Blog 18 - 3rd March
Welcome back to our new half term!
It's been a great week in Apple Class.
It was great to see and talk to many of you on Thursday and Friday for our parent consultation and to share the great progress that the children are making.
One question that I was asked a lot was about finding out about your child's Reception place. I've had a look at Northumberland County Council's website. If you sent your form online then you will be notified via email on the 17th of April. If you sent off via post, your letter will be sent out to you on the 17th of April and get to you a few days after.
We have begun our new topic all about People Who Help Us and this swung straight into action this week as we started to think about a Postal Worker and their typical day. We will be welcoming our first guest visitor into Apple Class next week as Mr Quilliam (our real life Postman Pat) will be coming into school to tell us all about the role of a postal worker.
Later in the week, we began to look at pictures of a range of people who help us within our community - police officers, dentists, nurses, paramedics, vicars and teachers, just to name a few. We have lots of visitors lined up throughout the half term but we'd love to hear from any of our Apple Class parents who would be willing to come in and tell the children how they help people through their job. We'll also be talking with the children generally about the jobs that familiar grown ups to them do so it would be very helpful if you could have discussions about this at home.
On Wednesday, we had our usual trip into the hall for Musical Apples and we listened to a Postman Pat story that Mrs Grimes told us. There was a disaster! It was a windy day in Greendale and all the letters blew out of Pat's bag and were spread right through the town. We had to help Pat by picking up the letters and posting them to the right houses. It was great fun! We decided that postal workers need to be really fit as they do lots of walking and often have to lift heavy parcels. So, we set up 'Postal Worker Boot Camp' and did our own mini 'workout' to get fit for he job! We are taking lots of time to focus on our hopping skills at the moment- some children find this very difficult. If your child is unable to hop on their own, hold both of their hands and get them to lift one foot off the ground. The support you give by holding hands will give their mobility a boost and enable them to do it. Gradually reduce the hand holding assistance you give and before you know it, they'll be hopping solo! We'll be practising this each week in Apple Class too.
World Book Day was a real success today. The children looked fabulous in their costumes. Thank you for all your efforts. We had so many stories throughout the day we couldn't couldn't count them all.
In the afternoon, the children drew characters from their favourite bedtime story and enjoyed re-telling these to Kerry. Re-telling stories is such an important skill and would be great for you to practise at home. The children enjoyed spreading out drapes and getting out blocks and other loose parts to make Greendale, the setting for our Postman Pat stories. The children thoroughly enjoyed small world play with the town that we made.
Next week we have another busy week planned! With our visit from Mr Quilliam and a Police Office and our first trip to the Alnwick Library and dancing at Summer hill, we have some great things to look forward to.
Wrap up warm this weekend - we're in for a cold spell!
Mrs F, Mrs G and the Apple Class Team