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Firstly, I would like to say thank you to everyone who attended our Nativity play. The children performed brilliantly, and I hope you all enjoyed the event.
Looking forward to the first half of the Spring Term 2020, our theme will be ‘All about me’. This will be broken down as follows:
- Week commencing 6th January - My body
- Week commencing 13th January - My hands
- Week commencing 20th January - My feet
- Week commencing 27th January - My family
- Week commencing 3rd February - My senses
- Week commencing 10th February - My feelings
Please encourage your child to bring into pre-school anything they feel is connected in any way to our themes each week, and please make sure everything is clearly named as the children are split into two groups at discussion time and what they bring in is sorted by staff at the beginning of the session.
On Wednesday 15th January we will be having a visit from a community dental therapist, who will be talking to the children about why we need to keep our teeth clean, and how we can do this.
On Tuesday 21st January, we will be setting up a shoe shop in the role play area. We would be very grateful if the children could wear shoes or boots they can manage themselves on this day, or at least with zips, buckles or Velcro, as this will make it much easier for them to take part in the role play.
On Thursday 23rd January, when we will be talking about ‘my feet’, we would be grateful if you could send in a pair of wellies with your child, as they will be wearing them out in the garden on that morning. Please make sure they are in a named carrier bag, and preferably individually named as well.
During the week commencing 27th January, when we will be talking about families, it would be appreciated if the children could bring in a photograph of their family or a member of their family. It would be helpful to us if these photographs did not need to be returned to you, but if you wish to have them back please put them in an envelope with a note on the front telling us you would like them returned.
On Thursday 30th January we will be holding a parents’ morning, where you will be able to book an appointment with either myself or Jeannette to discuss your child’s development, and any other issues you wish to raise. More information, together with details of how to book an appointment, will be sent out at the beginning of next term. Parents of children joining us at the beginning of the Spring Term will not need to attend the parents’ morning, as they will be seeing their child’s key person regularly during the first few weeks of term.
If you have any questions concerning the themes or events for this half-term please speak to myself or any member of staff at the end of any session.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone for all the cards and presents the staff have received which are very much appreciated. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and look forward to seeing you back at pre-school from Monday 6th January.
Spring Term Curriculum-First Half
We will be welcoming 9 new children into pre-school in January. We will be encouraging kindness and helpfulness towards the new children to help them feel settled.
There will be a focus on responding to adults appropriately in association with feelings e.g. it makes us happy when people say hello! There will also be an emphasis on good manners and using please and thank you in the setting.
We will continue to be promoting independence with regard to putting on coats and managing fastenings. During this term we will be having a role play shoe shop so please send your child in with shoes they can fasten themselves. There will also be an activity where the children can walk in different textures in their wellies.
We will be looking at throwing and catching in week 2 when the focus is on our hands along with doing some finger painting.
As the cold weather continues, we will continue to reinforce the importance of blowing noses and washing hands
During story time there will be discussions about the feelings of the characters in the books as well as opportunities to enact the different roles within a story using role play and puppets.
We continue to promote mark making in role play such as making shopping lists or taking doctor’s notes. In the setting we will be using cornflour and water to provide a different medium for mark making
There will be different role play opportunities such a dance studio, a birthday party and a shoe shop this term.
Using collage resources the children will be able to decorate hands , feet and body shapes.
We will be exploring texture and patterns in craft activities. The children will have the chance to express emotion though music and movement with scarves.
We will be having conversations throughout this term related to the topic e.g. talking about our families, our bodies and what makes us feel happy or sad. This theme will continue through songs and stories too.
We continue to encourage turn taking in conversation and to promote good listening skills. During week 5 we will be playing sound lotto to focus on our hearing.
We will be talking about our families and making a album of photos and pictures of all the children’s families.
We will be looking at our senses during week 5 using interest tables and activities such as tasting food at snack time and using touch in feely boxes.
Using different games we will be looking at our feelings and emotions in conjunction with stories about sharing and being kind to others.
We will be talking about keeping healthy and infection control especially relating to coughing, blowing noses and washing hands.
We will be looking at height during this term- making a height chart of all the children by drawing around them and measuring how tall they are.
We will be using our fingers to represent numbers in counting songs and handling money when playing in shop role play.
We continue to promote number awareness through games, puzzles, posters and books.
- Help promote independence by dressing your children in clothes/ shoes they can manage themselves.
- Maybe draw round your child’s hands or feet, decorate them and let the children bring their pictures in for discussion
- Talk to your children about what makes them happy, cross or sad
- Use counting songs such as ‘1 2 3 4 5 Once I caught a fish alive’ and your fingers or toes to encourage awareness of numbers to 10
Monday 6th January 2020 - term starts
Wednesday 15th January - visit from a community dental therapist
Thursday 30th January - Parent's morning