Hello again from Preschool!
Have you spotted the new member of Juice Nursery yet? He wears dungarees, a hat, gloves and – of course – a green preschool t-shirt… That’s right, it’s our scarecrow! What fun we had finding and stuffing his clothes and trying out different ways of getting him to stand up. Families, we need your help – our scarecrow doesn’t have a name yet! Between us, we’ve come up with three options but we’d love you to vote by emailing jen@juicenursery.com with your favourite choice from the following:
- Billy
- Otis
- Sage
We’ll let you know his chosen name next week and in the meantime, you can pose for a photo with him and share it with us using #juicenurseryscarecrow. The children were fascinated with the straw we used so we talked about where it came from and popped some in a tray with the farm animals to encourage their small world role play.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve continued to collect natural materials whilst out and about. Thank you to those families who have sent in some lovely autumnal finds, too! This week, we put leaves, branches, seeds, pine cones and more to good use while creating our own transient art in the style of artist and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy. His land art is really fascinating and prompted the children used some amazing language to describe the colours and textures in his pieces. Did you know he was born in Cheshire?
It’s the perfect time of year to plant bulbs, so green-fingered Jojo set up a lovely planting activity: making a bulb lasagne! The trick is to layer bulbs with different flowering periods in a planter and enjoy them throughout the year as they each bloom in succession. The children enjoyed learning how to use a special planting tool, comparing the different kinds of bulbs and even spotted a juicy earthworm in the soil!
Green Room received some exciting mail last week – a letter from a chicken called Daisy, the star of one of our reading books. She needed advice because the other chicks laughed at her when she said she wanted to fly! The children came up with some lovely ideas about how she could achieve this and then talked about their own goals. Finally, we wrote a reply to Daisy and practised spotting letters from the alphabet. It would be great if you could support this at home by talking to your children about what they’re good at and what they would like to be able to do. Also, model some handwriting for them by ‘thinking out loud’ as you jot down a shopping list or plan for the day. It’s great for them to be exposed to all kinds of texts in real-life situations.
Speaking of goals, talents and special interests, we wondered if any parents or other family members would like to come in and talk to the Preschool children about a particular topic. This could be your job, a religious celebration, a hobby or a pet. We’ve heard someone has snakes at home, so we’re a little nervous…!
Finally, we’re planning a ‘Bring a stick to school’ day and would love you to send one in with your child over the next few days. We look forward to seeing all manner of sticks and can’t wait to put them to good use as wands, lightsabers and parts of a giant sculpture… watch this space!
See you all soon,
The Green Room Team
Juice Nursery 