Happy Easter

Mrs Fincham and I have been SO proud of all the children over these last 3 weeks. They have settled back into our routine and school life SO well. 

After the holiday we will be starting a new project "Minibeasts". I have updated this section of the Early Years site with some information for you about the project and a sheet for the children to complete too. These can be found here. 

I would also encourage you to remember to keep using your child's sound cards and their Big Cat online library. Quick recall of our sounds is SO important in supporting the children with both their reading and writing. After the break we will be starting to read books in school more and more and these books will be the same as those you can access at home, although the children have a far wider selection to pick from online. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to keep the phonics ticking over as this will contribute to your child's progress across the whole curriculum.

Wishing you all a lovely Easter holiday. 

Miss Wakefield

22.03.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone,

It has been another busy week in Pearl Class. We have been enjoying celebrating the WOWs that have come in this week, please remember that we love to hear about anything that the children have done that have made you proud. Please send them in using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. 

After Easter we hope to start reading with the children in school, these books will not be able to come home yet, but will match those that are in your child's Big Cat online library.

On to our new learning for this week:

• Sharing the story "Stuck" by Oliver Jeffers.
• Watching a film clip by Oliver Jeffers showing how to draw one of his characters, a moose, and then having a go for ourselves.
• Comparing objects by weight, finding out which penguin is the lightest and which is the heaviest.
• Learning the last Phase 3 tricky word in our Phonics sessions.
• Using non-fiction books to find out some facts about penguins and then working together to try to write some of these facts.
• Listening to the Easter story from the Bible.
• Going on an Easter Hunt on Friday.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Take care

Miss Wakefield

15.03.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone,

What a busy, tiring but happy week we have had in Pearl Class, which culminated in us celebrating the 100th day since the children started school! As I mentioned in my email, the children have made me SO proud this week, in so many different ways. We have spent lots of time this week getting back into our routine and it has been so lovely to see the children playing with their friends and having fun - there has been LOTS of giggling! 😀 Some of the things that were planned for last week have moved to this week as settling the children back into school life was obviously our priority.

This week, the children all got to add their fingerprint to our leveret Lenny and over the weekend I will be uploading photos of how he looks now that the whole school have helped to complete him (whilst remaining in their class bubbles). Individual photos of Pearl Class adding their prints will be added to their Learning Journey books.

On to our new learning for this week:

• Sharing the story "The Way Back Home" by Oliver Jeffers, this another book about the Boy. We will be comparing how this book links to last week's story.
• Watching a film clip by Oliver Jeffers showing how to draw one of his characters, a moose, and then having a go for ourselves.
• Comparing objects by height, finding out which penguin is the smallest and which is the tallest.
• Learning another new tricky word in our Phonics sessions.
• Using non-fiction books to find out some facts about penguins and then working together to try to write some of these facts.
• Finding out about some new Vocabulary Ninja words, learning their definitions and having a go at trying to spell them.
• Wearing something red for Comic Relief on Friday! More information about this is on this week's newsletter, which can be found here.

Don't forget you can always contact me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Take care

Miss Wakefield

08.03.21 - This coming week in Early Years

We've made it...the children are returning on Monday and I am SO looking forward to seeing them all. I also just want to take this moment to say a huge thank you to all of you lovely Pearl families for the emails, photos and support throughout the lockdown. Thank you for supporting the children with their learning, you are all stars! I am very grateful and appreciative of it all and it will certainly have helped the children as they return to school. You may have seen the item about Growth Mindset in this week's newsletter and this is very much the attitude we will be taking in school. Our intention is to ease them into the routine, whilst still allowing plenty of time for talking and settling back.

Here are just a few reminders for next week:

• The children are arriving and leaving via the Downhall Park Way entrance, Pearl Class start time is 9.15am and finish time is 2.45pm. For those children with siblings in school, they can arrive at their sibling's allotted time. We would really appreciate it if you could aim to arrive as close to these times as possible, so to minimise the number of people at the gate. Parents are asked to wear a face covering when dropping off and collecting their child. A full list of class timings can be found here.
• The children will need to remember to bring in a water bottle everyday. The new dinner menu can be found here or alternatively they can bring in a packed lunch.
• It might be a good idea if the children wrap up warm as school is not the warmest of places when all the windows and doors are open. They will also need to remember to bring in a coat everyday as you can never rely on the British weather!
• Our PE day is still FRIDAY.

On to our new learning, this week we will be:

• Settling back into our daily routine at school.
• Spending time talking with each other about things we have been doing during Lockdown.
• Sharing the story "How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers, this was his very first book about the Boy.
• Watching a film clip by Oliver Jeffers showing how to draw one of his characters and then having a go for ourselves.
• Learning about 3D shapes in our Mathematics sessions.
• Learning a new tricky word in our Phonics sessions.
• Reaching our 100th day in school on Friday!

On Monday the children will be bringing home their World Book Day vouchers. We are aware that these can be used in the major supermarkets. They will also be bringing home their art folders from the Autumn term and the sound cards for Phase 3. These have all been quarantined in school during this week ready for them to go home on Monday.

Don't forget you can still contact me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com should you have any questions or queries.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!!!!

Take care

Miss Wakefield