Outdoor adventures

Posted 2019-09-23 20:58:47

The Summer may be drawing to a close, but the last of warm weather gave us the perfect backdrop for the preschooler’s first country walk out on the Verulam playing field. The children heard the story of Dragon hill and learnt how a red dragon came to be buried under it after an altercation with King Arthur.  Then they visited the Volcano which has fortunately laid dormant for many years and after that headed over to the Fairy Woods in search of tiny winged people.  Preschool children at Sandpit House will commence their woodland walks at the Wick Nature Reserve this week (w/c 23/09) so please remember to bring wellies.

In our circle time sessions we have been talking about our families.  Last week, preschool children brought in family photos for show and tell and confidently shared stories about their family with the rest of the group. We overheard a teacher explaining what a family tree is to a group of children which led to one boy replying that “my family lives in a house, not a tree’.  At both Kinder Lodge and Sandpit House we are building a display of family photos of all children in the first year so if you have not yet brought one in please do so. 

Our younger children continue to make excellent progress in settling into the nursery routine and it has been really lovely to see them start to pick up the songs and actions in singing time. As the children are now coming into nursery settled we will not be sending through as many updates on Famly as the group leaders focus on building relationships and supporting the children’s independence.  As a general rule, we will aim to send one observation every fortnight which will focus on your child’s learning and development and form part of their learning journal. This week, however, the staff will not be uploading any observations as they will be focusing on the children’s initial starting points within the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and developing next steps.  These are the individual targets which we will be working on with your children this term and will be discussed in more detail at the consultation in October.   

Our morning assembly is a great time for the children to come together just before lunch to sing songs and reflect on their learning that day. Throughout the morning, staff are on the lookout for ‘wow moments’ which are those instances where a child has done or said something significant which deserves recognition. This, for example, may be when a child has overcome a personal challenge such as trying out the rope swing for the first time or if they demonstrated kindness to others. These are written down and read out during assembly for everyone to celebrate. Only a few children get a ‘wow moment’ every day, so if your child comes home with one of the special stickers we have had made, please ask them what they did to earn it.

At Kinder Lodge the children have been creating painted masterpieces for our art gallery in the library.  Do pop your head in and take a look when dropping off or collecting from nursery this week. We can’t wait to watch how their art work develops over the next year and will be updating the gallery with new paintings each term.

See you in the next blog!

Roberto & Gabriella