w/c 1st october 2012

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

It has come to that time of year where the weather is changing and it is starting to get a bit chilly, please can you make sure your children are well equipped with warm clothes, a coat and some wellies.    

Snails

This week the snails will be looking at Animals they will be enjoying messy food play with animal figures; they will enjoy singing animal songs with animal puppets and they will also be looking at animal books and listening to the sounds animals make.  

 Days off – Sarah Friday

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars will also be looking at Animals. The children will be experimenting with messy food play making a muddy farm for happy land animals to live in. They will also enjoy song times relating to the animal theme. The caterpillars will be exploring animal puppets and enjoying painting with animal sponges.  

Days off Jamie – Friday

Abi is on annual leave all week

Ladybirds

This week the Ladybirds interests will be messy play where the children will experiment with an array of messy activities. The messy play activities will involve mark making with welly boot painting, water play in the garden and making marks in corn flour. They will be using different textures in their painting activities by adding sand.

Days off – Benita-Thurs Julie – Friday

Bumblebees

This week the Bumblebees will be concentrating on doctors and nurses, they will be using pictures of doctors and nurses to find small medium and large, they will make the role play area into a hospital and we have bandages for the children to bandage their friends. Their circle time will be discussing the roles of doctors and nurses and how they help us and story time will be concentrating on the current interest.

Days off – Krissi – Mon Jenni – Thursday

Butterflies

This week the Butterflies will be continuing on their autumn interest as the children have really enjoyed it. The butterflies will be getting muddy digging up the vegetable garden removing the vegetables that are now not in season, they will be looking at clothes we wear in the winter months eg gloves and scarves. The children will be placing leaves onto the light box so that they can see through them, they will enjoy song time with seasonal songs and also they will experience welly boot printing with paint.

Days off – Claire – Thursday Jo – Tuesday

Jo is on annual leave Friday 5^th Oct

Leanne is on annual leave all week.

The First Aid for parent’s course will take place on Saturday 13^th October from 9:30-11:30 we still have 2 available places for any parents that are interested please be aware these will be given on a first come first served basis so if you would like a place please see myself or Michelle.

With regards to the staff changes (blog dated 26^th September) if any parents wish to discuss the changes please come and see a member of senior staff thank you.

We are pleased to announce that Krissi has just been promoted to bumblebees team leader; you will be seeing lots of exciting new changes to the 2-3’s room over the next few weeks.

We are launching our new birthday cakes where your child will be able to enjoy a unique homemade cake which they will be able to eat at lunch time with their friends as part of a birthday celebration lunch. This is due to the children not being able to eat shop bought cakes on the premises due to special diets and allergies. All cakes will be decorated with their own figurine which the child can take home with them after the cake will cost £10. If you are interested please e-mail the nursery.

Parents Reminder

We would like to remind all parents that we are holding an Early Years Foundation Stage evening tomorrow from 7pm-8pm with a nursery food tasting from 6:30pm.

Unfortunately we have to move the date of the health visitor visiting the setting to the 2^nd Friday of the month so the first visit will be on Friday 5^th October.

Staff Changes from 1^st October

Tash from Ladybirds will be moving to the Bumblebees and Julie from Bumblebees will be taking over from Tash in the Ladybirds.

Ellie will be joining with us in the Ladybirds room, Ellie has had lots of experience within early years having previously been a Nanny and a Classroom Assistant.

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

We say a sad goodbye to Emma from the Ladybirds this month who is leaving us as she is locating to another town, her last day will be Tue 16^th October.

Snails

This week the snails will be concentrating on autumn. The children will be playing with Heuristic play with objects associated with autumn, e.g. pine cones; they will be exploring during messy play with gluing and sticking of leaves, root vegetable painting and leaf printing , they will also be enjoying bubble blowing in the garden.

Days off – Sarah Friday

Alisha is on Annual Leave on Monday

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars will be looking at autumn; they will be exploring the garden for leaves and bringing them into the classroom to do a variety of activities with them including gluing and sticking and leaf rubbing; they will also be enjoying heuristic play with objects associated with autumn and using bubbles in the garden. The children will also be preparing some artwork for their autumn display.

Days off – Jamie – Friday

Abi is on Annual Leave all week

Ladybirds

This week the Ladybirds will be looking at living things such as flowers and plants. This will involve making sunflowers using tissue paper; the children will have the opportunity to grow water cress heads using cotton wool and cress seeds. They will be water painting flowers in the garden and they will be completing a large collage using different art materials.  

Ladybirds would like their parents to take a picture of their child next to some flowers and bring it into nursery.

Days off – Emma – Monday & Wed    Benita – Friday

Tash is on Annual Leave Tuesday

Amy is on Annual Leave Wednesday and Thursday

Tash is training on Thursday

Bumblebees

This week the Bumblebees will be concentrating on the occupations nurses and doctors. They will be box modelling to create a hospital and enjoying stories and songs to do with doctors and nurses. At circle time they will be talking about the roles of doctors and nurses and they will be looking through first aid boxes. The children will also be creating a nurse’s hat.

Days off – Sam – Thursday    Jenni – Thursday    Krissi – Monday

Nikki is on annual leave on Friday

Krissi is training on Thursday

Butterflies

This week the Butterflies will be looking at autumn, we will have a lot of activities surrounding leaves so we would like to ask parents to help us by collecting leaves with their children and bringing them into nursery. The children will be talking about the changes in the weather and the colours of autumn. Butterflies will also be cooking an apple pie with the children.

Days off – Jo – Tuesday      Claire – Wednesday

We are pleased to announce that Jo Turner will be taking on the position of 3^rd in charge; this will come into effect from the 1^st October.

We are holding an Early Years Foundations Stage info evening next Thursday  27^th  October 7-8pm this is to introduce you all to the changes in the curriculum from September 2012, we hope you can make this informative evening.

It is our nursery’s 9^th birthday on the 9^th of October. We will be celebrating this by having a pyjama party and a party tea, the Surrey Advertiser will also be coming to take some photos.

From Friday 4^th October, a health visitor will be visiting Castle Nursery 10.30am - 11.30am on the 1^st Friday of each month, she will be available to weigh your children and give any advice; this is a drop in service so appointments will not be needed. If your child attends nursery on a Friday and you would like them to be weighed please bring your red book to nursery and a member of staff will be happy to do this for you.

On Saturday 13^th Oct we will be holding a nursery picnic. This will be held at Stoke Park from 12pm, parents are asked to bring a dish of food. If you would like any more information please see Michelle, Kim or Leanne.

Kids Klub will be visiting the nursery on October 15^th and 17^th this gives you the opportunity to have your child filmed riding a Christmas sleigh; these dvds make great Christmas presents.

Please may we ask parents to donate any empty jam or coffee jars to the nursery; please could these be given to Jo in Preschool.

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

We say a sad goodbye to Sam from the Bumblebees this month who is leaving us to take a Deputy’s position in Camberley, her last day will be Friday 28^th September.

Snails

This week the snails will be concentrating on sensory exploration. The children will be playing with sensory bottles, exploring textured material, having water play with sponges, doing whole body painting, having wet sand play and cornflour play with paint.

Days off – Sarah Monday

Sarah is on Annual Leave on Thursday and Friday

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars will be looking at children’s interests; they will be table painting, having water play with boats and fish, playing with the trains and train track, painting using the toy trains to make marks, also puppet play, making sound and singing, heuristic play, feet painting, messy food play and exploring coloured water with our hands and tools.

Days off – Abi - Wednesday   Jamie – Friday

Ladybirds

This week the Ladybirds will be looking at people who help us. This will involve colouring in pictures of police officers, dentists and doctors as well as creating police hats using card, painting fire engines, role play doctors and nurses, recognising different professionals on flashcards and cleaning our teeth.

Please can all children bring in their toothbrush and toothpaste on Wednesday.

Days off – Emma – Monday    Benita – Friday

Bumblebees

This week the Bumblebees will be concentrating on doctors and nurses. They will be painting a picture of an ambulance, talking about our Mummy and Daddy’s jobs, making an ambulance using duplo and other construction toys, using the small world hospital and ambulance, talking about how doctors and nurses help us and role play being ambulances in the garden.

Days off – Jenni – Thursday    Krissi – Monday

Sam is on Annual Leave all week

Butterflies

This week the Butterflies will continue to look at living things, they will be cooking their harvested vegetables, using blocks to make animals and drawing pictures of our fish. They will also continue to watch our caterpillars grow and change, turn the block area into a zoo, have circle time with the bunnies and do rubbings in the garden where they will be exploring differences and similarities in the environment.

Days off –  Jo – Tuesday     

Claire is on Annual Leave all week

Lee is on training Wednesday AM

The First Aid for parents course will take place on Saturday 13^th October from 9:30-11:30 we still have 3 available places for any parents that are interested please be aware these will be given on a first come first served basis so if you would like a place please see myself or Michelle.

Can we please ask parents to be a little bit quieter outside the nursery on pick ups/drop offs at 1pm as the younger children at nursery are sleeping and with the hot weather we are having to keep all windows open.

We are holding an Early Years Foundations Stage info evening on September 27^th at 7-8pm this is to introduce you all to the changes in the curriculum from September 2012.

Zoo lab will be visiting the Bumblebees and Butterflies on Wednesday 19^th September 2:30-3:30.

Please may we ask parents to donate any empty jam or coffee jars to the nursery; please could these be given to Jo in Preschool.

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to our weekly blog, we aim to send out an update of events, developments, news and activities throughout each month; this will replace our existing weekly email.

It has come to that time of year when we say goodbye to some of our pre-school children, we would like to wish Ryan lots of luck at school and for the future.

We also say a sad goodbye to Sam from the Bumblebees this month who is leaving us to take a Deputy’s position in Camberley, her last day will be Friday 28^th September.

We have had lots of birthdays last week, we would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Lola .E who celebrated her 1^st birthday, Sofia, Melina and Layla.O who celebrated their 2^nd birthday. This week Fred and Morgan celebrate their 1^st birthdays, Aine and Dylan.R celebrate their 2^nd birthdays, Sienna celebrates her 3^rd birthday and Matilda celebrates her 4^th birthday.

Snails

This week is a quiet week in the snails and they will be joining with the caterpillars for the week.

Days off – Sarah Friday

Caterpillars

This week the Caterpillars will be looking at sand play, the children will be enjoying exploring sand in between their toes and on their feet, mark making in damp sand, building sand castles, gluing and sticking with sand, messy play with mash potato and sand, exploring textures of sand and water and exploring which animals live in sandy places such as crabs.

Days off – Jamie – Monday    Abi – Friday

Abi is on training Monday AM and Holly is on training Monday PM

Ladybirds

This week the Ladybirds will be looking at animals. They will be looking/listening for birds in the garden, playing animal matching games, decorating animal masks, singing songs about animals such as ‘Leo the Lion’ and ‘Sleeping Bunnies’, recognising animal noises, colouring animal pictures at the easel and fishing in the garden with magnetic fishing rods.

Days off –Emma – Emma – Monday    Benita – Friday

Benita and Amy are training Thursday PM

Bumblebees

This week the Bumblebees will be concentrating on our world and occupations. They will be painting fire man pictures, making the role play area a hospital, making a small world hospital and fire station, reading doctor/nurse stories and pretending to put out fires as well as doing police and fire men puzzles.

Days off – Sam – Thursday    Krissi – Monday

Krissi is training Wednesday AM, Jenni is training Thursday AM

Butterflies

This week the Butterflies will be looking at living things. They will be moving like animals in the garden, completing life cycle puzzles, using woodwork, fabric and boxes to make a toy for the rabbits, picking their aubergines and peppers and cooking and tasting them as well as observing their caterpillars and taking pictures each day to see how they change.

We would like to remind all parents to bring back their French letters as lessons start week beginning 17^th September. If you have not received a French letter please see a pre school member of staff.

Days off –  Jo – Tuesday      Claire – Thursday

Claire is training Monday PM, Lee is training Wednesday AM

The First Aid for parents course will take place on Saturday 13^th October from 9:30-11:30 we still have 3 available places for any parents that are interested please be aware these will be given on a first come first served basis so if you would like a place please see myself or Michelle.

It is national Grandparents day on Sunday 9^th September so we would like to invite all Grandparents to come in and play or do activities with their grandchildren on Thursday 13^th September at 2:30-3:30pm. Please see your child’s room to find out what exciting activities they will be doing on the day.

May we please ask parents to be a little bit quieter outside the nursery on pick ups/drop offs at 1pm as the younger children at nursery are sleeping and with the hot weather we are having to keep all windows open.

We are holding an Early Years Foundations Stage info evening on September 27^th at 7-8pm. This is to introduce you all to the changes in the curriculum from September 2012.

Zoo lab will be visiting the Bumblebees and Butterflies on Wednesday 19^th September 2:30-3:30.

Have a great weekend

Leanne