A Happy New Year to to all Pre-School children, parents and carers.

The staff would like to welcome everyone back after the Christmas break and offer a very warm welcome to children and parents who are new to the Pre-School. We would also like to thank everyone for the lovely Christmas gifts and cards.

We have lots to look forward to during the Spring Term, including the Easter Fair on 27th March, 2-4pm, in the Memorial Hall.

Below is a list of the topic threads that we will be covering during the first half of this term.

w.b. 5th January – WINTER

w.b. 11th January – WINTER

w.b. 18th January – POST OFFICE

w.b. 25th January – DOCTORS

w.b. 1st February – DINOSAURS

w.b. 8th February – FOOD

HALF TERM

w.b. 22nd February – FOOD

The Preschool Christmas Party was well attended on Thursday afternoon.  The children enjoyed listening to stories, helping to feed The Hungry Caterpillar,  playing pass the parcel and watching an enactment of Goldilocks and The Three Bears by the staff. Father Christmas even had time to pop in to see the children.

As part of the continual learning through play at Preschool, the children have been able to look at larger numbers this month, with the arrival of a new 1-100 number rug.  Thank you to the Collingham Canter and Crawl who gave funding for this. 

 The children will be focusing on Christmas at Preschool in December and will also be able to join in with Christmas crafts.  One activity they have done in previous years is a salt dough Christmas tree decoration.  Below you will find the instructions if you wish to make more at home.

 Salt Dough Ornament Recipe

1 cup salt
2 cups plain flour
1 cup water
Christmas cookie cutters

toothpick/pencil

To decorate: paints, PVA glue, glitter, sparkly pipe cleaners, marker pens, ribbon

What you do

Preheat oven to 250 F. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until a dough is formed. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. BE CAREFUL. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.

THIS DOUGH IS NOT EDIBLE, though it won’t hurt you or your children, it just won’t taste very good!

Roll dough flat with a rolling pin, about 1/4″ – 1/2″ thick.
Use cookie cutters to cut out Christmas shape decorations.
Use a toothpick to make a hole for hanging, being sure to make the hole a little larger than you will want as they tend to close when baking.
Bake for approximately 2 – 2.5 hours. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. For best results, allow to cool and dry overnight, or for at least 4 hours.
Paint or colour the decoration and when dry use glue and glitter to decorate.  Thread a length of ribbon to hang the decoration up.

These salt dough ornaments last years if wrapped away carefully for the following Christmas.  I still have my sons which he made four years ago at Preschool.

 The children will be practising their carols and songs for their Christmas sing-along, to be held on the morning of 18^th December, from 10am, which parents will be invited to attend. 

 Towards the end of term the children will enjoy a Christmas party at the Preschool which will be on Thursday 10^th December, 1.30pm until 3.15pm. All Collingham and District Preschool children are welcome to come.

 The end of term will see some of the children move up to their local schools and we wish them all well.  We welcome all existing children back in January with the Preschool term starting on Tuesday 5^th January 2010 and look forward to the new intake as they start. 

 In the January the children will be looking at the topic threads of Winter, the Post Office  and Doctors.

 Thank you to all parents, staff and committee for your continual support of the Preschool and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 If you require any further information about the Preschool please feel free to contact Mrs Sally Lee on 07814613782 or visit our website www.collinghampreschool.co.uk.

The children have been busy helping to make one of the interactive wall displays.  They have been collecting conkers, pinecones, beech nuts and acorns, to put into the boxes, no hibernating hedgehog though!

The Harvest Time wall display encourages the children to count how many apples are on the tree.

They have also been creating their own artwork for the walls and to take home.

The children and their parents have been asked to take part in Operation Christmas Child.  The children will be filling a shoe box with gifts and items for a child in poverty in the poorest parts of the world.  The teachers will be filling a box too while they explain why the boxes are being sent and what sort of items they thought the children receiving might like.  Their boxes will be collected on 6^th November.

 Mrs Lee and Mrs Jones would like to give their thanks for being able to attend the official opening of the Pheonix Community Hall (the new scout hut) and wish it much success.

 If you require any further information about the Preschool please feel free to contact Mrs Sally Lee on 07814613782 or visit our website www.collinghampreschool.co.uk.

 From the committee of Collingham and District Preschool.

Here’s our new-look website all ready for the new term. Please take a moment to look at our reference information on the pages to the right.