Welcome Back Preschool

Dear Preschool,

It has been lovely to welcome you all back this week, I can tell that you are rested and ready for a new half term of learning. We were very excited to learn that our new theme for this half term is based around the story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'.

Within our personal, social and emotional development we listened to the story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' then we discussed the feelings of the different characters and talked about why they were feeling that way: "Daddy Bear is cross" why? "Cos somebody has eaten his porridge", "Baby Bear is sad, he is crying cos somebody has eaten his porridge", Mummy Bear looks a bit worried". We also learned how to play a 'Bear Matching' game this focused on developing our turn taking skills.

For our Heart Smart session this week, Boris the Robot helped us to learn that we are all special and important. We were shown an image of the Queen's crown and asked what it is and who wears it. We then talked about how the Queen is very important and special but so are you. Next we thought about the different ways we are special "I have a sister", "I have pink shoes", "I can swim", "I smile", "I love my chicken", "Because I love Maisie and keep her safe, away from the cliffs". We then decorated our own crown to remind ourselves we are special and important.

As part of our mindfulness session this week we used a balloon to play don't touch-the-floor game. We imagined the balloons were bubbles that might pop. Listening to relaxing music you focused on using gentle movements to keep your balloon from falling to the ground.

To support our communication and language skills we have developed our listening and understanding skills. We listened carefully to the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears and answered questions about the story. We have also taken part in daily phonics session – please see Tapestry for this week's phonics focus.

To enhance our physical development we have continued with our dough disco sessions and this week we have also been introduced to 'Squiggle whilst you Wiggle'. Both these sessions support at developing your child's gross and fine motor development. We have also continued to work on our independence skills, most of us can now put on own coats (wow!) and we are working hard on managing our zip or buttons on our coat. It is lovely to see the pride in the children's faces as they overcome challenges as they develop a new skill.

Within our literacy sessions we have listened to our story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and have been encouraged to join in with repeated parts of the story. I am super impressed at how you can recall this story and I love how we are already using different voices for the different characters. For our writing focus this week we talked about the characters within the story then you drew a picture of the different characters.

We reinforced our learning of 'one' as part of our mathematics this week. We then created our own wonderful 'one' picture and then our focus was to use a stem sentence to describe what you can see on your picture. E.g. "I see one apple". We have also used positional language to describe where the bear is.

As part of our understanding of the world development we have used the paint program on our class whiteboard to draw a picture based on the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Our whiteboard can be a little temperamental but you persevered to complete your task. We also enjoyed our 'Bonfire Fun' theme day on Thursday.

During our expressive arts and design we learned 'The Goldilocks' song and added actions. We will perform our song next week and add to Tapestry. We have also used a paper plate to create a bear.

Within our free play we have enjoyed engaging in small world play with bears in porridge, dinosaurs, cars, Barbie dolls and the dolls house. We have used the language of size in our porridge tuff tray, we have been completing jigsaws, reading stories in the cosy corner, constructing and it has been lovely to observe lots of imaginative play.

What a fantastic start to our second half term together.
Have a great weekend
Tara