Silverhill Early Years Weekly Newsletter 

Monday 6th February 2012

WELCOME

Babies Last Week – Babies enjoyed going to the Early Years hall for some indoor play time. They built towers with the large foam bricks and had a go at rolling balls backwards and forwards. They loved the extra space to move around in and some of them were really trying to aim the balls at a specific place and roll them carefully …well done! This Week – Babies we will be making “Love Cakes” for Valentines Day, mixing in lots of love for our families at home! We will also be focusing on puzzles, developing spacial awareness fitting shapes together. Please remember to send in your child’s welly boots, coats, hats, scarves and gloves as we will be going out for Winter walks this week.

Nursery - Hedgehogs & Squirrels Last Week – Squirrels have been playing with different sized construction toys, building all sorts of towers and shapes. We made cakes which were very tasty, so good in fact that we took them to the moon for afternoon tea! This was of course inspired by the story “Whatever Next” by Jill Murphy, squirrels constructed a rocket in the class room and we all flew in it to the moon as in the story!  Squirrels had a funny time practicing their scissor skills this week while cutting up cooked noodles… they were a bit slippery but a great way to further develop our fine motor strength. This Week – Squirrels will be playing with sand on a large scale this week, making tracks through it using different mark making equipment and also painting with paint and sand.                                                Reminders    Donations of spare socks for 2-3 year olds for nursery     Please be aware that scamps registration for February  Half Term is now closed.               Last Week – Hedgehogs have been busy with beach time! We have been wiggling our toes in lots of sand on mats as well as making tracks and marks in different ways. We have also been dancing to music of different tempos, spinning and moving our bodies in different ways. We have been busy doing lots of puzzles this week too… we can’t stop! The children have talked a lot about how we use the picture and shape of the pieces to help us correctly fit them together. With the cold weather we have not been out for as long as usual all though when we have been out we have been on the bikes, cars and scooters. This has been an opportunity to practice our turn taking and sharing skills!... in door play time with the parachute has been equally fun. This Week –  Hedgehogs have a children’s choice week, some will be painting, some drawing, some playing in the den or with the dollies and so on. Please ask your child what they have chosen to do. While they are busy on these choices we will be incorporating activities to assess their shape knowledge.                                       Reminders ·        Please make sure all items of clothing are clearly named, including each glove so that we can correctly match each child’s pair if they have the same sort. ·        Half-Term is coming up and scamps will be running in the Reception Year block. If you are unsure where this is please ask a member of staff this week.                      Pre-School- Bunnies & Owls  Last Week – Bunnies read a really interesting book called “A Drop Went Plop” which was kindly brought in by one of the class. It followed our discussion on fiction and non-fiction books and told us all about the water cycle. We extended this further with science experiments with water including floating and sinking.  This Week – Bunnies will be learning the phonic “b”. We will be using bats and balls in gym as well as scrimbling. We plan to do some free paintng this week as well as playing with gloop and the water tray some more.  We will be looking at shape recognition, counting and recognizing numbers in sets. Last Week – Owls made “Humpty Dumpty walls” using paint and shapes to count and make a pattern with. We developed our musical understanding by using utensils from the kitchen and seeing what sound they make. This Week – Owls will be learning the phonic “b”. We will be using bats and balls in gym. We will also be thinking about healthy and unhealthy food and making our own plates of such food groups. We will be discussing why we share our toys and how we resolve disagreements with our friends.                                             Reminders ·        Pre-school would be grateful for any old computer towers you make have finished with at home. ·        Stay & Play dates this term :    Monday 27th February  9am – 11am     Nursery & Pre-school        Thursday 15th March     9am – 11 am    Nursery & Pre-school ·        Parents Evening  -         Wednesday 7th March in the school hall