We’ve been up to lots this week including preparing for our Nativity next month.  You have probably heard our Nativity music CD playing at drop in the morning. We have started practicing the words and actions during circle time each day.  We’ve also continued creating stars for our backdrop.  

We started the morning by everyone really wanting to get involved with building the highest wooden block tower.   They loved to make really intricate and precariously balanced towers.  The bigger the better!  The children slowly dispersed throughout the hall looking for other activities to take part in.  Some children sat for a while in the book corner reading to each other and carefully handling the books.  Some of the boys used clipboards to create maps and went on their own adventure. Issy was playing a number game with a small group of children.  During Circle Time this week we have also been looking at the numbers 1-6, this includes the figures and also matching value.  Today we played a game based on ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’ using a large dice and stepping the number of dots thrown.  We were aiming to get to our coats and bags for pickup time. 

For all you music lovers out there, make sure you put this fantastic Band Night in your diaries. 21st January 2017! 

Raising money for the West Hoathly Village Pre-school.

 Email preschoolchair@gmail.com to reserve your place!

The children all enjoyed ‘cooking’ food using the play kitchen. They used their imagination to create “food for baby”, and we had a good supply of ‘tea’ and ‘coffee’ throughout the morning. 

For our fine motor area we had the ‘straw and box’ game which is still a great hit with the children.  They love matching the colours and popping the straws through the correct holes.  We also had the gears where the children linked multiple sheets connecting the gears together. 

We had another cardboard box today so created tunnels for the small vehicles, each tunnel had a number and colour.  The children helped to choose the colours.

Outside the children had opportunity to use the chalk and water with paintbrushes to mark make. 

Today the children investigated the new Geoboards. These boards are great for the children’s coordination, hand strength, fine motor coordination and shape recognition. They enjoyed making different patterns and shapes and the occasional ping across the hall!

We also had the wooden train set, puzzles and the cars out and the children used them throughout the morning.  The children again set up a plane using chairs and we continued this play with a tray of glasses being offered and tickets for their ‘IssyJet Airways’ flight.  We flew to Africa and saw some of the wild animals including elephants and lions.  But as one child pointed out “we have to be quiet or we will scare them”.   Not only did we fly to Africa this morning we also had time for Liz to do singing with us and also build a camp under the tables.

We’ve had lots of imaginative play so far this week.  Someone bought in a box this week, the children jumped straight in it creating a car, a bus and a plane.  The children used felt pens and pencils to create switches, buttons, wheels and holes.  The children continued this theme by creating a train using chairs and a tambourine as a steering wheel. Later they moved the chairs to a different formation and they now had a plane!

The children also helped Issy to make playdoh using the microwave.  We chose the colour green and everyone enjoyed counting down the seconds until the next stir.  

Today one of the children was fascinated by the large magnets they experimented with what they stuck to and what they didn’t.  Also how they repelled and were attracted to each other.

Some of the children enjoyed using the sorting pie.  Helping with matching and fine motor skills.

The West Hoathly School Christmas fair is on Saturday the 26th of November from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.  We have been given a stall at the fair to help us with our fundraising.  We are planning on selling lots of Christmas sweet bags and also doing some face painting (and temporary tattoos and nail painting with parental permission).

We would be really grateful is some parents could help us by giving up half an hour or an hour of their time to help man the stall.  Don’t worry if you can’t facepaint we will have someone who can there!

Also, if you have anything to donate to sell please let us know.  We did try last year to make lots of lovely gifts to sell but they didn’t sell in the end!

Please let me know if you can help and what time would suit or if you can do any time we have a slot, might be worth teaming up with a friend but one of the committee will be around as well.

Many thanks in advance!

Dear Parents,

Many thanks to those of you who answered our Parent Voice questionnaire last half term. If you have not had the chance and would still like to please follow this link.

Parent Voice Survey

We will be meeting about the feedback in the next few days and will publish more information on any actions shortly.  However one area where parents felt they needed more support was in how to support their child’s learning and development at home.

We have therefore published a page on our website (follow the link below or look at the pages bar on the left hand side of the website home page) which will give you some tips and ideas.  If you would like any further information or guidance please feel free to comment on the page or to speak to a member of staff.

Helping your child at home

Today we continued our theme this week and made a light box.  This is something fun and easy that can be done at home too. We used a small clear plastic storage box with some battery operated fairy lights.  The children were really excited by it and all wanted to come and have a look.  We used coloured glass beads and coloured cellophane to make patterns.  We extended play by racing to see who could pick up a chosen colour of beads the fastest. It was a fantastic way for the children to explore, investigate and be creative. 

We also had the cars and trains out parking them on specific number to help the children with their number recognition.  Two of the girls wanted to look at different types of butterflies, so we guided them in using the computer to find lots of images.  This helps to develop the children’s understanding of technology the use of the apparatus, how it works and what it can be used for in a safe way.

During Circle Time this week we have been singing and taking part in the actions from the Jolly Phonic CD letters S to C/K.

We hope you all have a great half term break.

Today Liz came to preschool for singing, and she bought along her parachute and also her popcorn machine.  The children sang songs then we all held a handle and tried to keep a ball on the parachute.  We sang a ‘Popcorn’ song and we used beanbags on the parachute to represent the popcorn.  The children all enjoyed this activity.  Liz then made popcorn for the children discussing how and where corn came from and how it was transforming into popcorn.

The children are also enjoying making treasure maps at the moment.  This has been a child initiated activity over the last few days.  They have been discussing ‘X’ marks the spot and tracking down their treasure in the hall.  

At Circle Time we sang along to the Jolly Phonics CD, copied the movements and looked at pictures showing the upper and lowercase letter.