Welcome to Term 5!
Welcome to Term 5! This year has literally flown by! It’s been an exciting year, with all the expansion plans we have been able to put in place. The new classroom and outside area now has a large sandpit and lovely gazebo to offer shelter to the children. We are now supporting 94 children across the week in Rainbows and raindrops alone! This is great news for our community. It means more children can have a fantastic time at Ilminster Avenue Nursery School. Our Sun and Star rooms are also full, making the Nursery a busy, thriving place!
During the break Gareth moved 10 tonnes of sand into the sand pit and “Brick and Bloom” built us planters and a sunshade. It’s fab to see the improvements in the garden, just in time for this current lovely spring weather.
Mandy, Acting Head teacher
Healthy Lunches
Why healthy lunchboxes matter: A balanced packed lunch gives children the energy, nutrients and comfort they need for a busy nursery day. Shared mealtimes help children learn healthy food preferences early in life.
What to include in every packed lunch
- Starchy Foods: Wholemeal bread, wraps, rice, pasta, potatoes.
- Protein Foods: Chicken, fish, egg, lentils, beans, houmous, tofu.
- Fruit: Fresh fruit, tinned fruit in juice, dried fruit at mealtimes only.
- Vegetables: Carrot sticks, cucumber, peppers, peas, broccoli.
- Dairy or fortified alternatives: Plain yoghurt, cheese, milk or unsweetened fortified milk alternatives.
🌈 Keep it Colourful Children are more likely to eat foods that look fun and colourful. Include: Cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, peppers, or carrots Bite sized fruit such as blueberries, melon, satsuma segments
Tip: Add a small pot of hummus.
For more info, please see our website!
Oral Health
As part of our Early Years curriculum, it is important that we focus on the importance of looking after our teeth. We will be continuing with the “The Big brush Club” this term to support children to clean their teeth every day.
Even though the children are still so young it is important to try and sign them up to your local dentist and start good habits of visiting and having check-ups.
We also ask that the drink bottles that children bring to school should only have water in them. There are also some leaflets in Reception on top tips on swapping sugary treats for healthy alternatives.
Staffing Updates
This term we have lots of new staff joining us! We have Nicky and Cally joining sun and star rooms as SMSA’s. We also have Lucy, Lacey and Sophie joining us in Raindrops room. Ellemae (who was a SMSA) has also joined the two’s team this term too!
Family Link
The Nurture Programme is off to a flying start this term. It’s great to have so many parents join us. Lucy is looking forwards to working closely with you. If anyone else is interested in attending this course in the future, please came and talk to Lucy to find out more about it.
This term is a great term to start potty training your child if you haven’t already. Lucy can give great advice as well as link you up with the website ERIC which has fab hints and tips for all children, including children that may find it more challenging.
Dates for Your Diary
Monday 4th May: Bank Holiday.
Friday 22nd May: Term ends.
Monday 2nd June: Term 6 begins.
Wednesday 8th July: Inset Day.
Term 5 Curriculum
This term our Curriculum focus is “Make A Model”. The children will be learning all the skills needed to be able to make a model independently. They will begin by exploring how to use recycled materials, glue and tape to attach things together. Our older children will then begin to move to using real tools to be able to make small models using wood. They will explore using hammers, nails and saws to plan and create with!
The children will be exploring all areas of the curriculum through this focus:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: The children will be learning to co-operate in groups, take turns and happily wait for their turn, follow safety rules and instructions and use talk to solve their own problems.
Language Development: Be able to talk about stories, being aware of story structure and the main characters, listen and respond to friends, follow and recall simple instructions. They will be learning vocabulary to join sentences together e.g. and, next, because. They will learn to “plan” and “review” their work.
Physical Development: developing skills to make controlled marks with pens etc, , chose how to move, using words to describe movements e.g. running, walking, crawling, creeping. They will develop skills to use tools such as scissors, hammers and a saw with safety and accuracy.
Maths: Continuing to explore “subitising” skills. They will notice groups up to 5 and be able to share a set of objects between a small group of friends. They will be able to begin to explore “5-frames” to help them organise groups of objects. They will use “subitising” vocabulary and sequencing words.
Literacy: Exploring rhyme and making their own rhymes, using their names. They will develop mark making to start to write letter like shapes and some letters from their names.
Expressive Art and Design: Using sounds and instruments to represent characters from stories, using rhyme in songs, explore colour and how to use it in their own creative work. They will make plans to follow through with their creative ideas.
Understanding of the World: They will explore and talk about forces in relation tot heir model making and wood working.
We have leaflets for Core Books and the Curriculum for this term, to help you to support your child’s learning at home this term. Your child will bring home the models they make. Ask your child to talk to you about their models and to tell you how they made them. The resources we use are very accessible at home, so maybe make something together! Most importantly, have fun together! You will find the leaflets in the school entrance, in the leaflet rack. Please help yourselves.
Termly Donations
To ensure the children can have fantastic opportunities at nursery, such as our woodwork curriculum, we do ask that families make a small donation each term. We ask for £3 for a child who attends for 15 hours and £6 for those that attend for 6 hours.
It really does help us out! Please see the office to make your donation: we do have a card machine! Thank you!