Newsletter for Week Beginning 7th January 2019
Dear parents, children and carers 7th January 2019
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
The children have settled well although we have had quite a few off with sick bugs, coughs and chicken pox! If you child has chicken pox they must only return once all the spots have ’crusted’ over. If your child is sick or has diarrhoea you must keep them away for 48 hours since the last episode of either. Bugs spread easily in nurseries. We always encourage children to wash their hands, with soap, before eating, after toileting and before any kind of food related activity. We also encourage the children to use tissues for noses and to bin these after use. This helps stop the spread of germs too.
We have had a busy 2 weeks.
The children have enjoyed thinking about birds. We made feeders, bought and are enjoying spotting birds with our new binoculars. We assembled our bird boxes and the children helped to puzzle out how as there were no instructions! We used a screwdriver. We are also started exploring screwdrivers, a manual hand drill, hammers with blocks of wood. We made birds with 2 shapes, using paper fasteners so the wings can flap. We listened to lots of bird stories too and watched birds on the computer, learning different bird names. The RSPB Big Garden Bird watch is next weekend. If you want to do your own birdwatch, I will leave out picture sheets for the children to take and tally what they see that weekend and they can bring them in next week. Joey the budgie has been with us all week and the children are fascinated by him. He’ll be here all this week too.
This week we’ll look at Goldilocks and the Three Bears, which some children have been talking about. We’ll have warm drinks and snacks. The children can help make porridge for snack and warm milk or hot chocolate as it is forecast to be very cold, possibly snow! The children are very excited and can’t wait to build a snowman! We’ll have wintry stories and look at animals who live in cold places and think about how our animals cope in winter. PLEASE make sure your child has warm clothes on as well as their coat. You may find it warm in the corridor and waiting area but it is less so in the main nursery room.
Our shop is going to be a library/bookshop this week as some of the children were playing libraries last week in the book corner. We will let each child choose a book to borrow for the week and take home to share.
Next week, as we move towards Chinese New Year, which is 5th February, we will learn about traditions and customs related to this celebration.
PRIMARY SCHOOL PLACES: you should have applied by now. If you did not you will be allocated a place in the nearest school with space.
Help us get to £1000! Using easyfundraising.co.uk £795 raised over the last 3 years. Can we get to £1,000 by the end of this year? Please join now and help us reach this milestone. We can raise funds easily if all the people who shop online, register on easyfundraising.co.uk and select ‘Hummingbirds – Garstang’ as their chosen cause. I shop Sainsburys online and earn us 50p every time!
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 If your child is 3 before end of March AND you to want to claim for 30 hours funding to start next term, 1st April you must do so the term before you want to start using it i.e. NOW - before 31st March. 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.
REGISTRATION FORMS when your child starts at Hummingbirds you complete a form with all personal details on necessary to safeguard your child, such as emergency contacts, addresses, people allowed to collect your child, people living or staying regularly in your child’s home. Please take a minute to think if any of these need updating or have changed since you filled in the form. Thankyou. Let Janet know if your form needs updating with any of these details.
EASTER FUN DAY – for many years we held an Easter fair at Hummingbirds on a Saturday afternoon. It was always very popular and so we are going to revive it this year. As Easter is very late this year, we will hold it on Saturday 6th April, we close the day before for the Easter break. There’ll be an Easter bonnet/hat parade with prizes, cakes, refreshments, Easter egg raffle, tombolas, hook a duck, lucky dips, face painting and tattoos and more. Please help if you can. Look out for a meeting which will be held one morning after drop off.
Best wishes,
Janet, Shirley, Carole, Bridget, Gemma and Rebecca
