MH Pre-Prep News 09/02/2024

9th February 2024

NEWS FROM MRS KNIGHT, HEAD OF PRE-PREP

We started this week with an Assembly exploring Safer Internet Day. The theme for Safer Internet Day 2024 is ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online. The children were told to remember to be SMART. Stay Safe: Never give your name, address or passwords out to anyone online. They may say they are the same age as you but they could be lying.

Meet: Never go to meet someone you have made friends with online. If an online friend wants to see you, talk to an adult you trust. Remember that they might not be who they say they are.

Accepting: If someone sends you a photo or a file, ask a trusted adult for help. Do not open the photo or file. It could have a virus.

Reliable: Remember that you can’t trust everyone who uses the Internet. Not everyone is kind or trustworthy.

Tell: Tell a trusted adult if something online upsets you or makes you worried.

The internet can offer valuable educational resources for children, including interactive games and videos that aid in developing early literacy and numeracy skills. Additionally, it provides opportunities for children to explore diverse topics, cultures, and perspectives, fostering curiosity and global awareness. Online platforms also encourage creativity and imagination through storytelling, drawing, and music-making tools, while challenging children to problem-solve and think critically through age-appropriate games and activities. Adult involvement and supervision play a crucial role in ensuring safe and beneficial internet usage, allowing guidance of children's online experiences, selection of appropriate content, and fostering bonding through shared activities. Ultimately, when used responsibly and under supervision, the internet can enrich children's learning experiences, prepare them for the digital age, and provide opportunities for social interaction and cultural enrichment.

Technology can move at an extraordinarily fast pace. So it can be difficult to know how to start talking to your child about what they’re doing online, who theyT Imight P S Tbe O speaking R E C O to G Nor ISE COLOU discussing the potential risks and issues.

RS For more information please see the NSPCC website here for advice.

Mr Brooks was very impressed with all the entries for the Pre-Prep Handwriting Competition, congratulations to Charlie, Beatrice, Lelia, Georgina and Lucia, the class winners.

Kirsten Knight

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NEWS FROM MRS KNIGHT, HEAD OF PRE-PREP

Nursery has enjoyed finding out all about Chinese New Year and we have had lots of discussions about which animal they represent in the Chinese zodiac. They have also loved using their fine motor skills to place pom poms onto Chinese dragons using tweezers as well as making Chinese lanterns and dragons. We also enjoyed using our red and yellow Play-Doh to make dragons and other creations. Most of all we have been very busy prepping for our Assembly next week! Ali Mackie

Reception has been immersed in Lunar New Year this week. We have learnt to say ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’, the traditional ‘Happy New Year’ greeting in Mandarin. We have tried hard to count to ten in Mandarin too! The children had fun creating their own Lion Dance with instruments and a Chinese lion costume, particularly enjoying the cymbals and the drums. We have seen some lovely collaged lanterns and concertina dragon crafts, as well as Play-Doh dragon creations using googly eyes, pipe cleaners and feathers.

Tessa Fairclough TIPS TO RECOGNISE COLOU RS

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NEWS FROM MRS KNIGHT, HEAD OF PRE-PREP

Year 1P

This week in Maths we have been using what we know about the number 10 to work out number facts to 20.

The children had to show a number bond to 10 on their ten frame, write two number sentences to show this, and then use this knowledge to create a number fact for 20. They really impressed me with this tricky new concept. We have linked our writing to our Geography topic, ‘Animals Around the World’, creating a non-chronological report about penguins. Did you know that an emperor penguin can grow to the same size as a six-year-old child? Lucy Pemberton

Year 1B We have also been adding within 20. The children have been using the ‘First, Next, Then’ method to help them work out the answer. We have also been learning how to save time by counting on from a number.

In History, we have ventured even further back in time and found out about the explorer Christopher Columbus. We compared his travels to Neil Armstrong’s; talking about similarities and differences.

The children are thoroughly enjoying the reading corner at the moment, and it is wonderful to see.

Victoria Bulman TIPS RS

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Year 2 In Maths we have explored multiplication and division, concentrating on the use of repeated addition and understanding that we are adding equal groups together. We have also used arrays to look at commutative operations which the children initially found puzzling but subsequently mastered. Debating whether Richard III was guilty of murdering the Princes in the tower was a lively part of our History lesson this week, comparing coastal and inland weather patterns in Geography and writing our own ‘Dread under the Bed’ stories have kept us all very busy.

Kirsten Knight Number day fun with Year 5

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