(Reg Charity 1199330)
C/o Greystones Primary School, Tullibardine Road, SHEFFIELD S11 7GL
Telephone: 0114 2671111 email:greystonespreschool@ymail.com
4th November 2022
Dear all,
Welcome back!
It has been so lovely to welcome your children back into the setting this week and to hear and see photos/postcards of where they have been and what they have been up to over half term.
This week we celebrated the festival of Halloween by carving our own mini pumpkins, making a bubbling potion using food colouring, washing up liquid, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. We also iced some biscuits as a spooky treat as part of our afternoon snack. As the week as progressed we have turned our attention to bonfire night. We have painted firework pictures, pretended to be fireworks during a dancing session with Charlie and have talked about how to be safe around fireworks.
Next week we will continue our topic of light and dark, talking about nocturnal animals as well as looking at remembrance. We will be making poppies and talking about why we wear a poppy at this time of year. We will also be holding our remembrance service in the yard at preschool next Friday (11th) at 11.00 am. We explain to the children that we will read a poem and then we will use a sand timer to have a one minute silence. After the silence the children then go and plant a poppy in our garden area. We will also be showing them an animation from CBeebies about the war and remembrance. If you would like to watch this in advance just type in CBeebies poppy animation and you should find it. We will be looking at numbers and shapes in the environment and talking to the children about kindness, sharing and using ‘please and thank you’, especially at snack time and during lunch club.
We have been so blessed to have dry and sunny weather over what seems like forever, however I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that the weather is turning colder and more autumnal. Please can ensure that your child has a warm waterproof coat, a hat, scarf and mittens rather than gloves if possible. (Trying to help 13 children get their gloves on is a mammoth task!).
If you qualify for the 30 hours funded learning entitlement, please can you ensure that your 30 hours code is up to date prior to the 31st December 2022? Failure to do so will mean that you will lose your funding for the whole of the spring term and that fees will be payable for any additional hours over and above the universal 15 hours.
We have noted that some of the children are bringing nuts as part of their lunch. Please note the setting is nut free as we have some children that attend that have a nut allergy.
We will be holding a parents evening on the 15th December between 3.15 pm and
4.30 pm for those children who have joined the setting from September. Please email the setting to arrange an appointment with your child’s key person if you wish to attend.
Home learning challenge
Buy a poppy with your child for remembrance day
Talk about light and dark, road safety and hibernating/nocturnal animals
Look for numbers and shapes in the environment when out on a walk or in the car.
Lastly I wish you all a very happy and safe Bonfire night and look forward to seeing you all again next week.
Take care and keep warm,
Julie.