Autumn Term Week 11
Christmas has arrived at pre-school! We love this time of year and making the pre-school feel festive and exciting and full of wonder and joy. We have a beautiful Arctic book nook outside, filled with blankets and cushions and winter themed books and stories and it has been a lovely addition, time to sit and talk and read and people watch! We have a list there to see which children use the book nook a lot and which children we need to encourage into it to enjoy a book so that we have time to chat about the story, test understanding and knowledge and work out next steps for literacy. It is working really well and it is a lovely place to talk and watch what is going on in the garden and is really giving children who like a quiet space time to be relaxed and learn.
Our Santa Sleigh is in progress and can seat 27 children! The term will race past now and we are really looking forward to our Christmas Performance on the 12th December. There is some more info on the noticeboard in reception but we will be at the Cullompton Community Centre all day so the pre-school gates and building will be closed all day. Drop off to the Centre and please call the mobile on the day for any absences.
We have enjoyed our focus on literacy this week and the children have made huge progress and really are able to recognise the initial letter and sounds at the beginning of their name and start to write the letter too! We have been thrilled with how well they have engaged and learnt this week and with the brilliant attention and listening skills we are going to work on some Maths next week to see where they all are and where we can start with planning their next areas of learning. The curriculum we have is so fun and exciting with so much to cover over our year in a sequence so observations of the children are really important and we are lucky to be a free flow setting and all staff can observe all children.
Circle times
Star – we have all had a focus on early literacy so lots of stories and the beginnings of talking about letter sounds and seeing the difference between words and pictures, letters and numbers and rhythm and rhyme.
Sun and Moon – Name hunts, recognising letters, reading stories with story sacks, opening a letter from Pudsey and reading what was inside, finding and saying letter sounds and another brilliant visit from Robot Reg.
We are practising our Christmas Songs now so here are two for you to practice at home!
Twinkle Twinkle Christmas lights
Lighting up December nights
Red and Yellow, orange and blue
Making such a lovely view
Twinkly twinkle Christmas lights
Lighting up December nights
Donkey Donkey don’t you stop
Just let your feet go clippety clop
Your tail goes swish and you say eyore
We are nearly at the stable door
We look forward to our last half of this half term – finishing on the 15th December and back on the 2nd January.