At the beginning of the week the children made potato hedgehogs, and then went on to wrap them in colourful ribbons before they were hidden in the garden for the children to find, using torches. We discussed the importance of wearing bright colours to be seen more easily when walking in the dark.

We have also been making snakes with the playdough with a focus on length, we have modelled and encouraged words to describe length such as – long, longer, longest, small, smaller, smallest, biggest etc.

To support this week’s learning at home you could:

• • You could go on a shape hunt in your house.
• • When walking or in the car look at and discuss road signs on your way.
• • Compare and discuss sizes as and when the opportunity arises.

Phonics

This week we have been learning poems from the Poetry Basket ‘Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop’ and ‘The leaves are Falling’. These have gone down well with the children, together we are learning the words and actions. We are going to create a board by the parents notice board in reception to display our weekly poems.

Information

• Can we ask that if you need to hand out any party invitations to the children that you do it discreetly at the end of a session please. Staff will support you to do this.

Dates

• Parent Teacher consultations are next week on Tuesday 26th (all colour groups) and Wednesday 27th (all groups except blue). If you have not signed up, please do.
• Parents Early Years Literacy Workshop will be held on Wednesday 9th December 2019.
• Our end of term Christmas Performances will be on Wed 18th December 2019.
• Our End of year Christmas party will be on Thursday 19th Dec 2019.

Our mini campaign for handwashing:

We’re teaching the children about the importance of washing their hands before lunch and after they’ve gone to the loo, and generally helping them practise it in a thorough way. We’ve also started to talk to them about germs, so they understand why it’s important to wash their hands and to put their hand over their mouths if they are coughing. We’ll be reading some great books about germs in the coming weeks. But this is what we’re saying to your children when washing hands:

– wet hands all over

– soap

– bubbles (the more and bigger the bubbles they can lather up, the better!)

– don’t forget the ‘backs’ (backs of your hands), and the ‘in-betweens’.

– rinse

– dry

This song is great to share with your child at home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJhWl1LLz5Q

Also, a good habit to get into with your children is for them always to wash their hands when they come home from school and in this way we should prevent the spread of too many coughs and colds this winter.

• Please can we ask that now the weather has turned colder you bring appropriate outdoor clothing; warm coats, hats, scarfs, gloves and wellies would be great (please remember to name everything!). We are doing our best to encourage the children to be as independent as possible when getting changed and unchanged.

Next week

• Our group times next week will be focused around science and we will continue to explore shape space and measure.
• Our phonics focus will be alliteration and rhyme.
• It is Zoe and Sarah’s last week, we will be very sad to see them go as they very much feel part of the team. We would like to take this opportunity to say a very big thank you for all they have done and wish them well with their training. They will both be fabulous teachers.

We hope you have great weekend, take care and we look forward to seeing you all next week.

Best Wishes

The Nursery School Team