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, please can you let us know and please confirm the result. Thank you.
This Week – It was an exciting start to the term in our OOSC with the start of our new activities. We kicked off on Wednesday with Cinema Club, Thursday we held our Den Building and Animating and today is our baking session. Throughout the week the children have been recycling Christmas cards with some craft activities. The pool table and loom bands made a popular return. One popular game this week was ‘Tap a shape’, requested by the children, a great game for fine motor skills. Outside the children have been playing football and using the scooters.
Wednesday – Cinema Circle – This week we watched Toy Story 4 and we continued this theme with the children making their own ‘Forky’ character. They played with potato head making up Toy Story stories, held a Toy Story quiz and themed colouring.
Thursday – Den Building – The cold and wet weather enhanced our outdoor den building. The children gathered large sticks and natural materials sourced from our garden to build their dens. The children worked in groups; we witnessed excellent teamwork! The children loved sitting on their bubble wrap flooring. They also used tarpaulin and blankets to insulate and lanterns to light up their creations. To finish their den building adventure, they enjoyed eating their snack sitting in their dens, admiring their work.
Thursday – Animating – Our KS2 animators started their session learning the basics, they learnt about the technique of ‘stop/start’ motion. For this they set their background scene and decided on their characters and a storyline. The stories included a jewel thief, a skateboarder and a driver eating pizza in the Artic! The children had to set their character and take a picture, the character was moved into a new position and another photo was taken, this process continued for their story; lots of photos were taken. The children then needed to link all the photos together. The results are amazing. Please look at our Facebook page or Helpston Playhouse website, the films will be uploaded later today. The children coming in from Den building wanted to join in too so we extended this activity for them!
Friday – This afternoon in our baking session the children will be making cheese straws.
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 using clay to make faces or animals. The children will be adding natural resources to help make a design or creation of their choice.
Tuesday – Science – We will be investigating how objects behave in water and the children will be looking at whether object float or sink and we’ll look at why this happens. Can they predict what will happen?
Tuesday – Gaming – We have a new Nintendo Switch for the children to try out this week with Super Mario Party and Fifa. The children will be working together to take on the challenges!
Wednesday – Cinema Circle – We will be watching The Smurfs and will have Smurfs themed activities; we will make mini-Smurfs out of cardboard tubes, socks and felt!
Thursday – Den Building – We will see if we can improve on last week’s building techniques. We will use torches this week to create some interesting shadows! We will be cooking something sweet on the campfire.
Thursday – Animating – Our theme will be dinosaurs and we will be creating some amazing animation to bring them to life!
Friday – We will be making vanilla Cake Pops! The cakes will be made with vanilla sponge, coated in chocolate and topped with sprinkles! The children will be weighing and mixing their ingredients. Help and advice will be on hand for those who need it. Please bring in a named apron and named container.
Outside activities all week: There will be connect 4, giant Duplo, the mud kitchen, construction vehicles, football and Meccano.
Have a lovely weekend!
Kind regards
The Playhouse Team