3. Summer Term 2014 – Village Hall renovation

Summer term – village hall renovation

Work on the village hall was completed at the end of April 2014 (Village hall renovation),  just in time for us to set up Nursery ready for the beginning of term.  With help from  Amanda and Emma, we hurriedly moved all our equipment out of the storage container and into our new large store. We immediately benefited from having an extra corner in the hall. We now are able to create a space for the older children to work with the more advanced Montessori materials.  The room appears brighter and lighter.

At the start of the summer term we read “The Journey” and the children enjoyed re-enacting the story about the little boat making her journey along rivers and out to sea, using props and musical instruments. Annaliese brought  music from various different countries for us to listen to and the children enjoyed dancing and playing instruments to it.

In May, we made our own journey by steam train on The Watercress Line from Alresford to Alton, stopping off at Ropley where we met Mrs Bear and helped her  find her picnic. Unfortunately, the weather was a little damp and we had to eat our picnics inside. Rain did not prevent us from walking to a nearby meadow to see the wildflowers!  Sadly, presumably because of the rain, there were no butterflies to see.

One morning in June, Kerry from Playball came to the Nursery to give us an introductory session on a variety of ball skills.  We are very much looking forward to Playball becoming a weekly event  next term.  In June, we were also practising our  races regularly for our annual Games Day

and the children thoroughly enjoyed all the extra physical activity.  Our Games Day, which we     postponed because of rain to the first week in July, was a huge success with all the children       competing in several different races and some very exciting sprint races from the parents!  As usual, we all enjoyed a leisurely picnic afterwards.

This term, we have all very much enjoyed listening to Tim (George’s Dad) read a story most weeks before our Yoga with Roessa on

Thursdays.  In July, Felicity (Ottie’s Mum) spent a few mornings in Nursery with us to take photographs of the children.  The main purpose of which, was to produce a “leavers book” and the results are available for all to see in a my copy at Nursery.   The book is a really lovely way to remember all our 2014 leavers.

This year, we chose the theme “lest we forget” for our entries to the Horticultural Summer Show and the children made some

beautiful collage pictures of poppies.  The pictures were displayed in Froxfield Village Hall in August and were admired and commented on by many!  We also received a special mention for our entries, in the Petersfield Post!

Work  to renovate our raised beds began at the end of term;  several overgrown shrubs have been removed, the rotten wooden borders have been replaced and the central wigwam reset.   In the Autumn, Annaliese is planning to organise a group of parents to help us re-plant.   Our willow den is looking quite untidy and Merryn’s Dad has very kindly offered to sort this out for us!

We are looking forward to welcoming 9 new children and their parents to the Nursery in September and give our congratulations to Rachel and Zuzie who have both achieved level 3 in their childcare qualifications.  Rachel will be back with us but Zuzie has moved away and is hoping to find work in another Montessori Nursery.

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