Newsletter for Week Beginning 26th November 2018
Dear parents, children and carers 26th November 2018
This newsletter is kindly sponsored by KEITH REYNOLDS BRICKWORK
The newsletter is also on our website, on our Facebook page or by email on request
On Monday 26th November we will be having our Ofsted inspection. Any comments you wish to share with the inspector can be written, emailed via our website if you cannot be there to speak to her on Monday.
We are well on the way to learning our songs for the Christmas performance on Wednesday 19th at 9.30am. We are using the children’s favourite songs and changing the words to tell the story of the nativity and explain why some people celebrate Christmas. Later we’ll chat about how we celebrate as families, whether we attend church, what we like to eat, do we have trees etc. we will let the children decorate a tree on Friday in readiness for the fair on Sunday. Lyrics will be available from mid-week. While we are (trying!) to hang fire on all the excitement of Christmas until after our Christmas fair on 2nd December, the children are excited and last week the see-saw became sleigh which they pulled and pushed around singing Jingle bells! We progressed to building sleighs and role-playing, as well as singing and playing to Jingle bells. This week we are bringing in some big boxes and additional building materials to inspire us. We’ll have to ’google’ a ‘one horse open sleigh’! One of the children went to see Julia Donaldson’s ‘Stickman’ in Blackpool and we will be reading this lovely story, focusing on the rhyming words and joining in the repeated refrain. We will have sticks to explore and create with. Last week’s weather brought frost and ice which always excites the children and inspires questions, observations and thinking – how is it made? What is happening to it? Why? Etc. We’ll bring in some ice-cubes for the waterplay and leave water out overnight to see if it freezes or not. This will give us another discussion point. We’ll also share stories about winter weather, snow and ice, ‘Like Polar bear and the Snow Cloud’, ‘Jack Frost’ and ‘Ridiculous’ which makes us think about animals and the cold weather.
SAFEGUARDING: ON-LINE SAFETY AND YOUR CHILDREN. As you will be aware children should always be supervised when on any kind of social media and the internet. At our level 1 safe-guarding training last week, we learned of some lovely books by children’s author, Tony Ross, suitable for children 3-8 years which approach the potential dangers of the internet including cyberbullying and befriending people we do not know, or who may not be who we think they are. We bought two (easily available on e.g. Amazon) and will leave them out for you to look at and consider buying for your families.
CHRISTMAS fair OUR BIGGEST ANNUAL FUNDRAISER Sunday 2nd December 11.15 am Please do help out in any way, however small. It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year and we aim to make up to £1000 in a good year. RAFFLE tickets on sale NOW, 50p ticket or £5 a book of 10 tickets. We will be giving out 2 books per family to try and sell. If you prefer not to please return so others might try and sell them. Many thanks.
CHRISTMAS ON-LINE SHOPPING? or BOOKING YOUR HOLS? Now’s the time to use easyfundraising.co.uk and raise big donations for Hummingbirds - £766 raised over the last 3 years. We can raise so much at this time of year if all the people who shop online register on easyfundraising.co.uk and select ‘Hummingbirds – Garstang’ as their chosen cause.
CHRISTMAS PARTY for children is on the last afternoon before we break up WEDNESDAY 19th December. If your child is not in Wednesdays but wants to come to the party from 1.30pm, please tell Janet. Mr Jolly, the magician, will be back to do his show. The children love him, he is excellent with them. Supervised by staff. A suggested donation of £5 per child to cover his fee and to help pay for party food. If Wednesday is not your normal nursery day, please can we suggest £10 donation to also help cover extra staff needed? Or possibly swap sessions that week?
CHRISTMAS SINGING: we like to put on a short and simple Christmas related performance for parents and family each year. This year we will be selling tickets at £3 each nearer the time, which will include refreshments afterwards. So, for your diaries, it’s going to be on our last day before Christmas, Wednesday 19th from 9.15 am. If you want to buy a Nativity related costume of your choice, or if you prefer party clothes, you can get organised. We do have a variety of Nativity costumes in nursery which you may borrow – please ask in plenty of time though!
100 club membership Donate from £2 a month per number to go in the monthly draw and get the chance to win half our monthly takings every month! The other half helps towards our rent to the parish. Forms on easel or ask Deborah Edwards or Janet for help.
30 HOURS FUNDING Parents already receiving 30 hour funding please check if are you in the ’grace period’? You can lose funding if you do not respond to reminders to update your funding. If you want to claim for 30 hours funding you must do so the term before you want to start using it i.e. this term ready for January.
Our BODY SHOP PARTY raised about £145 pounds. Thanks to all who supported this event. LEARNING JOURNALS: staff will be giving you the opportunity to look through and chat about these before
Christmas. If you haven’t had a look yet, just ask. Feel free to take it home to share with your partner, that is good as long as you return it, as it is a working document. Don’t forget you can add to it.
Best wishes,
Janet, Shirley, Carole, Bridget, Gemma and Rebecca
