This week: 17th - 21st November

This week we have started our topic on people who help us, learning all about roles within our society such as doctors, the fire service, the police, paramedics and teachers to name a few. The children have been really interested and listened well, giving some really thoughtful answers during discussions. We have learnt about how we seek help in an emergency, trying at the same time to understand when we would call the emergency services and when we wouldn’t. We have enjoyed working on our creative and painting skills when either painting or creating a fire truck. We will continue this in the continuous provision next week so if anyone has any small boxes (cereal boxes are a bit too big) then please save them and send them in to school. In our home corner this week, the children have loved looking after our two new doggies! 😊

In English we have continued our focus on simple sentence writing and the children are progressing well. In Maths, we have started looking at the concept of whole and parts so children can understand this before moving on to splitting numbers up into their parts. 
Next week is assessment week where we will do short, simple assessments to see the progress the children have made since the beginning of the year. This will involve phoneme recognition, a short writing task, key word recognition and some fun Maths activities. Please do not worry; the children will not be aware they are doing assessments and school will run mostly as usual for them. It is very low key with lots of praise and positivity. It just allows us, as teachers, to plan future learning according to the needs of our children. 
Thank you for your continued support with reading at home. If you put the work in now, while the children are so young (they are like little sponges at this age!) it really will pay dividends in the end and we are noticing a huge difference especially in the children who read a lot at home; their reading skills and confidence levels are really starting to soar which is wonderful to see. 
 

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

This week: 10th - 14th November 

In English this week we watched a video and identified some facts about tigers, the children found out that tigers are big cats, they like to swim, they eat meat which means they are carnivores. This week children have been encouraged to remember how a sentenced is formed with a focus on capital letters, finger spaces and a full stop. The children were asked to order the sentence ‘Tigers are big cats.’ and challenged to see if they could recall the sentence.

In our topic this week, we have continued our learning about India. We started the week off by recapping all our learning such as the weather (including the very wet monsoon season!), the colours on the flag and how people in India celebrate. We then started to look what it is like to live in an Indian town.  We used Google maps and looked at different places in India, and the children couldn’t believe that they would find cows walking down the street, or how many people were riding round on mopeds.  We also spotted a different type of 3 wheeled vehicle called a tuk tuk and enjoyed talking about the similarities and differences to our lives. We continued our learning about the culture and the types of foods that are popular in India and even tried some Indian foods such as mango chutney, pilau rice, poppadoms, samosas and onion bhajis.

This week in Maths we have looked at how we can make 5 and  we want the children to become fluent in number composition up to 5 at least (e.g. knowing that 4 can be made from 3 and 1, 1 and 3 or 2 and 2 and also knowing that if you took 3 away from 4 you would be left with 1 etc). We will be continuing with this learning over the coming weeks to really embed the learning.

Finally, we observed a short period of silence and listened to The Last Post, aiming to understand why this piece of music is a sombre piece of music because of what it stood for - the children were respectful whilst listening.  This is a difficult concept for our children to understand at a young age, but it is important that we begin discussing with them what poppy day is all about.  We created our own finger print poppy using paint.

Have a good weekend everyone.  Thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team

This week: 4th - 7th November 

Our first week back after half term this week, and what a busy one it's been!  The children were keen to talk about what they had done in the holidays and what activities they have been doing leading up to Halloween.  We've had some very excited children this week!  Please try and endeavour to encourage children to bed early in the coming weeks, as learning is tiring work and all the excitement (and sugar!) of Halloween has taken it out of some of them, so lots of early nights would do the world of good. ☺  We are so so proud of how the children have come back into school after the half term break - lots of smiles and children ready to get back into their learning again which is wonderful.

This week, we have started our learning about other countries around the world.  We have started by looking at India - looking at where India is on the globe (and that it is much bigger than our country), looking at the Indian flag and we have also learnt about a popular celebration / festival in India (and the UK) at this time of year - Diwali, the festival of light.  We have read books on Diwali. Next week we will continue learning about India and make some rangoli patterns with coloured sand and we will try some traditional Indian food.

In our English, we have started to introduce the concept of a sentence and in our sentence, we will include capital letters, finger spaces and full stops with a focus on letter formation.

In Maths this week we have been looking at presenting numbers to 5, the children have worked hard on this concept and we will continue this over the coming weeks focusing on different ways of making 5.

Have a good weekend everyone.  Thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team

School closure 03.11.25 - Home Learning

Reading: Please read at least one of your home reading books and talk about the story.  Please write in yellow reading diaries.  If you have a blending booklet, also practise blending some CVC words.

Phonics: Complete the phonics sheet below, writing the CVC words to match the pictures.  Focus on letter formation, making sure you form each of the letters in the correct way.

Maths: Watch Numberblocks Series 3, Episode 3 The Numberblocks Express on BBC iPlayer to learn about composition of numbers up to 5.  Then complete the worksheet below.

Topic: This week, we will be learning all about India and comparing with where we live.  Please look at Google Earth and identify our country the United Kingdom (and learn the name of it!) and together, see if you can identify whereabouts we live.  Then, zoom out and identify the country of India.

Watch the video: Facts about India and then colour in the Indian flag below.

If you can, go out and buy some Indian food and enjoy some for lunch - talk about what it tastes like! ☺

See you tomorrow everyone - please bring in anything you have completed.  We apologise about the inconvenience today and are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

This week: 20th - 24th October

We have finally made it to half term after a very long 8 weeks, and the children are definitely now ready for a rest! 

Thank you this week for all the Autumn treasures you sent it - it really helped us create some beautiful artwork in the style of artist Andy Goldsworthy as you will see in our pictures below.  We have also enjoyed sharing our half termly homework in our scrapbooks with our classes this week.  

Some children have been sent home with a blending booklet to practise this skill over the half term holiday.  By now, we would be expecting children to be able to blend 3 sounds together independently to read words, so if your child hasn't yet mastered this skill, please practise as much as possible with them.  Please continue to read the reading books sent home each day during the holidays - even if it's just 3-4 pages each night (10 minutes) because a little and often approach does tend to work.  We have noticed that reading diaries aren't being written in as much as at the beginning of the year, so please ensure you are still writing in three entries each week.

We had lots of fun at the Halloween Disco on Monday, so thank you to everyone who supported this.

Have a lovely half term everyone.  

The Reception Team

This week: 13th - 17th October

It was great to see so many of you at parents' evening this week - we hope you found it useful to discuss how your children have settled into school and go through the baseline assessment.  

This week we have been learning all about Autumn, that is is one of 4 seasons, and learning about the changes that we see happening in Autumn:

• The leaves changing colour and falling off the trees
• Animals hiding food preparing for winter
• Animals getting thicker coats preparing for winter
• The nights getting darker earlier and the mornings being darker too

We have enjoyed investigating our Autumn treasures such as conkers, acorns, pumpkins, coloured leaves and pine cones.  We have used Autumn colours to create some leaf rubbings and made 'soup' in our water area using different root vegetables - many of which are Autumn coloured.  We have opened our mud kitchen this week and some of us have made a muddy hot chocolate!  We will continue this into next week.  

Next week, we will be creating some artwork using some of the Autumn treasure named above, so if anyone is going on a walk this weekend, please feel free to collect some outdoor Autumn materials for us to use in our artwork - smaller brightly coloured red, yellow or green leaves in particular (not really dried out leaves), conkers (and shells), small pine cones, acorns etc etc - and bring them into school on Monday.  Thank you ☺

We have enjoyed reading Christopher Pumpkin in our English this week and many children are now getting much better at hearing the sounds in words - some even spelling CVC words!  Please could you ensure you are still reading as much as possible with children at home (aiming for 15 minutes each night) and writing at least 3 times in the yellow reading record every week, as we have noticed that some home reading has dropped off a little.  We have finished learning all Phase 2 sounds now, so will not introduce any new sounds next week, instead consolidating what we have already learnt.  We will also consolidate the tricky words we have covered so far - and, to, the, no, go, I, into, her, is, it, as, at, can.  In Maths, we have covered the concepts of 'more than' and 'fewer than' within 5.

On Monday next week is our Halloween Fun Night / Disco, starting at 4.30pm, for those that have sent back the permission slip and paid online.  Children can come back to school at 4.30pm dressed in their Halloween costume.  Children will not need a coat, so if children are walking to the disco and need a coat for the walk, please take it off at the door and take it with you.  It is also Diwali on Monday, and while we will be introducing this to the children, we will be doing our full Diwali activities after half term.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

This week:  3rd - 10th October

This week has been Life Skills week, and we have enjoyed some workshops - on Monday, we had a visitor from HSBC bank, talking to the children about spending money and the difference between what we want and what we need.  The children found this concept quite tricky at first but listened really well as we discussed alternative things we could do if we didn't have enough money for certain things and also about the importance of saving too.

On Wednesday, we had a visitor talking to the children all about mental wellbeing in a really child-friendly and interactive way.  We went on a journey to the Wellbeing Jungle where we met the Calm Crocodile who taught us the importance of a good sleep, the Chatty Parrot who taught us to talk about our feelings and the Soothing Monkey who taught us a slow breathing technique to deal with worries.

We have been also learning this week how to use a knife and fork correctly, practising putting on our coats and zipping them up ready for the colder weather.

In phonics this week we have continued to learn new sounds and have learnt u, r and h. Next week we will continue learning our sounds and some new tricky words.

Next week we have our parents evening and we are looking forward to seeing you all.

Have a lovely weekend and thank you for your continued support everyone.

The Reception Team

This week: 29th - 3rd October

This week we have continued the Ourselves topic, learning about how we can keep ourselves healthy by exercising, eating healthy foods, having a good amount of sleep and looking after our teeth.  The children have enjoyed tasting lots of different healthy foods such as carrot, baby sweet corn, peppers, pea pods, pitta bread and dips. The children were really good at trying some foods they hadn’t had before or even trying something again they didn’t like. The children also had a look at different foods and had a go at making a healthy packed lunch. The children have continued with their ‘tots on tyres’ session and we are really impressed with the progress the children are making each week.

In Literacy this week, we have read a book called The Leaf Thief which the children really enjoyed, and have focused on finding the initial sound of a word & some even went further to spell simple CVC words which is fantastic!  We continue to focus on building fine motor skills, good pencil grip and correct letter formation on a daily basis.  Next week, we will continue to focus on finding the initial sound and spelling simple words. 

In phonics next week, we will learn the u, r & h phonemes and continue to learn to read our tricky words and, the & to, as well as introducing some new tricky words - no, go, I & into.  Please continue to read regularly with your children, practise these phonemes & tricky words and keep modelling and practising those blending skills, especially if your child isn't yet hearing that blend of sounds together to make words.  It will come - sometimes it just takes a bit longer. 

In Maths this week, we have focused on good counting skills, and next week we will continue this as well as looking at basic mathematical patterns and continuing these.

Next week is Life Skills week, and we have a fun-filled week for the children, learning and developing skills needed for life, such as using cutlery, learning about money, learning about road safety and good mental health, all in a very child-friendly way. 

Have a good weekend everyone & thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team 

This week: 22nd  - 26th September

What a beautiful end to our week after all this rain! The children have definitely enjoyed being outdoors and we were super lucky to have the nice weather on Thursday for our 2^nd session of ‘tots on tyres’, let's hope for a bit more sunshine over the weekend.  This week in Reception class, we have continued to build upon and practise routines which the children are becoming much more familiar with now.  We are encouraging all our children to say good morning as they enter the classroom in a morning and use their pleases and thank yous throughout the day as it is important to instill these things at an early age.  We are also encouraging better listening in class time, ensuring children are looking and focused when someone is talking.

This week has been all about ourselves....we have enjoyed introducing our families to the class using pictures and we have also started looking at our bodies and the different parts that make up our bodies.  We have mainly been focusing on the parts we can see on the outside, such as our head, neck, shoulders, stomach, arms, elbows, knees etc, but we have had a little look on the inside too, discussing our brain, heart and lungs and how our bones protect these organs.  We have also looked at the 5 senses and how they help us make sense of the world around us and practised cutting skills slicing a variety of fruits using plastic safety knives.  

We have now finished our torn paper self portraits and they are all on display and looking fabulous!  We were really impressed how many of the children included details, such as teeth, glasses, lips, eyebrows and even eyelashes!  We have been singing the song Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes as part of our Literacy learning and have practised writing our names (focusing on correct letter formation and correct pencil grip) as well as drawing a little self portrait.  In Maths, we have introduced the term 'subitising' which simply means spotting how many items are in a small group without having to count them.  There is a much greater focus on this in Reception than on counting and though we do teach the correct way to count and order numbers, we do a lot of subitising.

In class, we have moved to a more structured timetable, especially in the morning.  Children are now used to having their daily phonics session and so far, we have covered the phonemes s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o & c.  Next week we will cover phonemes k, ck & e.  We have covered the first 3 tricky words so far (and, the & to) and next week we will introduce the next 3 (no, go & I), reading them daily as flashcards.  Please help your child by going over the phonemes we have covered with your child to ensure they can say the sound on sight, and by reading the above tricky words.  Now we have introduced worded reading books with the children, please ensure children are reading each night and that you are modelling that blend to them if they can't yet hear it.  The more practise they have and the more they hear that s-i-t says 'sit', the quicker they will develop this skill for themselves.  Please continue to bring the books back each day, so we are able to listen to your child in school and change any necessary books.

We have been reading the book Oi Frog! to the children this week and we have enjoyed learning some new words and recognising the rhyming words.  Next week we will read Oi Cat! and in English, we will also be reading a story called The Leaf Thief and will focus on the skill of identifying the initial sound of a word (e.g. knowing that the word 'sock' begins with an 's' or the word 'leaf' begins with an 'l').  We will also be learning about how we can look after ourselves by being active, healthy eating, looking after our teeth and washing our hands properly - watch out for some pictures next week!

Have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team

This week: 15th - 19th September

Our second full week in Reception and the children are now getting more into routines and independently organising themselves when they come in to school in a morning.  They have done so well to say they have only been in school for such a short space of time.  We are still getting to know their little personalities and have already had lots of funny moments because 4 year olds just tell it as it is!

This week we have finished our baseline assessments and are ready to begin some of our more formal teaching next week.  As well as our guided reading session and phonics lessons, we will also be teaching Literacy, Maths and having some afternoon teaching time based around 'Ourselves'.  In phonics, we have now completed the first 8 sounds (s, a, t, p, i, n, m & d) so please use your sound mat at home to continue to go over these sounds with the children because the more familiar they are with them, the easier they will find the reading that is to come.  Next week, we will move on to the next 4 sounds - g, o, c & k.  We have started blending sounds together (just 3 letter CVC - consonant vowel consonant - words such as s-i-t sit, t-a-p tap, m-a-n man etc) to read words and as yet, many children are finding this tricky.  Wordless books went home this week as we completed our first guided reading session.  Please do your best at home to listen to your child read every night, and build it into your home routine.  It is best to do this when children are at their least tired (so not right before bedtime - this is better saved for reading a picture book to your children so they can relax and listen), and away from any distractions, somewhere quiet.  10 minutes is fine at this stage and this is something you can build up as the children build up their attention span.  Please write in the yellow home reading diary at least 3 times a week. Next week, we will also start reading the first 3 tricky words - and, to & the.

We had our first Tots on Tyres session this week and a very successful one at that!  We are doing this much earlier in the Reception year this time, but the children have amazed us with their progress already!  We were lucky enough to purchase some brand new bikes at the back end of last year, so we will be able to use these to continue learning when the formal biking sessions have finished.  Thank you to all our parents for sending in your children with appropriate PE kit and a helmet where possible.  It really helped the day run more smoothly.  

We were lucky enough to welcome author Shane Hegarty into school on Wednesday, and the children absolutely loved his visit, and found him very funny!  And probably the first time some of our children will have heard an Irish accent.  Thank you to everyone who bought one of Shane's books, The One and Only You - a book signed by the author is definitely something to treasure.  Our book seller left 10 signed copies of Shane's book with us, so if there are any children who still would like to purchase a book, please send £8 into school in an envelope with the child's name and we will be able to send one home, on a first come, first served basis.

Thank you to everyone who has also emailed a family photo to the reception email address so we can show them next week when we begin talking about our families.  There is still time to send one in if you haven't already, to reception@lostockhallcps.co.uk.

Finally - have a wonderful weekend everyone.  Being in school full time, learning and playing is certainly taking it out of some of our young people, so please, please ensure they are getting adequate sleep at an early bed time.  Well rested children are happier and more ready to learn.

The Reception Team

This week: 8th - 12th September

Wow what a quick week we have had in Reception. Our children have finished their first full week and have been amazing! We would like to say thank you to all the parents who attended our curriculum meeting this week. The children whose parents could not attend will have received a pack of resources in their reading packs yesterday for you to refer to throughout the year. These packs are to be kept at home to support weekly homework. There is no need for these to be kept in reading bag. 

We have had a wonderful week this week starting to learn our first set of phonemes in phonics this week: s, a, t and p.  Next week we will also start to learn our next set of sounds: i, n and m. The children have started to form these letters which we will continue to practice in school. If you can start to use the wipe boards and pens we have provided that would be brilliant.

We have completed most of our Baseline assessments and the children have done really well settling in and following our daily routines.

Next week (Thursday) we will start our ‘tots on tyres’ sessions, please can the children come to school as per the letter sent home last week in their PE kit and bring a helmet if you have one. 

The children will also need to come to school on Friday in their PE kit as we will be starting our PE lessons from next week and this will continue every Friday. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Reception Team x

Our first week at school!

The end of the first week already and the end of the induction programme for our new Reception children.  The children have all managed so well learning their new routines and showing a real independence.  There is a lot to learn as the children start school, so you might find they are more tired than usual.  We are proud of how they've all managed their first few days and taken everything in their stride.  

Next week will be full time hours - 8.45am until 3.20pm.  In a morning, the children have a ten minute window in which to come to school, so the back Reception door will be open from 8.45am until 8.55am.  If you find your child is getting upset on a morning and showing some separation anxiety, it may be better to leave it until nearer 8.55am to come to school, when the playground will be less busy and most of the children are already in class.

A few reminders:

-Please name all uniform;

-Please also name shoes;

-Children will need to bring in their book bag, a named water bottle and a piece of fruit/veg in a named pot or bag (or just write on the skin of bananas and oranges);

- Morning snack needs to be only a piece of fruit or vegetable;

-Please don't put water bottles in book bags because sometimes they can leak and in previous years, reading books have been spoiled due to water leaking on them;

-At the end of the day, please wave only when your child is at the front of the line, otherwise it can take time locating the right parent which slows things down;

-If you are sending someone different to pick your child up who we have not seen before, please ensure they know the password & ring school to let us know in advance;

-Please try and always stand in the same place when picking up so we get used to where to look - this does help speed up the process;

-If you want to speak to us in a morning, please stand to one side and allow us to get the children in first - getting the children in safely and happily in a morning is our main priority and it can get very congested around the door if there are lots of parents giving us message.  We will be available to speak to anyone that needs to, but please stand to one side and wait until after the majority of the children are in, then we will come and speak to you.  

Thank you for your co-operation with the above - I know it seems like a lot, but the sooner we get into routines, the better and the smoother things will run.  Next week we will be carrying out baseline assessments with the children to assess their starting point for school and allow us to plan future learning.  The children will not realise they are doing assessments, because they are just little, child-friendly activities with the teacher.

Have a good weekend everyone - we hope to see as many of you as possible at the Reception Curriculum meeting on Weds (10th September), starting at 5pm.  We will give everyone a home learning pack and discuss how we teach the children and how you can support at home to give the children the best possible start.

The Reception Team