After our Christmas and New Year break we are excited to be back in our newly decorated hall.  The children have settled back in and we have welcomed some new children too.

We made the most of the lovely sunny weather yesterday and were outside playing in the garden.  The children were really interested in the places where the water had frozen.  We discussed the ice and why places in the garden had frozen.  The children loved looking and touching the ice, it’s texture and how it smashed on the ground. 

Today some of the children made a palace using the wooden cubes, shells, metal canisters and wooden storage boxes.  They  spent a long time creating this amazing piece.  Issy made some new playdoh with some of the children counting down the microwave timer and helping to stir.  Some children also spent time listening to the Jolly Phonics CD and following with the book. 

You have had the save the date and now Band Night is nearly upon us!  For a fantastic evening of food, live music and drinks please fill out the online form below to reserve your place (we may not be able to guarantee entry without a reservation).  Tickets will be £10 each – cash on the door.

Band Night Booking form

We thought it would be educational for the children to see how the money raised at the nativity could pay for our donation to the Foodbank.  Issy went to the supermarket and bought lots of nappies, wipes, baby formula, toothbrushes and food.  We showed the children all the products and explained to them where they were going and why.  They helped to pack them away in bags before Issy took them over to the Foodbank.  

Wow what a busy week we have had!  Not only have we been getting on with our usual activities.  We have had our Nativity and our end of term Christmas party.

We were so pleased with the children’s fantastic efforts at our nativity.  I hope you will all agree they did so well considering the number of parents and family members.  We have spent a few minutes for the last few weeks going over the songs and the children have enjoyed learning and singing the songs.

Thank you to everyone who helped with teas, coffees, selling raffle tickets, bringing cakes, raffle prizes and of course contributing on the day.  We raised £99 from raffle ticket sales, which will go directly back to preschool.  The refreshments raised £95 for the East Grinstead Food Bank.  All in all an amazing event that has not only helped our preschool but also people in our area who are needing help with food.

What a wonderful time everyone had at the Nativity! It was a fantastic performance and we were so proud of all the children. Many thanks to the staff for all their hard work and to all the parents, friends and family who came and supported us with the cake sale and raffle. ​There will be more photos to follow very soon. 

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to our raffle hampers. We have some wonderful prizes for the Nativity raffle on Monday. Very exciting! Don’t forget we will also be serving cakes and drinks. The performance starts at 11.45am.

This week has been another filled week so far.  Yesterday we went to the Primary school to see their Nativity.  The children all sat very well and listened to the whole play and were fascinated.  Well done to all the children and their teachers for a great performance. 

Today we put up our new preschool Christmas tree.  Our tree and decorations were kindly donated by Homebase along with lights. This is preschool’s first ever Christmas tree, many of the children helped to thread the string on the baubles and place them on the tree.  Another great opportunity to get fine motor work in.  We have also put our handmade Tree decorations on. 

Issy has been busy making some of the Nativity set with some of the children which has involved lots of cutting and sticking.

As well as all our Christmas activities this week we been using the gears set, threading and the children have been creating some fantastic pictures with felt pens, paint and sticking.

Please look for the sheets to sign up for help with the Christmas party and nativity food, also raffle prizes.  Every little helps us to continue to keep our community preschool thriving. 

Another few mornings packed with lots to do.  Liz has been in for music and singing. She used some of her puppets, which are always a great hit with the children.  The children used song and dance as well as the shaking eggs!  Lots of finishing touches to our Christmas craft projects and our decorations for our preschool tree at Highbrook’s Tree Festival.  Thank you to Liz who came along to help put the decorations up this afternoon. 

Today we have used the small world farm animals.  The children worked together to create their own farmyard.  A great way to enrich their imagination and explore the world around them.  We also had our festive threading out and the very popular Geoboards for fine motor skills.  

Monday the 12th December is our Nativity Play.  Everyone is welcome, including friends and family.

The play itself will start at 11.45am and we will be serving refreshments and cakes and also having a raffle to help raise money for Pre-school.  Christmas cards printed with a design made by the children will also be on sale (these can also be purchased at Pre school any day next week).

We do need some help with this and were wondering if parents could please help with any of the below:

• Cakes/mince pies to serve after the play
• Any food or drink items (wine, chocolates, christmas puddings, jams, chutneys) that we can use to make up hampers for the raffle
• Anything else you might be able to contribute as prizes for the raffle

Please bring any items for the raffle to school next week.  There will be a sign up sheet for cakes at school.  As always, anything you can do to help is very gratefully received and all proceeds go towards resources for Pre-school.

We started the morning with lots of projects to be getting on with.  On the art table children were getting on with lots of their Christmas art works.  We have also started to make decorations for our preschool Christmas tree, which will be at our neighbouring village of Highbrook’s  Christmas Tree Festival with lots of other village organisations trees.   We have started to create handprints with each child which we will decorate during the week.  There is more information about the Festival on the Hoathly Hub here – http://www.hoathlyhub.info

We have bought a new Latches Board which the children were really keen on using for the first time today. The board has multiple levels of learning, not only does it work their fine motor skills carefully opening and shutting the various types of latches and doors, but also helps with number recognition, colours and animals.  We also had the gears out on the large mat, so that the children could develop their gear designs.

Our morning learning was unfortunately cut short by a technical problem with the halls fire alarm system.  When the alarms sounded we exited the building with great speed and the children listened very well to our instructions.  We all went to our assigned assembly place at the primary school.  Whilst we were at the school the alarm continued to be triggered. We hope you all understand that we could not continue preschool without the fire alarm system working correctly.  Technicians have been out to fix the problem this afternoon, so we will see you all tomorrow.