Newsletter – 21st February 2022 Our News It was lovely to speak to you all at our recent parents’ evenings and to share with you how your child is progressing and which aspects of their learning they need to focus on next. We are all very excited in school and are looking forward to watching the construction work, which will be starting shortly, on our new physical development play area.
STARS OF THE WEEK Elias and Arthur from Yellow Ducklings Zayn and Aidan from Brown Ducklings Our Learning We have been talking about how we celebrate special occasions at home with our families and comparing and contrasting this with how some families celebrate the Chinese or Lunar New Year. We have enjoyed listening to the story of the Chinese Zodiac and watching dragon dances, as well as having a go at doing our own! It was Safer Internet week as well as Children’s Mental Health Awareness week, so we combined the two in our week of learning. The children have found out, through stories and scenarios, how they can stay safe online. Ask them all about it! We have also talked about how we might be feeling each day and why. We have shared the different things that make us feel happy and have joined in each day with activities that help to create a feeling of positive mental well-being, such as mindfulness colouring, yoga, meditation and listening to classical music. In preparation for Valentine’s Day we have created our own cards by printing with hearts and have talked about and drawn the people who we love.
Little Chicks have been… • • • •
Mark making by trying out some Chinese writing and writing in our Valentine’s cards. Exploring the 2D shapes on the faces of 3D shapes and tracing around them, describing some of their properties. Finding objects that begin with k and l. Retelling the story of the Chinese Zodiac using the small world animals.
Ducklings have been… • • •
Drawing and writing about how we are feeling and what makes us feel happy. Creating a poster for how to stay safe online and designing our own Safer Internet logos. Exploring different ways to make the numbers 6,8, and 8 and finding the total of two amounts by adding.
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Learning to read and write the digraphs and trigraph ai, ee, igh, oa and oo.
Our Learning – What next? After learning about very cold places in the world, the Ducklings and Little Chicks will be learning all about a contrasting place, Africa. We will begin this topic by reading the story Handa’s Surprise and will compare and contrast where we live with what life is like in Kenya. We are also looking forward to our special visitors who are coming to teach us African drumming and dancing.