Good morning everyone. It has been so lovely to see children at the zoom sessions, read emails about their learning and see the photographs you have sent. Please remember to let me know what your child has been up to each week.

We have two zoom sessions a day for children who want to attend. The sessions are at 11am and 1.30pm and I will read a story during each session.

• Share stories with your children daily, they are hugely important in their learning.
• Please sing or say rhymes with your child. If you do not know the tune, don’t worry. Your child might know it, or you can make up a tune or you could always say it rather than sing it. See Day 1 for the words to some of our popular rhymes.
• Please find opportunities for counting daily. This might be when playing with toys, having tea, or walking up the stairs.

Pre-nursery

Clap or March – Sing rhymes with your child and encourage them to clap or march along. The grand old Duke of York is a good rhyme for this (see below for the words).

Oh, the grand old Duke of York, He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down.
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

Giving clues – give clues to the children to see if they can guess what you are talking about. Make sure there are only 2 options that you want them to think about. For example have a teddy and a train and say – which toy is squashy, has two eyes and a red bow? This encourages your child to listen carefully which is an important skill.

Nursery

Phonics – Alliteration – Watch the clip of Thomas (f). Perhaps you can see if you can find things that begin with ‘f’ around your house.

The 3 Little Pigs – Watch the story below. Talk about the story and use it for opportunities for counting and matching. Discuss the materials each pig used to build its house. Which house was the best?

Giving clues – this can be done in a range of situations e.g. we are now going to play with something that is squashy, has two eyes and a red bow, rather than saying we are going to play with the teddy. You can also play a game with a range of pictures, photographs or toys. Give clues to one of the items and see if children know which one it is. Give children the opportunity to say the clues and for you to guess which one they are describing.

Please can you keep in touch with me via email to let me know how your child is getting on. Alternatively you could send me a message below. It would be lovely if you could send a photo or two of your children in their play. My email address is: clister@handale.rac.sch.uk

Take care,

Mrs Lister