Books:

The stories that we will be reading this term are:

• A Jar Full of Stars
• How to Catch a Star
• Dear Santa
• We’re Going on an Elf Hunt
• Santa’s Little Helpers
• The Grinch

It would be great if you have any of these books at home that you can read with your child, however the most important for your child is that you read to them, regardless of what the book is. So, if you don’t have any of these books, that is not a problem, just read whatever you do have at home!

When reading with your child, you could focus on these skills:

• Helping your child to turn the page / lift the flaps
• Point out the pictures that you can see in the pages
• Encourage your child to point to / look towards pictures that you ask them to find
• Count objects that you can see in the pictures with your child
• Reinforce colours / animals etc that you can see in pictures when talking to your child about what they can see
• Ask your child simple questions – you can do this in different ways:

For example:

-You could ask your child ‘where is…..’ and encourage them to point / look to it

-You could ask your child what they can see in the picture, using your hands to give your child the choice (for example, ‘Can you see a pig?’ – show the child your hands, hold up one and say ‘yes’ and keep holding your hand up, then hold up the other and say ‘no’ – encourage your child to gaze towards their choice).

-You could ask your child what has just happened in the story, again using your hands to give your child a choice (for example, did the boy go to the park or the beach? – hold one hand up for the option of the beach, saying beach and emphasising that hand is that option, and then hold the other hand up and say park, again emphasising that that hand is the option for park. Encourage your child to eye gaze towards their choice).

Mark Making

Different mark making skills that you could encourage:

• Grasping pens / pencils / paintbrushes
• Making patterns with their whole hand / fingers
• Making marks with pens / pencils / paintbrushes
• Making different marks (e.g. dotting, lines, circles etc)

You can develop mark making skills by:

• Exploring playdough – encouraging grasping, squeezing, patting and manipulating into different shapes
• Messy play – encourage your child to make different marks / patterns in different messy play materials using their hands, fingers or paintbrushes (see messy play suggestions in the sensory section)
• Colouring sheets – help your child to use different pens / paintbrushes / pencils to make marks onto colouring sheets
• Blank paper – help your child to make different marks onto paper using different pens / paintbrushes / colouring sheets

When mark making, give your child the option as to which colours they would like to use and whether they would like to change the colour that they are using. You could also model colouring / writing, encouraging your child to watch / copy you. During messy play activities, as well as encouraging your child to make marks, show them how to do it and name the different patterns that you are making with your fingers. Most importantly, have fun! 😊

TACPAC: TACPAC is a lovely way to develop shared attention and communication with your child. Please see under the ‘Sensology and Sensory Pack’ section on the class webpage for more information and for some activities you can try.