Kaya Drums Session

The sound of drumming filled the village hall recently, as Yatton Keynell Under 5s welcomed the Alex Miles and his Kaya Drums. Alex specialises in encouraging children to combine music, rhythm and musical ideas with the cultures of Africa and South America, and bought a number of his interesting and unique drums to show the children. After a brief demonstration and discussion on sound and rhythms, the preschoolers were up and experimenting with playing the drums. With Alex’s expert guidance and after a bit of practise all the children we completely absorbed in the drums and became experts in keeping in time with the beat by the end of the session!

Enjoying our new garden

Despite the wet weather, there’s also no stopping the U5s when it comes to being outside, and the new garden is looking a lot greener as the recently planted seeds are starting to grow. It’s an exciting time for the children to see how the potatoes, onions and peas are growing and developing as the weeks go by, although it will be a while yet before there are vegetables to harvest. In the meantime however, the herbs are now ripe for picking, and are providing the opportunity for the children to learn about the different smells and tastes, with plans to incorporate the herbs in baking in the upcoming weeks.

Extended hours

As the end of the academic year draws near, the Under 5s have no intention of slowing down – before and after preschool sessions (8.15 – 9.00 and 3pm – 4pm) are becoming more popular with parents looking for extended hours, whilst there is a whole host of Summer activities coming up, including an Olympic themed sports day and celebrations around the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Get pampered!

Finally, for those Mum’s looking for some relaxation and retail therapy, Under 5’s is holding a Shopping and Pamper evening on 22 June in the Yatton Keynell Village Hall, 7.30pm onwards. It’s the perfect opportunity to shop for jewellery, home gifts, cards and lots more, whilst having a manicure or massage – all with a glass of wine or Pimms!

Yatton Keynell Under 5′s is on hand to help and is now offering extended hours from 8.15am to 4pm. The before preschool club will include breakfast, whilst the after 3pm session will provide children with a snack, all alongside the usual supervised preschool activities.

For further information, please contact Sandra Mathias, preschool leader on – 07766 579909.

• Easter Craft Activities
• Easter Bonnet competition with Prizes!
• Easter Trail with Chocolaty Prize
• Refreshments available for Mums and Children
• Raffle
• Face Painting

£3 per child and all activities free after entry. All children welcome of any age, prizes for Bonnet parade in age groups; 0-5yrs, 5-8 yrs and 8 yrs plus.

Meet & handle baby animals

Why not come along to our Spring Event and Open Day?

It’s on 19th March from 10am to 12 noon, at Yatton Keynell Village Hall. Entry is free, and all under 5s are welcome.

• Meet and handle baby animals
• Play in our newly renovated garden
• Enjoy a spring themed craft
• Refreshments available

The garden

If you’re a user of the village hall, or if you pass by on the way to school or the surgery, you’ll probably have noticed that the small garden at the rear of the hall has been looking pretty sorry for itself of late. The Yatton Keynell Under 5s pre-school have been itching to improve the garden to make it a safe, fun and educational place for the children to use and to help increase pre-school numbers by adding a unique outdoor space.

Construction

So last weekend, in the Spring sunshine, a group of parents past and present, friends and children arrived armed with tools, cake and tea and set about transforming the space. The pre-school has a large number of outdoor toys to store so the first job was to build two large sheds to replace the worn-out metal store box.

Whilst that was happening, a huge pile of timber was cut, drilled and screwed to build a series of areas within the garden, including a sand pit, bark pit, raised beds and a digging area. 2 tonnes of gravel was shifted by hand, whilst log stepping stones were set out and a water butt installed in a cobbled area.

Just add children!

Finally, a jet washer was put into action to clean up the mosaic path behind the hall which was virtually invisible through the build up of years of dirt and grime.

The first group of children brought in to test things out gave the new garden an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Many thanks to all who helped out!