Spring 1 Newsletter (2021)

January – February 2021 Newsletter.

Welcome back, Happy New Year to you all… We hope that you have been able to enjoy the festivities and have managed to keep safe and well. As we enter 2021 we hope that this year will see us able to return to a more normal society with us being able to see our friends and family that we have so dearly missed during this unprecedented time. 

Covid-19 still plays a big part in this new year, with us entering into tier 4 and a new variant being found which can be transmitted easier. We continue to ask that you check for symptoms regularly and follow government guidelines on social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing.

For tier guidance please visit: Tier 4: Stay at Home - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

If your child or anyone in your family has a high temperature, a new continuous cough, a loss of, or change to, their sense of smell or taste, you will need to stay at home and follow the current government guidelines on self-isolation and seek medical advice, please do not come to preschool. You must inform us as soon as you can (phone, text or email) so that we can seek advice and report the case to the DfE.  For the most current advice and guidelines please visit: Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance and support - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Clothing – with the covid-19 guidance to ensure the rooms are well ventilated, it often makes our preschool room a little chilly. Please can you ensure that your child has layers of warm and waterproof clothing.

Lunchboxes – Please can you ensure that the items within your child’s lunchbox are easy for your child to open or peel independently. If your child struggles to open or peel things you can pre-peel or open things in advance. We are only asking this due to the extra precautions that covid-19 has given us (staff have to wash hands after each item they touch). Just a gentle reminder that we are a NUT, SWEETS AND TREATS FREE ZONE!! 

Water bottles – please can we ensure that children only have water in their bottles, as we use these bottles for afternoon drinks as well as lunch time.

We would also like to ask if you could not bring in any toys and other  items from home, this is due to the Covid-19 restrictions we are all under at this time.

This half terms topic is: Superheroes, Pirates and Princesses.

This half terms focus for the children is about developing self-esteem and resilience whilst being kind and respecting each other and our resources. We will be working with the children to create ‘new’ rules for the setting, which will be a focus within our superhero mini topic.

We will be working to support the children with their physical development which includes their fine motor, gross motor and core strength development. We will be targeting this through craft activities, messy & malleable activities and our weekly PE and music & movement sessions.

We have decided to group our planning into 2 weekly blocks to get the best from each mini-topic. Within each topic we have set a ‘challenge’ for the children to take part in, this will require the children to work co-operatively together, be kind to others and use their problem solving skills.

Superheroes: (weeks 1 & 2)

  • Creating ‘Superhero’ rules
  • Positive self ‘superhero’ pictures
  • Positive self-activities
  • Exploring space
  • Making rockets
  • Not all superheroes wear capes (looking at the everyday heroes within our society)
  • Challenge of the topic - Team work tasks
  • Music and Movement focus – superheroes
  • Song focus: A selection of superhero and space songs
  • Story focus: A selection of superhero stories

Pirates: (weeks 3 & 4)

  • Erupting a volcano
  • Making tropical fruit kebabs for snack
  • Exploring money and treasure (mathematics focus)
  • Creating our own treasure maps
  • Pirate small world play
  • Making telescopes
  • Pirate obstacle course (physical development focus)
  • Challenge of the topic – Floating and sinking (making a boat)
  • Music and movement focus – pirates
  • Song focus: Irish sea shanties
  • Story focus: A selection of magic key stories & Pirate stories

Princesses: (weeks 5 & 6)

  • Building castles (construction focus)
  • Creating our own crowns
  • Role play – castles
  • Making wands
  • Making potions (messy play focus)
  • Making magic spells (rhyming focus)
  • Soup and Soldiers for snack
  • Challenge of the topic – den building
  • Music and movement focus – princesses, princes and knights
  • Song focus: A selection of princess, prince and Knight songs
  • Story focus: A selection of Princess, Prince and Knight stories

 

Important dates:

Last day of term: Friday 12th February 2021

February Half term: Monday 15th February – Friday 19th February 2021

First day back: Monday 22nd February 2021

 

Things you can explore at home to enhance our topics:

Superheroes:

Pirates:

Princesses: