Easter Extravaganza!!

Hi there!

Where did that maternity leave go?

Well, it is the final week before Easter and the week will be spent assessing and reviewing th children’s learning. This will be Ms Sammon’s last week and I’d like to thank her and the amazing Foundation Stage team for their hard work this last term.

Easter celebrations
As we are in school for most of Holy Week, we shall be devoting our time to the important Easter celebrations. The children are VERY excited about the prospect of the Easter Bunny arriving, so they can eat copious amounts of chocolate, but we will be reminding them about the true meaning of Easter. They will be sequencing the Easter Story, using illustrations as prompts for their writing.

Some children do get a little upset when we talk about the death of Jesus, but I assure you, we do handle it very sensitively and the children do appreciate us not shying away from these issues.

There are a number of websites below to support you at home to help explain the story to your child, along with some lovely activities to try.

On the night before his death Jesus had a final meal with his friends. This meal was one of the festival meals for Passover. Before the meal Jesus did something which surprised his friends. He washed the feet of every person, a task which was normally done by a servant. By doing this he wanted to show his followers that they should love one another in humble ways.

We shall be re-enacting this with the children which is a lovely way of bringing some elements of the story to life for them.
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/easter/easter.htm - this is an illustrated version of the story, which will help the children when they come to write their own versions this week
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Easter/Easter.aspx - find out more about the traditions surrounding Easter. If you do some of the activities, then we would love to see them!
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/re/b-dag/ngfl-container/re-unit2-en.html - some lovely activities on here. The think and discuss section is a great way of working on the children’s comprehension of the story, particularly developing their inference and deduction skills.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/resourcesjigsaws.shtml -online jigsaws for the children to do.
http://www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk/colourbookeaster.shtml - printable Easter colouring activities.
http://demo.iboard.co.uk/screens/thread_home.htm?thread_id=21 - a lovely website with lots of fantastic things to do.

Other Easter activities may be found on the Here I Am page on the school website. Click on Curriculum, then Here I Am and finally weblinks. There are also some Easter writing activities which can be accessed through the downloads section.

Easter Bonnets
On Thursday afternoon, we will be having our annual Easter bonnet parade. The prizes are awarded for originality AND evidence of the children’s own work. Please remember to label your child’s bonnet and we promise to take some lovely photos of the children, just to bring out on their 21st birthday!

Egg Rolling
This will take place on Wednesday afternoon. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember that the eggs need to be hard – boiled, and, as they will break during the rolling of them, the children will not be able to bring them home.

Easter Service
The Easter Service will take place at 9am on Thursday in the hall. Space is very limited in the hall, but you are welcome to join us.

Fundraising afternoon
This Tuesday, sees the Year 5/6 children doing their annual fundraising event for the Nugent Care Society. The children will be allowed to purchase bric-a-brac items, as well as taking part in games and events. It would be helpful if the children could bring in their loose change in a sealed, named envelope or purse. Many thanks for this.

Website
I hope that you have found the school website useful and easy to navigate to the websites needed to support your child’s learning. We are hoping to use the school website as a 'one-stop-shop' for the information you receive on the blogs every week so if you have any suggestions please let us know what would be useful to you.

Good Luck
I am sure you will join us in wishing Mrs Morgan the best of luck as she begins her maternity leave on Thursday. More baby news will follow shortly.

All that is left to say, is to thank all of you for your support this term and to wish you all a very happy and holy Easter.

I will see you in person on the first day back!!!

Best wishes

Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxx