Our main focus this week has been on ensuring that all children are happy and settled in Transition and feel comfortable with the routines of the school day. The children have coped very well with their responsibilities in Transition, getting used to putting all of their belongings away independently when they first come into school. A big thank you to the children who were in Transition last term and have been helpfully showing the new children what to do!

It has been lovely to wish everybody a Happy New Year in school and hear how the children celebrated over the holidays. We had a lovely time using our session in the Hub to think about things that we are grateful for as we begin 2024, as well as things that make us happy. We had so many lovely suggestions, including Daddy’s laugh, when my Mummy tickles my toes and when I go on holiday. We are excited to share our ideas with the rest of Pre-Prep in our class assembly next week.

We have also been considering what new year's resolutions are and what ours could be. We decided that resolutions were a little bit like a wish. The children thought of some brilliant wishes that we hope will come true in 2024 such as wishing to spend more time with Grandma and Grandpa, to meet a real life princess and to be 20! Mrs Nelson decided the last one was also her New Year's Resolution! The children enjoyed creating wishing jars to put their wishes inside. We think that the sparkle and decoration is definitely going to make them more likely to come true!

Our letter sound this week has been r. We couldn’t believe how many words we could think of that begin with r, including; rabbit, rectangle, red and rainbow! All of the children showed great concentration to form the letter r and draw four pictures of words beginning with the r sound.

In preparation for our class assembly, we have also been learning a song and a breathing technique to cheer Pre-Prep up and rid any January Blues! Perhaps you can ask your children to perform the Happy Song to you. It starts with I’m happy, happy, happy in the morning if they need a prompt! They can also teach you a breathing technique using your hand to keep calm when things get a bit busy around you.

Finally, we had a very exciting little visitor in school this week. We were very pleased to get to see Miss Mitchem again and to meet baby Nellie (who is the cutest little girl). It was such a special time in the classroom and the children enjoyed getting to ask Miss Mitchem questions about what it is like to look after a baby. Thank you for coming in to see us, Miss Mitchem - you and Nellie are welcome any time.