It has been a relatively mild start to the year so we have found time to clean out our
poly-tunnel in preparation for planting some early lettuce. We have also registered to
take part in the Potato Council’s ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ project for 2012.
We will shortly be receiving some seed potatoes, courtesy of the Potato
Council, and be planning how we can achieve a bumper harvest.
Nursery Unit:
We’re wild about animals!
In the Nursery Unit this term, we have really
enjoyed finding out about all sorts of
different animals. In particular, we have
loved using the computer to find out about
chameleons – what they eat, how they move
and where they live. We have loved watching
how their peculiar eyes move and have made
our own camouflaged chameleons. We have
even pretended to be chameleons catching
food with our long sticky tongues!
We have shown a great interest in sea-life, so
have begun going on adventures under the sea
– Captain Barnacles and his trusty crew have
shown us the way….
(see ‘Recipe of the Month’ for more
from the Potato Council)
The Nursery Octonauts are off on a voyage of
discovery with Captain Barnacles.
No wonder we are exhausted after our
visits to the Sports Hall! So far this
term, we have played games with the
parachute, thrown, caught, slid and
balanced beanbags, practised stopping
on a signal, travelled over, under and
through apparatus, practised finding
spaces, spun with and waved ribbon
sticks and sung and danced to action
songs. We can’t wait to show you what
we have been doing at our Spring
Presentation on Thursday 29th March.
…..
This term we are focusing on helping the children become more
independent particularly when preparing to go outdoors. They are
learning to put on and zip up their coats, put on welly boots and put
on hats and gloves. Any practise with this at home will be hugely
appreciated!
Parallel Unit
All the children, both new and existing, settled well into the unit
after the Christmas break; quickly getting back into the routine
and building strong relationships with their peers and carers.
We have been developing our self-help skills: the older children
are now able to independently feed themselves using a fork and
spoon and the younger children are learning to drink from a
teacher beaker without a lid.
Our interest focus for this term
is ‘Transport’. All the children
have been keen to participate in a
variety of activities: we made
helicopters out of yoghurt pots
and hot-air balloons out of papermaché and glue. A variety of other
vehicles have also been decorated
using paint, coloured pens and
collage materials to create a
bright and colourful display.
Baby Unit
A belated Happy New Year and
welcome to what we hope will be an
exciting term. The main focus for
the first part of the term has been
to settle the children back into their
routines and welcome some new faces
into the Baby Unit, helping them to
feel safe, secure and happy in their
new environment.
The children have been
gaining knowledge of the
environment and how to
care for it appropriately.
They have helped to dig
the soil and water the
plants in our polytunnel.
We have been very busy
already, creating flowers,
ladybirds and butterflies
for our ‘In the Night
Garden’ display. The
children have been
exploring a wide range of
messy activities such as
paint, glue, gloop, pasta,
playdough and soggy
oats...... what a messy
time we have had.
A big focus for the rest of the term will be helping and supporting our ‘movers and shakers’
when mastering new skills and techniques such as crawling, walking, pulling-to-stand and sitting
unaided. We look forward to sharing these exciting times with you and your babies.
Toddler Unit
It has been a busy start to the year in
the Toddlers. Outside we have been
encouraging the children to use different
pieces of equipment such as steppingstones, stilts and steppers to develop
their physical skills. When the weather
has been wet we have explored the
properties of puddles in our welly boots.
We have made delicious rice crispy cakes
in our cooking session and have been
learning all about different shapes
Our creative skills
have been put to the
test in several areas:
To celebrate the
Chinese new year we
made a dragon using
handprints to decorate
the body. We also used
lots of different
painting techniques to
produce big Tellytubby pictures for our
family board.
through
shape
printing
activities
and cutting
and gluing
shapes to
make
pictures.
Recipe of the month
Baked Potato Cars
This month’s recipe comes from The Potato Council’s web-site: www.potatoesforschools.org.uk and is a
great way to turn an ordinary boring baked potato into an exciting, fun meal.
Ingredients for each car:
1 medium/large potato
25 g half fat Cheddar cheese plus 25 g Mozzarella cheese
1 x 15ml spoon tomato relish
For garnish:
Cherry tomatoes
Slices of Cucumber
Pepperami or a sausage or a carrot
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C (400°F) or Gas mark 6 and bake the potato for 1-1¼ hours or until
tender.
2. For the car: slice the top third off the potato lengthways then using a small spoon carefully
scoop the potato flesh from both parts into a small bowl.
3. Grate the cheese and add to the potato. Spoon half back into the larger potato shell, add the
relish and then spoon over the remaining potato.
4. Mould into the shape of a car and top with mozzarella.
5. Use a piece of Pepperami, sausage or carrot for a driver and make wheels from slices of
cucumber or tomato ( use a dab of mayonnaise to stick them in place).
With a bit of imagination the same elements can be used to make trains and boats.
The Annual Parents Survey is now online and will remain open until February 28th. Please do
your very best to complete one. This is very important for us as it is an Ofsted requirement
that we provide evidence of feedback from our users. It is very difficult to demonstrate
this in any other way. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete. Thank you
Date for your Diary: On Thursday 29th March, in the morning, the Nursery Unit children will
be giving a Spring Presentation at the Sports Hall. This will be a display of some of the
activities the children have been enjoying this term. Parents are most welcome to come
along to join us in this fun celebration. More details nearer the time.
Staffing Update
I expect some of you will have realised that Beth is pregnant, she will be going on
maternity leave at the end of this term but will be returning in January 2013. Nathalie
will be acting lead in the Parallel unit while she is away and will work closely with Louise
McLellan to ensure a high standard of care.
Jenny will be leaving us on the 6th March for personal reasons so, to ensure the smooth
running of the group, Becky will move to take over the Nursery Unit and will take the
Group Leader role until the end of this term. Becky of course knows most of the children
in that room as most have passed through the Toddler Unit. Christine will take on the role
of assistant Group Leader in the Nursery Unit. Vicky will then act as Group Leader in the
Toddler Unit. Annie is also pregnant and will be leaving after Easter sometime.
We will obviously be taking on additional staff and details of these will be put on the
staffing board as we recruit. As always we will endeavour to ensure that we provide a
high quality care at all times.
Sainsbury’s started issuing their ‘Active Kids’ vouchers on Wednesday 15th February. We are
again collecting them and some of you have been kind enough to help us in the past. Please
send your unwanted vouchers to The Family Centre via internal mail.
Bills… Can all parents ensure that this terms bill is cleared in full by Monday 2nd April at the
very latest. You may recall that when you signed your contract you agreed to pay termly in advance
unless other arrangements are agreed. If you are paying by monthly vouchers you will need to pay
the balance either by making a one-off payment at the beginning of the term or arrange for a
regular monthly top up payment which will clear your bill. Could I also ask that you check you have
transferred all your vouchers payments to us. If you are unsure how much you have left to pay Liz
or Henry are in the front office every morning and would be able to check your account.
Thank you. Val
Contact details
University of Exeter Family Centre : Phone – 01392 725416. email: familycentre@exeter.ac.uk