Friday 7th March 2025 - Week 2: Do you have any pets at home?

We started this week by talking about whether we have any pets at home, what they look like, their names, and how they are cared for. Thank you to those who sent photos to support us with this. The children took part in a 'pet test' where the adults asked questions and depending on whether this applied to the children or not, they had to draw a circle on their paper. At the end of the activity, they had to count their circles and use another way to represent the total number of circles they'd drawn. 

On Tuesday, we fundraised for Grief Encounters - a charity that supports bereaved children and their families. A huge thank you for your donations. The children really enjoyed making friendship bracelets. We also talked about how it might feel when we lose the things or people that we love. If you've been affected by grief and would like some support, click the link: Home SUPPORTING BEREAVED CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE - Grief Encounter

It was also Pancake Day on Tuesday, and the children enjoyed a pancake station for snack. They were able to choose between scotch and sweet pancakes and strawberry sauce, golden syrup, or lemon and sugar for their toppings. They were delicious! 

Yesterday, we celebrated World Book Day and dressed up in costumes, wore our own clothes, or got comfy in pyjamas. We took part in a whole-school para in the hall and enjoyed stories ready by parents and volunteers. A big thank you to those who took time out of your day to be with us. 

We've been focussing on our early writing skills this week. We've practised holding pens and pencils correctly, traced our names with cotton buds and paint, and this morning, we copied letters to form the names of animals we might have as pets. The children tried so hard and we're really proud of the work they've produced. When we do activities like these, their work goes into their marvellous marks books which you will take home with you at the end of the academic year. 

The weather has been beautiful, and we've been able to spend lots of time outside. The children even enjoyed stories in the garden yesterday, as part of their World Book Day activities. 

Next week, our small question is: Who lives in the Jungle? We'll be exploring animals that live in the safari, recreating patterns and tasting exotic fruits like pineapple, guava, and mango. 

A polite reminder: Please can all snacks for Yellow Room children be named. This makes the morning run much smoother for the adults and ensures that nothing gets mixed up and given to the wrong person. If your child has grapes for snack, they must be cut in half, as they are a choking hazard. 

Friday 28th February 2025 - Who lives on Old MacDonald's Farm?

Well, I think this might just be the most EGG-citing week we've had since September! On Monday, we had our very own chick eggs delivered. Our special job on Tuesday, was to make sure that we were careful around them and that they were kept at the right temperature to help them hatch. Because we weren't sure when hatching would begin, the teachers left their iPads on Time Lapse overnight and can you believe it, when we returned on Wednesday, we had 7 chicks, and our iPads had caught it all! I hope you've been able to see this on our Facebook page. The children couldn't believe their eyes! On Wednesday night, we had all remaining chicks bar one, hatch safely. 

After 24 hours, we were able to move the chicks from their incubator to their brooder box where we made sure they had bedding, food, water, and a warm lamp. The lady that delivered them told us that chicks are very sociable and would like to hear us, so we've been playing them music and the children have been sat by their brooder box chatting and clucking away. (They like to be clucked at... Really, they do!) 

Today, we got to take the chicks out of their brooder boxes for the first time and we each took turns in holding them. We were very gentle, and the chicks were beautiful (and very fidgety!). Some of them even tried to flap their wings to see what would happen... Luckily, we've had no escapees! I think it's safe to say that the children, and the adults are in love. We have the chicks until next Thursday afternoon/Friday morning, so please don't worry if your child missed out today - they will have plenty of opportunities for fluffy cuddles. Mrs Cobley will be taking the chicks home for the weekend and recording any changes or new experiences for the children to see on Monday. 

We hope you've heard lots about our new friends at home.

Not only do we have chicks in Cygnets. On Wednesday, we had the lovely Mrs Gardner come to visit with Henrietta, a Bantam Hen. She told us about what hens eat and where they live, and that Henrietta is a very special hen because she goes to shows and is judged on how beautiful she is! We weren't able to handle Henrietta, but we did get to see her out of her cage and Mrs Gardner showed us her wings and her food. 

On top of all the excitement, we've been busy learning about our new learning challenge questions. This half term, our overall question is: 'Do all animals live on farms?'. This week, our question was: 'Who lives on Old MacDonald's farm?'. We've talked about the different animals we think live on farms, and our own experiences of visiting them. We've searched for missing animals hidden outside, and created maps, after reading the text 'What the Ladybird Heard'. We've drawn our own farms, decorated ladybird biscuits, used cotton buds to give sheep their wool, fed "animals" food in the sensory tray, built barns with stem kits, and matched coloured animals to the correct barns. 

Next week, our small question is: 'Do you have any pets at home?'. To help us with our learning around this question, we'd like you to bring in a photo of your pet, if you have one. 

We will also be celebrating Pancake Day and World Book Day next week. Attached, is a letter about World Book Day, inviting you to come and share stories with us. Please do let us know if you'd like to join. 

On Tuesday, we are fundraising for Grief Encounters - a charity that supports bereaved children and their families. This year, the theme is 'Go Purple'. For a small voluntary donation, the children will be able to make their own friendship bracelet. We will also talk about how we feel when we lose our special things or people. 

Friday 14th February 2025 - Does it grow in the ground, or on trees?

This week we've been busy learning about where food grows - in the ground, or on trees. 

We've been re-capping the story of Oliver's Vegetables where it talks to us about Grandpa's allotment of delicious vegetables, and then we read Oliver's Fruit Salad and learned that pears grow on trees! 

We've used our fine motor skills to create scissor salad and vegetable characters and practised our mark making when drawing pictures of fruit. 

In our sensory trays, we've used toothbrushes and sponges to wash and scrub dirty fruit and veg, and on the maths table, we've used inter-link cubes to measure different foods, as well as sorting food into healthy and unhealthy boxes. 

On Wednesday, we explored apples, oranges, bananas and kiwis. First, we observed the fruits whole. Then, we cut them in half, peeled away some of their skin and chopped them into smaller pieces. We talked about the way their appearance changed, what we could smell, how they felt, and some of us tried tasting them. We looked at different one-handed tools and discussed how to use these safely. 

Yesterday, we planted our own seeds. Yellow Room have bought their seeds home for you to grow over the half-term break. Take care of them and record any observations you see. Bring them back when we return, for us to continue growing. 

Green Room decided that instead of planting individuals, we'd create our own classroom vegetable patch! This will be our class project. 

In PE this week, we've been doing our own form of gymnastics! We've warmed up with a fun dance session and followed with a circuit of rolling, balancing and jumping exercises. To end the session, we got into groups and performed our own exercises. The children have thoroughly enjoyed themselves and it's been lovely to see them share what we've learned with each other, so confidently. 

We've also focussed on practising our name writing this week. To begin with, we use tracing paper on top of our name cards and attempt to copy the letters with pencils. One of our creative tasks has been to create peas in a pod, and for each pea in our pod, is a letter from our name. The adults also write our names for us to copy and sometimes they write our names in dots for us to draw over. Maybe you could try this at home too. Remember to encourage good pencil grip. There are lots of things you can do to support your child with their fine motor skills and pen grip, just with ordinary things around the house! 

When we return from half-term, our learning challenge question is: Do all animals live on farms? Our small question for week 1, is: Who lives on Old MacDonald's farm? Throughout this half term, we will be learning about animals and their habitats, from farms and jungles to the ocean and the arctic! 

We'd love for you to be able to support us with our learning. If you have a pet at home that isn't a cat or a dog, and you'd be willing to bring them into the setting for a short visit and brief talk about how they are cared for, please e-mail Mrs Cobley to arrange. 

We are extremely lucky to have our own chicks coming in the first week, until the 6th of March. When they arrive, they won't have hatched yet, so the children will be able to see the amazing process for themselves. Afterwards, we will spend our time learning to care for them and yes - we will even be able to hold them! 

On Wednesday 26th February, we also have a visit from a Bantam Hen. We won't be handling the hen, but we will be hearing about how hens lay their eggs. 

A couple of kind requests: 

• Please do keep your toys at home. As we move through the academic year, we are encouraging the children to leave their special things where they belong to allow them to get the most from our continuous provision and resources in the classroom. If your child has something from a special occasion or holiday that they'd like to share, we are more than happy to allow them to do a 'show and tell' but otherwise, toys must stay behind. 

• If your child doesn't yet have a pair of black PE pumps, we would really appreciate a pair to keep here, to allow them to change shoes for PE on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not only is it safer to wear their pumps, but it gives the children the opportunity to learn to be independent and attempt to take off and put on footwear. 

• Your child needs a snack. Please ensure that there is a piece of fruit or a healthy alternative for them to eat throughout their morning session. Thank you. 

Spare clothing:

We are in desperate need of pants and socks for both boys and girls. If you have any that you no longer need, we would be super grateful. 

We hope you have a fabulous half-term break - who knows, we might even get some sunshine! As always, please send any photos to Mrs Cobley or Miss Reed. We look forward to seeing you soon. 

Friday 7th February 2025 - How many ways can we cook an egg?

What an egg-citing week we've had! 

This week, our small question was: "How many ways can we cook eggs?"

After talking about eggs and where they come from, we had the opportunity to get involved in cooking some! On Wednesday, the children had a go at cracking, peeling and whisking eggs, and boiled, fried and scrambled them! It was a very smelly, very delicious snack. 

Not only have we tasted them, but we've used them in creative tasks too. We each decorated our own boiled egg, rolled them in paint like we do with conkers in Autumn time, and today, we took some outside to see whether they would fall from walls, or crack once rolled down hills. Thank you to those of you who boiled and created your own Humpty Dumpty for this activity - the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves! 

We've used playdough and kitchen utensils to create our own forms of egg, and on the maths table, we used tweezers to collect pom-poms and put them into egg boxes. 

We've learned that eggs don't just come from hens, but spiders, snakes and turtles too! Overall, an eggs-tremely busy week. 

It's also Children's Mental Health Week. In Cygnets, we've been focussing on the text 'Find your Happy' by Emily Coxhead. We've talked about our feelings and thought of all the ways that we can find our own happy. Yesterday was Time to Talk Day. The children enjoyed whole class 'chat time' where they were able to talk about absolutely anything they wanted to, whether it was something they were excited about, or something that makes them feel sad or worried. We also hosted our Inside Out movie event after school. A huge thank you to those who were able to join us. We hope you enjoyed yourselves. Inside Out is a fantastic film for simply explaining our emotions and teaching children the importance of each emotion they feel. 

Place2Be's Children's Mental Health Week actually joined forces with Here4You this year. Here4You is supported by The Walt Disney Company, and through the characters of Pixar’s Inside Out and Inside Out 2, the resources encourage children and young people across the UK to discover how getting to know who they are can help them build resilience, grow and develop.

Attached is a document of tips for families to help you communicate, reflect and practice mindfulness. 

Next week is our final week before half-term, and our small question is: "Does it grow in the ground, or on trees?" 

The Early Years Alliance are running a free online family festival celebrating the role of parents and carers as their child’s first and most enduring educator - now back for the third year running!

This fun family event will take place via Zoom and is aimed at parents and carers of under-fives (with providers welcome too!). We will share information and advice about how parents and carers can support children’s learning and development at home through lots of exciting sessions for adults and children.

Activities will include fun communication and language sessions, ideas to encourage families to connect with nature, and much, much more. We are also delighted to have Professor Sam Wass and the author Michael Rosen delivering sessions for us.

The three-day online festival will run from Thursday 13 February to Saturday 15 February 2025, and you can book to attend as many or as few free sessions as you like. 

If you'd like to book, just click the link: Home is where the start is: an online festival of fun and learning Tickets, Thu 13 Feb 2025 at 13:00 | Eventbrite

Don't worry, the floor book hasn't been forgotten! It will be sent along with next weeks. 

Friday 31st January 2025 - Which animal are you in the Chinese Zodiac? 

This week, we've been learning all about the story of The Great Race. This year is the year of the snake! After familiarising ourselves with the story of the zodiac, we took on the roles of the animals and the Jade Emperor and re-told it with masks and various props. 

We've really enjoyed using different creative materials and methods this week to create lanterns, Chinese numerals, and paper chain snakes. 

On Wednesday, we took part in a wishing tree activity. In China, every year, billions of people gather to toss red ribbons into wishing trees in hope that they'll stick, and their wish will come true, bringing luck and good fortune. We thought of our own wishes and went outside to make them with our own wishing tree. Instead of using red ribbons, we blew feathers. If you happen to be gifted Elsa dresses, crowns and shoes in the coming weeks, their wishes really did come true. 

Yesterday, we used our bodies to make one giant snake. We lay on the floor, with our heads or feet touching, until we'd formed one very long, very wriggly line. And as if that wasn't hard enough, we had to slither around the classroom without breaking the snake! We had so much fun. 

Today, we tried some delicious foods: Chinese curry, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken Chow Mein, crispy Seaweed, and chocolate filled dumplings! Afterwards, both classes joined together to take part in a colourful, musical, Chinese parade. 

Next week, our small question is: How many ways can we cook eggs? 

Can you help us? We are in need of junk modelling materials! Particularly, egg boxes, cereal boxes, toilet roll inners, and fruit containers. 

On Friday 7^th February, we will be taking part in a Humpty Dumpty 'eggs-periment' outside to see if he falls off walls or breaks when he's rolled down a hill. A challenge for you! Using a hard-boiled egg, can you make your own Humpty Dumpty? If your child doesn't usually attend on a Friday, maybe you could take part in the experiment at home and send us some photos. If your child does attend on a Friday, we'd really like you to bring your Humpty Dumpty egg with you when you drop off in the morning, so that we can use them in the experiment at Pre-School. 

Next week is also Children's Mental Health Week. We will be focussing on the text 'Find your Happy' by Emily Coxhead and taking part in various activities that support our mental health and well-being. Thursday 6^th February is Time to Talk Day, and we are hosting an Inside Out movie event at 3.30pm. Bring cushions and blankets, and your own picnic tea, while we watch a film that beautifully and simply, teaches little ones about their emotions. The film will be shown in both Reception classrooms, and in the school hall. We hope to see lots of you there! 

A polite request: Please can all toys and own belongings be kept at home.  We know that the children love to bring in their special items, but we'd hate for them to get lost or damaged, or for others to get upset because they don't have their special item with them. Our classrooms are filled with exciting resources to use and play with so please do keep your things safe at home, and make sure there is nothing tempting left in bags. Thank you. 

Friday 24th January 2025 - Is it only cows that make milk?

This week, our small question was: Is it only cows that make milk?

We brainstormed and thought of all the other animals that might make milk. The children guessed: pigs, sheep, horses, guineapigs, giraffes and elephants! We used the internet to help us find out whether their guesses were wrong or right, and they were all... Right! 

Now, on to the animals we knew made milk. Cows! We watched a video of cows being milked, and had a go ourselves. We had 'udders' (gloves) full of milk attached to chairs and had to squeeze the milk into buckets and trays. This was a great activity for our fine motor skills, helping to strengthen our finger muscles. 

We also used udders full of paint and squeezed it on to paper to create our own cow print paintings. 

On Wednesday, we tried five different flavoured milks: Whole cow's milk, Goat's milk, chocolate, banana, and strawberry milk! Afterwards, we used marks to represent which milk we enjoyed most. I'm sure you can't guess which was the overall favourite!

Today, we used milk in an experiment. We poured milk on to a plate and the children took turns in squeezing different colours into the milk. Then, we dipped cotton buds into dish soap and put the cotton buds into the colourful milk. Just like magic, the colours dispersed! We watched the milk move in different ways, create different patterns, and saw some of the colours mix together to make new ones. It was quite impressive! 

Despite the unpredictable weather, we've enjoyed lots of time outside this week. We've built ramps to have car races, used our gross motor skills to spin hula-hoops around our bodies, took it in turns to have our hair and make-up done at the salon, and today, we got to let off some steam on the playground. A busy, busy week!

Next week, we will be learning all about Chinese New Year and the story of The Great Race. Our small question is: Which animal are you in the Zodiac? 

Friday 17th January 2025 - Where do crisps come from?

What a week! 

On Monday, we welcomed lots of you into school, to take part in 'Brew Monday'. A huge thank you to those who joined us - your time and support is much appreciated. We hope the afternoon gave you a little insight into how we teach the children to recognise, understand, express, and regulate their emotions. Our visitors from the Family Information Service, Coventry and Warwickshire MIND and Children and Young People's Services thoroughly enjoyed meeting some of you and again, we hope this was an opportunity for you to seek advice, find information, or ask for support. 

Our small question this week was: Where do crisps come from? To introduce the week's learning, we simply asked the children that very question. Their answers? Sainsburys! So, we then read a story called Oliver's Vegetables. In this story, Oliver claims he doesn't eat vegetables... Only chips. His Grandpa told him that in order to have chips, he'd need to find some potatoes. So we did! On Wednesday, we peeled and chopped potatoes and put them in the oven to cook. After lunch, we got to taste them. They were delicious! The children really enjoyed learning to use more risky one-handed tools. They followed instructions, concentrated, and made sure to use them safely.

Now we knew that chips came from potatoes, we decided to talk about other forms of potato; jacket potato, mashed potato, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes...crisps? Yes, crisps! We watched a video of crisps being made in a factory and the children couldn't believe that they had started as a potato. Afterwards, we took part in a crisp taste test. We had four crisp flavours: Prawn Cocktail, Salt & Vinegar, Cheese & Onion and Ready Salted. We tried all four flavours and used objects in coloured bowls to represent whether or not we liked the flavour. The winner in Green Room was Ready Salted and the winner in Yellow Room was Prawn Cocktail! 

In maths this week, we've been using tape measures, rulers and scales to measure fruit and vegetables. We've compared length and weight and introduced vocabulary such as "heaviest/lightest", "longer/shorter", and "most/least". 

In Phonics, we're focussing on Body Percussion - learning to make sounds with our bodies. You can do this in lots of ways. Can you make rain at home?

Next week, our small question is: Is it only cows that make milk? 

Attached is a flyer which details various signposts to support children and families' Mental Health, following our event on Monday. 

Last week's floor book is also attached. This week's will be sent with next week's, on Friday 24th. 

Friday 10th January 2025 - What do people eat around the World?

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas. The children have thoroughly enjoyed sharing their experiences with their friends this week. We've also really enjoyed getting to know our new friends. They have settled into pre-school brilliantly - we're very proud! 

Despite it only being a four-day week, we have dived into this half term's learning challenge question: "Where does our food come from?". Our small question is "What do people eat around the world?" 

On Tuesday, we introduced the story of Handa's Surprise and talked about different exotic fruits. We then had a go at still-life painting. 

Between Wednesday-Friday, we focussed on a particular country each day, looking at their flags, learning to speak their languages, and taking part in some of their traditions.

On Wednesday, we learned about France. With the help of Google translate, we were able to take it in turns to say "Hello, my name is _______" in French! We had fun decorating Eiffel Towers too. Thank you to those of you who dressed your child in red, white or blue. The children absolutely loved their "ooh la la!" fashion show. 

On Thursday, we learned about Mexico... Ole! We made our own fans and took part in the Mexican hat dance, a tradition in their country. In the afternoon, we made our own maracas and pinatas. Today, we've been learning about Greece. This morning, we listened to Greek music and burnt some energy while plate throwing (don't worry, they were only plastic!) In our creative area, we made Medusa masks and read a simple story about who Medusa was. 

In Maths this week, we've been sorting fruit and learning to compare amounts, using vocabulary such as 'more' and 'less'. We will continue this next week but introduce scales and other measuring equipment. 

On Monday 13^th January, we are taking part in 'Brew Monday', an event created by Samaritans, as a way of overcoming the typical 'Blue Monday' and encouraging people to reach out to friends, family and colleagues. We'd like to invite you to come and spend some time with us in our classrooms at 2pm, until 2.45. During this time, there will be various activities for you to take part in with your child, that can promote positive mental health. These are things that we teach the children throughout the year to help them regulate their own emotions. At 2.45pm, if you'd like to, you will have the opportunity to meet some mental health professionals in the school hall, until 3pm. We are extremely lucky to have people from Coventry and Warwickshire MIND, The Family Information Service and Children and Young People's Services. Please feel free to ask questions, or maybe just take something away to read at home. This isn't just aimed at infant aged children, but for young people aged over 16, and for adults too. We hope that following this event, you'll better understand our strategies to support the children in school, take some of these strategies away to use at home, or discover that there's support out there for you or someone you know. Please do give us your feedback - it is much appreciated. 

Attached are some useful documents for those of you who can't make it but might like to have some information. Below is a link to a 'Reading Well' library. "Reading Well can help you manage your health and wellbeing using helpful reading. They are produced by The Reading Agency. Currently there are four book lists available." 

The lists are: Reading Well for Children, Reading Well for Teens, Reading Well for Mental Health, and Reading Well for Dementia. All of the titles in these lists are recommended by health professionals. If this sounds like something you'd like to explore, the link will give you further information on how and where to access these. Self-help books – Warwickshire County Council

Next week's small question is: Where do crisps come from? Our key text is: Oliver's Vegetables. We'll be learning to peel, chop and mash potatoes, taste different crisp flavours, and learn about how and where vegetables are grown. 

Monday 6th January 2025

A very Happy New Year! We hope you had a fab Christmas and that the children are looking forward to returning tomorrow. 

I wanted to e-mail to let you know a few things if your child is beginning their sessions with us in January. Firstly, welcome! We are really looking forward to seeing our current children and saying hello to lots of new ones too. We hope the settling in sessions before Christmas were enjoyed and that they make the transition this week, a little smoother.

Things we need at Pre-School:

• A named bag with spare clothes for any accidents (or mess!)

• A named coat

• A named pair of wellies to stay with us

• A named pair of black pumps which also stay with us. These are for PE days (Tuesdays & Thursdays)

• Healthy, balanced packed lunches. We are a nut free school.

• One piece of fruit for snack time, or a healthy alternative.

• A named water bottle.

If your child is attending Breakfast Club, this will be held in Green Room. Please drop off at the front door. For drop offs at your child's classroom, please use Green Room's back door in the morning and exit via the front. Pick-up will be from the front door. If your child is in Puffins after school, collect from Green Room before 5pm, and Yellow Room after this time. 

Drop off and pick-up for Yellow Room is always the same door - easy peasy. 

When we open at 9 o'clock, please come in with your child to help them with their morning tasks. Spaces for their snacks, water bottles, and lunches are available as soon as you walk in. Please do make sure things are named so that we know who things belong to when the children might not! Usually, we would ask that you then find your child's name card for self-registration. If your child doesn't yet have one on Tuesday, please bare with us, we are in the process of getting them ready. When they do have one, ask your child how they're feeling. Depending on what they say, their name card will go into a coloured box. Our Green Zone represents feeling happy and/or calm. Our Blue Zone represents feeling sad and/or tired. Our Red Zone represents feeling angry or annoyed. We will then discuss these during the register. Don't worry - any box and any feeling is ok. We want the children to become comfortable talking about their emotions, recognising why they feel the way they do and in time, knowing how we can get them all into the green zone. Before you leave, bags and coats will need to go on their pegs in the cloakrooms. Again, if their peg doesn't yet have a photo, we are on it!

Please make sure all forms are completed and returned so that we have all of the information we need. Most important are your registration forms, consent forms and funding forms. Please show a member of staff your child's Birth Certificate or Passport so that this can be ticked off too. Thank you. 

This half term, we are learning about where our food comes from. This week, we are going to look at what people eat around the World. Between Wednesday-Friday, we will focus on a different country each day. On Wednesday, we'll be learning about France. In the afternoon, we'll be hosting a French fashion show. If your child has something red, blue, or white, we'd love for you to dress them in it to support our learning and make our 'ooh la la' fashion show even more appropriate! Keep an eye out on Facebook if you'd like to see a snippet of our other 'around the World' learning. You can find us under this name, if you haven't already: Cygnets at Bawnmore Community Infant School

Funding Forms - Your funding forms will be handed out to you over the next couple of weeks to ensure they're up to date for Spring Term. If your child has increased their sessions this term, this will need reflecting in the relevant section and all forms will need signing and dating again. Thank you.

Thursday 19th December 2024

What a way to end Autumn Term. 

On Monday, we went to Macready Theatre to see The Three Little Pigs. It was absolutely brilliant, and the children behaved beautifully - we were very proud of them. The coach trip was a particular highlight, we're not sure which they enjoyed more! 

On Wednesday, we had our Christmas party. We danced our socks off to musical games, hit a pinata to find hidden sweets, pinned Rudolph's nose while blindfolded, played "Who am I?" and took part in a big Christmas dance-off. We had so much fun. After all the partying, we filled our tummies with a delicious Christmas lunch! Our teachers sat and ate with us too which was lovely, and we all wore crowns. It was a very festive lunch hall. 

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a very special visitor. Let me give you some clues. He travelled a very long way, but he left his reindeer at home. He wears red. He likes to eat cookies. Have you figured it out? Yep, Santa came to Bawnmore! The children have never been so quiet! He showed us a special trick of his to determine whether we'd been good boys and girls and thankfully, we had! All except for Miss Reed, he wasn't so sure about her! Before he left, he gave us all a gift. A gift before Christmas?! We really are lucky. A big thank you to Santa for coming all this way just to say hello. 

Yesterday, we enjoyed games in the hall together and took part in activity which required us to work together to decorate large masking tape shapes on the floor. Using Duplo and pom-poms, we carefully followed lines to make a Christmas tree, presents and snowflakes. 

Today, we continued the festive fun in the morning and ended the day with a Christmas film. 

A huge thank you for all of our lovely cards and gifts, and for your kind words. They are very much appreciated. We hope you have a fantastic Christmas and enjoy special family time together. Please do send Mrs Cobley and Miss Reed photos for us to share when we return - we can't wait to hear all about your break. Lastly, have a very Happy New Year! We will see you in 2025! 

Monday 6^th January is closed for Teacher Training Day. We open as normal on Tuesday 7^th January. 

We look forward to seeing you all in two weeks' time and welcoming some new friends too! 

Attached are the floor books from the last two weeks, and a 'Big Festive Mental Health' newsletter. 

When we return, our new learning challenge question will be: Where does our food come from?

The overall planning document for this half term is also attached to this e-mail. 

Friday 13th December 2024

This week, we started Christmas celebrations and there is already, glitter... Everywhere! 

Our key text has been 'The Jolly Christmas Postman' - A story about a postman doing his Christmas deliveries to well-known story characters. We've re-called the story, created story maps and found hidden letters in the garden to identify who they needed delivering to. We've posted letters into numbered post boxes and made our own cards and postcards in the home corner. 

On Tuesday, we had a mysterious letter turn up at both classroom doors with a very sparkly trail behind them. Where had they come from and how had they got there? We brainstormed and thought of all of the different people that might've wanted to send us a letter but, in the end, we just had to find out! Can you believe it, Father Christmas, the famous man in red, had received our letters and written back to us all! He said he really has been watching us all and that he wants us to keep up the good work, ready for the big day. He also asked if we'd leave some treats out for his reindeer and something yummy for him too, because they give him the energy he needs to travel around the world all night! 

On Thursday, we enjoyed PE together and danced to wintry songs with scarves and streamers. 

We've been busy making cards and calendars and all things festive, ready to bring home for you all next week. 

Thank you to the few of you who came to our Christmas Craft Morning today. Please do join us for events if and when you can - it's a really lovely opportunity for the children to have their grown-ups with them in the setting. We enjoyed taking part in planned craft activities which will come home with our other things next week. We hope you enjoyed our performance; the children have been practising really hard, alongside rehearsals for the Christmas performances with Reception. We are very tired! Well done Cygnets.

As next week is also full of festive fun, I will be sending out both weeks in one floor book, on Friday 20^th December. 

Friday 6th December 2024

I always forget what a busy time of year December is. We have been working hard behind the scenes this week, practising our songs to perform for you all next week. We hope you're looking forward to seeing us! 

This week's small question is: "What happens when Autumn turns to Winter?". We've talked about how the weather changes in Winter and transformed our home corners into Frozen wonderlands. We've observed ice and talked about what makes it and what happens to it if we leave it out in the warm. The children have been wrapping themselves in blankets and sparkly materials, pretending to be Elsa and attempting to freeze everything in sight... Even their teachers! 

In maths, we've focussed on repeating patterns and subitising. On Wednesday, we drew a giant snowman and took it in turns to roll a dice which decided how many body parts and accessories we gave the snowman. We were excellent at subitising the spots on the dice, and would you believe it, Green Room's snowman ended up with six eyes, three carrot noses, four scarves and three legs with purple heels! I've never seen a snowman quite like it. 

It's that time of year when letters are being written to the famous man in red. Yep, we've been making letters and wish lists for Father Christmas, ready for Mrs Cobley to deliver. (To the Post Office, not the North Pole). We hope he writes back to us!

We've had lots of excited children talking about their Christmas trees this week too. If you've got yours up, we'd love to see a photo.

Next week, our small question is "How do you celebrate Christmas?". We'll spend the last two weeks of the term singing Mariah Carey and getting festive. 

We've had lots of questions about Christmas Performances on Tuesday 10^th and Wednesday 11^th - there are no tickets this year but there is a limit of two adults per performance. 

Friday 29th November 2024

This week, we've rocked into space with our learning. Our Key Text has been 'Whatever Next!'. Thank you to those who took part in the shared learning activity and returned your rockets for us to use in Cygnets - they are fab! 

On Monday, we introduced our small question: "What's beyond the sky?" and asked the children what they already knew about Space. Then, we used the internet to answer any questions we had and learned a song all about the planets. We watched a video of a real-life rocket taking off, and saw Tim Peake play ping pong. 

We've acted out the story of Whatever Next, and practised sequencing the different parts, introducing vocabulary like 'beginning, middle, and end'. 

In the creative area, we've printed planets with balloons, painted bubble wrap to create the moon, and used 2D shapes on black paper to make rockets. We've also begun practising writing our names. On our rockets, we copied a letter from our name on each shape used to create its body. We're really proud of how well the children did with this activity and we've seen some lovely pen grips.

Yesterday, we had a funny letter from an Alien calling himself Sporkle. He claimed that he and his friends had crashed and were stuck on Planet Earth because they had no way of getting home. Sporkle asked if we could help, by using any available materials to build a new spaceship. We love a challenge! We set to finding any materials we could and luckily, we had lots of boxes and junk modelling, so we managed to create a spaceship begin enough for one of us to sit in! It was quite impressive. 

Today was the first of our Three Little Pigs theme days. Mrs Cobley delivered an activity where we built houses with various materials; cups and plates, Duplo, lollipop sticks, Weetabix, straws and CD's, and then we used different strategies to try and blow them down. We huffed and puffed with our breath, blew through straws, wafted thick card and lastly, we used the Big Bad Wolf hairdryer! 

Miss Reed delivered an activity which involved our favourite s-t-e-m building kit. As a whole class, we had to build a house that was large and strong enough to resist the Big Bad Wolf's huffs and puffs. We worked beautifully as a team and found different ways of resolving any difficulties we faced. By the end of the activity, we had built a house large enough for us all to play in! 

Attached is a letter containing dates and details of Christmas celebrations. 

I hope you find this useful. Do let us know if you'll be joining us for our Christmas craft morning so that we have an idea of expected numbers. Thank you. 

I have also attached this week's floor book, along with last weeks. I hope you're enjoying these.

Next week, we will be moving on to "What happens when Autumn turns to Winter?". 

Friday 22nd November 2024

This week has been busier than ever! 

We have been taking part in National Self-Care Week, and we've been extremely lucky to have several visitors in school to help us find ways of looking after our bodies and minds. 

On Monday, we had Nikki Andrews join us from Bee at One Yoga. She taught us the special code word "namaste", used her bells to help us take deep breaths, and then she showed us how to do poses like the tree and the butterfly. We felt very calm afterwards. 

On Tuesday, Catty Giles, the school's Fun Star teacher, came to lead a dance session with each year group. She was so much fun! We moved our bodies in different ways and learned a simple routine to a song. 

On Wednesday, Mrs Swales, a GP came to tell us her top 10 tips for staying healthy. Five of these were tips for healthy bodies, and the other five were tips for a healthy mind. She told us that we need to: Drink plenty of water, eat a healthy, balanced diet (lots of fruit and vegetables!), exercise, wash our hands, get lots of sleep, celebrate the things we're good at, share our worries, be silly/make someone laugh, be kind, and notice things around you.

Yesterday, we had visitors Pheobe and Jenny from Rugby Art Gallery come and lead a workshop with us. We created our own artwork based on Jackson Pollock and Elizabeth McAlpine. We had fun with coffee filter art, and spray painting on fabric. 

Today, we enjoyed time on the playground before snack and watched a film in pyjamas before we went home - the perfect way to end the week. 

A huge thank you to all of our visitors - we are so grateful to have people willing to come and support our learning and give the children valuable experiences. 

In-between all of the above, we've been learning about our new small question: Why does the sky change? Our home corners were transformed into weather stations, and we've been exploring the different things that happen in the sky throughout the day, or when different weathers come. 

Our key text is Night Monkey, Day Monkey. The story is about two monkeys who explore the opposite monkey's environment and discover things like stars, parrots, the moon and butterflies. 

We've been super crafty and created our own weather mobiles, name rainclouds, paintings of the night sky, and a large class moon filled with our wishes upon stars. 

Next week, our small question is: What's beyond the sky? Our key text is: Whatever Next!

We'll be rocketing into space and learning all about the Solar System. 

Attached is a shared learning challenge - please don't worry, this does not have to be completed by Monday. If you have any time over the next week and would like to have a go, it would be lovely, and we can use your creations to support our learning.

We have started planning and rehearsing our Christmas assembly. 

These will be taking place on Tuesday 10th and Wednesday 11th December, both at 1:20pm. You can collect your child from classrooms as usual, straight after the performance, or after their sibling's performance instead.

To keep costumes simple and cost-effective, we ask that your child brings in their favourite festive outfit in a named bag (a 'bag for life' is fine!) on the week beginning 2nd December. This could be a Christmas jumper, snuggly pyjamas, a special Christmas outfit, or even an elf costume, etc. Just make sure your child is comfy and can go to the toilet easily.

Friday 15th November 2024

This week's small question was: "What colours do we see on Bonfire Night?" We've had a fun filled week of exploring fireworks and how to recreate them. It's also been Anti-Bullying Week, and this year's theme is "Choose Respect". Anti-Bullying Week 2024: Choose Respect

On Monday, we took part in a two-minutes' silence to show our respect for Remembrance Day. Here's a really lovely video that simply shows the children what this is all about. Poppies - CBeebies

Throughout the week, we've practised creating fireworks in different ways. We drew on black paper with chalk, used salt, glue and paint, squeezed food colouring into water and oil, explored metallic paint and glitter in a salad spinner, and poured water into the centre of skittles to watch the colours run. We have loved talking about the different colours we've seen in the sky. 

Following on from this, we've also practised colour mixing! We squeezed two coloured paints into a food bag and used our hands to mix them together. We painted hands and high-fived our friends to see what colour our hands together would create. We've used food colouring and water in the mud kitchen to make different coloured recipes, and we played around with white and black to see what happened when one of these was added to a colour. 

On Wednesday, it was World Kindness Day. As part of this, we made friendship bracelets and seahorse bookmarks and chose a friend to share them with. We practised giving compliments to each other and talked about the different ways that we can show kindness. 

Today, we've celebrated Children in Need. Some of us came to Pre-School dressed in yellow or wearing spots, and some of us came in our favourite costume or 'comfies!'. The money raised today will be split between Children in Need and Coventry and Warwickshire MIND. Thank you for your donations. This morning, we talked briefly about how lucky we are to have all the things we do, and how some children aren't as fortunate as we are. Afterwards, we had fun dancing and partying to the 'Piggle Wiggle' - Peppa Pig's debut single! This year, Peppa is Pudsey's new friend. Search the 'Piggle Wiggle' on YouTube if you fancy a boogie at home... It's very catchy. 

Next week, our learning challenge question is: "How does the sky change?" We will be talking about the weather and looking at the different things we see from day to night. 

It's also International Self-Care Week. We are so excited to have some visitors in school to help us find ways of making ourselves feel good. On Monday, we have a Yoga session, on Tuesday, a dance lesson, on Wednesday, a visit from a GP, and on Thursday, a visit from Rugby Art Gallery to help us create our own artwork. 

As part of this, if your child is with us on a Friday afternoon, we'd love for you to bring some pyjamas/slippers/dressing gown, (or all!) for us to change into after lunch. This ties in perfectly with our learning around the different times of day too and so we thought preparing for night-time and having a pyjama party would be a fab way to end the week! Please just pack these in your child's bag.

Some letters have gone out today regarding the Christmas Panto on Monday 16^th December. This will be in an afternoon and unfortunately, due to the number of children that we have, we are only able to take those who attend on a Monday afternoon. (We have booked the entire theatre!) 

This also means that we have no space for parent helpers - thank you to those who have e-mailed to offer. If you haven't yet received your letter, the rest will be coming out next week. 

I will be sending out a separate letter next week, with everything Christmas related for Cygnets so that you're aware of what's happening and when. Please don't worry if your child is missing the panto - December is going to be jam packed with different events and glittery fun.

Friday 8th November 2024

Welcome back. We hope you all had a lovely half-term break. The children have really enjoyed talking to their friends about what they've been up to and thank you to those who sent in photos. 

This half term's Learning Challenge Question is: Are you afraid of the dark? Our small question this week was: Why is Diwali the Festival of Light?

We have had a jam-packed week of fun, glitter and music and we have loved every minute. 

On Monday, before we introduced our learning, we had a visit from Mia Mould. Mia is a Family Lifestyle Advisor and works for Rugby Borough Council. As part of their goal to teach children and families how to lead healthy and active lifestyles, they are running a programme called Change Makers. Mia came in to Cygnets and Reception and talked to us about healthy foods and exercise as ways of looking after our bodies. We even had to get up to do some exercise to feel the difference in our heartbeats! This was a really useful visit and to follow on, I'd like to set you a challenge. Mia advised that throughout the day, we should be trying to eat as many colours from the rainbow as we can. Your challenge over the weekend and following week, is to eat a rainbow. If you manage it, we'd love for you to send us in a picture.

Now, on to Diwali! We have been incredibly busy learning about how people celebrate this Festival - cleaning and decorating their homes, lighting Diya's, creating Rangoli patterns, eating delicious foods, wearing special clothing and spending time with loved ones. 

We have familiarised ourselves with the story of Rama and Sita and acted it out as a class. 

We've been very creative this week and used charcoal to create mehndi patterns on hands, rice, lentils and sand to make large Rangoli designs and unleashed the glitter to recreate Goddess Lakshimi's footprints. 

We've listened to special music and practised dancing in different ways, lit our own Diya lights and made wishes as we blew them out, and today - we painted bread bright and colourful to toast for snack! (Don't worry - it was all edible!) 

Next week, our small question is: What colours do we see on Bonfire Night?

We will be sharing our own experiences of Bonfire Night and recreating them in different ways, as well as exploring colour mixing. 

Did you go to a display, or see any from your windows? Do you have any photos? If so, we'd love for you to send them in. 

Next week is also Anti-Bullying Week and we will be taking part in various activities throughout the week. On Friday, we are celebrating Children in Need. On this day, you have the option of sending your child in wearing odd socks, dressing up for stress (this could be anything from their 'chills' to full glam!) or coming in Pudsey-fied. If you really want to, you could even do all three! We are asking for a £1 donation and the money raised throughout school will be split between Children in Need and Coventry and Warwickshire Mind. 

Friday 25th October 2024

That's a wrap! I can hardly believe that we've finished our first half term, and what a half term it's been. The floor book for this week is attached. 

This week we finished our learning around Autumn. Our Key Text was Owl Babies. 

We've talked about the different types of animals we might see at this time of year, or animals that are nocturnal. We learned about hibernation and how some of these animals survive through the colder months. 

Owl Babies is a story about three baby owls and their owl Mother. One day, they wake up and their owl Mother is gone! The owls sit and wait, scared and patient, until finally, their Mother owl returns. We have really enjoyed this simple story and found it an opportunity to share our love for our own mummies. We've practised sequencing the story and even had a go at taking on the roles and acting it out. We did a fantastic job. 

On Tuesday, we used 2D shapes to recreate animals - a tricky challenge, but we used our imaginations and put on our thinking caps, and managed to make cats, dogs, butterflies, bumblebees, unicorns, fish, turtles and caterpillars... All with shapes! 

In PE this week, we practised our throwing skills. We were given bean bags and different targets at various distances to throw them to. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! 

As part of our re-capping of 2D shapes, we went for a hunt around school and searched for shapes in the environment. We are surrounded by them! 

On Thursday, we watched the 'Shape Song Swing-along' on YouTube. Afterwards, we went on our own shape song swing-along! We travelled around the classroom, stopping at different large shapes. Once we arrived at a shape, we had to use our gross motor skills to trace them and then, practise using our bodies to make them. Can your child tell you what the four basic shapes are, and describe their properties? 

We've had a few queries about how to support your child with holding writing tools and making marks. I've attached a list of pre-writing activities that will all support your child in strengthening their finger muscles to prepare them for writing. They're super easy and things that hopefully, you can do at home too. I hope this helps. 

When we return from our break, we will be introducing our new Learning Challenge Question: Are you afraid of the dark? Our small question will be: Why is Diwali the Festival of Light?

If you celebrate Diwali, or know someone who does, and would be interested in coming into Cygnets for a short visit and talking to the children about your beliefs and practices, that would be fantastic. Please bear in mind the age-group, so it would just be a very short, simple discussion, but a valuable opportunity for some of our children to share their religion and culture with the class. 

We'd love to be able to learn more about special clothing, jewellery or artefacts that are significant to your faith; if you have any items that the children could see and ask questions about, or potentially handle (if appropriate), that would be amazing too. 

If you think you can help us, let myself or Miss Reed know, and we will organise a time. Thank you. 

Attached to this e-mail is an overview of Autumn half term 2, if you'd like to take a look. 

Please do send in photos for us to share if you do anything nice over the week. The children love to talk to their friends about their experiences and this can really help to distract them from the natural wobbles of coming back to pre-school. E-mail wilkins.b@welearn365.com for Green Room, or reed.s3@welearn365.com for Yellow Room. 

Have a wonderful half term and we will see you when we return on Monday 4^th November. 

Pre-Writing Activities

· Popping bubble-wrap

· Drawing in sand

· Using tweezers to pick things up

· Practising scissor skills. Can you make snips in paper?

· Scrunching and ripping paper

· Doing buttons on jumpers and cardigans

· Practising a zip on a coat

· Tracing patterns and names

· Threading with beads, reels, or even Cheerio’s! Use string, thread, or pipe cleaners.

· Squeezing water from pipettes

· Using syringes in water

· Filling and emptying containers

· Tug of war

· Screwing nuts and bolts

· Putting keys in and out of locks

· Winding up toys

· Painting with cotton buds

· Turning pages in a book

· Hammering golf tees into pumpkins

· Dough Disco; pat, roll, pinch, squeeze, stretch, flip your dough.

· Spraying water from a spray bottle

· Squirting shaving foam and making marks in it

· Write dance; lie or kneel down and with a wax crayon in each hand, make the following large marks: vertical lines, horizontal lines, zig-zags, circles, rain! (dots).

· Stretching elastic bands over cups

· Putting pegs on the washing line

· Using hammers and tacks on cork boards

· Building with construction materials

· Sing the finger song! (Tommy Thumb, Peter Pointer, Toby Tall, Ruby Ring, Baby Small, Fingers all. Where are you?)

· Punch holes in leaves and paper

· Fold paper to make a card

· Use finger puppets when telling a story

Friday 18th  October 2024

This week has been another full of Autumn exploration , and our Key Text has been 'The Leaf Thief'. 

The story is all about a Squirrel who wakes up each day frustrated because he thinks that someone is stealing his leaves. At the end of the story, he realizes that this happens every year in Autumn, when the wind blows them all away. 

To follow on from this, we've spent the week finding different uses for leaves, or different ways of being creative with them. 

In our creative area, we've transferred colour from foil on to leaves and marbled with shaving foam and paint. We've painted and printed leaves and enjoyed using stencils too. 

We used the Autumn findings from our bags as loose parts and created our own pictures with them. We had leaf people, caterpillars, spiders, umbrellas, butterflies, campfires and owls! It was brilliant and we really got to see the children's imaginations come to life.

A huge thank you for making so much effort with your Autumn hunt bags - we have seen so many beautiful things and the children have really enjoyed having the opportunity to share and discuss these with their peers. We've used them for Autumn soup in the classroom, to create recipes in the Mud Kitchen, for conker rolling in paint, for investigating, and we even turned some of them into nature paintbrushes. The opportunities are endless! 

We've had fun with a couple of experiments this week too. On Monday, we created Autumn 'snow' globes! We practised our fine motor skills with scissors and chopped leaves into small pieces. We half-filled a glass jar with water, added our leaves, some glitter, and the secret ingredient... Glycerine. Then, we glued a small twig on to the underneath of the lid so that when we screwed it back on and tipped it upside down, it looked like blustery leaves falling from a tree. The children absolutely loved being able to make something so special. 

On Wednesday, we had to become the wind. The children were given a pile of leaves and had to find ways of blowing them away. They used their breath, blew through straws, made fans, and wafted pieces of paper until they started to move. 

Today, we enjoyed a leaf propelling experiment! We took the inside of a biro out and dabbed ink on to the end of leaves. When we put them in a tray of water, the ink propelled them around the tray, leaving oily patterns as they travelled. When we were done with leaves, we found that we could use the remaining inky water to create marbled patterns on paper. We very gently rested pieces of paper on top of the water until the ink came through. Here are some pictures of what they looked like!

We've been learning to say a number name for each individual item when counting. On our maths table, we've had numbered squirrels who are hungry for their nuts. Rather than trying to gather a group of nuts, we've carefully counted one at a time, until we get to the correct number. 

The children are really enjoying counting each other at register time. We often ask at the end of registration "Can you help me count how many of us are here today?" We use a stick to point to each photograph and the children know, we only count when the stick moves. Afterwards, the children get to volunteer to count independently (they're very brave!) but it's a task that they get a lot of pride from and really does help them to become confident with counting. 

On Friday afternoons, (starting last week), Green and Yellow Room spend 45 minutes together in the hall, as an opportunity for the children to spend some quality time with one another and get to know all staff. Each week, they alternate between Yoga or Music. They are thoroughly enjoying it and it's proving to be a lovely end to the week. 

We've been very physical this week, using scarves to dance like leaves and learning how to do a rain dance. We found a fantastic video on YouTube: Vivaldi's Autumn Fall Scarf Movement. It is so much fun but even the adults were exhausted by the end of it! Have a go at home if you're brave enough. 

Our Makaton signs this week are: Please and Thank you. The children have been using them independently throughout the week. Have they shown you at home?

It was really nice to see so many of you at our first of two Parents' Evenings. We hope you found this useful. Thank you for the lovely feedback, it is always very much appreciated by all. We look forward to seeing more of you, next Tuesday, the 22nd. If you're unsure of what time you've booked, just ask a member of staff. 

Next week, is our last week of learning around Autumn. We will begin learning about the different animals that might come out at this time of year, and how they survive. We'll talk about hibernation and create different animals with creative materials and 2D shapes. Our Key Text is: Owl Babies.

Lastly, don't worry - I haven't forgotten the Floor Book! Please bear with me. I will aim to have this half term's floor books to you by the end of play next Friday. Please do feel free to have a flick through as you're passing through the classrooms in the meantime. 

Friday 11th October 2024

Autumn has arrived in Cygnets this week.

Thank you to those who have returned your scavenger hunt bags so quickly. If you haven't, please don't worry! You have until the 18^th October to do so. 

On Monday, we introduced this week's key text: Leaf Man. This is a story about a man made of leaves who travels to different places because "leaf man's got to go where the wind blows". Throughout the story, we see different images, all made of leaves. From cows to geese to pumpkins! We've really enjoyed using our own imaginations to think about what else we could create with leaves. We even practised creating our own leaf people! We've also had a go at leaf rubbing and leaf printing. 

On Wednesday, both classes came together to take part in a colour hunt outside. Did it rain? Yes! Did that stop us? No! We had coats on, hoods up, and wellies on feet, and we had a brilliant time. The children were given magnifying glasses, colour catchers and different coloured card with wooden pegs. As they discovered the nature around the school grounds, they had to collect things and peg them on to the correct coloured card. We found all sorts of colours, from green to orange to purple.

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day and as a school, we came together in yellow. #HelloYellow was created as a way of making WMH Day a little bit brighter. Thank you to everyone who helped us shine bright, and for any donations that were given. This money will go towards a great cause. Click this link for more info: Hello Yellow | World Mental Health Day | YoungMinds

Today, our very own Leaf Man went... Missing! The children set their sights to searching for him. We had no cows or geese or prairie fields, like they do in the story, but we do have wind! Could it have blown him away? Ask your child whether we found him and where he was/how he disappeared. To help them on their rescue mission, they had fun creating maps.  

We've talked this week, about the different clothes we might need to wear at this time of year and had fun practising putting on wellies, hats and scarves. This was a really good task to help the children with their independence. Please do encourage your child to try putting on their coats and shoes at home.

Do you know the flip trick? Attached is a PDF document displaying the three simple steps required to put coats on independently. 

1. Have your child stand behind their coat, with the hood or the collar by their feet. (the coat should be upside down to look at)

2. Encourage them to stretch forwards, putting an arm into each sleeve.

3. Once an arm is in each sleeve hole, tell them to flip the coat over their heads, making sure to keep their arms inside the holes!

4. Voila! The coat is on securely, and ready to be buttoned or zipped up. As easy as 1, 2, 3!

Next week, our learning around Autumn continues. 

Our Key Text is: The Leaf Thief! Our Makaton signs are: Please and Thank You.

Attached is a document which details our Makaton signs for the entire academic year. Do take a look if you'd like to. 

Each week, we create a document for our Floor Book. The floor book is in both classrooms for you to look at when you drop off your child, if you so wish. I'll also be attaching it to these weekly e-mails for you to look at digitally. I appreciate that we are all extremely busy in the mornings and there may not be a time for you to stop and take a look at the physical version, so I hope that this will make it easier for you to see exactly what we've been up to, and hopefully, help your child to talk about it too! 

Each week will contain photos of our learning and a summary of what we've been doing. I will send a further e-mail out with the floor book from recent weeks, before sending these out with this information, every Friday. We hope you enjoy seeing it, and we'd love to hear your feedback. 

Don't forget to book an appointment with your child's Key Worker on one of the following dates for Parents Evening: 

• Thursday 17^th October

• Tuesday 22nd October 

These will be held in the school hall, so please come to the main office when you arrive. Appointments are only 10-minutes long so please be mindful of arriving on time. We are really looking forward to speaking with you. 

A polite request: We are part of the Healthy Schools Initiative. We appreciate that children (and adults) can often be fussy eaters, and they may not choose to eat fruit for their snack. Having said this, we would really like to encourage the children to try. If for whatever reason, they won't eat fruit,  please provide a healthy alternative.  Chocolate, crisps, and any other 'sweet treats' should be part of their lunch, when all of the children get to enjoy something out of the ordinary. We'd really appreciate your help in keeping snack times healthy. 

If your child has grapes for snack, please cut them in half. Thank you very much. 

With the weather now often being very wet, we want to ensure that the children can still spend as much time outdoors as possible. If you are able to, please provide a pair of wellies that your child can change into when going outside.

Friday 27th September 2024

It's been a jam-packed week in Cygnets. 

This week's small question was: "What's behind your front door?"

Thank you to all who completed the shared learning - the children have really enjoyed talking to their peers about their homes and families.

In this week's provision, we've had fun with wet sand as cement and used trowels and wooden blocks to build homes. In our creative area, we've made our own houses with toilet roll tubes, sticking cone rooves on top and practising our scissor skills to add windows and doors. One child even added a pumpkin to theirs... Very Autumnal! 

We've also taken part in some amazing whole group learning activities, such as creating our own wallpaper, and building giant homes with a S-T-E-M construction kit. Today, we got to use real household objects. If your child comes home and tells you they've used the kettle... It was unplugged and had only cold water inside! We thought the children would really enjoy being able to physically use objects, instead of just talking about them. We poured cold water from the kettle, milk from a jug, swept the floor with the dustpan and brush, swept outside with a broom, mopped the hard floor and hoovered! We had so much fun. 

On Wednesday, the children who were still with us in the afternoon, got to go to the school hall with Reception and watch Mr Davey and some other visitors from Rugby School perform with musical instruments. They were fascinated!

Yesterday, we had a visit from the Road Safety Team. They introduced us to their friend, Warwick the Bear. We played a game which taught us simple rules about staying safe outside. We used props to demonstrate the rules, listened to a story, and sang a road safety song! We were also lucky enough to be given a bear and a book each to bring home. If your child hasn't yet received one, don't worry - there is one for all! As part of this, each class has been given their own larger bear and a scrapbook. Much like Super Green Gabs and Super Yellow Yaz, the bear (whom the children have named Rainbow) will be coming home each week, and we'd like you to document your safe adventures. While making it unique to your child and your experiences, we'd really like you to include some information about how you've stayed safe throughout your time with Rainbow. 

Friday 4th October 2024

It's been a non-stop week in Cygnets and we ended it on a high with this morning's Welly Walk for Winston's Wish. A huge thank you to all those who came to support us - it is so appreciated. Taking the whole school out is quite a mission and several adults told us how brave we were today! I have to say, I'm incredibly proud of our children and how well they coped with such a big event. They walked beautifully, followed instructions, and showed the local community what a fantastic school we are. I hope they enjoyed themselves, and I hope our helpers did too. We'd love to hear your feedback. 

We've had some enquiries about how to donate to Winston's Wish. You can do this by bringing donations into school, or online. Just click this link:  Donate Online | Charitable Donations | Winston's Wish (winstonswish.org)

The children should hopefully, have all come home with a certificate to celebrate today's huge achievement. When we look beyond the fun we had and the time we enjoyed spent outside - we must remember why we did it. Kathryn Williams, from Winston's Wish, lead an assembly this afternoon to follow this up. We hope that this is something the children feel able to share with you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. 

This week, our small question was: Are we all the same?

We've thoroughly enjoyed sharing our similarities and differences and our key text really helped us to not only identify our differences, but to celebrate them! We've learned to say hello in different languages, danced to multicultural music, drew ourselves around the World, and created family portraits in photo frames. 

Lots of you should have already received your Autumn Scavenger Hunt bags this week. If you haven't, don't worry - they will continue coming out next week. We'd really like you to spend some time outdoors with your child, whether that be in the park or on a walk, and look at the signs of Autumn around you. If you can, collect some Autumn treasures and fill your bag with them to be returned to Cygnets no later than Friday 18^th October. We will use your findings to enhance our learning over the next few weeks. 

Following on from this, next week's learning question is: Can you find any signs of Autumn?

Our Key Text is: Leaf Man. Next week's Makaton sign is: Autumn. The children are really enjoying learning how to sign and are remembering to sign 'Good Morning' and 'Good Afternoon' at register times unprompted. We hope that this is something they're sharing with you at home too. Maybe you could practise our signs of the week with them. 

Dates for next week:

• Tuesday 8^th - Kittle Photography are in school taking individual photographs. If your child doesn't usually attend on a Tuesday and you'd like them to have their photo taken, please arrive at the school office for 9am. We will collect your child from the office and bring them back to you once they've had their photo taken. 

• Thursday 10^th - World Mental Health Day. As part of World Mental Health Day, we'd like you to come to pre-school wearing yellow. Why yellow? Because it makes the day a little bit brighter!

  Throughout the day, we will be creating yellow themed artwork, listening to the #HelloYellow Spotify Playlist, and using #HelloYellow photobooth props in our home corners. For more info, click this link: Hello Yellow | World Mental Health Day | YoungMinds

Friday 20th September 2024

Hello everyone,

We've come to the end of another fantastic week. Mrs Davey has been to visit Cygnets regularly throughout our first couple of weeks and she has had nothing but good things to say about how well the children have settled, how happy and talkative they are, and how calm our classrooms feel. We've also had some lovely feedback from parents so thank you, it really does make us smile when we receive positive feedback on our setting and your child's experience with us. 

This week, we began our Zones of Regulation self-registration. (That's a mouthful!) 

The children have become familiar with the different zones and the emotions that correspond with them. They've been able to tell us how they're feeling and even try to tell us why! We're getting used to our daily routine and recognising the Widgets on our visual timetable. We've learned our 'call and respond' for tidy-up time. "Hands on top, that means stop". The children respond quickly, ready to tidy their mess and transition to the next part of the day. Our call and respond will change half termly, just to keep them on their toes!

On Monday, we read the story of The Colour Monster. We have our own soft version of the 'mixed up' monster in Cygnets and he came to help us tell the story. We practised using our faces to show the different emotions in the book and then we enjoyed collaging with different materials in the creative area, to make our own monsters. 

Thank you to those who have bought in photos of your homes and families this week. The children have thoroughly enjoyed sharing these in class. If you haven't done so, please do! Yellow Room would be grateful for some more pictures for their family display.

Our learning question this week was: Who is in your family? We talked about who lives at home and who our 'special people' are and why. We created different types of homes and drew family trees in our creative area. In Construction, we used different bricks and building materials each day to construct homes, and in our Maths area, we created families with people and homes, practising our counting skills along the way. 

I have attached our Long-Term Plan for Autumn, Half Term 1 so that you can see an overview of what it is we'll be doing in Cygnets. Each week, we focus on a small question to help us on our journey to covering our big question. Next week's small question is: What's behind your front door? Our Key Text is: Who lives here? 

We will be busy looking at different types of homes and talking about what makes our homes special. Also attached is an activity for you to do at home with your child. Fill in the boxes, write quotes from your child, and let them draw pictures. This activity will really help us to get the most from the children when having conversations about our homes. There's a creative task too, if you're feeling up to a challenge!

The children went to the hall for their lunch this week. Yellow Room go to the hall for the first sitting, and Green Room for the second sitting. The children have adapted really well and some of them have been over the moon to see their older siblings at the same time!

We are introducing Makaton this year and will be learning new signs on a weekly basis. Last week, we learned how to sign "Good Morning" and "Good Afternoon" at register time, this week we learned how to sign the word "family", and next week, we will learn how to sign different emotions! If you'd like to join in at home, here's a video of Singing Hands doing just that. Makaton Topic - FEELINGS / EMOTIONS - Singing Hands (ft Dave Benson-Phillips) (youtube.com)

Can you help? We are always in need of spare clothes in Cygnets, but we are particularly low on girls' and boys' pants and socks. If you have any that you'd like to donate, we'd be very grateful! 

I hope you're finding these e-mails helpful and interesting. Do let us know if you need anything further. 

Next week's small question is: "Are we all the same?"

Our Key Text is: We are all Different. Here is a link to the story on Twinkl. We Are All Different (Twinkl Originals Animation) - Twinkl

We will practise saying hello in different languages, dance to multicultural music, talk about different countries around the world and the places we've visited, use small world figures to create family photos, act out experiences with our own pictures on bricks in the construction area, and have fun with multicultural dressing up in the home corner. If there is anyone who would like to come in and talk to the children about their culture, we would absolutely love to welcome you in. Whether it be sharing your traditions, teaching us a different language, or showing us how to dance, these are really valuable experiences for the children. 

In Maths, we will begin to explore 2D shapes next week. We'll do this by drawing around shapes on whiteboard vinyl, using shapes to create pictures, going for shape hunts around the classroom, using shape moulds in sand, printing in paint, using shape magnifying glasses to search the outdoor area, and drawing shapes in foam. Maybe you could have a shape hunt at home. What will your child be able to find?

Next week we will be handing out our Autumn bags. These are bags which we'd like you to take on walks with you and fill with the things you find on your way. You will have almost two weeks to return them, for us to use in our learning. You can fill them with leaves, pinecones, conkers, sticks, feathers, acorns - you name it! Any pictures of your adventures would be lovely, just e-mail myself, or Miss Reed for Yellow Room.

On Friday 4^th October, we will be taking part in 'Wear Wellies Day' - an event created by Winston's Wish. Winston's Wish are a charity that provide support to grieving children and their families. As a school, we will be walking to Cock Robin Woods. Attached, is a letter which explains this in more detail. If you would like to help us on our walk, please let us know. We would be extremely grateful for any support! 

Next week's Makaton sign is - Home. 

We appreciate that there are often things you might like to discuss with your child's teacher/s. Can I ask that if there is something you'd like to talk about, or ask, that you wait until all of the children are in the classroom and the door is closed, or you speak to an adult at the end of the day, while the children are sat down. Mornings can be extremely busy, and our priority is to ensure that the children are in safely. We are more than happy to have these conversations when the children are inside and settled. Alternatively, please e-mail me, or if your child is in Yellow Room, Miss Reed. Thank you. 

A polite reminder: We have noticed some of the children having nut products in their lunches. We are a nut free school. Please be mindful of this and avoid bringing in any foods that contain nuts.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and hopefully, a little less rain! See you next week.

Friday 13th September 2024

Hello everyone, 

What a fantastic first week we have had! The children have settled into Pre-School superbly, we are extremely proud of them. 

At the end of each week, I will be sending out an email summarising our week in Cygnets. I hope that you'll find this useful.

Throughout this week, we have familiarised ourselves with the daily routine and the use of our Visual Timetable. We have also learned about the Zones of Regulation. 

On Monday, when you drop off in the morning, we'd like you to help your child with their morning task. Please help them to find their self-registration picture. In Green Room, these are found on the tall cupboards as you walk into the classroom, and in Yellow Room, they can be found on the display board by the entrance door. Their photo will then be put into one of our coloured 'zone' boxes. How are they feeling? If they are happy and/or calm, their photo will go in the green box. If they're feeling sad and/or tired, their photo will go in the blue box, and if they're feeling a little angry or annoyed, their photo will go in the red box. We will then pull these out as part of morning registration and talk about how we feel, and why. It's ok to feel any of those emotions, we just want the children to feel safe exploring them and sharing them with others. 

We have had so much fun exploring our classrooms and enjoying 'free flow' time spent across both outdoor areas and both classrooms. This time is really valuable as it allows the children to access a larger space and get to know all members of the Cygnets team, as well as getting to know the children from both rooms too.

Next week, we begin Autumn 1's Learning Challenge Question: Who is in your family? Our key text is: Who lives here?

We will be talking about who lives at home, who our 'special people' are and what makes our homes, home. To help us to get the best from this, we need your help! We would love for you to bring in a photo of your family, and another of your home. The children can then share these with their peers and use them in group discussions. If you're happy for us to keep them, we will put them in our home corners for the children to see. 

We will also be introducing the story of The Colour Monster next week. If you don't know this story, here's a link to a Flip Book version: The Colour Monster Book - Flip eBook Pages 1-45 | AnyFlip

The story is just brilliant and something we tend to use throughout the year.

On Monday, we start our lunchtimes in the school hall. As there are so many of us now, we will be staggering our lunch times so that it's not too overwhelming for the children. Green Room will have their lunch while Yellow Room continue to access their continuous provision, and vice versa. We are hoping that this will make lunchtimes much more manageable, and the children won't be sat for too long either. We have no doubt that they are ready for their next transition following how adaptable they've all been over the last week. 

Have a lovely weekend. We look forward to seeing you all again next week.

Friday 6th September 2024

We really enjoyed getting to know you all last week throughout our Welcome Visits - we hope the children enjoyed themselves too and aren't feeling so nervous now that they've familiarised themselves with the setting. 

Tomorrow, the children begin their allocated sessions. I know there's a lot to remember, so I just wanted to remind you of what's needed. Please provide:

• A bag with spare clothes.

• One piece of fruit, or a healthy alternative, for snack time. 

• A named bottle of water. 

• A healthy packed lunch (if your child is with us all day)

A gentle reminder that we are a nut free school. Please avoid bringing any nut products into pre-school. 

• Lots of you have already done so, (thank you), but if you haven't, when you have time, we would appreciate it if you could also provide a named pair of wellies and a named pair of black pumps. PE days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. The classes will alternate their day each week. 

• In both classrooms, we have display boards dedicated to sharing our families. If you would like to, please bring in a family photo that we can add to this display. This can be a huge comfort to the children and does make pre-school feel a bit more like home. 

• Again, so many of you have already done so, but please do return all of your paperwork. It's really important that we have all of the information we need. Please provide a password for times when someone different may be collecting your child. Funding and consent forms are also needed as soon as possible. If you haven't done so, we will need to see your child's Birth Certificate or Passport. This can be shown to a member of the admin team too. Thank you. 

• A WhatsApp group has been created for Cygnets parents to join if they so wish. Just scan the QR code attached. 

• In case you don't know, we have our very own Facebook page. You can find us with this name: Cygnets at Bawnmore Community Infant School. If you have given us consent to use Facebook, you may see your child in various photos throughout the week. We try to update this regularly so that you can see what we've been up to. 

• We have noticeboards in both classrooms. In Green Room, you will find it above the snack/lunch trolley as you walk into the room, and in Yellow, it will be found on the wall by the door as you approach the cloakroom. Do take a look at these as the weeks pass by as we will update them with details of what we're learning about and any further information you might need. 

• If your child is in Green Room, we know that it can be confusing as to which door you use. From Monday, please wait outside the garden gate to be let in through the back door. If the weather is wet, do take shelter in the garden but otherwise, please wait outside. After dropping off, you will exit through the front door and collect from the front door. 

• If your child is in breakfast club, they will be dropped off at Green Room. If your child is in Puffins after school, they will be collected from Green Room until 4.30, and Yellow Room from 4.30 onwards. 

• If your child is due to start in January, I will be in touch before October half term to arrange further settling in visits. Do contact me if you need anything. 

• If your child is absent, please let us know. Call the office, or alternatively, e-mail myself so that this can be passed on to the relevant staff members. 

• Next week, we will be introducing the Zones of Regulation and familiarising the children with our daily routine. From Monday 16th, when you drop off in the mornings, your child will need to find their self-registration photo and put it in one of our Zones of Regulation boxes. These boxes are coloured, and each colour represents an emotion. Their name card will then be pulled out of the box during the register, and we will talk about how we feel, and why. Learning to recognise our emotions is incredibly important and helping the children to feel comfortable talking about them is even more so. I have attached a link which explains this further. 

Despite there being four colours, in Cygnets, we use the three that are easiest for the children to understand. Green is happy and/or calm. Blue is sad and/or tired. Red is angry/annoyed. 

It is absolutely OK for the children to feel any of these emotions. The aim of using these boxes is for the children to feel safe in exploring and sharing their emotions, and for us to work together to find ways of regulating our emotions if we're not in the green zone. This is used throughout school. I hope this makes sense and that you find it helpful. 

• You will find our planning and Mental Health calendar in both rooms. In Green Room, you will find this in the cloakroom. In Yellow Room, it can be found on the display board as you come into the classroom. Do take a look if you'd like to. Letters/e-mails will be sent out regarding various events nearer the time but the information being to hand will hopefully keep you in the loop and prepare you for any upcoming events. 

I hope that all of this information is helpful. We are really looking forward to welcoming you all again and getting started on the fun year ahead.