funding portal. Once you have a code you will receive an email every 3 months where you need to go back to the .gov website and revalidate your details. Please be aware this email can go into your junk mail! If the code is not revalidated it stops and will only reactivate when you reapply.

DUCK RACE:

It is almost time for our annual duck race! This takes place at Kenidjack Valley in the river (about half way down). Duck tickets are attached to this letter- if you could sell them to family and friends it would be appreciated. Once the tickets have been sold please return them with the money to Debbie. If you would like a hard copy of the tickets please see Debbie. If you would like more ducks please print as many sheets as you require or ask Debbie for more. Once all tickets are returned they are placed in a container and then 20 are drawn – these go into race 1. This is continued until all the tickets are used and we have our races. Each race is run and the winner of each race is entered into the final. Winner of race 1 becomes duck 1 in the final…….so all finalists know which duck to watch!

Each race winner has a small prize and the final race has a 1st 2nd and 3rd prize.

There will be teas, cakes, burgers, raffles…..being sold and any donations of cakes or prizes for the raffle will be gratefully received.

The provisional date for this is Sunday 30th April @ 10.30 am.

ST PIRANS PARADE:

The pre-school children will be taking part in the parade on Friday 3rd March. We have been practising our 1 2 3 hop/jump with Marna who has kindly been in and played the music for us. We will be meeting at the Primary school at 1.20 pm. We will be leaving the school at 1.30 pm, parading through the town before finishing in the Plein where we will take part in the singing and have cake!

If you are watching the parade and take any photos of the children please email them to Debbie at manage@brambles-nursery.org.uk so they can be printed and added to the children’s journals. It is not always possible to take photos when you are dancing!!!

If your child does not attend but would like to take part please meet us there. They will need a parent as a partner. Please let Debbie know if you will be joining the parade so extra sashes can be taken along.

Please ensure the children are wearing a suitable coat for the weather.

MINACK TRIP:

The pre-school children have been invited to an educational session at the Minack on Wednesday 8th March. We will be leaving Brambles at 9.00 am and will not be able to wait for any late children. We have been able to hire 1 mini bus which takes 15 children therefore we will need parental help to transport some children and for supervision. If you are able to help with either of these please see Debbie.

If you have training for mini bus driving through the Council please see Debbie!

Please ensure the children have a warm and waterproof coat as well as a hat (maybe gloves?) as the Minack is exposed to the elements and it can be very cold there.

We will be back at Brambles by 12 pm for lunch.

LUNCHES:

If you are providing grapes in your child’s lunch box please ensure they are cut into quarters. Grapes are the 3rd highest choking hazard in young children. I know it can be time consuming but at lunch time practitioners do not have the time to cut up grapes/blueberries … when they may have up to 7 other children to supervise.

Term dates:

03-14.04.2023 Easter holidays but we will be CLOSED on Friday 7th and Mondays 10th for the Easter bank holidays.

PLEASE FIND ATTACHED A HOLIDAY FORM

17.04.2023 is the start of the summer term.

Thank you.

Easter holiday

Day

Start time

Finish time

Lunch

Monday 3rd April

Tuesday 4th

Wednesday 5th

Thursday 6th

Tuesday 11th

Wednesday 12th

Thursday 13th

Friday 14th