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