Nursery Seahorses Newsletter Spring 2 2020

Nursery Rhymes
 
This half term the topic will be Nursery Rhymes.  Each week we will focus on a different rhyme, including Hickory Dickory Dock, Incy, Wincy Spider and Humpty Dumpty to name a few.  These early rhymes are the foundation to rhyming activities the children will encounter further up the school and confidence in and knowledge of these is essential.  As soon as they are ready to the children will play rhyming games and learn to continue rhyming strings.  Younger children will listen to stories containing rhyming words and fill in missing words as they become more familiar with the stories.  The children will be encouraged join in, acting out the rhymes to make them more physical.  Following on from this, there will be lots of learning opportunities linked to number, mark making and Understanding the World.  Why not see how many nursery rhymes your child already knows by saying these rhymes together.
 
Easter
To end the term we will look at the celebration of Easter, using the nursery rhyme 'Hot Cross Buns' as a stimulus.  The children will look forward to another celebration, getting the chance to talk about the things they will do with their families to celebrate Easter.  They will be able to compare the different celebrations and compare the ways families celebrate.  Here is the Hot Cross Buns song for you to sing together at home.
Number
Number and counting will continue to be a focus throughout this half term.  The children will work on saying number names in order to 5, 10, 15 and 20 until they can do this consistently and in a variety of situations so this becomes a 'built in' skill.  They will also count with one-to-one correspondence, supported as necessary, counting quantities that are appropriate to them, recognising that the last number they say tells them 'how many' is in a set.  Counting objects is a very different skill to simply saying numbers in order and needs to be practiced until it is secure.  Once their counting is consistent, the children will begin to count out quantities from a larger set.  When doing this, the children have to use all of their number skills so they can say the number names in order and stop at the right number to achieve the correct amount.  Alongside all of this counting, the children will continue to work on number recognition, playing games, looking at flashcards regularly as well as doing independent number jobs, exposing them to numbers every day.  Keep an eye on Tapestry to keep up to date with assessments and to find ways to support your child with this at home.
Problem Solving
To get the children thinking and problem solving we will be carrying out some simple investigations.  We will look at Humpty Dumpty, thinking about materials and what would be the best surface for him to land on so he wouldn't get broken.  We will also look at and discuss the changes that take place when cooking and baking hot cross buns.  Watch out for photographs of these investigations on Tapestry and the school website.