Welcome to the Herons Class!
Staff
Teacher: Kimberley Pattillo
TAs: Claire Mullen, Muna Inam and Rachel Platt
Mid Day Leader: Sam Grundy
Newsletter
Ticket to Ride
Hi everyone,
I cannot believe we have reached the end of our year together as herons. Time has flown this year and we have loved every minute as a class, we are so sad our time together is coming to an end, especially as we say goodbye to two of our classmates who are heading to New Bridge!
This half term we have been exploring the story ‘Maisie goes on holiday’ – this has been great for the Summer as we have been exploring the seaside and holidays. Each week we have listened to Charlotte tell the story and remembered what we need to pack in our suitcase! We have practiced spelling words related to holidays and have matched photos to symbols of what we have packed inn our bags. In move and mark we have continued practicing difficult circular marks – we have improved with this lots!
In maths we have continued to enjoy both individual and group work. Our favourite as always are our number songs where we have practiced recognising, ordering and writing numerals. Some of us have shown off our lovely singing voices!
In understanding the world this half term we have explored a different transport – one of our favourite topics! From cars on roads, to rockets in space, to diggers in mud; we have really enjoyed exploring different transportation. In I wonder we have explored the concept of going on a journey – what will we see when we arrive? What will we be able to smell? What will we touch? We have been to space, the seaside, under the sea and to the jungle. We have done some lovely listening and exploring with our senses.
In our creative development sessions we have stuck with our transport theme! We have use different shapes to create trains – some of us have used this as an opportunity to practice our math skills. We have also pushed cars through paint to make different marks, used blocks to print train carriages and collaged boats. In food discovery we have been practicing our spreading skills; all the children were amazing and showed good improvement! We have used knives to spread different consistencies like foam, jam and glue and have spread jam, butter and chocolate spread on different items such as crackers, toast and crumpets. We will end the year spreading on cakes as an end of year treat!
It has been amazing being part of the herons this year – we know all the children will do amazing in their new classes/schools come September.
Have a lovely Summer!
Herons 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 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 ‘Where’s Mr Train’ – This can be purchased off Amazon using the following link, if you want to use it at home. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheres-Mr-Train-Felt-Flaps/dp/1839948396
- • Share songs and rhymes with your child. – We use a site called ‘HelpKidzLearn’ and ‘Barefoot Books’ which can be accessed via YouTube using the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/user/barefootbooks
- • 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.
- • Support your child to do short ‘Skill Building’ activities these could be: – threading beads on a lace, doing an inset jigsaw, building towers with blocks or using stacking toys.
- • 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.
