We are excited for World Book Day next week, which takes place on Thursday 4 March. Don’t forget we will all be wearing our pyjamas on that day, whether at home or at school, with suitable undergarments naturally! There will be a World Book Day gathering first thing in the morning at 9.00am and, amongst celebrating books in general, our competition winners will be revealed. Full details of the competitions will appear on Century for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 on Monday 1 March to allow everyone ample time to take part. We would also be delighted for our youngest children to get involved and, therefore, details will be emailed to Kindergarten parents separately.
The two competitions include: firstly, designing a book cover for a favourite book and the second ‘Guess the Teacher Challenge’ where the children will be asked to match members of staff to their favourite childhood story. All entrants should be received by 4.00pm on Wednesday 3 March, sent to the following email address: admin@hamptonprep.org.uk
For Reception, Years 1 and 2, screen-free afternoons take place all next week, from Monday 1 March through to Friday 5 March; this is in support of things to do with books and, more generally, the importance of reading, but also to top up everyone’s wellbeing. Live MS Teams lessons and assemblies will still occur in the mornings but, in the afternoons, there won’t be any need to go on your devices at all!
Your screen-free ‘escape with a book’ pack, is making its way to your home, or may even have arrived already. My grateful thanks to Miss Horton and Mrs Parkinson for putting together these fun packs of activities. It is entirely up to you how many of the activities you wish to do in the afternoon each day – if you simply want to curl up with the book of the day, or even several others, that is absolutely fine by us, or perhaps, weather dependent, you may prefer to spend the afternoon in the garden making a den fit for a Gruffalo! If you don’t have the books at home, here are the links you will need, though given we are aiming for screen-free afternoons, please do access them in the mornings rather than after 12 noon. The packs, however, are a collection of activities for you to dip into as you wish – the books are not necessary for the tasks.
Monday – The Gruffalo
Tuesday – The Day the Crayons Quit
Wednesday – Dear Zoo
Thursday – The Rainbow Fish
Friday – The Cat in the Hat
Please note, we will not be setting activities on Century next week in the afternoons. Interaction off-screen is what we are after during the afternoons for the whole of next week. We are acutely aware that time spent online has quite simply rocketed in the past year. In fact, an article I recently read suggests, based on data analysed by Qustodio for 60,000 families in the UK, that online habits were up by more than 100% this January in comparison to a year ago.
AWARDS THIS WEEK
Stars of the Week:
Year 2: Aubin for working hard to improve the presentation of his written work. Keep it up!
Year 1: Zachary for fantastic efforts with his handwriting this week.
Reception: Zac for his super helicopter painting and writing.
Please note certificates and badges will be posted today for children currently offsite.
Our congratulations to Rayan (Year 1) who achieved his “Side Block” patch badge in Kuk Sool Won last week and, furthermore, he has been taking his duties as big brother to baby Elissa sister very seriously indeed. What a lovely picture to show this!
