To our dear parents and carers,
Well, the term and autumn are both really underway now! Summer’s lovely cotton leggings on their own are no longer warm enough! Thicker waterproof coats; two or three layers on BOTH top halves and legs; a good amount of clothes to change into in your child’s school bag and wellies or boots that allow double layers of socks. We will do the rest and make sure that your child is warm, dry and happy in the outdoors. (see below for indoors plans)
This week at Nursery School
We have been noticing signs of Autumn this week, both in group time: looking at things from the nature table which you helped make. Your child thought of words to describe how things feel and discussed why we wear warmer clothes in autumn. We had lots of practice for how to flip our coats on when we need to keep warm.
On a larger scale many children have got stuck right into autumn with tidy up the garden jobs. Helping in real tasks is an important part of how we teach at ACE Centre Nursery School. Children feel strong, useful, able, important, connected and fulfilled when we work together. They experience that they are part of something positive and fun which is bigger than they are. They grow a helpful and positive relationship to their friends, their community and themselves as they learn to value their own part in that. A “companionable apprenticeship” is what educationalist Rosie Roberts calls it (Rosie Roberts “Wellbeing from birth to five 2005) and many good things grow around working together to get the job done (Bob the Builder).
Links to home learning
You can use this principle at home with household tasks and in each job celebrate maths learning as well. Why not set yourself and your child the following challenges this week:
Laying the table together
“can you get/ pass me 3 forks from the draw, repeat with spoons”
Collecting Letters
Will you collect the letters from the doormat and put them in piles of 3 on the table. Check the amount in each pile. “how do you know that’s 3?” “prove its 3” “how many piles/ lots of 3 are there?”
Doing the washing
I need to hang up 3 socks. Can you find 3 socks please. I need 3 pegs. Can you hang up 3 socks. (this might lead to discussion about 3 being the wrong number for socks – 2 feet, pairs, one mor, one less to get the right number)
Sweeping up leaves in the garden.
Fill up the trug/ bucket/ bag. How do you know its full? Can you put half the leaves in another pile. Which pile has more? How do you know that? How could you check? (interesting if you think of and explore weighing them as well as counting them!)
An important teaching tip
Let them be the expert finding out just keep them going with your interest in what they are doing. If you give the right answer, the solution, the finish line, before they have walked through their investigation themselves, you can squash their finding out part (that’s the fun learning part). Let them get it wrong and support them to try again. Praise their investigating skills rather than getting it right first time. That way they grow and learn, rather than just feeling right or wrong.
Notices and housekeeping
Indoors as well as outdoors learning this winter
- To keep your child, their class and teachers as safe as possible through the autumn and the winter we shall continue teaching mainly outdoors. However, we shall also be opening up a part of the indoor classroom every day. We shall do this to deliver a valuable learning experience and provide shelter from the weather. We plan to devote a large uncluttered space indoors to an ongoing project designed around Art, Science, Mark-making or Problem Solving. This is an exciting new way to work and we think your children will really enjoy and benefit from developing their creations or investigations over the week.
- Please keep up your fruit and cracker donations. We are always very grateful.
Next week
- Feedback forms for settling into Outdoor learning Nursery School this term will be coming out this week. Please everyone give your valuable feedback on these as listening to and responding to your feedback makes the nursery school work better and better.
Love from
The ACE Centre Nursery School Team
