02.10.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

The children have had another busy week and we have been busy making scarecrows ready for our Harvest Assembly next week. Today they have all brought home a "Core Book". These are stories to share at home and the books will be changed on a weekly basis, the day may differ depending on what we have planned, so we would appreciate them being in bags each day. We hope you enjoy them.

We have 2 whole school messages to share this week: 

Harvest Collection

For Harvest this year we are collecting for The One Love Project; a soup kitchen and food bank providing support for those families and children that really need it.  We will celebrate in school with a special assembly where we will share songs that we have rehearsed for the occasion.  If you are able to send in any non-perishable items for the collection before Friday 6th October they would be most gratefully received.  We thank you for your continued support in helping our children to understand Children's Rights and learn how to look after ourselves, each other and our world. 

RSS Articles 24 and 27: Every child has the right to the best possible health and a good standard of living.

Football Skills Masterclass Day

We are excited to welcome Jamie Knight to Down Hall on Tuesday 3rd October. Each class will receive a masterclass session during the day. They will learn a number of football skills as well as attend an assembly, where Jamie will demonstrate some of his tricks.

ALL YEAR GROUPS WILL NEED TO WEAR PE KIT ON TUESDAY.

After school, Jamie will host an extra masterclass from 3:15 to 4:15. In this class, children will learn an extra 10-15 tricks. At the end of the session, Jamie will be available for photos and autographs. The cost of the after school session is £10. There are 40 spaces in the class. We expect this to be extremely popular, so please return the slip and payment (cash only please) to Miss Sharman on Monday to secure your child's place. Places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

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.
• Starting our Phonics sessions, learning the first 4 sounds. 
• Using our teddy bear puppets that we made last week to play "Where's the Bear?" game in our Maths sessions.
• 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).
• Playing some Circle Time games together.
• Singing our "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" song and sharing our scarecrows in our Harvest assembly.

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 9th October, ready to use that week. 

The Echo supplement will be out on 10th October, both classes have had a photograph submitted.

This week's drop in will be on THURSDAY.

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

25.09.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

WOW! What a busy week! The children enjoyed their first swimming session this week and Mr Attfield commented on how impressed he was with all of the children. We have also taken our photographs for the Echo, these should be published in the New Starters supplement on Tuesday 10th October. It was also SO lovely to see SO many of you at our first drop in session. These will take place every week, but there is no expectation for you to come each time.

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.
• Creating some lolly stick teddy bear puppets which we will need for some upcoming learning.
• Learning a special song for the upcoming Harvest Festival assembly.
• Walking around our school grounds, looking for different signs of Autumn and talking about the colours we can find.

Our drop-in will take place on MONDAY.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

18.09.23 - 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 will be starting on Wednesday, so please can we ask that ALL clothing is NAMED and any earrings are removed. 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.

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 talking about our own 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.
• Starting our swimming sessions on Wednesday.
• 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!

This week will also see our first drop-in session. These take place straight after school and are an opportunity for you to come and see your child's class and some of the things we have been busy doing. Please let us see the children out first before coming into the classrooms. Our drop-in will take place on TUESDAY.

You may have seen in this week's newsletter that we now have milk in Early Years. This is free for those children who are still 4, however it can be available for those who are 5 at a subsided price. Please let us know if you DO NOT wish your child to be offered the milk.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

11.09.23 - 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 also enjoyed their first PE session today.

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. Thank you for all of the waterproofs, wellies and completed packs that have already come in. Please feel free to send any outstanding ones in next week.

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 Celebration Assembly on Friday.

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 know it says in the newsletter this week that parents should be leaving their children at the main gates, this is for children in Years 1 to 6. Please be reassured that it is fine for you to walk on to site and walk your child/children round to our Early Years gate. 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley