The Hatchlings Nursery School Blog

The Hatchlings Nursery School. January 2012 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

We are well into the New Year now! Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun!! We have had many new children start with us this January and we are filling up nicely! Anstey Close is especially full this term, so if you know anyone who would like to have a completely free place at Anstey Close they need to register as soon as they can.

Congratulations to Miss Gemma Hardman who was married over the Christmas holidays and is now Mrs Caws!

Both nurseries had a visit from Mrs Ellen Young who brought in her latest puppy dog, Sam, who is training to be a guide dog for the blind. The children always enjoy their visits and ask Ellen lots of questions about the puppy. Thank you once again, Ellen, for giving up your time. If anyone would like to send in a few pennies for the Guide Dog collection box, it would be very much appreciated.

Staff have been on quite a few training courses this month, which is all important learning for us to help your children with their journey through life.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.
• Reminder: Please come and join in with the “Stay and Play” each week. Look out for the sign (on the nursery window / door) that tells you which day that week it is on. Also the times are shown on the notice. We would love to see parents, carers or grandparents, so please do try to come along.
• Reminder: Please remember NOT to send in toys for our special time of “Show and Tell”. This is a special time for children to show / tell us about something they might have or have done recently. The only toy a child should bring in is one soft toy to act as a comforter and nothing else. We have many tears over toys that are lost or broken and the staff cannot be responsible for these items. Thank you for your co-operation.

Planning for February:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets / events and friends. Thank you.

If you have any artefacts or ideas which could help us with the above topics please send them in – thank you.

Week beginning 30^th January: “Peace at Last”: Night and Day. Makaton: “Good Morning” and “Good Night”.

Week beginning 6^th February: Valentine Day. Makaton: “I love you”.

Week beginning 13^th February: Worting Road Only: Cars. Makaton: “Car”.

Week beginning 27^th February: Gruffalo and St David’s Day. Makaton “Mouse”.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children: Charlie R, Ella R, Rachel T, Paulina K, Aayush S, Rifaaz N. Christopher D, Oliver W, Eleanor B and Ruby.

Birthdays this Month: Laurel C.

What happened in January:

· We wish everyone a very Happy and Peaceful New Year.

· Parents please feel free to have a look in the parent’s box, which is kept by the front door. Here you will find a copy of our newsletter, our policies, development plan and various useful leaflets.

· Our “Stay and Play” sessions are scheduled for:

Monday 6^th February: 9 to 9.30 a.m. and 1 to 1.30 p.m.

Tuesday 21^st February: 9 to 9.30 a.m. and 1 to 1.30 p.m.

Wednesday 29^th February: 9 to 9.30 a.m. and 1 to 1.30 p.m.

Please look at the nursery window for confirmation as these dates are subject to change but we will endeavour to keep them – please ask staff for details.

· Congratulations to Rose’s family on the birth of baby Alice and a huge thank you for their kind donation of a computer.

· Thank you also to Ruby W’s Mummy for all her art supplies and her Nannie for Hatchling Bear’s new knitted clothes – they are wonderful!

· Please note that we have a new “My special things” notice board. The idea is that when children bring in leaflets / tickets, postcards, photos etc. we not only chat about them at register time but the children share them with their friends throughout the week.

· Our children have enjoyed a very busy start to the year:

· The children made their own Cinderella club in the home corner, listening to the Cinderella story, dressing up as the characters and having lots of fun.

· During our Snow White week we expanded the story and worked as part of a big group; printing apples of various sizes and colours. This was the first time some of the children have worked as part of a large group; sharing paints and fruits etc. This resulted in a very beautiful display, very messy hands, lots of laughter and chatter! We made a number line using the seven dwarfs and lots of number games throughout the week. They all worked well together as they made houses with lots of bricks in the dwarfs workshop.

· During the Jungle Book week we made masks, discussing patterns and a wonderful and tasty “Jungle” soup. The children all helped to cut up, weigh and eat it all at snack time! Rose taught us the Makaton sign for “Giraffe” and treated us all to “The Bear Necessities of Life” song!

· For Chinese New Year we made a huge dragon, which was hung from the ceiling, fish lanterns to wish everyone “Good Luck”, danced to Chinese music with ribbons, ate noodles and prawn crackers, which the children thought were “Yummy”! We practiced wishing everyone “Kung Hey Fat Choy”. What a busy month we have had!

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher: Children’s Link: Managers Support.

Manager meeting re: OFSTED

In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Chelsea McCarthy: Children’s Progress: Tracking.

In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Sharon Saunders: In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children: Hari M. and Emily F.

Birthdays this Month: Ashton B, James P, Jack B. and Ella M.N.

What happened in January:

· We would all like to wish all the children and parents a very Happy New Year, and welcome to Ellie D, Jake R, Amelia H, Vitor G, Isabella G, Bastian B and Patrick K who have all moved into the big room.

· We started this month with a “Disney” theme topic. Miss Broad made either Cinderella slippers or Prince Charming boots decorations out of salt dough. Emily said to her Mummy, “I haven’t got my biscuit!” Ellie D. brought in lovely princess magazines, which she kindly donated to the nursery. Ellie also lent us a lovely CD, and we listened to The Cinderella story.

· We then moved onto Snow White; with Miss Daley’s help the children coloured the Seven Dwarfs and collaged some glittering diamonds for them to dig from the mine. Miss Daley displayed your children’s lovely work, so please come in and take a look. Alfie told us “I like these ‘Smurfs’!”

· Miss Broad and Mrs Caws made a lovely vegetable soup with the children’s help. They took it in turns to chop a selection of vegetables added vegetable stock and the Miss Broad / Mrs Caws slowly simmered it for them. The soup was a great success at snack time and all the bowls were soon empty! Vitor kept asking, “More soup, more soup!” So if you are despairing that your children do not eat their vegetables, make some vegetable soup with their help!! They love it!

· At music time we played the “Hi Ho, Hi, Ho” song and we all pretended to be dwarfs working hard digging for diamonds! Mrs Caws brought in the Snow White DVD and as a special treat, the staff and children watched it together. Miss Vaughan decided she would be the dwarf “Grumpy”, Mrs Nash could be “Doc” and Miss Broad “Dopey”! Miss Broad reply to this was “That’s very kind of you Miss Vaughan!” Ella said, “Miss Broad I like Dopey he is my favourite!”

· On Friday afternoon we all took a walk down to Morrisons where Mrs Nash, Miss Vaughan and Miss Broad treated the children to some little donuts for snack time.

· This week we started on Jungle Book. With Miss Daley’s help we have made some lovely jungle masks; zebras, tigers, monkeys and crocodiles. We all sang “Down in the jungle…” and Alfie said, “How about a hippo in the jungle?”

· We all celebrated Chinese New Year; the home corner became a Chinese restaurant and we had fun using chopsticks to pick up rice! Miss Daley made dragons and fans and we saw some lovely examples of Chinese writing on the fans. We taste noodles and prawn crackers, which gave us another opportunity the use the chopsticks. Amelia said that the prawn crackers looked like clouds! At music time we all danced to music using our dragon masks. Thank you to Ellie D’s parents who donates Fortune Cookies for everyone to enjoy for the Chinese New Year.

“Kung Hey Fat Choy!!” – Happy New Year!

· We have also had a theme about Winnie the Pooh. Mrs Caws and Miss Broad have had lots of sticky fun making sandwiches with honey. Vitor, Isabella, Ellie D and Tyiel made their sandwiches into triangle shapes and Ellie said it was like the kite that Pooh flies!

· Mrs Caws and Miss Broad took Tyiel, Olivia, Hari and Shannon on an outing to Morrison’s to buy items for a Teddy Bears picnics. On the walk to the shop Hari started to sing “We’re going on a Bear Hunt, to find some nice treats for him!” He then said, “My bear would like some biscuits shaped as bears”. So Miss Broad found some animal biscuits. Olivia asked if we were going to have cakes as “you always have to have cakes on a picnic!”

· We chose different colours to paint pictures of our bears to personalize them. We had lots of conversations about what our bears eat and drink and what their hobbies are; Bella said, “I cuddle my teddy in bed”. Alfie said, “He’s called Winnie the Pooh”. Jake said, “My teddy bear is brown and he lives at home.” Claudia said, “El Osito” (teddy) in Spanish. All of the children’s teddies are on display. Please come in and see the hard work.

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: Children’s Link: Managers Support.

Manager meeting re: OFSTED

In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Donna Curson: In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Diane Daley: In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Gemma Caws: In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Elizabeth Sudlow: Business meeting with “Connecting Biz”.

In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Robyn E, Gurkirat B and Laiba S

Birthdays this Month: Grace H.

What happened in January:

· For our Disney theme this month we have made shoes or boots from salt dough and painted them bright colours.

· We have read the story of Snow White and the seven dwarfs. We coloured in pictures of the dwarfs using seven different colours. We also made a picture of Snow White using the colours from the book. We made diamonds using red, blue and green glitter.

· When we made the soup the onions made poor Miss Broad cry! We also used parsnips, carrots, potatoes, swede and a vegetable stock cube. Olivia was having trouble with chopping up the carrots because they kept flying across the room when she cut them! This made Olivia and Miss Broad laugh a lot! When all the vegetables were chopped up, Miss Broad put in the stock cube, with water. It was then put on to cook until the vegetable were soft to eat. The children really enjoyed the soup. Just to remind you, the seven 7 dwarfs are called: Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy and Dopey!!

· We watched the DVD of the Jungle Book in short bits. We have been singing songs and dancing to music from the film, pretending to be jungle animals. We have read the story as well. We made masks of jungle animals; we were very creative with spaghetti, cotton wool, string, tissue paper and lace. We now have a display of masks. Please do come in to see.

· This week we made honey sandwiches, because we all know that Winnie the Pooh loves honey! We sang “Round and round the garden” and lots of other “Bear songs.” On Thursday everyone brought in their Teddies for a picnic. At Morrison’s we bought animal biscuits, sliced carrots, Pom Bears and fairy cakes. The children helped scan the items and put the money in the machine. We all sat, with our teddies, in a circle at nursery to eat our picnic! We all had such fun going shopping and eating our picnic.

· During the week of Chinese New Year we all set to making a huge dragon! We used collage materials, crayons and felt tip pens. The lovely result was put in the kitchen window and we hope you all saw it! We did a dragon dance moving by wiggling, stamping, jumping and hopping! It was great fun, which helped to give us empty tummies for snack time; yummy prawn crackers and noodles! What a great way to celebrate Chinese New Year!!!

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: Children’s Progress: Tracking.

In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

Stacey Broad: In House Training: EMTAS; Children with English as a second language.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. December 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Both nurseries had lovely Christmas parties and we would like to say a big thank you to Father Christmas (Nigel Jones) for giving up his time to deliver presents to the nurseries. Also thank to Alan McGurk (entertainer) for his annual visit to us and making us laugh so much!

I know that all the staff will have made the most of their well deserved week off and will be raring to go back to work tomorrow!

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.
• Reminder: Please come and join in with the “Stay and Play” each week. Look out for the sign (on the nursery window / door) that tells you which day that week it is on. Also the times are shown on the notice. We would love to see parents, carers or grandparents, so please do try to come along.
• Reminder: If your child is going to school in September 2012 and will be 4 years old by the 31^st August, you will need to apply for a place in Year R by Sunday 15^th January 2012 (midnight). The information is on display on the nursery window or door.
• Reminder: Please remember NOT to send in toys for our special time of “Show and Tell”. This is a special time for children to show / tell us about something they might have or have done recently. The only toy a child should bring in is one soft toy to act as a comforter and nothing else. We have many tears over toys that are lost or broken and the staff cannot be responsible for these items. Thank you for your co-operation.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Planning for January:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets / events and friends. Thank you.

If you have any artefacts or ideas which could help us with the above topics please send them in – thank you.

The Theme for January is “Disney”;

Week beginning 3^rd January: Cinderella.

Week beginning 9^th January: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Week beginning 16^th January: Jungle Book.

Week beginning 23^rd January: Winnie the Pooh.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Liam O, Maisie T and Grace T.

What happened in December:

· The children have had a wonderful time wrapping presents and giving them to one another using Santa’s sack! They organized their play to make a ‘pass the parcel’ and asked a grown up to sort the music out.

· We have had lots of creative activities such as: cutting out Christmas cards and sticking them for collages; Christmas colouring; ink stamping; Christmas sticker pictures; writing out the gift tags for Santa’s Grotto presents.

· Our Christmas party was great fun, and we were so proud of our children, who sat beautifully and were so well behaved. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Ewan, Baljit, Jamie and Dylan couldn’t stop laughing at Alan Mac (the entertainer). We all sang “Jingle Bells” to Father Christmas and were all so polite and said “thank you” to him when he gave out the presents.

· We have all had a fantastic time learning about the story of Christmas by acting out the nativity in our stable in the role play area. The children have dressed up as Mary, Joseph, Wise men, Angels and Shepherds and have taken it in turns to look after Baby Jesus. Each story time we have read “The Christmas Story”, which has helped the children’s play.

· Happy Christmas and Happy New Year from Laura, Chelsea and Sharon.

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher: In House Training: Health and Safety

Chelsea McCarthy: In House Training: Health and Safety

Sharon Saunders: In House Training: Health and Safety

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Starr H, Emily May F. and Bastian B.

What happened in December:

· On Monday 5^th December we were invited to Park View Infant School to watch their nativity play, which we enjoyed very much. The children walked very nicely with us and held hands all the way. While we were there we saw Ryan, Kurtis and Alyssa who were with us last year!

· A big “Thank you” to George and his Grandad for making us such a beautiful Christmas wreath for our front door.

· We have made many decorations for Christmas using glitter and sequins. There has been lots of singing of Christmas Carols and songs; we hope you have heard some of them at home!

· On 29^th December Miss Gemma Hardman will be getting married at The Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth! Some of the children asked what her new name would be and she replied, “Mrs Caws”, to which Ella said, “Wow, are you marrying Santa?”

· The children had a fantastic time at the Christmas party. We started off with Miss Broad hosting a Christmas Disco and we all had fun dancing together. Then came the party food and everyone tucked into their plates of food. We were then entertained by Alan Mac, the party entertainer. Ella, Olivia, Starr and Alfie, were chosen to help Alan Mac and each received a balloon hat made by him. We had many laughs, squeals and happy faces as he entertained us all. Then our special visitor arrived: Father Christmas. All the children received a gift for which Father Christmas received many “Thank you’s”

· We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: In House Training: Health and Safety

Donna Curson: In House Training: Health and Safety

Diane Daley: In House Training: Health and Safety

Gemma Hardman: In House Training: Health and Safety

Elizabeth Sudlow: In House Training: Health and Safety

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Robyn E, and Miss Vaughan.

What happened in December:

· We have had another busy month with lots of creative activities which involved a lot of paint, glue and glitter!!!

· We have been learning lots of different songs and a few have had sad faces when “Santa got stuck up the chimney”!!

· We have quite a few children moving into the ‘big room’ and we are sad to see them go, but we know they will have great fun there! Bye, bye; Bastian, Ellie D, Patrick, Vitor, Isabella, Jake and Amelia.

· We have been doing lots of dressing up and chatting about our Christmas outfits ready for the party! We have made Santa hats to wear for the occasion!

· The party was very enjoyable and Miss Broad started it with a disco. She kindly brought in her Disco Ball and Juke Box. We had lots of dancing to build up our appetites for the party food! Alan Mac then arrived and entertained us all with puppets and magic tricks. There were lots of giggles and laughter. After that we sat down together to sing our Christmas songs and during this you will never guess who came to see the children: FATHER CHRISTMAS!! Well the children sat in stunned silence and the look on their faces said, “Father Christmas is at my nursery!!” Each child was called out to collect their present from him and they were so excited. A big “Thank you” to Father Christmas for coming to the nursery to see all the children!

· Miss Vaughan and Miss Broad wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2012!!

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: In House Training: Health and Safety

Stacey Broad: In House Training: Health and Safety

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. November 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

Well the preparations are well under way for Christmas! The decorations are up and lovely art work has started. Don’t forget the Christmas parties: Anstey Close; Monday 12^th December, between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. and Worting Road: Monday 19^th December, between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.
• Reminder: Please come and join in with the “Stay and Play” each week. Look out for the sign (on the nursery window / door) that tells you which day that week it is on. Also the times are shown on the notice. We would love to see parents, carers or grandparents, so please do try to come along.
• Reminder: If your child is going to school in September 2012 and will be 4 years old by the 31^st August, you will need to apply for a place in Year R by Sunday 15^th January 2012 (midnight). The information is on display on the nursery window or door.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Planning for January:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets / events and friends. Thank you.

If you have any artefacts or ideas which could help us with the above topics please send them in – thank you.

The Theme for January is “Disney”;

Week beginning 3^rd January: Cinderella.

Week beginning 9^th January: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Week beginning 16^th January: Jungle Book.

Week beginning 23^rd January: Winnie the Pooh.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Grace H, David W and Jessica D.

What happened in November:

· Firstly, welcome to Miss Tucker, our BCOT student. Miss Tucker will be at The Hatchlings Nursery School every Thursday and Friday.

· Please note that our local Surestart Centre is “Buttercups”, based at Manor Fields School. Their telephone number is 01256 812615. They offer many useful / helpful services which include:

· Parenting advise including one to one support.

· A “Chitter Chatter” group which is designed to help Polish families using “Sing & Sign”.

· Links to extended services, out of school activities including Christmas activities.

· Welcome back to nursery school after the half term break. Thank you to our parents and children for sharing their holiday experiences, we do read all our Green Home Books and share these stories with everyone at register time.

· Our return to nursery school on the 31st October was a “Spooky” one! Our home corner was turned into a halloween house with many “Incy Wincy” spiders hanging down, pictures of witches and dressing up clothes! Many of your children took part and came in wearing fancy dress. Julia had a beautiful purple and black dress and David was so cute as a ‘pumpkin’! The children made black bats, using glitter on the wings, which were stuck onto straws to make them fly! Some flew really fast! As our treat at snack time we had a ‘Batty Spooky’ shortbread biscuit. Sam said, “It was lovely; I loved the chocolate chip”.

· We have been learning all about firework night this week and how we should keep safe. Kyle said, “You need to wear gloves with sparklers because they are hot!” Daisy said, “You have to stay with your Mummy, Daddy and sisters when there are fireworks”. Come in and see our firework display, it looks amazing. It was a whole nursery team effort! We used pipettes in paint, glitter, sequins, chalk and hand prints to decorate the night sky. We also spent a lot of sessions “Firework dancing” to classical music, using materials and our bodies pretending to be fireworks. Alfie said, “We can go BANG!” and Kyle liked the word “BOOM”! We made some delicious “Bonfire Buns”, which looked and smelt delicious” Miss McCarthy enjoyed making the buns just as much as the children did!

· The next week we played lots of lovely turn taking games. We played “Peppa Pig’s Giant Snakes and Ladders” with Miss McCarthy. We practiced counting the dots on the dice. Laurel was very lucky with her throwing as she kept getting a six! With Mrs Saunders we played “Ten in the Bed” Teddy bear game and we practiced ordering the numbers from 1 to 10 correctly. Mrs Fisher played the “Sound Track” game with a big group of children, which they all loved. They had to listen to the sounds and the tape and guess what it was. Alfie got very excited when he heard a fire engine sound! Well done children for all your “Turn Taking”!

· A big thank you to Harry’s family; we have been learning about “Remembrance Day”, which the children call “Poppy Day”. Harry’s Dad was in the Army sometime ago and he kindly let Harry bring in photos of his Daddy dressed in his Army uniform. We have had many conversations about brave soldiers. All the children made poppies and a ‘wartime medal’. We tried out coin rubbing and made patterns with pens on the medals. Daisy said, “I am doing orange zig zags then red spots, look at my pattern! I love my medal!” Rose pointed to Mrs Saunders’s poppy and said, “That’s for Poppy Day, for the brave soldiers. I have seen lots of people wearing poppies”. On Remembrance Day, 11th November, we sat on the carpet to listen to the radio for our two minutes silence, we wore our small poppies. Our morning children were ‘brilliant’ - no talking at all for the two minutes silence. Please praise your children and feel proud of them, because we are!!

· Thank you to Iona’s family for the kind donation of art aprons and scissors!

· This week our topic was “Children in need” and everything “Spotty”! The children made patterns with large pegs and small ones, working together in a very large group with Mrs Fisher; “I like this”, said Maisie. The children had wonderful fun playing with the hula hoops and bean bags in the garden, using them in lots of different ways. We even went to the moon in a rocket, looking out of our ‘windows’! Then we looked out of the ‘windows’ to see mermaids, fish and star-fish, underwater in our ’submarine’. Phoebe, Grace H and Ruby were ‘fab’ at spinning the hoops around their waists and we all had a go and counted how many turns we could make until the hoops stopped. On ‘Pudsey Day’ itself, we would like to thank everyone who kindly donated to Children in Need - “THANK YOU!!” We raised £30.05 - well done! We dressed up and decorated donuts with icing and spots, which were very tricky but lots of fun! We found hidden ‘Pudsys’ around the nursery and Ruby even found Mrs Fisher’s “Tricky Pudsey” on the yellow board!

· We had another busy week making our beautiful Christmas cards and we have explained to the children the cards are staying at nursery school to dry and won’t be going home just yet! The children have also made “Santa, please stop here!” door hangers and we talked about what we leave for Father Christmas and Rudolf. Kyle said that he leaves a carrot for Rudolf and a cake and milk! Liam leaves “Cake and Beer”! Harry says he leaves “A pie”! Laurel said, “I leave pictures for him”. Ella leaves “Carrots for the reindeer and a biscuit for Father Christmas”. Sam said, “I leave food sprinkled on the grass for the reindeer and a mince pie and drink for Father Christmas”. Elisa wants to leave him some chips!!

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher: Tracking Progress across the EYFS

Chelsea McCarthy: SENCO Induction (3 days).

Sharon Saunders: Engaging Parents conference in Winchester

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month:

What happened in November:

· This month our topic has included Fireworks, Remembrance Day and Children in Need.

· On the Wednesday of Fireworks week we were very lucky to have a firework display in our garden. Mr Sudlow carefully set up the fireworks and lit them. “Whiz, Pop, Bang, Snap and Crackle”, a spectacular colourful display burst into the air. The children were very excited and cheered and giggled. Alfie said, “Wow this is fun and are we having hot dogs too?” Vitor and Isabella both jumped up and down shouting, “More bangs”! Summer was happy to see a firework called ‘Summer’ blast into the air!

· We have been learning about Remembrance Day and the children have all helped to make a tribute display to all the Service men and women who have sadly lost their lives for their country. Our nursery rhyme for the week was ‘The Grand Old Duke f York’ and to extend their learning we marched like soldiers and saluted. On the 11th November we all sat down and listened to the radio. We heard Big Ben chime and everyone sat quietly.

· We helped raise money for Children in Need, and came in fancy dress on Friday. Starr came as a Smurf; Alfie a Pirate; William a knight; Bastian and Casey as spiders; Tyiel a transformer; George a skeleton; James a lion; Grace an angel; Leah and Olivia as fairies; Amelia a cow; Claudia a cupcake; Ashton as Spiderman; Ellie D as Blush Bear. Mrs Nash, Mrs Curson and Miss Daley all wore Children in Need T-shirts and Miss Hardman wore her PJ’s!! We made spotty wristbands, Pudsey Bears and decorated ring donuts! Hatchlings would like to say a “Big Thank You” to the everyone who kindly donated money to Children in Need. We raised £39.23. Thank you everyone who made the day a success, especially the hard working staff!

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: Tracking Progress across the EYFS. Visit to Boot Farm to share professional expertise

Donna Curson: SENCO Induction (3 days).

Diane Daley:

Gemma Hardman:

Elizabeth Sudlow: HCC Stretched Offer information evening. Owners / Managers meeting.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Vitor G, Isabella G and Miss Broad

What happened in November:

· This month started with a bang, hiss pop crackle and sizzle! by Mr Sudlow letting off fireworks in our garden! What a great display. Thank you very much Mr Sudlow. From this firework display the children in the yellow room took part in splatter painting to recreate the display - our painting can be seen in the hallway. The children, Mrs Nash and Mrs Curson made Bonfire Buns, which they thoroughly enjoyed making and eating!

· Before Remembrance Day the children made medals, coloured poppies, marched to “The Grand Old Duke of York”, decorated their crosses with a poppy and made a wreath for their display.

· For Children in Need they began by making spotty snakes, using Bingo pens to design a pattern on their snakes. These have made a very colourful display in the hallway. We have also coloured pictures of Pusey Bear and our song this week has been “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear”. We have also learnt the sign in Makaton for “Bear”. We enjoyed making spotty bracelets; Amelia said hers was like her outfit (she was dressed as a black and white spotty dog). All of the children looked lovely in their special dressing up clothes. They all had great fun making hats with Miss Hardman. Grace and Amelia said that Miss Hardman looked like a fairy and they were the pirates from Peter Pan! Thank you everyone for joining in the fun and for donating to such a good charity.

· The children have also been playing with leaves in the empty water tray, looking at different colours, shapes and listening to the leaves crinkle and crunching.

· A big Thank you to Miss Martin, George’s Mummy for the donation of Duplo bricks, this means the children can build bigger towers and add more creativity to their constructions.

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: Visit to Boot Farm, JJ’s, Snapdragons and Star to share professional expertise (All towards Foundation Degree course).

Stacey Broad: Engaging Parents conference in Winchester. Cluster meeting at Kempshott.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. October 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

We have had some lovely weather this autumn but now the cold is creeping in! Please remember to send your children with warm clothes so they can still spend the time outside that they all love so much! So hats, scarves, gloves, wellies and coats are the order of the day! Thank you for your help with this.

John and my brother, Andrew, have been very busy painting the outside of the house at Worting Road! They are trying to get it finished before winter really sets in, dancing between the rain drops! Thank you to everyone for being considerate and careful around the ladders! Not a job I envy them for – climbing ladders. I sure you can see a real difference and improvement for all the work they have done.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.
• Reminder: Please come and join in with the “Stay and Play” each week. Look out for the sign (on the nursery window / door) that tells you which day that week it is on. Also the times are shown on the notice. We would love to see parents, carers or grandparents, so please do try to come along.
• Reminder: If your child is going to school in September 2012 and will be 4 years old by the 31^st August, you will need to apply for a place in Year R by Sunday 15^th January 2012 (midnight). The information is on display on the nursery window or door.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Planning for November:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets / events and friends. Thank you.

If you have any artefacts or ideas which could help us with the above topics please send them in – thank you.

Week beginning 31^st October; Halloween and Firework Night.

Week beginning 7^th November; Remembrance Day.

Week beginning 14^th November; Children In Need.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Kyle S. and Rachel T.

What happened in October:

· This week the children enjoyed creating their own plate of “food”, using all sorts of materials at the art table, with Mrs Saunders’s help. We had some very scrumptious meals made! Daisy, Elissa, Dylan, Phoebe and Ella all made delicious looking Spaghetti Bolognaise. Grace T. made a plate full of peas and Ethan chose strawberries! Please come in to view their “dinner time” display!!

· Lots of children made pretend pizzas. So to extend their creativity we decided to make real pizza! The children helped Miss McCarthy to make them using sweet corn, tomato puree and cheese. Kyle S. said, “I love cheese on my pizza!” as he took a huge handful of cheese to sprinkle on top! We ate all the pizzas at snack time!

· We have spent a couple of sessions using natural materials such as conkers, shells and stones for model making. The children explored the materials independently, sitting on the carpet modelling their own creations. We had some wonderful pictures. Daisy told Mrs Saunders; “I’ve made a heart”. Iona made a “person”. Phoebe made a magic wand. Baljit smiled and jumped with joy, “Look the letter ‘F’!” Well done everyone! Sam joined the group saying, “We are all working together”. We made large circle, numbers and long, long conker lines. Sam said, “I’m going to tell my Mummy about this!” We are learning all about our autumn season!

· We went on an autumn walk. The children explored the trees to find and collect leaves, twigs and more conkers. Grace H. was very proud to find the first conker! Baljit told Miss McCarthy that, “Autumn leaves are brown and crunchy!” So we all stamped around in the leaves to hear what noises we could hear!

· This week we celebrated the Hindu festival of “Diwali”. Diwali is a festival of light. The children have been busy with all sorts of activities; learning our Diwali song, which they all really enjoyed. Iona carried on singing it throughout the morning! Our role-play area was transformed into an Indian restaurant, where they could select what they would like to eat from the menu. Sam said, “I would like pasta in Diwali sauce”. How lovely!

· At snack time we all had the chance to try popadums. They went down a treat! Grace T. told us, “I love popadums! I have them at home!”

· Laura Chelsea and Sharon hope you all had a lovely half term!

· Thank You To:

1. Ruby’s Mummy for some lovely puzzles for the children to enjoy.

2. Mrs Yates for some beautiful books for the children

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher:

Chelsea McCarthy: Critical Incidence Training. Safeguarding (new child protection). SENCO support.

Sharon Saunders:

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children: Ashton B and Alfie N.

Birthdays this Month: George and Miss Daley

What happened in October:

• We started off this month with an autumn walk to collect leaves, twigs, conkers and acorns to make autumn collages. We had some lovely creations from the children. Mrs Curson made some “listening ears” with the children so that on walks we could listen to the different sounds in our environment. Miss Vaughan had a good idea to make clay hedgehogs and we found that the children had good imaginations making these; it was quite amusing to see a few ‘flat’ hedgehogs created!
• We have enjoyed our Diwali celebrations. Your children made some beautiful Diwali cards, which we hope look lovely displayed in your homes. We then went on to make Diwali bracelets and necklaces. Alfie took great pride in his saying, “Look what I’ve made my Mummy!” George has been singing the Diwali song and sang it to his friends at register time. For snack time we got to taste chicken curry, samosas and naan bread.
• We have been very lucky with the weather and have used this opportunity to go on autumn walks to the local parks and general areas around the nursery. This has been enjoyed by all of us.
• We had a dress up day for Halloween and saw some great costumes come through the door! Thank you all for your efforts to join in! Happy Halloween!

· Thank You To:

1. Miss Martin for her kind donation of children’s books to the nursery; we very much appreciate them.

2. We have to say a sad goodbye to Maddy K.P. who is moving house and leaving us. Thank you to her and her parents for the kind donation of books and wish the family well and good luck with their move.

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash:

Diane Daley: “Development in Communication and Language through music (2)”.

Gemma Hardman: “Development in Communication and Language through music (2)”.

Elizabeth Sudlow: HCC Briefing.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Ellie L and Maisie C.

Birthdays this Month: Patrick K and Ellie D.

What happened in October:

• This month we have been taking a closer look at autumn by making autumnal collages using reds, yellows and oranges. Mrs Curson made “Listening ear” with the children for them to wear on our next nature walk; this helped them to hear bird songs, crunchy leaves, snuffling hedgehogs and conkers falling off the trees.
• Miss Vaughan made clay hedgehogs with the children, this was a fun and messy activity where the children have been creative, using various materials to shape and decorate each hedgehog.
• We have also extended our makaton signs to include the sign for “tree”. We also sang “If I had a little nut tree”. We have also listened to stories of “Percy the Park Keeper” by Nick Butterworth and sorted fir cones, conkers, acorns and pine cones.
• We got out tracing cards and tracing paper this week. Miss Broad showed Harvey N.P. and Ellie D how to trace pictures. Then Harvey asked Miss Broad to draw around his hand and then around his foot! That was quite difficult because he kept wriggling his toes! Then this turned into foot printing, which was great fun! Miss Broad got out a bucket of water, a towel, large white paper and blue, yellow and orange paint. The children took off their shoes, socks and trousers! It wasn’t long before they were all covered in paint, which caused lots of laughter! It was mainly because Ellie slipped off her chair and landed in the paint! Miss Vaughan had her feet painted by Ellie and Miss Broad had hers painted by Harvey! We had to put our feet in a bucket and Harvey went off to find a cloth to wipe the feet! But he couldn’t find one so Miss Broad had to hop over to the bathroom to find one! There was a lot of washing up and cleaning to do after all of the fun, but it was really worth it and made us all laugh!
• During the half term week we all made kites, did free sticking, making Eid patterns for Eid-al-Adha and playing with peppermint water, red spaghetti and smelly flour! The Yellow room was very messy as well as the children and staff, but what fun we had!!!

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: SENCO support.

Stacey Broad:

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. September 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

What fantastic weather we have had over the last couple of weeks! We have spent so much time in the garden, with sunhats and cream on! Our new children have settled in well.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Urgent reminder: Parents we really need your help with this; we have witnessed some very “close shaves” with your children nearly being knocked over by cars on the nearby road and in the car parks. We have recently had the Police in to talk to the children about HOLDING hands with a grown up when they come to or leave the nurseries. Every single child knows they have to hold hands, because they do so when we are out walking with them. The staff constantly remind the children as they leave us, to hold your hands but still see children running off without doing so. Please, please help us by insisting your child holds your hand, when you walk across the car parks. This is your responsibility when your child leaves our care.
• Reminder: Please can parents make sure we have sun cream, hats (we are really short of spare ones to protect your children, when they forget theirs), spare clothes and indoor shoes in a bag left at nursery school for your children’s sessions. All items need to be named. If your child brings a lunch box; Please provide an ice pack to keep the food cool. Thank you!
• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.
• Reminder: Please come and join in with the “Stay and Play” each week. Look out for the sign (on the nursery window / door) that tells you which day that week it is on. Also the times are shown on the notice. We would love to see parents, carers or grandparents, so please do try to come along.
• Reminder: If your child is going to school in September 2012 and will be 4 years old by the 31^st August, you will need to apply for a place in Year R by Sunday 15^th January 2012 (midnight). The information is on display on the nursery window or door.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Planning for October:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets and friends. Thank you.

Week beginning 3^rd October; autumn walks and making listening ears. “Hickory Dickory Dock” nursery rhyme.

Week beginning 10^th October; autumn collage and “I had a little nut tree” song.

Week beginning 17^th October; Diwali and “Diwali song”. Introducing the festival of light, making cards and pasta flower jewellery.

Week beginning 24^th October; (Worting Road only, as Anstey Close is closed for half term) “Halloween”, “Incy Wincy Spider”. Playing with mini beasts and spiders in jelly!! Making a Halloween door hanger of a cat, cauldron or a pumpkin.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children: Ewan, Iona, Elissa, Maisie, Julia, Daisy, David, Harry, Sophie, Grace T, Liam, Jamie and their families.

Birthdays this Month: Baljit, Sam, Rose, Phoebe, Ruby, Sophie, Charlie and Ella.

What happened in September:

· A lovely start to the term with the story of the “Owl Babies”. The baby owls anxiously wait for their mummy’s return. The children waited with great anticipation as we told the story and they soon realised that the mummy owl always comes back, just like their mummies do. We used paints and feathers to decorate their own owl masks and we chatted about when owls are awake, we are asleep (or should be!). Phoebe remembered all the words and actions to “A wide eyed owl” and showed Mrs Fisher and all her friends in the garden – she did really well!

· This week the children have been learning all about themselves and have enjoyed looking in a mirror to find out what they look like and then drawing their own self portraits! They are beautiful. Daisy gave a big smile, showing all her teeth. She said, “I’ve got to draw all my teeth!”

· We also made our new “Self Registration people” this week, one side with a happy face and the other a sad face.

· This week we have been talking about our home and family pets. The children have made the animals better in the “Vet Surgery”. Jack spent a long time wrapping a bandage around the large teddy’s tummy and making him ‘better’. The children have used a selection of paints to paint pets they know. Laurel explained that she didn’t have any pets at home but loved the nursery fish, so she wanted to draw them.

· Thank You To:

1. Sam’s Mummy for donating Emily’s (Sam’s big sister) dressing up dresses. Our children have loved wearing them and pretending to be princesses.

2. Ella who spent a lot of time and hard work collecting a big bag of conkers for nursery; thank you for sharing with your friends, Ella. We are going to make a big conker picture soon.

3. Iona’s Granny for bringing her 90 year old tortoise, Victoria, and sharing how she looks after him; what he eats and when he sleeps for the winter. (Granny explained that when Victoria was a little tortoise they thought he was a girl but later found out he was in fact a boy!!) The children drew pictures of Victoria and sent a “thank you” card to Iona’s Granny. What a lovely experience!

4. Our Local P.S.C.O. Danielle Joyce, who came to see the children about how we all need to keep safe. She asked the children how they keep safe in the car and Kyle told her that you need to wear a seat belt, Rose added that you have to sit still as well. The children were reminded by Danielle that they need to hold their grownups hands from their front doors to the car and from the car to the nursery. Miss McCarthy told Danielle about seeing a little person running in the car park and Danielle asked them all to be very careful because people in cars cannot not see children very easily as they are still little. Danielle also asked them how they keep safe on their bikes. Daisy and Jamie told her you need to wear a helmet. Jamie told her that Mummy always has her helmet on when she brings him to nursery. Danielle is happy to visit on a regular basis and during her next visit we will talk about “Stranger Danger”. She kindly offered to bring some equipment and dressing up clothes with her to show the children and the difference between “Good strangers (policemen etc) and bad strangers”.

· The children have helped Mrs Saunders to make a bright, beautiful giraffe height chart. We have spent the last few days using tape measures to see “how tall we are” and to record “how much we grow”. Each child has a leaf marker on the giraffe, so they can see who they are “taller than” or “smaller than”. Ruby said, “I am smaller than Daisy”. Our children are becoming aware and understanding more about themselves!

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher:

Chelsea McCarthy: Starting GCSE: English, Diploma Level 3 in childcare.

Sharon Saunders:

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children: Claudia, Ashton and Alfie

Birthdays this Month: Bella and Miss Hardman

What happened in September:

• This month’s topic was about animals. We have learnt a lot about owls; what food they eat, that they are awake when we are asleep. Starr said, “I am staying up late tonight to see owls!” (Sorry Mum and Dad!!). Bella said, “Can we go for a walk in the forest to see owls?” The staff read the story, “Owl Babies” and we taught the children the “Wide eyed owl” song. We kept this theme for art work and the children used resources; feathers and material to make their own owl mask. These masks are on display and they really look like the real thing! When you come for “Stay and Play” please do come along and see all this great work!
• The children, with the help from the staff, have learnt the nursery rhyme; “The three little pigs” They have also designed their own pigs. We have a lot of “Peppa Pigs and George’s”! In small groups the children made a house of bricks, straw and sticks. This is another super display for you to come and see!!

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash:

Diane Daley: Started Diploma Level 3 in childcare; “Development in Communication and Language through music (1)”.

Gemma Hardman: Started Diploma Level 3 in childcare; “Development in Communication and Language through music (1)”.

.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Bastian

Birthdays this Month: Jake, Amelia and Gurkirat

What happened in September:

• A reminder to parents that the “Nursery Development Plan” is available in the hallway for you to read.
• We began the new term discussing “The Three Little Pigs” story. The children have made houses made of sticks, duplo bricks, paint and collage. They have also made their own little pigs and some more for the display. We have sung “This little piggy went to market” and used the makaton sign for “pig”. Well done everybody for another lovely display.
• We talked about owls and sung the song “The wide eyed owl”, we have made owl masks with Miss Daley and Miss Broad made a huge branch for the owls to sit on.
• Miss Broad asked Mr Sudlow to charge up the remote control car which we had enormous fun with; driving it through people’s legs and around the garden. Harvey had another idea which was to steer it down the slide! He looked amazed when he did it!
• Miss Broad also found some bubble wrap in the store room and we all had great fun popping the bubbles.
• Our arts and crafts week we painted portraits of ourselves; first looking in a mirror to see what we look like! Uma definitely enjoyed looking in the mirror, she smiled and smiled saying, “Its Uma!”
• Another week we went for a nature walk which we all loved. We found sticks, conkers, conker shells and leaves. We carried them back to nursery. On our journey we found a big log which the children walked along and sat on, talking about what it used to be like and feeling the different textures. We had a good run round and Miss Broad organised some races, Miss Vaughan was the finishing post! It was time to go back and when we were about 5 minutes away from nursery, Ella said, “Miss Broad, Uma has fallen asleep!” She was walking along with her eyes closed and her head down! Miss Broad carried Uma back and not once did she wake up! Bless her! We made collages and a display with all our treasures we had found.
• This week we had a visit from the local Police. When they came in they said “Hello” and waved to the children but they were very unsure and hesitant to reply or wave back! So the Police repeated the hello and wave and then the children replied. The first thing the police spoke about was road safety. The children were asked what they should do near to roads and cars and the children all replied, “Hold hands with our grown-ups”. They also knew that they should “Look with our eyes”, “listen with our ears”. The policeman said, “Should we run into the road or should we stop?” everyone replied “We should STOP!!” Please help us to reinforce this with your children.

The next subject was “Stranger Danger”. The message was “Never talk to strangers” and “never take anything (like sweets) from a stranger”. The Police also explained the difference between good strangers (people who will help you e.g. the police) and bad strangers.

The last subject they talked about was taking things home from nursery, which are not theirs, e.g. toys. These belong to the nursery and other children will want to play with them.

We looked out of the window at the police car, which was very exciting and the policeman very kindly put on the blue flashing light. The children then asked some questions about the car and the police uniform. The children are now looking forward to the next visit from the police.

• For the rest of the week we made pictures of fish and dogs and sang, “How much is that doggy in the window” and another song called “Guinea Pig”!
• The rest of the week was free play with the clay and the shaving foam, which is always really good fun.

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: Starting Second Year of Foundation Degree in Childhood Studies.

Stacey Broad:

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. August 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

The summer holidays seem to have raced by and now we are starting our new academic year! We have said goodbye to all our children who are off to start their next adventure in life and we wish them all the best. Now we are welcoming our new children and helping them to settle into a new experience.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please can parents make sure we have sun cream, hats (we are really short of spare ones to protect your children, when they forget theirs), spare clothes and indoor shoes in a bag left at nursery school for your children’s sessions. All items need to be named. If your child brings a lunch box; Please provide an ice pack to keep the food cool. (September sun can sometimes be quite hot!) Thank you!
• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Planning for September:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets and friends. Thank you.

Week beginning 5^th September; (Worting Road only) Story of “Three Little Pigs” and rhyme “This Little Piggy”.

Week beginning 12^th September; (Both nurseries) Story of “Owl Babies” and “The Wide Eyed Owl”.

Week beginning 19^th September; “Me” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

Week beginning 26^th September; “Pets” and “How much is that Doggy in the Window?”

Week beginning 31^st September; “My Home” and “In my House there is a Room”.

Anstey Close:

Anstey Close re-opens for the Autumn term on Monday 12^th September 2011.

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Ocean C.

What happened in August:

• This month we did not having any formal planning and instead went along with the children’s interests. At the start of the month the children were showing great interest in “Pirates”. Miss Vaughan and Miss McCarthy helped the children to make a wonderful collage of a pirate ship and each child made a pirate to go on the ship. Some are climbing the rigging, walking the plank and others are scrubbing the decks! The ship is up on the wall in the yellow room; so please come in and take a look! Treasure maps were made with Mrs Nash, by dipping paper into cold tea to give them an old authentic look. The children then drew a map to find their treasure. Sid D. brought in his teddy, called “George” and with Mrs Nash’s help he was dressed as a fierce pirate!
• On Friday 12^th August we had our “Pirate Tea Party”! Miss Vaughan, Miss McCarthy and Mrs Nash dressed up as pirates as well as many of the children. After scrubbing the decks, climbing the rigging with Miss Vaughan on the pirate ship we sat down on a treasure island for a “hearty picnic”! We all tucked into a lovely spread and finished off with a pirate biscuit. It was then off to find the treasure box with our treasure maps. The children hunted around the garden and James B. found the treasure box hidden in the bush. We all rushed back to our treasure island to check out our ‘find’ and inside the box was an array of sweets and lollipops. Staff would like to thank Ms Martin; George’s mummy for her kind money donation given to buy the sweets for the treasure box and for the great library book “Pirate Pete”, which Miss Vaughan read to the children. Also a big thank you to all the parents who sent their children in wonderful costumes; it is so lovely for staff to have your support.
• We all headed off for a lovely summer walk. First we went to South Ham Library. Here the children had the opportunity to look at the books and to do some colouring. We then went to Russell Howard play park and had great fun on the swings, slide and climbing frame. We then went to sit on the tree logs, where we had snack time. Then we headed back to nursery.
• We would like to say “Goodbye” to the last of our school children, leaving to go to big school; we wish you lots of luck.
• We would also like to thank Miss Chelsea McCarthy for all her hard work at Worting Road over the summer. Miss McCarthy will be permanently at Anstey Close from 12^th September as she takes up the position of Deputy there. Good luck in your new role, Chelsea, with love from all the staff at Worting Road.
• From 1^st September Miss Noreen Vaughan and Miss Stacey Broad will be in the Yellow Room. Mrs Debbie Nash, Miss Donna Curson and Miss Diane Daley will be in the 3 and 4 year olds area. Lunchtime cover will remain as Mrs Donna Curson, Miss Diane Daley and Miss Gemma Hardman. Miss Hardman will also be extending her hours with us and working between both rooms. We welcome Gemma to our team.
• Reminder: We have a book sharing scheme for your child to choose a book at nursery to share with their family at home. If you would like your child to take a book home please ask a member of staff who will gladly set this up for you.

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: “Sharing Professional Expertise”: a visit to St Bernard’s Nursery.

Diane Daley: Starting Diploma Level 3 in childcare.

Gemma Hardman: Starting Diploma Level 3 in childcare.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Uma D.

Birthdays this Month: Charlotte M.

What happened in August:

• We also had the “Pirate” theme; please see above for the main activities. We also made hats and decorated treasure chests. We had lots of treasure hunts in the garden to find treasure; we even found silver treasure in our sand pits!!! At our pirate picnic we sang sea shanties; “Row, row you boat”, “The big ship sails through the Ally Ally Oh”, and “A sailor went to sea, sea, sea”. Before we ate we played a game of “Port, Starboard, climb the rigging, crow’s nest, scrub the decks and walk the plank!!” This helped to build up a big appetite for our picnic and only left crumbs for the sea gulls to eat!!!!
• Miss Daley and Miss Hardman are joining in with the “Midnight Walk” to raise money for St Michael’s Hospice, in September. If you like to donate any money towards this worthwhile cause then please do send it to nursery and we will pass it on.
• After our Pirate topic we looked under the sea to see where the pirates go after walking the plank! The children helped to make another splendid picture (using chalk, paint and collage materials) of dolphins, starfish, big and little fish and seahorses. Well done children!
• For the last two weeks of August we have been very creative, doing table painting, free collaging, wet pasta, sponge painting, junk and play dough modelling, and sand and water play.
• We say goodbye to Charlie, Olivia, William, Shannon, Summer and Maddie who are moving up to the big room.

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: “Sharing Professional Expertise”: a visit to St Bernard’s Nursery.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

Dear Parents

Well what a splendid day we had on Tuesday 26^th July. The Tea At Three event went so well; we had so many visitors and so many cakes to sell! Thank you to all the staff for the hard work they put in: Laura and Debbie manned the Tea and Coffee stall, Noreen sold the cakes, Diane manned the door and signing in process, Donna had a lucky dip tray, Sharon and Chelsea had fun with the duck catching game, Gemma controlled the traffic on the bouncy castle and…. well, what can we say about Stacey? She spent the entire 2 hours dressed in a pink tutu running a “keep fit” class for the children!! The children were so good and had a lovely afternoon. Also thank you to KestrelFM for their mention on the radio and dedication of a Bruno Mars song to us! Also to the Gazette for coming to take a photo of us (hopefully we’ll be in the paper soon!) and to Helena from St Michael’s Hospice to support us and talk to everyone. We raised an amazing amount of £308.40 for St Michael’s Hospice!! Wow!!

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please can parents make sure we have sun cream, hats (we are really short of spare ones to protect your children, when they forget theirs), spare clothes and indoor shoes in a bag left at nursery school for your children’s sessions. All items need to be named. If your child brings a lunch box; Please provide an ice pack to keep the food cool. Thank you!
• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Planning for September:

Please feel free to ask staff and come and look at our full planning. Please support your children with any photos etc. of themselves, their homes, family pets and friends. Thank you.

Week beginning 5^th September; (Worting Road only) Story of “Three Little Pigs” and rhyme “This Little Piggy”.

Week beginning 12^th September; (Both nurseries) Story of “Owl Babies” and “The Wide Eyed Owl”.

Week beginning 19^th September; “Me” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

Week beginning 26^th September; “Pets” and “How much is that Doggy in the Window?”

Week beginning 31^st September; “My Home” and “In my House there is a Room”.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month and in August: Ewan K. Nihad E. and Oscar W.

What happened in July:

• We would like to say a huge “thank you” to:

Sophie’s Mummy for providing both nurseries with EMTAS duel language books throughout the year.

Daniel’ Mummy for the paints.

April’s Mummy for the clothes for the ‘spare clothes box’ – they are always welcome.

Dylan’s Mummy for some lovely art supplies this month.

And to congratulations to Jack and his family on the birth of baby Iris!

We really do appreciate you all! Thank you!

• Anstey Close would like to send a huge “Good Luck” to all our school children and a big thank you to all their parents / carers for their support during their child’s time with us! We hope that everyone has a lovely summer and we look forward to seeing all our nursery children on the week beginning 12the September 2011 – have lots of fun!
• Working with our “Letters and Sounds” we have been learning about rhyming words. Ella A, Daniel, Zara and Megan put a poem (and all the rhyming words) together with Miss McCarthy. They would like to share this with you:

“The pig went for a jig,

The donkey was a bit wonky,

The cat sat on the mat with a bat,

The dog sat on a log near a bog!” By, Daniel Spaniel, Ella Lella, Megan Pegan, Zara Rara, and Miss McCarthy Bathy!! (Note: from Elizabeth: That was fantastic work! Well done!)

• Mrs Ellen Young came to visit with Kingston the Guide dog puppy. We heard all about his training and how he would lead a blind person around obstacles. Charlie W. asked if he would be able to guide the person around a lion. “I’m sure he would if he ever saw a lion!”, Ellen agreed!
• We have learned about people who help us and the children chalked beautiful pictures, which are on display. “If you need help you can ring 999 and ask for the Firemen, The Police and an Ambulance”, Keilah, Megan and Ella A. explained.

• The weather was so changeable we altered our planning to “Weather” and had a weather station in the imaginative play corner. Angelina used the microphone and sang to her friends as they put the weather symbols on the big map! They also created a wonderful weather display, all working co-operatively together to make sunshine, clouds, rain and a beautiful rainbow. They used all manner of materials from newspaper to sequins!
• Anstey Close would like to say a huge thank you to all our parents / Carers for your efforts for our fundraising in support of St Michael’s Hospice. We are delighted and inspired by your creations and the children were very proud of their cakes, whether made by themselves, or by mum / nanny or Mr Kipling! The afternoon was lovely experience and it was wonderful to see so many parents bring their children during this busy time of year. The children thoroughly enjoyed the “Scoop the duck” and Mrs Saunders’s feet are finally dry! The Bouncy Castle and Lucky dip were very successful and lots of fun too! Miss Broad and her dance troupe had a lovely “Boogie”! Thank you all once again for wonderful amount we raised!!

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher: “Epipen Training”

Chelsea McCarthy: “Epipen Training”

Sharon Saunders: “Epipen Training”

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children: Joshua L.

Birthdays this Month: Lewis S. and Emilee L.

What happened in July:

• We started this month planning activities around people that help us. The children chalked lovely pictures of doctors and nurses. The home corner was set up as a doctor’s surgery and the children have had great fun bandaging each other!

Other people who help us are fire fighters and when asked what these people do to help us, some children said that “they help us get cats out of trees” or “they put the fire out using a hose and water and ladder”. They made pictures of fires and fire-fighters. This time the home corner became a fire-station and there was lots of role play and dressing up.

Continuing the theme, later in the month; Miss Broad and Miss Daley helped the children to make “Police Officer” biscuits! They used the shape cutter to cut them out after having fun making up the mixture. After the figures were cooked, black icing was used to make a uniform and white for a shirt and red and green for other bits!

• Debbie, Donna and Stacey would like to send a big thank you to all the parents who came to the parent consultations as our children prepare to leave us for big school. We really do appreciate that many of you had to juggle work and family commitments to attend. We had some lovely written feedback on your child’s profiles and their time at nursery. This was the first time we had made this a formal time and we are trying very hard to develop nursery and parent partnerships. Please if you have not sent in your feedback on the profile, we would be very grateful if you would do so. Thank you.
• We have been busy finding out how to be safe in the car and on the road. Mrs Nash told the children that it is very important that when you cross the road you must hold on to a grown up’s hand. You must wait until the Lolly-pop lady tells you you can cross the road. We must remember to “Stop, Look and Listen”. Mrs Nash also told the children they must not open the car door or even touch the handles or the window. Mrs Nash said, “You must not ever undo your seat belt and only let an adult do it for you”. We did some colouring in of pictures showing 2 children sitting in the car with their seat belts on. The climbing frame was made into a car and we used material to pretend we were wearing seatbelts.
• Tea At Three: We had so many activities going on such as a dance studio with Miss Broad, who said, “I was so impressed how good the children were with their dancing!” Some children were showing her how to dance and the favourite song was “Barbie Girl”! Miss McCarthy and Mrs Saunders did “Hook the duck”, although sometimes it was “Hook the Joe” because he enjoyed dipping his feet into the paddling pool! Mrs Curson did a “Lucky Dip” and the children enjoyed searching for a prize. Miss Hardman looked after the bouncy castle and I think the children thought that was the best activity because some of them were on it all day!! Where do they get the energy from? Perhaps it was from all the cakes they ate!! Miss Vaughan and Mrs Sudlow helped on the cake stall; so many of you brought cakes, they were yummy! Mrs Nash and Mrs Fisher helped to do the tea and coffee.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and other family members who made it to our Tea At Three. We appreciate all your efforts to help raise such a huge amount for St Michael’s Hospice and we hope you also enjoyed yourselves.

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: e- Learning Courses: “Health and Safety” and “Safeguarding Children”.

Elizabeth Sudlow: e- Learning Courses: “Health and Safety”, “Food Hygiene” and “Safeguarding Children”.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: William H. Summer G. and Julia K.

What happened in July:

• Another really busy month! With lots of birthdays and children turning three
• We have been developing Knowledge and Understanding of The World, by learning about how to keep ourselves safe. Such as how to cross the road safely and what to do if they get lost when out shopping with their parents / grandparents. They have also enjoyed being fire-fighters, dressing up, pretending to put out fires and making “fire” pictures. We have been singing “London’ Burning”.
• We have learnt the “Green Cross Code” – Stop, Look and Listen. We have made policeman biscuits and decorated them with icing. Miss Vaughan hopes they enjoyed eating them as much as making them!
• To end the month we had a Tea At Three tea party in the garden, where the children had been busy making wonderful cakes at home to sell on the day. We had very good attendance from their families and we were very proud to show off our nursery to everyone. It was wonderful to have lots of support from the children’s families. Thank you very much for raising the grand total of £308.40!!!

Staff Training:

Noreen Vaughan: Who has completed her first year of a Foundation Degree in Childcare with very good grades. Please give Noreen lots of support as she looks forward to the second year due to start in October.

Diane Daley: Who has completed her NVQ Level 2. Congratulations. Diane is planning to go on to straight on to Level 3 in September.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. June 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

Things are getting busy, as the end of the term draws nigh! First of all we are re running our Kestrel FM advert for 4 weeks.

We are also hoping to do lots of den making over the summer and wonder if anyone has any old sheets or large pieces of material, ground sheets and army camouflage or even a parachute that we may have to make these dens! The children love to make “cubby holes” to play in!

We have been getting the school children’s records and reports ready for you collect on the parent consultation days. Please see below for the details.

Important dates for your diary:

1. If your child is leaving to go to “Big School” in September 2011, you will have received a letter, with a time and date, inviting you to a Nursery / Parent Consultation. This will be an opportunity for you to have a 10 minute chat with your child’s Key Worker regarding your child’s progress at nursery and to collect their “profile”. The consultations will be on the afternoons of Tuesday 5^th July and Thursday 7^th July. So please put these dates in your diary and we hope you will be able to attend.

2. On Tuesday 26^th July 2011 we are holding a fundraising tea party: “Tea @ 3”, for St Michael’s Hospice.

“Tea @ 3 is all about gathering friends together to hold a tea party in aid of St Michael’s Hospice, which cares for patients with illnesses where a cure is not possible and the goal is the best possible quality of life. All care and services are provided at no cost to patients or their families. It costs around £3 million to fund the running costs of St Michael’s Hospice. This year 23% of this comes from Local Primary Care Trust. The other £2.3 million must be raised through fundraising and charity shops.”

Once again Anstey Close will be joining the fun at Worting Road. This will start at 1.30 p.m. and finish at 3.30 p.m. - please only bring nursery children and not brothers and sisters. The week before we will send home a paper plate and we would ask if you would kindly bake or buy cakes to sell at this event. Then bring your filled plates into nursery on Monday 25^th July, ready for us to sell the next day. We have many activities lined up for the afternoon:

• A Dance studio with Miss Broad
• A “lucky dip” with Mrs Curson
• “Hook the duck” with the ladies from Anstey Close
• Velcro Target fun
• A Bouncy Castle.

Please help us to support this worthwhile charity by spending the afternoon with us and by donating cakes to sell, buying drinks and cakes from us and playing on the activities.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

• Reminder: Please can parents make sure we have sun cream, hats (we are really short of spare ones to protect your children, when they forget theirs), spare clothes and indoor shoes in a bag left at nursery school for your children’s sessions. All items need to be named. If your child brings a lunch box; Please provide an ice pack to keep the food cool. Thank you!
• Reminder: Please could you make sure that you have given nursery your up to date mobile, work, home and emergency contact telephone numbers. Recently we have had to contact parents and found that numbers have been unobtainable. Thank you for your co-operation.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Sophie Y. Jamie B. Iona H. and Chloe B.

What happened in June:

• We would like to say a huge “thank you” to:

Dylan’s Mummy for lending us her “potting shed”. We have already planted lettuce and carrot seeds.

Daniel’ Mummy for her continuous beautiful art supplies.

April’s Mummy all her containers.

And to Robert’s Mummy for coming regularly to our “stay and play” sessions.

We really do appreciate you all! Thank you!

• We have been very busy getting ready for Father’s Day making our daddies and granddad’s cards and paperweights – we hope you like them!
• This week we have used our hands to make sunshine pictures. Let’s hope we see the real sunshine soon!
• Hatchlings Bear has returned from Miss McCarthy’s house. She was a very good bear and Jamie loved looking after her and taking her to visit The Disney Store. She also had a ride on a train to Weymouth beach and ate in a restaurant! She had a lovely time.
• The weather has let us down a few days this term, so we have been singing ‘rainy songs’, such as; “It’s raining it’s pouring” and “I hear thunder”. We sang these as we sat around the outside sandpit watching and listening to the rain!
• We have also been going over our home addresses and learning where we live.
• During one of the dry lunchtimes the children built Lego towers, which we laid out on our carpets to make height charts. “It’s our measurer”, said Megan. Each child took it in turn to lie down beside the ‘measurer’ to mark their height. Megan called out, “Ella is shorter than Daniel and I am taller than Ella but smaller than Daniel!” Lots more “bigger than” language was used; well done everyone.
• Our group activity for the 20^th June was summer flowers; we did one large group painting, it is lovely, the children had such fun using the paints to finger paint. We have named it the “Hatchlings’s Meadow”! It looks wonderful.
• On the 30^th June we had two very special visitors visit us: Hazel and her white chicken came to see us! Hazel, who keeps pet chickens, came to share a story with us about how she got them. While she read the story to us the children couldn’t keep their eyes off the chicken strutting around exploring the garden! They even got to stroke her, what a fantastic experience for us all! When Hazel had gone we all got busy drawing pictures of chickens and other farm animals and sang “Old McDonald had a farm” to extend our learning. Thank you so much, Hazel for coming to see us!
• Miss Hannah Blackburn, from Testbourne School has spent two weeks on work experience with us. The children have enjoyed her company, ‘thank you’ Hannah.

Staff Training:

Chelsea McCarthy: “Letters and Sounds”; Cluster meeting “Final meeting of the year”;

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: James B. Colin Z. Anmol G. and Aaliyah D.

What happened in June:

• Summer has arrived at nursery and although the weather has been rather showery, the children are still enjoying the outdoor activities. They have been checking the potatoes daily and are eager to taste them at snack time. Thank you Miss Vaughan for your input with activities with the children in the “Big Room”.
• Some of the children have started their visits to “Big School” and a couple of the teachers have been to visit the nursery and meet the children. This is a exciting time for the children and we are having lots of discussions about school.
• We hope “Our Dads” loved the Father’s Day cards and paperweights the children made. On behalf of us all we hope you had a nice “Father’s Day”.
• We have been drawing observational pictures of lavender and we have used green and purple paint. The children held a paint brush to form the stem and fingers to paint the petals. When Mrs Curson told the children that lavender makes you feel sleepy when you sniff it they all started to yawn! The pictures are all proudly on display. Continuing with the flower theme we have also made summer flowers with coloured paper. The flowers are beautiful orange, yellow, purple and green.
• A fruit mobile has also been made, with the children cutting around apples, bananas, pears and oranges. They were then decorated with coloured tissue paper. We had a group discussion about different fruit and their colours and how they taste; sweet or sour and whether the texture was soft or hard. Colin said, “Apples are red and hard!” Emilee said, “Mummy and Daddy start to open my orange for me first and I finish it!” Sid told Mrs Curson he likes grapes as they are soft and juicy. To extend this activity Mrs Nash and Miss Vaughan made fruit salad with the children. The children carefully used a knife and chopped the fruit up. They did a wonderful job and it tasted yummy!

Staff Training:

Stacey Broad: “Letters and Sounds”; “Sharing Professional Expertise”, a visit to Boot Farm Kindergarten in Baughurst.

Donna Curson: “Sharing Professional Expertise”, a visit to Boot Farm Kindergarten in Baughurst.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Casey L. Vitor G. and Isabella G.

Birthdays this Month: Olivia D

What happened in June:

• This month the children have been very busy making special cards and presents for “Father’s” Day. We hope you all enjoyed the clay paper weights.
• Steve Wood came to take photos of all the children and staff. The orders are all in and have been sent off to be processed.
• We had a visit from Hazel Bentley who brought a “Black Rock” chicken to see us. She read a book to the children, which she had written, about two chickens. It was called “The Girls at Number 5”. The children from both rooms enjoyed listening to the story and had fun watching the chicken strut and cluck around the garden!
• Everyone has helped to make a wonderful summer garden display for the room. They hand printed sunshine, bumble bees and their own designs of flowers. We have enjoyed singing “The sun has got his hat on”! On one day while we were singing it the sun came out and the children cheered! Other songs we have sung have been “Mary, Mary” and Miss Vaughan’s old Sunday School Song “The wise man built his house upon the rock.”
• Thank you to Ellie D, for donating some of her toys to nursery! The children have all enjoyed playing with them.
• Miss Vaughan and children from both rooms have been digging up the potatoes we planted a few months ago. We had a very good crop and have enjoyed eating them boiled. Some of the comments from the children were, “Yum, Yum, potatoes” and “I like potatoes!” The children helped to plant them, care for them and water them to make them grow! Well done.
• Miss Daley will be taking part in the 6 mile “Midnight Walk” in aid of “St Michael’s Hospice” on the 3^rd September. If anyone would like to sponsor her then please ask for her sponsor form. Thank you.
• Mrs Nash and Miss Vaughan helped the children to make a lovely fruit salad. Everyone took turns in cutting up the apples, oranges and bananas. This was eaten with gusto at snack time!

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. May 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

Where has this month gone? We have had some lovely weather; I hope that isn’t “it” for the rest of the year!

You may have noticed that all the windows at Worting Road nursery have now been replaced, by Ripton Windows, with PVC double glazed windows, with extra strong locking mechanisms. As with all jobs of this sort it has had a “knock on” effect and now the old “soffits” are in need of repair. So John and my brother Andrew (thank you from both of us!) have been replacing these. Thank you, everybody, for your care and co-operation while this work goes on. There is one more side still to be done. Andrew has also installed our new flag pole for us! If we know where you are going on your holiday then we will endeavour to put up the appropriate flag while you are away!

Important dates for your diary:

1. On the morning of Tuesday 7^th June 2011 Steve Wood, our usual photographer will be visiting both nurseries. There is a poster on each of the nursery doors and also a letter has been sent out with each child. This is a good opportunity for brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers and their children to be professionally photographed together, at very reasonable prices. So do bring everyone along. Please check where Steve is by ringing the nurseries 01256 333113 (AC) or 01256 331147 (WR) on the day if you are not sure.

2. If your child is leaving to go to “Big School” in September 2011, you will soon be receiving a letter, with a time and date, inviting you to a Nursery / Parent Consultation. This will be an opportunity for you to have a 10 minute chat with your child’s Key Worker regarding your child’s progress at nursery and to collect their “profile”. The consultations will be on the afternoons of Tuesday 5^th July and Thursday 7^th July. So please put these dates in your diary and we hope you will be able to attend.

3. On Tuesday 26^th July 2011 we are holding a fundraising tea party: “Tea @ 3”, for St Michael’s Hospice.

“Tea @ 3 is all about gathering friends together to hold a tea party in aid of St Michael’s Hospice, which cares for patients with illnesses where a cure is not possible and the goal is the best possible quality of life. All care and services are provided at no cost to patients or their families. It costs around £3 million to fund the running costs of St Michael’s Hospice. This year 23% of this comes from Local Primary Care Trust. The other £2.3 million must be raised through fundraising and charity shops.”

Once again Anstey Close will be joining the fun at Worting Road. This will start at 1.30 p.m. and finish at 3.30 p.m. - please only bring nursery children and not brothers and sisters. The week before we will send home a paper plate and we would ask if you would kindly bake or buy cakes to sell at this event. Then bring your filled plates into nursery on Monday 25^th July, ready for us to sell the next day. We have many activities lined up for the afternoon:

• A Dance studio with Miss Broad
• A “lucky dip” with Mrs Curson
• “Hook the duck” with the ladies from Anstey Close
• Velcro Target fun
• A Bouncy Castle.

Please help us to support this worthwhile charity by spending the afternoon with us and by donating cakes to sell, buying drinks and cakes from us and playing on the activities.

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: www.facebook.com/thehatchlings and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

Reminder: Please can parents make sure we have sun cream, hats, spare clothes and indoor shoes in a bag left at nursery school for your children’s sessions. All items need to be named. If your child brings a lunch box; Please provide an ice pack to keep the food cool. Thank you!

Our planning and ideas for the month of June are:

· Summer time; summer flowers: summer fruits.

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Sean L. Enzo C. and Zara N. Jack H. Ainara K and Mrs Sudlow

What happened in May:

• During May we have been “Jungle Crazy”! The children have been using their fantastic imaginations and singing “Down in the jungle”! We have been using alliteration in our language; such as “grumpy gorilla”, tiggly tiger” and their favourite; “lazy lion”! This has been supporting our “Letters and Sounds” programme. We made shakers with the help of our student; Miss Drake. These instruments are staying at nursery for now, so that all the children can share them. We have thoroughly enjoyed shaking along to our jungle beat!
• The Teddy Bear’s picnic was a great success; we made teddy shaped sandwiches and ate teddy crisps and breadsticks with cheese and cucumber.
• We have also been “bug crazy”! The children made a selection of worms, snails, ladybirds and butterflies using all their imagination and different art media, including pasta and lentils. We also learnt a new poem by Spike Milligan; “Today I saw a little worm”:

“Today I saw a little worm,

Wriggling on his belly,

Perhaps he’s like to come inside,

And see what’s on the telly!”

This has kept the children giggling for the whole week! Perhaps you could share it with them at home!

Another activity we enjoyed was hunting for bugs (our plastic ones; no bugs were harmed in this activity!!) in shredded paper.

· This week we have all turned into builders; learning about construction! We had a builder’s yard in our role play area.

· We have had good fun with junk modelling. We have used our imaginations to create whatever we wanted. Sam made a, “Super, super, super, douper fast train!” Daniel made a, “Telescope to see far, far away!”

· Miss McCarthy and Mrs Saunders took the children for a walk after lunch one day, around the local area and to the park. Ruby said, “I like this park”. The children all used their gross motor skills, taking part in an obstacle course; climbing across the climbing frame and swinging on the swings. Ella A. and Charlie K. learnt how to swing by themselves: How fantastic!

· Hatchlings Bear is having a little holiday; she has gone to Miss McCarthy’s house for half term, to visit Jamie, Miss McCarthy’s little boy. (Lucky Hatchlings Bear, I hope she is good! Note from Elizabeth)

· Thank you very much to Robert’s Mummy for the donations of videos for the nursery.

· Mrs Fisher, Miss McCarthy, Mrs Saunders and Mrs Todd all hope you have a lovely half term holiday.

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher: “SENCO training”;

Chelsea McCarthy: “First Aid”; Cluster meeting “Challenging Behaviour”;

Sally Todd: “First Aid”;

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children:

Birthdays this Month: Bleu H. Joe B. and Mrs Sudlow.

What happened in May:

• This week we have been learning about Charley Bear and his adventures in the jungle. We talked about different animals living in the jungle and the sounds they make. We learnt a new song; “Old McDonald had a jungle…..!”
• The next week we had a teddy bear’s picnic and all our nursery bears were invited. The children used teddy cutters to make their own sandwiches. We used honey, jam, cheese spread and marmite for fillings. We also had fruit, carrots, cucumber and Pom Bear crisps to eat.
• The children had great fun making clay snails. They enjoyed rolling the clay into long, short, thick, thin sausage shapes and then curling it around to make snail shells. They then chose a lovely colour to paint them. We have some very colourful snails now!
• Mrs Sudlow’s brother, Mr Whiteman, came into the nursery and dug a hole and filled it with concrete to erect a flag pole for us! We now have a selection of flags to put up for different occasions e.g. Olympics, St Patrick’s Day etc.
• Mrs Nash and the children have had great fun making butterfly cakes. Together they mixed flour, eggs, castor sugar and butter. This mixture was put into cake cases. Once they were cooked butter icing was made, then the top of each cake was sliced off, these bits were cut in half to stick in the butter icing to make wings. Then the cakes were sprinkled with icing sugar. Cooking is NOT Mrs Nash’s favourite pastime, and you may remember from previous news letters, she prefers “Auntie Bessie” products!! However with the help of your children she really enjoyed the cooking experience! (Watch this space in case it happens again!!)
• The children have enjoyed using junk to make models this week. Some are on display in the hallway. Please come and have a look at them. There are also some lovely pieces of junk jewellery!

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: “SENCO training”;

Noreen Vaughan: Cluster meeting “Transitions”;

Donna Curson: “First Aid”;

Diane Broad: “First Aid”; Completed NVQ2 (Well done!)

Gemma Hardman: “First Aid”;

Elizabeth Sudlow: “South Ham Police Community Panel”; Meeting with local nursery mangers / owners.

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Harvey N.P, Jack H. Tyiel D. Grace H. and Casey L.

Birthdays this Month: Jack H. Dexter C. and Harvey N.P.

What happened in May:

• This month the children have been making clay snails, colouring a snail and making snail trail pictures, using paint, glue and glitter. We have also made pasta butterflies, which have gone up on the display for our “Bug’s Life”.
• We have also been busy making jungle animal masks and we used a potato to make bear prints and to end the week we had a teddy bear’s picnic. We made sandwiches, with a choice of marmite, honey, cheese spread and jam. Have a guess at some of the mixtures that were put in the sandwiches! The children and bears had a great time in the garden.
• Norway’s Constitution Day (17^th May): Amelia came into nursery in her birth country’s national costume, called a “Bunad”. Her Mummy and Daddy also lent us some Norwegian music to listen to. (Note from Elizabeth: Sorry I didn’t know about this and it was too late to buy a flag, but we have one on its way for next year!!) The children made a Norwegian flag to help Amelia celebrate her special day. On 17^th May Amelia then went to London to join in the parades.
• The children had great fun with Mrs Nash who made butterfly cakes with them. What a sticky mess the room was in with the icing sugar in the air! I think the children thought it would help the cakes fly (!) but the children enjoyed the mess and the mixing and the scooping into the cake cases! The next day they were still talking about their cakes! So we had a repeat performance with play dough – though not quite so sticky!
• Like the older children, we have been making junk models. We have a few budding designers in our group and the junk jewellery has been very colourful. We have had a proud wearing of their new fashion accessories!
• Well done to Miss Daley, who has completed her NVQ2

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.

The Hatchlings Nursery School. April 2011 Newsletter:

Dear Parents

Sorry the newsletter is late this month. As you will see from below it has been a particularly busy month at the Hatchlings!

We had a lovely day at Worting Road when the Anstey Close children and staff joined us for the day to celebrate the Royal Wedding. We watched the service on television and then had our own “street party” in the garden. Everywhere was decorated with bunting and flags and everyone dressed up as brides, grooms, bridesmaids or in red, white and blue. Mrs Curson brought in her real wedding dress and put it on to show us. She looked beautiful. There were plenty of different style weddings on our photo display. A photographer came from the Gazette and he took photos of the whole group. It was in Thursday 5^th April’s newspaper. The wedding cake made and donated by “Cake and Lace Weddings” (www.cakeandlaceweddings.co.uk) was lovely to look at and delicious to eat. Thank you very much for their donation. I hope you all got the chance to taste the cake. The weather was kind to us and the rain held off. Overall it was a very successful day and we had feed back from parents saying how much their children had enjoyed the change of venue for the day!

We have a dedicated page on Face Book, if you would like to become a friend then please click on the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hatchlings-Nursery-School/132103390192758?sk=wall and click on “like” to become a friend.

If you have any thoughts or information you would like to share with us we would be very happy to include it in next month’s newsletter.

Yours,

Elizabeth Sudlow

Information for both nurseries:

Reminder: Please can parents make sure we have sun cream, hats, spare clothes and indoor shoes in a bag left at nursery school for your children’s sessions. All items need to be named. If your child brings a lunch box; please provide an ice pack to keep the food cool. Thank you!

Our planning and ideas for the month of May are:

· A bug’s life; a snail’s life and a butterfly’s life.

· Junk play

Please note: The planning is subject to change due to “Child initiated activities”.

As always our planning is displayed inside both nurseries and parents / carers are always welcome to ‘pop’ in and have a look.

Anstey Close:

Welcome to our new children: Nihad E. and Ruby W.

Birthdays this Month: Evie B. Charlie W. and Mrs Fisher

What happened in April:

• Our first week in April has been a very busy time! We have been getting ready for Easter Time by making cards and chocolate nest cakes, which were delicious! We had an Easter Egg hunt in the garden, which the children loved! Miss McCarthy hid some in very tricky places but the children still found them! The nursery theme was Humpty Dumpty and children suggested that we make Humpties! Megan and Ella even gave theirs hair!
• Tuesday was very windy so the children made kites and asked Miss McCarthy and Mrs Fisher if they could go in the garden to fly them. Charlie K. and Charlie W. had a kite race to see how high they would go. What good fun it all was.
• Because the weather was so lovely on Wednesday we all had picnic lunches in the garden, which everyone enjoyed. Dylan said, “I love picnic lunches!”
• Our butterflies hatched and Mrs Fisher released them into the garden. The children loved this activity and got a lot out of it. They even painted and cut out their own butterflies.
• The nursery was shut over the Easter holidays, and we hope that everyone had a lovely break.
• After Easter we all got busy preparing for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding! We made our own red, white and blue bunting and prince and princess crowns. There was lots of role play pretending to be princesses, princes, kings and queens! Miss McCarthy had to explain to the children that Prince William and Kate were not actually coming to the nursery to get married, as Kelaih told us that they were!!!
• Mrs Saunders planted some beans and tomatoes in the garden and they all seem to be growing well! Green fingers crossed!

Staff Training:

Laura Fisher: “Boogie Mites; Letters and Sounds”,

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Worting Road:

3 to 4 year old room:

Welcome to our new children: Jack B.

Birthdays this Month: Lukasz.

What happened in April:

• There was great excitement when we returned after the weekend; our caterpillars had turned into butterflies. Mrs Curson and the children headed for the garden to set all five free. One by one Mrs Curson carefully removed them from the butterfly house. It was a lovely opportunity and a great experience for the children to see the butterflies up close. Each butterfly was carefully placed onto the fruit tress and eventually they all took flight and the children waved them off.
• This month the children made their own musical instruments using yoghurt pots with pasta inside. They decorated the shakers with collage of coloured paper.
• Our topic this month has been animals on the farm. Mrs Curson brought in photos of cows, pigs, sheep and chickens. The children drew their own animals and coloured in pictures using fabric and wool to create their own animal.
• The Easter holidays are approaching so we made an early start on the Easter cards. These were made from paper plates, which the children sponge painted yellow. After the plates were dry we folded them in half. Using PVA glue the children stuck on a triangle beak, a sequin eye and some colourful feathers. We also made our own Easter cakes; chocolate was melted into a bowl by the staff. Then the children mixed shredded wheat into the bowl with the chocolate, using a wooden spoon. The mixture was then scooped into a cake case and eggs were chosen to decorate the top of the nest! Have a Happy Easter!
• This week the children have enjoyed ‘cress growing’. We first of all placed cotton wool into an egg box section and then sprinkled a handful of cress seeds onto the cotton wool. Miss Broad then asked what the seeds needed in order to grow. They told her “water and sunshine”. Miss Broad said, “Yes, that is right, so we need lots of water and lots of sunshine”. So Miss Broad hopes that you had lovely cress sandwiches!!
• This afternoon we had a lovely surprise visit from Mrs Nash’s 6 month old puppy, called Kingston! The children loved stroking and cuddling Kingston. Some of the children also walked him around the garden holding onto his lead. Jack B. kept bringing out tubs of water for the puppy to drink! They all just loved playing with him! Once Kingston left to go home with Stephanie Nash (Mrs Nash’s daughter) all the children could do was talk about Kingston! We hope to see you again Kingston!

Staff Training:

Debbie Nash: : “Boogie Mites; Letters and Sounds”,

“Thank you” to everyone for all their hard work.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

Yellow room:

Welcome to our new children: Amelia.

Birthdays this Month:

What happened in April:

• This month the children have been colouring farm animals; cows, sheep and horses, we have sung Old McDonald had a farm using our Makaton sign language for ‘sheep, cow and pig’. Mrs Curson brought in some pictures of animals for us to look at and talk about.
• In the garden our potatoes are growing
• It has been lovely to have Miss McCarthy back at Worting Road for the two weeks over Easter holidays; we have missed her.
• We have made Easter cards and chocolate nests. I am sure there were lots of fingers dipped into the chocolate while the nests were made! Sorry if there were any nests a bit short of chocolate!
• We have some new garden experts at Hatchlings; Bleu, Olivia, Charlie, Colin, Jessica and Alyssa. They have all been digging over the garden and planting the seeds for sunflowers, wild flowers, pumpkins, runner beans and herbs. The children and Miss Vaughan had a great time digging and using the trowels to fill the pots with compost. We are not sure who got the dirtiest! Was it Miss Vaughan or the children?
• Miss McCarthy made Humpty Dumpty with the children. They were able to concertina paper to make arms and legs for the Humpties themselves and stick them on. The pictures looked lovely and it also helped the children to learn the song.
• On the Royal wedding day the children iced biscuits and cakes with red, white and blue icing. The week before they had made bunting and flags to decorate the nursery inside and out. On the day the children dressed up as brides and grooms and we had lots of “wedding” ceremonies during the day as well as seeing the event on Television! The wedding cake made by “Cake and Lace Wedding Services” was lovely and the children used the words, “wonderful” and “fantastic” to describe it.

If you have any ideas, artefacts etc to support the children’s learning then please come and speak to us. Thank you

SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

From all at The Hatchlings.