Helpston Playhouse – Weekly Update 22nd January 2021

By January 22, 2021 Uncategorized No Comments

Dear Parents / Carers

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Testing for COVID – If your child goes for a COVID test, please don’t forget to let us know. We need to report any cases to our Early Years Team for Track & Trace purposes and where required, we will notify parents, carers and staff if they need to self-isolate. This is really important to ensure that we can keep each other, our families and our staff safe. Thank you. 
Here is a link to the latest guidance from the Government, just in case you need it: National lockdown: Stay at Home – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Playhouse Activities This Week
This week we have had a physical assault course which the children created using hollow blocks, clambering walls and balancing beams. They enjoyed problem solving and sharing their ideas to create the assault courses. We enjoyed playing turn taking games and number bingo! The children especially enjoyed playdough this week, it had a peppermint scent using herbs; they used this with cupcake cases and mixing bowls … they pretended to bake cupcakes!

Forest School – This week in forest school we recreated some footprints. We made our own mud paint, scooping up mud and mixing in our own pot. We talked about how we see footprints in the snow and mud. Using shaped vegetables the children created their own animal footprint scene. The children guessed the type of animals making the prints. The children were impressive … they recognised some. There will be an activity on Tapestry .. If you have time, go for a walk and see what prints you can see, then have a go at making prints using your own mud paint at home~

Playhouse Activities Next Week – Next week we will be planting and growing cress. We will be exploring different types of role play, for example: doctors, hairdressers. We are going to have a pizza parlour! We will be building on the children’s understanding of roles in the community! We are going to have activities celebrating our similarities and differences.

Home learning – We hope you are enjoying our activities on Tapestry. Don’t forget to share your pictures, we would love to see them.

Reminder of sessions:
Monday at 11.40am;
Wednesday at 2:45pm
Thursday at 11:40am for 15 minutes with a story and singing.

Any help? – Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you need any support, ideas or just a chat we are always available.

Monthly Makaton Sign – Just a reminder, we are going to have a monthly Makaton sign to learn. Here is our top tip .. Remember to sign and say the word together. Go slow and show. This month we are going to learn: Play 

Sound of the Week – Our sound of the Week will be ‘t’. We will use resources from the playhouse as we are not yet able to accept items from home.

Every Mind Matters – Public Health England are launching the Better Health – Every Mind Matters campaign to support the nation’s mental wellbeing with the encouragement that “When things aren’t so good out there, make inside feel better. Feel free to create a free NHS-approved ‘Mind Plan’ by clicking on this link. Your Mind Plan | Every Mind Matters | One You (www.nhs.uk)

Here are some links which might find useful:
Sleep Problems | Every Mind Matters | One You (www.nhs.uk)
Anxiety | Every Mind Matters | One You (www.nhs.uk)
Low Mood | Every Mind Matters | One You (www.nhs.uk)
Stress | Every Mind Matters | One You (www.nhs.uk)

 Have a lovely weekend! Stay safe and well!
Kind regards
The Playhouse Team