Topic News 3 January and February 2004

Expressive Arts and Design

The children have already been using different media, tools and techniques to create a variety of work since September and opportunities to develop these skills will continue. Using the colours and textures of winter will also be a feature. Let’s hope for a few frosty days and even some snow!

Vacancy

We currently have a vacancy for a Teaching Assistant on a temporary contract for 15 hours per week, term time only. The successful candidate will be supporting a child 1 to 1. If you are interested in the post or know of someone who may be please contact the school office for an application pack. Please note - The post is advertised on the Cheshire West and Chester website but the job description and person specification used by the Local Authority is a general one used for primary schools. Our own pack will give more specific details of the post required for our school

Spring Term 1

Topic News

This half term we begin a new topic on “My World”. We will be encouraging the children to think about the world in which they live. We start from what they know best, their homes and family. Wethen move on to talk aboutour local environment. We will also be learning the story of the Willow Pattern Plate and celebrating Chinese New Year. Look out for some eye catching decorations and maybe even a colourful dancing dragon! As we enjoy the frosty mornings it gives children the chance to talk about Winter and to explore all the beautiful colours shapes and textures we see at this time of year.

Whilst we continue to use a topic based approach to plan the children’s learning, staff are continually observing and listening to what the children are most interested in. Teachers plan with this in mind. They also consider how each child likes to learn and provide opportunities to meet different learning styles. All our learning at school is achieved through play and having fun both indoors and in our outdoor learning area.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

For our newest children our priority is to help them settle happily into nursery and to encourage them to grow in confidence and gain independence. Our older children will now be encouragedto choose a widening variety of activities, gradually spending longer at each one. All children are different and whilst some have established firm friendships others continue to learn how to make friends and discover what being a friend really means. Children benefit from learning in different situations and we are always aware of the need to work with them on their emotional well-being as they learn to recognisetheir own feelings and begin to understand those of others

Communication and Language

The children express their thoughts, interests and ideas using a growing vocabulary. They are finding it easier and more rewarding to listen to others and contribute to conversations.Many of the children are already skilled at predicting, recalling, asking and answering questions,. They enjoy using imaginative and social language as they build the skills which enable them to communicate effectively.

Literacy

The children are giving increasing meaning to their mark making and love to use these skills in the role-play areas. We use our “Letters and Sounds” resourcesto teachthe children to listen carefullydeveloping their phonic awareness. They love playing rhyming games …sometimes the sillier the better. This is something that you can do at home too.

Physical Development

We encourageall children to grow in confidence physically whatever stage they are at. We use both large and small equipment. We will be concentrating on balancing using different parts of the body and on different low-level equipment.

Mathematics

Our special topic is about using comparative and positional language, So we will using words such as behind, on, under, in front.and longer, taller, same as, heavier etc The children will have many opportunities to get hands on and measure and weigh objects. Again this is something you might enjoy doing at home. Developing number skills is on going throughout the year and opportunities to count, to recognise and to order numbers are provided as part of normal every day activities.

Understanding the World

As already mentioned, finding out about the immediate and wider environment and celebrating Chinese New Year will be very important during this topic. The children will be talking about short and long journeys that they have made and using lots of our lovely toys such as aeroplanes, cars and road mats..

Our children are also encouraged to appreciate other cultures and ways of life. As we celebrate Chinese New Year there will be opportunities to take part in Chinese artwork, play in a Chinese home, dress up in Chinese clothes, use chopsticks and listen to Chinese stories.