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Preston
Primary School
Academy

Foundation Stage Weekly Newsletter

Puffins and Penguins Weekly Newsletter, 18th February 2022

Lego Six Brick Activities - Learning at home

It has been wonderful to see lots of you enjoying the six brick activities at home. The children have been very enthusiastic about sharing their learning at home. Thank you for posting your photos and videos on Seesaw, the children have enjoyed telling us about their creations. We hope you enjoy the new activity set on Seesaw this week.

ELSA – Emotional Literacy Support Assistant

Across the school we have newly trained Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs). An ELSA is a specialist teaching assistant who has a wealth of experience of working with children and is trained to support children in the development of their emotional literacy. ELSAs are trained and regularly supervised by Educational Psychologists from our local education authority.

Emotional literacy is

  • Understanding and coping with feelings about ourselves and others
  • Developing high self-esteem and positive interactions with others
  • Being emotionally literate helps children focus better on their learning

ELSAs can support children with:

  • Recognising emotions
  • Self-esteem
  • Social skills
  • Friendship
  • Anger management
  • Loss and bereavement

Children are identified, by teachers and parents, to take part in specific ELSA sessions depending on individual needs. Children work together in a small group and take part in fun practical activities. They meet once a week (for 30 minutes) for 6 weeks, progress is reviewed at the end of the 6 weeks. ELSAs can also provide targeted one-to-one support where necessary.

If your child is selected to take part, a letter will be e-mailed, and the class teacher will be available to answer any questions.

Further information can be found at the link Resources for Emotional Literacy Support Assistants - ELSA Support (elsa-support.co.uk)

Recommended Reads

These are the books your friends would like to recommend this week. We hope you enjoy them.

‘Sammy the snail’ by Kate Hewat

recommended by Dylan

Sammy the snail has to complete all the garden games. I like the log jump. The book even has wiggly eyes on the front.

’Simon Sock’ by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

recommended by Harvey

I really like this story. My favourite part of the book is the banana and the cat.

‘Dinosaurs Love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman

recommended by Penny

This is my favourite book. I love it when the dinosaurs fight over their pants. I think my friends will like this book as it has loads of dinosaurs in it and I like the cat in it.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw is our Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) programme that runs throughout the school. There are different puzzle pieces (topics) each half term. The knowledge and skills from the topics are carefully sequenced across the school to support children’s progression.

This half term our Jigsaw topic was called ‘Dreams and Goals’. Over the past six weeks the children have been talking about challenges and how it is important to keep trying. The children have been setting goals and have learnt how they can support and encourage one another with kind words. Children learnt how to be ambitious and thought about some of the jobs they might like to do when they are older and the skills they would need. We have linked this with our current learning experience ‘When I Grow Up’.

We have e-mailed a Knowledge Organiser for our current Jigsaw learning ‘Dreams and Goals’. The Knowledge Organiser details key knowledge and vocabulary used this half term for you to share and continue at home with your child. It also has some mindfulness activities and family talk time prompts you might like to try. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask a class teacher.

Knock Knock Open the Door

Over the past few weeks, the children have been immersed in the book ‘Knock Knock Open the Door’ and have completed a variety of activities including story maps, echo reading, rhyming and drama. This week the children created their own version of the story. We have been really impressed by their enthusiasm and creativity.

The original story is about a little boy who is waiting for a special person to arrive at the door but lots of other characters come to the door before the special baby arrives. The children carefully planned each part of their own book and used the plan to help them make their final book.

The children were challenged to first change the title of the book from ‘knock knock’ to another sound you may hear at the door. For example, ding dong; ring ring; tap tap; rat a tat tat; bang bang. Whilst doing this the children learnt about punctuation, exclamation marks and ellipsis. They made a front cover for their book.

They then had to choose a special person that they wanted to come to their door. Some children chose a family member and others chose a special pet. They also had to think of one word to describe their special person, for example funny, beautiful, cute, cuddly, tall, cheeky. The children then made this into a page for their book. They designed and made a lift the flap door for the special person to hide behind.

Next, they then had to make another page with a different character that could come to the door. The tricky part was that the character had to link to the adjective used to describe their special person. For example, if their special person was their daddy and they said he was tall, then the other character could have been a giraffe. They had some fantastic suggestions, we had lots of giggles thinking of ideas. They then designed and made another page for their book with a lift the flap door for the character to hide behind.

The finished books are truly amazing, we are so incredibly proud. It has been wonderful to see so much inspiration and creativity. We are currently putting all the books together, and we hope to record the children reading their own story to share with you on Seesaw. In the meantime, we will put the original story on Seesaw for you to enjoy as a family.

When I Grow Up

The children have been excited and inspired by our current learning experience ‘When I Grow Up’. Thank you to the many visitors we had in school this half term, the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They learnt about the skills needed to do the many different jobs and they began to realise the importance and relevance of our school values and the 4Cs (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity). They understood that Police Officers, Architects and Doctors all need to be able to communicate with one another and use collaboration in their jobs. We look forward to meeting many more visitors in school.

World Book Day

We will be celebrating World Book Day on Friday 4th March. We invite children to dress up as a book character and bring their favourite book to school to share with the class. Throughout the day we will enjoy a variety of activities and then finish with a special story time with cookies and milk! If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask.

Home Learning

  • Check Seesaw for this week’s RWI activity.
  • Enjoy a story on Seesaw read by Mrs Bastin.
  • Use Ten Town to practice numbers 1-10
  • Look on Seesaw for this week’s ‘Six Brick Challenges’. We would love to see some photos of you completing the challenges and hearing your thoughts.
  • Listen to the story ‘Knock Knock Open the door’ on Seesaw.
  • Complete the sentence writing activity on Seesaw.

Dates

  • Half term begins Monday 21st February
  • School returns Monday 28th February
  • World Book Day – Friday 4th March. Dress up as a book character and bring your favourite book to school.

From Mrs Bastin, Mrs Clague and the Foundation Stage Team

Address
Preston Primary School Academy
Old Paignton Road
Torquay
Devon
TQ2 6UY

Phone
01803 607075