Today we made some Easter biscuits.  All the children participated by helping to weigh out ingredients and taking turns at mixing.  This was also great sensory activity using touch and smell to explore the different ingredients. 

If you would like to make some more at home here is the recipe –

200g butter, 150g caster sugar, 2 egg yolks, 400g plain flour, 1 tsp mixed spice, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 2-4 tbsp milk and items for decorating the biscuits.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees and grease trays.

Beat sugar and butter together until fluffy. 

Sieve in the flour and spices, then add enough milk to make a soft dough.  

Roll out until around 5mm in thickness.

Cut using Easter cutters.

Bake for around 15mins, or until pale golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack. 

H

Dear Parents,

We have received some information from the West Sussex family center regarding the sessions and groups that they run for local families.  This includes Tootsie Time which is run in the West Hoathly Village Hall every Friday morning from 9.30 am.  Please click on the links below for more information.

Central April – June 2017 PULLOUT

North April – June 17 PULLOUT

North Programme April – June 2017

Today Issy made our new sunflower height chart.  All the children will have a chance to put their height up, and at the end of Summer term we will see how much they have grown.  At circle time we arranged ourselves in height order.  When arranging ourselves we were using the words ‘smaller’ and ‘taller’ to describe height.  

We have also been dressing Issy’s toy giraffe.  The children have been dressing him up in different outfits practising using zips and shoelaces.  

The children have been really enjoying some of our board games at the moment, one of their favourite games in dinosaur dominoes.  

Today we used the Beebot.  The Beebot is an exciting robot the children can program using directional buttons on the top.  It’s great for encouraging use of directional language, sequencing and learning about estimation. Some of children used it to estimate the width of the hall.  They correctly estimated the amount of movements across the hall, and were very excited about their accomplishment. 

Some of the children were in the literacy area using chalks to form letters.  There are always Biff and Chip books to look through in this area.  Some of the children made up their own narratives looking at the pictures for reference. 

Thank you to all the Mum’s who came along on Thursday for some tea and cake.  It was lovely to see everyone who could make it.  We hope you all had a fabulous Mother’s Day.

All parents should have received our new Wow moment notes.  We know that children do some amazing things at home too, and we want to hear all about them.  Whether it’s building an amazing lego tower, swimming a length of the pool, writing their own name or recognising numbers up to 10 we would like to know all about it.  It’s really important for us to work in partnership with our parents to aid your child’s learning journey.  These slips will be added to your child’s Learning Journal and will help us to individually plan our next steps. 

  As well as all our other exciting and engaging activities, we were also enjoying looking at people who help us in our community.  Our role play area was utilised as a police and fire station.  The children used the telephone to receive calls from people who had lost things. They made notes on their clipboards and created a small jail which sadly Issy and Jane had to spend time in.  

We also had some special visitors, three of our local Police Community Support Officers. We got the chance to ask lots of questions and they told us about their part in our community. We also talked about when we might need to call 999, and the importance of knowing our name and where we live.

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to those of you who filled out our Parent View Questionnaire in February. The answers you provided will allow the Pre-school to effectively reflect on its performance, and help make any changes that may be useful.   Please find a summary of the responses and our action points on the link below.

https://westhoathlypreschool.org/parent-view-and-improvement-plans/

  Today we were back for another morning full of interesting activities to encourage learning.  In the role play area we had our doctors surgery along with waiting room.  The children took turns to dress up. We had our receptionists taking appointments and making notes.  Tara had lots of bandages applied to her head and arms by the doctors and nurses.  The children really enjoyed getting involved, exploring the theme, sharing the equipment and discussing what they were doing with their peers. 

In the garden we have the new addition of a mud kitchen.  The mud kitchen is a fantastic new resource for the children to experiment, explore, discover, create, describe, pour, use tools, role play, learn the importance of hand washing and have lots of fun! 

We also had a visit from five day old chicks, one of our parents kindly bought in the chicks for the children to handle.  The children held them and were all very gentle with them.   They also sat back and watched and listened to the sound they made and how they moved.

Today we opened our new box of small world construction equipment.  We used rice and placed the magnetic letters into the Tuff tray.  Some of the children buried the letters in the rice, transported them using the crane and a few were mixed in the cement mixer.  This activity is great for getting the children to work together, use their imagination, experiment with texture, weight and letters.

In our home corner we were setting the table for lunch, taking orders for food and also washing up. 

We used cornflour and water to create a lovely texture for mark making and experimenting.  Some of the children used the sandpaper letters and traced the letter  into the flour mix using fingers, pens and lollipop sticks. 

Also the Bee-Bot robot was being used on the island mat.  The children can program the direction and movement of the robot. 

Dear Parents,