The children had a great time at their party and looked fantastic in their party clothes. They enjoyed playing ring games, pass the parcel and musical bumps, and dancing to Christmas music, followed by a delicious party tea and rounded off with a visit and gifts from Santa.

We had great fun celebrating Halloween on Friday 30th October, dooking for apples, having Halloween snack, carving some pumpkins and investigating and playing with the Halloween themed activities in the hall. We were wearing fantastic outfits and looked great!

Lydia visited for another successful Read and Play session, thoroughly enjoyed by the children and parents that took part. Today we listened to the story, “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle and then made spiders and spider webs from simple craft materials, but they looked so effective!

If you and your child make or do any activities after reading their library book, or any other story book you have then please bring them in for them to show the other children at gather time,( or email photos to the school and put for the attention of nursery on them) . . . .this all links in with promoting literacy which we are working on this year. When you do an activity relating to a book you are reading with your child, whether it be a walk to look for characters from the book, draw a picture, sing a song, make a model, the content of the story is becoming more and more embedded into your child’s imagination and vocabulary. Plus, it is great fun and a good opportunity to spend one to one time with them.

Lydia visited us this afternoon to do a Read and Play session with our afternoon children. She read “Wow said the Owl!” by Tim Hopgood. After the story the children did a matching activity, followed by a group craft activity making a large collage sunshine, and then individual collage owls. The children got fully involved in every activity and thoroughly enjoyed the session.

Please remember the parent/carer session on Tuesday 29th September 1-2pm or 2-3pm . . .let staff know which session you would like to attend.

It is soon to be the turn of the afternoon children for a read and play session. You will see with your child’s library book on Friday 11th that you got a card to fill out with regards to how much you look at books with your children and if you do any follow up activities relating to the books. Please fill these out and return to nursery as these are to do with the Read and Play pilot project being carried out in partnership with Action for Children.

On Tuesday 22nd September Lydia Simpson will be coming to nursery to read a story and do some fun craft activities directly relating to the story with the afternoon children. These have been really enjoyed by the children in the past. We are then inviting the afternoon parents to come along to take part in a session with their children to show how much fun and how easy it is to do activities relating to story books with items you can find around your home which really help the children to gain more learning and understanding from the story without realising they are doing so! This will be on Tuesday 29th September  1pm – 2pm, and 2pm – 3pm. Please let staff know which of these sessions you would prefer to attend.

Some photos of the afternoon children enjoying their time in the garden, lots to explore and investigate and their imaginations are always working overtime!

The afternoon children have settled in well to our new building and are enjoying  some of their old favourites and some new activities.

A really fun session was had by all, and more ideas like these can be found in the Play @ Home book which is available to all parents of preschool children.