Welcome to the Peacocks Class!
Staff
Teacher: Hazel Stone
TAs: Nicola Cooke and Aqsa Arif
Mid Day Leader: Ellie O’Brien
Newsletter
Hairy, Scary Beast
The Peacocks have had a very busy Spring 1 half term and a great start to 2024!
We have been sharing the story of ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ as part of our Hairy, Scary Beasts theme and The Peacocks have enjoyed exploring the props, including a tiger costume and a tea set. Using the tea set to pour ‘tea’ has also linked in well with our Food Discovery lessons this half term, where the children have been practicing pouring liquids in and out of containers using bottles, funnels and buckets.
Each week The Peacocks have practiced the Signs of the Week and we have linked these into our Early English and Move and Mark lessons. Staff have seen extremely good concentration and focus when the Peacocks have been copying the adults’ curved and wiggly lines in order to draw their own beast like shapes!
We have also seen fantastic listening and sitting skills during this half term’s theme-related Bucket Time lessons and are proud to say that we think that The Peacocks will be ready to move onto Stage 3 after the school holidays!
During Early Maths lessons the Peacocks have been developing their motor skills by attempting a range of manipulation activities, including jigsaw puzzles, shape sorters and also by threading cereal hoops to create their own ‘hairy, scary beasts’. Their perseverance has been amazing!
It has been a lovely half term and we look forward to the next (shorter than usual) one which we are sure will be just as fun!
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.
Click play to watch this half terms Signalong video!
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
During the second half of the Spring Term, it would be very beneficial to your child if you can:
- Maintain communication with staff via SeeSaw to provide information that might be useful to us, such as whether your child has not had time for breakfast.
- Check & use the school’s current Signalong signs that are sent out via SeeSaw & are available on the school website. This half term’s theme is ‘Food Glorious Food’. We use the weekly website signs as part of a Total Communication approach to learning (regardless of whether children use or copy the signs themselves).
- Share stories with your child. This half term we will be reading ‘Daddy’s Sandwich’ as our Sensory Story & listening to the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’ as part of our ‘Reading for Pleasure’. There are online versions of both of these stories available if you do not have the books.
- Linked to the above, we will be making sandwiches in class each week. It would be wonderful if you could also practise the spreading & slicing skills involved in this process at home with your child (even if they do not wish to eat the sandwich at the end!)
- Ensure your child has suitable waterproof/warm clothing for outdoor lessons & play/lunchtimes so that we can try to make mud pies & garden soup as part of our ‘Food Glorious Food theme!
- Lastly, we really love to hear what the Peacocks enjoy doing when they are not in school, so please feel free to send us updates on SeeSaw!
Thank you