Good Morning,
We hope you had lovely weekends and that your child enjoyed their first week back/first week at Preschool. The children came back brilliantly after Christmas and have enjoyed chatting about what they have been up to. Thank you to those families that sent in some photos on Tapestry; the children love seeing their photos on the big screen and sharing their experiences from home. Our new children all did brilliantly and have been happy playing with lots of different resources. We are super proud of all of them for how well they are managing the transition to our Preschool.
During our provision time we follow the children’s interests and create ‘in the moment’ learning opportunities as they play. This may mean creating a doctor’s surgery, dancing or singing to Disney songs, looking up facts online about dinosaurs, creating junk model rockets or whatever else we can to develop your child’s learning through their own interests and chosen play. Alongside this, each week in Preschool we have carpet times that focus on reading, phonics and maths. Our environment is also enhanced with activities which link to these learning objectives. On Mondays, you will receive this weekly update memo telling you all about the learning that is going to take place throughout the week. We hope this will enable you to encourage discussions with your child about their time at Preschool.
This week we begin our new focus story which is called, Don't Be Afraid, Little Pip. Reading and discussing stories is important for children's developing literacy skills and at Preschool we read and discuss stories at least once a day. Over the next 3 weeks, we will be using this story to introduce this term's Character Education focus, Explorers to the children. We will be encouraging the children to think about what they are passionate about and how they challenge themselves. As we read the story we will be asking the children: What is Pip passionate to learn? Does Pip challenge himself? Is Pip happy with what he achieves and how do you know? Our environment will also be enhanced with winter and polar themed activities such as ice and snow play, snowflake playdough and a story themed tuff tray.
In phonics this week, the younger children will be starting Phase One of Letters and Sounds and will be focussing on Environmental Sound Discrimination. We will be having ‘listening moments’ both indoors and outside and will encourage the children to describe the sounds they can hear around them. Below are two links to some great clips that encourage listening skills that you may want to listen to with your child at home.
In Maths this week we will be focusing on number. We have lots of games to play through which our preschoolers will be encouraged to recognise amounts of objects by counting or subitising and matching amounts to the correct numeral. We will also have number activities out in provision each day that the children can explore either independently or with an adult. Please find below a link to a counting game that you may wish to play with your child at home.
In Makaton we will recap some of the signs we learnt early in the year as a way of introducing sign to our new starters. Please find a link below in case you would like to practise Makaton at home. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/playlist-something-special-really-useful-makaton-signs#playlist
Thank you for your continued support. As always, please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions or queries.
The Preschool Team 😊
