As storytellers, the children revisited the Little Little Miss Muffet Nursery rhyme and explored acting it out in our Story Steps sessions. They enjoyed retelling parts of the rhyme, talking about the characters and settings, and joining in with repeated language. The Reception children also learned this week’s Poetry Basket rhyme “Confused”, helping the children develop rhythm, expression and new vocabulary. Our Nativity songs and lines continued to be practised daily as the performance approaches.

As communicators using our Tales Toolkit, the children created imaginative stories using character, setting, problem and solution prompts and have shown a developing understanding of the meaning of each of these aspects. Alongside this, they took part in global storytime, listening to tales from different countries and practising simple greetings in a range of languages. 

As artists, the children created cardboard face sculptures by combining and arranging different-shaped cardboard pieces.  Our making table has also been popular with children using scissors, tape and glue to create their own 3D models. If you have any recycling at home, we would be very grateful to receive some to add to our creative table. 

As musicians, our focus this week has been on Nativity songs, with the children growing in confidence and beginning to remember their actions, cues and lyrics.

As movers, the children continued to develop key motor skills through manipulating playdough to create faces, building models with the Brio construction toy and taking part in Dough Disco, Squiggle, and Write Dance sessions.

 As citizens, we were thinking about our Golden Rule, 'We Listen'. Kudzi, Dalvin, Zayan and Dylan were awarded best listeners this week in our Behaviour Hero celebration today. 

In our phonics session, Reception continued to learn the sounds and practised using Fred Talk to read and write simple words. The Preschoolers had lots of fun playing Rhyming games such as 'Silly Soup' and joining in with rhyming stories. 

Reminders:

Reception parents:
Please ensure you have paid £13.30 and returned the permission slip for our trip to the Pegasus Theatre on Thursday 17th December (morning). If you are able to help on the trip, we would really appreciate it—please let us know. Thank you to the parents who have already kindly volunteered.

Children with speaking parts in the Nativity have now been given their lines to take home. Please support them by practising regularly.

All costumes and outfits need to be in school by Friday 5th December, so we are ready for our dress rehearsal. 

Pre-school children who normally attend on a Wednesday morning or all day will be included in the Nativity performance.

If you are coming to watch your child’s performance on Wednesday 10th, we would warmly welcome parent helpers to walk with us to the church. We will be leaving school at 8.45. Once we arrive, there will be hot drinks and festive treats available for you to enjoy while we get the children ready for the performance.

Next week, we will be celebrating our diverse backgrounds and exploring food from around the world. If your child has a favourite dish or a special food from your culture that they would like to share with their class, we would be delighted for them to bring it in.

We hope you all have a good weekend.

The Barrier Reef Early Years Team