Water beads

I've read a lot about these recently so ordered some from Ebay.  They are fantastic!  They arrive in a little bag and each bead is about 5mm in diameter.  They need soaking in water for 24 hours, when they expand to marble-sized squidgy beads.  They feel great and the children had a lovely time just feeling them.  We added some scoops later on and they filled a big jar with them. 

I've ordered some more from Ebay for future play.  If you fancy getting some for home, just search 'water beads' on Ebay and mine were only £1.75 for 20g, which I think is a bargain!

I like this!

Tax credits audit

Just to let you know that tax credits are auditing a lot of parents at the moment and require invoices issued by childcarers. 

Please keep all your invoices safe in case they contact you in the future.

Great website for craft ideas

I've just found a great website for craft ideas that might be great fun to do with your children.  We will definitely be having a go with some of them here.  I have already ordered some water beads!

http://www.theimaginationtree.com/p/about.html

I will post a link in 'our links' on the right side of the home page.

Painting

The children did a fantastic painting today.  We covered the table in paper and squirted different coloured paints all over the paper.  The children then used various items, like brushes and sponges, to spread the paint.  They explored the paint with their fingers and the sharp end of the brushes to make lots of marks in the thick paint. 

The painting is drying outside on the decking at the moment and we will put it up in the playroom if it dries without breaking!

EYFS 2012 parents leaflet

I have emailed this leaflet to everyone today, so please check your inboxes when you get chance. 

Please speak to us about anything you're unsure of. 

Teddy bears' picnic

We had fun today at our jubilee teddy bears' picnic! 

We decorated buns and had teddy bear sandwiches

Even the sun came out for us!

Jubilee

On Wednesday 6^th and Thursday 7^th June, so that all children will get a chance to join in, we will be having a teddy bears’ picnic in aid of Action Medical Research.  We thought this year that we would combine it with the queen’s diamond jubilee, so would have a red, white and blue theme for this.

It would be great if your child could wear red, white and blue on these two days and bring with them a teddy or other cuddly toy. 

We will have a picnic with a red, white and blue theme and will make cakes, teddy biscuits as usual. 

We would be very grateful if you would donate £2 in aid of Action Medical Research which is a UK-wide medical research charity dedicated to helping babies and children.  We will collect all the donations and send it off to them.

We are really looking forward to this!

Tesco vouchers

Tesco have now finished the vouchers for school scheme so if you have any spare vouchers we would be very grateful.

Diamond Jubilee

Erin was chatting to us today about the queen's jubilee which has prompted me to order some jubilee bits and bobs for crafting.  Think we might have a little jubilee picnic too that week to celebrate.

If anyone sees any crafty bits in the pound shops when they are out and about please will you let me know and I'll go and get them.  :-)

New EYFS

As you may know, they EYFS is changing in September so Chris and I are on a training course tonight from 7-9 to get some more information on the changes. 

We will keep you informed of any alterations to policies etc as and when we do them. 

Fun at the duck pond and park

Weekly Learning Journey sheets

There are some weeks that we don't get chance to fully complete a sheet to send home but this doesn't mean that we are not providing your child with lots of varied activities during the day, we just haven't had chance to record them!

We mainly complete the learning journey sheets in an evening and sometimes we don't get chance, due to family activities, and have to catch up with them the following week.  As you will appreciate, they do take quite some time to complete as we link many of the photos and observations to the EYFS learning and development records.   
 
If you don't get a sheet one week, please don't feel like you can't complete a sheet of paper at home letting us know what your child has been doing at the weekend.  We love to hear about their home life and any milestones they have reached.  Any sheet of paper would be ok, we will just slot it into their file here.  We know you're all busy people too though, so if you don't get chance to complete anything then please don't worry. 

We hope that you all enjoy the sheets that we create for you.  Although the EYFS doesn't require even half as many observations, we feel it is good for you, as parents, to be able to get a glimpse of your child's time with us.  We would have loved a diary of our children's lives whilst they were at playschool/nursery so hope that these files bring you lots of pleasure.  :-)

More pictures of our week this week.....

We planted some sunflower seeds

We had a walk down Robins Lane to see the horses

We went to see the ducks at the duck pond

Our week so far.....

We made lots of music!

We had our morning snack outside - lovely apple pieces

We watered some plants

We played with the playdoh

Parking when dropping off and collecting

We know that there are sometimes cars parked outside our house at these times, but please would you not park across our driveway, but park a little way along the road and walk to our house.

There are three of us in the family who drive so there is a chance that one of us may need to leave or drive in to our driveway at these times of day. 

We appreciate your understanding with this. 

 

St. George biscuits

Yum!

week 3 this week

Happy St. Georges Day!

The children have made some fabulous flags this morning!

Learning Journey files

Please could these be returned as soon as possible please :)

Week 2 this week

50 things to do before you're 11!

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/fifty-things-to-do-before-youre-11/story-fn7x8me2-1226325861919

Happy Easter to you all!

Madhatters

We went to Madhatters today.  There is a photo on the children's blog for you to look at. 

Week 1 this week

National Trust - Natural Childhood

Here is an interesting article about children and being outdoors:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/servlet/file/store5/item789980/version2/natural_childhood.pdf

An article about allowing children to play outdoors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17495032

Fun with letters

We played with the foam letters again today.  We slid them down a cardboard tube and saw whether we knew which letter sound came out of the bottom.  We also wrote lots of names and words and talked about the sounds at the beginning of words. 

Easter cards

Look at our fantastic Easter cards!

Gorgeous weather for being outside!

We've had so much fun outdoors recently.  Yesterday we did lots of chalking on the patio and this morning we visited the ducks at the duck pond. 

week 3 this week

Easter crispy cakes

We made these today.  Yum!

Foam letters

We made lots of children's names with the foam letters today. 



We had lots of fun playing outdoors too!



Week 2 this week

Happy Mothers' Day!

Hope you all had a lovely day yesterday and liked the cards that your children made. 

Frog spawn

We went to the duck pond today and saw lots of frogspawn and frogs.  One was peeping at us out of the water!

CONGRATULATIONS!

.........to Tyler and his mummy and daddy on the birth of baby Kyle, born today weighing 7lbs 11oz.  Lots of love from all of us xxxxx

A surprise

The children made some lovely surprises only to be seen next Sunday ;).

Here they all are at the table, but obviously we can't show you a close-up!

Happy birthday Maggie!

Maggie is 9 today!  Happy birthday to Maggie Moo Moo!

Week 1 this week

A big thank you

Thank you so much to everyone who came early for their children today.  Chris is still not feeling too good, but hopefully it won't last long (and I've asked him not to share it!!). 

Obviously we will let you know if we are unable to open on Monday, but fingers crossed it will be a short 'bug'. 

Thank you again, I really appreciate it.  Have a great weekend. 

Spring daffodils

Look at our beautiful daffodils!

http://www.bookstart.org.uk/bookstart-packs/bookstart-treasure-chest

Tesco Vouchers for Schools and Clubs

We are collecting these again this year, so if anyone has any to spare we would be very grateful.

Feeding the swans

We've been to the duck pond again today.  The swans were very hungry and the others didn't really get much of a look in!

week 3 this week

Duck pond

We have just come back from the duck pond and the children are sat eating some lovely, warm toast so I though I would post a photo.

There weren't many ducks today, but we did see some Canada geese and 2 swans. 

Week 2 this week

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The children made some beautiful butterflies this morning. 

Sickness bug

Unfortunately there is a rather nasty sickness bug doing the rounds at the moment, so if your child has sickness and/or diarrhoea, even if it is only once, then please keep them at home to try and minimise the risk of it spreading throughout all the children and ourselves.  Please keep your child at home for 48 hours after the LAST bout of sickness/diarrhoea.

Thank you.

Week 1 this week

Valentine's biscuits

We made some lovely heart-shaped biscuits today.

Hope you all enjoy them! 

See you next week xx

Valentine's Day

We made some pictures and cards for our family today. 

Don't they look fab?

New page

I have added a new page to the blog, entitled 'What to bring each day'.  It has a list of items to send with your child - if I've missed anything please let me know. 

Shaving foam

We played with shaving foam today and had lots of fun exploring it.  Erin said it was like ice-cream, so we sprinkled hundreds and thousands on top to make it even more like it!

Apologies

We are really sorry that we weren't able to send out the sheets with what your child had done with us last week.  We only have Microsoft Word Starter and, for some reason, it has stopped working so we've had to purchase the 'Word' package and are waiting for it to arrive in the post. 

What happened to our dragon?

We don't know.......but he is 'Very Hungry'!!!!

Week 2 this week

Week beginning January 23rd is week 1

It's Chinese New Year on 23rd January, so for our tea-time snack we will be having a selection of Chinese food.

Chinese Dragon

The children made a Chinese dragon, using lots of different coloured and textured square pieces of paper.  It looks fantastic and is now on the playroom wall!

wipes

Please could you make sure that there are enough wipes in your child's bag to last a full day.  Thanks :).

Holidays

We have changed the week we are off in October.  Please see your invoice for the new details.

Chinese dragon

We will be making a collage Chinese dragon sometime this week.  It links with Chinese New Year, which this year is the year of the dragon, but we're making it because the children enjoyed making that large collage snake so much when we did the 'Dear Zoo' animals on the playroom wall. 

Photo to follow...........

Week beginning 16th January is week 3

Huggies wipes

Just to let you know, Tesco are selling Huggies wipes at buy 1, get 2 free at the moment!  Bargain!  Not sure how long for, but it might be worth calling in if you're passing.

What a fantastic den!

Music fun

We explored the musical instruments today.  We found out how to alter the sounds and we tapped out a regular beat.  The younger children explored the various instruments and found out what they could do. 

biscuits and gingerbread men

The children made biscuits this morning.

Afterwards, we played with the plastic gingerbread men.  We stacked them, attached them together, talked about colours and did lots of counting and estimating. 

Week 2 this week

First Aid

Chris and I are on a first aid course on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, and Tuesday and Thursday next week.  It is from 6pm until 9pm. 

If there is any chance at all that you could collect your child by 5pm (or earlier) on the Thursdays, it would be great.  Tuesdays are ok as children have left by 4.45pm. 

Please don't worry if this isn't possible, it would just make it a bit easier for us to sort out our tea before leaving for the course.  :-)

Its week 1 this week

Happy New Year!

A very happy new year to you all.  Hope 2012 is a happy, healthy and prosperous one for you all xxxx

Happy Christmas!

Hope you have all had a wonderful day with your family. 

Thank you for our lovely presents; we appreciate them very much, xxx

Our shoeboxes!

I've copied this from the link which Operation Christmas Child have emailed to me regarding the shoeboxes we made up:

Shoebox Destination: Bosnia



Bosnia is a predominantly Muslim country based in the Balkan Region of Eastern Europe. There are less than 700 Christians in the entire country. High unemployment and little new investment in infrastructure has left more than 25% of the population in poverty.


Shoeboxes are sent by truck to the capital Sarajevo and then distributed across the country by our in-country partners. This year, we sent 72,948 shoeboxes from the UK to Bosnia.


Below is a story from a previous year’s distribution to Bosnia…


Damira’s story


In Bosnia, many children will not receive a present during the entire year. We had the privilege of giving out shoeboxes to children with special needs. It was wonderful to watch their smiles as they opened the shoeboxes and found hidden treasures inside.


Our team visited the Drina’s Rehabilitation Centre at Fojnica where we met a little girl called Damira who was 13 years old. She had a tragic background as she was born with learning disabilities and for reasons unknown, 3 years ago her mother tried to put her on a railway line in front of a train.


Instead of being instantly killed Damira survived but now lives in this rehabilitation centre. She has no visitors so it was unlikely that she would get any Christmas presents that year, were it not for the shoeboxes. When she saw that she was to get a shoebox her face lit up and she was overjoyed with her gifts.


Our work in the region


Samaritan’s Purse doesn’t just send shoeboxes to Eastern Europe. We work with local churches to provide support to abandoned orphans in Belarus and also provide medical, emotional and spiritual care for people living with HIV and AIDS in the Ukraine who have no one to look after them

Week beginning 19th December is week 3

Snow!!!!!

Huge flakes of snow falling right now!  We've just been outside to have a look, then watched through the window.

The children want to make a snowman later so keep fingers crossed for lots more snow!

Christmas biscuits

Yum!

They will be coming home tonight along with all the other Christmas creations.

Book bags

Please make sure you send your child's book bag all week as they will be taking home some Christmas creations on Thursday or Friday.

Labels

If you remember, please could you label your child's wipes and as many clothes as possible, particularly items like hats, mittens, coats etc.  Being not as young as we once were, Chris and I tend to forget what belongs to who!!!! ;)

Thanks, it would be a great help xx

Learning Journey files

We are in the process of completing the summary sheets ready for the children's learning journeys to go home at Christmas.  We will send them home at the end of next week.  We'll also send home the photo sticks for you to download the photos on to your computers at home. Once you have downloaded them, don't forget to delete them from the stick so that it doesn't fill up. 

Only two weeks till Christmas Day!!!!!!! 

Christmas trees

We painted wooden Christmas trees on Friday and decorated them with little stars. 

This week is week 2 of our menu