Happy Christmas Everyone!

Hello everyone, 

We hope you all enjoyed our Nativity performance this morning, we are SO proud of the children and how hard they have worked to put it all together. We have turned their photographs into little decorations for your Christmas trees and hope that you have found these in their brown bags. If you'd like your child's photograph sent to you then please just email us using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

We also wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for your support this term and for the lovely Christmas cards and gifts we have received. You have been very kind and we are very appreciative.  

After Christmas we will start our new project "Dinosaurs". There is a project letter which will give you a little more information and there is also a sheet for the children to complete, to give us their ideas for this project. These can be found in the children's book bags. We would be very grateful if you would complete this with your child as we use the children's ideas to inform our future planning. The letters have also been added to the Early Years part of the website, under the "Our Projects" tab.

Finally, we would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year! We look forward to seeing you all on Thursday 5th January 2023, ready to start our next learning adventures!
With love
The Early Years Team

19.12.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

The children have had a very busy and exciting day today, with visits to see Father Christmas and Christmas shopping for our families. We were so lucky that Father Christmas spent the whole day at school and even came to our assembly this morning!

We have spent this week getting everything ready for our Nativity next week. We are sorry that this has meant we haven't had a chance to change any of the children's books, but we will rectify this next week. 

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

• Performing our Nativity to the rest of the school on Monday.
• Performing our Nativity to our families on Tuesday.
• Finishing off our Christmas mathematics activities from this week, counting objects and creating repeating patterns.
• Taking our Christmas cards and calendars home to share with our families.

For the performance on Tuesday all gates will be opened at 9.15am. Please make your way round to the front of the school (by the office) where you will be able to enter the hall via the double doors in the car park. The PTA will be offering teas and coffees and there will be a collection for the school charity at the end of the performance. PLEASE NOTE we have already taken photographs of the children in their costumes and you will not be able to take photos or film our Nativity, as already stated in the letter, as this would not comply with our safeguarding procedures.

The Echo should be publishing a photo of our Nativity as part of their supplement on Tuesday 20th.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

12.12.22 - This week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have been very busy this week, going into the hall to run through our performance and trying on our costumes. Some of the children will be bringing home their lines for our Nativity, we would be very grateful if you could help them practise their words.

On Monday your child will come home with 2 programmes for our Nativity. These act as your tickets so please bring them on the day. The performance will take place in the hall, you will be asked to enter this via the side doors which can be accessed from the school car park in Brooklyn Drive. The performance should last around 20-30 minutes. The PTA will be offering teas and coffees and there will also be a collection at the end of the performance for this year's chosen charity.

Christmas Jumper Day

The children looked fantabulous today in their Christmas Jumpers today and we have raised money that will continue to sponsor Thoko and  her local community in Malawi. We thought you might like to hear what Thoko wrote in her most recent letter to us. She writes:

Dear Down Hall

I am learning in Standard 4. I go to school everyday. I always work hard in classes and my end of term results are always good. When I finish school I want to be a nurse. Very soon we will start harvesting crops. Greetings to you!

Thoko

A local representative who oversees Action Aid's money also adds:

Dear Supporter

One of the problems in Primary Schools is the shortage of desks. As a way of addressing the issue, we bought desks and shared them with two Primary Schools in the Kalowe Zone. This initiative has helped increase the number of children who have access to sit at a desk. Thank you for your support which has really promoted education in the area.

It's amazing to think that from such a small act on our behalf, we can make such a big difference for the young people who live such a long way away but share our right to an education. Thank you all so much!

Today we also had a visit from Mrs Morgan, who brought along some of her instruments to play. She showed us how she plays the cornet, trombone and tenor horn and then she played a tune using a hose pipe and a funnel! We sang some Christmas songs together, playing different percussion instruments and had lots of fun!

Events

We have put up a poster with important dates on our noticeboard (next to the Early Years gate) along with publishing them here.

• Wednesday 14th December - Christmas Dinner at school (this needed to be pre-booked and the deadline for this has now passed)
• Friday 16th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Tuesday 20th December - Our Nativity

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Watching the Key Stage 1 children perform their Christmas production on Monday.
• Finishing our Christmas cards and calendars ready to take them home to our families.
• Playing the different games on Phonics Play.
• Enjoying our Christmas Dinner on Wednesday.
• Creating our own Fairy Light patterns and completing some Christmas counting activities in our Mathematics sessions.
• Enjoying the PTA's Christmas Bazaar and Santa's Grotto on Friday.

The last drop in for this year will be on WEDNESDAY.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

05.12.22 - This coming week in Early Years

This week has been just a little bit exciting! Our Christmas tree has returned from the Christmas Tree festival and we discovered today that it came 5th. We are sure that you would agree that the children's owls are stunning!

We have also been working hard learning the songs for our Nativity and hopefully today you all received a letter explaining the arrangements for our performance! Tickets will be issued in the form of a programme and these will come home on Monday 12th December.

The children have picked their parts and we have had a walk through of what each part does today. The costumes are all sorted and from next week some of the children will be bringing home some words to learn and we would be very grateful if you could support them with this.

Upcoming Events

We have put up a poster with important dates on our noticeboard (next to the Early Years gate) along with publishing them here.

• Friday 9th December - Christmas Jumper Day
• Wednesday 14th December - Christmas Dinner at school (this needed to be pre-booked and the deadline for this is TODAY 02/12)
• Friday 16th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Tuesday 20th December - Our Nativity

Christmas Jumper Day - Friday 9th December

On this day, the children can wear their fabulous festive jumpers and make a £1 donation which goes to our continued sponsorship of Thoko.  The charity Action Aid use this money to ensure that Thoko and the other children in her community enjoy their right to an education, just like all of us at Down Hall!  

SO, to clarify, on Friday the children need to wear their normal PE kit i.e. their jogging bottoms but with their Christmas jumper (instead of their PE sweatshirt).

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Practising our Nativity, singing the songs and learning our words.
• Starting to make our own Christmas cards and calendars for our families.
• Updating our name displays in the classrooms in our Start-Bee sessions.
• Working on our blending and segmenting of 3 phoneme words. 
• Learning more about 2D shapes in our Mathematics sessions and using them to create some Christmas pictures.
• Voting to pick this year's school charity and then finding out from our school councillors which one has been chosen.
• Wearing our Christmas jumpers for Christmas Jumper day on Friday and talking about Thoko. 

There is no drop in this week, there will be one the following week.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

28.11.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Today during our "How Many Days" song we realised that the children have been in school for 50 days! It has been a very busy 50 days and we are very proud of all of the children in Pearl and Quartz and how much they have learnt in this short amount of time.

Upcoming Events

As we approach a busy time of year there is an increasing number of events coming up. We thought it might be helpful if we added them to the blog each week. Further information is always in the newsletter.

• Tuesday 29th November - Flu Immunisations
• Thursday 1st December - Photograph orders (via school) MUST be in today by 9am.
• Friday 2nd December - Movie Night for EYFS and KS1
• Friday 9th December - Christmas Jumper Day
• Friday 16th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Tuesday 20th December - Our Nativity

 On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Using our sounds to segment to spell some 2 and 3 phoneme words.
• Finding 1 more and 1 less than a number in our Mathematics sessions.
• Remembering our learning from last week and using the shapes and fill tool when drawing on our interactive board.
• Talking about the start of Advent and our Advent calendar.
• Talking about different Christmas customs from around the world with our interactive Advent calendar.
• Decorating our classroom and putting up our Christmas tree in our Home Corner.
• Learning some of the songs for our Nativity.

Drop in this week will be on THURSDAY.

We are so proud of the children who come into school now by themselves - well done! For those that are still a little unsure, please continue to encourage your child by leaving them before reaching the Early Years gate. We appreciate that some mornings you may have messages for us and sometimes the children ask you to bring them but it would be wonderful if they could try.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

21.11.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

Today we have had a lovely day raising money for Children in Need. It has been a busy, fun packed day. We will have a total for the amount raised next week.

The children have brought home their last sets of sounds for Phase 2. We have now learnt all of the sounds for this phase and will now spend some time consolidating before moving on. Many thanks to all of you for supporting your child with their Phonics at home as we have seen the impact!

Upcoming Events

As we approach a busy time of year there is an increasing number of events coming up. We thought it might be helpful if we added them to the blog each week. Further information is always in the newsletter.

• Friday 25th November - Non-uniform day for the PTA, suggested donation of £1 OR some chocolate to go towards the tombola at the Christmas Bazaar.
• Tuesday 29th November - Flu Immunisations
• Friday 2nd December - Movie Night for EYFS and KS1
• Friday 9th December - Christmas Jumper Day*

*The PTA will be holding a Christmas Jumper Sale on 25th November if you need a new festive jumper!

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Reading the story "Each Peach Pear Plum" and trying to identify all the different nursery rhyme and story book characters.
• Identifying the rhyming words in our story and making a list of rhyming words.
• Starting our new phase in Mathematics, "Light and Dark", finding different ways to make 4 and 5 using our 10 frames and counters,
• Trying to learn the rhyme in the book, working on our memory skills!
• Learning how to use our lightboxes to help us write our names during our Start-Bee sessions.
• Working on our scissor skills by cutting out the different characters and then creating our own version of the final picture in the story.

This week's drop in will be on MONDAY.

In addition to the Maths homework we would be really grateful if you could help your child practise doing up their coat. With the change in weather this week we have lost minutes of our playtime as it is taking a long time, even with 3 adults, to do the children's coats. 

Thank you for your support, we hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

14.11.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello! 

It was so lovely to see so many of you at our Drop In last night. We hope you enjoyed looking at your child's Learning Journey and listening to our Phonic Songs. We have started to update the Phonics section of the website, the new letter formation rhymes are now there. The songs that the children have been learning can be found by clicking here. 

We were very proud of all of the children today when we all sat for the 2 minute silence as part of our work about Remembrance.

Here is some additional information about events happening next week:

School Photographs - Thursday 17th November

Individual and sibling photographs will be taken. You do not need to ask for the sibling photos to be taken, this will be done automatically.

Children In Need - Friday 18th November

This year to celebrate Children in Need, we will be having a pyjama day at school on Friday 18th November. Children can wear their favourite PJs to school, however please remember that all children still need to wear sensible outdoor shoes so that they will be safe going outside, and to also bring a coat. There will be a bucket for donations at the gates during the morning drop off and the suggested donation is £1.

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

• Reading different versions of the story "Little Red Riding Hood" and talking about the different characters.
• Discussing whether Red Riding Hood did the right thing during our Circle Time.
• Learning the last of our Phase 2 sounds in our Phonics sessions.
• Working with 2D shapes in our Mathematics sessions and going on a shape hunt around our class.
• Using our sounds to write a shopping list for Red Riding Hood.
• Carefully weaving paper strips, remembering the pattern of over, under, over, under, to create a basket effect.
• Testing our houses from last week by seeing if the Big Bad Wolf can blow them down. (We ran out of time this week to do this).

Drop in this week will be on TUESDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

07.11.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

We have enjoyed playing in the rain this week, spending time jumping in the puddles and watching the water drip from the canopy. We have also been trialling a new Phonics scheme, you may have heard your child singing some of our new songs - we will be updating the Phonics section of our class page to reflect these changes as soon as possible.

Just a few things to mention before we talk about the learning for this coming week. 

Poppies

Next week, the children will have the opportunity to purchase poppies within class. As well as the poppies, there are some other Royal British Legion merchandise (such as key rings, wrist bands and slap bands) which can be purchased. The suggested donation for these items are 50p for a poppy and £1 for other items. If you wish your child to get any of these, then please send them in with their money any day next week.

Book Fair

Our Book Fair takes place next week, it will be open Tuesday - Friday after school in the hall. We are only able to take cash at this fair.

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

• Reading different versions of this week's story, "The Three Little Pigs".
• Building houses using different construction materials and then testing them against a big bad wolf!
• Starting our Vocabulary Ninja sessions.
• Making our own Poppies for Remembrance.
• Watching the CBeebies film "Poppies" on Remembrance Day and observing the silence at 11am.

This week we will resume our drop in sessions after school. The drop in this week will be on THURSDAY.

Now that we have returned from half term and to encourage the children's independence, it would be great if you could try and let your child walk to our Early Years gate by themselves in the morning. There is an adult on each entrance to the school who can take any messages and we are always available for a chat at home time, or you can email us using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.

Have a lovely weekend, 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

31.10.22 - This coming week in Early Years

 Hello everyone! We 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.

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, learning the next 4 sounds.
• Continuing with our Start-Bee handwriting sessions, working on our patterns.
• Creating some fabulous firework pictures using different media.

The PTA have their Halloween Disco on Friday 4th November, tomorrow is the last day when you can get the prepaid price of £3.50 for this event. All information can be found here. 

See you in the morning!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

Happy Half Term Everyone!

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick blog to wish you all a lovely half term and to also explain all of the different things that have come home with the children today.

In your child's homework folder you should find:

1. The next set of sound cards. The film clips for these sounds are on our website, you can find them here.
2. Mathematics homework - this week we have been learning about patterns. We would love to see any of the children's patterns, please feel free to send us any photos using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com.
3. Your child's Christmas card design and the letter explaining the process. The deadline for the children's art work to be returned is Wednesday 2nd November. 
4. A piece of paper with "My Front Cover" on it. This is a competition to win a £5 voucher to be spent at our Book Fair (8th-11th November). Further information about this is on our newsletter. The front cover designs need to be returned by Monday 7th November.
5. A project letter telling you about our next project "Once Upon a Time" which we start after half term. This letter is also on our website and can be found here.

There will be a blog on Sunday 30th October to let you know about our first week back.

Have a lovely break!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

17.10.22 - 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. 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. (We may be saying the sounds differently in school to how you thought they were said). If you have any queries then please do get in contact, using earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. The clips can be found here. 

Thank you to everyone who did try the Maths activity from last week. From this week, the children now have a folder for these and we will be adding a new one most weeks. There is no expectation for these activities to be completed, but they match the work we will have done that week in class so will, we hope, be helpful for the children.

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 the next set of sounds in our Phonics sessions.
• Continuing and creating repeating patterns in our Mathematics sessions.
• Electing our school councillors for Pearl and Quartz.
• Bringing home our Christmas card designs on Thursday.

We are looking forward to seeing you all next week for our Parent / Teacher consultations. If you have signed up for a Monday meeting but you would wish this to be a face to face meeting, please do let us know. We are gauging how popular ZOOM meetings are still and don't want you to feel that you have to have a ZOOM meeting just because the Tuesday appointments were full. Face to face meetings will take place in the school hall, you will need to enter school via the main entrance (on Brooklyn Drive), however all gates will be open. The links for the ZOOM meetings will be sent via our Early Years email address on Monday. There will be no drop in next week due to these meetings, drop in sessions will continue next half term.

In preparation for next half term it would be great if you could start to try and let your child walk some of the way to our gate by themselves in the morning.

Finally, don't forget Friday is an INSET day, so the children are not in school that day. 

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

10.10.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

It was SO lovely to see so many of you at our first drop in. We hope you all enjoyed the chance to have a look around. The children have all come home with a Maths activity sheet, this links to the learning we have done this week. We would love to know if any of you give it a try at home.

There are 2 whole school messages again this week.

Harvest Collection

This year we will continue to support Rochford Extended Services with our Harvest collection. Donations will be boxed up and distributed by them to the children and families that need them most within our own local community. 

As a Gold Level Rights Respecting School, we do our best to advocate for Children's Rights and for sustainability. Articles 24 and 27 state that:

“Every child has the right to the best possible health and a good standard of living”

A big thank you to those of you who have already made donations, but there is still plenty of time if you have not yet. Please send in any non-perishable items (the children can bring them in) before Wednesday 19th October that would be fabulous and you can find a full list of suggested items here.  In school we will celebrate Harvest during the week of 17th October with some learning in class and by singing our favourite Harvest song in assembly.  Please enjoy having a go at the Harvest Samba here and thanks for any contributions you feel able to make.

Parent/Teacher Consultations

On Monday 17th October & Tuesday 18th October between 3.30-6.00pm we will be holding our Parent/Teacher consultations. This will be an opportunity to meet and discuss how your child has settled into school. This meeting can be either via ZOOM or an in person meeting. 

Please note, in the first instance, if you wish this to be a ZOOM meeting please book for the Monday and if you wish it to be held in person then please book for the Tuesday.

Bookings can be made from Monday 10th October from 9.00am and is done via Scopay. If you are unsure of your Scopay login, please go and see the office as they will be able to issue with your details. It is important to have these details as they will be used to book trips, pay dinner money and make Parent/Teacher meeting appointments throughout your child's time at Down Hall.

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

• Starting our daily Phonics sessions, learning our first 4 sounds.
• Continuing with our "Just Like Me!" work in our Mathematics sessions, this week we will be sorting and comparing objects.
• Starting our Start-Bee handwriting sessions, learning about the pencil grip song and how to use our special lightboxes. 
• Going on an Autumn walk around the school grounds and seeing how many different colours we can find.
• Carefully drawing around a template and then cutting out some Autumn leaves using different coloured paper.
• 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. 

This week our drop in will take place on FRIDAY.

DON'T FORGET, the children's photographs will be in the Echo on Tuesday as part of their New Starter supplement.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

03.10.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hi everyone, 

Today the children have brought home their reading folders and diaries. They were excited to pick their first "Core Books" to bring home. We would love to know how you get on at home sharing these books, so please, please do let us know by writing any comments in your child's reading diary. As mentioned in the diary these books will be changed on a weekly basis, but not necessarily on the same day each week, so please can they be in books bags every day.

We have 2 whole school messages this week to share this week: 

Harvest Collection

This year we will continue to support Rochford Extended Services with our Harvest collection. Donations will be boxed up and distributed by them to the children and families that need them most within our own local community. 

As a Gold Level Rights Respecting School, we do our best to advocate for Children's Rights and for sustainability. Articles 24 and 27 state that:

“Every child has the right to the best possible health and a good standard of living”

If you can send in any non-perishable items (the children can bring them in) before Wednesday 19th October that would be fabulous and you can find a full list of suggested items here.  In school we will celebrate Harvest during the week of 17th October with some learning in class and by singing our favourite Harvest song in assembly.  Please enjoy having a go at the Harvest Samba here and thanks for any contributions you feel able to make.

NSPCC’s Speak Out Stay Safe Programme

RRS Article 19: Children have the right to be safe

As a Rights Respecting School we are committed to keeping children safe and we are happy to be taking part in the NSPCC's safeguarding programme in school. This programme helps children to recognise abuse in a child friendly way and encourages them to speak out to a trusted Duty Bearer.

In school, children will watch an assembly delivered by Ant and Dec and then take part in follow up discussions in class. Please read the full details on the NSPCC letter here where you will find further links and resources that you can use at home to educate and support your child. We urge you to take a look at these.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to pop in and see us.

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

• 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.
• Welcoming our families into our classrooms after school, for our first drop in session on MONDAY.
• Starting to create our Christmas card designs, these will come home over the half term holiday for you to see and order (should you decide to).
• Changing our Core Books and picking another one to share this with our families.
• Learning how to play some Circle Time games together.

The following week 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 10th October, ready to use that week. 

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

26.09.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have been enjoying the sunny weather this week and having fun exploring our learning garden. The sand pit has been a great place for lots of fun so apologies for the very sandy children we have been sending home! Our second swimming sessions went well with Mr Attfield commenting on how confident many of the children are becoming. 

Many thanks for all of the lovely keyrings we are now spotting on the children's book bags, this has definitely made life simpler for everyone. We are also enjoying sharing the different WOWs that have been coming in, so many thanks for those too.

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Learning about the different parts of a book during our story sessions.
• Reading and sharing the story "Ten in the Bed" and singing the number rhyme with the same name.
• Playing some Circle Time games.
• Using the scissors to cut carefully along different types of lines.
• Creating some lolly stick teddy bear puppets which we will need for some upcoming learning.
• Bringing home a "Core Book" to share with our families. 

Finally, a message from our amazing PTA:

The circus is coming to Down Hall NEXT WEEK on Wednesday 28th!  This was a huge hit when it visited last time and we cannot wait to welcome it back.  Happy's Circus is a professional, all human, touring circus. They bring the Big Top and fill it with magic, acrobatics, aerialists and so much more!  Plus, there will be hot food and refreshments on the night too, with both alcoholic and soft beverages available.  So why not get there early and make a whole evening of it (it will save you cooking dinner!)?!

By attending the circus, not only will you be getting an evening of entertainment for the whole family, you will also be helping to raise funds for your child's school. 

Tickets available on the door or in advance from the PTA.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

19.09.22 - This coming week in Early Years

WOW! What a busy week! The children are probably very tired today, as are we, but we are so proud of how they have coped during their first full week! 😊 

Swimming went very well on Wednesday, but please can we ask that clothing is NAMED. It proved a little tricky trying to identify everyone's clothing, so apologies if you have ended up with the wrong things. We believe that there is a pink swimming hat that is missing and a pair of Crocs, but hope that they will return next week! Please note that the children do not need to wear a tie on Wednesdays, whilst we have swimming sessions, as this will help us when helping the children get dressed again.

As we mentioned in the meeting today, it would be really helpful if the children could all have a keyring on their book bag. This will help them to find it as at the moment there are quite a number of bags that all look exactly the same! (It will also help us as we will learn which keyrings go with which child).

On to our learning for next week, we will be:

• Sharing some more stories together and talking about what happens in them, including the story "Titch".
• Thinking about the members of Titch's family and then drawing pictures of our families.
• Playing some games with our namecards.
• Taking some special photographs, on Tuesday and Thursday, to send to the Echo newspaper for their New Intake supplement.
• Continuing to sing our "How Many Days" song and finding out what happens when we get to 10 days.
• Singing number rhymes, including the silly one about the monkeys and the crocodile!

Don't forget school is closed on Monday due to the State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II, we will see you all on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

12.09.22 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely first 2 days in Early Years, getting to know all of the children and having fun together. The children have enjoyed their first PE session today, although the rain did mean a quick dash to the hall!! 

It was lovely to meet so many of you earlier this week for our parent/teacher meetings, if you did not manage to come to one of these, then please do ask and we can always see you one day after school.

We are excited for our first full week with the children, so on to our learning for this coming week, we will be:

• Sharing the story "Starting School" and thinking about all the things that we have done in our new classes.
• Finding out about different areas around school - exploring the ladybird garden, field and adventure playground.
• Drawing pictures of ourselves for our classroom display.
• Talking about how we can work together to make our classes a happy place to work and play. (RRS Article 31)
• Taking class photos for the Echo New Starters supplement. If you do not want your child in this photograph please let us know.
• Enjoying our first swimming session on WEDNESDAY.

Don't forget it is the Parent Overview meeting on FRIDAY at 2.30pm. Please come in via the school office. (Brooklyn Drive).

Please remember we are only ever an email away, there is no such thing as a silly question and we will always do our best to answer any queries. Please use the email address earlyyears@downhallprimary.com. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley