01.11.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a lovely half term. 

This week in school sees the start of the new dinner menu. We are starting on Week 1 and the new menu can be found here.

This half term we will be working on our new project "Once Upon A Time". I have uploaded an overview sheet for this project to the Early Years section on the school website. It can be found here. 

So on to our learning for the coming week, we will be starting our project with the traditional tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

We will be:

• Reading different versions of the Goldilocks story.
• Creating some puppets of Goldilocks and the Bears to help us retell the story in our own words.
• Comparing objects by their size in our Mathematics sessions and deciding which character they are for.
• Continuing our Phonics sessions and learning our first 2 tricky words.
• Creating some fabulous firework pictures using different media in our new creative area.
• Bringing home our first reading books. These books will be changed on a weekly basis and it would be really helpful if the children could bring them in to school every day.

Home learning ideas:

To tie in with our work in class, you may like to try some of these ideas at home, it would be lovely to see what you chose to do, please feel free to email any photos etc to earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

1. Make some porridge playdough, the recipe can be found here.
2. Compare objects by their size - who has the biggest hands in your family? Who has the smallest feet? Who is the tallest? Who is the shortest?
3. Share the story at home, a version of it can be found here.

See you in the morning!

Miss Wakefield

Happy Half Term!

Hello everyone!

WOW! We have reached the end of our first half term at school and what a busy one it has been. The children have settled into school life so well and I am very proud of how well they have adapted. 

Today the children have brought home an art folder, this has all the drawings they have been busy creating this half term. Also within the folder are the latest sound cards for this week. As before, I have updated the Phonics section on the Early Years part of the school website and it now includes the sounds from this week. These can be found here. 

Christmas Cards

Also in your child's art folder, you will find a white envelope containing their Christmas card design. This design can be professionally made into Christmas cards and other items. There is a covering letter which explains the process and how you can order your child's cards online should you wish to. If you have placed an order, tick the box on the sheet to show you have and then you must bring the design back into school on Monday 1st November as they are being collected to send to the print studio to be manufactured.

School Council Elections

In the first week back after half term, each class will be holding an election to choose one person to be part of our new school council. During half term, you might like to discuss with your child whether they would be interested in standing in this election. Discuss how a member of the school council needs to be a good listener but also able to express their own ideas and those of their class during meetings. Children choosing to stand might also like to create a poster showing why they think they would be a good candidate for the council. We look forward to sharing the results of the election at the end of our first week back. Happy campaigning!

Harvest Festival Collection

Thank you so much to all of you that have contributed to our Harvest Festival collection this year for South Essex Extended Services. Every single donation does make a difference and is given to children and families in our own local community that need it the most. 

RRS A 27: Every child has the right to a standard of living good enough to meet their physical, social and mental needs.

Finally, I look forward to meeting with you tomorrow. 

Have a lovely half term!

Miss Wakefield

18.10.21 - This coming week in Early Years

This week we have enjoyed going on an Autumn walk, exploring our Ladybird Garden to find different coloured leaves. We also enjoyed joining with Key Stage 1 on Friday for some of our playtime. It was lovely to spend some time with other children in school. We are going to continue this on a daily basis from next week.

You may have seen the box outside the gate at drop off and pick up times. This is for our Harvest Festival collection. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. We have been singing the Harvest Festival Samba during snack times this week. A link to the Harvest Blog can be found here, there is a link to the song at the bottom of the blog - enjoy!

This coming week is the start of the new times for Pearl Class. The children are now starting at 8.55am and finishing at 2.50pm. The information regarding these changes can be found here.

On to our learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "Pumpkin Soup" about the Cat, the Duck and the Squirrel and talking about how they behaved towards each other in the story.
• Talking about pumpkins, using our different senses.
• Seeing how many seeds there are inside a pumpkin and counting them carefully.
• Learning another set of sounds in our Phonics sessions.
• Continuing and creating repeating patterns in our Mathematics sessions.
• Completing the writing planned for last week - we ran out of time!
• Bringing home our Christmas card designs on Thursday.

Don't forget Friday is an INSET day, so the children are not in school that day. This is the day of our parent/teacher consultations. I will be sending the link for the ZOOM meetings out on Wednesday. The children will then have their half term break and school returns on Monday 1st November. 

As always, if you have any questions or are unsure about something then please do email me using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

11.10.21 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had an exciting week this week, starting our Phonics sessions and learning our first 4 sounds. All of the children have brought home their sound folder today. This contains the sounds we have learnt so far. On the Early Years part of the school website there are some clips which you may find helpful, I have shown them to the children and told them to say it is your homework! The clips include how to use the sounds at home and how we say our sounds in school. If you are not sure if your child is saying the sounds correctly then please use this to check. (Sounds are said differently in school to how you may have been taught them). If you have any queries then please do get in contact, using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. The clips can be found here. 

Parent/Teacher Consultations

You are now able to book an appointment to meet with me on Friday 22nd October, 8:30am to 3:30pm. Please use the Scopay app/website to secure your slot. (The children brought home an envelope with these details this week). This meeting will be via Zoom and a meeting link will be sent to you nearer the time. Many thanks to those of you who have already booked. If you have any difficultly booking a slot, please do let me know.

Phase Group Emails

Please remember that I am always available to contact using the Early Years email. I will always respond as soon as possible, but this may not be until the following working day if sent in the evening or a Monday if sent at the weekend. 

If you wish to let me know of an absence, a medical appointment or a change in drop-off/collection arrangements, please can you contact the school office by text or email rather than use this email, as it is the office staff that will collect your child to take to the gate and, as you can imagine, I am unable to check the emails regularly during teaching hours.

Now onto our learning for the coming week, we will be:

• Learning the next 4 sounds in our Phonics sessions.
• Learning about the importance of finger spaces when trying to write.
• Continuing with our "Just Like Me!" work in Mathematics, this week we will be sorting and comparing objects.
• Going on an Autumn walk around the school grounds and seeing how many different colours we can find.
• Talking about how we have changed since we were a baby. Many thanks to everyone who has sent in a baby photo so far. PLEASE send in a photo by Monday, this can be done via email if that is easier. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield

04.10.21 - This coming week in Early Years

We have had another lovely week in Pearl Class. On Wednesday we successfully completed our very first fire drill! Mrs Nelson was SO impressed with us all that everyone got one of her special stickers.

In a few weeks time we will be looking at how we have changed since being a baby. It would be lovely if the children could either bring in a baby photo OR for 1 to be emailed in for us to print out in school. Please email them to earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. We need them by Monday 11th October, as we will use them that week.

The children's photo has been sent off to the Echo for their New Intake supplement. They have informed me that this will be published on Tuesday 12th October.

You may have seen on this week's newsletter, children in Pearl Class will be having their height and weight checks on 18th and 19th October. You should have all received a letter about this via email. If you haven't had it, please let me know and I will check with the office. 

Now on to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Starting our daily Phonics sessions, learning our first 4 sounds.
• Reading another story about the Ten in the Bed characters, this time they are playing Hide and Seek.
• Using our teddy bear puppets that we made last week to play "Where's the Bear?" game in our Maths sessions.
• Singing our silly songs together, trying to remember the new one we have learnt about the greedy crocodile.
• Starting to create our Christmas card designs, these will come home over the half term holiday for you to see. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield