School Office

08:30 - 16:30

Monday to Friday

Hedgehogs Class

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Hedgehog class! I hope that the past couple of weeks have
been as useful to you as they have to us and the children. Mrs Tully, Miss Thorpe, Mrs Connor, and I have really enjoyed meeting and getting to know the children, they have all been amazing. The transition process has worked very well; in their small groups the children have had the opportunity to fully explore the new classroom and discover what the provision has to offer.

This week will be the children’s first full week and we will still be working on settling into routines and learning how to engage with the classroom provision. The classroom provision is accessible all day and is set up to ensure that the children can interact with the resources either on their own; with each other; or with an adult, and in such a way that they will always have the opportunity to further their learning through play and engagement.

Just some of the continuous provision on offer:

The home corner and dressing up area
Recreating experiences and reliving situations that are familiar to them supports children to develop their social and emotional skills; language and communication skills; begin to explore feelings; understand relationships and negotiate roles.

Maths station
Using resources linked to our teaching, the children can explore counting; understanding ‘how many’; comparing numbers and amounts; the relationships between numbers; pattern; shape; space and measure. Developing understanding of mathematical concepts is also achievable in all other areas of the classroom provision.

Writing and mark making area
At this stage of their development, the children are beginning to develop their knowledge of attributing meaning to the marks they make. Some children can already write their name, others are still exploring the relationship between their name and the marks they can make.
Regardless of their current level of understanding, all of the children will be supported to develop their writing skills. Opportunities to write and make marks during play are all over the classroom, we would encourage that children be allowed to scribble and ‘write’ as often as possible when home.

At ages 4 and 5 children are beginning to develop their pencil grip; this progresses in stages and cannot be rushed. Pencil grip is dependent on hand, shoulder and arm strength and mobility. Children develop the larger muscles of their trunk, shoulders, and arms before the smaller muscles of their hands. To aid this development, our provision includes lots of activities that will support that development, such as: playdough; toy cars, toy figures, Lego,
wooden blocks, push and pull toys, lifting buckets of sand, pouring water, mixing, bead threading – and much more!

Expressive arts and design
The children can access drawing, cuttng, sticking, painting, colouring, and ‘junk’ modelling at any time. Not only do these activities help build those fine motor skills, but they also offer opportunities for them to explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, and experiment with colour, texture, and design. We encourage the children to talk about their creations.

Outdoor investigation station
This is a firm favourite at the moment – in this area the children can experiment with mixing and grinding natural ‘ingredients’ such as fresh herbs, flowers, pinecones, leaves, and orange peel. They tend to mix with sand and water, using pots and pans, buckets, and bowls. We have already had some lovely cups of ‘tea’, all manner of pretend meals and even some magic potions! Carrying and mixing the mixtures help build those core muscles, and using
them in pretend play helps develop their imagination, communication, and vocabulary. We also have sand and water tables available with plenty of different resources to use.

Deconstructed role play area
This is an area that the children are just beginning to explore – in this area we have plenty of materials with which the children can work together to create their own play. Things like giant cardboard boxes; camouflage nets, sheets and pegs for den making, different sized tubes, tyres – things that the children can reimagine into adventures. We are also lucky enough to have our own playground with trikes and a sandpit which we visit daily.

This week the children will bring home a reading book to share with you, we ask that children read their reading books every day. Encouraging your child to read the same book repeatedly is important because it helps them build a larger vocabulary, become familiar with the rhythm of language, read fluently without stumbling, improve understanding, and ultimately boost their confidence in reading. Your child will also choose a library book from our class library – this for you to share and read with your child. Please ensure that all books are well taken care of and returned weekly in book bags.

Forest School session begin on the 6th of October – you should have received a separate letter from Mrs Standerwick explaining in more detail.

Finally, please ensure that all clothes, coats, drinks, and lunch boxes are labelled with your child’s name. As you can imagine, trying to match unnamed items to a class of 4- and 5-year olds is an almost impossible task!
We are going to have a fantastic term – If you have any questions or concerns, please do send a message on Showbie. The ‘Class discussion’ is for all Hedgehog parents and the ‘Parent-teacher contact is a way to message me privately.

Miss Hanna

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