7. Summer Term 2015 – Science Centre and Planetarium

Friday, July 31st, 2015

Science Centre and Planetarium

For me, the highlight of the term was our visit to the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium because it was both fun and educational. We all enjoyed “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket” show which tied in beautifully with our project work on the solar system.  After the show, we had the Science Centre and Planetarium virtually to ourselves and the children and parents were able to enjoy all the hands on exhibits without any cues or worries about other people!

The summer term is always extremely busy because of the number of teacher who visit and the extra paperwork involved in the preparation for our children moving on to school in September

Our Games Day at the end of June was organised by Kerrie and Lorna from Playball. They organised a circuit of different races and activities for the children to participate in and move round in teams.  The children had a great time and impressed parents with their ball skills and their agility on the obstacle course.  After the children’s races and some parachute games, parents participated in running races and their competitive spirit and desire to win or at least run as fast as they could was remarkable!

In music, Annaliese introduced the children to Holst and the “Planets”. We also had a go at “The Volcano” from Write Dance which combines movement and music specifically to develop children’s gross motor skills in preparation for reading and writing.

During the term many parents came and offered their time and expertise to us. Our thanks go to Amanda who grew and helped the children plant sweet peas in our garden, Maike who led several experiments involving “floating and sinking”, Charlotte who brought Dinky her Shetland pony to see us and Simon who brought in a multitude of different instruments for the children to try.  Several parents also came into Nursery to see some of the things that their children have been enjoying and practising.

We have entered our water colour paintings of Planets in the Froxfield and Privett Horticultural Show which takes place in Froxfield Village Hall on Saturday 22nd August. We hope to see some of you there.

We look forward to seeing everyone again in September and are planning to invite our leavers to the naming of our Wendy House. Annabel and Merryn are creating a name plate for us. We are also expecting Ofsted for our re-inspection and we are working hard to make sure that we are ready.   Your willingness to speak out through your messages on Parent View, your letters to Ofsted and the local press has been what has kept us going through what has undoubtedly been a very difficult time.  We cannot thank you enough!

 

Please use the below button to read more on the Science Centre and Planetarium

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6. Parent View

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015

Parent View

The end of another school year is approaching and we would love to hear what you think of us as a parent!  Your views could help other parents decide whether they should send their children to us.

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3. The great new Wendy House

Monday, May 4th, 2015

Wendy house

 

We would love the children to name our long awaited new Wendy House.  Please write your child’s suggestion on a piece of paper, bring it to Privett Montessori Nursery by Friday 15th May and we will choose the most popular name or pick 3 to vote for! We are looking forward to the event.

Do you want to know more on its history and origin? Please press the Read more button

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5. Spring Term 2015 – Dinosaurs

Wednesday, April 8th, 2015

Dinosaurs

This term we welcomed 2 new children to the Nursery, Thomas in January and Mary-Lou in March.  Our project was based on dinosaurs and it was  received with great excitement and enthusiasm by the children and their parents.  We learnt some very interesting facts about the different dinosaurs, such as the Diplodocus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.  The children were particularly impressed by the size of these dinosaurs which we were able to demonstrate by comparing their length measured by the children lying on the floor, head to toe.

We also  talked about how fossils are formed and  excavated our own dinosaur nest.  We made pictures of different dinosaurs using finger paints, sponges and stencils, hand printing and collage.  Annaliese based her music sessions on a dinosaur theme too and the children enjoyed making dinosaur sounds and moving like dinosaurs

Snow

In early February the only significant snowfall for us this year prevented some children from getting into nursery but for the rest of us it was an opportunity for some free entertainment making snowballs and snow angels!  The following week, we participated in the RSPB annual Birdwatch and the children became experts in identifying the birds that visited our feeders.  We were particularly pleased to see some long tailed tits and goldfinches for the first time this year.

At the beginning of March we held a Montessori Evening for adults which was very well attended by many of our current parents and some prospective ones.  The evaluations of the evening were extremely positive.  Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and most importantly to have learned more about Montessori methods and philosophy.

World Book day

We celebrated World book day on 6th March by inviting children to dress as favourite book characters and parents to come and read their favourite stories.  We supported Comic Relief on Friday 13th and Pamela generously gave up her time to come and paint the children’s faces in exchange for donations.  We and  many of our parents sponsored Sarah to have her face “made up” by her children and to carry out her normal daily routine of shopping etc!  We think she was incredibly brave although we do also think that Joyce and Jacob did a great job!

On 18th March, just before the start of spring, Mill Cottage Farm brought some of their animals, including turkeys, a donkey, rabbits, guinea-pigs, goats and pigs, to the Nursery for the morning.  It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to get up close to some animals and overcome any fears or anxieties they had.  We opened the Nursery for the morning and invited current parents to bring friends to see us.  We were delighted by how much the children and parents enjoyed the morning and also by the huge number of visitors who came.

We invited parents to come and help their children make dinosaur models for the Froxfield and Privett Horticultural show and were very impressed by their creativity and the variety of natural materials they used to make the models.

For Mother’s Day, our children produced some beautiful water paintings of daffodils and made dinosaur biscuits.  I’m not entirely sure that many mothers actually had a chance to eat their biscuits but the children definitely enjoyed them.

We are very grateful to all our parents who have come into Nursery this term, to read, bring us their rabbits or dogs to meet, make Easter baskets and dinosaur models and face paint.  It is always lovely to have their help and support.

We have now installed a beautiful new Wendy House (photo to follow) and need to find a suitable name for it!  Suggestions from parents and children would be most welcome.  Perhaps we could vote for the most popular name?  We also have a new table sandpit which we think will provide a lot more fun than our previous one which was rather small and meant that the children got very wet and muddy when they knelt down to play.

During the term Kate and Maggie both achieved level 4 in Safeguarding and we would like to encourage all parents to read our Safeguarding Policies and Procedures.  These are available here on our website and also in our Policy booklets which are in Nursery.  Kate has updated her First Aid and Health and Safety training. Christina has achieved level 2 in Food Safety and Annaliese attended a music course.

This Summer we are looking forward to welcoming some new children and their parents, a new project based on our Solar System and some fine weather to get our garden planted and our willow den rejuvenated!  We would love to have some regular help with the garden if there is a parent who would like to volunteer?

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4. Autumn Term 2014 – Big Coffee morning

Sunday, January 4th, 2015

Big coffee Morning

Firstly, a big thank you to all as on 26th September we held a “Big Coffee Morning” and  invited parents to come and share coffee and cakes with us to raise funds for Macmillan.  Many parents and grandparents came to support this worthy cause and it was a great way of getting our parents and children together and raising £150.

In September we welcomed 10 new children to the Nursery.  We have been delighted by how quickly and well they  have settled into our setting.  We have also been impressed by their independence and  self confidence.  We are also delighted and very proud of Rachel who has successfully  completed her childcare qualification at Alton college and has achieved level 3.

September also saw the start of Playball at Privett with Kerrie coming to take two  consecutive groups of children outside to practise a range of ball skills in the morning.  Our children  have been learning how to hold, throw, catch, kick and hit a ball correctly.  The skills  and games they are practising also require them to listen, follow instructions, balance and co-ordinate their movements.  Kerrie praises the efforts and progress made by each of the children and they love it.

Our mini beast project for the first half of the term began with a snail hunt!  We found lots of them outside of varying sizes.  The children loved looking through magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the tentacles with eyes on their tips and also to see how snails use their “tongues” to rasp at leaves.  We discovered that snails love cucumber and that they go to sleep if conditions are dry.  We sprayed them with water to wake them up and keep them active!

After the success of our snail hunt we decided to go and look for worms.  We tried soaking the ground with water to encourage worms to come to the surface as advised in a book we read.  When this failed we started looking under flower pots and stones. We found plenty!  We made a wormery, making layers of different colours so that we could see how worms mix soil.  The children were able to see the worm tunnels and leaves we had placed on top being pulled down.  We made some great worm pictures using pieces of string soaked in paint and printed onto black  paper.

The life-cycle of ants was the focus of our attention next and the children were surprised to  learn about the larva and pupa stages. However, when we started to learn about spiders they  were even more surprised to learn that spiders have pale blue blood, no bones and shed their  skins several times in order to grow!

At the end of October Eli’s mother, Rachel came to read one of her stories to us in the morning.  It is about a  snail, called Emile who unfortunately loses his shell.  It is written in rhyme and has a  wonderful quirky sense of humour. Needless to say, it was well received and the children enjoyed joining in with the repeated refrain.

George’s Dad, Tim, regularly reads to the children.  We have all  enjoyed listening to some familiar, some new and some very old stories and poems.  Roessa teaches Yoga on Thursday mornings and the children are beginning to work in pairs demonstrating their developing trust and ability to work cooperatively.  Annaliese teaches music on  Monday  mornings and this term the children have listened and moved to different styles of music trying to recreate the movements and actions of different creatures including ants and butterflies.  They have also played a variety of percussion instruments and practised changing the rhythm, speed and volume of their playing.

Christina brought some bread dough to Nursery so that the children could enjoy kneading and rolling the dough into rolls to take home and enjoy at harvest time.  Kate attended a Provider briefing and a Safeguarding update and Maggie a couple of SENCO training sessions.

On the last Friday of term we had a Christmas party for the children.  The children enjoyed a wonderful feast provided by parents followed by  “Magic Wanda’s Show”  The children joined in enthusiastically and nominated Matilda to be one of Wanda’s assistants. Charlie was the next assistant and he succeeded in helping Wanda to produce sweets and a cake!  We hope he will be able to use this new skill in Nursery next term!

Our Christmas Story, on the last morning of the term, read beautifully by Tim and with back drop, resurrected by Annabel was a little more chaotic than usual.  Mary (Amy) remained calm and serene throughout but our angels and stars seemed rather distracted by all the tinsel and glitter!  A huge thank you to Tim, Annabel and to Annaliese, whose efforts to teach the songs to the children were perhaps a little unrewarded by the performance on the day!  Nevertheless, we do hope that it will be a memorable event for our parents and their children.

We look forward to the Spring Term, a new project and the long awaited arrival of Ofsted in Privett.  In the meantime, we wish all a very happy and successful 2015.

 

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3. Summer Term 2014 – Village Hall renovation

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

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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1. Spring Term 2014 Newsletter and new website

Thursday, April 24th, 2014

Welcome to our new website!

The wet and mild weather which continued more or less throughout the term did not dampen our spring spirits or us because we stayed nice and dry under the new roof! We began our project work by thinking about what we could do at Nursery and at home, to be more environmentally friendly. There was plenty of discussion about reducing the amount of paper, water and electricity we use. We talked about the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill sites or is incinerated and we were all shocked to learn that plastic takes hundreds of years to break down. The children were surprised to learn that warm fleeces can be made from old plastic and that glass can be reused to make roads. Emily told us that her family reuse their plastic bags when they go shopping and Georgina showed us a very attractive pot made from an old plastic bottle that she had brought back from Africa.

This gave us an idea for a “Mother’s Day” gift. We collected small plastic bottles, cut off the tops and covered the remaining section with colourful tissue paper torn into pieces. We coated it in PVA to seal it and to give a nice varnished finish. The children arranged a small posy of flowers in their vases and presented this very attractive gift to their mums.

Annaliese (our music teacher) found a link to a website where people living close to a Landfill site in Paraguay are converting junk into beautiful sounding musical instruments and this inspired us to make our own instruments from cardboard junk and other bits and pieces. We asked parents to collect boxes, tubs and tubes and to come into Nursery to help the children make a musical instrument. The instruments they produced ranged from drums and rain-sticks to guitars and xylophones and the children and parents had lots of fun making and playing them .  Annaliese also taught us a couple of re-cycling songs to the tunes of Twinkle Twinkle and Incy-Wincy which she found on the internet!

In March we held a coffee morning and daffodil sale in aid of Marie Curie and we raised an amazing £188.

We participated in World Book Day and the children came to Nursery dressed as favourite book character.  Some of the children’s parents came and read stories too.  We read the wonderful story of “The Tiger who came to Tea” and the children enjoyed re-enacting the story for themselves.

Zoolab visited us for our Open Morning and we all enjoyed meeting and learning about some very interesting creatures including a giant snail, millipede, cockroach and Ruby the corn snake who was almost everyone’s favourite (not mine though!)

At the end of term we celebrated Easter by making an Easter Garden, telling the Easter Story and going on an Easter egg hunt. We made lovely Easter chick cards and learnt a great song (Spring Chicken) which the children really enjoyed singing and moving to. Our theme for the Spring Horticultural Show was “After the Storm” and the children used water colours to paint rainbows which looked beautiful displayed in the windows of the hall.
Building of the new storage area began at the beginning of March and we managed to move all our spare equipment and materials into a container just in time. Work is well underway and we hope it will be complete by the time we return for the new term on Monday 28th April.

During the Summer Term, we are hoping to renovate and replant our raised beds which are looking very neglected!  We are  looking forward to 3 new children and their parents joining us and to our school trip and Teddy Bear Picnic on the Watercress Line on Thursday 22nd May!

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