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Dear Parents/Guardians

Welcome back and Happy New Year, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break and may I take this opportunity to thank you all very much for the lovely gifts I received at the end of term, it was very kind of you and they were all very much appreciated!

May I welcome our new nursery members, it is a pleasure to have you join my fantastic class of treasures and below are just a few useful pieces of information or reminders that I hope you will all find helpful regarding our learning this term.

Teaching and Learning
Our learning this term will be on the topic of "People who help us". This topic offers many opportunities for children to understand the roles that various people have within our community and how they can help us, this will cover the police, doctors, nurses, vet, teachers, road workers, firemen etc just to name a few. We will be trying to look at one set of people a week to allow us to explore how they help us in more depth for example looking at what they do, where they work, what they wear, and what transport they use. This will enable the children to make observations, ask questions and make comparisons.
As the term progresses we will also look at Winter changes as we approach Spring and the celebrations of St Valentines Day, the Chinese New Year, St Davids Day and Easter.

We are very excited about changing our role play area and making our very own CraigCefnParc hospital, which I am sure the children will have plenty of enjoyment in using. Anything that you may have which you feel will help us create the perfect hospital would be gratefully received.

My PPA will continue to be on a Thursday morning (2nd session) where the children will be taught by Mrs Julia Knaggs. Mrs Knaggs will be working with the children in creating our outside role play area which at present is being kept TOP SECRET! (Although I have my suspiscions it will be a garage - sure to be a big hit!)The learning will include lots of cross curricular links and provides opportunity for children to investigate, experiment, plan, create and evaluate.

Our language will focus on developing their oracy skills through discussions, role play and hot seating. We will be progressing with their mark making and letter formation, as well as enjoying several stories, poems, songs and rhymes linked to our topic. The children will be continuing to learn their letter sounds through a "sounds of the week" approach and will be given plenty of reinforcement of previous sounds covered and new ones introduced throughout each morning with games, puzzles and multi-sensory activities.
Once again I will be sending home a "fab vocab" sheet which will display the vocabulary that we are modelling and using in the Nursery/Reception class. If you could continue to use this vocabulary in context at home or when you are out and about to further reinforce their learning, this would be very helpful.
Please remember that when practising letter sounds with your child at home and practising to write your child`s name to only use lower case letters, and a capital letter for the first letter only.


Our mathematical learning will continue to look at numbers to 10 (N), and numbers to 20 (R) through counting, recognition, sorting, ordering and matching activities, games, songs and rhymes. The children will be looking at numbers before and after a given number and counting forwards and backwards. We will also be looking at shape and time, gaining understanding of time of day activities. Furthermore Reception will be developing strategies for adding and subtracting using objects and toys through practical activities and games. They will be adding 2/3 to a number up to 10, counting on to find a total.


Timetable

Our P.E day will continue to be on a Tuesday morning so please ensure your child is suitably dressed in comfortable and loose clothing to help with this.

Wednesday will continue to be "Wellie Wednesday" where we will be outdoors so
please remember to bring wellies for this! I am looking forward to sharing the beauty of spring with the children and our forest schools area will make the ideal place to do this. I am sure the planting of spring bulbs and seeds in our Foundation areas will be a real treat when they flower.

Reminders

Book bags for Reception children

Please could you ensure the book bag be brought back to school every day for us to support your child with their individual reading, although we will not change books daily, having the opportunity to read regularly with their own book is helpful. We would also appreciate it if you could continue to share with us how they get on at home with their reading by writing a brief note in their reading record. This way we can work together to turn your child into a beautiful little book worm! Oxford Reading Tree key word flash cards will be sent home shortly to assist your child in developing their reading skills and sight vocabulary.

Story sacks for Nursery

We have a new selection of CAPER books ready for you to enjoy with your child this term. So please feel free to return books/story sacks each Monday and choose another. Mrs Morgan is always available to help you with this and fill in the file with the book details.
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Fruit/Cooking

Just a quick reminder that we kindly ask for 20p a day (£1 a week) towards fruit which is to be payable on a Monday morning. We also really appreciate a donation of 50p a week so that the children can continue to enjoy their cookery sessions . This can be paid weekly or per half term if you wish.


Home Bags

Please could Thomas the bear and Tedi Twt bags be returned to school so that they can be given out to those children who have not had chance to take them home yet. Once all children have had opportunity to experience both bags they will be updated and changed to stay relevant to the children`s learning. Your cooperation with these bags in ensuring they are returned frequently and complete with all contents is appreciated - Thank you!

Tedi Twt bag - To be returned the next day
Thomas the bear bag - To be given out on a Friday and returned on Monday (weekend bag)


Finally I will be starting a new "Look at our learning book" for the term which will be hung on our Nursery/Reception door. Please feel free to take some time with your child to enjoy looking at what the children have been getting up to, and for your child to enjoy telling you.


I think that just about covers it all for now I will keep you informed of any other information. Thank you for your continued support and as always the Nursery/Reception door is always open, so please do not hesitate to see myself or a member of the Foundation Phase staff.



Mrs K Bennett and the Foundation team

January 2010


Nursery/Reception staff

Mrs Karen Bennett - Nursery/Reception class teacher
Mrs Claire Morgan - NNEB (N/R)
Mrs S Davies - Learning Support Assistant (N/R)
Mrs R Drew - Learning Support Assistant