Dates for Your Diary

1. Dinton Pre-School Newsletter November 2011 Welcome!! We would like to extend a special welcome to the following new children and their families who  will be joining Dinton Pre-school this term: Amelia DavidEvert Searle George SmeesJonty Hough Lilia FloroLucia Crayford Oskar Morgan Term Dates 2011-12 Inset Days and Bank Holidays (pre-school closed): Friday 16th December 2011 - inset day Monday 20th February 2012 - inset day Monday 7th May 2012 - spring bank holiday Friday 1st June 2012 - inset day Dates for Your Diary Mon 28th Nov – Fri 2nd Dec - Parent ConsultationsMon 5th - Wed 7th December – Christmas Surprise Shop Tuesday 13th December (10.00-11.30) - NativityThursday 15th December - Christmas parties? (TBC – see newsletter item) Focus Planning: Autumn (2) 2011:  Knowledge & Understanding of the World Physical: ICT/Communities Health and Bodily Awareness/ Movement and Space Communication, Language and Literacy: Creative : Communication/ Linking Sounds & Letters Imagination/Imaginative Play/Respond to Experiences Personal, Social and EmotionalDevelopment: Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy: Self Confidence & Self Esteem/Self Care Shape, Space & Measures/ Calculating If you need to contact us: Village Hall: 07753 118 315 (Monday-Friday 08.30-3.30 only) Manager (Valerie Partington) : 07971 044132 Email: dintonpreschool@sky.com Website: www.dintonpreschool.co.uk

2. Activity Planning:  For those of you who may not be aware, we have a planning board located in the main hall (on the opposite side of the WOW slip display). The board has details of the EYFS developmental areas along with additional information on specific aspects of child development for areas which will be a particular focus in the current term. Keyperson activities planned in addition to the daily continuous provision are also recorded on this board with ongoing comments and evaluations throughout each week. Please take a moment to have a look at the board. Staff will be happy to answer any questions regarding activity planning and we always welcome ideas, comments and suggestions from parents/carers. WOW Slips We had some fantastic moments recorded on our board last term and look forward to more of the same! It would be fantastic if ALL children could have a WOW moment displayed on the board this term. Information from the slips is also used to update the children’s Learning Journey Folders. Please contact your key person in the first week of term if you need more WOW slips Role Play Thank you to those parents who suggested ideas for role play. As a result of your suggestions, this term the children have been living in animal homes/dens, they have flown to the moon on large cardboard rockets and practiced a range of hairdressing techniques whilst admiring themselves in the mirror (this was meant to be make up but we were a little concerned at the potential for lipstick on the village hall walls)! Please keep sending your ideas and offers of resources. Role play suggestion slips will be emailed along with this newsletter or can be obtained from the manager or any member of staff on request. Family Link - Nursery Rhyme Challenge This term, as our Family Link Activity, the pre-school will be taking part in the Bookstart Rhyme Challenge. This will involve staff, children and parents/carers learning rhymes together both at pre-school and at home. Further details regarding the Rhyme Challenge and information on the benefits of using nursery rhymes to support children’s language, reading and communication skills are contained in a separate letter which you will shortly be receiving along with a rhyme sheet for you to use at home. Parent/ Key Person Consultations Parent/key person consultations will be available during the week beginning 28th November. A list of available times has been placed on the notice board, if you wish to speak with your child’s key person please enter your child’s name in your preferred appointment time. Each appointment is designed to facilitate a brief exchange regarding your child’s learning and development and is not expected to last more than 10 minutes. If you have specific concerns and require a more in depth conversation please speak to the manager who will arrange an alternative appointment for you. Christmas Surprise Shop Once again we will be arranging a Christmas Surprise Shop to enable the children to do some Christmas shopping whilst at pre-school. We would appreciate your help with donations to stock our Christmas shop. The shop will be open during the week commencing 5th December for each child to buy and wrap presents for family members. Ideal items for the shop are unused toiletries, perhaps unwanted gifts, small toys (we are usually very short of gifts for men!) . Donations of Christmas wrapping paper (and old Christmas cards) would also be gratefully received. A box will be placed in the back room for donations. In the week beginning 5th December your child should bring a sealed named envelope containing spending money (approx £2 per gift) and any special instructions regarding who to buy for. The number of presents per child will depend on donations received (please don’t expect to donate one present and buy three!). Ideally the children will choose a minimum of two presents, however if we do not receive sufficient donations it will be necessary to restrict the number of purchases. We hope this will be lots of fun and a rewarding experience for the children and look forward to your support.

3. Children’s Christmas Party Thursday 15th December, the last day of term has provisionally been set aside for children’s Christmas parties (we currently have 40 children registered which is much too large for one party). However, we would like to gauge the views of parents on the benefits (or otherwise) of holding children’s parties during pre-school sessions. You will shortly be receiving a letter detailing the options for Christmas parties and requesting your views. The decision as to whether or not to go ahead with the parties will be based on the replies we receive from parents. Fundraising - Shoeboxes Thank you to everyone who donated items and/or helped with the Christmas shoeboxes for Rumania. We managed to pack six boxes and pre-school donated £20 to cover the cost of transporting the boxes Snack Contributions We remain extremely grateful for your monetary donations which help keep down the costs of supplying a healthy snack. There is a contributions pot on the admin trolley by the register. An amount of 30p-50p per child per day is suggested, however contributions are voluntary and whatever you feel able to contribute will help to provide a varied supply of fruit and nutritious snacks for the children. Obviously if you would prefer to bring in fruit donations they will still be gratefully received as will donations of any items useful to pre-school such as cleaning products (Dettox Spray/Flash Wipes/Cleaning cloths etc), crayons/pencils etc. Giving Machine With Christmas approaching and presents for family and friends to buy, a reminder that we are registered with ‘The Giving Machine’ where you can generate free cash donations for Dinton Pre-school every time you shop online (many of the popular online retailers are accessible from the Giving Machine website). It will not cost you anything extra - the online shop pays the donation on your behalf. Just go to www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk JOIN as a shopper/giver CHOOSE to support Dinton Pre-school REMEMBER to shop at www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk every time you buy online! Dinton Pre-School Parent Liaison Group The PLG consists of parents who help organise activities to raise funds for pre-school and act as a liaison point with Valerie and her staff. Current members are Christie Board, Mel Timberlake, Adrienne Cooper, Mark David and Claire Foxell. • Book Bags • The general consensus seems to be firmly in favour of the new book bags. However we have experienced one or two minor problems. Could we therefore request parent/carer help with the following? • Ensuring that the book bag is brought to pre-school each day and taken home at the end of the session. This will ensure that you receive communications regularly and on time and will avoid the disappointment which some children experience when they have no bag to put their letter for home in. • Encouraging your child to place their book bag in the correct section of the trolley, identified by pictures of their key person and to ensure that the name label is visible. • If you have time when you drop off your child could you (or your child) please help us by removing the home school diary and placing it in the box which will be available from next term on the stage? We enjoy reading the diaries every day and would really like to record a comment for home at least once a week. However we have found that a lot of time this term has been spent on finding the individual child’s bag, taking the bag from the box and opening it to retrieve the diary. Having all the diaries located in one place will make this task so much easier. We will endeavour to return completed diaries to the bags at the end of the session/day.

4. Food Facts Series Adrienne Cooper, a qualified nutritionist has very kindly agreed to write a series of Food Facts information sheets for the pre-school newsletter. The first of these, Food Basics – Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins is included at the end of this newsletter. Topics for inclusion in forthcoming newsletters are: Vitamins and Minerals; Alternative Foods (ie to wheat/dairy); Vegetarianism; Lunchbox Recipes. Suggestions for alternative topics are welcome and will be passed to Adrienne. Clothing As the weather begins to get colder, in order to ensure that the children are able to make regular use of the outside area could you please make sure that your child has appropriate named outdoor clothing (coat/hat/scarf/gloves) available every day. Children will also be required to wear wellies when playing outside. We have room at pre-school to store named wellies, However, if you prefer to take your child’s wellies home at the end of each session that is fine but be aware that children will not be allowed to play outside if the grass is wet or muddy unless they have appropriate outdoor footwear available. Head Lice The autumn term is traditionally one where head lice appear to be more prevalent and at the end of last term we once again received reports of head lice infestation. Could we ask parents to check their children’s hair before returning to pre-school and to treat appropriately if evidence of head lice is found, The NHS website (see link below) contains further information on head lice and effective treatment options. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Headlice/Pages/Introduction.aspx

5. COMPLEX carbs break down into simple sugars to provide energy. Over the age of 1, children can digest wholemeal food, which actually provides more nutritional value than the white variety. SIMPLE sugars are contained in certain foods, eg fructose in fruit & lactose in milk. These are natural foods and should not be avoided. Sugar in cakes, biscuits, sweets & soft drinks should be limited in the diet. These foods have little/no nutritional value CARBOHYDRATES NEEDED FOR: Energy COMPLEXSIMPLE Sweet potato White potato Wholemeal bread White rice Brown rice White pasta Some fruit & veg • NEEDED FOR: • Brain development • to keep warm • vitamins absorption • hormone production FATS There are ‘good’ fats & ‘bad’ fats. The good fats are Omegas 3 & 6. At present, the average diet contains enough Omega 6, but not enough Omega 3. Fat from dairy produce, eg butter, cheese, cream, yoghurt and milk are also fine, in moderation, as they provide vitamins A and D. - Small oily fish - Ground seeds eg salmon, mackerel, eg sunflower & pumpkin sardines (fresh or tinned) - Nut butters - Oils (unless there is a family eg hemp, flax (linseed) intolerance to nuts) - Avocado PROTEINS Proteins are made up of amino acids, the building blocks of all our cells & hormones. There are 22 amino acids, of which 8 are ‘essential’, which means that the body cannot make them itself, they need to come from our diet. All the essential amino acids can be found in animal protein. However, vegetable proteins do not contain a full quota of these amino acids so, for vegetarians in particular, a variety of foods must be included in the diet NEEDED FOR: growth & development COMPLETE PROTEINSVEGETABLE PROTEINS Meat Lentils Eggs Chickpeas Quinoa Butterbeans Kidney beans Ground nuts & seeds