More Orchard Toys Games in Stock

Bus stop, Insey Winsey Spider, Pass the Word, Knickerbocker Glory and Jack and the Beanstalk are now all available at Littlesheep Learning

FREE Downloadable Christmas Colouring and Activity Sheets

We now have a range of FREE downloadable Christmas Colouring and Activity Sheets available on our Resources pages. These have been hugely popular already and we have received several emails saying how much that they have been enjoyed, including:

"Thanks, the colouring sheets kept my 2 busy for a good hour yesterday"

Go and take a look and add your comments about them here.

Newsletter

Did you receive our December Newsletter? If not you can read it here - don't forget to sign up to receive our next copy so you are the first to hear our January news.

If you did receive it you were entered into a free prize draw to win a copy of "The Big Book of Things to Do" and we are pleased to announce the winner is:

Karen in Chester

Your prize will be in the post shortly - we hope you enjoy it!

Don't forget to get your children to enter our Christmas Colouring Competition.

Christmas Competition 2006

Download our Tree decorating sheet and send us your decorated trees – prizes for the best tree in the under 5’s and for the 5-12’s age groups. Hurry we need your trees back by 20th December 2006.

New Products - Added this month

Over the last month we've added lots of new products - here's a summary for you.

Sequencing Cards - These are ideal for helping to develop sequencing and language skills. This set contains card sequences including getting dressed, having a biscuit and splashing in a puddle.

Place Value Arrows – As used in schools these are a brilliant way to help children understand hundreds, tens and units.

Fine Motor Skills Book - A fully photocopiable book containing activities designed to improve children's fine motor skills, a perfect partner to our best selling Cutting Skills Book.

Tally Counter – Another small item requested by a customer, this handheld tally counter is ideal for counting behaviours or requests or anything really!

Competition

Subscribe to our newsletter by Friday 1st December 2006 and you will be entered into our FREE prize draw.

Also look out for our decorate a tree competition coming soon.

Sale!

Remember we still have a few items left in our clearance sale

And for this week only... the Farmyard Tales Stencil Book is HALF PRICE (whilst stocks last)

Sandpaper Letters and Dice!

I've added two new products today...

One big...
Sandpaper Letters
These sandpaper letters are great for sensory learning... I will be stocking capital letters and numbers soon so you can add to the collection if this method works for your child.

And one small...
Dice
I've started selling dice as requested by a customer (see suggest something and I'll probably stock it!), she was looking for a dice to play a game with her daughter where they threw a dice and then counted the same number of conkers - a great fun activity for learning counting / number to quantity skills.

November 2006

Are you ready for Christmas? Our CLEARANCE sale has lots of products that would make ideal presents with savings of up to 50% off.

Coming Soon is our first ever Newsletter, create an account here to receive it - it will contain news, information and special discount codes! Everyone who is registered to receive the newsletter on 1st December 2006 will be entered into a FREE prize draw so make sure you are on the list!

October 2006

The one problem with owning a retail business is that Christmas has to start early and Littlesheep Learning is no exception. We have now added Christmas stock to our Seasonal category, including our very own Littlesheep Learning Resources Christmas Flashcards.

We also have added more items to our Clearance sale so take a look for new bargains.

September News Round Up

I thought today I'd let you know of some of September's news.
Littlesheep Learning is a featured business in Daffodil Design Featuring Work at Home Businesses Littlesheep Learning
Littlesheep Learning has also had an article featured at Treehugger Mums about crafty ideas to preserve Summer Memories. We write monthly for Treehugger Mums, our last article was Taking Turns.

I think that's it for this month - I'm currently working on next months article for Treehugger Mums and have submitted a few new ones to Mumszone Parents Forum so hopefully there will be more to announce next month.

Testimonial

I got this email this morning - it's the little things like this that make it all worthwhile...

Hi Elaine,
received my order - am really really pleased. Thanks so much for great products and quick delivery.
Many thanks
Meghan

Remember if you have purchased from us, if you review the products you've bought we will send you a 5% discount code for your next order.

Feel free to add your testimonials / reviews as comments to this post - and I'll get back to you with the discount code!

Site Information - Update

Thanks to Alison at Daffodil Design for the changes to our site. We hope our customers find it more inviting - look out for more new products coming soon.

Sight Reading - High Frequency Words

Introduction
High frequency words are the essential words which pupils will need, to be able to read even very simple texts. Some of these words have irregular or difficult spellings and are often difficult to predict from the surrounding text. The list is in two sections with 45 words to be achieved by the end of the reception year (YR) and approximately 150 words to be learned between Years 1 and 2. By the end of Y2, pupils should be able to read all these words easily, in and out of context.

Reception Words

I	are	big	it	he
go	the	she	at	am
come	of	and	play	all
went	we	they	no	is
up	this	my	yes	cat
you	dog	see	for	get
day	me	on	a	said
was	like	away	dad	to
look	going	mum	an	in

Reception Year Words are available as laminated flashcards from Littlesheep Learning

Year 1 and 2 Words

about	can't	her	many	over
then	who	after	could	here
people	there	will	again	did
him	more	push	these	with
an	do	his	much	pull
three	would	another	don't	home
must	put	time	your	as
dig	house	name	ran	too
back	door	how	new	saw
took	ball	down	if	next
school	tree	be	first	jump
night	seen	two	because	from
just	not	should	us	bed
girl	last	now	sister	very
been	good	laugh	off	so
want	boy	got	little	old
some	water	brother	had	live(d)
once	take	way	but	half
love	one	than	were	by
has	made	or	that	what
call(ed)	have	make	our	their
when	came	help	man	out
them	where	may

Plus: days of the week, months of the year, numbers to twenty, common colour words, pupil's name and address, and the name and address of their school.

September 2006 News

Back to School - September is the time for the return to school, whether you are preparing for the first day at nursery or a new school or returning Littlesheep Learning would like to wish you good luck and a happy and successful year.

Please take a look at our special selection of back to school items in our Seasonal section including the popular Usborne First Experiences title Going to School.

We also have a link to the BBC 'step up to nursery' and 'step up to school' online magazines from our News page which contain lots of information about learning and contain vouchers for money off popular BBC children's magazines.

Rol 'n' Write

We are now stocking the Rol 'n' Write alphabet and numbers. I first came across these when working with a child with autism who had additional gross and fine motor difficulties, he found learning letter formations extremely difficult and we used these as part of a multisensory programme to help reinforce the skills needed for writing in a fun way.

These plastic 'cards' have a path which a ball bearing follows to demonstrate the correct formation. Choose any letter or number, place the ball on the starting point – as indicated by the arrow – and watch it roll along the groove, tracking the correct formation. The ball even retraces its own path for letters such as ‘d’ or ‘p’.

Site Information

Please note we are having a site makeover at Littlesheep Learning so if it all looks odd over the next few days and not as sleek as ususal we apologise. The shop will be running as usual throughout the alterations. Hopefully the site will be back looking better than ever ready for our exciting PR / marketing / advertising plan coming soon.

Scissors

We are pleased to announce that we have now added a range of left and right handed scissors to our range of fine motor products.

As well as stocking standard right handed school scissors and left handed school scissors we also have:

• right and left handed duel control training scissors. These scissors have a double loop on each handle allowing the teacher and child to simultaneously complete the cutting action. The teacher uses the loops closest to the blades to assist with control, force or guidance.

• right and left right handed easy grip scissors. These scissors that are operated by squeezing the loop using thumb, fingers or palm of the hand. The scissors reopen when the pressure is released. Ideal for children with co-ordination and grip difficulties. Supplied with a blade guard for safety when not in use.

• right and left handed self-opening scissors. These are conventional scissors with a spring so that they re-open after the pressure is released. Ideal for children with co-ordination and grip difficulties.

Fine Motor Skills Development

Introduction
To many people, fine motor development means the way a child holds and uses pencils, crayons, and scissors, but fine motor development is much more. Fine motor skills are the small movements of the hands in co-ordination with the eyes. The development of fine motor control is a process of refining gross motor skills and they develop as the neurological system matures. Fine motor skills do not develop over-night, but with time and practice. It is more fun to learn while you play and this is especially important when practising fine motor skills.

All fine motor activities are built upon four important skills. These four skills must be learned before a child can go on to more complicated tasks. They are:

• Grasping objects
• Reaching out to objects
• Releasing objects deliberately
• Turning the wrist in various directions

Fine Motor Skills Milestones

By one year

Reaches, grasps, puts object in mouth
Picks things up with pincer grasp (thumb and one finger)
Transfers object from one hand to the other
Drops and picks up toy

Points

Stacks objects
Removes pegs from a pegboard
Puts objects in a container

By two years
Builds tower of six small blocks
Places rings on a peg

Places five pegs in pegboard
Turns pages two or three at a time
Holds large crayon in fisted grasp

Scribbles
Imitates vertical stroke with crayon

Turns knobs
Throws small ball
Paints with whole arm movement, shifts hands, makes strokes
Pulls large popbeads apart

Threads large beads

Unwraps things

By three years
Turns single pages
Snips with scissors
Holds crayon with thumb and fingers (not fist)
Uses one hand consistently in most activities
Imitates circular, vertical, horizontal strokes
Paints with some wrist action - makes dots, lines, circular strokes
Rolls, pounds, squeezes, and pulls playdough
Builds a nine block tower
Strings small beads
Unscrews lid of a jar
Makes snips with scissors
Unbuttons

By four years
Builds tower of nine small blocks
Hammers in nails and pegs
Copies circle / cross
Manipulates playdough easily - rolls balls, snakes and makes biscuits

By five years
Cuts on line continuously
Copies cross and square
Prints some letters and numbers
Screws together a threaded objectAttempts tripod grasp on a pencil
Builds 10 block tower

By six years
Cuts out simple shapes
Copies triangle / square and first name
Colours within lines
Uses a tripod pencil grasp
Has decided on hand preference - is left or right handed
Pastes and glues appropriately
Completes a lacing card

By seven years
Copies diamond / rectangle
Copies printed letters
Ties a bow
Draws a line with a ruler

This information is a general guide, please keep in mind that each child is unique and develops skills at their own rate. If you are concerned about your child's development, please ask your health visitor, doctor or child’s teacher for advice.

Littlesheep Learning stocks a range of products to help with fine motor development.

Gross Motor Skills Development

Introduction
Gross motor skills are larger movements involving the arm, leg, or feet muscles or the entire body, actions like crawling, walking, running, and jumping are gross motor skills

Gross Motor Skills Milestones
By six months
Holds head steady
Rolls over both ways
Pushes up with arms while on tummy
Sits briefly independently

By one year:
Sits confidently
Crawls forward
Pulls to stand while holding on
Cruises along furniture
Stands unsupported
Walks with hands held

By eighteen months:
Walks alone
Kneels
Climbs stairs
Squats to play
Kneels
Stoops and recovers
Tries to kick balls
Climbs on furniture
Pulls toy while walking

By two years
Walks backwards
Picks up toys from floor without falling
Seats self in child size chair
Walks up and down stairs with hand held
Moves to music
Jumps in place/off a step
Kicks a stationary ball
Walks up stairs independently
Throws a ball overhand
Propels “ride-on” toys forward

By three years
Runs forward
Jumps in place with two feet together
Walks on tiptoe
Kicks a ball forward
Throws overhand at a target
Catches a rolled ball
Rides a tricycle using pedals

By four years
Runs around obstacles
Walks on a line
Pushes, pulls, steers wheeled toys
Uses slide independently
Jumps over 15cm high object and lands on both feet together
Throws ball overhand
Catches large ball from 1.5m
Balances on one foot for five to ten seconds
Hops on one foot two or more times

By five years
Bounces and catches a ball
Throws a ball in the air and catches
Balance on one foot for five seconds
Walks on a line heel to toe
Jumps forward ten times without falling
Walks up and down stair independently, alternating feet
Does forward rolls

By six years
Runs lightly on toes
Walks on balance beam
Hops for 2m
Skips on alternate feet
Skip with a skipping rope
Skates
Kicks a rolling ball
Rides a bicycle
Dribbles a ball
Throws a ball with good accuracy

This information is a general guide, please keep in mind that each child is unique and develops skills at their own rate. If you are concerned about your child's development, please ask your health visitor, doctor or child’s teacher for advice.

New Products - Coming Soon...

We're very excited at Littlesheep Learning as we are going to have some new products. We can't go into too much detail here until the items are here but we've been busy researching some new product lines and they will be coming soon - keep checking what's new on our website or reading our blog and be the first to get them!

Summer Sale / Clearance

Littlesheep Learning are currently having a summer sale. There are savings of up to 50%, with popular Usborne 'Things to Make and Do' activity books and many other lines reduced to clear. Hurry as offers only available whilst stocks last.

Keep checking back for news of products coming soon.

FAQs - The Who, What, Where, When and Why...

Who?
Littlesheep Learning was the brainchild of Elaine Lambe and is now a family owned and run buisiness.

What?
Littlesheep Learning is an retailer of educational resources books, games, flashcards and lots more. It stocks popular products from Usborne Books, Orchard Toys and a range of exclusive Littlesheep Learning Resources designed by us.

Where?
Littlesheep Learning is online at www.littlesheep-learning.co.uk

When?
Littlesheep Learning opened on 5 May 2005 - 05.05.05 as we fancied having a date that was easy to remember!

Why?
Littlesheep Learning came about through Elaine's work as an ABA tutor. As a senior tutor Elaine made teaching materials for the children she worked with as well as sourcing resources from specialist suppliers. Elaine realised that there was an opportunity for a company to these items in one place as many of the specialist retailers had minimum order quantities / large postage costs.

Welcome

This is the blog for Littlesheep Learning where you will be able to find out all the latest news, reviews, updates, articles and interesting stuff that is happening at Littlesheep Learning.

Please take a look at our website and keep reading our blog - we look forward to hearing your comments and receiving your orders soon!