Dear Parents,

What an exciting week we have had! The children have been looking at how we keep healthy this week. We have had the Dentist surgery set up in our role play area and the children have been checking out each other’s healthy smiles. We were also visited by the lovely dental nurses: Amy and Maria, on Wednesday; who answered children’s questions and talked to the children about how we must brush our teeth for 2 minutes, twice a day. They are looking forward to seeing any new patients, if your child has not yet registered at a local surgery. The children were very fortunate to be given a free toothbrush and special 2 minute timer to use. From now on, every week, the children will be given a tooth-brushing chart. If they complete it (by brushing their teeth twice daily) they will be given a team point for their independence and great dental health!

We have also been looking at position and direction; looking at prepositions (above, behind, next to, beneath, in between, under) and direction words such as forwards, right, left and backwards in Maths. Playing games that involve this vocabulary, learning to use the Beebots and singing songs (e.g. hokey cokey) have helped with recall and understanding. Here is one to do at home!

In Cooking, we made healthy sandwiches and used a knife and fork to cut it up. We also practised this skill with playdough in the afternoon. Some children are still struggling with left and right, so if you could include this in your family time e.g. using a knife (in right) fork (in left) , that would be wonderful! We will continue to practise this at school and guide the children at lunchtimes.

In PE- we have started our dance topic. We learnt some funky moves with familiar songs and realised Street Dancing is ALOT more difficult than we thought. The children did a fabulous job copying some small actions using their arms and feet then put a few together in a routine, guided by a professional. Each week we will be trying a different style of dancing and hopefully your child can recall some moves to show you at home!

Our Phonics has changed slightly this term- we are trying out a new schedule where Miss Inchley and I teach the RWI phonics to the class in different groups throughout the morning. The children will continue to be taught in groups, at the level of learning for them, and we will review at the end of term. If you have any questions about this, please let us know.

Next week we are having a Storytellers week. The children will be doing lots of activities involving books! Reading books, making books, story problem-solving, STEM activities and learning different ways of telling a story…LOTS of lovely story-related things.

Challenge: For show and tell, we will be fitting it in throughout the week, so the more the merrier! Can your child bring in their favourite book or tell a story to the class?

Reminders: 7th March- World Book Day– dress as an adjective! Please don’t feel pressured to buy a new outfit. We have plenty of dressing up at school. Alternatively if your child would prefer to wear their school uniform that is also fine.

11th March- STEM week. We will be participating in a whole school Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths week!

19th and 21st March, 4-7pm- Parent Consultations

28th March– End of term

Please note, we appear to have both Chicken Pox and a sickness bug going around. Please be vigilant and ensure your child does not return to school until fully recovered/48 hours after their last sickness episode.

We hope you have a lovely weekend (hopefully sick free!),

The Kites Team