Our Community and Us.
It is always a busy half term at this time of the year. We are preparing our leavers’ for their school transitions and excitingly this half term we start our Forest School sessions.
As we prepare our leavers’ for school, there are activities you could be doing at home to help such as:
Independent Skills – lunch – practise with knives, forks and spoons, opening lunchboxes and packaging, peeling fruit and drinking from an open cup.
Toileting – try and encourage your child to use the toilet independently, wipe themselves and wash their hands after. Don’t worry if your child still needs help, speak to the class teacher, they will be grateful you have told them.
Getting dressed – give chances for your child to practise dressing themselves, practise buttons, poppers and zips. Practise putting on their shoes themselves. Only put your child in shoes with laces, if they can tie them themselves. Practise putting on their coats, trousers, skirts and tops. Remind them the label needs to go at the back and show them where you have named the item of clothing, so they know where to look if they lose it.
Name Recognition – give your child as much exposure to their name as possible. It will help them find their pegs. drawers and clothes. This will help them independently look are their belongings. Being able to spell or write their name is not expected when they start, but if you are able to start practising this it is useful for them to begin to label their work.
Social Skills – Talk to your child about speaking to adults if they need help. Tell them it is ok to ask for help and to tell someone they are going to the toilet. Encourage sharing of toys, following instructions – this will also develop patience as well. Make sure they don’t always win, this will expose them to feelings of not always winning and will teach them emotions and develop resilience. Talk them through situations they may come across at school, such as a child saying they can’t join in a game, talk about how they would react and what they could do. Discuss the journey to school, how are you going to there, what might you see on the way.
We will also be practising some of the above with our Little Owls that are not leaving us, so they start to learn about independence and resilience.
Forest School will be taking place each week for our older children. Please remember to send them with the appropriate clothing.
PE Kit Activity week will commence on 28th June for our school leavers. Please refer to your email for full details.
Activities for you to try at home – Map making, then going for a walk to see if you can follow the map to a named building near to your home. Look at different buildings such as shops, churches, schools. Promote road safety, safe places to cross, pedestrian crossing etc. Perhaps write a letter or draw a picture and them follow a map to the post box to post it. Try making a fruit salad or prepare a healthy meal together. Help to hang out the washing on the line.
Books to read – Handras Surprise, Oliver’s Vegetables, Oliver’s Fruit Salad, Monkey Puzzle.
Sing nursery rhymes and songs – you may even be able to make up your own.