Little Lions

 Dear Parents and Carers,

I am amazed that we are at the beginning of the last full term of the school Year.  It has flown by and when I think back to when the children first started in my class, to how they are now, the progress they have made is incredible. I am so proud of them all.

This half term our topic is ‘Commotion in the Ocean.’ We will be becoming deep sea divers to explore the magical depths of the ocean and learn about some animals who live here.

Literacy

In Literacy we will start by exploring rhyming words in stories and poetry before moving on to using the talk 4 writing method to explore non-fiction texts and how we gain information and facts from these. We will be learning about the features of these books (for example the contents and index pages) and will be creating our very own pages to create a class book.

The children will be working towards writing one or more full sentences this half term. The children should now be at the stage of including finger spaces, capital letters and full stops regularly, with many words spelt phonetically and most tricky words spelt accurately, with little to no adult support.   To entice your children to practice this at home you could introduce a special writing pen that they only get out when they want to practice their writing.

If you are struggling to get your child to have a go at writing independently, when they ask you what comes next if you respond “What do you think?” This often encourages them to engage as chances are, they will actually know!

Phonics

We are moving on to Phase 4 which will embed the Phase 3 sounds and how to use these in polysyllabic words and composing longer sentences. I will send out book marks with the new Tricky words on and add some new games into the box for you to use at home. It is lovely to see how many children are still excited by these.

Reading

The children’s confidence and love of reading seems to have grown greatly last term. Many children are sight reading most of the high frequency and tricky words now and quickly notice repeated words in books. I have had a number of parents telling me that they have displayed these words around the house so that children constantly see them. This is a fantastic way to develop their sight reading.  Please practice reading their books as many times as you can throughout the week and continue to ask the children questions about what has happened in the text or to predict what events may happen next, who might they meet next, what do you think you could change the title of the book to? This will continue to develop their language comprehension skills.  You could even use a bit of the ‘talk 4 writing’ methods we use to develop vocabulary and ask children to create story maps about the narrative and get them to act this out.

I will be uploading 6 more books on rising stars for your children to read over this half term as I have had wonderful feedback about this.  

Please find below the expected colour bands for reading this half term to ensure they are on track to meet the Early Learning Goal.  

Maths

This half term we are focusing on Shape, Space and Measure where we will be introducing length, height, capacity and weight. The children will be working towards using language associated to all of these things competently (for example length- long/short, height-tall/small, capacity- full/empty/cupful’s and weight-heavy/light) We will be using many methods to explore how we measure these things. There are lots of ways you could practice this at home too. For example when weighing out ingredients ask your child to help and discuss grams, when in the bath see how much water different containers hold or use a tape measure to measure the size of their favourite toys.

We will be continuing to conduct lessons to develop children’s number knowledge alongside the above. Here we will introduce using visualising techniques to subitise arrangements beyond 5 and begin looking at number bonds to 10, encourage children to recall these. We will begin by looking at using our fingers to work these out and then move on to recalling these using our number fact knowledge.  I am blown away with the number of children using mathematical vocabulary this year and it was lovely to hear how they are doing this at home too during parents evening. What little superstars.

Memory Games and Executive Function

Mother May I- This is a fantastic game to develop the children’s working memory, hold information for short periods of time and then act on this. Play the Mother, May I Game:

Line up each player shoulder to shoulder about a foot apart. The player who is “Mother” stands in front of the other players. Mother then calls on a child by name and gives them instructions so they can move forward. For instance, “Emma, take 2 GIANT steps forward.” The child who is called on must then say, “Mother, may I?” Mother then responds either “Yes”, and the child can take the steps forward, or “No” and the child must comply. If a child makes a move and forgets to ask, “Mother, may I?” then must go back to the starting line. If another child takes the steps out of turn, they must also go back to the starting line. The first child to reach Mother, wins!

Homework

Please find below the overview for the home learning tasks this half term.

Other Information

• As the weather is getting warmer we advise that the children bring in named summer hats and have sun cream applied before school as and when needed as we are not allowed to apply this at school due to safeguarding protocol.
• We have a school trip to the butterfly house in June, a letter about this will come out in the next few weeks.
• We will be inviting you into a class assembly to show you all the learning that we have done throughout the topic. This will be on Monday 22^nd More information will be sent to you about this via Dojo.
• Finally, we will have a prince and princess dress up day to celebrate the Kings coronation. More information about this will also be sent out soon, I just want to give you notice for costumes.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Jolly

 Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you had a lovely break and feel refreshed and ready for another busy half term in the run up to Easter! Last half term the children really enjoyed exploring different occupations and developed their passion for knowledge, as they continually asked questions to find out more about the different roles we have in the community.

In Spring 2 our topic is ‘Super Space and Sparkly Stars,’ where we will be exploring all things space, and use ‘Talk 4 Writing’ to explore descriptions included in stories to learn all about the different planets and stars. The story we will base this around is ‘There’s No Place Like Space’ by Tish Rabe, which is all rhyme based meaning that picking up the facts should be fun and interactive for the children.  As you have seen, there has been a space ship visit the school. ! It appears that an alien has done this to help us with our learning and we will be working to find out a little more about this character this week!

Towards the end of the term we will also explore the tradition of Easter and the celebrations surrounding this time. We will begin by learning about Shrove Tuesday, then the children will then explore the Easter story and take part in some familiar customs such as making chocolate nests, decorating Easter eggs and making Easter Bonnets.

Phonics

This half term we will be continuing to learn the Phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs and tricky words- which the children are picking up well, thanks to the slower pace we are conducting the lessons this year. The children will have daily practice with using these in their reading and writing, however any work you can do with them at home to help those who may need a little extra support would really help your child to become more confident in this. When we have finished Phase 3 we will be starting Phase 4. In this phase the children will not learn any new sounds, but they will be learning how to use previously learnt sounds to write CVCC words and polysyllabic words (words with more than one syllable) such as farmyard. Some of the class will be recapping the phase 3 sounds to help to consolidate their learning as some of the trigraphs ( 3 letter sounds eg ‘igh’) are a little difficult to remember.  Any work you can do with them at home to help those who may need a little extra support would really help your child to become more confident in this.  Phase 4 Phonic book marks will be sent home when we start this next phase. Please keep using these when reading with your child to help them develop their sound and tricky word recognition.

Reading Books

The children have shocked me with their progress in reading last half term, with many of them confident in sight reading common words as well as those that are tricky. Reading books will be continue to work on the alternating basis it has since September, as again, I can see a huge difference in giving the children opportunities to re-read the books multiple times. The children are also doing well with the comprehension side of reading, with many feeling confident enough to answer questions about what they have read. Questions such as ‘what do you think will happen next.’ Or ‘how do you know…’ really help build on these skills.

I have also sent home a rising stars login for e-books. I will be setting 6 books for the half term for your children to work through if you want to shake things up with your reading books. Some children do not enjoy accessing reading this way so do not worry if your child does not engage well with this. The books set will come up as ‘assigned by Mrs Burdett.’ This has confused some parents before; it is me- just my marital name! I assigned some books in Autumn 2 when we were trying to set this up originally, but faced technical difficulties - so ignore any books which may not be at the correct level for your child.  To log on, visit this website https://my.risingstars-uk.com/Default.aspx and input the login details sent home. The Centre id is 215219.

In order to meet the expected standard for reading at the end of Reception, your child would need to be reading and understanding the book colours stated below by the end of each term

I have had a number of parents concerned that their child is a little reluctant to read at home. This is very common however it is vital that you try to entice them to do so to continue their development and try to create a love of reading as reading is the foundation of all learning in Early Years. There are many ways you can do this without them knowing, for example, modelling you reading or get them to choose a reading buddy. This is a toy which is only allowed to come out if the child reads to that toy, then they can play with it for a short while afterwards. Encourage them to read to their pets, siblings or even a group of teddies. Use torches. Try asking them to read each page in a funny voice. You could even act out the pages when they have read it.  The more fun, energetic and discrete you make it, the more they will want to do! The Phonics games I pop out daily are also a great way to do this.

Literacy

In our Literacy lessons, the children will continue applying their learning from our daily Phonics sessions through a guided literacy activity once a week and then independently during the Wonderful Writing task. This half term will focus on using dazzling describing words to define characteristics of planets, write letters to aliens and create food menus for astronauts.

Most children have grown in confidence with their writing this half term and are enthusiastic about doing it to a high standard. It is lovely to see them beaming with pride when they have completed a piece with independence and remembered all of the key features such as capital letters and finger spaces. I can see those who complete their home learning tasks regularly and with little support are absolutely flying with their writing, so thank you so much for supporting their learning at home and trusting my guidance last half term.

I have included below some examples of the writing to show where I would expect children to be at this time in the school year. Obviously all children learn at different paces, however it is sometimes helpful to see where we are aiming to get them to.  If you think your child finds certain elements of writing difficult then please come and see me and we can support them with this together.                

Maths

We will be focusing on number again this half term, this will look at consolidating children’s numerical skills with numbers from 1-10. We will be focusing on exploring numbers from 5-10, ensuring children become confident in ordering these and understanding the composition of these numbers and re-calling these facts or using their fingers to show these. We will also be using the ‘staircase’ method used with the Numberblocks to develop the children’s understanding of adding one more to a number, or finding what one less is. We will also be learning doubling facts and sorting numbers into odd and even categories. There are lots of helpful Numberblock videos on Youtube your children can watch at home which are fabulous learning tools. Finally we will be reinforcing counting beyond 20 (some are still missing teen numbers out) and accurately counting objects. Finally, we will be exploring 3D shapes and their properties towards the end of the half term.

If you would like to help your children develop such skills at home, here are a few ideas to try:

• Sharing out food between you and your child, showing them that you must both have the same. Start by counting out your starting total and then giving “one for you and one for me” until you have equal amounts before reinforcing that half of your starting number is what you have in your pile.
• Double the spots on a ladybird’s wing, emphasising that when we double it has to be the same number on each side before they want to be friends and counted together.
• Doubling the total number of their favourite food!
• Counting orally as you climb steps or to see how many seconds it takes to do jobs.
• There is also a fantastic and catchy song here to sing; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik_-OAgzD-8

Home learning

Here is the timetable for the home learning tasks this half term                                     

Memory Game Ideas

Here is a great idea to build on the children’s memory skills:

Talk about, photograph or write out some ‘events’ from something you have done together – can your child remember the correct order?

A few further pieces of information:

• Some names have worn out of uniform so please can you check that names are visible as there has been numerous things lost and I am unable to return items if I do not know who they belong to.
• We are now leading into targeting the Early Learning Goals for those who are on track to meet these towards the end of the year, with this in mind I have attached some more information regarding these and some helpful things you could do at home to support your children achieving these. If your child is not yet here, please do not worry and do try some of these activities too, as this will also help.
• World book day is on Thursday 2nd March 2023. Children will be invited to dress up as their favourite book character.
• Library- we are launching our KS1 Library on World Book day which we are very excited about. Every Friday the children will visit the library and choose a picture book to bring home to share with grownups for the weekend. Please return this in book bags on a Monday to change for the following weekend, if books are not returned, children will not be able to bring home another one the following week.
• We will be having a prince and princesses dress up day for the King’s coronation. More information about this will be posted soon, this is just a heads up to plan costumes.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Jolly

 Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and would like to wish you all a Happy New Year-let’s hope it is a good one! I am extremely proud of how far the children have already come during their first full term at school and can’t wait to see what they can achieve this half term too.  

 This half term our topic is ‘Real Life Superheroes.’ Here the children will explore lots of different occupations and discover their roles in helping us with day to day tasks. We will split the topic into areas such as People who help us; at home, at school, stay healthy, get food and keep safe. In the final week of this topic we will then look at what the children would like to be when they grow up! This will be celebrated with a “When I grow up” dress up day where the children will be invited to dress up as the occupation they would like to do when they grow up.  This will be on Friday 17^th February 2023.

English (Communication, Language & Literacy)
We will be focusing on looking at non-fiction texts this half-term. Here we will be exploring how these differ from picture books and identifying some of their key features. We will also include the talk4writing practice similar to that used when looking at Jack and The Beanstalk last half term. This encourages children to organise facts as well as recognise language used when writing them down.  Using similar techniques we will also learn a version of the story ‘Cops and Robbers’ by Allen Ahlberg.

 The children will be encouraged to use full sentences when writing and break their flow of speech into words. We will be looking for them to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops, so any support at home with this would be very useful. 

The children will be given a range of opportunities to utilise these skills this half term with different activities such as creating posters to promote helpfulness at school or writing about what a doctor might need in their bag.  The children will also be completing a weekly independent writing activity to further develop their confidence to form sentences and words using their own knowledge as some of the children have become extremely reliable on adult presence when writing, and are reluctant to have a go. We have tried this out last term and it has been extremely successful and the progress made already has been amazing.

I have noticed that some children are still very dependent on adult support when writing. If children do any writing at home I advise that you help them plan it by saying the sentences together a number of times, marking each word by using your fingers (a video will be posted on dojo about how to do this) and then leaving your child to write the sentence on their own. This may be a challenge at first, but it will help them read over their work to see what sounds come next as well as develop their critical thinking skills, enabling them to sequence their own ideas. Once they have completed this, I would recommend going over their writing and correcting one or two things such as letter formation, or adding in some missing sounds. This again encourages your child to think about reading over their work and editing it.

Please find below two examples of writing that children did independently, with no adult support at all. This is the expectation at this point in the year and what we are aiming for with home learning. Sometimes I know it can be difficult to know what we are aiming to achieve so thought this would give you more of an understanding. Please note, not all children are at this level yet as they all learn at different rates.

‘not I said (sed) the dog.’                                                                    ‘The princess (prises) wos sad she had no money (muny.)’

Phonics
We are going to start Phase 3 of letters and sounds this half term where children will concentrate on learning new digraphs (2 letters which make one sound eg ai as in r/ai/n .) They will also be introduced to trigraphs, (3 letters which make 1 sound eg igh as in t/ight/t) new tricky and HFW and also encourage the blending and segmenting of CVCC words (as in frog). New high frequency words(HFW) and common exception words (Tricky words) will also be introduced. Bookmarks for these will be sent home in the new year.

It is vital that children practice their reading and writing at home as well as school as it consolidates their understanding and also heightens their confidence. Also please may I express the importance of letting the children use their robot talk to isolate each sound in a word independently, and not being given a word to copy as this makes them reluctant to have a go on their own and hinders their progress. I can often tell which children are reliant on their parents for this when it comes to writing in school or with their homework. Please can I also encourage the use of cursive letters in all writing otherwise it will confuse children in the future if they are swapping.  

In order to meet the expected standard for reading at the end of Reception, your child would need to be reading and understanding the book colours stated below by the end of each term.

Maths

We will begin this half term with exploring Shape. Here the children will be identifying 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. To support your child in this area you could begin to look at shapes in the environment and allow them to play and construct with various shaped items to make images and models to develop their understanding of tessellation and edges.  Please note I will be using the term ‘rectangle’ and not oblong, due to recent studies suggesting this is the correct name for this shape!  After looking at shape, we will then continue developing our number knowledge, this time looking at numbers 6,7 and 8. We will start by practicing ordering numbers and counting accurately to these totals. We will also be looking at combing two groups to make these numbers as well as the usual composition facts and subitising skills.

Homework

Please see the timetable below for the homework- I will also set it weekly on Dojo. I will be keeping a record of who completes this from now on as numbers have reduced slightly, although it is not compulsory it is exceptionally beneficial. The weekly words have worked very well with many children learning these by sight, thank you for your support with this.  I have also added a number of spare sheets at the back (which are labelled) if you notice children need additional support in certain areas or if they want to do some additional work.  Please continue to encourage pre-cursive handwriting and correct one or two handwriting ‘mistakes’ on the homework and ask your child to practice these multiple times at the bottom. This is a strategy used to help develop their hand muscle memory to make writing easier.

 Memory Games

Playing memory games can improve other brain functions, such as attention, concentration, and focus. Memory games give space to critical thinking and that helps children nurture their attention to detail. Memory games can improve visual recognition. With this in mind I will be including some ideas that you can try at home to help develop these skills in a fun and engaging way in each newsletter.

Jumping Sequence- Use large squares of paper, which are coloured, numbered or lettered. Begin with coloured squares taped to the floor. Show the child a sequence, initially only two colours/numbers etc. Child then jumps onto the squares in the correct sequence. Increase difficulty by increasing amount of squares in the sequence and move onto letters and numbers.

Communication and Language

Did you know that Templin (1957) (as cited in Bishop, 1997 and Saxton, 2010) estimated that by 6 years of age, children have a vocabulary of 14,000 words. This means that on average, children between 18 months and 6 years old would need to learn 8 new words a day. What do you do at home to introduce new words to your child every day?

Research shows that children who have poor vocabulary at 2 years old tend to do less well at school by 7 years old- which is a very scary thought, but also something we do experience in school.

Therefore, it is vital we promote a range of different vocabulary at home and school. It is suggested that 5 new words a day are introduced at school and 3 at home. (Apart from the weekends where all 8 should come from home!) This seems a little daunting, however there is a very simple way you can consider the introduction of new vocabulary to your child.  One way is through my vocabulary triangles and the knowledge organisers for our Understanding the World topics. Another is a strategy we now use in the classroom. This is a vocabulary flower.  A vocabulary flower is a simple planning tool which simply makes you consider 2 object names to introduce to your child, 2 describing words and an action.  These can be used when completing activities at home such as baking, helping with jobs or when on a walk.  We use them for every table activity in the classroom and introduce one a day. These then change weekly, along with the activities. It has been fascinating to see some simple words that we had assumed children would know (e.g. rolling pin, tube, baking) that they actually did not know and could not use within context. I have included some examples of the flowers used in the classroom and I have also included a blank one that you could use to have a go at just carefully considering the vocabulary that you want to emphasise when playing, reading or conducting an activity with your child at home.  Please let me know if you have had a go at doing this and how it went.

A few further bits of information:

• PE will continue to be on Monday and Wednesday.
• If you have any questions about anything in this letter then please do not hesitate to ask. I look forward to another fun filled half term.
• Independence is key this half term in order to help the children make good progress. To help this you could encourage children to do little jobs at home such as set the table, make their bed, match socks etc and this in turn should help them regain their independence and allow them to redeem critical thinking skills, encouraging them to process information by themselves and act on what they have heard with little adult intervention. If independence is lacking, children will find making progress very difficult as they become reliant on an adult doing absolutely everything for them which is not beneficial in the long run.
• If you would like to come into school to talk about your job (any job would be fantastic) then please let me know and we can organise a time that suits you.
• 
  Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Jolly

 Dear Parents/Carers,

 I hope you have a restful break after such a busy, but fantastic first half term at school. I am extremely pleased with how the children are settling in and can already see some brilliant progress as they embrace all the new topics and learning concepts I keep sending their way.

Autumn 2 is going to be another action packed half term, particularly with all the celebrations in the run up to Christmas, which is always an extremely exciting time of year for the children.

Topic

This half term we will be looking at Traditional Tales. We will be focusing on exploring the language included in these books, different character roles and beginning to learn how we can be authors and change elements of a story ourselves. We will also be learning about celebrations and family traditions such as Diwali, Firework night and Christmas.

 To help your children develop in this area it would be great to share some of your favourite traditional tales as well as the more modern ‘messed up fairy tales’ which often tell the stories from a different perspective. It would also be great if you use the vocabulary triangle, reflective questions and story starters at home. This will help extend the children’s vocabulary even further and also explore the concept of differing narratives.

Phonics

Many of the children are rapidly picking up the new sounds introduced, as well as the skills needed to read and write words and captions. Due to their hard work, we will be continuing to introduce the rest of the Phase 2 sounds at the new slower pace this half term and have a real focus on developing the children’s understanding of how we form these letters and how we use these sounds in our blending and segmenting.

We will also continue to introduce high frequency words (HFW) and common exception words (Tricky words.) Learning these by sight make for much more fluent readers and make spelling them a lot easier. I have sent home a set of word cards with the homework pack. Each week there is a  ‘word of the week.’ This is a word that we would like you to practice with your child every day at home, so they are able to read it by sight. We will then do a weekly check at school to see who has learnt it. This will develop your child’s accuracy when reading and their fluency so please ensure you practice it.

If your child is a little reluctant to read at home, this could be due to several things such as time of day, lack of understanding of the narrative so it therefore becomes boring, or un-engagement. To try and help with these issues I would firstly suggest picking the reading time according to your child’s mood. If you know your chid is more responsive in the mornings, try and have a morning cuddle and spend 5-10 minutes reading before the morning routine kicks in. To hook the child into the narrative and help them learn how to understand these through the use of pictures and text you could first act out what you think will happen using the pictures to help before ‘being a detective’ and actually reading the story to see if they were correct. Please see the vocabulary triangle and questions sheet for a little inspiration about how to try and get your child to engage with the books that they are reading.

Literacy

Literacy will focus on encouraging children to use their phonic knowledge to segment words in order to build sentences with less adult support as previously needed. This is due to the majority of children showing great understanding of how to use skills taught in phonics lessons to do this. We will also be using ‘talk 4 writing’ methods to look at Jack and the Beanstalk. I will be including lots of videos on Class dojo so that you can see how talk 4 writing is used to develop children’s language and understanding of the features of a book. This will give you insight into little activities that can be done at home to help develop these further. I will also be showing you how we encourage children to write independently, without copying words and going over dots to help them grow into independent writers.

Maths

This half term we will continue to focus on number work. This includes recognising numerals to 5, (or beyond) counting objects, actions or even noises accurately and matching totals to a number. We will also continue to develop the children’s understanding of subitising and practicing recognising the total number in different arrangements of objects or dots without counting.  Finally we will move on to exploring more compositions of numbers to 5 and try to encourage children to use number facts to recall these rather than using counting methods. An example of a composition of 5 is ‘2 and 3 make 5’ or ‘1 and 4 make 5.’ Finally in week 7 we will be beginning to look at simple patterns, ready to lead us to shape in the Spring term.

I have noticed that there are some children who have come to school lacking basic number knowledge or number sense making it difficult for them to recognise numbers 1-10 and count out totals to match each numeral. Any additional practice at home would help develop these skills quickly. You can also use the number games I have created on the home learning section of the website.

Home Learning

The response to the writing home learning activities has been fantastic and the children are consolidating skills learnt at school very quickly by practising them at home too. I have seen a huge improvement in the children’s handwriting who have been doing these activities regularly, so thank you for your support with this. Home learning will continue over Autumn 2 and I will now include a maths activity linked to what we have been learning in school. This will alternate between being paper based or online using a website called ‘Maths Seeds’ which is very fun and engaging. The logins for this have been sent home. Each week the correct task will appear on a Monday, (see below for what these will be.) However, I have added some additional tasks your child can work through in your own time to develop number knowledge or consolidate skills. It has been fantastic to see how many children get excited about this weekly, and I see a huge difference in the children who complete it regularly. May I remind you it is not compulsory, however strongly recommended that this is completed as again it consolidates skills and builds independence. Please see the timetable below for the homework.

Boys Learning Update

I have included two more information sheets about how to support early literacy development with a little questionnaire to help you asses the level that your child is at currently and some ideas to further support them. Please note it does state on it that ‘too much pressure at an early age can create literacy difficulties.’ This is extremely important as pressure can lead to low self-esteem and also reluctance. This doesn’t mean you give up trying if your child is a little reluctant, it means you try new strategies to engage them. I have also included some maths ideas for home. Again these are not focused solely on boys and would be very useful for both genders learning development.

Reading Books

We will continue to operate the reading book system as we have been doing so that you keep one book at home and the one previously read at home is returned in book bags on a Monday so we can change it on the Friday.  I will also be sending home information about an online reading system that we use called ‘rising stars.’ These are e-books and are a great addition to add to your reading schedule for variety. These are set at your child’s reading level and like the books sent home, should be read through multiple times to develop the children’s comprehension skills. I will set 8 books at a time for you and your child to work through throughout the half term.

Memory games, Executive Function and Language

As mentioned in my previous newsletter, executive function skills play a key part in development. It enables children to maintain attention and avoid getting distracted, to enhance concentration, to remember instructions, and to keep track of what they are doing as they are working…and lots more. With this in mind, along with my communication and language course I am undertaking, I have two lovely storytelling ideas you could try at home that would not only support developing children’s memory, executive function and language skill, but will also be very fun too.

Storytelling requires that children hold and work with information in their working memory. With practice, and as their executive function skills develop, they can plan and organise more complex narratives.

Activity 1- Write down children’s stories, or get children to draw pictures and create their own books. Use this record of the story to revisit it, which will help children to elaborate further on the story or support them to organise the events in a more effective way. You could even record them telling their story.

Activity 2- Get children to act out the stories they have written. This requires children to pay attention, hold the story structure in working memory, and inhibit the impulse to change the story. They can use the pictures from task 1 to support this.

If you try these at home, please upload them to Dojo as I would love to see what you have been up to and hear the wonderful stories your children create.

Communication and Language

The way we interact with children plays a vital role in developing their communication and language skills. Sometimes when we communicate with children we can take the lead of games, bombard them with questions or simply answer for them as they take a little longer to respond to us. With this in mind I have put together a little task for you to look at your interaction style and think about how you could improve it a little. I did the same and have found it fascinating what little things you can alter (that you probably didn’t realise that you were doing!) to support your child’s development in this area.  To complete this checklist, approach an activity that your child is immersed in and look at the following:

 Other Information:

• Nativity Book- As part of our enterprise topic this year and due to its success in previous years, we will be creating a Nativity book. The children will act out the story and we will photograph this, turning these into a published book for you to purchase. It was such a lovely keepsake last year and something the children really enjoyed. Please fill in this questionnaire to secure a part for your child and also give your consent for your child to take part in it. This closes on 15/11/2022 and limited parts will be given out to those who filled in the questionnaire first - https://www.allcounted.com/s?did=s6tm9hzd9myxa&lang=en_US#

We will also be inviting you in to see the children share this story with you on Wednesday 7^th December at 2.40pm in the village hall. I will send out a link about requesting tickets during the next two weeks.

• Sponsored event- During our ‘Understanding The World’ topic this half term we are looking at ‘Does everyone in the world have a favourite pair of shoes?’ Here we will be exploring how families from around the world differ to ours. We will be looking at their clothing, possessions, and houses before leading on to seeing how a child in Africa’s routine is different to ours too. We will be thinking about how some families are not as lucky as we are and do not have basic things like water or shoes. With this in mind, we will be having a sponsored ‘move your feet’ week where we invite you and your children to be as active as possible for a full week. We want to encourage you to go on walks/runs, walk to school, have dance a thons, go swimming- anything to get you to move those feet. We will then have a full day at school where we will be as active as possible, whilst wearing our favourite pair of shoes. For this week, we will ask that your children get sponsored to take part, and all money raised will go to the charity Sal’s Shoes. Please find more information about this charity or more information about donating your own unwanted shoes to children all around the world here https://www.salsshoes.com/our-story/  More information about this event will be sent home soon.  We do recognise that with the cost of living being so high at the moment that gaining sponsorship may not be a possibility for some people, but all children are more than welcome to take part in the active day.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Jolly