Dear Parents / Carers
COVID Update:
Here is the link to the latest Government Guidance for OOSC Settings: Guidance for parents and carers of children attending out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Children & PCR tests – If your child has a PCR test or tests positive on a lateral flow, please can you let us know and please confirm the result. Thank you.
This Week – The dry weather has meant we have been able to spend a lot of time outdoors this week. Football continues to be the favourite outdoor activity and the children have also played with the skipping ropes, trucks, hoops, and construction toys. The weather has also been good for our outdoor clubs – forest school and den building. Science club went outside this week too – further details about all clubs are detailed below. Inside the Playhouse the pool table has been available with games, colouring and loom bands for those children not wanting to take part in the other activities.
Monday – Forest School – We have been gathering twigs, herbs, and greenery from the garden, and we have made paint brushes using our materials. We have been painting with them and have used lots of different colours and textures; we also had our snack outside along with some warming hot chocolate.
Tuesday – Science Society – We undertook a couple of our favourite Playhouse experiments as we looked at chemical reactions. For our first experiment we added bicarbonate of soda to cups then added vinegar; as they mixed, bubbles of carbon dioxide formed which caused the mixture to start foaming and flowing over the cups, we then added food colouring – the red looked amazing! For our second experiment we added mentoes to fizzy drink. The mentoes caused a reaction that quickly released the dissolved carbon dioxide from the fizzy drink causing the liquid to literally explode from the top of the bottle. Both experiments were messy but great fun to watch! The children loved it!
Tuesday – Gaming – The children played Mario and FiFa this week, these games are so popular. The children are amazing taking turns and helping those less experienced.
Wednesday – Cinema Circle – This week the children enjoyed watching Finding Dory and following her as she searched for her family and enjoyed our snack and popcorn as we watched the film. We held a colouring competition; the winner will be announced next week and they will have the privilege of choosing a ‘film of the week’ after half term. We made our very own scene from the film using ice and under the sea creatures.
Thursday – Den Building – As well as den building, the children also made pretend zip wires to enhance their outdoor adventure. And they used our flooring mats to keep their dens cosy and warm. The winners of our ‘Den Building Competition’ was Sam Power, Charlie Venters, Charlie Horton and Ethan Tucker and also for their amazing Zip wire idea: Well done boys! We sat around the campfire and cooked our baked beans; some of the children helped sustain the fire by collecting twigs and adding them into the firepit. It was a little smoky!
Thursday – Animating – This week we used Lego bricks to build our scene piece by piece on screen. We placed one brick, took a picture, placed another brick, and took a picture and so on until the build was complete. One of the films featured a robot being built and then our final scene the robot walked away.
Friday – This afternoon in our baking session we will be making and cooking pizza pinwheels. We will use puff pastry, sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. We will add our toppings and then roll up the pastry, slice and bake in the oven to produce lovely wheels of deliciousness! We will then put on a film and will chill out until home time.
Next Week – Next week we continue with our themed activities. We will also be caring for our garden wildlife, making sure they have food and water.
Monday – Forest School – We will be collecting and painting pebbles outside in our forest school area. We will be creating lovely designs to bring home. We will find different ways to paint our pebbles using resources from the garden.
Tuesday – Science – It will be a noisy session next week as we attempt to ‘see’ sound by using sound waves to make rice dance.
Tuesday – Gaming – The Nintendo switch and other games will be available for the children to play together.
Wednesday – Cinema Circle – We will be watching Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists and will be following this funny gang of pirates on their adventure across the seas. They’ll be lots of giggling! We will be making our very own pirate maps and we’ll off be looking for treasure.
Thursday – Den Building – This week along with our dens, the children will be constructing their own fires and will be collecting sticks from the garden (we won’t light them). We will inspire the children to try different styles of dens. We will make and cook pancakes outside too!
Thursday – Animation – Next week we will continue to use the Lego figures to build our storylines; these are very popular and have been requested by the children. Let’s see what our budding animators can conjure up!
Friday – We will be cooking plain scones in our baking session. Maybe you could have a late afternoon tea with jam and cream at home.
Outside activities all week: There will be connect 4, giant Duplo, the mud kitchen, construction vehicles, football and Meccano.
Spring Term Invoices – With a busy start to this short term your invoice will be a little later than expected. We will start to issue invoices next week with first instalments being due on 31st January 2022.
Thank you – Thank you to everyone who supported us in our Xmas Raffle, you raised an amazing £834; most of which will be fund matched by BGL. Thank you!!
Have a lovely weekend!
Kind regards
The Playhouse Team