Welcome to the Goldfinches Class!
Staff
Teacher: Kimberley Pattillo
TAs: Greta Burton and Ellie Lomax
Mid Day Leader: TBC
Newsletter
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
The Goldfinches have had a very celebratory half term. We have enjoyed celebrating both Eid and The King’s Coronation. The children explored food linked with both celebrations, listened to and danced to appropriate music and in their creative sessions made decorations and hats.
Our Sensory story this half term has been ‘Pete the Cat I Love my White Shoes’. The children have really enjoyed this story listening to the teachers read it from the book and also listening to the audio version on YouTube. We even had a surprise visit from Pete himself which went down a storm.
The children have been lucky enough to take their Physical Development sessions outside thanks to the lovely weather we’ve had. On Wednesday afternoons they have been practicing their bike skills. Most of the children are now comfortable being on tricycles supported by adults, some of the children have done really well and are able to cycle independently which is wonderful.
We have continued our communication sessions this half term. Those children who are learning to access PECS are making excellent progress using photographs to ask for motivational objects. All the children, regardless of their communicative level are coming along brilliantly, interacting with adults, asking for things they want, vocalising along to songs and rhymes, listening to and following simple instructions. We are very proud of them.
Happy Half Term
The Goldfinches
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 and reinforce the learning we are focussing on this half term –
- Share picture books and stories with your child – This half term we will be exploring ‘Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes’. The story can be found on YouTube:
- Share songs and rhymes – We use a site called ‘HelpKidzLearn’ and ‘Barefoot Books’ – Barefoot book story songs can be found on YouTube using the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25_u1GzruQM
Other Pete the Cat songs and stories can be found on:
https://www.petethecatbooks.com/books
- Give your child lots of opportunities to make real choices. Give your child a choice of at least 2 things, you can use real objects to do this or, if you can, photographs. To stretch your child’s learning make one of the choices something you know your child doesn’t like or want, this will encourage them to really think about what they are choosing.
- Encourage your child to be as independent as possible – help them to tidy up after themselves, undress and dress themselves, feed themselves
- Give your child lots of opportunities to ‘explore’ and ‘investigate’. A box filled with interesting toys and safe household objects is an excellent resource. Your child can explore what’s in the box, how the objects feel, look, smell, taste. They can investigate how the objects work and they can do it independently
- Provide your child with sensory play activities. There are lots of examples of these on Pinterest.
- If possible take your child in to nature this could be a muddy walk splashing in puddles, collecting leaves or a bug hunt.
