Dates f o r the D Nation a l Outdoo iary Beginni rW ng Mon day 14t eek h March Red Friday 1 8th Mar Nose Day ch (wea r red or pyjama Nation s) al Sprin Beginni g Clean ng Mon day 21s Week t March E CO W Beginni ng Mon eek day 21s t March Sponso Beginni red Walk W ng Mon e day 21s ek t March Eart Saturda h Hour y 26th M arch Monday Easter Holid a 4th Apr il to Fri ys day 15t h April E a s t e rW Friday 2 2nd and eekend Monday 25th Ap ril Royal W edding Holi Friday 2 9th Apr day il May D ay Monday Holiday 2nd Ma y March/ April 2011 Newsletter Learning in February We participated in National Story Telling Week. We had parents in to read/ tell stories to the children and we brought in Carmen MacDonald who runs a story telling business. She provided a fun filled half hour of songs, story and drama. Carmen attends the nursery on a monthly basis. The next day with Carmen will be on Friday 4th March to help celebrate World Book Day. Rona from the Dick Institute came in and read stories to all groups. All pre-school groups will visit the Dick Institute after the Easter holidays. The children entertained parents and friends at the coffee day with Scottish songs and poems. We have also had activities related to Chinese New Year and Valentines day. ECO Bags Remember we have our ECO bags £3.50 each (3 for £10.00) which would make a great Mothers Day present! Every child did their own drawing or hand print. A wonderful keepsake of your child’s time in the nursery. World Book Day - Thursday 3rd March Following World Book Day we would like your child to bring their favourite book to Nursery to share with their group. Please ensure that your child’s name is clearly marked on the book. There will also be a home link sheet for you to complete and bring back to nursery. We intend to make a folder with all the returns, showing the favourite books of the children at Onthank Nursery School. Red Nose Day Friday 18th March We will be participating in lots of fun activities. There will be a collection at the door. The children are invited to wear red clothes or their pyjamas (remember to wear clothes underneath!) The children have been learning the red nose song with Mr Hay from Onthank Primary School. Plants The children are starting to prepare their vegetable/ fruit beds and plant some early vegetables. We would welcome any donations of bedding plants, vegetables, green house plants and hanging basket plants etc... after the Easter holidays. Also we are looking for any help in the garden that you could give us. Good Ideas/ Suggestion Tree We would welcome your ideas and suggestions for the nursery. Please take time to write a leaf and hang it on our tree at the front entrance. Royal Wedding It has been confirmed by East Ayrshire Council that all schools in the authority will be on holiday on Friday 29th April 2011. Staff Please remember that a member of staff is always available on the arrival or departure of the children to discuss any concerns or to celebrate any successes you may have. Yours sincerely Mrs Fiona Kellett Head Teacher ECO School We participated in Fair Trade fortnight and have become a fair trade outlet. To support Fair Trade we had a stall selling Fair Trade products, due to popular demand this will be available on a Friday or from the office at any time. There is also a catalogue that is available from the office from which you can order a wider range of fair trade products. We will also be selling Fair Trade rag dolls (£15.00 each), as the children have been enjoying the rag dolls that have been going home and we have had parents asking us where to purchase these. The rag dolls are handmade in Sri Lanka, our global partner ECO Week During the week of Monday 21st March we will be holding an ECO week. More details to follow. National Spring Clean Week We will be looking for volunteers to help us tidy our school grounds on the week of Monday 21st March. Please let the ECO group know if you would be able to help a day that week. Sponsored Easter Hat Walk We were very fortunate that Burger King in Kilmarnock donated the hats for us to decorate for our Easter Sponsored Walk. Each child will be inviting you to come in and help them during group time to decorate their hats and you will also be invited to join them on their walk. We will provide you with a list of dates for decoration and for walks. We hope that you will be able to join us. Tesco and Sainsbury Vouchers We are collecting Tesco Vouchers for Schools. Please ask your family and friends to help us. The more vouchers we collect the more resources we can buy for the nursery. There is a post box at the entrance of the nursery for your vouchers. We are also collecting Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers as well. Please hand vouchers into the office. Parents and Friends of Onthank Nursery School Matalan Fashion Show - Sunday 6th March A huge ‘Thank You’ to everyone who supported the fashion show. It was amazing to see such a great turn out. A grand total of £476.50 was made. The children who modelled were fantastic and a great night was had by all. Indoor Physical Play Could we ask that you change your child’s footwear to a pair of trainers/ sandshoes (not slippers) when you drop them off. Boots, Wellingtons and heavy shoes can be left on the trolleys with the jackets. Names on Clothes and Shoes It would be helpful if you could put your child’s name on their clothes, jackets and shoes. A lot of items are the same and can easily be mixed up with others. Donations Throughout the year we use a great deal of Tissues, Kitchen Rolls and Foam Handwash. We would greatly appreciate any donations of these items. Snack Money A big ‘Thank You’ to everyone who has remembered to pay their £2.00 snack money. We really do rely on the snack money to purchase snack food and other extras for the Nursery. Fundraising Rag Bag Appeal Thank You for the wonderful response to our ‘Rag Bag Appeal’ we collected 270kg and raised £108.00. There will be another collection in 6 months time, we will let you know once we have a date. Remember we have a collection point in our playground all year round. Valentine Bear Cerys Rolands from the Blue Group (pm) was the winner of our Valentine Bear. Thank you for your support we raised £83.00. Kidz Club We made £160.00 commission from the Christmas DVD. Thank You to everyone who purchased a DVD. If you missed out this time they will be back in November 2011 Onthank Nursery School Website We hope that you have found our Onthank Nursery School website useful. This will enable all our parents to access information about the nursery - without needing a GLOW account. We have set the website up with information about the staff, the handbook, school holidays and Parent Committee details. It will be up-dated on a regular basis with information in the form of a weekly diary, newsletters and other relevant information. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/ OnthankNurserySchool/