Information for Ducklings' Parents/Carers 2020

Carleton Green Community Primary School

Welcome to the Ducklings

Information for parents How to Help Your Child at Home

Life in the Ducklings During their first year at school, your child will enjoy a range of activities that will help them to develop across several different areas.

This leaflet is designed to help you to understand how your child will be learning and to guide you on how to further support their learning at home.

The Curriculum The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework sets standards, learning and care from birth to five. It is the stage your child is in until the end of the reception year at school. Your child will have started this learning journey whilst attending their nursery, preschool or child minder setting and this information is passed on to us at school to continue this journey on.

Please try to remember that every child starts school with different abilities – your teacher will help you progress at your own level.

The curriculum consists of seven areas of learning: Three Prime Areas  Communication and Language  Physical development  Personal, social & emotional development Four Specific Areas (through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied)  Literacy  Mathematics  Understanding of the world  Expressive arts and design

Communication and Language (talk confidently and clearly, enjoy stories, songs and poems, hear and say sounds and link them to letters, use a pencil and write some familiar words) Being able to talk about themselves and their needs.

Children need to talk and listen in order to express themselves verbally and subsequently on paper.

A child who cannot talk in sentences, will not be able to write in sentences.

Please use the picture books given to your children to encourage them to explain themselves fully, ask questions and begin to form questions of their own.

Also encourage your child to explain things themselves, don’t automatically fill in the gaps to speed things up! Taking turns in talking and listening.

Children also need to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions.

Practise giving simple instructions for them to follow in a fun way.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (self confidence, know their own needs and respect the needs of others, share, follow rules) Playing games is vastly important to your child’s development both socially and emotionally, enabling them to take turns, share and play fairly. Interacting with other children and adults. Games such as role play and construction help to develop communication skills. Playing board games encourages one to one correspondence when counting i.e. one space, one number and recognition of numbers. Further, playing pairs or the tray game can improve a child’s memory skills greatly.

Children need to talk about their feelings, their behaviour and its consequences and understand why we need to follow rules, chat about how they feel at different times and discuss how others might feel.

Having the confidence to separate from mummy, daddy or my carer and to be happy to tidy my belongings and look after my things.

Physical Development (move confidently, control their body, handling equipment, understanding the importance of physical activity and how to make healthy choices.)

During P.E and Dance, the children learn a number of skills that help them to use their bodies and handle any equipment both safely and confidently.

The emphasis is on control and co-ordination, showing awareness for those around them. They will also be encouraged to move spontaneously and imaginatively in response to a music stimulus. You could help by visiting the park, playing games involving balances and practising throwing and catching.

Your child will need to be able to get changed with increasing independence for P.E and to get ready to go outside to learn – putting wellies on, putting on their coat.

Make this fun by timing them with a piece of music or having a race with them. Independence in this area will also support them when using the dressing up clothes and when dressing in winter coats and woollies. Practise doing up and undoing buttons and zips and putting on and taking off socks and shoes.

Self-care is very important. Being able to know when and how to wash and dry their hands thoroughly, able to wipe their own nose and to ask for help if they feel unwell or need help. Being able to go to the toilet by themselves and wipe themselves and flush. Being able to use a knife and fork on my own or opening my packed lunch, including wrappers and packaging.

Literacy (Reading) It is absolutely essential that you read with your child regularly at home. This should not only be their school reading book but also a range of reading materials that your child shows an interest in.

Your child will be taught to recognise and sound out the letters of the alphabet and practise reading key words regularly to increase their sight vocabulary.

These words are the high frequency words that appear in the reading books used by the school and provide a foundation for reading. We send these home from time to time to practise. These words can be cut up and hidden around the house providing a word hunt, duplicated to enable pairs to be played or read against a timer to increase the pace of recognition and create a challenge. Look at picture books together and talk about what is happening. Let children ‘read’ (retell) their favourite, familiar stories in their own words. Share stories together.

In addition to these, encourage your child to read environmental text such as street signs, food labels, advertisements and timetables.

Literacy (Writing) When preparing to write, encourage your child to hold the pencil between the thumb and the index finger and support it with the middle finger. For the best control, this grip should be approximately two thirds down the pencil. Fine motor activities such as play dough, Lego building, bead threading, completing jigsaws all help with this.

It is important at this stage to establish a comfortable pencil grip and to ensure that your child can express themselves confidently without worrying about how to spell particular words. Explore making and experimenting with scribbling, making different lines and scribble shapes with various mark making tools – pencils, chalks, paint brushes, sticks in the sand.

Colouring in and tracing activities are also beneficial.

To give writing relevance, involve your child in everyday writing opportunities such as writing letters, postcards, notes for the milkman and shopping lists.

Please also continue to practise writing their names with them.

At school we introduce the children to cursive handwriting right from the start.

Mathematics (counting, reading, writing, ordering numbers, shape, shopping, measuring) Counting games, rhymes and songs will help your child become familiar with numbers.

Go on a number hunt up your road – which numbers can you see on the houses and cars? Who can spot a 6 first? Explore the numbers used on food wrappers and begin to ask questions regarding the numbers found. i.e. Which number is the biggest? What is the next number going to be?

As well as number, your child will experience shape, measure and money.

You could also bake together, measuring out the ingredients, or, allow your child to help when measuring for D.I.Y. jobs. Give them opportunities to deal with real money in real situations, i.e. buying a paper, paying for a car parking ticket. The most important thing to remember when participating in numeracy activities is to use a range of vocabulary, i.e. taller, bigger, smaller, shorter, less than, greater, heavier etc‌ AND have fun. What shapes can you see whilst out and about?

Understanding of the World (explore and find out about the physical world and their community around them, ask questions, build with different materials, learn about everyday technology.

Find out about past events in their lives and about different cultures and beliefs) This area covers a number of subjects including science, geography, history and information technology.

We help the children to find out about their environment and to talk about what they see.

They will talk about their families and friends, explore textures, food, grow plants and take part in many other activities which will encourage your child to look and ask questions.

Talk about how places, people, objects and materials are similar and different.

It is important that a child who is confident to raise their own questions regarding these areas, and that the adults around them spend time explaining answers. Talk about new places that you might visit or new people that you might meet.

Expressive Arts and Design (explore colour and shape, dancing, making things with different media, tell stories, make music and role play) The children have the opportunity to explore different media such as paint, collage, play dough, sand, fabric and clay. They will begin to learn about colour, texture and shape.

At home, conversations around these areas will help them to have more confidence when exploring them in the classroom.

Also, please continue to sing familiar songs and rhymes with your children.

Encourage them to pick out the rhyming words at the end of the lines or to tap along to the beat.

Sing the songs in a variety of ways using high or low voices or at either a slow or quick pace.

Finally, if you have the songs in print, share these with your child and get them to follow as they sing, thus becoming familiar with the vocabulary used.

Other ways you can help   

Always tell a member of staff if your child is worried about anything which may have happened either at school or at home.

Make sure that we always have an up to date telephone number so that we can contact you immediately if your child is ill or has an accident.

Encourage your child to be independent so that he/she is able to put shoes/socks on and off, put his/her coat on and off.

Some of the fun things you can do together include:           

Learning nursery rhymes Telling stories Drawing pictures Playing games Talking about time Measuring things Visiting places Singing songs Dressing up Growing things Making things

What do I need to bring?

A water bottle (water only, no juice please!)

A packed lunch (if not having school dinners) Fruit or vegetables only please, for snack time. The children are provided with a healthy school snack too, so you might find that you do not need to send in another, as time goes on! Some are more hungry than others!

A school reading book bag A coat suitable for playing outside A sun hat (if it is a hot sunny day!)

A pair of wellies and a set of waterproofs/puddle suit for wet play outside P.E. bag with P.E. kit (all clearly labelled with your child’s name on please)

Concerns If you ever have any concerns about your child’s school life please bring it to our attention. Often minor concerns and worries can build up and soon become major issues if they are not dealt with quickly. To prevent this from happening we have an open door policy and are always willing to discuss anything you have to say about your child.

We have a “Meet and Greet” session every morning and a “Goodbye” time each evening to share and celebrate news form home to school and vice versa. This is a good time to discuss any issues with a member of staff or to make a longer appointment time if necessary.

We want your child to be happy at school and will do all we can, with your help, to make this happen.

Uniform Most children cannot identify their own clothing when it is alongside that of the rest of the class.

PLEASE help us to help them and label any clothing that your child is likely to take off at school for e.g. shoes, coats, jumpers, dresses, shirts, trousers, hats, scarves, gloves, pumps, shorts etc. Shoes are often the item of clothing that doesn’t get labelled and lots of them have the same style!!!

Being able to recognise/read their name is a very important skill.

If unnamed lost clothing turns up it is very difficult to find the owner unless it is labelled.

We do teach the children to be organised when changing for PE and to keep everything in their own pile or in their bag, but things do get mixed up and it can take a lot of time trying to find out what belongs to who.

Details of our school uniform and where it can be purchased from can be found on the school website - https://www.carletongreen.lancs.sch.uk/Parents/uniform The children in Reception do not need to purchase the school tracksuit, but can do if you like as we do participate in some outdoor PE. Each child will be placed in a school house team and the colour of this house will determine the tie and PE tshirt colour that you will need to purchase.

Blue and white summer dresses can be worn in the summer term.

Absent from school If your child is clearly ill please don’t send them to school, particularly if they have been sick or have an infectious disease. If they have had sickness or diarrhoea they need to be absent from school until 48 hours after the last episode.

If you are not sure whether your child is really ill, give them time to wake up properly and see if they will eat their usual breakfast.

If you are still unsure, bring them and talk to the teacher about the problem.

If your child is taken ill at school we will ring you. Please make sure that we have correct phone numbers in case.

If your child is off school please let us know as soon as possible by phoning, leaving a message or reporting it on the school website and we need a note about the absence on their return.

We hope that this leaflet, along with the suggested activities, help you to both understand about your child’s learning and gives you practical advice on what type of activities you may like to do.

If you have any questions regarding the areas of learning or would like further explanation of any of the above, then please ask us.

We look forward to working with you.

Mrs Catterall and Mrs Lees (Foundation Stage teachers)