Pre-School
Welcome to our Pre-School Page. We are looking forward to welcoming our first cohort of children to begin their learning journey with us in September.
Please check our Pre-School Diary for some of the exciting events we have planned for this year.
'With open minds and loving hearts, we will achieve.'
Pre-School
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome to the Pre-School webpage. I am looking forward to welcoming you and your child into our Clifton family and working alongside you for the next year or two.
In school we use a secure messaging system called Class Dojo to send out notices and any updates you will need to know. We also use this system as a way of sending out our weekly observations. Your child’s key person will carry out the observation and send you a picture of a wow moment that they have achieved during the week. We understand that starting school for the first time can lead to some worry so we encourage parents to use Class Dojo as a way of contacting myself or my Teaching Assistant, Mrs Wasson with any questions. Please keep in mind that the mornings and end of the school day are busy times for our Pre-School.
This year we will be going on some small outings and walks within the local community we hope to have a few special visitors in too! Dates to be confirmed.
We will be working hard to support your children to be curious and inquisitive to the world around them, each week your child will be sent home with a book to borrow of their choice. We encourage you to read to you child every night using open ended questions.
With kind regards,
Miss Townsley
Pre-School Room Lead
Autumn
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Autumn Who am I? |
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Communication and Language |
This term we will focus on expressing our needs and practicing saying ‘stop, I don’t like it’ when our friends do something we don’t like. We will be thinking about ‘is my fun, fun for everyone’. In preschool we will be promoting independence and encouraging children to begin to recognise some of their own emotions. At home When looking in mirror practice making different faces, can your child tell you what kind of face they’re making? Practice saying stop while holding your hand out flat in front of you when you don’t like something. |
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Personal, Social and Emotional Development |
Our class value is friendship and we will do lots of work all about how we can make friends, how do we treat them and how do we like to be treated. We will also be looking at some of our class rules and how we can follow them and use ‘kind hands and feet’.
At Home Talk to your child about what it means to have kind hands and feet. You could arrange a play date with a friend and encourage some sharing. |
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Physical Development |
We will develop our fine-motor control through Dough-Disco, and finger gym, these activities are aimed to strengthen hands and fingers and build confidence in order to prepare the children for writing. To help us grow our core muscles and gross motor skills we will take part in whole group yoga where we will follow a set of poses designed to help with breathing, balance and strength. While sitting we encourage children to ‘sit star’ this means with legs crossed and hands in laps, we will work on how to get into a crossed legged position. We will also be learning to start managing risks and which risks are safe. For example, ‘do I need to hold a banister’ ‘can I jump from here’ and ‘can I balance’.
At Home To practice fine motor skills, feel free to do some of your own dough disco! There are lots of tutorials and easy to follow videos on you tube. Allow your child to manage some of their own safe risks, this will also encourage them to become more independent. |
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Literacy |
This term we will be focusing on rhyme time which is part of an introduction to phonics. In pre-school we will read the books ‘hello, Friend!’ by Rebecca Cobb.
At home Read the book that your child chooses each week asking them questions about the pictures and characters. |
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Mathematics |
Clifton is a Maths Mastery school and which means our pupils acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of Maths. In Pre-school we focus on understanding numbers 1 to 3 but also on colours and sorting.
At Home Looking at different colours, can you sort them into groups of the same? Ask your child to count as they do an action e.g. counting as they clap or jump. |
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Understanding the World |
We will be exploring different materials and what happens when we combine them with elements, e.g. holding ice with warm hands and putting liquids into the freezer. In Pre-School we will also be following the topic of ‘All about me’. In this we will explore emotions and how things make us feel, looking at who is in our families and the community around us.
At Home Engage your child in a cooking or baking activity allowing them to use their senses to explore the ingredients as they mix. |
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Expressive Art and Design |
In Pre-School we will cover a few topics including colour and colour mixing, using a dominant hand, music, song and dance. We will aim to be able to recognise, sort and understand what happens when we mix colour by using paint and coloured water. In preschool through dough disco we will have the opportunity to listen to a wide range of different music and be encouraged to say what our likes and dislikes in sound.
At Home Listening to different genres of music including nursery rhymes and radio.
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I CAN’T UNDERSTAND MY CHILD! Tips For Helping Your Child With Speech Clarity
Sound familiar? Or maybe YOU can understand your child but no one else can. Also very common! Speaking clearly takes a lot of brain power, and a lot of coordination. Think about it, every time you want to say something, your brain has to think of the words, think of how to put the words together, then your brain has to tell your lips and tongue where to go and how to move for EVERY SOUND! It is complex, and as adults, we take it for granted. When young children learn to talk, speech clarity often takes a back seat. When children’s sounds develop, omissions, substitutions or inconsistent productions are common.
Before 3 years of age, the following sound errors or patterns are very common.
- Deleting final consonants (e.g., “ha” for “hat”)
- Deleting the unstressed syllable (e.g. “nana” for “banana”)
- Consonant Assimilation (e.g., “tat” for “cat”)
- Repeating sounds or syllables (e.g. “baba” for “bottle”)
At 18 months of age you should be able to understand your child 25% of the time, at 2 years of age, 50-75% of the time, and at 3 years of age you should be able to understand your child 75-100% of the time.
Early 8 Sounds
Emerging development between ages 1-3 with consistent production ~3
/m/ as in “milk”
/b/ as in “baby”
/y/ as in “you”
/n/ as in “no”
/w/ as in “we”
/d/ as in “dada”
/p/ as in “pat”
/h/ at in “hi”
Middle 8 Sounds
Emerging Development Between ages 3-6 1⁄2 with Consistent production ~age51⁄2
/t/ as in “toe”
/ng/ as in “hopping”
/k/ as in “cup”
/g/ as in “go”
/f/ as in “fan”
/v/ as in “van”
/ch/ as in “chop”
/j/ as in “jump”
/s/ as in “see”
Late 8 Sounds
Emerging Development Between ages 5 -7 1⁄2 with Consistent production ~age71⁄2
/sh/ as in “shoe”
/th/ as in “think”
/th/ as in “that”
/r/ as in “red”
/z/ as in “zipper”
/l/ as in “lap”
“zh” as in “measure”
Tips for helping your child with speech clarity.
Below are some ideas on how you can help a child who has unclear speech. It will give you some general ideas before seeing a Speech Therapist.
- Get down to your child’s level, so your child can see your mouth. Visual models can reinforce how to properly say certain sounds.
- Speak in a slow but natural way so your child is encouraged to speak at the same rate. Speaking quickly requires more refined coordination.
- Instead of asking your child to repeat the word, model the word back emphasising the sound in error correctly (e.g., Your child says, “I want the big tar”, you can say, ”You want the big car?”.
- If you know your child can say the sound, you can give him/her choices(e.g. Do you want the “tar” or the “car”?) If they aren’t able to say the sound, offering choices would not be very helpful.
- If you have understood part of his sentence/conversation, repeat it back to him/her so he/she knows you have understood him. Building confidence is important so he/she keeps trying.
- Don’t’ pretend to understand but rather ask your child to “show you” what he/she wants.
- Use contextual and environmental cues as well as facial expressions and intontation to help you to figure out your child’s message.
- Promote good hearing. Good hearing is essential for the development of normal articulation. If you are concerned with your child’s articulation skills, it is always a good idea to have his/her hearing assessed.