What have we been up to this week?
Owl Babies
Some new friends have come to visit us this week in Reception! They are called Sarah, Percy and Bill! Like us, these owl babies sometimes miss their mummy. This is a book which can help reassure children after a half term break, that they will see Mummy again and supports resilience during the school day. We have been sequencing the story into a story mountain using our talk for writing colours- green for the beginning, orange for the middle and red for the ending. We used words like ‘first’, ‘next’ and ‘finally’ to emphasise which part was the beginning, middle and end.
Maths and turn taking
In explore time, we have been using a simple 0-10 number track to play games with a partner. We have been using our subitising skills to roll a dice and move our counter along the number track the correct amount of times according to the dice. We have had quality discussions about how it feels to both win and lose. To help us remember die patterns we have been using play doh to make them in Fiddly Fingers!
Half Term Holiday Snapshots
“Play is a key opportunity for children to think creatively and flexibly, solve problems and link ideas. Establish the enabling conditions for rich play: space, time, flexible resources, choice.” Development Matters, 2023
One child initiated learning choice has been to share what the children got up to on their half term holiday! We used the small world tuff tray outside to enact some events from the past. We talked about places in the local area of Bushey like King George park, the local library, Bushey station, Asda and Costco! If the children struggled to remember, we used a a snapshot sheet to recall some of the places we went, things we ate and who we were with. It was such fun watching some of the children act out play dates they want to go on in the future too!
Self- care and Food
We have been preparing and cutting food to make healthy choices. We have washed our hands, rinsed the snack and cut it safely using cutlery before eating. We have shared the equipment and posted our snack pictures into the snack box after to show we have had snack. Then if any children are left we know who to remind to eat snack!
Recapping how to use the Worry Monster
Our Reception Worry Monster is always ready to gobble up our worries. We have designed new printed sheets and reminded children to write or draw their worry and zip it up into the monster’s mouth. Once they have done that they don’t need to worry about it anymore. The monster will take care of it. Adults at school check the worry monster regularly and can check in with children when needed. We looked at our new Safeguarding Posters to remember who you can talk to at school if your worry just won’t go away.
Nursery Rhyme of the week– 5 Little Monkeys.
How you can help at home?
Please write in your child’s orange reading record each day when they read at home. Consider ” reading books with stories about characters that follow or break rules, and the effects of their behaviour on others.” (Development Matters, 2023)
“Encourage children to describe problems they encounter, and to suggest ways to solve the problem.” and “Choose books, puppets and dolls that help children explore their ideas about friends and friendship and to talk about feelings, e.g. someone saying ‘You can’t play’.” (Development Matters, 2023)