Dear Parents and Carers,

Something magical happened this week. Poor Mrs Bastin was very sad when she broke her shoes. However, the next morning she found they had been fixed! The children were very excited by the discovery and were discussing what they thought had happened. Some children thought the Elves may have made an appearance overnight. They will be looking for clues over the coming week.

In the lead up to our exciting trip to the Theatre Royal in Plymouth we will be talking to the children about each stage of the trip. It is important that they feel informed and are able to ask any questions they might have. In order for us to leave promptly please bring your child to school at 8.40am in full school uniform with only a coat and packed lunch. If you have ordered lunch from the kitchen we will have it ready in school. We ask that packed lunches do not include fizzy drinks, sweets and that your child has a re-sealable drink that they can use throughout the day. We will also take snack and milk for the children. We will travel on the coach to the theatre to watch ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’. We will have lunch at the theatre before returning to school in the afternoon in time for normal pick up, 3.15pm. This trip is a wonderful experience for your child. School trips are an important part of your child’s school journey. They support character development and enable children to use and demonstrate our school values which underpin everything we do.

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and to watch a story come to life on stage is truly magical. The children have been exploring the story this week through the media of music and drama so hopefully they are familiar with the characters and some of the events. The vocabulary they have been using from the story includes Shoemaker, leather, shiny, surprise, splendid, scampered, material and stitch. A love of reading is promoted throughout the school. We invest valuable time exploring and enjoying books and they are interwoven into our curriculum.

The children visited the chickens this week and enjoyed finding out about their personalities and learning their names. To reflect our passion for reading, the chickens have been named after female authors as voted for by the school children. Christie, Beatrix, Agatha, Julia (Julia Donaldson), Cressida (Cressida Cowell who wrote ‘How to train your dragon’) and Jacqueline (Jacqueline Wilson). We keep animals in school as it teaches children about responsibility, one of our school values.  

In Maths this week we have been looking at number bonds to ten. The children have been taking part in many practical activities to deepen their mathematical understanding. They enjoyed using double sided counters and numicon.

Our nativity rehearsals are going well and the children are excited about the grown ups coming to watch. You will find details of your child’s role in the nativity in their red book. It also has information about costumes but please do not feel you need to go out and spend lots of money we do have quite a few costumes in school. You will also find song lyrics to practise at home. Tickets will need to be booked online via: https://preston.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/ Booking will open on Friday 29^th November at 12:30pm, and will close on Thursday 12^th December at 12:30pm.

There will be two performances on Tuesday 17^th December – one at 9.30am and the other performance at 2.00pm. Due to safety regulations, we can offer four tickets per family in total.  If you are bringing a small child, you will need to either reserve a seat for them or they will have to sit on your lap in the hall.  Buggies and pushchairs will not be allowed into the performances but we can store them in the foyer area outside the hall. Friends of Preston Primary (FOPPS) are kindly providing refreshments. Further information has been sent out in a letter today. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

On Wednesday 18th December it is our Christmas lunch. If you would like your child to have a Christmas lunch you will need to pre-order on the Feeding Hungry Minds website, there will not be an option to order a hot dinner on the day. If you do not pre-order, your child will need to bring a packed lunch. It is a fun and festive occasion enjoyed by all. If you have not registered with Feeding Hungry Minds this is the link.

https://www.feedinghungryminds.co.uk/edu/preston-primary-school/

Have a wonderful weekend.

Foundation Team

 

Thank you to Debbie Richards, a Bladder and Bowel Specialist, for providing a drop in clinic and training. To promote healthy toileting habits children aged 4 and 5 should drink at least 200ml of liquid six times a day. Breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, mid-afternoon, tea time and 1 hour before bed. To enable the bladder to work efficiently it needs to be six cups full rather than regular sips, additional drinks should also be consumed throughout the day. As a school, the health and wellbeing of children is important. We encourage children to drink mid-morning, lunchtime (milk or water) and mid-afternoon. They have free access to their water bottle throughout the day. If you would like any further information please ask a class teacher or you could use the following links: www.eric.org.uk  www.bbuk.org.uk

 

Pop-Up Café

During the winter, our Pop-Up café will be open every Friday at the end of the school day. Teachers will take it in turns to bring children to serve drinks and snacks. There will be hot chocolate with cream and mini marshmallows. We will also have biscuits and sausage rolls cooked by our kitchen team. Please support us in this endeavour.

 

Dates to remember – more information will be given nearer the time

Thursday 5^th December – Trip to the Theatre

Friday 13^th December – Friends of Preston Primary School Christmas Fair

Tuesday 17^th December – Foundation Nativity 9.30am or 2.00pm

Friday 20^th December – Last day of term (Christmas jumpers can be worn by the children with their uniform, if they wish. No donation is required for this).

 

Home Learning Options:

• Design your own shoes! In your red book we have stuck an outline of a shoe. Colour it in with your own patterns, be as creative as you like. You don’t have to use the template provided.
• Read the story ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’. Talk about the characters and events in the story.
• Explore 10 around the home. Count objects to 10, create Maths problems asking ‘If I have 6 apples how many more would I need to get to 10?’
• Practise using scissors with the supervision of an adult (using child friendly scissors)