Dear Parents and Carers,
We hope you have a wonderful half term. After much deliberation we are very happy to introduce you to our new Preschool logo. We will be gradually integrating our new logo across all platforms and we hope you love the new design as much as we do!
We have had a busy half term with some main focuses being vehicles and transport, Chinese New Year, exploring different fruits and focusing on kindness and love within our valentines’ activities. Our new children which have joined us this term have settled in brilliantly and been welcomed into our Stower Vale family, with lots of happy little faces which we love to see.
Animals, pets and vets
We have a very exciting second half of the term coming up, we are planning on hatching our own preschool pet CHICKENS! We will be learning about the life cycle of a chicken and watching them grow and hatch at preschool. Along side this at the start of the term we will be having a vets and pets themed week. We have been incredibly lucky and on Wednesday the 5th of March we plan to have some calves visit us at preschool (and possibly a lamb) for our children to gain real life experiences and learn about how to care and look after these animals. If your child is not in session on this day but you would like to join in you can attend toddler group who will also be visiting the animals. On Wednesday the 26th of February we also have a vet coming to visit Preschool and talk to us all about caring for animals and giving us some demonstrations on how they assist in making poorly animals better. If any families have pets which they would like to bring in for a show and tell session we would love to accommodate this, please do email me and we can arrange and timed session for them to visit us. If you would not like your child to participate in any of these activities, please do let us know.
Waterproofs and belongings
Please ensure your child has waterproofs and wellies in preschool at all times, we are very lucky to have our forest school on site and love utilising this space as much as possible. Named hats, scarfs, gloves and waterproofs are essential in the colder weather to keep children warm.
Please also ensure lunch boxes and water bottles are named to enable these to be easily identified for children and staff. Water is a preferred choice for children’s drinking bottles, this will aid their transition to school where it is also advised. Healthy snacks in lunch boxes are also compulsory please, please see attached a recommendation for children’s healthy lunches and snacks.
Children’s interests
Over the coming weeks you will receive an interest at home letter to complete based on your child’s current interests. This is for us to gage any extra interests our children have and influence our planning for the coming weeks to provide engaging and fun activities to compliment children’s next steps. This allows children to be curious, engrossed, happy and focused in the activities which have their next steps and future development in mind.
Dates for your diary
We will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday the 6th of March, your children are welcome to join us in dressing up as their favourite book character! We will have a fairy tale themed week this week so if your child does not attend on this day, please feel free to send them in their costume any other day that week. We can’t wait to share lots of stories and book themed activities.
We will be hosting a Bingo evening on Thursday the 20th of March from 6:30 in Stour Provost School Hall. This will be an adult only event. We hope you can all come along and bring friends and family with the aim to raise money for us to spend on experiences and resources to go towards your children’s learning and development at Preschool. A flyer for this will be sent out nearer to the time.
We will be hosting a Bluey themed Red Nose Day at Preschool on Friday 21st of March, we invited children to wear blue or bluey themed clothing, as a donation would be appreciated which would go towards comic relief.
Parents and Carers are invited in on Monday 31st of March at 2:00 for a Mothers and Grandmothers day themed making and crafting session with their children. Invites will be sent out nearer the time.
Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to the parents and carers who have been engaging in their child’s tapestry observations, the likes and comments do not go unnoticed and staff value them hugely. This is all part of our collaborative partnerships with parents so please continue to invest and share your child’s pictures and observations with them at home to aid their learning, development and share happy moments of preschool with them. Staff enjoy reading feedback on observations and comments you have added, as well as children enjoy sharing the pictures and memories you post, so thank you!
Have a great half term, we look forward to welcoming you back on Monday the 24th of February.
Kind regards,
Amy and the Stower Vale Team