A new year and new faces, lots of smiles and happy new years! It's been wonderful to be back here at Stepping Stones. Back to play, back to learn and most of all back for fun. We've spent this week settling back, welcoming new children and enjoying lots of new activities. Discovering Arctic and Antarctic animals, creating our own walruses and polar bears; and having fun with the small world. We've been moving and roaring, jumping and squeaking, pretending to be animals during Tracey's music and movement sessions.
Playing roll-a-ball with Amanda tested our reflexes and co-ordination, played in semi-darkness the balls light and flash in response to movement, a lovely introduction to our focus on colour this term. Everyone enjoys roll-a-ball- practicing turn taking and encouraging active listening from us all, as the balls move quickly round the circle.
Dominoes and snakes and ladders proved popular activities. Played with play leads, we focused in on developing our subitising skills and concrete counting. Using the large die we had great fun, taking it in turns to try and avoid the snakes and carefully move one square at a time. Then, counting by touch, our domino games with Steph challenged us to match correctly to use all the dominoes. We look forward to continuing these games next week, having fun moving our polar bears, reindeer and cars round the board.
Rhyming games during our phonics sessions gave us some interesting and very silly sentences. A lovely fun way to start back in the new year and remind ourselves of the sounds letters make. "Fuzzy duck got stuck, in his truck, in the muck!" joined by our puppets, lots of laughter and eager participation. Group times encourage our children to develop their voice and confidence, sharing their thoughts and opinions with their friends. Singing songs, finishing the rhyme and sharing our sound of the week. Lots of time to practice and listen, laying foundations for reading and writing in the future.
It's been a lovely start to both 2023 and our Spring term. We've welcomed a new child into the setting this week and look forward to more new faces and families joining over the coming weeks. Joining in with the fun and laughter as we explore and play together.
