February Newsletter

February Newsletter

Dear Parents/ Carers,

It’s hard to believe we’re already into the month of February. All our new bunnies are very well settled in now. We are all making new friends and have enjoyed the different winter themed activities! We did ‘Rainy Day Collages’ which can be seen on our main door – everyone had great fun getting messy and it was a fantastic group activity. We all were able to practice our manners, learning the importance of saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ to our friends when they passed us things. It also helped teach us the importance of sharing resources with one another. It was a great messy activity! We apologise for all the glitter and glue which went home on all the Bunnies trousers!!

Our theme this month will be ‘Fairy tales.’ We will be focusing on traditional tales and building our room around these. The three little pigs will be busy building their houses in our construction area, and Goldilocks and the three bears will set up house in our home corner. We will be focusing on a few specific fairy tales, however, if your child has any books they wish to bring in and share with us at story time, they are more than welcome. We find this really encourages children to practices their personal, social and emotional skills and increases their confidence when talking to a group.

We also have plans to make our own puppet theatre for the children to explore during free play. We have a few sets of puppets which will allow them to put on their own shows for one another! If anyone has any spare cardboard/ boxes they would be willing to donate – we will be making fairy wands and swords so anything you can give us would be greatly appreciated!

Our colour for the month will be purple. The children are really enjoying our colour table. If anyone has any purple things they wish to bring in and discuss, please do so.

Any new Bawn Bunnies to join us may not know about Benny, our classroom bunny! Benny goes home with children at the weekend and has a diary which he fills in to tell everyone about what adventures he had! There is a list outside the main door and if you would wish to take him home, simply fill your name in for a weekend that suits! Benny is very popular and the children all enjoy hearing about his different experiences at different houses.

With our new member of staff and new children joining us, we have assigned new key workers to some children. The key workers are responsible for carrying out observations on their key children. The list is on the Parents information board outside so feel free to have a look and if there are any queries, please let us know.

Our half term holiday will be Monday 15th and Tuesday 16^th of February so everyone can enjoy a nice long weekend!

With lots of bugs going about we are conscious of creating a bank of volunteers to cover staff if they are ill or need to attend training days. If any parents would be willing to be vetted, or indeed, know of anyone who may be looking to increase their experience in the field of childcare, please let us know and we can get the relevant forms.

As our Teddy Toddle fundraiser was such a great success, and the funds generated helped us in replenishing supplies for the playgroup, we have decided to do a Smartie Tube fundraiser. Your child will receive a tube of smarties, and after they have eaten them, if we could ask you to fill them with 20p’s and return when full. This proved to be very successful last year and our aim is to be able to buy a few new scooters for outside play, as these seem to be the popular choice.

We have included a questionnaire along with the newsletter, if parents and carers could fill these out and please include as much detail as you wish. As a relatively new playgroup, we are all still learning and still getting used to the way things need to be done so with your input, we can continue to be a success. All questionnaires are anonymous, please leave them in the box outside the room, beside the sign in sheet when you have finished with them.

Thank you all for your continued support and, as always, if you have any queries, please talk to a member of staff.