This week in Preschool 30.1.23

Good morning,

This week we will begin reading our new focus story, Giraffes Can't Dance. Over the next 2 weeks, we will be using this story to develop the children's understanding of this half term's Character Education Gateway, Exploration. This week, reading activities will include reading and discussing the story, looking at new vocabulary/rhyming words and talking about what we like/don't like about the story. We hope that your child will begin to discuss the story with you at home. In discussions at Preschool, we will be commenting on Gerald's ability to seek challenge as he aspires to become a better dancer. The story will also be used to enhance our learning environment with activities such as, giraffe drawing, painting, jungle small world activities and dancing.

In Phonics this week, we will be providing opportunities for the children to explore sounds they can make with their bodies. We will explore body percussion through games and listening activities. We will also continue to sing the alphabet song and encourage the children to think about the initial sound in their name.

Our older children will also learn about the letter D this week. The children will practise saying the letter name and sound. We will also practise identifying the sound in words and will have a go at writing the letter in the air as well as on paper. We've been really impressed with how lots of the children have continued to explore our focus letters when playing independently after learning about them on the carpet. The children have been excited to tell us when they have seen our focus letters in the environment and many have been writing them in their own initiated mark making too.

In Maths this week, we will be exploring length. We will compare the length of different items in our environment using vocabulary such as ‘longer than’, ‘longest’, ‘shorter than’, ‘shortest’, ‘same’ and ‘equal’. We will link this to our focus book by exploring the different lengths of animals. We will also explore ways we can measure length, for example by counting how many of the same size cube something is. This will introduce children to a unit of measurement.

Have a lovely Monday!

The Preschool Team 😊