Autumn Term Week 9
At the time of writing the blog we are awaiting a lot of PCR test results for children who attend our pre-school, I hope that everyone is feeling well and not too poorly and we are very grateful to all of our families for your understanding at this difficult time. We have 4 positive cases within the pre-school at present and we all wish anyone feeling unwell a quick recovery. It is a very difficult decision to close a class which we do not undertake lightly but I am very sorry for the Stars who missed their session on Wednesday and we will offer you an alternative session over the coming weeks to compensate. We hope to be operating as usual for as long as possible but please do test your children – it is becoming increasingly clear that even with no symptoms the lateral flow tests are missing cases. If you or your child has any symptom at all – even a cold like illness please book a PCR test.
On to the more fun part of the blog – we have had a wonderful week despite the worry about families who have been affected by COVID. Forest School sessions have been a delight – the children exploring the garden in the November sunshine and building long water gutter systems and creating art on clear plastic using paint in spray bottles – excellent for building up strength in little hands and fingers!
Inside we have been creating space items and enjoying space activities to support our role play outside, this theme has been great and really captures the children’s interest! This has also been carried into the circle times for the Sun and Moon group who have made rockets using the letters in their name and then they have been extended by their group leader to copy the letters and write their name with some fantastic results. The Sun and Moons have been learning about Remembrance Day as well and we have made two poppy wreaths to lay on the Memorial in our town on Sunday. They really listened to the simple story that we taught them about people keeping us safe and how we give thanks for them. Part of our curriculum is to follow the calendar over the year and bring events to life for the children – helping them learn new vocabulary, new concepts and learn about our diverse world – please let us know if you have any special celebrations coming up? A wedding, Christening or a thanksgiving celebration with American relatives perhaps?
Outside we have been transported into Space, re-created a bonfire from our experiences over the weekend and chatted about all the fireworks that we saw. We are limiting the bikes over the next couple of weeks as the children play well together and make up some brilliant games when the bikes are not always available.
The Star group have been practising their ball skills, learning how to match animal patterns and used shapes to make rockets for the space theme. They have made so much progress and really enjoy their time with us!
Next week we progress along our theme to learning about our own planet – we will be exploring habitats and environments, recycling and the nature we can see around us. We would love donations of big cardboard boxes and newspaper please.