We wanted to share one of our favourite sensory tray activities.  Today we used coloured rice in our tray, we started with saucepans, different types of spoons, flowers from the garden and jugs. As the morning went on and the children’s interest developed we added other items such as paper bags a plastic tray with small compartments to fill. We sometimes fill our trays with flour, water, mud, paint etc

There are great benefits for children using sensory trays.  They encourage children to problem solve, experiment, develop language, increase fine motor skills and brain development.  But the children just think they’re having really great fun!!

Here’s a link for the recipe we used today for our pink rice- 

How to Dye Rice

We were so lucky with such beautiful weather yesterday, there was a little frost in the shade.   It was so lovely to be out in the woods again the children really enjoyed themselves and we were complimented by the Forest instructors about how lovely and engaged with the children were. 

We investigated the frosty grass and leaves.

We planted more trees.

We drank blackberry and apple tea.  The blackberries we collected last year and had been saved in the freezer. 

Erica melted wax on the fire, she then made small holes in the ground and popped a string in for the wick.

We made fairy houses against the trees using sticks and leaves.

We had songs and stories around the fire while we ate our snacks.

We put wool we found on a fallen tree for the birds to use in their nest building.

Here is information from the NHS website about what to do if your child is showing any Covid like symptoms. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms in children

Children can get coronavirus (COVID-19), but they seem to get it less often than adults and it’s usually less serious.

The main symptoms of COVID-19 are:

a high temperature

a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours

a loss or change to sense of smell or taste – this means they cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

What to do if your child has symptoms

If your child has any of the main symptoms of COVID-19, even if they’re mild:

Get a PCR test (test that is sent to a lab) to check if they have COVID-19 as soon as possible.

Your child should stay at home and not have visitors (self-isolate) until you get the test result – they can only leave home to have the test. Check if you and anyone else your child lives with need to self-isolate.

PCR booking – 

https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

Please don’t forget we’ll be at Forest school tomorrow, 8.45am.  Please ensure your child is in warm waterproof clothing and footwear.  It’s not due to rain but it’s going to be very wet and muddy from today’s rain.  

If it’s possible to share lifts please try to as the roads are narrow and parking is limited.  We’re really looking forward to being back in the woods. 

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday. 

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This week we’ve been looking at Chinese New Year. 

There are some interesting activities for you to do and clips to watch here- 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/chinese-new-year

The Best 30 Chinese New Year Activities and Crafts for Kids in 2022

We have had news that the village school will be closing from tomorrow, due to the current high infection rate. Two members of staff at preschool will now be homeschooling their children. This will mean that our ratios of children to practitioners will not be met.  We have therefore made the difficult decision to close preschool for the rest of this week. All being well we will be back for Forest school on Monday but will stay in touch over the weekend using this blog. 

This week we have been looking at Chinese New Year, we’ve made lanterns, watched the new year celebrations and the Lion Dancing in the streets. There are some clips to watch on CBeebies and we will send some more fun things to do tomorrow using the blog. 

 Any problems please email us on WHPSadmissions@gmail.com

This is just a reminder that currently there are a number of cases within the village and we ask parents to exercise caution when bringing their child to preschool.  The current guidance from the government is that all under 5’s with a case within their household should book an official PCR (NOT a lateral flow at home test).  We really do thank you all for all the care you have all shown with this, it has really helped us to remain open over the last few months. 

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve added to all our usual activities by looking at transport and  this week native birds. This coincides with this weekend being the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatcher https://www.rspb.org.uk/. We have placed a bird feeder on our window to see if we can attract any birds over the next few days, made our own binoculars, bird collages, created bird food pots using oranges and on Thursday we went for a walk to look and listen for birds.

Last week we looked at transport counting wheels, naming different 2D shapes, looking at different vehicle types.  One morning our garden was so cold it had iced over so we set up an indoor obstacle course which again gave us great opportunity to look at shapes (jumping onto), colours (hoops we moving over) and we could use our gross motor skills by balancing, running, weaving through, rolling and jumping.

We also made some lovely vegetable soup for our snack time. 

  

We’ve returned Bach from Christmas looking at lots of fun and interesting things.  We’ve also found a new way to share pictures of your children.  You should have all received an email inviting you to join Evidence Me.  If you agree we can then share photos directly with you via email.  It’s great to receive any feedback from these shares so that we can hear if you have anything to add. 

We’ve looked at the weather, our clothing and ice.  We found ice outside in the garden and also we had a tuff tray inside which we could melt with warm water. 

We’ve talked about out feelings and made our own Colour Monster board.

Outside ice fun

Dinosaur tuff tray which included a volcano.  We had a big book which helped us to identify which dinosaurs were which.  We talked a lot about volcanos and lava.

We had a visit from some 7 week old puppies! We asked questions, listened and played with them.

Our chats about volcanoes in the dinosaur tray led us on to looking at real volcanoes and we watched a short clip of lava erupting from a volcano.

We made our own volcanoes using vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring.  

Getting our hands moving using the tweezers and playdough. 

Everyone was enjoying the role play kitchen getting involved with cooking, cleaning and household jobs.

The string and cup telephones were a hit.

We wanted to make parents aware that this morning we have had a report of a positive case of covid within our setting.  We are (as always) taking measure to clean, ventilate the room and wear masks when staff are close.  

If we could ask parents to please err on the side of caution if they think their child may not be well.