We tried the porridge and some children liked it, but others were not so keen, we discussed how it is good to keep trying new foods and textures. We also talked about things we could add to the porridge and what we have at home in our porridge such as fruit, honey and sometimes a little bit if sugar.

COVID19

Thank you for your cooperation with the current situation, it is a situation we are having to deal with a day to day basis following advice from Public Health England; the DFE; and, Oxfordshire County Council. If your child has any of the following symptoms:

• • A cough
• • A temperature above 37.8
• • Flu-like symptoms
• • A cold

we ask you to follow the government’s advice and not bring them to Nursery School for seven days. Thank you to all those parents who have let us know their situation if we have to operate from a reduced register, in the case where are staffing levels are reduced. If you have not yet had this conversation with us then please do so on Monday so we can be clear about which days are essential for you for your child to attend Nursery School.

Washing Hands

As the UK has moved from the “contain” to the “delay” phase in its fight against the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, we are looking at ways in which we can delay the spread of the illness in school. Please can I ask all families to ensure that children wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap and hot water BEFORE they come to school. From Monday 16th March our morning routine will be slightly altered – we would like children to start coming into school through the bathroom doors (we will direct you), then they are able to go straight to the sink in the bathroom to wash hands again. A member of staff will be on duty first thing tomorrow to co-ordinate this change. Children will wash their hands before leaving school every day and I would advise children wash their hands once more when they get home.

If your child arrives late to Nursery School, then please take your child straight to the bathroom and ensure they wash their hands before you leave.

Maths

This week we recapped on number ‘1’ using the number blocks video and discussed what we knew about the number and showed ‘1’ in many ways. Then we looked at number ‘2’, we had fun joining in with the song and dancing along to it at the end of the day. We looked at the concept of ‘2’ and recognised we all have 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 socks, 2 shoes / boots, 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 nostrils and Harry showed us 2 dinosaurs. Here is the link for the number blocks songs, we will look at number 3 this week.

News

We are very excited to announce we have recruited a new member of staff Isabelle will be joining us for every morning session, we very much welcome Isabelle, please feel free to introduce yourself.

Reminders

• • Please can we ask we check your child for headlice, we have had a recent reported case. Please treat if necessary and check and repeat the following week to ensure you have broken the cycle. Thank you.

• • Please remember to share anything significant with us no matter how big or small, if your child has not slept well, not been eating very well, has had an accident that we may need to monitor such as a head bump, is feeling cross etc. If we know we can support them much better throughout the day.

Links to support learning at home

We have sent you some of these in the past but for anyone new here are some good links to learning, especially useful if you find you are forced to stay home with your child in the coming weeks. We shall keep in touch through the newsletter come what may with ongoing help and advice.

Early Year Topmarks offer some maths games you can explore with your child.

Pure sound pronunciation link.

Jolly phonic songs link.

Phonics can be embedded easily into everyday routines and play, phase 1 is split into the following aspects:

• Environmental sounds – To raise your child’s awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills. Activities suggested in the guidance include going on a listening walk, drumming on different items outside and comparing the sounds, playing a sounds lotto game and making shakers.

• Instrumental sounds – This aspect aims to develop your child’s awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers. Activities include comparing and matching sound makers, playing instruments alongside a story and making loud and quiet sounds.

• Body percussion – The aim of this aspect is to develop your child’s awareness of sounds and rhythms. Activities include singing songs and action rhymes, listening to music and developing a sounds vocabulary.

• Rhyme and rhythm – This aspect aims to develop your child’s appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. Activities include rhyming stories, rhyming bingo, clapping out the syllables in words and playing odd one out.

• Alliteration – The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.

• Voice sounds – The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting. Activities include Metal Mike, where children feed pictures of objects into a toy robot’s mouth and you sound out the name of the object in a robot voice – /c/-/u/-/p/ cup, encourage your child to join in.

• Oral blending and segmenting – In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills. To practise oral blending, you could say some sounds, such as /c/-/u/-/p/ and see if your child can pick out a cup from a group of objects. For segmenting practise, you could hold up an object such as a sock and ask the children which sounds they can hear in the word sock.

We hope you have all had a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

Best Wishes

The Nursery School Team