Kea Preschool & Forest School Newsletter December 2022

Dear Parents
I wanted to reintroduce our newsletter and we will be sending these monthly to you all. They will include any information, updates and exciting things ahead at the preschool. I cannot believe we are already in March and how quickly January and February have whizzed passed us.
We have already enjoyed an action pack start to the year and I am so excited for what 2022 will bring.
The staff and I really want to share the exciting things we do and have planned this month at Kea Preschool.
Tracey and the team

MARCH 2022
1ST – SHROVE TUESDAY
1ST MARCH IS PANCAKE DAY. THE CHILDREN WILL DECORATE READY MADE PANCAKESWITH THEIR FAVOURITE
TOPPINGS FOR SNACK.

3RD – WORLD BOOK DAY
3RD MARCH IS WORLD BOOK DAY. YOUR CHILD CAN COME DRESSED TO PRESCHOOL AS A CHARACTER FROM THEIR
FAVOURITE STORY. WE WILL, OF COURSE BE READING LOTS OF STORIES ON THIS DAY.

5TH – ST PIRANS DAY
ON MONDAY 7TH MARCH WE WILL BE MAKING ‘PROPER’ CORNISH PASTIES AND YOUR CHILD CAN COME DRESSED
IN BLACK, WHITE AND GOLD COLOURS. WE WILL BE LEARNING SOME CORNISH WORDS AND TASTING TRADITIONAL
CORNISH FOODS (SAFFRON BUNS, HEAVY (HEVVA) CAKE

17TH – ST PATRICKS DAY
ON THURSDAY 17TH MARCH WE WILL BE CELEBTATING ST PATRICKS DAY. WE ASK THAT THE CHILDREN COME TO
PRESCHOOL DRESSED IN SOMETHING GREEN. WE WILL BE LISTENING TO IRISH MUSIC, TRYING OUT SOME IRISH
DANCING AND GETTING CREATIVE!

11TH-20TH – BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK
THROUGHOUT THIS WEEK, WE WILL BE EXPLORING THE THEME GROWTH. WE WILL BECOME BOTANISTS AS WE
PLANT OUR SEEDS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY NEED TO GROW. WE WILL ALSO EXPLORE OUR OWN GROWTH,
HOW WE STAY HEALTHY AND FIND DIFFERENT WAYS TO MEASURE OURSELVES!

THE STAFF HAVE ALL BEEN BUSY AND HAVE UNDERTAKEN THE
FOLLOWING COURSES:

TRACEY K: MANAGERS NETWORK MEETINGS
HEALTHY MOVERS

TRACEY C: BITING IN THE EARLY YEARS
WITCHCRAFT

DENISE: HIGH QUALITY ASSESSMENT
FIRST AID

MELISSA: SAFEGUARDING TRAINING
HEALTHY MOVERS
VISUAL SUPPORT
SENCO NETWORK MEETING

WE INTRODUCED POM POMS AS PART OF OUR POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR POLICY. THE CHILDREN HAVE LOVED GETTING POM POMS AND FILLING THE JAR TO GET A STICKER AND EVEN A TREAT. WE HAVE FILLED OUR JAR TWICE SO FAR AND HAVE ENJOYED PLAYING WITH NEW COUNTING JARS AND DINOSAURS.

One Cup Pancake recipe:
Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1½ cups milk
• 1 large egg or 2 medium eggs
• 20g butter
• 2 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
• caster sugar and lemon wedges, to serve (optional)

• STEP 1
  Tip the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and egg. Whisk together, starting in the middle, to create a smooth batter. It should be the thickness of double cream.
• STEP 2
  Heat a little of the butter and oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add a sixth of the batter to the pan, quickly swirling it so there are no holes. Fry on one side for 1-2 mins then flip over and cook for a further 1 min. Keep on a plate, covered, in a warm oven. Repeat with the remaining batter to make six pancakes in total. Serve with sugar and lemon, if you like.

What can you spread on your pancake?
What stories can you read?

In light of the new guidance and it not being law to isolate it is still guidance to isolate and stay at home to protect others. Please adhere to government guidance.
Our Preschool Policy will continue until further notice. Guidance is to stay home if you are positive for at least 5 days then you can return
after 2 negative tests.
Staff will continue to test twice weekly until further notice. I will update you once we have more information on testing.
Children must not have Calpol before coming to Preschool. This is very important as can it can mask a more serious illness such as meningitis and in an emergency situation we need to let paramedics know if they’ve had medicine.
If children develop a high temperature they will be sent home. A normal temperature for children is around 37. A common sense approach will be in place and children who have been running around or don’t appear poorly will be checked again after 20mins.
If a child has had continuous doses of calpol the day before a coming to preschool, please keep them off for 24hours to ensure they are well enough to be in.
If you have any of the main 3 symptoms of covid please do a test and stay away from the preschool.
If you test positive yourself please do not come onto the preschool grounds until you have 2 negative tests 24hours apart.
Please let us know if you have any questions.

Please can we remind parents that we stop serving breakfast at 8.20am.
It has worked really well with the children leaving their belongings outside under the shelter in Breakfast club and After school club. We will continue to do this. It is so much easier for children to collect their bags before going to school or going home at the end
of the day.
Over half term, we have created an area for wraparound resources. We have arranged them on a shelf and will be accessible to the children during breakfast club and after school club. Each evening we will also be having an activity on offer for the children to
participate in.

In March, we are really excited to be introducing
the children who are going to school to Read
Write Inc and Ten Town. Throughout the week
we will taking small groups of children into the
annex where they will be learning sounds,
numbers, shapes etc to prepare them for school.
They will even have the opportunity to write
their names and much more. I will update
parents more on this as we go through the term.

In January, I sent out parent
questionarres. These are really
useful for myself and the staff
and I would appreciate it if
parents could complete them.

Can you help?
We are always happy to receive toys and games that children no longer use at home and we also love to have material for den making. This term I would like to work on developing the main outside area and Denise has already cleaned out the shed! If you have anything that you think we may use, please speak
to Tracey K or Tracey C.
Thank you.

Please could we ask that all coats,
bags, water bottles, lunch boxes are clearly named.