What Early Years got up to in the Prep School this week

Pre-Reception

We have had a very busy week in Pre-Reception! Woodpecker and Badger class received a very special delivery from Father Christmas, a letter and a beautifully illustrated story book ‘The Night Before Christmas’ which tells Clement C Moore’s famous poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’.

We have been using this book throughout the week to support our Literacy lessons.

In Maths, we have been working on simple two-step and three-step repeating patterns (colour, size, shape, sound and movement).

In Phonics, we have taught the children to recognise the ‘n’ phoneme (sound) and to pronounce this correctly. We have used the phrase, “Open your lips a bit; put your tongue behind your teeth and make the nnnnn sound, nnnnn.”

We are incredibly proud of our children this week. Not only did they perform their Nativity to their wonderful parents, but they also behaved impeccably for our Godstone Farm trip. Father Christmas was extremely impressed!

Reception

It has been a busy and eventful week in Reception. 

Literacy
This week we have been encouraging the children to access the literacy table independently. They have been excitably writing lists to Santa and writing about those naughty elves that have been visiting your houses.  

Maths
This week we explored rectangles and squares. We introduced the vocabulary ‘straight sides’ and ‘corners.’ We explored and talked about the differences between rectangles and squares.  

Phonics
This week we focused on words with s /s/ added at the end (hats sits). Words ending s /z/ (his) and with s /z/ added at the end (bags). We introduced our last 3 tricky words, ‘we,’ ‘me,’ and ‘be,’ 

We practised writing sentences such as ‘She has six ducks.’   

Fine Motor Skills
The children have enjoyed the ‘Funky Fingers’ area. This area focuses on the development of fine motor skills. Fine motor control and precision helps hand eye co-ordination which is later linked to early literacy skills. 

Throughout the week we select a range of interesting experiences which enable the children to practice their fine motor skills. This week this has included:

• Cutting out spiral Christmas trees and snowmen - when using scissors, we encourage the children to point their thumbs to the ceiling and lock in their elbows 
• Making candy canes from pipe cleaners - This involved tightly twisting two pipe cleaners together to entwine them. They then manipulated the wire to create a candy cane 
• Mixing, stirring, and kneading ingredients to create salt dough. Once created the children rolled, patted, and manipulated the dough to create a surprise gift to send home
• Using a shoelace to thread in and out of a Christmas tree template 

Christmas Nativity
All the children performed beautifully in their nativity performance. We are extremely proud of how confidently they sang and said their lines.  

Visit to Godstone Farm
The children had a lovely trip to see Father Christmas at the farm today. We were all extremely proud of their behaviour.