This week we have enjoyed playing with our shop in home corner and creating amazing hairstyles on dolls – and Donna!

We’ve also been making food for the birds; we spread peanut butter on tubes and rolled, sprinkled and “squished” birdseeds on them to hang in our trees and on bushes.

 

Lots of other activities too including pasta threading, creating a ball run with gutters and impromptu car building!

 

Next weeks sound of the week is “p”, and our theme is Healthy Eating. Have a nice weekend.

 

…..and World Book Day too in the same week!

We’ve flipped real and pretend pancakes, and read favourite books in our costumes; princesses, witches, Little Red Riding Hood, Harry Potter, Superheroes, Elsa and even Dragons!

And there was plenty of time to build a traintrack (of course), make dinner, build sandcastles (and sand dinner…!) and play games.

Thank you for sending in lots of items beginning with “t” (we’ve had trains, tractors, Tricia and Tarnya!) – next week our sound of the week is “i” – please note this is different to the letter sound on the newsletter. And our theme next week will be cooking and food – not only for people……! Have a nice weekend.

Well, it’s half-term already and what a lot we’ve done so far! Our themes of Winter, Water & Ice, Gruffalo’s Child, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day have provoked discussions and created masterpieces!

We’ve done lots of “writing”, cutting out and colouring – we have some very talented artists:

But we think the best ‘learning’ comes when the children create things themselves, or make up games together:

We hope you have a great half-term break – see you back on 25th February when our sound of the week will be “a” ( please send your child in with something beginning with this sound) and our theme will be……..mini-beasts!

In November we had lots of special days to remember at Ladybirds: Remembrance Day, Bonfire Night, Divali and Children in Need. We made Poppies to remember those who gave their lives in the wars.

We also made Diva lights out of clay, decorating them with glitter, sequins and paint

and had a spotty day to raise money for Children in Need. Thank you to all who donated – we raised £20 and had lots of fun (some more than others!).

Our book theme was the wonderful story of The Tiger Who Came to Tea – he had plenty of tea at Ladybirds and went on many imaginative adventures! Thank you Jayne for letting us borrow him!

November wouldn’t be November without Bonfire night and our firework pictures, moons and rockets…..

and sparkly decorated biscuits!

Thank you for continuing to send in items for “sound of the week” – this week’s sound is “g” and next week is “o”. The children love books and stories and we support literacy and mark making in all areas of the setting

Our malleable activities this month have included rice, pasta, water, gloop (gulp!) and the always popular playdough – brilliantly realistic bugs children!

For our final fundraiser this year we have a Christmas Hamper raffle. Thank you for supplying festive items to fill the hamper, and thank you also to the Hare and Hounds pub for selling tickets.

 Now that it’s December, get ready for lots of glitter, christmas jumpers and giant snowmen!

Thank you to our generous families who donated goods for our Harvest Basket – we received this notice from the Storehouse Foodbank

We hope you have had a wonderful half term break and are ready to start back at Ladybirds tomorrow! Our sound of the week will be “e” – please send in something for your child to show and talk about beginning with the sound “e”.

The first few weeks of this term have been busy with new children starting and our “old” Ladybirds proving to be fantastic role models for the younger ones.

Our themes have been very topical with Autumn creatures (squirrels and hedgehogs), harvest and our book topic of Oliver’s Vegetables.

We always support collaboration and turn-taking at Ladybirds, and we particularly focus on this during the Autumn term when we remind ourselves of our Ladybirds Values (being kind to one another, sharing and being polite). The children have embraced this and are starting to independently play board games, put on puppet shows or create imaginative worlds where they all play a part.

We combined our Harvest and Hedgehog themes to make hedgehog bread rolls:

 

here’s what they should have looked like………

and this is how ours turned out – well they tasted nice anyway!!

We’ve also decorated biscuits to look like our family members….

and our forest school sessions are introducing the children to tool use – though some seem very experienced already!

Royston Wood has been beautiful this autumn and the children have loved spending time there. Thank you to the Leavenheath, Polstead and Stoke by Nayland Community Woodland Committee for keeping it looking lovely for our village to enjoy.

Some dates for your diaries:

Tuesday 6th November – Ladybirds Committee meeting – all welcome.

Friday 16th November – Spotty dressing up day (optional)

Monday 17th December – last day of term and our Christmas Party – more info to follow.