Happy New Year!
(I do apologise - it has taken me a while to say it due to my recent absence.)
The children have made me feel so welcomed, and excited about the rest of the term.

Our Topic- Marvellous Me

Both Mrs Simon and myself have carried out our planning sessions with the children. We make every effort to ensure all the activities are inspired by ideas the children have come up with, during the focused sessions.
And- it looks like we're in for another busy term!

Each week ( now I'm back) I will post a review of the week with examples of children's work from the planned activities and some examples of the wonderful, spontaneous learning that takes place through child initiated play.

This week:
The children shared with me some of the jobs/ professions they would like to do in the future. There was an impressive variety of occupations - and I ( of course) stressed the importance of working hard in school to help them all achieve their dreams.

The children went on a Listening Walk with Mrs Rowan and documented where in the school grounds they heard the sounds . They shared their Top Tips on listening well.

To improve their counting to twenty, their listening and communication skills we have been involved in a washing task. The children looked at different ways to wash clothes with Miss Morley, and then hand washed some socks. We'll count and discuss anything if it's fun.

We blew off some cob webs running round outside, trying to learn prepositions ( in front and behind) and sort out our left from our right. More work is required on directions etc.

I asked the children to think creatively and come up with some interesting ideas for our topic. We based our discussions around the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. The children did extremely well and are getting more comfortable with just trying/ suggesting and not fearing making a mistake.

Nursery and a small group from Reception made treasure maps after helping me and Miss Maureen map out one of our outside areas ( and hiding some treasure!) Some of the children had very impressive spatial awareness.

Nursery and Miss Maureen have completed a very grand design project and produced an incredible ambulance to go with our hospital role play area.  

And of course, we have continued with: our study of phonics, high frequency words and practised our reading in our groups. We've been forming letters, writing independently and creating different scenarios during free play. We've been singing, playing, talking, asking questions and counting.  

All in all- we've had another lovely,busy week.
VPJ