Fruit: After a long, dry and hot Summer, we fully expected a wet, cold and windy Autumn. Instead the weather was, for the most part, warm and dry. There was, for many people, an abundance of fruit and we helped ourselves to the plentiful supply of blackberries from the hedgerows. We showed the children how to crush the blackberries using a pestle and mortar, sieve the pulp and use the juice like paint to make pictures with their fingers or brushes.
Want to know more on how to paint with Blackberry fruit? Press the below button for a video
Painting with Blackberry Fruit
Fruity, apples were turned into delicious crumbles and the children created Autumn Collages arranging seeds, grasses etc onto sticky back plastic. We discovered that the marks made by seed heads from cow parsley dipped in paint and pressed onto paper looked like fireworks exploding and in November these made very attractive pictures.
Louise joined us as a volunteer in early September and within a very short time has become very much part of the Privett team helping us on Tuesday mornings
At the end of September we organised a Macmillan Coffee morning. This was attended by many of our children and parents several of whom also provided cakes to be enjoyed on the day or to be bought and taken away. We raised £82, which is a great achievement in aid of such a worthy cause.
During the term one of our ex-pupils, Joyce whose brother Arthur currently attends Nursery visited us. Joyce read stories to a group of our children much to Arthur’s delight! We also managed to talk Antonio, Aaron’s Dad, into reading a story in Spanish to all of us. It was interesting to see the children listening to him with the same attention and interest as they do to stories read in English.
As part of our ongoing self evaluation we sent out questionnaires to all our parents to survey their opinions on our provision. We also asked the children to tell us what they like and don’t like about our Nursery. The responses were overwhelmingly positive and very encouraging. When we asked for parents to suggest hobbies and skills they could share with us, we were offered some very interesting ideas including learning how to do head stands, which we have politely declined on the grounds of our combined mature years!
Our Christmas party, held at the beginning of December, was great fun. We played lots of traditional party games with a Christmas twist; What’s the time Father Christmas, Father Christmas’s Footsteps, Musical icicles and sleighs! Lunch was a feast with the food and drink provided by parents.
As usual, the children performed this year’s Nativity on the last day of term and we were treated to a very fine show with James excelling as a very grumpy innkeeper and some great dancing from all the children to Rock around the Clock.
Next term Maike will be taking a few months off to go travelling with her family and we look forward to receiving regular updates on her adventures which we will be following with the children in Nursery. In the meantime, Louise has very kindly agreed to cover Maike’s hours with us. We also look forward to welcoming new children to the Nursery and wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.
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