Making our own Special blend of compost

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1 Nursery Unit With the wonderfully warm sunny days we have been turning our attention to outside growing activities. The seed potatoes provided by the Potato Council have arrived and, after spending some time sitting in egg boxes to chit, have been planted in two large Poly-pots. There are two early varieties; a national one Rocket and a local one Piccolo Star. We are going to see which variety will produce the greater crop. The results will be entered into the Potato Council s 2012 competition. In addition the Nursery children have planted, and are caring for, their own individual seed potato variety Pentland Javelin. When they are harvested we will count the crop from each pot, to see who has grown the greatest number, and weigh them to see who has grown the greatest weight. The children will be able to take their own crop home. You are more than welcome to view the progress of our crops throughout the Season. We must say a big thank you to Jim Chidlow for all his advice on the best type of compost to use, for arranging for the compost to be supplied and helping deliver it. As you may imagine planting all those potatoes in pots takes a lot of compost and it is not exactly light-weight. Our grateful thanks go also to Campus Services Estates Service Centre for donating the compost and helping to deliver it. Making our own Special blend of compost The children really enjoyed taking part in our Pets week. We were really lucky to have visits from; Oscar the rabbit, Colin the corn snake, Myrtle the tortoise, Daisy the dog and Annie s guinea pigs. The children showed great curiosity and interest, asking questions such as What does it eat/drink? Why has it got a forked tongue? Is it a mummy or a daddy? Some children brought in photos of their pets at home to talk about: those of us who don t have pets talked about what we would like to have.

2 We rounded off this term with a display, in the Sports Hall exercise studio, to show off the physical skills we had been learning this term. The sessions at the Sports Hall are very popular with the children so we thought parents would like to see just what the children get so excited about. Thank you to all those who managed to take time off to come along at what we realise is a really difficult time of day. For those who couldn t make it here are a selection photographs to give you a flavour of the event. We have had many complimentary comments and we were extremely pleased with how responsible, focused and coordinated the children were. Well done! the Nursery Unit team, and well done the children for making us all very proud of them. Balancing bean-bags on heads......and feet Balancing on the beam Parachute games Making Popcorn Dancing with Rhythm Sticks Exercising with the circle dance

3 Baby Unit: Yet another busy month in the Baby Unit. We have felt so proud and lucky to have witnessed some of the older babies taking their first steps, which we will continue to encourage and support as they perfect these exciting skills. Thanks to some lovely dry and sunny weather we have enjoyed lots of outside play and have been exploring the top complex equipment which the children have been very excited about, particularly now they are all becoming more mobile and the scope of their investigation has widened. As the babies have become more interested and intrigued by their environment, in particular by animals, a visit from Myrtle the tortoise was a big hit. The babies were mesmerised by her and really enjoyed meeting her. We also went for a walk down to the ponds to feed the ducks and look at the fish. We had a lovely time watching the fountains, enjoying and afternoon picnic and getting lots of fresh air. The children have continued to enjoy a range of creative activities exploring paint, glue, glitter, gloop and play-dough, using various tools and techniques to create marks patterns and effects. Next term we will be welcoming a few new faces into the baby unit and focusing on developing our self-help skills as well as our increasing physical skills. Can I wish you all a very Happy Easter, enjoy the break and we look forward to seeing you all next term. Debra

4 Parallel Unit: What a busy month the children have had. With the lovely weather the children have wanted to spend lots of time outside enjoying the sensory experience of sand & water and the physical experience of the top activity complex. There has been a keen interest in singing nursery rhymes and songs with the children learning actions, words and working together to re-enact Row, row, row your boat To show our Mums how special they are we created our own cards, decorated with hand prints, flowers and photo s. We also made yummy shortbread biscuits. This activity was a favourite as the children helped to mix, roll and cut out the star-shaped biscuits. We have been focusing on undoing the zips on our coats, taking off our shoes and putting them on again after sleep-time. The children have shown a keen desire to help with the dressing routine Toddler Unit: This term the children have been exploring their environment and have shown curiosity and interest in the features of living things. They had the opportunity to meet Colin the snake and Myrtle the tortoise.

5 The children have been learning about similarities and differences which connect them to, and distinguish them from, others. They looked in a mirror and then drew pictures of themselves. The children have loved dancing with ribbons and singing songs. Their favourite song has been Incy, Wincy Spider Take Care! We have just been made aware of a campaign,by Cornwall and Scilly Isles Primary Care Trust, to highlight the dangers posed by nappy sacks. Following the deaths of two young children in their area, from asphyxiation by nappy sacks, research revealed that in the previous 10 years 11 babies across England and Wales had died in similar circumstances. Common themes running throughout the deaths indicated that young babies (generally of 6 months of age and under) are most at risk because at this stage of development, young babies naturally put objects to their mouths to investigate them, but find it more difficult to let go. Informal feedback from parents/carers and professionals demonstrated that the risk to young babies is compounded by the widespread usage of nappy sacks being a relatively recent phenomena. Parents/carers are generally aware of the dangers posed by plastic bags, but do link to nappy sacks and so do not generally take the same safety precautions. While these events are rare they are not one-off, isolated tragic incidents, but unnecessary and avoidable child deaths with clear links that, until now, have remained hidden at the national level. We feel it important to support this campaign by bringing to your attention this potential danger. We sometimes dismiss such concerns as things that only happen to other people. Earlier this month we sent out a reminder of the danger posed by blind cords, following reports of the death of another child after becoming entangled in one. It was with considerable shock that we learned that the child involved was a close relative of one of our own children; which really drives home the point that these dangers are very real and present. Please look at the poster on the Parents notice board in the Family Centre entrance area for of details other common dangers to young children. Have a Happy Easter see you next term. University of Exeter Family Centre contact details: Phone familycentre@exeter.ac.uk