Top for Talking: Encourage your child to listen to and talk about the sounds around them;
Spending time tuning into the sounds around us and talking about what you can hear helps children to develop good listening skills. A walk in the woods - “Can you hear the bird singing?” Watching building work -“Listen to the digger chugging over there!” “What can you hear outside today?” Makaton sign Glasses; start at the inside corner of your eyes and move outwards circling around your eyes Pirate interest Over the past two weeks the children have shown huge interest in being pirates. This interest has come solely from the children and over the two weeks we have extended this interest by completing different activities. We started off by making a pirate ship outside, using the open ended resources to carefully sculpt our ship. The children were interested in looking at a picture of a pirate ship to see which key features they had to add and they made sure they added a wooden plank "Walk the plank, Walk the plank". Once the ship had been made, the children made eye patches, swords and pirate hats, demonstrating their fine motor skills by cutting a range of materials to do so; cardboard, materials and string. Once their costumes were made, they all enjoyed taking on the role of a pirate "Argghhh my ship mates" and engaged in pirate role play for long periods of time. The children also enjoyed colouring in pictures of pirates, choosing specific colours for a purpose and giving their pirates costumes which they designed themselves and creating their very own treasure maps, following each others instructions and directions to reach X marks the spot. To continue supporting the children's interest, we wondered if anyone has the game of Pop Up Pirates at home, which they wouldn't mind brining to pre-school for us to play together. Washing Hands We are sure you are currently aware of the Coronavirus and following this we have been supporting the children with their hand washing, highlighting the times when we need to wash our hands, talking about germs and what sequence to follow when washing our hands. We have been encouraging the children to first of all; 1) Pull back their sleeves, 2) Then wet their hands with water, 3)Put on soap and we have been demonstrating how to wash our hands and 4) wash off the soap following by drying them. To make hand washing a fun time for the children we have been learning/singing a song which the children have enjoyed and below are the words if you would like to sing along with your children when hand washing; Wash, wash, wash your hands, Wash them nice and clean, Fronts and backs and in-betweens, Get them nice and clean Please find two links below which contain information we have received from BANES in regards to the best practise to protect ourselves against Coronavirus and step by step pictures demonstrating how to best wash our hands. coronavirus_print_friendly_a4_poster.pdf hand-washing_technique_to_share03.03.20.pdf Ways to support handwashing at home; *Model hand washing and talk to children about the importance of washing our hands. *Follow the 4 steps created at pre-school when handwashing. *Sing washing hands song together Listening We are continuously working on developing our listening skills while at pre-school and have been talking to the children about what listening is and what we need to use to demonstrate good listening skills. The children are aware that we need to use our listening ears to listen to each other and if we are talking when someone else is talking it can be difficult to hear what others are saying, so we have been practising placing our fingers on our lips when someone else is talking to help children understand the appropriate times to speak. We also make the children aware that we have acknowledged they would like to say something when we are talking by saying "I can see you would really like to tell us something, can you hold it in until we have finished talking then you can tell us after". Ways to support at home; *Playing Simon Says *Memory trays- place a few items on a tray and name each one with your child so they are aware of the contents on the tray. You can then cover the tray with a tea towel and take one item away. Reveal the tray to your child and see if they can remember which item has disappeared.
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Top Tip for talking: Join in with your child's play. A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives a clear context for works and meanings. Makaton sign: Glasses- start at the inside corner of your eyes and move outwards circling around your eyes Dates for Diary: Start of Term 4- Monday 24th February 2020 Speeding into car park A polite reminder that when entering the village hall car park, please do so at a reasonable speed. Children and their parents/carers can be in the car park at any time during drop off and pick up and in order to keep everyone safe, it is important that all service users enter and leave at a steady,slow speed. What is good listening Over the past two weeks the children have been trying really hard to demonstrate their good listening skills. In order to demonstrate this it is important that the children are aware of what good listening is. As a group, the children told us that good listening is when we use our listening ears to listen to each other and when we listen to someone we do not speak until they have finished talking. To practice our good listening skills, we have been using the symbol of placing a finger on our lips, which is supporting everyone to take turns when talking and supporting our listening skills while part of a group. Vets and pets The children have shown a huge interest in our vets and pets role play over the past two weeks, taking on the role of vets building a clinic for their poorly patients and enjoying taking on the role of different animals. They have been handling several types of animals such as; spiders and snakes, dogs and cats and engaging with adults learnt how to handle them all with care and learnt about animal characteristics. The children have also demonstrated their caring nature helping to make the poorly animals better, first of all by making sure they were comfortable and had water/food and then providing the correct pretend medicine to make them better. It has been amazing to see the children's imaginations come to life and use their past experiences to link into their play. Supporting a child to use and develop their imagination, helps to build up several elements of their learning and development. It can help to;
Next term we will arrange a week where we will hold a pets show and tell where children can bring in their pets to share with their friends and tell us a little bit about what their pet eats, enjoys and how to look after it. Fairy house Last week at forest club the children used a variety of natural resources to build a fairy house. They very carefully placed and balanced sticks together to build a small house for the fairies to shelter in, but were not sure if the fairies would stop by and visit. Much to their amazement, when we arrived in our exploring area on Friday, the fairies had visited!! They left glitter trails and wool tided in trees and around their fairy house to let us know that they had been near and the children were left in great amazement. Following on from knowing that they had visited, the children wanted to make a park for the fairies to play and have fun in. They began by collecting small sticks and leaves and with some adult support began to place them into the ground and wind string around the sticks to hold them together. Working as a great team the children built a slide, a swing, a trampoline and a climbing frame for the fairies to enjoy and they cant wait to see if they have visited again next time we're at forest club!! Top tip for talking;
Use simple repetitive language - Keep sentences short: Describe your everyday activities. As you talk about what you are doing ("I'm washing the cup"), repeat your words slowly and clearly. Saying things more than once helps children to join in and pick up new words. Makaton sign: Glasses- start at the inside corner of your eyes and move outwards circling around your eyes Name Game We have welcomed several new children and Liz our bank staff to our pre-school over the past term and we have been playing the name game in order to help them learn both the adults and children's names at preschool "Names, Names lots of names, you tell us yours and we'll say the same". This is a great way for the children to feel confident in establishing relationships and feeling confident in approaching each other at pre-school. We have also been introducing lots of Makaton into our routine/games and all of the children have enjoyed learning which sign represents the first letter of their name. Role Play The children have been demonstrating their fantastic imagination skills recently, taking part in several group role play activities, stemming from their interests and previous experiences from outside of pre-school. We have built an aeroplane from the open end resources, flying to Disney land to meet Mickey Mouse, flying to Butlins to swim in the really big pool and slide down the water slides and going on a really long flight to a far away place "Lets fly all around the world" so that we could play football on the back of the aeroplane where there was a real life goal net and football pitch. When children are supported to use their imaginations during play, they are developing psychological and emotional capacities which help them understand the world in which they live, solve problems, create new possibilities and finding new ways to do things, all of which are critical elements of the Characteristics of Effective Learning. Changes of clothes/ Wet wipes This time of year tends to be very wet and cold however this does not stop us from going out and having lots of fun, splashing in the puddles and exploring the mud kitchen. We provide waterproof trousers to help children remain dry but can we please ask that a bag with spare clothes is provided for all children while they are in session with us, we have a few spares at pre-school to change into however these are becoming very limited. Having a change of clothes also helps out if your child has an accident while at pre-school, allowing them to get changed into their own clothes, feeling comfortable. If your child is potty training or in nappies can we also please ask that you provide nappies and wet wipes to support them being changed. Chinese New Year The children have enjoyed learning about and celebrating Chinese New Year over the past two weeks, engaging in several activities based around this. First of all we learnt a song which we could sing "Gung Hey Fat Choy" and the children picked this up really quickly and enjoyed singing it as a group, with no adults joining in!! We then learnt a Chinese New Year story where 13 animals took part in a swimming race, each trying to gain a number by swimming to the other side of the water and climbing up the bank. First of all we used props, using small world animals to become familiar with the story and learning the moral behind it; Its not kind to make someone else sad, in order to win something. Once familiar we acted out the story, with each of the children taking on a role of an animal. They all played a great part and swam across our invisible water, climbed up the bank and achieved a number. We enjoyed sharing this with the parents who came to visit us last week. On Thursday the children got to use several of their senses, sight, smell and taste to explore a variety of Chinese food, helping to prepare a stir fry, rice and prawn crackers. We were also very kindly provided with some prawn toast, chicken skewers and home made spring rolls to share together at lunchtime "I love this food, its yummy". Lots of the children explored using chop sticks for the first time to eat their Chinese lunch, using their fine motor skills to pinch them together and hold their food and they all enjoyed learning about a different culture. A huge thank-you to those parents who joined our lunch on Thursday, we all enjoyed sharing our lunchtime experience with you. Top Tip for Talking: Join in with your child's play. A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives a clear context for works and meanings. Makaton sign of the week: Glasses - start at the inside corner of your eyes and move outwards circling around your eyes Welcome back to Term3. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and we wish you a very Happy New Year. New starters A very warm welcome to our new starters and their families. All children have settled in exceptionally well and seem to be having lots of fun at pre-school, exploring their new environment both inside and outside and meeting lots of new friends! Bags with spare clothes in Can we please ask that you provide a bag with spare clothes in (pants and socks included) for your child whilst they are in session with us at pre-school. This time of year is especially wet and as we know all children love to splash around in muddy puddles and explore the wet weather. Providing a spare set of clothes means that children can be happily changed after playing and if any accidents do occur we have spare clothes to change them into. Thankyou. Forest Club We have been having lots of fun at forest club since returning after Christmas, facing new challenges such as helping Lynne carefully climb down a tree and building a bridge for us to cross a small brook that had gathered lots of water in. Our story for this term is Goldie locks and the three bears, Lynne was acting this out with some of the children at pre-school when they kept pretending to eat her porridge. "Hmm how can I eat my porridge without anyone getting it" Lynne thought and very quickly came to the conclusion to climb up a tree. However coming back down was proving a bit difficult for Lynne as she kept going the wrong way. But with great help and directions/guidance from the children "Lynne you need to go down and hold onto that branch with your hands and move your feet down, then jump" Lynne safely made it back down and all of the children were very happy! Over the last couple of days we have seen lots of rain and because of this our bank to our exploring area had filled with lots of water. Before crossing we had to think of a way to safely make it across. Looking at what was around them, the children very quickly decided we needed to make a bridge which we could walk across. They began gathering natural resources, such as long sticks and rocks and with help from an adult, began to lay them across to bank. With great team work they successfully created stepping stones for everyone to get safely across to other side to go and have fun in our exploring area. Great team work guys :) Top Tip for talking: Observe and comment on your child's current interests;
Describe what is happening. Think of 'commenting' like 'commentating' - as in what sport presenters do! Watch and describe what you see your child is doing. Commenting does not mean that there should be no silences when a child is playing. Pauses will help your child think about what they are going to say. Makaton sign: Christmas Tree Dates for your diary: Friday 20th December - story sharing and Children's Christmas party Christmas Party Each year at our Christmas party we like to arrange a visit for Santa to come to pre-school and say hello to the children and give them a small gift. We currently do not have any volunteers to take on this role, however if you know someone who might like to play this role(10 mins max), please do inform the pre-school team. At our children's Christmas party, the children can enjoy a small buffet styled lunch. Christine has very kindly printed out a list and stuck it on our noticed board to create a list of foods, cups and plates that you might like to bring along and provide for all of the children to share. If you have any questions or queries in regards to this please speak to the pre-school tea. It is one of the children's birthdays over the Christmas holidays so a cake is going to be provided on our party day to share with his peers and we can all sing happy birthday! Christmas songs You may hear your children singing lots of Christmas songs over the next few weeks as we have began practicing them at pre-school. Please click the link below if you would like to access a copy of the song words to sing along with your children! Christmas_songs_2018.docx Unwanted baby mobiles If anyone has any unwanted cot/pram mobiles at home that they no longer need we would be very grateful if they could kindly be donated to pre-school. Hairdressing Lots of the children have loved taking part in role play based activities based around hairdressers over the last few weeks, pretending to wash and dry each others hair and doing each others hair ready for parties "Ok you sit here and I will do your hair and then you can check if you like it in the mirror over there". They have been using brushes and combs to brush hair before adding a variety of clips to get party ready. If anyone has any old hair related resources such as hairdryers, straighteners at home that they no longer need, we would be very grateful for to be donated to preschool to add to our hair dressing collection! Cooking Some of the children enjoyed making jam tarts and mince pies with Laura at preschool this week. First of all exploring which ingredients they were going to use and they used their senses to smell, taste and touch the different ingredients. They took it in turns to roll out the pastry using large rolling pins making sure it stayed nice and flat. After this they had the choice of 3 different sized cutters which they placed into the dough to make several pastry shapes. These shapes were then added to a baking tray and the children helped to mould them up the sides to make them look like little dishes. It was then time to decide which fillings they were going to add "I'm going to add jam, i love jam on toast its so yummy". Laura then spoke to the children about safety in kitchen and the importance of letting a grown up operate the oven. Using a timer we timed the jam tarts in the oven to make sure they were cooked properly. "DING, DING, DING they're ready ,lets go and check them" the children excitedly exclaimed. Once they were safely taken out of the oven by a grown up they were left to cool on the side and were prepared in little bags ready to take home and share with our families. Some links you might find useful Toileting; www.eric.org.uk/poo-and-wee Sleeping;www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/bath-book-bed/#!?q=&sortOption=MostRecent&pageNo=1 Healthy eating; www.sugarsmartuk.org/about/ Top tip for talking
Encourage your child to listen to and talk about the sounds around them; Spending time tuning into the sounds around us and talking about what you can hear helps children to develop good listening skills. A walk into the woods-"Can you hear the bird singing". Makaton sign: Tractor Easy Fundraising As Christmas is fast approaching and lots of presents are being purchased, did you know you know you can purchase presents through a site called easy fundraising. Easy fundraising turns your everyday online shopping into free donations for your favourite cause. How? Just start your online shopping first at easy fundraising, then shop as normal. Our retailers will then make a small donation to your supported cause to say “thank you”. Any donations given will support pre-school in gaining new resources. If you would like to support pre-school please find our easy fundraising link below; https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stantondrewpensfordpp/?pageVersion=1&cat=cause-autosuggest&q=stanton%20drew Autumn walks It is a great time of year for wrapping up warm and heading out on welly walks, listening to the leaves as they crunch beneath your feet and enjoying the different autumnal colours. If you have any different shape/coloured leaves in your garden or you spot any while you are out and about, please collect them and bring them to pre-school to add to our natural re-sources which we can use as part of our arts and crafts! Vets and pets Lots of the children have shown interest in becoming a vet over the past few weeks, taking this role on to make their patients better. They have been engaging in group role play activities taking it in turns to be the vet and have used props to support this play, using the vets medical bag and uniform. It has been lovely to hear lots of the children linking their experience of home life involving pets/vets to their play at pre-school. The Gruffalo The Gruffalo has been a huge hit this term and the children have been using props such as masks and cuddly toys of each of the characters to re-tell the story "I love the Gruffalo, he has purple prickles all over his back". We have also used our CD player which links to children's technological development supporting them to operate it by pressing the buttons to listen to the CD story of the Gruffalo. Following the children's interest of the Gruffalo we made our very own, Gruffalo, snake and mouse out of tissue paper, with the children referring to the book to help them carefully place each piece of tissue paper and select which colours to use "The Gruffalo is really, really big" Pizza making Children have been making their own pizza's this week at pre-school, which has encouraged them to try and explore a variety of new foods such as; olives and peperoni. They started off by exploring the different ingredients they could add to their pitta breads talking about what it was and using their senses to look and smell them, before making a decision on what they would like to add. Some children made their pizza's to their preference or decided to make one for their grown ups. Once they had been prepared the children spoke to adult about what needed to happen next and the adult proceeded to place them in the oven, making children aware of the dangers in the kitchen. After a short while in the oven the pizza's were ready and the children were excited to take them home and try "These smell so yummy". Superhero's Children have been showing a huge interest in superhero's over the past few weeks, taking on different roles, using the dressing up to support them. Taking on the powers of each character the children have been helping save people from being stuck, building big towers and houses for each other and demonstrating their helpful ways. Engaging in role play based activities gives children the chance to build their social skills, demonstrate their fantastic imaginations and play out events that they have observed through own first hand experiences. Top tip for talking:
"Give your child time to talk to you" Children often need time to put theor thoughts together before answering. Give them longer to respond than you would with an adult. Make sure to maintain eye contact as you wait for them to complete their remark. Top tip for Toddlers: "Don't expect me to wait"; Please do not expect me to wait unnecessarily for long periods of time. I'm not supposed to and if you insist I may eventually conform but will I be engaged? I prefer long periods of uninterrupted time to play within the daily routine. I don't like stopping, starting and waiting. Makaton sign: Tractor Dates for your diary Tuesday 22nd October; Please join us for our annual AGM on Tue 22nd October at 9.30am. We will be having a coffee morning straight afterwards at 10-11.30am. Cake donations would be greatly appreciated. This is a nice opportunity to meet other parents, support preschool and get to know a little more about the running of preschool. We are also looking for new committee members. Preschool runs as a charity and to maintain our charitable status and therefore stay open we need a certain number of committee members and we will soon be below this level. Several committee members are leaving since they no longer have children attending preschool. There really isn’t much work involved… If you are unable to attend, but interested in becoming a committee member or would like to help with fundraising/coffee mornings please let a member of staff know. We look forward to seeing you all there : ) 12th + 13th November Parent exchange meetings will be held with your child's key worker w.c 11th November. If your child is in Kelly's key group she will organise a time with you for Wednesday 13th November and if your child is in Rosie's key group she will organise a time with you for Tuesday 12th November. We will initially try to book meetings through out the morning as we need to arrange staff cover, so may not always be able to offer drop up/pick up times. Fire fighters visit pre-school On Tuesday we had some very exciting visitors visit pre-school. It was a group of fire fighters who brought along their fire engine. The children really enjoyed their visit and were able to take on the role of a fire fighter, operating/spraying the hose, pumping the water system which is used up chimneys, exploring inside of the fire engine, completing a fire fighter puzzle but most of all, enjoying a talk from the fire fighters who explained what we need to do if there is a real fire, shout "FIRE FIRE" walk out of the house safely, call 999 and how to; STOP, DROP AND ROLL! This visit had a huge impact on the children's knowledge and understanding of different occupations in life and through out the week supported them to take on the role of a fire fighter, pretending to put out fires at pre-school. A very warm welcome back to Term 1. We hope you have all had a lovely summer!
Top Tip for talking: Talk about the pictures in your child’s favourite book; sharing or asking simple questions about pictures in a favourite book will add to the pleasure a favourite book gives and becomes a shared experience “Lovely rabbit, isn’t he?”. Top tip for two’s: I can do it myself! Even though it may take me ages to do something and I may not get it right; its really important I have a go. I may become frustrated if everything is done for me. You'd be surprised how much I can do given the chance. Makaton sign we are practising: Good morning; start by putting your thumb up in front of yourself and then touching your shoulders moving from left to right. Dinosaur: Arms tucked into your sides and move your hands in small circles in-front of yourself School Open Days During October lots of the local primary schools will be holding their open mornings ready for those who will be applying for school, with their children starting in September 2020. This will allow you to have a look around and see how the school is ran. Please see a list of open days below; Chew Stoke= 15th October 10:45-11:45 or 1:15-2:30 Stanton Drew= 2nd October 9:30-11:30 or 1:30-2:30 Bishop Sutton = 2nd October 9:30-11:30 or 1:30-2:30 Winford= 14th October 2pm and the 16th and 18th October at 9am Pensford= Every day is an open day so please contact 01761490470 to make a booking Clutton= 25th October 1:30 Marskbury= Every day is an open day so please contact school office to make an appointment Washing Hands Part of the Children’s development at pre-school is to learn about health and self-care, this includes managing their own basic hygiene needs, progressing towards using the toilet by themselves and the importance of washing their hands. In a preschool environment, germs can spread quickly but we can help to manage this by encouraging good handwashing by ALL children. At preschool we find children learn more effectively when things are fun. We are supporting children to understand the process of handwashing and encouraging through a new song. Parents /carers can help to support their child by discussing and supporting at home too. Our song is below if you would like to use with your children at home. Hand washing song (To the tune or row row row your boat) Wash wash wash your hands Wash them nice and clean Fronts and backs And in between Get them nice and clean Forest Club After our long summer break, Forest club had become really overgrown, with the grass being really long and lots of brambles and nettles growing over out pathways. Being very careful Lynne and Pablo’s Daddy helped to clear the paths, using big sticks to do some bashing. Once it was safe the children also helped to do some bashing, using long sticks to bash down some nettles. The children really enjoyed being able to help clear the way and became so involved it took up most of our forest club morning! Role Play The children have been showing some lovely imaginative skills over the past two weeks, role playing shops. While role playing shops, the children were able to go shopping, choosing items which they may come across in their everyday lives. Items were provided by staffs and children’s recycling. Once the baskets were full of their required items the children would take it over to the tills where two children were scanning their items and asking for payment. Handing over their money enable children to develop their mathematical skills, exploring language related to money and engaging with adults about the value of money and receiving cash back. Pictures below of our over grown forest club!!!! Dates for your diary: Wednesday 10th July 2019- End of term trip to Avon Valley Top tip for talking; Talk to your child about what they are doing. Come alongside your child when they are focused on something and comment about what they are doing "I can see you are making the big bricks into a huge tower". Use words and sentences that the child will understand. Makaton sign Sing; place index and middle finger together and place next to left side of your lips. Move fingers out towards the left in a spiral position. Stickosaurus at Forest Club The children have been showing lots of interest towards dinosaurs over the past couple of weeks, exploring dinosaur land in a tuff spot, talking about if they are herbivores or carnivores and the types of things they might eat and practising their big dinosaur stomps. Following this interest the children who attend our forest club session wanted to make a dinosaur out of sticks. First of all we went on a hunt to gather together the resources we thought would be good to use to create our dinosaur. The children found different sized sticks to use for the body, which helped to support their mathematical language development using words such as long and short to describe the sticks. Once the sticks were placed in the places in which the children wanted, we began to talk about the features in which we could add. The children came up with some very good ideas "We could use spiky leaves to make the sharp teeth" "Different coloured leaves like yellow and green for the body as that's what colour lots of dinosaurs are" and then they began the search to find these things. Once all of the features were added, the children stepped back to look at what they had created. They were all very pleased with themselves and as a group decided to call him; Stickosaurus. Find more pictures of Stickosaurus at the end of this blog! School visits Lots of our school leavers have had their transitions days at school over the past week or so, visiting their new school environment and having a taster for what a school day at their new school may be like. Children have come back positive from these visits, keen to tell adults about what they have been up too and the names of their new teachers. To support children's transitions to school we have made contact with all of their new schools, completed relevant moving on documents and are in the process of making transition books with each of the children. Transition books will help to support your child in becoming familiar with the school they will be attending and the names/pictures of their new teacher and can be discussed when you feel is relevant for your child. We will be sad to see our school leavers leave Stanton Drew but hope all transitions are a smooth and enjoyable process. Changing for PE As you are aware our older children are preparing for transition to school and we are doing as much as possible to help make it a smooth transition. Through discussions with reception teachers, changing for P.E and using a knife and fork are a couple of areas that children struggle with when they initially start school. To help with this we are planning on giving the children practise changing on an afternoon before practising for our sports day. Over the past week the children have really enjoyed having the opportunity to practise changing into a PE kit, promoting their independence skills and also offering their peers a helping hand if they can that they need a bit of help. If your child attends till 2.45pm could we ask that you send them with a bag with and a t-shirt & shorts in to keep on their peg so that we can continue practising this over the next couple of weeks. Knife and fork practise Following on from the discussions we have had with the reception teachers recently we have been promoting the children's fine motor cutlery skills, using plastic knives and forks to cut spaghetti. At first and adult demonstrated the way in which a knife and fork is held and that the motion we need to create to cut things is moving the knife forwards and backwards. Lots of the children took this on board and were very eager to try cutting the spaghetti independently with their knives and forks "The spaghetti is really slimy but if i put my fork in it I can make it not move so I can try and cut it". Children's cutlery skills are promoted lots throughout our sessions with children helping to prepare and cut up the snacks for each-other. We are aware that using cutlery is quite difficult for children to grasp and it is stated that; Children between 2 and 3 years further develop their spoon feeding skills as well as learning to use a fork to stab. By 5 years a child is learning to spread and cut with a knife. It is often not until they are around 7 years of age that a child can use a knife and fork together to cut up food and are truly independent with self-feeding. If you would like to more information regarding the use of cutlery, the link below is a great tool in which you could potentially use to support this; https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/kids/resources/ot-activityinformation-sheets/using-cutlery-information-sheet/ Week 5 of our Early Years Public health programme; Looking after our teeth We have been speaking to the children lots over the past 2 weeks about when to brush our teeth, how we brush teeth, looking at toothpaste and talking about its texture and taste and who we need to visit if we have any problems with our teeth. They have all demonstrated great understanding of how to brush their teeth and the importance behind this and have told about their experiences at the dentist "We have some special water we wash our mouth out with its pink" "After the dentist has checked your teeth, they give you a sticker to say well done". The children have been given a brand new toothbrush each to take home, to keep up the great cleaning of their teeth, like they already do! A very warm welcome back to Term 6.
Top tips for talking: Join in with your child's play - A language and thinking will develop through interactions with others. This arises naturally from a shared activity which provides something of interest to talk about and gives clear context for words and meanings. Top tips for two year olds: I can do it myself! Even though it may take me ages to do something and I may not get it right; its really important I have a go. I may become frustrated if everything is done for me. You'd be surprised how much I can do given the chance. Makaton signs for the term; Good- thumb out in-front of body Thank-you- place hand on chin, move directly forwards in-front of self Enjoying the Great British weather at Forest Club Our last few Forest club sessions have been very wet! However this hasn't stopped us from having lots of fun, putting on our waterproofs and welly boots to embrace the weather. First of all the children enjoyed splashing in the puddles on the walk down to Forest club, jumping in with 2 feet, creating mighty splashes "Stand back, I'm Splashing, 1,2,3 go" . Once we arrived at Forest club the children enjoyed playing lots of games, such as tag, finding it very funny when they were slipping and sliding on the wet grass. When we ventured to our exploring area, the children had a bank to climb and every single one of them done a fantastic job, stabilising themselves, by using their hands and reaching/holding onto near by branches. While at the exploring area the children enjoyed hiding in dens and behind the tree's waiting for adult to find them, giving them clues by shouting "We're over here". "Guys I'm going to slide down the bank, watch me, wahoo" the children were very excited to be able to slide down the bank on the way back down leading them to hot chocolate and marshmallows much quicker! Lynne very kindly built us a shelter from the rain, where we could listen to our stories while enjoying hot chocolate. Shops To coincide with week 4 of our Early Years Public Health programme, we have created a shop at pre-school with real produce, tills, money and mark making to create our very own shopping lists. All of the children have enjoyed selecting different foods and produce to fill up their baskets with, engaging in detailed conversations about why they have chosen specific things. They have also been demonstrating their brilliant knowledge and understanding of the different food groups, telling each other which food group they thought some of their products came from "This is fruit so that will be green stickers, green things are good for our eyes". We have also been exploring and making our own money, using mathematical language related to money to talk about the value of different notes and coins and how much things might cost. To extend some of the children's mathematical skills adults were asking about how much change they might need if they paid for something with more money than the cost e.g. "If I pay with £5 and it costs £4 how much change will I need?". Mark making, cutting and sticking All of the children have loved cutting and sticking over the past couple of weeks, demonstrating great hand to eye co-ordination skills using the scissors to cut out paper cut outs and to make snips in their art work and to carefully place and stick cut outs in the places that they desire. It has been great to see the children engage in lovely conversations while taking part in this activity, working together as a team to support each other cutting around objects and to hold the paper still while the other person was cutting. The opening and closing motion of cutting with scissors helps children develop the small muscles in their hands otherwise known as fine motor skills. These muscles are crucial for holding a pencil or crayons and gripping and manipulating other objects. This has also been great for our younger children, developing those early fine motor skills by exploring the chunky felt tip pens to make marks on their paper, really grasping the feel of the mark making resource in their hands. Developing fine motor skills will support children in later life to perform basic everyday tasks such as dressing, tying shoe-laces, preparing food, and other self-care tasks. All of the children have created beautiful pieces of art work, which if they haven't been taken home already, can be displayed around pre-school. |
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