For the remainder of this term our topic will be ‘The natural world’. Please can you encourage your child to bring in an item each week (any day) linked to the topic or the letter sound of the week – please place in the ‘show and tell’ wicker box.  This is an important part of the pre-school routine, promoting language skills and valuing their home experiences, and one which the children love as they join in with our song “What’s in the box, what’s in the box...”. Our letter sound of the week will be particularly important for our older children who will be starting school this year – we will be following the Jolly phonics resources with songs and hand actions to accompany each letter sound. At this stage, emphasis should be on the sound of the letter i.e. a for apple, alligator, i for ink, igloo. Basic listening skills are key to being able to hear initial letter sounds, so we will be continuing with lots of ‘letters and sounds’ activities (singing, exploring musical instruments, clapping out rhythms and our names, listening to sounds around us etc)  

WEEK COMM         TOPIC                                       LETTER SOUND                                                                                                    

16^th January               Frozen planet                                                 a

23^rd January              Rainforest (and Chinese New Year)           t

30^th January               The Desert                                                     i

6^th February               The garden                                                    p

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Monday 30^th January – we are closed in the morning as we will be having an induction session for new children joining our group on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

Friday 10^th February – closed for Teachers Training Day.  We therefore finish on Thursday 9^th February as we break up for half term.  We return on Monday 20^th February.

STAY AND PLAY

It was great that so many of you were able to join us last term for ‘stay and play’ for either the whole or part of a session – a new rota is on the wall for this term.  This is a great opportunity to have a look at your child’s Learning Journey.  Focused observations were carried out on all the children last term – if you have not had a chance to see your child’s yet, then please do try and join us in the next few weeks.

APPEAL - HOME BOOKS

These are an important part of helping us to value your child’s home life as well as providing discussion points to promote language. The children love to look at and share their books, especially if they include photographs and pictures. So a special plea for you all to try and update your child’s book regularly - we do have a spare camera, so if you would like to borrow this, please just ask, we can then print the pictures for you to add to your book. Also, please let me know if you have mislaid your book and need a new one.