What a busy end to the term we have had. We squeezed a pantomime, two performances of our Nativity, a Christmas lunch and a visit from Santa this week. We were all quite tired by Friday!

Over the holidays please continue to read the sound cards and tricky words cards with your child. This instant recall of the sounds and tricky words is really important as your child learns to read. You could: 

• Ask your child to point at each sound and then repeat this while getting faster. If your child is ready to blend them together they will, however some of you may need to model the blending of the word for your child e.g. c-----a-------t,    c-a-t,    c-a-t , speeding up saying of the sounds before blending the word – cat, then ask your child to copy and repeat.

The following video shows ways of how to support your child with early reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R16KrypGtuU

• Use the sound cards and place the sounds needed to make a word mixed up. Say the word and see if your child can place the sounds in the right order to make the word. To make this a little harder add sounds in that the child does not need as well (up to a maximum of 5 sounds).

There is a game on our class page where children have to sound out the words and match them to the correct picture. There are two versions of the game, the first uses the first sounds and then another which uses the next sounds. These can be downloaded and printed if you wish.

For our first week back we would like a photograph of your child from their holiday to help inspire some writing. This can be from a day trip out, celebrating Christmas, a favourite present or spending time with family. Please either bring into school on the first day back or email our class email account toucan@busheyfederation.org.uk.

We have now come to the end of a very busy yet enjoyable term. It has been fantastic to see all of the children grow throughout this term. They are now well and truly settled in to life in our school and we are glad to have them all at Bushey and Oxhey Infants. 

Myself and Mrs. Dunne would like to thank you all for your generous gifts. We hope you all have a lovely, restful Christmas, and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 7th January.