Good morning,
We hope you all enjoyed your weekends. Christmas seems to be fast approaching and is now less than 5 weeks away! Last week the children enjoyed beginning to learn songs for our Christmas sing-along. We will be making lanterns this week for The Lantern Parade. Children who attend on a Friday afternoon will be joining the rest of the school on the local lantern parade leaving school at approx 1:30pm from school. A memo will be sent out later in the week about this. If you would like to join in with the lantern parade on Saturday 26th, you can meet the rest of the school at 4:45pm outside The Prince William pub.
Next week, we will begin our new focus story, ‘Dear Santa’ but this week we have decided to have a week learning about Australia after the children were so intrigued by a child’s holiday pictures. We will learn where Australia is, what the weather is like, how the seasons differ from our own, about Australian animals and The Great Barrier Reef and will finish the week learning about how Christmas is celebrated in Australia. If you or your family have ever visited Australia, we would be very grateful if you could add some photographs from your trip to Tapestry.
In Maths this week, we will be exploring size. We will make comparisons between big and small, long and short, wide and narrow, heavy and light. We will then go on to explore ordering items by size and will discuss and explain our thinking.
In Phonics this week, we will continue to learn about alliteration. We will play games that encourage the children to listen to and remember the initial sound in words and will develop their ability to match words with the same initial sound. You can support your child’s learning at home by making up silly sentences that include lots of words with the same initial sound. A good example of this is the traditional tongue twister, Peter Piper: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper; A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, Where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked? We would love to see videos of your child trying to say this tongue twister if they show an interest in learning it!
As always, please let us know if you have any concerns or worries. We understand the pressure parents feel as Christmas approaches and are always happy to help however we can. Below are some tips we would like to offer to help with the financial worry Christmas can bring: 1. Sell unwanted toys as Christmas approaches. This makes room for new toys while helping bring in some pennies. 2. Before buying large items such as Barbie Dreamhouses and Hot Wheels City tracks, check eBay and Facebook Marketplace for second hand items. These are often sold like new for half the price with additional accessories thrown in and you don't have to build them on Christmas Eve/Day! 3. Print photographs of your children and buy frames from places like The Range for relatively cheap but sentimental gifts for Grandparents/other family members. 4. Let go of thinking you need to spend exactly the same amount of money on your preschool child as you do any older siblings. Gifts for older children are often much more expensive and your preschool child could end up with dozens of presents if you match the amount spent on a gift for an older child. At this age, children have little concept of money, and they will have no idea that their 5 presents still don't equal the same amount as their sibling's 1 pair of trainers! 5. If you buy for adults in your family, suggest doing ‘Secret Santa’ instead. Place names of the participating adults in your family in a hat and all draw out one name each to buy for. 6. Make Christmas cards together with your child rather than buying them or send an electronic greeting card instead. 7. Festive treats don't have to be expensive. A walk around your local area enjoying the lights and decorations that people put up is a tradition that we love to do as a family as well as watching the Train of Lights at Goodrington. If you have a zoo pass, we have seen that Mrs Santa is doing free story telling sessions in December and the Yes centre in Brixham have a free grotto too.
If you come across any free Christmas events or have any other useful tips, please feel free to comment on the memo to share them with the rest of our families.
The Preschool Team 😊
