Early Years Foundation Stage Newsletter.

Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome back to the second half term at school. Your child will receive a newsletter at the beginning of each half term.
*P.E will be Monday and Friday. The children need black shorts and a white tshirt. Tracksuits can be worn for Monday session only.
*Library session will be on Wednesday, please ensure that the library book is returned each week so a new book can be selected to share with you at home.
*Book bags are to be brought to school every day.

Our topic this half term is Festivals and Celebrations.

Communication, Language and Literacy
  The children will be encouraged in their play to extend and enrich their vocabulary, We will explore with the children the different Festivals through non–fiction books and stories. We will look at writing our own names and simple captions for pictures along with writing for different purposes such as birthday invitations, cards and a letter to Santa!
 We will continue to place an emphasis on phonics, We will look at segmenting and blending of words, allowing every opportunity to apply phonic knowledge in reading and our target area of writing. Your child will receive a reading book when they can confidently read all the words on the word wall.
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
 The children will learn number rhymes and continue to read, write and order numbers to 10. We will solve calculation problems through practical activities and begin to use the vocab associated with addition and subtraction. The children will sort items by their weight or capacity. We will look at ordinal numbers through the story of the Chinese New year and compare numbers saying which number is more/less and which number lies in between two given numbers.
Religious Education
The children will do activities that will help them recognise and understand all about the friends they have made at school and the friend we have in Jesus.

They will learn about Advent and the preparations we make in getting ready for the Birth of Jesus at Christmas.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
 We will encourage the children to discover more about festivals. We will discuss bonfire night and how we can keep ourselves safe. We will look at dark and light through a firework focus and through Diwali . We will role play a wedding celebration and talk about the Church. We will look at various festivals including Eid, the Chinese New year and of course Christmas! If any parents would like to come in and talk to the children about any festivals or celebrations they have been involved in they would be most welcome.

Creative Development
 We will be singing a variety of songs that the children can recall from memory related to Christmas and our Christmas performance. We will be exploring instruments and symbols and playing familiar instruments. We will look at how to play instruments quietly and loudly. The children will learn how to clap the rhythm to their own names. We will make colourful firework pictures and make puppets. The children will make poppies for Remembrance Sunday and print patterns to make wrapping paper. We will make hats for a wedding celebration and dragons for the Chinese New year. The children will all be involved in making their own Christmas card.

If you have any questions or concerns please come and see us. Thank you for your support.

Miss Dewhirst and Mrs Bell