We are so excited to be back and hope you all had a fantastic summer, we can not wait to hear all about it!

All About Us
As we welcome our Little Owls, old and new, the first half term will be all about us and getting to know each other. Our Little Owls will have grown and changed so much since the last time we saw them.

Together will will discover things that make us happy, things that make us sad, things that might worry us and things that make us belly laugh!

Together will will explore paint, construction, climbing, mark making, singing, dancing, pretending and reading.

Together we will do all this through PLAY!

Your Support
We really do value your support at home and we have lots of home learning activity packs and many books in our very own library for you to share with your children. Please help yourself, they are always available at drop off and pick up times. Everything can become a learning opportunity – getting dressed, putting on their shoes or coat, matching up socks, setting the table, a trip to the supermarket (writing a list, looking at logos and price tickets, and eating a healthy balanced diet), or a trip to the park (climbing, taking risks). The learning opportunities are endless!

Please remember the Little Owls team are always available and if you would like to speak to any of the team, please just ask.

TLC
TLC is an Essex campaign that looks to help parents, carers and families of young children support their children’s communication development and learn how to help their children gain the best start in life through playful learning at home.
This site will regularly post a range of ideas, top tips and games to support children’s language, physical and emotional development. Its aim is to ensure children start school ready to explore, learn and make friends.
Talk, Listen and Cuddle are the three ingredients needed to ensure young children get the best start in life.

https://www.tlc-essex.info/

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely break and enjoyed lots of Jubilee celebrations!

Dinosaurs are coming to Little Owls! Dinosaurs are a huge interest to many of our Little Owls, so the team are excited to plan lots of dinosaur themed activities for our first week back! A dinosaur swamp, a dinosaur dig and some dinosaur dancing are just some of the things planned so far.

We are also excited to welcome some duckling eggs that we will care for and hope to see hatch before they go off to their new home with the Rix family.

Our Community and Us – The children lead their own learning, so we never know where this will take us and everyday can be very different, but this half term we plan to explore our community. Places, people and buildings give us so many learning opportunities. We definitely have a trip to the post box planned as we need to send our letter and pictures of our celebrations to the Queen. Making maps is always popular, we always end up hunting for treasure and we usually find some! Building our houses will get our Little Owls planning and thinking about the resources they can use and how they will use them.

The 13th June sees the start of healthy eating week, as always we will continue to promote healthy eating with our Little Owls and the importance of a healthy varied diet and how this supports good oral health and visiting the dentist.

There are lots of people that help us within our community – dentists, doctors, vets, teachers, postal workers and many more. Hopefully, we will have visits from some of our emergency services (as long as they are not too busy!) to talk about what they do and how they help us – flashing lights and sirens are always fun too!

For all of our Little Owls, the team will continue to support them in their independence and resilience, especially those Little Owls that are preparing for their transition to school in September. Over the next few weeks we will have some teachers visiting, some children may have transition sessions in their new schools and as always we are available for support and to answer questions, not only ones that the children might have but their families too.

We really do value your support at home, please continue to read with your children, it doesn’t have to be books linked to topic, it can be any book that you can enjoy together. Everyday tasks can be a learning opportunity too – getting themselves dressed, putting their own shoes or coat on, sorting the washing, matching socks, a trip to the supermarket – writing a list, looking at logos and price tickets and choosing a healthy balanced diet to eat – maybe try eating a rainbow (see picture below) or a trip to the park, which includes climbing and taking risks. The learning opportunities are endless!

If you would like any ideas, please speak to one of the team, we are always happy to offer some suggestions

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a lovely Easter beak.

See how we grow!

Over this half term we will immerse ourselves in a variety of lifecycles and looking after our bodies. We love this topic, as it gives us so much to see and discuss. We will continue to care for the plants and potatoes that we have already planted and we hope you will share the progress of your sweet peas with us. I’m sure there will be lots more planting taking place. We love to plant cress and watch its rapid growth. It’s also fascinating to watch Jack’s beanstalk grow in a glass jar so we can see the roots twist and turn. Hopefully, we will again have some frogspawn and later in the term we will be closely monitoring the hatching of some ducklings!

We will of course not forgot how we grow and the importance of a healthy body and mind. Healthy eating, oral hygiene and Yoga are all activities that will be on our planning. We are currently trying to create a large set of teeth to be cleaned, we are hoping they are ready!

We will be sharing so many of our favourite stories, Some Dogs Do, Smartest Giant in Town, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Colour Monster and of course The Very Hungry Caterpillar to name a few!

There will be lots of seasonal changes to observe during our forest school sessions and as we learn about managing risks, we hope to include more tools and possibly learn some whittling skills.

Some of our little owls and their families will be finding out about their primary school places this month. As we talk more about starting school everyone will be feeling a range of different emotions, we will give our little owls the opportunity to explore these emotions. We also want to let our families know we are always here for a chat, support or reassurance for you to, just ask.

We hope you all had a lovely half term break!

During this half term we will be exploring traditional and familiar stories and nursery rhymes.

We can create the houses for the 3 little pigs, mix porridge for the three bears , cut out our own paper dolls or create a map for what the ladybird heard. We can wash Incy out of the water spout, make Miss Polly’s dolly better and I’m sure baking gingerbread men will be a popular activity.

With so many lovely books and rhymes to choose from our learning opportunities are endless.

We will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, 3rd March. Everyone is welcome to dress up as their favourite book/character (I’m sure there will be some staff costumes too!)

Reading together has so many benefits – expanding vocabulary, developing understanding, increasing self confidence and supporting children to gain a wealth of knowledge. It can also ignite creativity, spark curiosity and stimulate the imagination, this will lead to so many other areas of learning and development. Nursery rhymes provide the children with a fun opportunity to start to hear the rhythm and sounds in words, a great early literacy skill.

At the end of the term there is a special date we will be preparing for, but until then it will remain a secret!

Our door is always open, just ask if you’d like to speak to one of the team.

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a lovely break and look forward to hearing all the exciting things you have been up to, your traditions, celebrations and of course if Father Christmas came!

This half term we would like to look at some different countries around the world and how they celebrate different occasions. Markar Sankranti – a Hindu festival, Australia Day, Chinese New Year – the year of the Tiger and Valentine’s Day all fall within the first half term.

We can mark make maps, flags and study the globe. We hope to try some new foods and part of the Markar Sankranti celebration is a festival of kites, so we will enjoy making our very own and seeing if we can get them to fly!

We have some lovely new books about religion, cultures, diversity and the world, which will really enhance our learning opportunities.

As always, our learning is led by the children and their interests, so we never know where this will take us and everyday can be very different.

We really do value your support at home. Please continue to read with your children, it doesn’t have to be books linked to topic, it can be any book that you can enjoy together. Please remember everyday tasks can be a learning opportunity too – getting themselves dressed, putting on their own shoes or coat, sorting the washing, matching socks, a trip to the supermarket (writing a list, looking at logos and price tickets, eating a healthy balanced diet) or a trip to the park (climbing, taking risks). The learning opportunities are endless! If you would like any ideas, please speak to one of the team, we are always happy to offer some suggestions.

Just a little reminder, if your Little Owl is due to start primary school in September 2022, applications need to be made by 15th January.