Turtles & Dolphins
Most of the learners have spent a year at the school and have settled, gained confidence and knowledge about the school, staff and routines. This second year is an exciting, consolidating year where the children continue to grow and learn in a happy, stimulating and comfortable environment. The focus on learning is predominantly through free and structured play. Children develop holistically, using all their senses, physical skills, mental capacity, social skills and emotions through play.
We encourage independence. Learners should be carrying their own bags to school, packing away toys, being responsible for their own belongings and materials at school. Learners are encouraged to verbalize their feelings and problem solve with the guidance of their teachers. Fine motor skills are developed through activities such as through art, clay, playdough, painting, sticking, folding tearing etc. Sensory, sand and “messy” play is also encouraged. Inside play includes fantasy, blocks, puzzles, drawing and games.
It is important for learners to have strong core and shoulder girdle strength as this enables them to sit upright at a desk and on the mat, and helps with focus and listening. Gross motor skills are developed on outdoor apparatus – climbing, balancing, monkey bars and swinging. Game Changers plays a significant role in core and shoulder girdle development. We also develop the child’s ability to control their body movements, midline crossing and balance through brain gym and various ring time activities in the classroom.
Language is developed through more formal ring time, theme discussion, through games and music as well as roleplay, stories and fantasy play. We develop specific skills like rhyming, syllables, vocabulary and expressive skills. We have a specialist “Listening and Language” skill lesson once a week to help develop these skills. A big focus for this year is developing their active listening skills. The children learn to write their name and start recognizing letters and sounds. We introduce Letterland as an informal story around the alphabet.
Numeracy skills are taught incidentally through games and songs and more formally through small group teaching. We focus on creating a solid foundation of mathematics by teaching them the meaning and value of numbers. Some of the things we cover are more and less / before and after / counting forwards and backwards / data handing / patterns / classification and sorting / shapes / story sums and number recognition. We also introduce number formation informally later in the year. Learners are able to count to at least 20 and recognize and understand value of numbers to 10 by the end of the year.
