Weekly roundup 19 May 2023

It's been a lovely week and both rooms have particularly enjoyed being outside for longer periods thanks to the warmer weather. With this in mind, it's important to apply a high factor sunscreen to children before they come in. There are many 'once a day' types of high factor creams and lotions available and we advise you use these as staff are unable to reapply during the sessions. A labelled sunhat and labelled bottle of water are also important to remember every session.

We've engaged in lots of activities this week and some of the children have enjoyed practising their turn taking skills by having a go on the giant Hot Wheels car track! We also played Guess Who with some of the children that like to be challenged. I was quite surprised at their level of understanding in what is rather a complicated game for three and four year olds. The dark den was put together and explored by a few children and we'll be keeping it up next week so more can have some sensory fun with glowing toys, lights and torches.

School transition sessions included pencil control and name recognition. The children in Bumbles now have only their names written on their drawers, not the pictures they use for self registration and are able to recognise the letters in their names. They are currently learning to understand the five key concepts about print:

• print has meaning
• print can have different purposes
• we read English text from left to right and from top to bottom
• the names of the different parts of a book
• page sequencing

You can help at home by drawing children’s attention to a wide range of examples of print with different functions. These could be a sign to indicate a bus stop or to show danger, a menu for choosing what you want to eat, or a logo that stands for a particular shop.

When reading to children, sensitively draw their attention to the parts of the books, for example, the cover, the author, the page number. Show children how to handle books and to turn the pages one at a time. Show children where the text is, and how English print is read left to right and top to bottom. Show children how sentences start with capital letters and end with full stops. Explain the idea of a ‘word’ to children, pointing out how some words are longer than others and how there is always a space before and after a word.

These tips will help them prepare for more formal reading and writing when they start in reception classes.

Children in Honeys have really embraced the farm theme and continued to engage in lots of craft activities this week. They made ducks and cows with paint, paper and a range of junk modelling materials. After the half term we will be starting some transition sessions with the older Honeys who will be moving to the Bumbles room in September. Don't forget that next week is the last before the half term and we will be closed on Monday 5th June for staff training.

Have a great weekend.