December 16th, 2018

Please note that Monday 21st January 2019 is an inset day 

Top tips for talking
Get down to your child's level when talking to them.  It is easier to talk to each other if you are face to face.  Whether it be playing on the floor or the grass, kneeling at bath time or sitting together at meal times.  Being down at your child's level makes it easier to keep eye contact when talking together.
Story for term 2
The story for this term is The Christmas story. This story explains the reason in which we celebrate Christmas day in a way that the children will understand. We have been learning lots of new names such as, Mary, Joseph and the Shepard’s.
Forest Club
The children have been very busy at forest club over the last couple of weeks, finding natural materials to create Christmas tree’s and helping each other climb up and down slopes, using both their fine and gross motor skills to help them do so.
The children enjoyed making a Christmas tree out of pine cuttings that had fallen from the tree’s, using descriptive language to talk about how the leaves felt and how we could change them to fit in with our tree. While creating the tree, the children we were able to demonstrate their mathematical knowledge, exclaiming that the shape of the tree looked like a triangle.
Its been a great couple of weeks for exploring, the children have been working together to help each other climb up and down slopes, using long sticks to pull peers up and using their language to guide each other where to place their hands and feet while moving up/down the slope.

Making sleighs and filling them with presents
The children have been using open-ended resources to make sleighs, logically slotting and sticking boxes and materials together to achieve a desired outcome. All of the children worked together to create the sleighs each imputing how exactly they wanted it to look. There was lots of scissor work involved in this task, cutting cello tape and string, which supported the children’s fine motor skills. They also added reins to the sleigh, pretending that Rudolph the red nose reindeer was guiding it through the sky.
All of the children demonstrated lovely imaginative and role-play based skills during this activity.

Recognising letters
We have supported the children in recognising letters this term, using the pictures on their name cards to help support recognition. We began by recognising the pictures on each individuals name card, helping the children to become aware of what their name looked like. The activity was then extended by hiding the children’s names around the room and asking them to find it, using their pictures as prompts to help them do so.
Furthering on this task for those who we believe could recognise their names; we chopped the pictures from the cards and again hid them around the room. Many of the children were able to recognise their names and were able to phonically sound out the first letter of their name.
We have also had lots of letters out during our free flow play, placing the tile cards in the sand tray which was a huge hit, with the children asking adults to support them in finding the first letter of their name.
 
We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new year and we look forwards to you joining us in Term 3 ready for lots more fun!