The children are becoming familiar with the ’Treasure Bag’ routine, splitting into two groups before taking it in turns to show the others what they have brought to school. They have the opportunity to tell us where they found the objects and any significant information they may like to share such as Emilia telling us her badge has a number 4 on it because she is 4 and the party blower (with sound effects) was from her party. We find out how many objects we have individually, if we have any objects the same and then find out how many we have altogether. We then begin the process of sorting the objects into criteria chosen by the children.

This week we had: things that are metal, things that are soft, things made of plastic, things that are ’breakable’, birthday things, things from outside and sweets! Charlie’s potato proved rather tricky, with the conversation going something like this:

Mrs P: Where does a potato come from?
Charlie: my house
Mrs P: before it got to your house where did it come from? (pause as the children think)
Charlie, Ted & Alexander: The supermarket
Mrs P: We buy potatoes from the supermarket but do you know where they grow?
Ted: the ground

The potato finally found a place with the ‘outside’ objects! We finish the session by finding out which group has the most/least number of items. Later George chose to sort the treasure independently within provision, the potato was placed in the ‘home things’ group, along with a sticker!

Activities will include:

• Making ’magic writing wands’ with our favourite character on it for phonics
• Developing the puppet theatre-making signs and tickets etc
• Making puppets for the puppet theatre
• Creating our own stories for the puppet theatre
• Exploring the ‘ice cream’ playdough
• Making milkshake
• Making bubble bazookas
• Planting and growing seeds
• Re-enacting everyday experiences: plant pots, seeds, lolly sticks, labels, magic beans
• Talking about what we would like to plant and what we think it would grow into e.g. what would happen if we planted some chocolate?
• Recording our ideas about planting
• Creating our own collage pictures based on our planting experiences
• Finding things that come in 1s (e.g. nose, tummy button) 2s (e.g. eyes, bicycle) 3s (triangle, tricycle) etc
• Exploring oranges: cutting them, squeezing them using a juicer, peeling them etc
• Planting a bean in a transparent bag and watching it grow
• Taking photographs of our models using the ipod
• Exploring the ‘mud kitchen’
• Creating our own ‘roadway’ using paper, pens and bricks
• Exploring water using guttering, funnels and pipes
• Daily phonic activities: phonemes o & u (recognising, hearing the initial sound and writing the phoneme)
• Daily numeracy sessions focusing on number recognition, number formation and showing an interest in representing numbers

 Visits and events

• PE: Monday afternoon.   This term the focus will be multi skills with Nicky Wilce.  Please can the children wear trainers or pumps
• Treasure Bags: Tuesday morning (if children choose food items please can they NOT be wrapped in foil as the children find it hard to resist!)
• Wellie Day: Wednesday afternoon
• Ballet: Thursday morning
• Music: Friday morning.

 You can help by:

• Looking for objects that are growing– talking about what we need to grow.  Do we need the same as plants and animals?
• Finding objects that begin with s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, h, m, r, d, g, o, u
• Playing I spy with a collection of objects that begin with the phonemes taught so far
• Finding the graphemes s, a, t, i, p, n ,c, k, e, h, m, r, d, g, o, u in the environment e.g. signs, food wrappers, books
• Helping me to write the letters using the correct formation
• Making letter cards with the phonemes taught so far.  Making CVC words and matching them to  pictures or objects e.g. cat, hat, red, ant
• Helping me to hold my pencil correctly and encouraging me to write my name using the correct letter formation
• Making simple puppets by drawing pictures and sticking them onto sticks and using them to tell a story.  Record the story at home and bring it in to share.
• Finding collections of natural objects and sorting them into different collections.  Counting how many in each group.
• Using natural objects to make the shapes of numerals e.g. using sticks to make a 4
• Using foam numbers (available from craft shops) make collections of objects to match the numeral.

If your child takes part in any of the above activities please take a moment to take a photograph and upload it onto ORBIT so we can transfer it into your child’s profile.  It would also be helpful to be aware of how much support your child required. 

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‘Treasure Bag Tuesday’ is proving a great success with the children.  Thank you for supporting your child in ‘finding’ items and objects that are of interest to them.  It is often the most simple of objects that spark the most excitement and that was certainly the case last week. The children were split into 2 groups, and where possible with their key person.  The objects the children collected were vast and varied, with some children bringing in one item whilst others filled their bag to the brim.  Reuben had been on a walk to Bolton Abbey with his grand parents to find all his objects, Harri brought a huge shell and Ella brought PINK sand all the way from Bermuda.  The ’seaside’ theme was continued later in the day with the story ’Kipper’s Sandcastle’.

Evie told her group all about her ’treasure’ “I got all of these pine cones from my park”.  She counted the things she brought moving each pine cone one by one until she had made a long line.  She also brought some daisies, so the children have been learning a song about daisies called ‘I’m a Little Daisy Tall and Slim’ (tune: I’m a Little Teapot).

I’m a little daisy
Tall and slim (Stand on tiptoes)
Here are my petals (Place hands on side of head & wiggle fingers)
Here is my stem (Hold arms down at sides of legs)
When the sun comes up (Make sun with arms)
And the rain comes down (Flutter hands to floor like rain-end in crouching position)
I grow, grow, grow- up from the ground! (slowly raise up bring hand over head)

Charlie also brought in a pine cone however his was very BIG so the children were able to use comparative language to compare the pine cones.  When Adam passed his thistle around his group Harri thought it felt like a pineapple.

We had hoped the children would have ‘shared’ some of their treasure at school so we could build up a collection of ‘interesting natural objects’ however they were all adamant they were taking it home– if your child is able to part with any of their treasure we would be most grateful!

Activities will include

 Language:

• Talk: for making choices and decisions, developing curiosity e.g. using open ended questions to promote language development
• Reminding children to use Please/Thank you and ‘Good Morning’ during the session and registration
• Language associated with planting and growing, a small display of objects/vocabulary for children to explore

Treasure Bag Tuesday:

• week 1- a photograph of interest e.g. family, place e.g. holiday, birthday party etc.
• week 2– something big and something small (to encourage comparative language)

Personal & social

• Circle time games: ‘”How -do-you-do, How -do-you-do, my name is ____, who are you?” Who’s that clapping in the circle…
• Promoting good manners (staff to exaggerate please and thank you to children)
• Feeling proud: praise for achievements e.g. tidying away & cooperating
• Using areas of provision correctly
• Working on ‘CHOOSE PLAY & TIDY AWAY’

 Physical & sensory

• Digging in soil (gross motor movements)
• Planting seeds
• Blowing bubbles
• Bubble painting
• Children to take photographs for labels for boxes/areas

Sand/water/play dough

• Bubbles in water
• Making Bazooka bubble makers
• Exploring natural objects in play dough
• Compost in mini trays: compost, lolly sticks, seeds (buttons), empty watering can.

Creative

• Making pictures using natural objects and combining with paint, glue, collage etc
• Transient  art with natural materials

Outdoors

• Mud kitchen
• Digging in soil (gross motor movements)
• Large scale painting
• Water play
• Wellie Wednesday: Large equipment e.g. balls, nets, beanbags, targets etc

Number

• Counting heads at registration and extend counting (1 to 5 for younger children); 5-10 for older.
• 1-1 correspondence
• Counting with fingers during action songs and using number cards
• Counting using natural objects
• Adding numerals 1-5 into areas of provision

 Visits and Events

PE: Monday afternoon with Nicky Wilce.   Please can the children come to school in their uniform and bring their PE kit  in their red PE bag to change into before the lesson.  If your child is joining us for the afternoon session only please come dressed in PE kit.

Treasure Bags: Tuesday morning

Wellie Day: Wednesday afternoon

Ballet: Thursday 9.30am

Music: Friday 9.30am

How to help at home

• Singing nursery rhymes
• Listening and discriminating sounds in the environment
• Encouraging your child to talk about the pictures they have drawn
• Singing number songs
• Counting toys, objects, stairs, objects in books,
• Finding and identifying shapes in the environment
• Finding and identifying colours

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We had great fun on our ‘Wellie Day’ adventure.  We walked down the lane and climbed on lots of fallen down trees, finding interesting things to put in our  paper bags.  We found lots of leaves, flowers , sticks and stones as well as a rabbit skull.

This term we have introduced  key worker groups during group time.  During the this time the children will develop a range of skills  through a play based activity, for example:

• Talking-  through the use of ‘Tuesday’s Treasure bags’,
• Pre-writing -using tweezers and tongs  to pick up and transfer
• different sized pom poms,
• Early maths skills– sorting and counting compare bears
• Scissor skills: using a pair of scissors to snip and cut

Activities

Language

• Talk: for making choices and decisions, developing curiosity e.g. What are you doing?  Why are you using…?
• Reminding children to use Please/Thank you and ‘Good Morning’ during the session and registration
• Language associated with different areas of provision e.g. full, empty, writing, rolling,
• Treasure Bag Tuesday: Talking about something that is interesting to me

Personal & social

• Circle time games: ‘”How -do-you-do, How -do-you-do, my name is ____, who are you?”
• Who’s that clapping in the circle…
• Promoting good manners (staff to exaggerate please and thank you to children)
• Feeling proud: praise for achievements e.g. tidying away & cooperating
• Using areas of provision correctly
• Working on ‘CHOOSE PLAY & TIDY AWAY’

Physical & sensory

• Making models with boxes
• Exploring wet and dry sawdust
• Children to take photographs for labels for boxes/areas
• Growing cress: using shape cutters

Sand/water/play dough

• Choose, play tidy away in the sand area  (AC)
• Bubbles in water
• Wet and Dry sawdust- comparing properties, pouring,

Creative

• Exploring our new creative area: painting/chalk/sticking etc
• Colour mixing: exploring what happens when you mix colours
• Using cars and animals to make prints/tracks on paper
• Malleable materials: play dough

Outdoors

• Mud painting
• Digging in soil (gross motor movements)
• Using coloured shaving foam to paint with
• Wet and dry sawdust
• Wellie Wednesday (using the wider school environment): exploring windy day objects- streamers, scarves, wind socks, bubbles/exploring the big playground

Number

• Counting heads at registration and extend counting (1 to 5 for younger children); 5-10 for older. 1-1 correspondence
• Counting with fingers during action songs and using number cards
• Talk: for tidying up- organisation, talking to children about sorting toys into correct baskets/boxes /by colour/counting how many

 Visits andEvents

• PE: Monday afternoon.   Please can the children come to school in their uniform and bring their PE kit  in their red PE bag to change into before the lesson.
• Music: Friday morning.
• Ballet:  Thursday morning at 9.30am

How to help at home

• Praising and reminding me to use ‘Please and Thank you’
• Encouraging me to elaborate my ideas by asking questions
• Sharing stories, talking about the pictures and what is happening
• Counting objects in the environment e.g. counting the stairs, grapes, windows, door etc
• Looking for numbers in the environment

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We had a very productive morning preparing our ’Treasure Bags’ and we are looking forward to sorting and counting our treasure on Tuesday.

 Activities

• Ping Pong balls and tubes in the sand for tunnel making
• Pipettes, coloured water and spray bottles for colour mixing  in the water
• Looking after their cress
• Exploring moths- looking at patterns
• Exploring how to stop a helium balloon from floating up to the ceiling.  Photographing and sorting objects that make the balloon float and those that keep it on the ground.
• Adding ink to salt patterns
• Shaving foam paint- mix food colouring with shaving foam
• Exploring the number area: counting different numbers of objects
• Adding number props to sticky back plastic and finding the corresponding number
• Counting and sorting objects from ‘Treasure Bag Tuesday’
• Exploring windy day props on ‘Wellie Day Wednesday’
• Exploring  jelly dough
• Syringes outside with watered down paint to create patterns
• Building constructions using marshmallows and straws
• Making changes to mud by adding glitter and colouring to make
• ‘Writing’ on leaves using gel pens
• Large scale mark making
• Stain glass window pictures using paint and greaseproof paper.
• Daily phonic activities: phonemes d & g (recognising, hearing the initial sound and writing the phoneme)
• Daily numeracy sessions focusing on number recognition, addition and showing an interest in representing numbers

 Visits and Events

• PE: Monday afternoon.   This term the focus will be multi skills with Nicky Wilce.  Please can the children wear trainers or pumps
• Music: Friday morning.
• Treasure Bags: every Tuesday, please remember your ‘treasure’
• Wellie Day: Wednesday afternoon, exploring the school environment
• Ballet:  Thursday morning at 10am

 You can help by

• Talking about things that change e.g. people, animals, colours
• Finding objects that begin with s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, h, m, r, d, g
• Playing I spy with a collection of objects that begin with the phonemes taught so far
• Finding the graphemes s, a, t, i, p, n ,c, k, h, m, r, d, & g in the environment e.g. signs, food wrappers, books
• Making letter cards with the phonemes taught so far and playing with the cards to make simple words to match pictures or objects e.g. cat, hat, red, ant
• Encouraging me to write my name using the correct letter formation
• Helping me to read simple CVC words in books e.g. cat, hat, hen, pig etc
• Helping me to hold my pencil correctly
• Sharing books and thinking of an alternative ending
• Telling stories without pictures
• Encouraging me to tell my own stories using props of ‘reading’ books by looking at the pictures.
• Encouraging me to make marks to accompany pictures I draw
• Looking for numbers in the environment
• Playing board games
• Playing games with dice where I roll two dice, find the total and collect the correct number of objects.  The winner is the first person to 10/20 etc
• Counting objects and recording how many there are by using pictures marks or numerals
• Writing a shopping list, recording how much of each item is required.

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Next term we will be offering a warm welcome to 4 new children into Pre-school:  Charlie, Olivia, Alexander and Charlie who will be joining our Little Adventurer’s room.

Next term we will be focusing on the transition as our Great Explorers begin to spend sessions with Mrs Reid in preparation for Reception (more information to follow) whilst our Little Adventurers who are turning 3 this academic year will be coming to visit me in the Great Explorer room to find out about all the exciting things we offer when you become one of the ‘big boys and girls’.

We will also be arranging visits for those children who will be joining us in September; these sessions will predominately take place during the afternoon when our numbers are smaller to ensure all our children continue to receive the same level of education and care they are used to.

You will shortly be receiving a letter regarding sessions for  next year.  Spaces are of a premium so we encourage you to complete and return your form to the office as promptly as possible.  We can continue to guarantee your current sessions however we appreciate that many of you need to increase your sessions (a minimum of 5 sessions in September) and we will endeavour to meet your preferences where possible.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me,

Laura Painter

To book your place simply call 01943 865575 or email information@ghyllroydschool.co.uk

 Actvities

• Making patterns using creative materials
• Making our own spotty and stripy items of clothing
• Making repeating patterns using natural materials
• Creating patterns on the computer
• Retelling the story ‘Owl Babies’ using the props
• Creating an owl house in the role play area
• Talking about Owls and other Nocturnal animals
• Developing our scissor skills by making feathers
• Making props for bird spotting
• Making pattern fruit kebabs
• Pattern rubbings
• Ice art: adding natural objects to a shallow container of water and leaving it outside to freeze
• Making ice troughs and coloured ice marbles, exploring how they melt
• Exploring patterns with coloured ink
• Milk toast: painting bread with coloured milk– writing the phonemes we have learnt so far
• Creating a number line by photographing different amounts of children
• Making domino biscuits– creating number patterns
• Going on a pirate adventure and making pirate props
• Large scale mark making with chalk in the outdoor area
• Daily phonic activities: phonemes e & h (recognising, hearing the initial sound and writing the phoneme)
• Daily numeracy sessions focusing on recognising, recreating and creating patterns

 Visits & Events

• PE: Monday afternoon.   This term the children will be having dance lessons with Miss Jo from Joze school of dance.  Please can they wear either pumps or ballet shoes (no trainers)
• Music: Friday morning.
• COLD WEATHER: Please can you ensure your child has a named hat and gloves (optional scarf) to wear whilst using the outdoor area.  Please can it be kept in their drawer so they don’t get lost and mixed up in the cloakroom.
• Ballet:  Thursday morning at 10am
• Comic Relief: Friday 15th March

 You can help by

• Talking about nocturnal animals
• Talking about the characters in favourite books e.g. describing what they look like, what they do, are they good/evil?
• Finding a patterned object at home for me to bring in to school to talk about
• Sending me with a plain coloured item of clothing that I can decorate e.g. T shirt,  shorts, socks etc
• Finding objects that begin with s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, h
• Playing I spy with a collection of objects that begin with the phonemes taught so far
• Finding objects that begin with the phonemes we have taught so far, bringing them to school so we can photograph them for our phoneme display or photographing them at home.
• Finding the graphemes s, a, t, i, p, n ,c, k in the environment e.g. signs, food wrappers, books
• Looking for patterns in the environment
• Talking about patterns in books, on animals, wrapping paper,
• Playing dominos (dotty) and talking about the patterns
• Play ‘I went to market and I bought….” how many things can I remember in the correct sequence/pattern
• Making repeating patterns with toys e.g. car, brick, car, brick for me to continue.
• Making patterns with pens/paint/in sand/salt etc.
• Discussing the order and sequence of events e.g. baking with your child and following a recipe, talking about the sequence

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The children always enjoy baking and last week was no exception when they made ‘Yummy Mummies’ as their Mother’s Day gift. From feedback we understand that, in most cases, these had to be shared! Hopefully you got the chance to sit back and enjoy at least a few crumbs with a cup of tea or coffee. We’ve had requests for the recipe so here it is, taken from an old ‘Good Housekeeping’ book (a wedding present to my mother) hence the measures are Imperial. It makes around 10 large biscuits and would also be a good cookie recipe, substituting chocolate chips for the ginger.

• 4 ounces butter/margarine
• 4 ounces light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of golden syrup
• 1-2 teaspoons of ground ginger
• 10 ounces of plain flour
• Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1. Warm the fat, syrup and sugar slightly. Beat to a cream.

2. Add the dry ingredients, mixing to form a stiff dough.

3. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes.

4. Bake in a moderate oven at 175 degrees C for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

The children are still keen to bring in books from home for sharing at group story time. Any books on a farms, eggs, Spring or Easter theme, will be particularly welcome over the next fortnight in the run-up to the holidays.

Activities will include

Language

• Continue to talk about farm/domestic animals, naming their babies
• Fur and feathers: describing their textures/colours
• Talking about our holidays/going on holiday – what do we need to take?
• Books: Apple Tree Farm series; Three Little Pigs; The Golden Egg; The Hungry Caterpillar (see number activity); nonsense stories/poems; plus any books brought in from home

Personal & social

• Going on holiday (aeroplane role play) helmets/hats
• Telling jokes (Comic Relief – Red nose Day Friday). Children coming dressed as a pop star
• ‘Who’s that?’ Supporting younger children with learning names of others

Physical & sensory

• Making nests with sticks, straw and twigs
• Still digging in soil (gross motor movements)
• Feather activities (touching, blowing, stroking)
• Medium blocks – den/home construction. Who lives here?

Sand/water/play dough

• Salt dough eggs (as decorations)
• Car wash
• Miniature worlds in sand tray

Creative

• Making leaves for our indoor tree
• Easter nests from collected twigs
• Paint salt dough eggs
• Easter chicks and bunnies

Outdoors

• Animal habitats; worms, snails – where they live?
• Dig hole and backfill with leaf compost – investigate who might move in?

Number

• Re-measure children’s heights on Hungry Caterpillar wall chart to see how much they have grown
• Continue counting heads at registration and extend counting (1-5 for younger children; 5-10 for older) using 1-1 correspondence

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No need to book, simply pop along.

Watching extracts from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ has inspired a lots of exciting projects.  George L created Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory using the bricks and there has been the creation of the chocolate river with the boat and pipe outside.  Thankfully none of our children have got stuck up the pipe like in the film!  The ‘chocolate making’ session was a particular success!  The children especially enjoyed tasting the popping candy.  Their independence levels increased dramatically as they cut and bashed their sweets into small pieces-nobody told me they ‘needed help’ to compete the task!

Activities will include:

• Making patterns using creative materials
• Making our own spotty and stripy items of clothing
• Using pegs and hama beads to make repeating patterns
• Making repeating patterns using natural materials
• Creating patterns on the computer
• Retelling the story ‘Owl Babies’ using the props
• Creating a nest
• Making our own pebble creatures
• Talking about Owls and other Nocturnal animals
• Developing our scissor skills by making feathers
• Making props for bird spotting
• Making pattern fruit kebabs
• Pattern rubbings
• Ice art: adding natural objects to a shallow container of water and leaving it outside to freeze
• Small world:
• Making ice troughs and coloured ice marbles, exploring how they melt
• Exploring patterns with coloured ink
• Milk toast: painting bread with coloured milk– writing thephonemes we have learnt so far
• Taking photographs of objects beginning with the phonemes we have learnt so far.
• Daily phonic activities: phonemes n, c, k (recognising, hearing the initial sound and writing the phoneme)
• Daily numeracy sessions focusing on recognising, recreating and creating patterns

Visits and events

PE: Monday afternoon.   This term the children will be having dance lessons with Miss Jo from Joze school of dance.  Please can they wear either pumps or ballet shoes (no trainers)

Music: Friday morning.

COLD WEATHER: Please can you ensure your child has a named hat and gloves (optional scarf) to wear whilst using the outdoor area.  Please can it be kept in their drawer so they don’t get lost and mixed up in the cloakroom.

Ballet:  Thursday morning at 10am

 You can help by:

• Talking about nocturnal animals
• Finding out about animals
• Finding a patterned object at home for me to bring in to school to talk about
• Sending me with a plain coloured item of clothing that I can decorate e.g. T shirt,  shorts, socks etc
• Finding objects that begin with s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k
• Playing I spy with a collection of objects that begin with the phonemes taught so far
• Finding objects that begin with the phonemes we have taught so far, bringing them to school so we can photograph them for our phoneme display or photographing them at home.
• Finding the graphemes s, a, t, i, p, n ,c, k in the environment e.g. signs, food wrappers, books
• Looking for patterns in the environment
• Talking about patterns in books, on animals, wrapping paper,
• Playing dominos (dotty) and talking about the patterns
• Play ‘I went to market and I bought….” how many things can I remember in the correct sequence/pattern
• Making repeating patterns with toys e.g. car, brick, car, brick for me to continue.
• Making patterns with pens/paint/in sand/salt etc.

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