Pre-School 2022 - 2023
Mrs Burton
Mrs Burton Pre-School Teacher:
I am extremely excited about starting my fifth year as Pre-School Teacher at Rode Heath. I am passionate about Early Years education and have enjoyed a varied and fulfilling career teaching children from Pre-School age, right up to Lower Key Stage Two. I have been teaching in Cheshire for 15 years now and as an experienced EYFS teacher I pride myself in placing each family's needs first. I am passionate about the arts and literature have a varied artistic background in music and drama. Outside of school, my two little boys keep me very busy, we spend most of our time outdoors exploring natural habitats and playing football. As a family we treasure the precious time we get to spend together and especially enjoy story time.
Mrs Soutar
Mrs Soutar Pre-School Teaching Assistant:
Hi I'm Karen. I live in Holmes Chapel with my husband Duncan and three lovely children- Izzy (13) Harry (11) and Emma (7). I've really enjoyed working with our fantastic team for the last 3 years at Rode Heath and before that I spent 10 years looking after my children and child-minding other peoples! I love the fun and unpredictability of working with Pre-Schoolers and enjoy seeing them progress and master new skills.
Mrs Moss-Brookes
Mrs Moss-Brookes Pre-School Teaching Assistant:
Hi I'm Lisa. I'm extremely excited to start my fourth year at Rode Heath Pre-School and to be part of this dynamic team. Before I came to Pre-School I enjoyed being a stay-at-home mum to my three young children. Prior to that I taught in a Primary School and thoroughly enjoyed teaching in Early Years classrooms. Outside of school my three children keep me very busy and we love exploring new places and enjoying exciting days out together.
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson Pre-School afternoon Lead and Deputy Manager of All Stars club:
I am very excited to be starting my third year at Rode Heath Pre-School. I will be leading at Pre-school in the afternoon and I am so looking forward to leading the team at our fabulous All Stars breakfast and after school clubs for another successful year. I have had many years working with young children and recently started working with children with additional needs. I am a qualified 'Relax Kids' Coach which enables me to teach children to learn to manage their emotions through play.
Miss Belcher
Miss Belcher All Stars and Pre-School assistant:
Hi I'm Kerry, I live in the village very close to school with my partner and daughter Chloe (5) who currently attends Reception class. I'm based in the All Stars breakfast and after school club. I've spent the last two to three years gaining my Early Years Practitioner qualifications at Rode Heath and now I can assist in Pre-school and help the youngest children to transition into club. I am always there to help each child and support them and their families, both early in the morning and into the evening.
Pre-School Spring Term 2022
To see our class photos please scroll up to the top of the page and press on the navy coloured tabs! Enjoy :)
Welcome back to Pre-School, please scroll up to the main photo where you will see our navy tabs entitled 'Spring wk 1 etc... Click to open the tab and then you will be able to enjoy reading about what we have all been getting up to and see our class photos.
My door is alway open, so please feel free to contact me if you require any help at any time. If it is a particulalary busy time, then please email me directly or call the school and leave a voicemail:
01270 314414
gburton@rodeheath.cheshire.sch.uk
Each half-term I will publish a newsletter to let you know about the skills that the children be exploring within their play, of course the skills that they will be learning will progress through the year.
Pre-School Termly Newsletter –Spring 1 2023
Each week we will enjoy activities based on one of these themes:
Toys old and new, bird watching and feeders, ice and melting, hot and cold, tasting fruit and breakfasts, Chinese New Year celebrations, 3 Traditional tales: Goldilocks, Gingerbread Man and The 3 little Pigs, Valentines and who do we love?
We will be having lots of fun….
Personal Social and Emotional Development:
- Being a classroom helper and helping our friends to play new games. To try to buddy up with a new friend too!
- Exploring other spaces such as the hall and the forest to try new activities
- Enjoying Relax Kids and Spring themed yoga to keep my mind and body calm. To practise using kind hands and ‘positive touch’ such a gentle massage on our own bodies
- Deciding where I like to play with the resources and making my own choices about what I want to play with
Communication and Language:
- Listening and joining in with new songs using body percussive sound sand copying rhythm and actions
- Talking about and trying new words in our toy shop and bakery saying the name of signs that we know around us such as: Costa, Greggs, Asda,
- Using puppets and props to act out simple stories such as: The 3 Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the 3 bears and The Ginger bread Man
- Repeating new vocabulary within our weekly small group reading time: new rhyming phrases such as: Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread man
- Talk about family and what type of job and work that our family members do. How to show we are thankful and what to say like …I love you
Physical Development:
- Scissor skills –practice holding scissors and cutting along lines with control
- Tracing patterns, manipulating tools of various sizes including spray bottles
- Celebrations and Autumn themed collage and art work and tweezer games
- Balance along a straight line and jump from hoop to hoop, throw a large ball into a hoop
- Playdough daily challenge time and Dough Gym
Nursery Rhyme/Phonics songs focus:
I am the Baker Man,5 currant buns in a baker’s shop, if your happy and you know it, Heads shoulders Knees and toes,
Phonics Phase 1: Body percussion and voice sounds: We will explore rhythm and volume using our bodies and voices. Our activities will encourage listening skills, tuning in and descriminating sounds by pitch and tone. We will explore how to form sounds with our throat, lips and how the air travels around our teeth and mouth.
- listen to different sounds in stories and practise such as: creak, hop, shhhhh, splash, tap, bang etc
- Practise saying new words in their school book
- practise talking about celebrations and family time
Rhythm Time: We will continue to explore gross motor movement’s using our sensory ribbons to accompany music that is fast or slow.
Literacy, story focus: During our story time we will focus on rhyming texts and practise saying rhyming words and sounds. We will be able to hear lots of funny rhyming phrases and play lots of great games that involve exploring sounds with our throat mouth and tongue. As part of discriminating sounds in body percussion sessions we can use this to tell a story and make up new words and sounds such as: whoosh, pop, bang, wheeee, hisss and phrases like: rub,dub, dub, scrub, scrub, scrub that have actions to accompany them
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- Listen carefully and repeat new words in role play with puppets such as: who as eaten all my porridge?
- Read signs and labels in our toy shop and bakery…how much please?
- Form the capital letter at the beginning of their name independently and then begin to practise other letters in their name with a template
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Mathematics:
Mathematics: Each morning we will start with a variety of maths games such as, dice and colour games, to encourage children to engage in sorting and arranging objects and categorising them. We will use instruments and counting songs to tap and count up to 5 and remember to stop. We will also enjoy number recall challenges both through adult led play and independent play based around the number 3 and higher, mastering the concept of each number in turn.
We will explore number and rhythm together in our ‘Wake up Shake Up’ time. This is the combination of different exercise with our whole bodies sometimes accompanied by music. The children will enjoy copying actions and complete the exercises in sequence with their whole body as they count.
Counting songs: 3, blind mice, The Grand Old Duke of York, One, Two Three Hippos balancing, The Goats came Marching two by two
You can help your child to:
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- To point with their finger to help me to count things in irregular arrangements
- Count 3 things placed in a straight line 3 pebbles, 3 strawberries… what else can you find?
- To use puppets from stories and teddies to count and say the names of the numerals to 5 as we spy them around us – that is 1! That is the number 2 and so on
- Let’s play ‘take away’. Play with toys in their bedroom and try 1, and then 2 things, have been taken away from a small group, which ones have disappeared?
Understanding the world explorations and investigation: This term we will investigate:
The Past and Present: learn about how traditional tales were told a long time ago and how to bird watch and find food for birds.
People Cultures and Communities: Talk about what our family does during the day and where they may go to work and how I travel to Pre-School.
The Natural World: Explore freezing and melting, spot frozen puddles and glistening spiders’ webs. Investigate different forces of push and pull and, magnetic attraction with different toys and tools
We will investigate our environment and how it changes and its effects on birds and will become a bird watcher and help them by making bird feeders. We will also compare toys from the past with modern toys and explore how to work remote controls and we will programme Bee Bots and make them travel around. We will enjoy tasting new food such as Chinese rice and noodles and learn about hot and cold healthy breakfasts and taste porridge and fruit. We will explore Chinese New Year and the new year story and we will enjoy making biscuits and cards for Valentine’s day when we will learn about how to take care of the people we love
You can help your child to develop their level of enquiry through:
- Enjoy bird watching, and look out for nests as the birds start to get ready to lay their eggs as a sign of change in the environment
- Have fun making healthy breakfasts at home with porridge and fruit or pancakes, we would love to hear about them in their news books
Expressive Arts and Design: we will focus on learning new skills during role play, music and art play based activities
We are very excited about exploring using large and small paint brushes and layering colour. We will look at Chinese symbols and writing. We will create our own bakery pictures and winter scenes
We will be dressing up as different characters from stories and acting out roles in our bakery and home area, and Toy shop. We will practise using new words that we have been learning and repeating familiar phrases from stories in our play.
You can help your child to:
- talk about what they know about birds, thier colours and their song
- Why pets are special and how look after them in our homes
- How people help us in the community such as Police and Nurses