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Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to pre-school!
We hope that you and your families are keeping well and may we take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and support throughout these difficult few months.
Due to the ongoing situation, we have had to adapt some of our activities and routines but we would like to reassure you that your child’s safety, happiness and well being is our primary concern. We are working hard to make the pre-school a fun place to be despite the limitations.
The theme for this half term is Introduction to activities and Animals. The areas we are looking at are as follows:
Week 1 - Re -Introduction to activities for children already familiar with the setting
Week 2 – Introduction to Pre-school activities (5 new children starting)
Week 3 – Introduction to Pre-school activities (5 new children starting)
Week 4 – Jungle animals
Week 5 – Sea animals
Week 6 – Farm animals and Harvest
Week 7 – Pets
We are really grateful to all our parent’s for their continued support of the pre-school but special thanks go to Sarah (Finn’s mum) and Becky (Chester’s mum) who have agreed to be our new parent reps this term. The fund raising activities of the parent reps are invaluable as it helps us to buy new resources for the children’s benefit.
Due to the COVID 19 restrictions some things will be a little bit different this term.
- Although all the staff are working in the hall, you will only see one member of staff at the door. If you have a specific concern about your child please phone or email the pre-school. Alternatively messages can be given to the staff member at the door and will be shared as necessary.
- Sadly, Barney Bear will not be able to visit your homes for the foreseeable future but we are planning to introduce the activity into the session instead.
- Craft work such as drawings, painting and collage will be ‘quarantined’ in individual bags for 72 hours in the pre-school before being sent home. This is in line with government guidelines but if you would like to take any pictures home on a daily basis then please let the staff know.
- Similarly, we are unable to show items related to the theme brought in from home but will endeavour to use pre-school resources to make story and discussion an engaging activity.
- This year we will be unable to invite the parents into the hall to celebrate Harvest Festival. We will still be talking to the children about Harvest time and learning some new songs so the occasion will not go unrecognised.
We are delighted that the children are back at the pre-school. Although this was only their first day back, all the children settled very quickly into playing with their friends. They took the new regimes of cleaning and hand washing in their stride and loved having the whole garden to themselves! We look forward to a happy, healthy half term.
With best wishes from
The Staff Team
Introduction to activities and Animals
During this term we will be welcoming back many children who are familiar with the pre-school. We will be helping them to settle back into the setting by talking about the routines of the morning, promoting co-operative play and explaining the need for enhanced hand washing and cleaning routines. 10 new children will be joining the pre-school family; there will be a focus on helping them to settle by encouraging friendships between children and formation of relationships with the adults. We will be promoting their independence by encouraging them to choose activities for themselves and supporting the children as they learn to play co-operatively.
As we settle into a new term, there will be an emphasis on moving around the setting safely especially with regard to using steps. We will be encouraging the use of large equipment with control and co-ordination and moving with good spatial awareness around people and obstacles. Good hand to eye co-ordination will be promoted during play and the children will be encouraged to use a pincer grip when using fine motor skills.
There will be a big focus on hygiene especially hand washing, coughing and blowing noses. Children will be supervised when washing their hands to ensure it is done effectively. We will support children who are being toilet trained as they develop their independence. We have purchased new toilet seats which can be adapted to have smaller seats specifically to help the children to master this essential life skill.
We will be supporting the children as they learn to recognise their name cards and coat pegs. There will be opportunities to mark make during role play, on a large scale and in different mediums.
At story time there will be a focus on books about animals in line with our theme. For the more confident children, we will be promoting the phonic sound of letters by doing the Barney Bear activity in the setting.
We will be encouraging the children to play imaginatively in role play areas such as a building site, hairdressers and a pizzeria!
Although the collage trolley will not be in use, resources of varied texture, shape and colour will be available as well as some animal prints for creative pictures. Sensory activities like sand, shaving foam and lentils will be available for individual play.
There will also be opportunities to participate in music and movement sessions as well as experiment with musical instruments.
We will be encouraging the children to develop good listening skills and to take turns to speak in conversation with others. To promote understanding we will be re-enforcing verbal instruction with signing and picture prompts.
Although there are some restrictions on singing currently, we will continue to engage in this fun way of learning new words and songs whilst following the government guidelines.
There will be lots of opportunity to enter into conversations with adults during the session.
During the term, the children will have the opportunity to explore basic science using magnets, mirrors and gears. With small world toys they will be able to recreate different scenarios that reflect the real world. There will be a focus on talking about animals, their features and habitats.
As autumn progresses we will be talking about the changing seasons and looking for differences in the garden.
We will be talking about the festival of Harvest during week 6 in conjunction with looking at farm animals.
We will be encouraging the children to learn to count using songs, posters and activities on the puzzle table. When singing number songs, the children will be learning to count with 1:1 correspondence by counting on their fingers. Number recognition will be promoted with paint stampers, on the collage table and using table games.
Awareness of mathematical shapes will be encourage through various puzzles, games and construction toys
- Encourage your child to put on and take off their coat independently.
- Encourage your child to recognise their own name
- Talk about germs and why we have to wash our hands. Encourage them to wash their hands properly. (There are story books to help with this and we have a simple song to help the children learn this skill - ask one of the staff)
- Encourage co-operative play at home with friends or siblings, engage them in activities that require turn taking using phrases like "My turn then its your turn"
- As the term progresses, go for a walk in the woods and talk about what is happening to the trees. Look for acorns or conkers - you could use them to make a collage or to practise counting