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 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 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. 

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 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. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

The Cygnets Team.

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.

~ The Cygnets Team.

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. 

The Zones of Regulation | A Curriculum For Emotional Regulation

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.