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. 

​

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.

West Hoathly Pre-school is very keen to learn your views, and ask that you take a few minutes to answer the questions on this survey. The answers you provide will allow the Pre-school to effectively reflect on its performance, and help make any changes that may be useful. Please answer each question by ticking the response you think most reflects your feelings or opinion on each question. There is space at the end to
make any further comments you would like to include.

You do not need to identify yourself on the form. We really appreciate your help in this matter, and value everyone’s views. This will enable us to greater understand any weaknesses or strengths that may be detailed.

Please click on the link below if you would like to share your views with us.

Pre-School Survey

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. 

I have just been setting up your email addresses so that we can easily and safely share what your child has been doing at preschool throughout the term.  This is great for everyone to keep up to date with their child’s progress and keeping in contact with us.  There is also a place for you to comment or give feedback.  This is really useful for us to hear anything you have to say or what you have observed at home.  

If for some reason you haven’t received an email please let me know.
Thanks 

Becca

Happy New Year to you all!

We hope you have all had a lovely festive time over the last few weeks.  We are really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow and over the next few days. 

This week we are going to focus on months of the year, cold, ice and appropriate clothing for the weather. 

We are politely requesting that you use lateral flow tests before you bring your child in tomorrow, to help keep us all safe and preschool running. 

Many thanks