FUNDRAISING AND PURCHASES
As with all charities, our Pre-school needs to fundraise and parents and local companies are always very generous with their support.
Outdoor area
We are now in the second year since the outside play area was constructed and we are happy to say that the children are absolutely loving it!!
Children have access between the pre-school room and the outside area to give them more choice between playing indoors or outside during good weather.
The outside area is securely fenced in and has a large grassy area with climbing frame and various other play equipment. There is also a playhouse and paved area next to it. The paved area is used for snacks 'al fresco', story time and various other activities during good weather. There are also two paths of logs for the children to practise their balancing and counting and a soft, quiet area for those children who aren't feeling quite so energetic! We also have a gazebo, parasol and picnic table.
Our garden has raised beds so that disabled children can enjoy it fully. The children are able to grow vegetables which we use for snacktime and also use to feed Brian and Florence, our Giant African Land Snails. We have already planted beans and grown flowers and lettuce. The children often suggest what they would like to plant. We have a large standard buddleia to attract butterflies and bees and the children often help to plant a colourful display of flowers for the summer.
We have birdfeeders, bird boxes, ladybird towers hanging around the area and log piles to use for studying creepy crawlies!
We are still very excited about this project and hope to continue to improve it. We think it's very important to teach our pre-school children to be 'green'. The water feature we are about to purchase will be solar powered and we will also be adding a water butt to the garden area to teach children how they can collect rain water to use in the garden.
Indoor area
A recent grant has enabled us to purchase new equipment for the room to include new triangular easel, water tray, sand tray and doll's house. We have also just fitted a brand new sink area for washing up and another separate area for washing paints.
Meanwhile we will continue to fundraise to keep all our equipment and toys up to date.
Our recent Spring Fayre raised lots of money and the sun kept shining to ensure that all had an enjoyable time.
A big thank you to all those who have given their support so far this term - we can't do it without you!
June 2009