Macmillan Coffee Morning

Thank you to all of you who supported us with our coffee morning for Macmillan. We managed to raise a huge £168.75 for Macmillan Cancer Support. The winner of our guess the length of the sausage roll game was David Halstead. The sausage roll measured in at 49cm, David won £33 and £33 was added to our collection total too. Thank you again to everyone involved in supporting us from donating cakes, taking part in our game and buying cakes on the day.

Campfire cooking

The children were developing their imaginations, building and creating an outside campfire. With E.Y.P. support they went on to collect resources and cook their food on the campfire. These type of activities encourage children to be imaginative and to use resources to promote their play. The children used stones to represent egg and beans and sticks to represent sausages.

Autumn Planning

As well as settling our children into the new Autumn term and carrying out activities based on All About Me we use our assessment information from our summer term to inform our planning. Each term we assess all our children using the Early Years Foundation Stage Booklet. The areas where the children may not have achieved become our focus for planning over the following term. This Autumn our focus aspects are Moving and Handling, Managing Feelings and Behaviour and Speaking.

Parents can help to support their children in these areas at home too. For further advise on these areas please speak to Amanda.

Helping your child to develop their moving and handling skills

 

To encourage children to be physically active, and to help them learn how to use tools and materials, they need

lots of opportunities to:

●●move around and make big movements using their arms, legs and whole bodies

●●handle smaller objects to help develop their small muscle control.

 

You could use the ideas below as starting points to help you to do this.

 

Two- to three-year-olds

 

●●Dancing is a great way to develop coordination skills.

●● Read a story together and act out what is happening – this is also a good way to develop imagination and

creativity.

●●Poking and pinching playdough or clay helps to strengthen the fingers, hand and wrist.

●● Jigsaw puzzles and toys that fit together are good ways to develop hand control.

●●Threading things – pasta shapes, buttons or large beads – encourages fine finger movements.

●● Helping with simple chores around the home such as sweeping, tidying up toys, and lifting things develops and

strengthens muscles.

●●Play throwing and catching games that involve big arm movements strengthen shoulder and arm muscles.

Four- to five-year-olds

 

●●Help your child to learn how to use simple tools such as scissors – practice makes perfect.

●●Helping with household tasks such as setting the table builds coordination and control.

●●Draw outdoors with chalks or make patterns in the mud with a stick.

●●Use a squeezy bottle filled with water to shoot at a target or knock down a skittle.

●●Make a place to dig outside where children can develop muscle control and coordination.

●●Bikes and scooters are an exciting way to get lots of vigorous exercise.

●●Try to make sure your child is physically active for at least three hours every day.

Helping your child to manage their feelings and behaviour

 

To help your child learn how to manage their feelings and behaviour you will need to provide lots of

opportunities for them to:

●●develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings

●●understand how to behave as a member of a group.

 

You could use the ideas below as starting points to help you do this.

 

Two- to three-year-olds

 

●●Be consistent in your approach so your child can understand what is expected of her in different situations.

●●As far as possible, persuade other family members to follow the same approach.

●●Find out if your early years setting has any useful ideas about managing behaviour that you could use.

●● I f your child has a tantrum, try to stay calm. Your child may feel frightened and they need to see that you are in

control.

●●Use words to express feelings so your child can learn how to put her feelings into words.

●●When your child plays with other children she will be learning how to be part of a group.

●● Children learn how to control their emotions as they grow older so have high expectations, but don’t expect

the impossible.

 

Four- to five-year-olds

 

●●Help your child to talk about what makes her happy, sad, angry or upset.

●●Remember, children learn best when they feel comfortable, safe and secure.

●●Being tired, hungry, thirsty or bored may have an effect on your child’s behaviour.

●●Be consistent in how you respond to your child’s behaviour.

●●Value your child as an individual but help her to learn the social skills she needs to get on well with others.

●●Make sure your child gets enough sleep to recharge his physical and emotional batteries.

●●Have high expectations, but remember we can’t all be perfect all the time.

Helping your child to develop their speaking and listening skills

 

There are lots of easy ways you can help your child to learn how to listen and pay attention. These will all help

them to build up the skills they require to talk about what they need, how they are feeling, and what they are

interested in.

 

You could use the ideas below as starting points to help you do this.

 

Two- to three-year-olds

 

●●When your child says something, try repeating it back with a little bit of extra information.

●●Read stories together, or try making up your own stories about people and places he knows.

●●Help your child to join in conversations with the rest of the family.

●● Try to be patient and give him enough time to say what he wants to say.

●●When you are out and about, point out interesting things and name them.

●● Listen to what your child has to say so he knows it is worth making the effort to speak.

●●Sing nursery rhymes and songs together. You could include actions to make it more exciting.

 

Four- to five-year-olds

 

●●Read stories together and talk about what is happening.

●●Dressing up and pretending to be someone else is a great opportunity to make up and tell stories.

●●Playing with toy animals, cars or people encourages children to make up and tell stories.

●● Talk together about things that happened yesterday and things you might do tomorrow.

●●When someone speaks to your child, let her answer for herself and don’t speak for her.

●●Encourage your child to be curious and to ask questions about what she sees, hears and thinks.

●● Try to respond when your child asks lots of questions, even if it gets a bit wearing!

Flu Vacinations - Don't Risk It

 

Blackburn with Darwen health bosses are calling on those at greatest risk from flu to protect themselves and their families with a free flu jab.

As the autumn sets in and winter approaches, it’s time for people to make sure they get the vaccine as this year’s flu campaign gets underway.

Flu is a highly contagious infection that anyone can catch, and it can be a really serious illness for some.  Those at greater risk include people of all ages with a health condition such as severe asthma, chest or heart complaints and diabetes, and pregnant women.

Since 2013, 2 and 3 year olds have been offered a nasal spray vaccine to protect them against flu and this year the spray is also being offered to 4 year olds. Young children’s close contact with each other means they are more likely to transmit the virus to other more vulnerable groups.

The flu vaccine changes every year to fight the latest strains of flu, so even if you had a jab last winter you need another one this year.  The jab doesn’t contain the ‘live’ virus so it cannot give you the flu.

The best time to be vaccinated is at the start of the flu season from October to early November, so it’s good to get in early in time for the winter.
Contact your GP or pharmacist to arrange a convenient appointment and get your jab. It’s quick, safe and free for those most at risk from the virus.

Councillor Mohammed Khan, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said:
“If you have a long-term health condition, even one that is well managed, or you are pregnant, you are at greater risk of severe complications if you catch flu. Don’t put off getting the free flu vaccination; if you’re eligible get it now. It’s free because you need it.”

Linda Newsham, Blackburn with Darwen Head of Health Protection, added:
“Flu is not like a cold – it can be a really serious illness for some. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable and are being actively encouraged to have the vaccine. If you are a parent of a 2-4 year old, the nasal spray vaccination is a quick, painless and effective way for children that age to be protected from flu without the need for injections.”

Dr Pervez Muzaffar, a Darwen GP and Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group Lead for Health and Wellbeing, added:
“Flu is a nasty disease which can have serious consequences for people in at risk groups.  It is vital that those who are eligible have the flu vaccine as it protects against different strains of flu which evolve each year.”

SEND Stay and Play Groups Half Term

 

SEND Stay and Play Groups

 for children 0-5 years with additional or complex needs.

 

 

Wednesday 24^th October

1.30pm - 3.00 pm 

At Little Harwood Children’s Centre,

Robinson Street, Blackburn, BB1 5PE

Tel: 01254 506910

 

 

 

Friday 26^th October

10.00am - 11.30 am

At Shadsworth Children Centre,

Shadsworth Road, Blackburn, BB1 2HR.

Tel: 01254 680733

 

 

 

 

 

Wellbeing Wednesday

We celebrated our first Wellbeing Wednesday this week wearing our brown clothes. Wellbeing Wednesdays take part on the last Wednesday of every month. The children are invited to wear a particular colour to re-enforce colour knowledge. We focus on a healthy message promoting Health and Self Care with the children. We also discuss a Safety Message which usually involves the children, but also provides additional information for our parents to take home and share with their families. If you would like any further information on issues around health please speak to Roxy, our Health Champion for the setting.

The Healthy Message for children for this month was hand washing. The children learnt about correct hand washing techniques in the water tray and were encouraged to try them out using soap. Our bi-lingual staff carried out the activity to support children in their home language too. The children also learnt how important it was to dry their hands afterwards and put their paper towels in the bin. This will hopefully give children independence when washing their hands in the bathroom. Please continue to promote these skills at home for school readiness.

Making Faces

The children have been using playdough and manipulating it to make facial features. Playdough is a great resource for developing children's

Enhances fine motor skill

When your child squishes, rolls, flattens, shapes, scores or cuts play dough, he develops and strengthen his hand muscles. The strengthened hand muscles helps improve fine motor skills of your child

Improves pre-writing skills

When your child plays with play dough, his pincer grip (the squeezing of pointer finger and thumb to grasp an object) improves. An  improved pincer grip enhances your child's pre-writing skills


This also supports our learning focus of similarities and differences and developing mutual tolerance and respect for all.