It was great to see such a good turn out of parents at the Parent’s Evening at the end of March. It gives everyone a chance to talk about and discuss each child’s progress in a relaxed atmosphere. The Early Learning Goals are an integral part of the Foundation Stage Curriculum and it is important to develop links between home and Playgroup so these can be fully accessed. All members of staff really appreciate this opportunity - thank you.

We have been busy looking at Senses and Feelings. We covered all the senses - the taste day was particularly good with the opportunity to taste banana, rice crispies, cornflakes, yoghurt and cheese. We experienced lots of different feelings including being scared by the monsters (they turned out to be really friendly!)

The New Life medium term plan included planting seeds, making carrot top faces, painting some beautiful still life paintings and, most exciting of all, celebrating JoJo’s birthday. He was 3 in the morning (with the younger children) and then miraculously grew to be 4 in the afternoon! The cake was lovely and he really enjoyed opening his presents. He was very kind and said he would share the magnifying lens.

We had an egg hunt in the garden and found lots of eggs laid by various animals. We heard all about the Easter story and thought deeply about what happened to Jesus. Lots of Easter baskets were made and they were able to carry some eggs home to share!

This term has started with Our Natural World. This theme is based around our exciting trip to the Butterfly Farm at Stratford. In preparation for this, we have been watching (and waiting) for caterpillars to grow into butterflies. The caterpillars are observed every day and have their photo taken. We have made our role play area in to Little Kineton pond. We all went for a picnic at the real pond - it was quite a long walk but we all managed it. We had to walk past Cameron’s house two times!!! The role play pond has now evolved in to an oasis as we are beginning to look at hot parts of our natural world. Who knows what it will evolve in to next week.

Swimming sessions for Playgroup children and their grown-ups are planned to start after half-term. We are really lucky to have this facility offered to us again this year - let’s hope the sun shines!