Welcome to the Flamingos Class!
Staff
Teacher: Rachel Hayes
TAs: Nicola Hamnett, Rachel Mitchell, Gareth Phillips and Chloe Connaughton
Mid Day Leader: Jane Lees
Newsletter
Food Glorious Food
Hello everyone,
We have had an amazing half term in the Flamingos class. The children have continued to grow and develop, and as a class team, we have loved seeing them excel each day.
We have been exploring the story ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ this half term. We listened to the story each week and explored themed trays in our Sensory Story sessions. We have matched symbols and photos, visited the library, and continued our Move and Mark sessions, working on ‘up and down’ mark making to look like a caterpillar!
In Early Maths and Skill Building, we have all worked hard towards our individual targets, such as building towers, sorting colours, and exploring numbers. We have done well in child-led sessions, enjoying tabletop resources and number songs.
In Understanding the World this half term, we have had a blast exploring all types of resources in messy play sessions; a class favourite is crazy foam! We have explored many different resources that Caterpillars might live in, including hay, sawdust, and soil. In our play sessions, we cared for babies, played with teddies and cars, built towers, and shared with our friends.
In our Food Discovery sessions, we explored all the food in ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, practising our chopping skills to cut up apples, oranges, plums, strawberries, and pears! We have also made sandwiches to work on our spreading skills.
Attention Autism is the highlight of our week this half term. The children have progressed, even moving onto Stage 4. Their attention and engagement have been amazing! The children have enjoyed it almost as much as the staff! We have all enjoyed watching and getting involved- cornflour rain never disappoints!
We have continued to enjoy using our shared areas like Jack’s playground, Soft Play and the Studio.
We’ve started to develop friendships this half term and loved spending time together each day.
Have a lovely half term, a happy Easter, and Eid Mubarak
The Flamingos class 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 support activities, which you can enjoy with your child and it will reinforce the learning we are focusing on this half term.
Communication and Interaction
- Sing nursery rhymes with your child and use props to bring the songs to life.
- Make musical instruments out of household items, e.g. pan drums and cereal box guitars, then play them together.
Sensory and Physical
- Encourage your child to: thread beads, stack cups, complete jigsaws and build with Lego.
- Visit the park with your child and encourage them to develop their gross motor skills, e.g. climbing, jumping, running and skipping.
Well-being
- Help your child to wash and dry their hands. Can they do this without help?
- Can they wash their face and brush their teeth?
- Can they put their coat on and zip it up?
Cognition and Learning
- Listen to the stories that we will be focusing on in class:
- A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea | Barefoot Books Singalong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Qn2bcZRTo
- The Animal Boogie | Barefoot Books Singalong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25_u1GzruQM
Can you name any of the animals you see?
