Newsletter Summer 2016

Newsletter Summer 2016

Graduation Success On Saturday 5th August the Pre-School hosted our annual ‘Graduation Ceremony’ where we celebrate the time we have spent together before the children move onto the next exciting chapter in their lives, big school. There was a fantastic turnout with staff, children and extended families all thoroughly enjoying themselves. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the teams from Catering and the Sports Centre, their support is appreciated.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Baby Room The babies have been busy pulling themselves up to standing at our new low furniture. It has been a great success in encouraging the babies to pull up, stand and further develop their gross motor skills and muscle strength. It also means they can choose their own books, rattles and other items from the divider boxes.

Thank you to everyone who helped raised £255.00 at the cake bake which was held to raise funds for the charity ‘When you wish upon a Star’. The charity gratefully accepted the donation and we know it will be used to make more wishes come true for sick children.

We would like to thank all the parents and children who helped us collect 4,784 vouchers. These will be used to purchase ingredient cards. We will then be able to purchase a wide range of products throughout the year when baking and cooking. It’s always a very popular activity.

Pre-School works Over the summer we have been able to deliver a programme of improvement works throughout the Centre. Dimmable lighting has been installed and it has created a warmer and much more natural atmosphere within the rooms. We have also been repainted with the staff choosing softer, calming tones to further enhance the lighting. We have tried to keep disruption to a minimum and hope you are as pleased with the results as we are. The baby sleep room is being redesigned and we will share images with you upon completion. The Barefoot Walk is under construction and is already looking amazing. We are all excited to see the finished design and will keep you informed of its progress.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Exploring new ways mark marking

Healthy Eating During this term Crèche 2 having been focusing on Healthy Eating and exploring new food textures. Firstly we implemented a food tasting experience where children were offered various healthy foods to try – such as cheese, sweetcorn, fish, olives and tomatoes. The children enjoyed this experience so much that we decided to enhance this by letting the children make their own flat bread pizzas! They got to choose what they wanted on their pizza enabling them make their own choices and decisions.

Crèche 1 has enjoyed getting messy and exploring new and different ways to make marks. We have been rolling balls to each other through paint to make a textured look, also to help promote sharing and taking turns. We painted with our feet and used edible paints to make marks on large paper we had! We had lots of fun making a lot of mess!

Investigations and Experiments in

Pre-School 3

The children in Pre-School 3 have been investigating changes in materials. They discovered that if they bashed the chalks into tiny pieces it made a really fine powder. They were then able to mix it with water to make their own paint. They concentrated really well and learnt lots of new skills. They had a great time doing pavement painting, blending the colours to create new shades and colours. Katie has a new idea where we can make pictures with icing sugar and food colouring, so we are going to try that for our next experiment.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Nursery 1 News Early in the morning the children from Nursery 1 decided they wanted to make a cake. We talked about what we would need and wrote a shopping list. The children said we would need butter, eggs, and icing sugar. It was a sunny day so a walk to the campus shops was nice treat too. In the shop the children had fun finding the fridges for the butter and baking aisle for the rest of the items on our list before paying for our shopping. Back at Nursery the children then took turns weighing and mixing our ingredients. After cooking the cake in the big kitchen we all helped to decorate it. Finally it was ready to enjoy and the children had a slice of cake at snack time. They all said it was really yummy!

Bob the Fish This term we sadly said good bye to our fish Bob who had been with us for many years. The children had really enjoyed feeding and taking care of him, so we decided to replace him. Our new arrivals Harry the Black moor and Sally the Goldfish have settled in really well. Both the sad and happy experiences have provided us with the opportunity to discuss feelings and emotions. We looked at being kind and making friends. The Rainbow fish was a great story to expand on the theme and the children have worked really well together sharing and being kind.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Bus Trip

At the Pre-school Centre we are required to follow the Early Years Statutory Framework. This includes teaching the children the seven areas of learning, some of which are more obvious than others, Communication, Literacy and Mathematics etc. One of our favourites though is Understanding the World, where we:

Guide children to make sense of their physical world and their community through

opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the

environment.

Our Campus provides us with a perfect platform to help us achieve this. Its rich diversity and array

of learning opportunities mean we can allow the children to access a wide range of experiences.

Sometimes though it’s the smallest things that can have the greatest impact. Listening to the

children, it became apparent though that some of them had never experienced a bus ride. In

today’s busy world the convenience of going everywhere by car is an easy option for many of us.

Stagecoach agreed to provide us with our own bus on Monday 11th July. The 3 Pre-School rooms

had eagerly discussed and planned their journeys. The typically wet weather failed to dampen our

enthusiasm. It’s impossible to convey in a few sentences just how rewarding the morning was. The

children pointed out the various landmarks and signage they recognised as we toured the Campus.

Back at Pre-School the learning has continued as we look at maps, timetables and photographs.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Growing Vegetables

Pre-School 2 in Space The children in Pre-school 2 have been fascinated by Tim Peake the British Astronaut on his recent mission to the International Space Station. We have watched him from the moment he lifted off in the rocket, taking his first spacewalk, to the moment he safely landed back on earth!! The children wondered what it would be like to go to space so we turned the Rainbow Room into a rocket. When the children were safely in the rocket we talked to mission control for clearance for take-off and the countdown began!! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blast off! We travelled into space passing the other planets; the moon and watching the stars sparkle… We even had space food on board – dried banana, apple and pear. Then it was time to come back to earth! Hopefully there may be 1 or 2 future astronauts amongst them!

Pre School 1 have been watching our vegetables grow big, strong and healthy. We have watered them and nurtured them. We managed to taste some juicy strawberries and sweet peas straight from the pod, before the slugs decided they looked tasty and ate them all they haven’t found our potatoes or tomatoes yet! The children also visited the Eco Hub where we saw loads of vegetables we were allowed to use some to make our very own soup. We had some crusty bread to dip into the soup too, it was all delicious. We spent all morning there exploring in the poly tunnel, peeping in the barn, watching the chickens and looking at the pond skaters and snails in the pond. We have also visited the Pod on campus, where we pretended it was a space ship and visited the moon. We even saw a scary alien at the window! On the way back from the pod, we called in at the farmers market where we bought some rhubarb and courgettes to make rhubarb crumble and courgette muffins.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Mealtime Mind Reading Volunteers required.

Mealtime Mind Reading: Understanding your baby’s signals in the solid food stage School of Psychology Research ethics Committee Approval 16-0168 Date of approval 17/6/16 My name is Janet and I am PhD student researching infant feeding. I have designed an online resource for parents to help them to better understand their babies’ feeding signals during solid food meals. I am looking for participants to test the resource and see if the information in it is helpful. As such, I’m looking for volunteers. Taking part involves: 1. Viewing and navigating the resource according to your interests.

2. Completing an online evaluation questionnaire.

Participating in the study is entirely voluntary and is likely to take about 40 minutes of your time. You will need access to a computer and to the Internet and to be able to watch a series of video clips. As a thank you for taking part there is the option to be involved in a prize draw: 1st prize, £100 in shopping vouchers, 2nd prize, £50 in shopping vouchers 3rd prize, £25 in shopping vouchers If you would like to know more or would like to take part in the study please use the relevant link below: Parents’ link: https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/parents-mealtime-mind-reading-feeding-resource-questionna-3 Professionals’/students’ link: https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/professionals-students-mealtime-mind-reading-feeding-re

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the study please contact:-

Janet McNally PhD student at: psjem@leeds.ac.uk, 0744 609 3257 or

Prof. Marion Hetherington, m.hetherington@leeds.ac.uk, +44(0)113 343 8472

The closing date to participate by is 22nd

September 2016.

Newsletter Summer 2016

Parent Information/Reminders New Staff/Maternity Leave

We would like to welcome the following new members of staff to the Pre-School Centre:-

Abigail

Ellie

Charlotte

Georgina

We would like to wish Yvonne and Amy all the best on their impending arrivals as they leave us to go on maternity leave on Friday 12th August.

*HOT OFF THE PRESS*

Please note 26th August 2016 is the end date for the current term.

Term Dates 2016/17

Staff/Student/Community: Undergraduates: 30th August until 23rd December 2016 10th October until 16th December 2016 3rd January until 12th April 2017 16th January until 24th March 2017 20th April until 25th August 2017 24h April until 30th June 2017

Reminder The Pre-School Centre will be closed on Friday 16th September for Staff Training Day.

Today staff and children received a letter and card from Her Majesty the Queen, thanking them for the 90th handmade card they sent her for her birthday. The children were very excited to see and read the letter!!