School Ready with Jo

As many of you know this week is our last week of School ready with Jo workshops but the good news is that I will be starting back in September with new classes so watch this space! If you are interested just get in touch.

I just wanted to wish all the wonderful children the very best to starting school. You have worked so hard in your School Ready with Jo journey to transition into school life and you are all going to do so well in school.

You have developed many different skills through the workshops you made lots of new friends and most importantly you have all enjoyed learning!

I would like to say keep up the hard work superstars and I really look forward to hearing all about you starting school!!

Wishing you all the best to all my fantastic school ready with Jo families:)

Take care and have the best summer!

Fun Fact Friday
Part 2
As my last video mentioned how important developing core strength and coordination I thought I would share some ideas-

*For example has your child ever stood and balanced on a cushion or pillow whilst standing up painting or making a Lego structure at the table?! They would be developing their core muscles trying to stand still
*Do a puzzle lying on your tummy.
*Build a tower with cans of food as they are heavier and develop strength.
*Build giant towers with cardboard boxes as the children have wide and tall movements to control.
*Play catch with a pillow

You can also do special focused exercises like school would do in physical or PE sessions- a good example could be the superman pose where your child stands on one leg and holds out one or both arms.
Try this hold for 5 seconds and slowly build up to 20.

Why not try the sea lion pose. Ask your child to lie on their tummy with their legs flat behind them on the floor. They can lift up their top half of the body resting their elbows on the floor for support. They can hold this pose and then relax and repeat!

Why not try the football roll. The children lie again on their tummy and being supported by their forarms on the floor. You can give them a ball in their hands and they have to control it and move it slowly across he floor. They will need your support at first and then once control has developed let them do it independently. There are so many things you can try do have fun!

Please get in touch if you would like me to explore and share a certain subject during my Fun Fact Friday!

Welcome to Phonics Thursday!

Remember each Thursday I will be sharing a phonic video to support learning at home.

Previously I’ve talked about digraphs - please feel free to look at my grid:)

A split digraph contains two letters but they are split between a consonant.

There are 5 split digraphs altogether
a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e.

Look how you can draw an umbrella shape to see the connection between the two letters when writing. What happens when you are reading these words for example within a book. What could you do?
Have you tried using your split fingers? Have a go at home and let me know if it helps!

Welcome to Phonics Thursday!

Remember each Thursday I will be sharing a phonic video to support learning at home.

Previously I’ve talked about digraphs - please feel free to look at my grid:)

A split digraph contains two letters but they are split between a consonant.

There are 5 split digraphs altogether
a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e.

Look how you can draw an umbrella shape to see the connection between the two letters when writing. What happens when you are reading these words for example within a book. What could you do?
Have you tried using your split fingers? Have a go at home and let me know if it helps!

Is your child starting school in September?

Do you want your child to have the very best start to school?

It’s really not that long until your child will be making a big step in their educational journey!

Would you like your child to be happy, confident and ready for school?

If the answer is YES then join me in my Summer 2 block of workshops/classes.

Hello everyone my name is Jo and I work with preschool children just before they start school! I am a qualified teacher with over 21 years of experience.

Each workshop provides a great selection of sessions and activities focused on a weekly theme. It certainly gets your child school ready!

Follow me and share ideas to support preschool children and parents on their learning journey.

Venues
*Pilgrims Hatch, Brentwood (Monday 1.30pm)
*Christy Hall Ingatestone (Friday 9.30am and 10.50am)
*Old Chelmsfordians Club, Chelmsford (Tuesday 1.15pm)

Get in touch if you want to know more!

Instagram- school_ready_with_jo
Email - [email protected]

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Remember when we have previously talked about digraphs we said they are when two or more letters come together to make one sound.

A split digraph also contains two letters but they are split between a consonant.

There are 5 split digraphs altogether
a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e.

Today we are going to focus on the a-e split digraph.

So here I have a list of words containing the a-e split digraph. Let us read them together.

Phonics Thursday

Part 1 How do you say these sound’s correctly?

Welcome to Phonics Thursday! Each Thursday I will be sharing a phonic video. It will match the phonics taught in schools. I will be introducing a new group of sounds each week and provide practical activities and ideas to explore in the home setting.

This week children will be learning digraph er and trigraph air.
er words
*her
*jumper
*mixer
*flower

air words
*fair
*hair
*chair
*pair

If there is anything you would like to know or understand just message me and I will include it in my videos. Other parents/carers will be thinking the same as you so just get in touch!

Fun Fact Friday part 2

So how do we encourage independent play?

Firstly during independent play I would make sure the toys are right for your child's age and stage.

Focus on quality over quantity. Too many toys can be overwhelming and actually reduce a child’s attention span during play. The best choices of toys for independent play are toys that can be explored in lots of different ways.

I would also Create a child-safe play space that is organised where your child can access items independently.

If your child doesn’t know how to play independently you need to teach them.

Sometimes it is best to not comment on your child’s play as it can shift a child’s focus away from what they’re doing.

Finally, make independent play part of your child’s daily routine because eventually it will become familiar.

Fun Fact Friday part 2

How do we encourage independent play?

Firstly during independent play I would make sure the toys are right for your child’s age and stage.

Focus on quality over quantity. Too many toys can be overwhelming and actually reduce a child’s attention span during play. The best choices of toys for independent play are toys that can be explored in lots of different ways.

I would also Create a child-safe play space that is organised where your child can access items independently.

If your child doesn’t know how to play independently you need to teach them.

Sometimes it is best to not comment on your child’s play as it can shift a child’s focus away from what they’re doing.

Finally, make independent play part of your child’s daily routine because eventually it will become familiar.

Full length video

Phonic Thursday Part 2
This is all about the skill of reading the sh sound in words that are in a list.
This is an activity to try at home!

Fun Fact Friday Part 2- Here are a few simple but effective ideas to try at home to support the understanding of sharing and taking turns.

Why is name recognition and self registration so important?
I think it’s important to talk about the importance of name recognition especially within the early year’s environment.

It’s vital for children to recognise their name when they start school this can be for for practical reasons – for example to find their coat peg, their book bag, books in the setting, their tray if they have one and to find their name to put on the self registration board in the classroom.

Please get in touch if you would like me to explore and share a certain subject during my Fun Fact Friday!

Phonics Thursday

Part 1 How do you say these sound’s correctly?

Welcome to Phonics Thursday! Each Thursday I will be sharing a phonic video. It will match the phonics taught in schools. I will be introducing a new group of sounds each week and provide practical activities and ideas to explore in the home setting.

This week I am revisiting s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, l, ff, ll, ss and j and I will be focusing on v, w, x and y. This will work alongside the phonics being taught in Reception.

I mentioned in the video that if there is anything you would like to know or understand just message me and I will include it in my videos. Other parents/carers will be thinking the same as you do just get in touch!

Phonic Thursday Part 3
When do you use a c or K in words to represent the c/k sound?

This is a great question that I got asked this week. So thank you for asking!

Typically the words that start with the c/k sound we spell them with a c if the first vowel in the word is a, o or u and typically if the first vowel in the word is I or e we use a k.

Here is a little drawing for all those visual learners like me!

Phonics Thursday

Part 1

Welcome to Phonics Thursday! Each Thursday I will be sharing a phonic video. It will match the phonics taught in schools. I will be introducing a new group of sounds each week and provide practical activities and ideas to explore in the home setting.

This week I am revisiting s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f and l and I will be focusing on ff, ll, ss and j. This will work alongside the phonics being taught in Reception.

I mentioned in the video that if there is anything you would like to know or understand just message me and I will include it in my videos. Other parents/carers will be thinking the same as you do just get in touch!

The wonderful highlights from this week!

Children have been working so hard this week and really enjoyed our School Ready with Jo sessions and activities exploring this weeks theme FIREWORKS! 🎇

Enjoy the highlights from this week!

Welcome to fun fact Friday
This week I would like to talk about Subitising
Did you know - Subitising is when you recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them.
A good example often used to explain this concept, is to think of dice– we learn how to immediately recognise the number of dots without having to count each one individually.
This video shows you how I teach different hand signs to support the deeper understanding of number through subitising.

Please get in touch if you would like me to explore and share a certain subject during my Fun Fact Friday!

Welcome to Fun Fact Friday
This week I would like to talk about Subitising
Did you know - Subitising is when you recognise the number of objects in a small group without the need to count them.
A good example often used to explain this concept, is to think of dice– we learn how to immediately recognise the number of dots without having to count each one individually.

My second video this will show you how I teach different hand signs to support the deeper understanding of subitising.

Please get in touch if you would like me to explore and share a certain subject during my Fun Fact Friday!