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Our April Adventures
- holidayclub0
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
We hope you have all had a brilliant break over the Easter Holidays. We are back into the swing of things now and have got lots of going on.
Breakfast and Afterschool Club
As always we have been very busy in Afterschool and Breakfast club.
The children are enjoying getting outside a lot more in the lovely sunshine. We have managed to get onto the field a few times recently as the grass has been a bit drier, this is perfect for playing games, practicing cartwheels or even just doing some drawing. Hopefully as the weather stays nice we will be able to do this a bit more often.
Before the holidays the children were very busy doing crafts and activities. There was lots of Easter crafts on the go and they made some lovely chick pictures.
We also enjoyed doing a little bit of baking, we decorated some biscuits for red nose day and also did a few for Spring.
Our junk modelling is constantly being refilled and topped up, there has been some brilliant creations made using things from inside. Some of the boys made great jetpacks...
... we have also had models such as handbags, hats and houses for different animals being made.
The drawing table always has something on the go, there is stamps, scissors, glue, craft materials and all sorts of exciting things ready for the children to invent with.
There is always lots of different toys and activities available for the children to enjoy and take part in.
We have got lots of exciting activities planned and ready to do with the children over this half term and are looking forward to lots of fun in the sun.
Pre-School
What have we been up to...
Before the holidays we had our open day for Mother's Day and what a brilliant day it was. We would like to start by saying thank you to everybody that came, the children had an absolutely brilliant time, welcoming you into the setting and showing you around. It was such a great turn out and it made all our hard work worth it. We would also like to say a big thank you to anyone who made cakes, manned the stall or bought some cakes, we raised around £70. For those of you who couldn't make it, your children had a brilliant morning with us, making you lots of special things. We know how proud all the children were of their cards and everything they made for you and we hope it can be something that your cherish, if they haven't already claimed them as their own 😂.
We had lots of different activities on throughout the morning, flower making, cake decorating, a magic wand making station, a VERY busy cake stall and the soft play outside.
Here our a few pictures of our special day.
The home corner has once again been changed and this time it has turned into a hospital. We have lots of poorly children and animals visiting so the doctors have been very busy indeed.
In the art area we have enjoyed doing lots of painting and using the junk modelling box to create lots of fabulous things. Last week we used paper plates to make Astronaut masks and the children were ready to blast of up too space.
Mr. Sunshine has come to join us and that means the children are enjoying being outside a lot more. There has been lots of waterplay, sand play and mud kitchen play out recently.
Tents, building, climbing and sliding have all been on the go as well and we have got lots more exciting things coming up.
What are we working on...
We are continuing to support the children with listening throughout the day. Both with the adults and their friends, we are modelling taking turns and listening when someone has something to say, especially with our older children as we are preparing them for school.
We have also been talking a lot about being kind recently and the impact it can have on our friends if we do something they don't like. We are highlighting the importance of using our words instead of our hands and talking about any problems that arise. This can be really hard for the children sometimes, so us supporting them and helping to resolve these conflicts helps give them the skills for their future.
What is coming up...
We have got quite a few things coming up in May to look forward to...
On Tuesday 6th May we will be having a visit from the dentist, they will be coming to have a chat with the children and talk about the importance of looking after our teeth and how to keep them healthy.
Our family photo shoot fundraiser will be held on Sunday 11th May with our photographer Chelsea. She is absolutely brilliant and also takes amazing photos.
On Thursday 15th May parents evening will be held in the school hall for you to come in and have a catch up with your child's key person.
We will be taking our Leavers photo on Tuesday 20th May for all our children moving up to big school, so if your child isn't normally in on that day then please do bob down for the picture, they are a lovely keepsake.
Useful Information for you...
We have got our Useful Links page on the website for you, which has lots of different information on about all areas that might support you and your child. Please do have a look over.
As always if there is ever anything you are unsure about or would just like a bit of extra advice/support then just have a word with one of us and we will help you as much as we can.
Our Favourite Stories...
Unfortunately we have lost quite a few Cd's from our Cd stories and these have been greatly missed, and although we do our best to sing them to the children, it's not quite the same! We have since managed to access the audio online and the children are enjoying listening to all the stories again. They definitely have favourites' and a current one is Up, Up, Up.
Holiday Club
Our Easter holiday club was a very busy one! It is always so lovely to see children come back who have moved onto school and we don't see much anymore, and also to meet some lovely new faces as well.
Our holiday club theme was Spring and Spring came to join us, we had some gorgeous sunshine over the first week and the children loved being outside to play.
Each day we had different activities available for the children to enjoy and although I was terrible at remembering to take pictures I have got lots to tell you about.
During the first week we had a lot of crafts on the go. Our week started by making some lovely pictures with different beans and pulses and they looked so effective. The children took great care in choosing which beans they used and where they put them.
It was so well enjoyed that we did this activity a couple of times.
The children have enjoyed using the felt tips and lots of different stickers to decorate plant pots, spring wreaths and cards that will look lovely hung up somewhere. We planted some sunflower seeds in our pots and I hope some of them have started to grow!
Jewellery making was a big hit and the children made some lovely bracelets, we even had some that were' Wicked' themed. A favourite activity was making our own bunny puppets with socks. There was lots of very cute little rabbits hopping around Hollies that day and they had awesome names.
Quite often we like to make bread in Holiday club and this time was no different, we did do it with a bit of a twist though this time and we made bunny bread. Very cute, and nice and simple but the children did enjoy adding a couple of ears to their bread. Other baking activities we had were making our own teacups using ice cream cones and biscuits, they were filled with some yummy jelly which I really hope most of ended up in the children's mouths! We made some funfetti Spring biscuits and also some chocolatey worm houses.
There was some great teamwork on the go and I think we had nearly all of the children very busy outside making a house at one point!
One day the children made their own snack, they used a plate and a knife to cut up their own fruit and make a fruit salad, we had lots of yummy choices and some children even tried some fruits they hadn't had before.
A bit of a routine update for you. We had had a change of how we run morning tech times, the session has been shortened slightly and instead we are using the time for a group activity. This could be playing with the parachute, playing games such as Simon Says, Duck Duck Goose, etc. or going on the field for a game of cricket or a run, depending on the weather. We may also use this time to play some board games or listen to a story. We were finding that the children weren't always enjoying watching the TV, but this new routine seems to be working well for everybody. Any children who bring in a device from home are still using them in the mornings and tech time is as normal in the afternoons, we do however offer the option of colouring or reading a book if they don't want to watch TV.
Already we are starting to plan for another exciting holiday club during the next half term break and we look forward to seeing you there. If there is anything that you think your children would enjoy doing throughout the holidays or anything more you would like to know then please let me know.
One Last Thing...
As we always do at the start of each half term we will be doing fire and invacuation practices. These are done to make sure the children know what to do in an emergency at the setting, we always make sure to tell them that they are practices and therefore there is no need to worry. If they do mention hearing a bell or a whistle that will be why. If you would like an update on any of these processes the information is in our policies.
A final message from me, if you have made it all the way to the end of the blog! If there is anything new that you would like to see on the blog, or anything more you would like to read about from any of the different aspects of the setting them please let me know.
Or if there is any activities that you think your children would enjoy, particularly in holiday club, then bob me over an email (lucy@thehollies.org) or leave a comment below.
Thank you for reading and have a lovely day💖.
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