HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL !

We had a fabulous last week - the Christmas sing song went very well with lots of parents enjoying the children's rendition of 'Mary's Knitting'.
They had made snowmen biscuits and we served them alongside the mince pies- the slide show of the autumn term was enjoyed by parents, children and staff - it is lovely to see all we have achieved in one term !

The Xmas party was brilliant if a little exhausting ! - Father Xmas made a visit and we played traditional party games

The staff team will now get a well deserved rest !

Happy Xmas everyone - we are back on Monday 6th January 2014

getting ready for Christmas- nearly there !

After last weeks visit by the reception class to us, they returned the favour and we went to visit them and listen to their nativity songs. We had a lovey time - playing a game of hunt the donkey and having a play in class 1.

Finishing of the Xmas cards we also made pomanders and played with the fake snow and Arctic animals.

Making chocolate reindeer's proved very popular and they did turn out brilliantly

AT Forest school we had banana custard using the Kelly kettle followed by a real fire on Friday when we cooked crumpets and ate they =m with jam or butter - around the camp fire !

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

Fake snow and animals from icy climates were in the small world play this week.

Reindeer foot print Christmas cards and Father Xmas hand print cards were made, enveloped and taken to the post office by the Thursday crew- where they bought stamps and then each child posted their card home in the post box. We then ate few chocolate buttons for a treat and walked back in the wild and windy weather!

The reception children came over and we performed our 'Mary's Knitting songs to them - a lot of them remembered the songs from their time at playschool so we had a good rendition together.
Then we played making 'snow' with the parachute & cotton wool balls and it was lovely to watch the joy on their faces. We go back over to them next week.

Our student worked with the children to make some excellent sweets - which they took home to enjoy.

SHADOWS - DARK & LIGHT

We have been exploring shadows this week- our Uni student on placement with us did the planning and we made a light box , had a dark den and torches and looked at nocturnal animals.

 

The children enjoyed sieving weighing and mixing ingredients to make light and dark cup cakes - the were yummy!

 

Later in the week we took the 'underpants' streamers we made based on the book 'Aliens love Panta Claus' to the United Reformed church to decorate our Christmas tree for the late night shopping - the children thought it was hilarious ! -we even made a flying saucer and alien to go on the tree too!

The children from Towerview playschool had snack with the little ones at Broadway Playschool - then walked back through the autumn leaves.

 

There has been some great construction going on with the wooden building blocks - building then taking photos to recreate the next day. It has been really imaginative  play, the children have built car parks, roads, ,skate parks, cities with skyscrapers and tunnels, and a one legged man!

 

DIWALI & BONFIRE NIGHT - FESTIVALS OF LIGHT !

This week we learnt about the Hindu and Sikh festival of Light called Diwali  - the children made tea light holders from clay and painted them in silver and gold.

The firework cake was made using an electric whisk - much loved by alot of the boys  !  - the finished cake was decked with sparklers and we all sat around outside on crates to watch them sparkle - good fun !

The safety talk was taken very seriously - the children took notes home to their parents explain some frightening facts - like 3 sparklers are as hot as a blow torch !

We made a huge firework frieze by splodging teabags and paint onto a sheet of brown paper - we then splattered bright paints and made rockets out of roller paper and paper straws - it looked fab and the children made the firework noises as they worked.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

We had a lovely walk down the village where we collected conkers pine cones and some really pretty autumn leaves, some looked just like dinosaur footprints!

The children enjoyed spotting their favourite things in the shop windows but we didn't like the " big Halloween " one, a sneaky look around the toy shop made us all feel much better.

We have been painting pumpkin pictures and exploring the textures from the insides of a pumpkin.

The children planted bulbs and put winter pansies in the planters - we found worms and beetles as we dug.

have a good holiday !  -see you all the week starting 4th Nov

settling in and making friends

Both the 2-3 year olds' at Broadway Playschool and the older children at Towerview Playschool are enjoying playing with the conkers, problem solving, looking at sizes, colours, how they feel, and working out how to get the conkers down the drain pipe quicker, taking turns and waiting for the "ready steady go !!" before rolling down the conkers. Lots of smiles of satisfaction.

 

We have been making iced biscuit faces then eating them for snack, working out who is wearing which coloured clothes and going to the relevant coloured card game, and looking in the mirror to draw self portraits with oil crayons.

The games "What's in the Box" and "who s got the glasses on?" are being enjoyed at circle time and children are getting to know everyone's names.   We are also playing the empty chair game - all these improve speech and listening skills.

 

One child dressed as a pirate this week , with his pirate hat on and the parrot he then got a staff member to tape onto his on his shoulder doing a  mean pirate face- such creativity ! 
After 5 weeks we can all really see how much they are all settling in and starting to play with each other much more.  There is some fab role play emerging with boats, trains , babies and builders !!