Welcome to the Canaries Class!
Staff
Teacher: Aminah Choudhury
TAs: Adele Berry, Madiha Bahar and Carrie Clay
Mid Day Leader: Jane Lees
Newsletter
Hairy, Scary Beast
This half term we have had lots of fun learning about the topic “Hairy Scary Beast.”
In Early English sessions, we have looked at the book “The 3 Little Pigs.” We have enjoyed exploring the props to go with the story. We continue to go to the library in small groups to share/look at, take an interest in books, and listen to an adult read. We are also getting good at mark making patterns or writing letters from our name.
In Early Maths, we have been stacking building and knocking down bricks/blocks/Lego in building, during manipulation and sorting we have put shapes into different sorters and sorted out bears and other resources into colours using pincers to pick up and put the bears into beakers/saucers. We always say numbers too counting how many there are in the tower of bricks or bears in cups.
We have been to see the living eggs and had a stroke or cuddle with the chicks that hatched. We did some work on Chinese New Year making lanterns and trying different foods such as noodles and crackers. We love our weekly iPad sessions, and we can now find what we want on kids YouTube. We enjoyed playing in the snow when we had snow too.
In Creative Development, the Canaries have been practising pouring and scooping water and sand into different containers to a certain point/mark on the bottles and cups. We enjoyed doing this when the water was coloured and making juice poring the water to a line marked on the bottle. We also used paintbrushes, rollers, splatters, glue and glitter when making Valentines Day hearts and cards.
We have had time for me sessions playing with and exploring toys of our choice. We continue to wash and dry our hands after bathroom and messy play activities. We can now brush our teeth on our own.
The Canaries love bike club going to Jacks playground, exploring, and learning to ride the different available bikes. Soft play is a chance to use our gross motor skills as well as time in the hall with a circuit balancing and climbing. We very much enjoy our weekly sessions in the hydrotherapy pool and we can all walk in safely and also blow bubbles or put our faces in the water.
Have a lovely half term! The Canaries Team
Signalong
At Kingfisher we use Signalong as a part of a Total Communication Approach, we are constantly using core vocabulary with the children to support their language development and then through each of our topics we introduce new signs and language, which extends their vocabulary further. We also have two “Signs of the Week” which helps maintain and extend key knowledge and skills of everyday vocabulary.
Each half term we will be creating a short video showcasing and demonstrating signs relavent for the current term so that you can learn the signs and further this learning at home.
You can view this half terms signalong video below:
Lunchtime
If your child has a school dinner, the school menus can be accessed by clicking here. For children who bring a packed lunch, please remember to provide healthy and balanced options. We are a Healthy School and will be focusing on healthy eating and how children can make healthy lifestyle choices.
How You Can Help at Home
The following activities are suggested as appropriate homework activities which you can enjoy with your child. We want homework to be fun and easy to complete here are some ideas of things to do at home;
- Challenge me to use my directed form of communication and if I can do this, ask school what I need to do next. – This refers to the guidelines from speech and language therapy (SaLT)
- Encourage me to share my toys with any siblings I have.
- When I’m spending time with family and friends who are a similar age to me, help me to interact with them for a short time.
- Encourage me to use and repeat key words or/ and to sign help, more.
- Support me in my play and allow me to play with toys which suit my skill level- not my age level, this might be sensory or physical play.
- Encourage my independence at all times; allow me to undress myself and to dress myself. I need to be able to fasten my own clothes, zips, buttons and Velcro on my shoes.
- Encourage me to tidy up my toys after I have finished playing with them.
Topic related- “Food Glorious Food.”
- Share or watch the story – Alphabet A to Z (this is out story for this half term).
- Recognise and practise the letters S, A,T,P,I,N getting your child to say the letter and then an item that begins with the letter: s is for snake, a is for apple, t is for ten, p is for pen etc.
- Try new foods, touching, smelling and tasting, praising me when I do so.