Newsletter
Date 10th April 2015
Dear everyone
Welcome back to the Summer Term. We have lots of activities planned
and exciting topics to explore. We will be going to three Forest School
sessions each week and using the big field for sport sessions.
Topics
Topics this term are as follows 13th
Flowers
1st June The Hungry Caterpillar
April
20th
St George and the 8th June Art and Craft week
April
Dragon
27th
Music week
15th
Den Building week
April
June
4th May Under the Sea
22nd
Water week
June
11th May Under the Sea
29th
Animal Homes
June
18th
Forest Animals
6th July Sports fortnight
May
HALF TERM
13th
As above
July
As always we would be delighted to have parental input for any of the
above topics so if you have a skill with Art and Craft or Music or Sport or
any of the above we would be delighted to hear from you. I know from
experience that children are very proud when their parent comes in to
help or share a skill. On which note I should like to thank Catherine Jones
and colleague from Dartmoor Search and Rescue for coming in and
bringing not only a dog but a vehicle for the children to explore. The
children enjoyed it enormously and had lots of interesting conversations
about 'how not to get lost' amongst themselves.
Free Art and Craft
The children are thoroughly enjoying the 'Free Art and Craft' area. We
are in need of interesting junk modelling items, paper of different sizes
and colours, magazines for cutting and small things for sticking ie
buttons, decorative pasta, pulses, natural items such as corn etc. Any
offerings gratefully received.
Questionnaires
Many thanks to all those who have handed back their questionnaires. It is
very useful to us to have your input in reviewing our practice and you have
come up with some really good suggestions. A copy of our feedback will be
available soon. Hopefully you will see some actions as a result of your
feedback even sooner.
Forest School
We are delighted to be able to say we are putting on three sessions of
Forest School this term. Now the warmer weather is here Green Group
will be attending on a Thursday with Katherine, Sally and Sharron.
Katherine will be sending out a separate letter / consent form for those
children who have not attended before.
St Georges Day - Thursday 23rd April
A dressing up day. Come wearing your favourite Princess, Prince, Knight
or Dragon outfit. Just for fun! Please be aware Green group, however, it
is your first Forest School so your clothes need to be suitable for a
morning in the woods. Dressing up clothes can be brought for lunch time
and the afternoon.
Special Beach Day - Tuesday 12th May
We will be holding a Special Under the Sea Beach Day with art and craft
activities, role play and music. Dressing up welcome.
Again, if you are at Forest School in the morning please do feel free to
bring a change of clothes for lunchtime / the afternoon. Please do let
your keyworker know if your child has brought some.
Yellow Group Teddy Bears Picnic Wednesday 13th May
Yellow Group Wednesday children - Bring a teddy or another cuddly
friend and join in fun and games on the field.
Visit to Burrator Arboretum
On the week beginning Monday 18th May the Forest School Groups will be
going to Burrator Arboretum instead of Buckland Abbey in line with the
weeks topic of 'Woodland Animals'. A separate letter will be issued.
Coffee mornings
All coffee mornings will have the usual time of arrive between 9am 9.15am with a prompt start at 9.15am. Each group will have its focus for
the term. We are also offering two dates for individual appointments if
you would like to talk on a one to one basis with a member of staff.
Red and Blue Group coffee morning - Friday 5th June.
The focus of this meeting will be 'What do we mean by the term "School
Readiness" and what can you as parents do to help?' We will also discuss
transition reports including the Parental input page.
Green Group coffee morning - Friday 12th June.
The focus of this meeting will be promoting independence and looking at
realistic expectations of children.
Yellow Group coffee morning - Friday 19th June
The focus of this meeting will be twofold. One will be about how the
children have settled in and what their daily routine is like now they are
used to it and the second will be about how to promote language and
communication skills.
At all meetings there will be a chance to look at your child's Special
Folder and to add comments and thoughts. If you would like an individual
meeting to discuss things further appointments can be made for Friday
3rd July, Tuesday 7th July or Thursday 9th July between 9.30am 11.30am.
Open Day
We will be having our annual Open Day on Thursday 18th June between
9.30am - 2.30pm. Please pass the word if you have enjoyed the Penmoor
experience for your child.
Sports Day and Leavers Presentation
Sports Day and Leavers Presentation is on Tuesday 14th July with a
reserve date of Thursday 16th July. Please arrive between 9.15 and 9.45
for a 10am start. All children are invited.
Red group
Red group will be enjoying their last term at nursery and will be looking
forward to their new school adventures.
We will be increasing their independence and encouraging them to work
independently, managing their clothing, toileting and lunch time routines.
For snack they will now be choosing some fruit from a selection offered,
as this is what happens when they go to school.
I will be continuing their work on early phonics; looking at initial sounds, in
particular s,a,t,p,i,n and encouraging them to write their own names and
other familiar words when they are ready. They have been working really
well on these so far. We will be looking at the properties of numbers 120 and finding out about shapes. I will be concentrating on developing
their fine-motor skills – in particular getting them really confident with
scissors.
Hopefully the weather will be fine and we will continue to have fun at
forest school – remember sunhats and sun cream now!
Best wishes Libby
Blue Group
Welcome back after the Easter Holidays! This is an exciting time for Blue
Group because for most children it will probably be your last term at
Penmoor. With this in mind we will be practicing lots of skills promoting
our independence such as pouring our own drinks at snacktime, doing up
our coats and making sure we look after our own shoes, coats, boots and
toys from home.
We will continue to enjoy Mondays or Tuesdays at Forest school, focusing
on the world around us, watching closely to see all the changes in the
woodland.
Looking forward to a good term
Lisa
Green Group
Welcome back to Green Group children, old and new. We hope you all
enjoyed your Easter treats and surprises.
This term sees the start of our regular Thursday Forest School sessions.
Here we will learn the rules about boundaries, the environment and how to
take risks safely such as behaviour around the campfire. We will have fun,
play lots of new games and have treats such as hot chocolate and toasted
marshmallows.
Our topics this term include flowers, St George and the Dragon,
Woodland animals, music week and on 12th May we have our Special Beach
Day.
We hope the weather will be kind, allowing lots of outdoor play. Please
ensure your child has suncream and a clearly named hat as the weather
gets warmer (fingers crossed!)
Sharron, Sally and Katherine
Yellow Group
Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely Easter Break with lots of
special treats.
This term Yellow Group will be learning about flowers, shape, size and
colour. St George's Day is on April 23rd so Yellow Group can dress up in
their best Knight and Princess costumes. We have lots of other topics we
are planning for such as Music week, Under the Sea and a special Beach
Day on 12th May.
We will also be working on finding our own pegs and coats, and rembering
to roll up our sleeves before washing our hands. We will be practicing
sitting on the Yellow Group carpet for register, short stories and singing.
We will be sending home some song sheets with our favourite songs so you
can all sing along.
Many thanks to those of you who have already sent in photo's of your
family, friends and pets for the children's folders. For our new children
who don't know yet, we ask you to send in some photo's with names
written clearly on the back to put in your child's special folder. This is a
great ice breaker and children really do enjoy sharing them with us and
their peers. Any time you would like to come in and share the folders
please do. Hope to see you all at the Coffee morning on Friday 19th June.
Robyn, Lyndsay and Jaime
Have a great Summer term.
Anne-Marie and the Team at Penmoor