At St Michael’s Pre-school we want to ensure our children have every opportunity to start school with the communication skills they need to share their interests and needs, take turns in conversation, be able to follow instructions and articulate their feelings. An environment rich in song, rhyme and rhythm as well as purposeful and appropriate speech and environmental print supports children in developing such skills.
This is an outline of our routine.
- 8:30am and 12:00pm – there will be two adults on the door. One welcoming you and one marking the children in on the register.
- 9:15am and 12:30pm – we sound the circular xylophone which signals to the children that its group time. We all come together, using our ‘spots for bots’ to encourage and begin to understand personal space, and encourage in the hello song and sound song. (Maximum 10 minutes)
Hello everyone, how are you?
Hello everyone, how are you?
Hello everyone, how are you?
How are you today?
Letter/sound song – based on body percussion and sound. All sounds are the same song but adapted to words that begin with the sound.
Banana, banana, clap, clap, clap
Banana, banana, flap, flap, flap
Banana, banana, click, click, click
Banana, banana, flick, flick, flick
Banana, banana, bump, bump, bump
Banana, banana, jump, jump, jump
- 11:15am and 2:15pm – tidy up time. Whilst tidying up, sing the song. Dave Moran – children’s song.
- 11:20am and 2:30pm – group times which includes thigs likes Songs, rhythms, parachute, running games, calming time, story time etc
- 11:30am and 3:00pm – sing the goodbye song.
Goodbye everyone, its time to go.
Goodbye everyone, its time to go.
Goodbye everyone, its time to go.
See you another day.
In between these times it will be free-flow play. Practitioners skilfully follow the children’s interests and play, building upon their existing knowledge and skills. Some days will differ slightly depending on visitors or what the children have chosen to pursue.
We are continually reflecting on how we can support our children to develop all areas of their learning. We have;
- Home learning bags/boxes which you can borrow.
- Our focus stories and the catalogue of songs we share with the children. We have linked 6 songs to each half term, to teach the children, as well as singing our favourites. Words will be sent out each half term.
- Our focus stories change each half term. At present these are;
Autumn 1 ‘Dear zoo’
Autumn 2 ‘we are going on a bear hunt’
Spring 1 ‘the Gruffalo’
Spring 2 ‘ten little pirates’
Summer 1 ‘the very hungry caterpillar’
Summer 2 ‘goldilocks and the three bears’
To enable our children to experience the wealth of opportunities available to them, we would encourage you to ensure that your child/children are at pre-school on time and leave on time. We fully appreciate that this can be difficult at times, however your child will benefit from taking part with all our day time routine.
St Michael’s Pre-school team