Happy Christmas!

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 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 were sent home yesterday and can be found in your child's homework folder. 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 Monday 8th January 2024, ready to start our next learning adventures!
With love
The Early Years Team

18.12.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone, 

The children had a very busy and exciting day on Friday, with visits to see Father Christmas and Christmas shopping for our families. We were so lucky that Father Christmas even came to our assembly and gave the certificates to the children who were Pupil of the Week!

We have spent this week getting everything ready for our Nativity next week. Homework folders will come out next week and we will also change the children's books ready for the holiday.

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

• Performing our Nativity to the rest of the school on Tuesday.
• Performing our Nativity to our families on Wednesday.
• 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 Wednesday, please make your way round to the front of the school as we will be unable to open all the gates. 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. 

We hope you have all had a lovely weekend

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

11.12.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

We have had a lovely week in Early Years. We have decorated our Home Corner and have our tree back from the Christmas Tree Festival. We have had a few visits from the Elf, who has been up to a little mischief in our classrooms! 

Upcoming Events

• Monday 11th December - Non-uniform Day (Chocolate donation for the PTA Bazaar)
• Friday 15th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Wednesday 20th December - Our Nativity (at 9.30am)

Christmas Jumper Day

The children looked fantabulous in their Christmas Jumpers and we have raised enough money to continue to sponsor Thoko and her local community in Malawi. 

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

• Watching the Key Stage 1 children perform their Christmas production on Tuesday.
• Finishing our Christmas cards and calendars ready to take them home to our families.
• Playing the different games on Phonics Play.
• Creating our own Fairy Light patterns and completing some Christmas counting activities in our Mathematics sessions.
• Listening to Mrs Morgan, who will be visiting on Thursday, play some of her instruments.
• Enjoying the PTA's Christmas Bazaar and Santa's Grotto on Friday.

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

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley

04.12.23 - This coming week in Early Years

Hello everyone!

What a way to begin December! The children loved seeing the heavy frost and then the snow this morning! We put their wellies to great use and they ran around on the field and our garden. We had some warm chocolate milk to warm ourselves back up during snack time too. 

The children have now picked their parts for our Nativity and we will be working hard on that next week. 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

• Thursday 7th December - Christmas Jumper Day
• Thursday 7th December - Christmas Dinner
• Friday 8th December - PTA Movie Night
• Monday 11th December - Non-uniform Day (Chocolate donation for the PTA Bazaar)
• Friday 15th December - PTA Christmas Bazaar
• Wednesday 20th December - Our Nativity (at 9.30am)

Christmas Jumper Day - Thursday 7th 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 in Malawi. 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! (Articles 28 & 29)

SO, to clarify, on Thursday, the children need to wear their normal uniform but with their Christmas jumper (instead of their Down Hall jumper/cardigan).

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.
• Working on our blending and segmenting of 3 phoneme words. 
• Learning more about 2D shapes in our Mathematics sessions and talking about the different shapes in a Christmas picture.
• Wearing our Christmas jumpers for Christmas Jumper day on Thursday and talking about Thoko and enjoying Christmas Dinner together.

Finally, if you are in Rayleigh over the weekend and have the time, please pop and vote for our Christmas tree in the Holy Trinity Christmas Tree Festival. All of the children in Pearl and Quartz have made a decoration - the tree will return to school on Monday and you will also be able to see it at our drop in on TUESDAY.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Miss Wakefield, Mrs O'Connor and Miss Langley