With the weather getting cooler, at the moment we are taking our coats on and off several times a day. Lots of children have go better at doing this independently as well as being able to do their zips up by themselves.

We would really appreciate it if you could help your child with this crucial skill at home if they are still struggling. We have some clever techniques we use in school to help with both putting coats on and doing zips up which might help you at home.

Putting coats on:

If children are struggling with this, they can use the coat-flip technique, have a look at the video below to see how to do this.

Doing zips up:

Zips are also tricky, but lots of Room 4 children are now becoming really independent and confident with this. We have explained that their zip is like a rocket…

Put the rocket in it’s station (zip at the bottom of the coat)

Put the astronaut in the rocket (other side of the coat in the zip)

Make sure they’re in nice and tight (make sure that the other side of the coat has clicked right into the bottom)

Zoom the rocket up to space! (pull the zip up to the top)

Both these techniques are working really well in school, so maybe challenge your children to see if they can do them at home too.

Miss Roberts

Thank you to all of you who have signed up, looked at and added your own observations for Tapestry. We love Tapestry in Room 4 because it’s great for communication between home and school and we also love receiving observations from you. Whenever a child has an observation from home, we always encourage them to tell the rest of the class about the photos or videos posted, or just the text that has been written. This has a number of benefits; it promotes confidence with talking in front of a group of children, it develops their speech and language skills and it allows them to speak about their interests and home life.

Here are a few ideas for posting observations on Tapestry if you are ever stuck:

• Baking or cooking. It’s great for children to be involved with helping with meal times, and you might even notice that they start asking interesting questions or have some brilliant observational comments about bruises on a banana or a wonky carrot!
• Take photos of your children’s finished Lego models, dens that they’ve built or pictures they’ve drawn. This really gives the children an opportunity at school to explain how they have achieved something.
• The great outdoors. Take photos of walks, bike rides, trips out or even just playing in the garden. The children love talking about what they have discovered when they are out and about.
• Interesting comments. Sometimes children just come out with some really interesting questions or observations (Where is Australia? Why do dogs have tails?). You could just post these on Tapestry without a picture – it’s a great insight into your child’s brain!
• Home schooling. If you ever do any learning at home (reading, counting, recalling something they have learnt at school that week etc.) it’s always brilliant to know about.

There is no pressure to post a huge amount of things, or very much at all, these are just a few ideas to get you started if you are unsure. Parental involvement is just as valuable to us in Room 4 as it is for you to see what we have been doing at school.

Happy posting!

Miss Roberts