Rainbow I & II News

Welcome

Welcome to three new children (and or course their parents) who joined Rainbow this September. They have all settled in very well and made new friends.

Congratulations

To Mrs Jane Wyton on gaining a Diploma in Preschool Practice. We are very lucky in Rainbow to have learning support assistants who are all keen on increasing their knowledge base by studying in their own time.

Parent Workshop Rainbow I & II - Friday 4th December

Mrs Marion Golding will be talking about Numicon, a new exciting maths resource. This is a "multisensory approach to the development of mathematical skills which uses the wholeness of numbers to calculate", which is particularly suited to children with lanquage difficulties.

Day Trip- Update

Rainbow Outing 26 November 2009

Rainbow children and staff had tremendous fun on yet another fantastic day out in London. This time we went on a double date - first to Hamleys (one of the biggest toy shops in the world) and then to the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood. The educational motive for the trip was to consolidate the toy topic (Toys Past and Present) which both Rainbow classes have been working on this term.

Surprisingly, considering the time of year, Hamleys was virtually empty so we had the ‘entertainers’ on the five floors all to ourselves and the children were able to look at and play with numerous toys. The highlight of the visit, as it was completely unexpected, was an invitation to help make a snowman. First, the children all took turns to stamp on the pedal of the stuffing machine to fill the snowman’s body. Then they recorded a Christmas message on a voice box which was placed inside him. Rather than being given only one heart to put in the snowman, each child was given a red fabric heart to rub on their head to give it some brains, on their faces, so that it always had a smile, and on their tummy, so it would never be hungry. Finally each child made a wish before placing their heart inside the snowman. He was then sewn up and the children were asked to name him. After much discussion the name Frosty was chosen. A birth certificate was printed out and then Hamleys very kindly (and unexpectedly) gave us Frosty to live in the Rainbow Centre!

Next we all made our way across London by coach to the Museum of Childhood where we decided it was time for a picnic after all the excitement of Hamleys. Then, having successfully navigated our way around all the tempting things in the museum shop and made difficult decisions on what to buy with £2, it was time for our teaching session by the museum staff. Here we were shown a variety of toys old and modern from spinning tops, windmills, jumping jacks, clockwork caterpillars (and false teeth!), to a remote controlled dancing robot. It was a fantastic ‘hands on’ session where each child had the opportunity to investigate and play with these toys.

All too soon, however, it was time to make our way back to school but we have many photographs to remind us of what we learnt about toys over time, and all the fun we had. Do look at these in our photo gallery.
We are now in the process of planning our next Rainbow outing which will take place in the Spring Term. Watch this space....