Welcome to Dragonflies Nursery Noticeboard

We hope you find the following information and photographs useful for keeping up to date with what is happening in your child's class. Remember to look at this page weekly for up to date information. 

Our topic for the Spring term in morning Nursery is Helping Hands. More information to follow next week. If you do a job which involves helping in the local community, and you are interested in coming in to talk to the children about your role, please get in touch with Mrs Fox. Diolch!

Important Dates

AM Nursery

Movement Monday -Please send your child to school wearing their old clothes and an old coat ready to explore our forest and school grounds. Your child will need a pair of wellies if you haven't already provided us with them. If waterproof clothing is necessary, we will provide this.

Tuesday-Please send your child to school wearing their PE kit (white t-shirt, black shorts/joggers/leggings, school jumper and trainers)

Friday 19th June-Market Stall for AM Nursery children in the city centre. PLEASE SEE LINK ON DOJO TO COMPLETE A FORM TO SELECT A TIME SLOT FOR YOUR CHILD TO ATTEND.

Wednesday 24th June-Sports Day for AM and PM Nursery on the school field, weather permitting:

AM Nursery-9:30am start

PM Nursery-1:30pm start

Please bring your child to school at the usual time on this day.

Thursday 2nd July-Class assembly for AM Nursery.

Please visit the news tab/calendar on the home page for other dates in our school calendar, including holidays, inset days, Christmas concerts, class assemblies, parent meetings and special days we are celebrating as a school.

Home Learning

Developing your child's core stability:

• Encourage your child to sit on the floor with their legs straight and together in front of them. Make sure they are not using their hands to support them from behind. Having an activity to do on their laps can help with this, even if it is just eating a snack.
• Tummy time-Make sure your child keeps their legs together and still. Lie beside them to help with this. Their arms need to be out in front. Looking at a book, playing a card game or doing a puzzle can be fun activities to keep your child occupied when they are on their tummy.
• Commando crawling along a mat if you have one. If not, along carpet or a rug is fine. Ensure your child keeps their tummy and legs in contact with the floor. They need to use their arms alternatively to move along and their legs must stay together and still.

Below are some tips for helping your child to learn to become a reader and to develop a love for literature and reading:

• Share and read a book with your child daily. It doesn't always have to be a story book. It could be a non-fiction book, a comic, a rhyme book or even a children's cookery book. 
• Whilst sharing a book with your child, allow time to talk about the pictures before reading the text. Before turning a page, ask your child to predict what they will see on the next page. This develops their imagination, as well as providing clues as to what the text says. 
• Read the text from top bottom, left to right. Encourage your child to point at and follow the text as you read. Their pointing may not be 100% accurate as you read, but it will train their eyes to start at the beginning.
• Point out punctuation as you read. For example, when you come to a full stop, ask your child what it is and then remind them that you have just read a sentence. Point out question marks and remind your child that you have just read a question. Then re-read the question, so your child develops their understanding of the concept of a question. Point out exclamation marks and then re-read the sentence/word again with a louder, more expressive voice.
• Some chidren's stories can be very repetitive and so the children quickly learn what to say when they see a picture. Praise your child for joining in with you as you read and this will help to boost their confidence. 
• When reading books with repetitive text, cover up some words. Ask your child to figure out what the words could be. This would involve them looking at the pictures, or you supporting them to read the rest of the sentence.
• Help your child to learn the sounds that have been sent home, in prepartion for decoding words. Remember, it is the sound your child is learning and not the letter name. As your child has been given many sound posters to use at home, may be you could stick the posters into a book, and then look through the book before story time each day, pointing at and saying the sounds.

Encourage your child to mark make as much as possible. It does not matter at this stage what the marks look like, it is the practise that counts and helps them to refine their hand-eye coordination. If your child is reluctant to use the usual mark making materials at home, try the following:

• Egg chalks (Can be purchased in Tiger or through Amazon)-Use outside or on giant rolls of paper to create roads and parking spaces for cars, draw plans for their construction.
• Paint brushes with pots of water-A good activity at bath/shower time. Have a go at writing secreting messages. Children often like to do this type of marking on a patio, fence or wall.

If your child is struggling with achieveing the correct grip whilst using a pen or pencil, short and chunky writing materials are better. For example, egg chalks and stubby crayons.

Developing Maths and Numeracy:

The key is to remember that Maths is a language, and for your child to have a good understanding of mathematical concepts, they need to be taught them in context. Below are some tips to help you "talk Maths" at home:

• Laying the table for dinner. How many people are eating dinner? So, how many plates etc do we need? Allow your child to lay the table, as this is also a mathematical concept.
• Cooking provides a wealth of opportunities for talking Maths-Swap your weighing skills for cups to measure, which will allow you to count how many. Discuss one more/less. Allow your child to set a timer.
• When you are out and about, look for numbers to develop number recognition. For example, on houses, number plates, price tags. At this stage, your child is only expected to recognise single digit numbers, but they can still identify single digits in 3 digit numbers. 
• Remember, numbers go backwards as well as forwards, so introduce a count down to signal an every day activity.
• Sorting every day items-This is can be practised when tidying away toys into boxes, making sure the toys are put away into the correct box. 
• Pairing socks before they are put away. 
• Discussing size in relation to toys, members of their family, feet. Also, when building with construction toys, think about building homes for toys.

Developing Welsh Oracy:

PLEASE CLICK HERE to listen to the Ffa la la songs that the children are singing in class.