The children have spent this half term learning about their senses. This culminated in an activity based on the book: Oliver's Fruit Salad by Alison Bartlett. The children used all of their senses to listen to instructions from playgroup staff, look at the fruits provided and then choose the ones they wanted, examine the textures with their hands as they were peeled and chopped for the salad and then the best part - using smell and taste to enjoy their healthy treat!
After enjoying the half term break with their families and friends, the children will be spending the short half term until Easter learning about Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) concentrating on boundaries, behaviour and relationships.
Events
Volunteers from playgroup will be hosting an Easter Egg Hunt and Family Fun Day at the Memorial Institute on Saturday 19th March between 11am-2pm. Please save the date as we would love to see as many people joining in as possible. As well as the egg hunt there will be crafting activities, refreshments, a raffle, bric-a-brac and various games. All proceeds from the event will be used by playgroup to maintain the building and outdoor areas and buy resources for the children. As well as needing to improve access, our sheds and create some undercover shelter for prams and bikes, we are particularly keen to purchase some construction toys for outside such as cement mixers, trucks, diggers etc. and some creative play toys for indoors such as a dolls house, high chair and cot.
Stay & Play
We run a regular Stay & Play session on a Thursday afternoon (1-3pm) during term time. This is open to any children from birth to 5 years old and accompanied by a family member or carer (over 18 years old). Children have the opportunity to use our facilities on a drop in basis and will receive a small healthy snack and a tea or coffee is available for the adult accompanying. We only ask for a small contribution per session you attend (the first session is free!) If you would like to come along and join us please do pop along or give us a call for further information.
Joining Playgroup Sessions
If you have a child who is 2 years or over and you would like to know more about what we could offer you at our playgroup, please do contact us to find out more or to arrange a visit. We currently have spaces for both funded and non-funded 2 and 3+ year olds and are offering sessions every morning and some afternoons during term time. Further details are available from playgroup staff on: 01362 668091

The children are settling back into playgroup after their Christmas break and are enjoying playing with their friends and starting on new projects.

We would also like to welcome our new children and their families who have started with us in January.
This term we are learning about 'The Senses' and as well as lots of listening and reading we will be using our other senses to taste exciting foods and to touch during messy play!

We would like to extend a very big thank you to North Elmham United Charity & Church & Townlands for their generous donation towards our charity. We have used it to buy a much needed new laptop.

This year we are looking to fundraise to improve our outside space where we have storage sheds and access routes. We also hope to provide some undercover shelter for prams, trikes, scooters and bikes to be stored when the children are in session. Our first fundraiser this year will be the Easter Craft Fair. We will have details of when and where in the next Elmham News and on our soon-to-be live website!

If you have a child that is 2 years or over and you would like to know more about what we could offer you at our playgroup, please do contact us on 01362 668091 to find out more or to arrange a visit.
We also run a regular Stay & Play session on a Thursday afternoon (1-3pm) during term time. This is open to any children from birth to 5 years old and accompanied by a family member or carer (over 18 years old). Children have the opportunity to use our facilities on a drop in basis and will receive a small healthy snack and a tea or coffee is available for the adult accompanying. We only ask for a small contribution per session you attend (the first session is free!) If you would like to come along and join us please do pop along or give us a call for further information.

Ruth Collins

We would like to start with the fantastic news that the Christmas Fayre raised a wonderful £635 for Playgroup and the village Play Equipment. We want to thank everyone who came along and joined in the fun. Thank you to all of the stall holders - there were some wonderful crafts for sale, raffles and tombolas - not to mention the real life owl Twiglet, who was a big hit with all visitors! A huge thank you to Beckie and Lesley Aston, Heather Caley and Meg White for organising the event and to the volunteers from the playgroup staff, committee and parents / carers for help on the day and to Heather and Jeannette for organising the refreshments! Thank you to everyone who also donated items for the two hampers. The Fayre was a brilliant example of a team effort from across the village.

The children will be celebrating the end of Autumn term and getting into the spirit of Christmas with various activities over the next few weeks, culminating in their Christmas party on Wednesday 16th December.

Finally if you have a child who is 2 or over and would like to join playgroup, please contact the team on 01362 668091 for further information and to arrange a visit.

Ruth Collins

The children are settling into the Autumn Term and the new starters are making lots of friends and getting used to their new routines.

We have got lots of exciting activities planned before our Christmas Holidays, the first being a trip to the Millennium Wood on 18th November. The children will be enjoying being in the great outdoors with staff, parents and carers and collecting items such as leaves and twigs ready to take back to playgroup where they will be creating a large piece of wall art with the things that they have found. Parents and carers have also been invited to join us for a crafting session as well as a mini lunch club.

On Thursday 19th November we are planning a sensory afternoon for children and their families. We have been given some sensory equipment by Norfolk County Council and would like to show it to our parents and carers to see how it will benefit all children in the setting along with our own purchased and handmade sensory resources.

We now welcome our new committee and say goodbye and thank you to the outgoing members. We would, in particular like to send a very big thank you to Nat Braybrook for staying on as Chair long after her own connections with the playgroup had ended. 
Unfortunately we did only just received enough volunteers for the committee to keep the playgroup running on minimum requirements, so if anyone else is interested in being a committee member, even if not taking on a specific role and just coming to meetings and helping out once in a while, we would still really appreciate it. We would also welcome any members from wider the community who are interested in being involved. If we continue to see a decline in volunteers to join the committee and support the setting, we will be forced to close as we can't meet our legal requirements which would be a huge shame for our village.

The new committee for 2015-2016 are: 
Rachel Lewis - Chair.
Ruth Collins - Vice Chair, Website & Prospectus Editor and Elmham News Publicity.
Gray Jordan - Secretary & Health & Safety (lead).
Helen Whitehouse - Treasurer & Newsletter Editor.
Annmarie Pearson - Trip Co-Ordinator & Fundraising Officer. Sheila Gilbert - Fundraising Officer.

By the time this is published we will have had our Christmas Fair and we hope to be able to tell you how successful it was and how much money we raised in the next edition of the Elmham News. For now, we just want to send a huge thank you to all of the volunteers who made it possible, to everyone who donated an item (or few!) to our hamper raffle and to everyone who came along and made the event a wonderful success!

If you have a child who is 2 and above and may be interested in joining playgroup, either with or without funding, please do contact us on: 01362 668091 for more details.

Finally, we are hoping to launch a new website soon after Christmas, so please do keep an eye out for our big launch :-            

Ruth Collins