Early Years Centre

September 2015 Newsletter Introducing …….Phonics!

Phonics is all about sounds and is the foundation of literacy teaching in the

UK. Children are taught the phonetic sounds first, then how to match them to

letters, and finally how to use the letter sounds for reading and spelling.

We are introducing our Pre-schoolers to these sounds through a fun weekly

sound programme in which children have access to a ‘phonics table’ containing

a selection of objects. All the objects start with the same sound. Each week

the sound will change, and you will be able to find out which sound is the focus

for the week from the display board up in the Preschool baseroom.

Throughout the week, the children will be encouraged to find other objects

or pictures in their environment to represent that sound. For example for 'b'

your child might choose a book. The children will practice the sound and enjoy

sharing the different objects that they find. It is a very simple way of

beginning the process of sound recognition, before children move on to

matching and blending those sounds later on in their Reception year at school.

This is also something that you can actively take part in with your child at

home by looking for objects and discussing their sounds. Children are welcome

to bring in any objects that they find to place onto the ‘phonics table’

although these would need to be labelled with your child’s name so they do not

get lost!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN YOUR CHILD IN AND OUT OF THE

CENTRE

SEVERAL PARENTS ARE FORGETTING AND THIS IS EXTREME-

LY IMPORTANT THAT WE CAN MONITOR WHO IS IN THE

BUILDING AT ALL TIMES

All of our policies have recently been reviewed and updated

accordingly. These will be available for your viewing on our

website by the end of the month.

News from Babies……

This month, we are saying goodbye to Myron who is moving up to Tweenies! We

will miss you but know that you will have a brilliant time in Tweenies!

We also have Jaya, Akonda, Badriah, Sebastian and Adam joining us this

month, we cannot wait to start having fun with you!

We are still trying to take our babies to Major Minors on Thursday mornings,

which is a brilliant music and singing group!

During August……

1st– Gingerbread man

7th – Three pigs

14th – Messy play

21st – Weather

28th - Jungle

The weather cannot seem to decide what it is doing at the moment, so can we

ask parents to be aware of the weather and provide suitable jackets, hats and

apply sun cream where applicable, as babies try to go on our walks daily, as well

as into the garden!

We have had a sickness bug going around in Babies, we are sterling like mad we

have also deep cleaned the carpet!! Can we please remind parents that if your

child has had any sickness, they cannot come back to the centre until 48 hours

after they have last been sick.

What is happening in Tweenies’ this September?

We have a new team! We welcome Nicky, Danielle and Emily to Tweenies!

This month we welcome Serene, Cheikh, Bernard, Stanley and Myron to the

Tweenies room. We are excited for the fun times ahead with you!

We say goodbye to Jack M, Jimmy, Daniel who are moving up to Toddlers.

We know you will have lots of fun exploring the big garden!

Themes for the month ahead:

31st August- Children’s interests

7th September- Autumn

14th September- Autumn

21st September- Harvest festival

28th September- Harvest festival

We still enjoy Major Minors on a Thursday Morning!

We are exploring with all children to find out what their new interests are

and give the new staff an opportunity to find out the children’s interests!

We are going to explore with leaf printing and looking at the different autumn

colours.

If your child would like breakfast please can you provide it either daily or a

big box of cereal. NOTE: Please can you come in before 8:30am if you would

like your child to have breakfast, Thank you.

Page 4

What is happening in Toddlers?

We have a new team in Toddlers so we welcome Nina, Jackie, Dot and Lauren!

We also have some Tweeneis moving up to us this month: Micol, Jack S, Jack

M, Daniel and Jimmy.

Fit Kids

From September, we will be dividing the Toddler group into two groups. Each

group will attend Fit Kids on alternate weeks to ensure everyone has a turn.

Please can we remind parents to provide sensible foot wear during Fit Kids.

September will see us focusing our learning on:

31st August- Numbers and Shapes

7th September- Goldilocks and the Three Bears

14th September – Science Week

21st September – Transport

28th September -Autumn

Please can we remind all parents to

remember wipes and nappies

(please see your keyworker

Please can parents label their children’s clothes

and coats

We have a self-registration board for all the

children to self-sign in using their individual photo

cards.

Page 5

What is happening in Pre-school? This month we introduce the new Preschool team! We have Amy, Lucy,

Tash, Kathryn, Gifty, Dan, plus our new Modern Apprentice, Kat.

Lucy has a Monday off

Kathryn has Tuesday off

Dan has Wednesdays off

Thursday Tash is off

Friday Amy has off

We have the last few children leaving us for school; Bethany, Daisy, Kyla, Photon, Dania, and

Jose. We say ‘Hello’ to Ewan, Elias, Ahmed, Tessa, Amy, David, and Jack who join us this

month.

Phonics Timetable for September 7th – a

14th—t

21st—i

28th—p

Themes for this month: 1ST September —All About Me

7th September —Teddy bears, all different kind of bears.

14th September - Transport

21st September - Autumn

Activities will include:

Making family trees

Faces on digestives

Balloon faces

Height charts

Paper plate faces.

Please label all of you children’s belongings: tea bags, coats.

Every child has a tray in the preschool room where once a week all of

the artwork will get put into the trays for you.

ECAT

Top tip for the month is:

‘Talk about the pictures in your child’s favourite book’

Books help language and thinking. Young children can learn about

the world from picture books. Showing simple pictures and then

saying the name of what is in the picture helps even very young

children learn what things are called.

Children can learn many things from books - about size, colour,

shape; about what things look like; and about people and their

lives. They learn about numbers and space. For example from ‘The

Three Bears’ they can learn that there were three bears, one father

bear, one mother bear and one baby bear. They also learn about

such things as big and little, inside and outside.

All of this happens without any teaching – they learn it just from

enjoying the story. Stories help to develop children’s imaginations.

Contact Information

We need to be able to contact you in case of an emergency

Therefore please can you ensure that we have your correct

contact details registered for you here at the Centre.

If your details change please keep us updated too!