15/10/2018 – Stepping Stones – The Next Fortnight

Updates and Notices

We are having a pumpkin carving competition, it is £1.50 to enter and all proceeds will be going to The Harley Jae Trust our charity partner at Stepping Stones, there are even prizes for 1st 2nd and 3rd places up for grabs! Please see our signs in Reception and throughout the Nursery for more information, or even ask your Room Leader!


In the Yellow Room

Over the next two weeks, the baby room will be focusing on and will be introducing a new Makaton sign. This will be the drinking sign, which can be seen here it can also be viewed below. We will be encouraging the babies to use this sign as much as possible throughout mealtimes, this will help familiarise the babies with learning the sign as they start to relate it with drinking.

The baby room will also be doing activities to help the babies bond and build close relationships with their keyworkers. Eye to eye singing will take place which encourages the babies to familiarise themselves with the adults in the room and to help show an interest in others and themselves.

For our younger babies, we will be doing lots of tummy time activities to help our younger babies roll from front to back, building up strength in their upper body and arms.


Red Room 1 & 2

In the next two weeks in Red Room 1, we will be teaching the sign ‘drink’ as well as our previous sign ‘thank you’ (drink can be seen in the link above). We will also be incorporating pumpkin play which will encourage the children to play alongside others, use single words, babbling and sensory play. These activities are based around our children’s next steps as we look to enhance their abilities.

For the next two weeks in Red Room 2, we will be focusing on our sign of the week which will be ‘drink’. We will also be focusing on mark making using a variety of tools, such as painting, chalking and drawing to encourage children to talk about the marks they are making and use their palmar grasp. We will also be focusing on sensory play and using pumpkins to encourage the children to enjoy the sensory experience. Interact with others during their play and incorporating the first 100 words.


In Green Room 1 & 2

In the Green Rooms, we are using the ‘Lost and Found’ and ‘Beep, Beep go to Sleep’ story sacks from the talking two’s.  These give us the opportunity to use the following words from the first 100 words; car, truck, beep, fast, slower, penguin, boat, duck, sea and water.

We will also have fun with sensory and messy creative based around Autumn (painting leaves etc.)

The two Makaton signs for the next two weeks will be ‘listen’ and ‘look’ these signs will be used throughout the day at the nursery to really reinforce the children’s understanding of the symbol.

More information on Makaton can be found here.


In the Pre-School

Fortnightly Book

In Blue Room 1 ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ is our fortnightly book. We will be using rhyming games, fruit tasting and creating storyboards.

Blue Room 2 will be reading ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. The children will be making a storyboard, doing outdoor role play, bear hunt yoga and even doing a sound walk.

‘Down by the cool of the Pool’ is Blue room 3’s book, they will be discussing the animals that live in the pool, talking about the life cycle of frogs and creating storyboards and animal masks.


Letter/Phoneme

Pp is the letter of the week in Blue Room 1

Our letter of the week is Ii in Blue Room 2

In Blue Room 3 our letter of the week is Nn

We are all trying to think of lots of things beginning with our letters/the sound it makes, what items do you have at home beginning with our letters? What can you see beginning with our letters on the way to nursery? Can you bring anything in to show us beginning with our letter? We are using our new phoneme bags which are just next to reception, we will also be learning an alliterative rhyme that matches our letter (for example ‘C’ Carol the Cat clicks her castanets). We will also be learning the jolly phonics action.


Number

Our number of the week is 4 in Blue Room 1

In Blue Room 2 our number is 4

5 is the number of the week in Blue Room 3

Talking to your child about these numbers will really reinforce our teaching. This helps your child’s ability to recognize numbers and aids in their mathematical development. In all rooms, we will be counting to our number. Talking about the different ways we can make our number (for example 5 = 3 + 2, 4 + 1, 5 + 0 etc.). Also looking at where it is on our number line and which numbers come before and after it.


Skill

In Blue Room 1 the children will be studying patterns. We will be looking at hand printing patterns, body patterns, shape patterns and even Duplo patterns when building.

In Blue Room 2 our children will be looking at patterns. We will be listening and making pattern songs, hand printing. Creating Duplo patterns and using our peg boards to copy patterns and make our own.

Shapes are the focus for Blue Room 3’s children. The children will be looking at different shapes, we will be looking at our everyday world to find how shapes are all around us.


Homework sheets for the Pre-School are available in both the rooms and on the door in a plastic wallet. Please ask your room leader for a sheet if you cannot find one.

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