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.

We are starting this half term with our Ready, Steady, Listen event and book fair. Please do get involved, the more sponsorship and books listened to, the more wonderful Usborne books can be added to our bookshelves.

As firework night is a few days away, the children will be keen to share their firework experiences and we will be talking about safety around fireworks. In preschool the children will be creating some lovely sparkly craft. We will also be listening to some firework inspired music and seeing how we can move to this music. We will also be exploring the festival of Diwali, telling the story of Rama and Sita and even making our very own diva lamps.

As the season starts to change around us we will be observing how the trees change and the changes in the weather. We will still have a few more weeks of conker collecting from our tree, so we will be weighing them, counting them, sorting them, painting them, cooking them. You may even find a few coat pockets full of them, where the child wish to take them home!

As we start December the festive fun will commence and the Little Owls team are usually more excited than the children! We will be busy writing letters and Christmas cards, making decorations, singing songs, reading lots of Christmas stories and even helping Father Christmas to wrap some presents.

Following our children’s interests means we don’t always know where our learning will take us, but we do know it will always be fun!

We really do value your support at home, please continue to read with your children, it doesn’t need to be a book linked to a topic, it can just be a book that you can enjoy together. Please remember everyday tasks can be a learning opportunity – getting themselves dressed, putting on their own coat or shoes, helping you to sort the washing, matching up those socks! A trip to the supermarket can bring lots of learning opportunities – writing a list, looking for logos, price tickets, choosing a healthy balanced diet. A trip to the park – climbing, balancing, learning to take 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.

This half term we will PLAY!

The Little Owls Team will be getting to know our new Little Owls and continuing to build on the relationships of those that have already started their journey with us through play and having fun.

We will be painting, drawing, getting messy with gloop, water or mud, maybe all three!

We will be singing, rhyming, reading, dancing and role playing!

We will be running, jumping, climbing, building and creating!

We will laugh, we might cry, we might even be a little scared but we will be doing it together!

At home continue to read together – it has so many benefits. It doesn’t have to stop there either, use puppets to retell a favourite story, make up your own or dress up and act it out. Back and forth conversations also have so many benefits, so keep answering those WHY? questions and if you don’t know the answer, find out together. When you are out and about what can you see or hear? There are so many sights and sounds in the community.

As always our door is always open for our families. If you need any support, advice or just a catch up with someone, please just ask.

Our Community and Us.

It is always a busy half term at this time of the year. We are preparing our leavers’ for their school transitions and excitingly this half term we start our Forest School sessions.

As we prepare our leavers’ for school, there are activities you could be doing at home to help such as:

Independent Skills – lunch – practise with knives, forks and spoons, opening lunchboxes and packaging, peeling fruit and drinking from an open cup.

Toileting – try and encourage your child to use the toilet independently, wipe themselves and wash their hands after. Don’t worry if your child still needs help, speak to the class teacher, they will be grateful you have told them.

Getting dressed – give chances for your child to practise dressing themselves, practise buttons, poppers and zips. Practise putting on their shoes themselves. Only put your child in shoes with laces, if they can tie them themselves. Practise putting on their coats, trousers, skirts and tops. Remind them the label needs to go at the back and show them where you have named the item of clothing, so they know where to look if they lose it.

Name Recognition – give your child as much exposure to their name as possible. It will help them find their pegs. drawers and clothes. This will help them independently look are their belongings. Being able to spell or write their name is not expected when they start, but if you are able to start practising this it is useful for them to begin to label their work.

Social Skills – Talk to your child about speaking to adults if they need help. Tell them it is ok to ask for help and to tell someone they are going to the toilet. Encourage sharing of toys, following instructions – this will also develop patience as well. Make sure they don’t always win, this will expose them to feelings of not always winning and will teach them emotions and develop resilience. Talk them through situations they may come across at school, such as a child saying they can’t join in a game, talk about how they would react and what they could do. Discuss the journey to school, how are you going to there, what might you see on the way.

We will also be practising some of the above with our Little Owls that are not leaving us, so they start to learn about independence and resilience.

Forest School will be taking place each week for our older children. Please remember to send them with the appropriate clothing.

PE Kit Activity week will commence on 28th June for our school leavers. Please refer to your email for full details.

Activities for you to try at home – Map making, then going for a walk to see if you can follow the map to a named building near to your home. Look at different buildings such as shops, churches, schools. Promote road safety, safe places to cross, pedestrian crossing etc. Perhaps write a letter or draw a picture and them follow a map to the post box to post it. Try making a fruit salad or prepare a healthy meal together. Help to hang out the washing on the line.

Books to read – Handras Surprise, Oliver’s Vegetables, Oliver’s Fruit Salad, Monkey Puzzle.

Sing nursery rhymes and songs – you may even be able to make up your own.

This half term we will be looking at life cycles to traditional stories to the universe and even people that help us.

During our life cycle topic we will have frogspawn at preschool and watching as the little tadpoles develop and then turn into little frogs. We also had our caterpillars delivered this week. They are very tiny but in a few days we will transfer them into the butterfly pavilion and watch as they develop. When they have transformed into beautiful butterflies we will release them and watch as they fly away. During this we will be drawing and painting caterpillars and butterflies, we will also be creating models of how they might look like as they grow. Books we will be ready at preschool are The Very Hungry Caterpillar, A seed in Need and The Enormous Turnip – perhaps you could share these at home as well. You could also try making a little “sprout house” – plant a bean in a jar or bag and watch as the roots grow. Also if you are out for a walk, talk about the changes to the trees and plants.

Traditional Stories – Read your favourite books together. Can your child re-tell you their favourite story? Maybe you could make porridge, like Goldilocks. Perhaps you could match shoes to their owner at home, just like in Cinderella.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you will learn, then more places you will go”

Dr Seuss

The Universe – we can all help to protect our planet – can you recycle? Perhaps can you try making compost from any un-eaten vegetables? Can you save water? All these little things will help to save the planet.

Can you look at the similarities and differences between the planets of the solar system? How many planets are there? Are you able to make any of them? Please bring them in to show us. Also try counting down to launch a rocket into space.

People who help us – can you practice road safety? What would you like to be when you grow up? Who will you help? Maybe you could draw or write a letter and post it to someone. How does it get there? Who collects and delivers it? Look at house numbers and postcodes – they help the postman find the right house. Possible books that could be read – The Smartest Giant in Town, Little Red Riding Hood and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

Pirates and Princesses – You could host a tea party or a treasure hunt. Who doesn’t love a treasure map? You could make a princess crown with repeating patterns. How about making a pirate ship den or a princess castle – how exciting! Books you could share are 10 Little Pirates, Cinderella or your favourite princess book.