Reception blog archive 2022-2023
Thank you!
As we reach the end of our Reception year, we would just like to say a huge, heartfelt thank you for all your kind gifts, cards and words. They are all hugely appreciated. We are so proud of all our Reception children and how they have grown and progressed this year. If you reflect back on their very first day, sometimes they seem like different little people they have grown up that much! Thank you for all your support with learning this year, it has made such a difference and means that our little Receptioners are now more than Year 1 ready. But they've got a long holiday to enjoy before then, so we'd like to wish everyone a happy, safe and relaxed summer holiday.
See you all in September.
The Reception Team
This week: 10th- 14th July
We have had a wonderful last full week in Reception. We have enjoyed watching two school performances in the hall. Firstly, we watched the Year 6 play 'Peter Pan', which was fantastic! Secondly, we watched the Year 2 poetry performance all about Africa, which was also brilliant.
The children have enjoyed celebrating their last week by playing with their friends outside with all the playground equipment and even had a delicious ice-cream! We also looked at all the fantastic pieces of homework for this half term.
Thank you for all of your support this year! We are so proud of how the children have progressed throughout the year and they have all grown up so much since September!
This week: 3rd - 7th July
Another week has flown by and what an interesting week it has been! We started off the week with a day at Smithill's Farm, and despite the rain, we had a brilliant day. The children were impeccably behaved and got stuck in to all the activities. We were really proud of them all and it really made the day a fantastic one. We hope you enjoy looking at the pictures below. On Wednesday this week, we also had Sampler Day where the children were able to spend a full day with their new teachers in Year 1. Again, the children were fantastic and really showed how Year 1 ready they are. As we only have one full week left, we won't be sending out any new reading books next week. We will be collecting them all in ready to do an end of year stock take and prepare for next year. So please ensure any reading books are left in reading packs next week.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
Tiny Happy People - Your words build their world
Tiny Happy People is a BBC run initiative that focuses on early language development. There are some great resources on the website, including ideas of easy games you can play - perhaps some ideas for the summer holidays when you are looking for things to do! There are 2 links below - one is the main page for Tiny Happy People (with some summer holiday ideas too!) & the other is a page specifically for 4-5 year olds.
Early language development is the one thing that has been shown, time and again, to have the biggest and most positive impact on children's progress across the board and future success. You'll be surprised how doing small things, on a little and often basis, to help develop your child's early language skills, can have such a huge impact.
This Week: 26th June- 30th June
We have come to the end of another month in Reception and only have a few weeks left now until the Summer! We started the week with our second trip to this tennis centre, this time for RN. The children loved joining in with the different activities and developed some great new skills!
We also began looking at the farm as part of our topic work in preparation for our trip on Monday. The children enjoyed learning about the different animals they might find at the farm and the names of their babies, some were trickier than others. In English we began looking at writing our own riddles and in Math's we began revising some number facts to ensure that they are Year 1 ready. Some of these concepts include doubling, odd and even numbers and number bonds. Please continue to practise these at home so the children continue to become more fluent with these.
On Thursday we celebrated French day. The children had the opportunity to taste some lovely French pastries, which went down a treat. They also learnt some new French words, such as Bonjour!
Just a reminder that Monday is our class trip to Smithill's Farm. Please can children wear their school polo shirt, sweatshirt, tracksuit bottoms and suitable footwear. The weather is looking like a mixed bag so please ensure children have a waterproof jacket aswell.
Thanks,
The Reception Team
This week: 19th - 23rd June
Another very hot week in school this week. The children are managing well in the hotter temperatures considering, though they do tend to tire a little quicker. Please continue to apply suncream in a morning and send children in with a water bottle and cap/hat.
This week we have continued learning about minibeasts, the different types of minibeast (insect, arachnid etc), what might make a good habitat for a minibeast (and making one!) and looking at why minibeasts are important, especially our bees. We've talked about looking after living things, which includes minibeasts, and making sure we put them back out in their natural environment if we see them inside, rather than squishing them. The children know that bees play a very important role in helping plants and flowers to grow, so we must look after them.
In our English, we've been writing letters to caterpillar, to thank him for the shoes he's given us! This has been based around the short film Caterpillar Shoes and the children have really enjoyed it. Here is the link if you'd like to watch it with your child at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYa6OLQHrEc. In Maths, we have been continuing our assessments and will start some recap work next week. Please continue to go over key word reading at home because we are now reading through all of them in preparation for Year 1. If you are confident your child knows all the Reception key words on sight, and can read them quickly, and you would like a copy of the Year 1 key words, please let us know. In phonics, although most groups have started looking at the beginning Phase 5 phonemes 'wh' and 'ph' ready for Year 1, we will also be consolidating odd Phase 3 phonemes over the coming weeks, after assessment week. Don't forget, you can continue to read Phonics Bug books over the summer holiday by accessing your online account. We will make sure there are books available for you to read over the summer, just let us know if you have any problems before the start of the summer holidays.
RP enjoyed their visit to the tennis centre on Wednesday. RN will go on Monday, so don't forget to send children in their PE kits on Monday if they are in RN. RP can come in regular school uniform.
For the next two weeks, we will be learning about the farm in preparation for our trip to Smithills in early July. Look our for a letter regarding our trip which will be sent out this coming week.
Have a great weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
This Week: 12th June- 16th June
It’s been a very sunny, hot week for Reception this week! We began our new topic all about Minibeasts. We started off by naming many different types of minibeasts and then looked at sorting and grouping the different types. After that we talked about the important role minibeasts play in our environment and why we need to look after them. The children enjoyed going on a minibeast hunt in the outdoor area. We managed to find a few, however not as many as we would’ve liked due to the hot dry weather. We will hopefully continue out hunt in damper conditions next week. We also enjoyed playing in our new minibeast lab role play area, using the egg scopes to take a closer look at a range of bugs and insects.
The children had a wonderful time on their first Sports Day! All the children participated really well in all of the races. We were so proud of them! Thank you for coming and supporting the children.
Just a reminder that next Wednesday will be RP’s trip to the tennis centre, therefore children should come in their P.E kit for that day.
Have a lovely weekend everyone and enjoy the last of the hot weather!
The Reception Team
This week: 22nd - 26th May
What a fantastic week we have had for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) week! This week, we've enjoyed building with some new resources we have been lucky enough to have bought for us to use during STEAM week, and after, as we get to keep them. There has been a lot of opportunity for building and constructing this week, as well as creativity and using our critical thinking and problem solving skills. Sometimes when we are constructing something, it doesn't always go to plan, so this provides us with good opportunities for talking things through, asking questions, and encouraging problem solving thinking. And children at this age can really impress with how their little brains work! ☺ We have also been encouraging our girls into all the construction areas this week as it is usually our boys who can't wait to get set building. It has been good to see children going into areas of the continuous provision that they wouldn't normally go into. We will continue to encourage this going forward.
We loved taking part in the KAPLA workshop this week. We do hope some of you have managed to come into school to see the finished product this afternoon, because it really is amazing what you can produce with thousands of little Jenga style blocks. The children listened really well during the session and mastered some building skills at the same time as learning a little French! ☺
We have also enjoyed creating some transient art this week with natural materials. Transient art is artwork that is made of moveable pieces, so something only temporary. We worked in groups, came up with our own ideas and then used different pieces to bring it to life. I'm sure you'll agree that our children are super creative and made some wonderful designs, as you can see in the pictures below.
After half term, our topic will be Minibeasts, so a lot of our learning will centre around this topic. In Phonics, most groups will be moving on to Phase 5, whilst one group will still be consolidating Phase 4. Phase 5 is what Year 1 will mostly focus on in their phonics, so children will revisit this learning in Year 1. We are just introducing them so that children will be more familiar when they do them in more detail in their next year.
There is no homework over the half term, but please continue to read with your child. After half term, PE will move back to a Friday, so children only need to come to school in their PE kits on a FRIDAY ONLY.
Have a great half term everyone - it's looking like the sun will continue to shine.
The Reception Team
This week 15th- 19th May
We had a fantastic start to the week on Monday with our Infant Fun Day! The children got the opportunity to meet lots of other Reception age children from other schools within Axia. They also had the change to try lots of exciting activities. They spent some time in Forest School, they enjoyed climbing on the trim trail and they played with lots of different equipment on the playground. The day was a great success and the weather stayed dry, which is always a bonus.
Throughout the rest of the week we continued looking at our ‘Journey’s’ topic. We looked specifically at travelling to the coast. We looked at what the coast is and what it is like there. We also talked about the children’s experiences of the coast, ways they have travelled there and what they might see there. One thing we may see lots of are boats, so the children had great fun building their own boat using outdoor construction materials, pretending to be sailers out at sea!
We spent lots of time practising our songs and poems for our performance on Monday. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday when children will perform to the rest if the school. The children have been working so hard to join in with lots of singing and dancing and really grown in confidence!
Next week will be STEAM week in school and will have lots of new open- ended STEAM related resources to explore and be creative with.
Have a lovely weekend. Hopefully the sun keeps shining!
The Reception Team
This week: 9th - 12th May
We've had a fun week this week learning all about space, the planets we might find there and what it might be like to be in space. We know that the stars are big burning balls of gas and that the sun is also a star - our nearest star which is why it looks bigger than any of the other stars in the sky. We know that we need rockets to travel up into space and that not many people travel on rockets or into space because it's too far and can be quite dangerous. We also know that rockets travel very fast.
Next week is our Early Years fun day. This is when all the Reception classes from our other Axia schools will join us and we will play games, sing songs, have lunch together and do lots of fun activities!
We will also continue our Journeys topic next week, looking at journeys to the coast. We will what the 'coast' means, how we get to the coast, at popular local coastal places to visit as well what we might enjoy doing on a visit to a seaside resort. We will develop our teamwork and construction skills by using the planks and crates to build a boat and role play travelling on the boat, making sure we have a wheel to steer, a captain and a telescope to spot anything we might need to be aware of. We will also enjoy building sandcastles in the sand and decorating with shells, stones and flags, just like you would at the beach!
The children continue to do well and make progress in their reading. What seems to be making the most impact is the amount of reading children are doing at home, so please continue to do this as many of the children who are reading daily at home are now beginning to read fluently, reading most of the words on sight rather than having to blend too much. This is absolutely brilliant and will give the children a great start ready for Year 1. Do continue to support reading at home because it does make such a different - thank you.
Next week, we will continue our focus on longer words in phonics - CCVCC (two consonants at the beginning and two at the end with a vowel or digraph in the middle, e.g. frost) & CCCVCC words (three consonants at the beginning and two at the end with a vowel in the middle, e.g. splint). Children are doing well and making progress, though they do need to make sure they articulate the words clearly in order to be able to spell words like this independently in their writing. If their speech is not clear, then this can really impact on their spelling. We continue to model clear articulation to the children and you can help at home by doing the same, and encouraging children to repeat after you.
Please can children come to school in their PE kits on MONDAY and FRIDAY next week. Thank you for your continued support. Have a great weekend everyone - the weather is looking good.
The Reception Team
This week: 1st - 5th May
We hope you all had a wonderful bank holiday weekend!
This week we have been preparing for the King’s Coronation. We have spent time looking at who King Charles is and talked about ways in which his coronation will be celebrated over the weekend. The children have created some fantastic crowns, fit for a king! They also worked co-operatively to make a large scale Union Jack flag using finger painting. Both classes also enjoyed playing a fun game of Pin the Crown on the King, which was great fun!
In Maths we have been looking at addition number sentences and practising our addition facts up to 10.
Next week we will be looking at Space, looking at how people travel to Space and what life is like when travelling to Space. We will also be making our own school flags ready for our Infant Fun Day event, which takes place next Monday. In phonics we will be looking at CCVCC words , such as blast, crisp, drink. We will also be practising the key words back and look.
Finally, as we are not in again this Monday children will only need to wear P.E kit on Friday.
We hope you all have another fabulous bank holiday weekend!
The Reception Team
This week: 24th - 28th April
This week, we've been learning all about different types of transport that can take us on journeys. We have looked at different types of transport from the past and compared them with what they are like now, looking at how they have changed and developing our understanding of 'past' and 'present'. We have also been developing our creative and printing skills by designing the balloon for a hot air balloon and have come up with some really colourful printed patterns and designs. In the continuous provision, we have been using sponge prints to print the shape of a car, testing out how well cars travel down different ramps and making a track outdoors as well as making an indoor track for the remote control cars to travel along.
In our phonics this week, we have been reading and writing words that start with two adjacent consonants, words like spin, trap, glad etc. We have been looking particularly at words that begin with the 'tr' cluster, because when the children talk, it sounds like a 'ch' sound because the 'tr' is very similar. We are finding that this is transferring to the children's writing and when a 'tr' should be used, often children are writing 'ch' instead, so this is something we are working on and making the children more aware of. Your support at home with this would be greatly appreciated. We will continue our focus on words that begin with two consonants next week, but that also contain the digraphs we have taught. For example, words such as float, start, clown etc.
In Maths, we have continued to work on number bonds to 10 (6 & 4, 8 & 2 etc) and we will continue this into next week where we will look at addition and consolidate previous learning on addition and number bonds.
As we have a bank holiday on Monday, children will only need to come in their PE kits on Friday next week. In topic next week, our learning will be focused on the King's Coronation - we will be making crowns, role playing an afternoon tea party, painting the king / a Union Jack, learning traditional nursery rhymes and taking a virtual tour of London/Buckingham Palace as well as listening to our national anthem.
Thank you for your continued support. Have a great bank holiday weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
This week 17th April- 21st April
Welcome back!
We have reached the Summer term already...our final term before Year 1!
This week we have introduced our new topic, Journeys. We have been on some virtual journeys around the village of Lostock Hall, using Google Earth! We managed to find the park, the shops and even some of the children's houses. We also looked at different ways children travelled to school and found out the most popular mode of transport. In PE we began some dance sessions with the South Ribble coaches. The children really enjoyed learning routines and moving to the music. Just a reminder that these dance sessions are on Mondays, therefore children are to come in their PE kits on Monday and Friday.
We have now moved on to phase 4 in phonics, which does not look at any new sounds but develops children's ability to read longer, more complex words. This week we looked at CVCC words and next week we will be looking at CCVC words. Our key words that we will be focusing on next week are for, got and not.
In Math's we have begun looking at number bonds to 10 and we will continue this next week aswell to build up the children's fluency. Finally we have looked at religious tradition of Eid and looked at ways Muslim's prepare and celebrate this.
Have a lovely weekend!
The Reception Team
This week: 20th - 24th March
It was great to see so many of you at parent's evening this week, and so pleasing to hear that so many of our children are enthusiastic and engaged with their learning at home. This week we have started our Easter preparations and have enjoyed making our Easter baskets, which we will need next week. We have also been learning about the lifecycle of a chicken, as we welcomed our chicks into class. 8 of our eggs have now hatched, and we have enjoyed observing them in their brooding box. Next week, we will hopefully get a chance to hold them.
Next week is our final week in school before the Easter holidays and we will be recapping on the phonemes ear, air, ure, er, or & ar. That means there will be no spelling challenge until after the Easter break, so we will send spelling homework for this home next Friday. We will be focusing on sentence writing in English, recapping on what we need to remember to include when we write a sentence (capital letter, finger spaces and full stop) and practising holding a sentence in our heads and re-reading what we have written so we can build upon independence.
We also hope to go on a Spring walk next week in the school grounds, as well as trying a traditional Easter food - toasted hot cross buns - and using the baskets that we have made to go on an Easter egg hunt (but shhhhh - we want to keep this a secret until next week). So lots to look forward to in our last week of the Spring term. Don't forget that next Friday, we finish at 1.15pm.
Have a great weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
This week: 13th - 17th March
This week we have been doing all things Science to celebrate British Science Week. The children revisited looking at senses, focusing on the sense of smell. The children enjoyed exploring a range of different scents, such as vinegar, perfume and vanilla. We also looked at various woodland animals, matching them and looking at their similarities and differences. Some children then had a go at creating a symmetrical drawing of a woodland animal, which looked brilliant! The children then learned about a famous scientist. We looked at Mary Anning, a famous palaeontologist. The children enjoyed being palaeontologists themselves, digging for fossils and exploring dinosaur bones. To finish off we shared what we have been doing with another Reception class in a different school, near London. The children loved talking to them on a Zoom call and seeing themselves on the big screen!
In phonics we looked at our final phase 3 sounds ‘er’ and ‘ure’. We will spend the next couple of weeks embedding the children’s knowledge of phase 3, before moving on to phase 4 after the Easter break. In Maths we looked at the tricky concept of odd and even numbers. The children tried really hard identifying and sorting odd and even numbers!
Next week we will begin looking at Easter and will be making Easter baskets. We will also be getting a special delivery of some chick eggs on Monday. We will learn about the life cycle of a chick and hopefully see some eggs hatching throughout the week! 🐣
We have an odd pair of black Nike trainers in school so please can parents check whether your child has an odd pair of trainers at home.
We look forward to seeing you at Parents Evening on Tuesday.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Reception Team
This week: 6th - 10th March
Even though we have been learning about spring and the changes that happen in spring, including new cycles of life, it hasn't felt very spring-like in the weather this week! Still, it has provided a talking point!
As it has been assessment week this week, we have been checking on progress in key areas - phoneme knowledge, blending, key word recognition, independent writing and maths skills. The children have done really well and have shown some really good steps of progress since our last assessment week in November. We will be able to share some of this progress at parent's evening. Thank you to all for being so prompt in returning parent's evening slips - whilst we endeavour to give everyone the time slot requested, sometimes we may have to ask people to change to a different slot that is less busy. It does tend to be that the earlier or later slots fill up the quickest, so thank you to those parent's who have agreed to change time slots.
Next week we will be learning the ure and er phonemes, so please keep spelling/handwriting homework for another week. We won't test on these words tomorrow, but will instead test them next Friday, 17th March. This is because we have been assessing in phonics this week, so haven't covered these phonemes yet. We will also introduce key words that, this & then next week.
It is also British Science Week next week, based around the theme of 'connections'. We will be learning about a palaeontologist called Mary Anning and will also be carrying out some activities linked to Science week. We are linking up with some schools in the South of the country to share our learning too.
Finally, we enjoyed reading the book Lottie & Lou this week, written by one of our parents. Thank you for donating this book to school; I'm sure it will continue to be enjoyed by the children in our classes.
Have a good weekend everyone - stay warm! ☺
The Reception Team
This Week: 27th February- 3rd March
We have had a lovely English week, looking at lots of under the sea stories. We spent time focusing on the story of the Rainbow Fish, making a beautiful large scale collage and smaller paintings of a Rainbow Fish. Continuing with our under the sea theme the children learned about different creatures that live in the ocean and had a go at doing some independent writing about them.
The children all looked fantastic for World Book Day! It was lovely to see them dressed up as some fabulous book characters. Thank you for all of your efforts with this.
Next week we will be learning about the life cycles of different animals, such as frogs and we will be looking at the life cycle of a plant as well. As we are now in March we will also begin looking for signs of Spring around school with a focus on developing key vocabulary such as, buds, seeds and shoots. We will also be carrying out assessments to see how much progress they have made with their phonics and key words. We have covered all but a couple of phase 3 sounds and would hope that children are able to recognise these sounds and blend many of them too!
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
The Reception Team
This week: 20th - 24th February
Welcome back everyone! Hope you all had a lovely half term. The children have really impressed us with how well they've come back into school after the half term, ready to learn. We have talked with the children this week about us now getting ourselves Year 1 ready. In that, many of the things we do from this point on, will be to prepare ourselves for our next step into Year 1, to make sure we are as ready as we can be. A big part of this is building on independence, in our work but also in our personal and organisational skills. On that note, there are a few children who are not yet managing to fasten up their own coats, so any practice at home would be helpful.
This week has been all about growth and change in humans. We have discussed the different stages with the children learning new words such as 'adult' and 'elderly' instead of 'grown-up' or 'grandma/grandad'. We've discussed how we change as we grow up both in terms of appearance and also in the new skills we acquire or new things we are able to do. We have showed how well we can care for the babies in the baby clinic (outdoor roleplay) this week.
This week we have covered the 'oi' phoneme. Next week, we will look at the trigraphs ear and air. After this we will only have 2 more phonemes left to cover in Phase 3, but before we move on to Phase 4, we will consolidate any phonemes in Phase 3 that the children have found trickier to learn and apply. We will be back to learning our key words everyday next week also, covering the ones we have already learnt as well as introducing new key words big, like & do. In Maths, we have been looking at different ways to make the number 7, particularly focusing on the 5 + 2 pattern.
Next week is English week and we were looking forward to a sensory storytelling workshop from Adventure Babies to start our week off. Unfortunately this has been cancelled, but we do hope to rearrange in the near future. We have an under the sea theme for the week, where we will read lots of books based around this theme, such as The Rainbow Fish, Mister Seahorse, Commotion in the Ocean, Bright Stanley, Under the Sea (non-fiction) & others. We will be collaborating in our art to produce a large scale collage of The Rainbow Fish. We will also be linking in a bit of Science, looking at how things float differently in salt water and fresh water. We always aim to foster a love of reading and books with the children, so this week is a good time to reinforce that message. On Thursday of next week, it is World Book Day, and children are invited to dress up as a book character. They will also receive their World Book Day token. Staff in Reception will be dressed up in a particular theme - I wonder if you can guess what it is! ☺
We are aware that some children have been getting whiteboard pen on their jumpers. We do understand how frustrating this can be for our families, however, if we have 30 children using whiteboards to do some writing at the same time, we can't ensure this won't happen. We do keep mentioning it in class with the children, and they know that it is their own responsibility to keep their pen nib near to their whiteboard all the time. We don't want to stop using whiteboards, as we do find at this age, it is the best way children can work on their letter formation as it is easy to rub out on boards and we are able to get an overview of whether children are forming letters incorrectly, and intervene, as it is easy to see. We have noticed that hand gel can be good for reducing the appearance of these stains, and in some cases, removing them completely, so do try that if this happens. We are hoping, however, that instances of this will lessen in time as we keep reiterating the message to the children to try not to get pen on their jumpers. Thank you for bearing with us.
Have a good weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
This week: 6th- 10th February
We have had a noisy last week of term as we had a special week all about music, which the children have really enjoyed. They have learned about different instruments and explored the sounds that they make. They have listened to the pitch of different songs and instruments and identified high pitch and low pitch sounds. They have also learned and performed lots of songs and used music software on the computers.
We have covered many of the phase 3 sounds in phonics now but will finish the rest of them after half term. Please go over the sounds covered so far as well as the tricky words so that they stay fresh in the children's heads.
Our new topic when we return will be Growth and Change. We will be looking at how plants, animals and humans grow and change over time. We will start off looking at the human life cycle, so children can bring a photograph of themselves as a baby to share with the class.
Also, just a reminder that on PE days children should wear black joggers/leggings with their hoodies and polo tops.
We hope you all have a great half term break and we will see you in a week
The Reception Team
This week: 30th January - 3rd February
February already, and only one week left before half term! Time really does fly when you're busy learning! ☺ Three half terms through the year and three left before the end of Reception. It comes by in a heartbeat.
This week, Winter has been our theme and the children have been really engrossed in their learning. We've had some really thoughtful answers to questions this week, where children have shown that they have listened well and are making links between this and their prior knowledge. We've been on a winter walk, looking at the signs we can see to tell us it's winter. The children absolutely loved getting out and about in the woodland area and they've used some really careful observation skills. We spotted lots of bare trees, but also some trees that kept their leaves and stayed green during winter, so this provided a talking point. The first day of the winter walk (Monday), it was nice and sunny and we were able to see the moon in the sky too! We also collected lots of items in our outdoor area that we can use in our mud kitchen next week, so I'm sure there will be some wonderful creations. We've also investigated ice this week and were set the challenge of setting free the toy character frozen in the ice! We already knew that warmth could melt ice, so we thought of different ways of providing the warmth, but we also learnt that salt can melt the ice, making links between our knowledge of the gritting that happens on the roads and playgrounds when it is icy.
Mr Greenaway has been working with us this week too - he is currently on placement in Year 4 but as part of his placement has spent a week in the Early Years. He enjoyed his time working with us and the children enjoyed working with him too. We wish him well on his next placement as he leaves us this week to start a new placement at another school.
This week, we've been learning the phonemes or and ar, and the children seem to have found these a little more challenging in their spellings. Although we will move on to the phonemes 'ur' and 'ow' next week, we will continue to consolidate previously learnt phonemes so within time, children will become more confident with them. Please keep practising at home because it makes the world of difference. ☺
We are making a huge fuss of independent writing in class at the moment. Encouraging children to do some writing all by themselves when choosing in the continuous provision. It's not often children choose to do writing when there is so much else to play with because the children perceive it as quite tricky to do. However, we are really encouraging the children to have a go now, giving them the resources they need to make it as easy as possible. We are also rewarding children for doing so, and perhaps will send some children to show off their writing to our Year 1 teachers, Mrs Mears and Mr Law. We have had 2 children so far bring home a certificate for super independent writing and would like to send more, so please do encourage children and maybe do a little practise at home - it's not necessary that everything is spelt right, just that it is all phonetically decodable (can be sounded out and read). For example, when spelling the word 'house', children won't know how to spell it the correct way, because they haven't learnt the necessary phonemes, so might spell it as 'haws' or 'hows' when they have learnt the 'ow' phoneme. These are perfectly acceptable. Once children have the confidence to write independently, they will progress much faster and their confidence will soar, ready for Year 1.
We have found that we have a very musical, creative year group this year who love singing and dancing, so next week is all about Music! Enjoying learning some new songs and actions, playing and learning about new instruments, following rhythm patterns and creating simple musical compositions.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
This week: 23rd Janurary- 27th January
We began our week finishing off our Chinese New Year celebrations and tried lot of Chinese food. The children particularly enjoyed the prawn crackers! This week we have also been looking at the Artic habitat in more detail, the animals you may find there and how they are adapted. We then compare this to other habitats such as the ocean and the desert and the different animals you may find there. Children developed their sorting skills by sorting animals into hot and cold countries.
In Maths we have been learning about measuring, using mathematical language to describe and compare length, height and capacity. In phonics this week we have been learning the oo (long) and oo (short) sound and we have been practising our key words including on, but and if. Next week we will be looking at the digraphs 'ar' and 'or'.
Next week we will also be learning about Winter. We will be going on a winter walk, looking for signs of winter and we will be doing a winter Science experiment, breaking free animals from the ice.
Next Friday will be school photographs so children should come in their normal school uniform instead of their PE kits.
Many thanks,
The Reception Team
This week: 16th January- 20th January
This week we have been looking at the celebration of Chinese New Year, which is taking place this Sunday. The children have enjoyed using a range of different props to create their own pop-up Chinese restaurant. They had a go at ordering different Chinese foods and even had a go at using chopsticks, even though this was a little tricky! Also, children participated in some Chinese Dragon Dancing. This involved the children holding a large dragons head and body up and down to the beat of the music. We looked at a range of Chinese artefacts, such a a Chinese lantern, clothing and writing and made comparisons with our own culture. In music we learnt a special Chinese New Year song and added our own percussion using instruments too. The children were really good at selecting suitable instruments to different verses of the song.
This week was our last week of Tots on Tyres. The children have made great progress with their balance and pedaling skills and many have cracked riding a bike, which is fantastic!
Next week we will be revisiting looking at Artic and Antarctic animals and look more specifically at their habitats and compare it to different habitats, such as the desert.
In phonics we will be learning the 'oo' diagraph, the long 'oo' sound, as in pool and the short 'oo' as in sound, as in 'look'. This will be the digraph to practise in most children's spelling this week too.
Have a lovely weekend,
The Reception Team
This week: 9th - 13th January
This week we've been learning all about a home in colder climates - the igloo. It has certainly sparked an interest amongst the children and we have enjoyed creating our own 'igloos' through den making and using various construction materials. In investigating all things cold and snowy, we also carried out a little experiment, predicting whereabouts we thought the ice might melt the quickest and the slowest.
We will contrast our learning about the Arctic and Antarctic in a couple of weeks when we learn about habitats in hot places, and in particular, looking at animals that might live in the desert. Next week, however, as Chinese New Year is on Sunday 22nd January this year, we will be learning all about this celebration. This year it is the year of the rabbit. We will look at the traditional celebrations of the Chinese New Year, learn how to say "Happy New Year" in Chinese, look at some Chinese writing and also try some Chinese food. Along with this, we will also look at some traditional Chinese dragon dancing. So, a fun filled week for all.
This week we started our home book library, so your child will have brought a picture book home along with a covering letter explaining it all. We do hope you enjoy reading these books together. Please bring books back on a Wednesday.
We have also sent home spellings for the majority of the children for the first time this week. Whilst it is still also a handwriting exercise, and correct, neat letter formation is key, it is also important that children learn to spell words, so practising for 10 minutes a day is essential. Please do a quick spelling test before handing books back in the following Thursday (we've given children an extra day now they are doing a spelling challenge on the Friday, so that they can learn their spellings up until the day before) and record this on the sheet. Whilst we will encourage children to do their best, it is a very informal 'challenge' whilst the children are in the middle of their Reception year. Weekly spellings in Year 1 are given from the word go, so it is important we begin to prepare children for this.
Please also ensure you check jumpers, cardigans and particularly purple hoodies for your child's name as we are finding in school that we still have a lot of un-named uniform and things can easily get mixed up. If names are written on in pen, this can come off in time, so we would appreciate everyone checking, particularly the purple hoodies.
Next week in Phonics we will learn the 'igh' and 'oa' phonemes. Please keep practising ch, sh, th, ng, ai and ee and also the key words.
Thank you for your continued support.
The Reception Team
This week: 3rd - 6th January 2023
Happy New Year all! Our first week back and it has really flown by. It has been lovely to see all the children again this week and hear about all their news from over the Christmas break. Thank you all for your very generous cards and gifts; we hope you all managed to have a good, relaxing break with your families.
This week we have started our topic on Buildings. We have started looking at homes and houses as this type of building is the one children have the most experience of. In Phonics, we have consolidated the ch, sh, th & ng digraphs, as children are still getting these confused. Not only do they need to recognise these digraphs in their reading books, but they also need to know how to write each digraph so they can spell words correctly that contain these digraphs. Next week, we will move onto the first of our vowel digraphs ai & ee. Please practise these at home, as well as continuing to regularly practise the key words that we sent home before Christmas on card which could be cut out as flashcards. Next week, we will cover key words my, had & put.
In English, we have started our carousel - The Three Little Pigs with Mrs Parker, Owl Babies with Miss Goldsmith, label writing based on a non-fiction book on Homes with Mrs Hesmondhalgh and non-fiction sentence writing on Arctic animals with Miss Nisbet. Each group will spend a week doing one of these and then move onto the next one the following week, so the carousel takes us 4 weeks in total. In Maths, we have been looking at the order of numbers to 5.
Next week, we will be continuing the focus on homes, but this time looking at different types of homes in colder places, such as igloos, and also looking at colder places as animal habitats, to link in with the winter season. Maybe you could chat with your child about life in the North and South poles, the animals that live there, and how they are adapted to the cold weather.
Half termly homework and handwriting homework has gone home tonight. Please ensure children complete the handwriting homework with a sharp pencil and complete each line. Children are becoming a lot better at pencil control and can form letters quite well, so our expectations of the quality of homework are quite high because we know the children can do it now. As we are also in the second half of the year, we are now getting the children ready for Year 1, which inevitably means smaller writing, so we would appreciate you encouraging your children to ensure their writing is of a smaller size and that tall letters are tall & letters that should hang below the line do so.
You will now notice a new 'Vocabulary' star at the top of the page. Here, we will upload the termly vocabulary we will be introducing and discussing in our topics. Some will stay the same each term, such as English & Maths as these words will be used throughout the year.
Thank you for your continued support. Have a great weekend.
The Reception Team
This week: 12th December- 16th December
We have reached the end of a very busy half term in Reception. The children have worked super hard and made great progress! This week has been a very chilly one. The children have enjoyed exploring the ice and practising putting on their hats, scarves and gloves to keep warm. We had a fantastic time at the Christmas party on Wednesday. The children enjoyed playing party games and meeting our special visitor, Santa. We finished off our week with a lovely Christingle assembly with the rest of the school.
Thank you for all the generous cards and gifts! We wish you all a wonderful Christmas! We look forward to seeing you all in the new year!
The Reception Team
This week: 5th - 9th December
Brrrrr! It's been a cold one this week and we have enjoyed the spontaneous opportunity to talk about frost, ice, freezing and melting. Children are always fascinated by the naturally occurring ice and this week has been no different, so it has been good to be able to have these extra play and learning opportunities.
We have continued learning about the Nativity story this week and the children have continued to enjoy re-enacting the story in our calm corner which is currently our stable. As we seem to have a cohort of children this year who love singing and dancing, we have carried on singing and learning new Christmas songs and playing our bells along to them. We have really enjoyed learning Ho! Ho! Ho!, our song about Santa, and we have also had a go at singing what we would consider more well-known songs such as Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Whilst the children were fairly confident with the words of Jingle Bells, we found that not many children knew Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which surprised us! ☺ We'll carry on singing it at school so the children can become more familiar, and perhaps children could have a go at singing it at home too, or at any of the Christmas festivities you may be attending as families.
On Monday this week, we enjoyed going to watch the Year 2 Nativity performance which was brilliant. Today, we all looked fabulously festive in our Christmas outfits and jumpers, headbands and so on. It was good singing along to the Christmas songs as we all ate our Christmas dinner together. We have also started sharing the wonderful termly homework that children have completed and are super impressed so far! We will continue to share this next week. In Phonics, we have started to learn digraphs ch, sh & th and will look at ng next week. Please go over these digraphs at home as children often take a little longer to become secure in recognising these. Continue going over the key word flashcards that we sent home too, so children are confident in recognising them by sight.
As we are nearing the end of the term, we will not be sending out handwriting homework tomorrow (9.12.22), and instead we will resume this in the new year. Thank you for all of your continued support with handwriting homework; we do hope it is getting a little easier as children are gaining more confidence and skills in writing. Do keep persevering if it is not (little and often rather than all in one go), because it will and does get easier. We are already amazed with the amount of progress the children have made in phonics, reading, writing and maths in such a short space of time.
We do seem to have a few children off ill at the moment, so please keep children at home if they are unwell in any way as it prevents germs from spreading further. At this age, children very easily spread their germs, so for the benefit of the rest of the year group, we would appreciate poorly children to stay at home until they are better.
Next week will be our last week, and Christmas party day on Wednesday, so please send children dressed in their fabulous Christmas clothes, but something sensible too as it will still be cold outside and children need to be able to be independent in terms of going to the toilet themselves etc.
Enjoy your weekend everyone. ☺
The Reception Team
This Week: 28th November- 2nd December
We have had an exciting, festive week in Reception as we began preparing for Christmas. We put up our Christmas tree and we have been singing Christmas songs. We have also looked at the Nativity Story and the children have enjoyed acting it out in the Calm Corner, which has been turned into our very own stable.
In Math's we have been developing our understanding of parts and a whole in order grasp the concept that numbers can be broken down into parts (composition). In phonics we have been learning the sounds y, z, zz and qu and we will recap these again next week. The key words that we will be focusing on next week are her and was. In English we will be writing our Christmas letters to Santa, so please have a discussion with your child about what they would like for Christmas and they can include it in their letter.
Also, thank you for all your donations towards the cake sale on Wednesday. Lots of money has been raised for a very special cause!
This week: 21st - 25th November
This week we enjoyed starting the week in our football shirts ready for England's opening game in the World Cup. We watched for a little while then just had it on in the background whilst we carried out different activities. It was lovely to see the children in all their football or England tops.
This week has been assessment week where we have been able to see the progress the children have made in the two and a half months they have been at school. You can see how much the children have learnt in their phonics lessons as they are now applying this to their writing. This week, we will also send home key word assessments to show which key words the children are now able to read on sight. Please read the accompanying letter, then cut up the key word mini flashcards which you can use daily at home to help the children learn to read these words on sight. It really helps children progress in their reading and begin to sight read a little more.
This week we have also been learning all about the country of Australia. We have looked at its position on the globe, the size of the country, how the accent is different, the flag, types of houses, food and animals! Also how the seasons and times of the day are different. It is strange to think Christmas is celebrated in the middle of summer when it is really hot and that when it is afternoon for us, it is evening time in Australia when people are getting ready for bed!
Next week we will begin some Christmas activities, as well as looking at phonemes y, z, zz & qu. We will also cover key words you, all & are. Please continue to support reading at home and endeavour to read with your child as much as possible. Many children are now making really good progress in their reading, but it makes huge amounts of difference if you read with them regularly at home. It builds their confidence with reading at school which in turn impacts positively on their progress.
Have a great weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
This week: 14th- 18th November
We have had another busy week in Reception! We started off our week with odd sock day on Monday. Many of the children came to school in odd socks for Anti-bullying week as a way to celebrate how we are all unique.
In our topic this week we have been learning about Africa. The children have enjoyed creating their own African necklaces and masks and explored making sound patterns using African instruments. Also, the children showed particular interest when exploring the globe therefore some of them worked together to create a wonderful map of Africa, using various materials.
In Math's this week we have been making comparisons, continuing to use language of more and fewer and we also introduced the concept of 'equal to' by looking at amounts which are the same.
We carried out some phonics assessment this week to inform us of where the children are at in their learning before moving on to the next phase. Many children are now secure at recognising most of the phase 2 phonemes but please continue to practise these sounds to reinforce them and to help them with blending. Next week we will be moving on to phase 3, focusing on the phonemes j, v, w, x.
The new key words we have looked at this week are me, be and we. We also carried out some key word assessments and will send home a copy of this so that you can which words your child can recall and which ones they may need a little extra practise with.
We look forward to another fun week next week and celebrating England's first football match on Monday. Please remember that the children can wear football shirts/ red and white tops underneath their normal uniform, if they wish.
The Reception Team
This week: 7th - 11th November
This week in Reception class has been all about people who help us. We have learned all about different roles in society that provide help in one way or another to others, from doctors and nurses, paramedics, dentists, firefighters, vets, teachers, the police, refuse collectors and so many more! We have lots of people who help us in different ways. We have been acting out being firefighters and helping to put out fires, as well as phoning the emergency services. We have been learning some great songs about people who help us and the children have really enjoyed getting into the groove of these songs - see if they can sing some of them at home for you! ☺ We have also had a go at painting a policeman or paramedic in the continuous provision. It has been really lovely to see the children immersed in their learning this week.
We have learnt the key words an, he & she this week and have now completed all our Phase 2 phonemes. Next week we will be doing short phonics and key word assessments to see what learning the children have retained and if there are any phonemes that require further consolidation. After this, we will shortly be moving onto Phase 3 phonemes, starting with j, w, y & x. We will be sending home the results of the key word assessments with flashcards to learn at home. We have covered key words the, to, no, go, I, into, is, it, as, at, his, can, get, up, am, an, he & she so far. These are the words we would be expecting the children to be able to read on sight by now.
We have been learning all about the number 5 in Maths and well as continuing to consolidate numbers up to 5. We have noticed when doing some counting in class this week that some children are still not secure in recognising numbers to 5, so please continue to work on early recognition at home to complement the work we are doing at school.
In English, we are now completing more pieces of writing. One group having been completing a descriptive sentence based around the book Handa's Surprise, another group have been writing a factual sentence all about tigers, another group have been doing some story sequencing and writing CVC words based on the book Percy the Park Keeper and the final group have been writing a sentence about the character of Elmer. Each week, the children will move along the carousel and complete the next piece of writing.
Tomorrow we will learn a bit more about Remembrance Day and why this is a day to remember each year, in a child friendly way. We will also hold our two minute silence in a special assembly. Next week is Anti-Bullying week, so we begin by celebrating odd socks day on Monday, so please send children into school in the craziest odd socks they've got! ☺ We will also be looking at the continent of Africa next week, looking at some African instruments, music & dancing & artwork and also learning about life in another part of the world and how it is different / similar to our own lives.
Have a lovely weekend everyone. Thank you for your continued support, especially with handwriting and reading. ☺
The Reception Team
This week: 31/10/22-4/11/22
Welcome back! We hope you all had a great half term!
This week we started our new topic 'Around The World' and focused on the country of India. We developed our computing skills by using a programe to create Rangoli patterns. We looked at the festival of Diwali and celebrated the festival of light by making diva lamps, using clay. The children loved decorating them with brightly coloured sequins. We listened to Indian music too and tried some Indian food. Some children were familar with the different foods, whereas others were trying them for the first time. Everybody enjoyed the popadoms and the samosas were a little spicy. As it is Bonfire Night tomorrrow we also talked about how people celebrate and ways to stay safe.
In Maths this week we compared different amounts using the language of 'more' and 'fewer'. In phonics we looked at the sounds h, b, f, ff, l and ll and we practised the key words I, to no, go, into, it, is, can, as, at, his, get, up, am.
We hope you have a wonderful Bonfire Night, stay safe!
The Reception Team
This week: 17th - 21st October
Happy half term everyone! Our first half term in Reception complete and everyone is certainly ready for a rest; we have some tired children at the moment who have worked really hard in their first half term and are just ready for a little break. We won't be setting any homework over the half term, so children can just spend the holidays having some downtime and enjoying time with their family. The only thing we would recommend keeping up is some reading; not necessarily every night, but a few times during the week, just to keep these skills going.
After the half term we will be starting on the next set of phonemes: h, b, l, f, ff, ll & ss. Once we have learnt these, we will have completed Phase 2 and will be shortly after be moving on to Phase 3. We have covered the key words the, to, no, go, I, into, is, it, as, at, his & can. We read these everyday, but please do practise them at home; it might be worth just writing them on bits of paper and seeing if your child can read them on sight. If not, it would be a good idea to practise the ones your child isn't yet reading. If they can read them all, the next step would be learning to spell them.
This week has been Life Skills week. We have looked at different emotions and how we feel, recognising that it is perfectly normal to feels lots of different emotions, including negative ones such as sadness, fear or anger. But as long as these feelings don't take over and we know how to deal with them when we do feel these emotions. We will keep learning about mental health in a child-friendly way, as it is a difficult concept for young children to understand. We have also been learning about road safety, bonfire night safety and internet safety this week. We also had a lovely lady from the HSBC bank come in to speak to us all about money. We have started learning how to use a knife and fork properly (cutting up playdough), so if this could be followed up at home, that would be great in encouraging our young people to be independent. If you have a plate, some playdough and a knife and fork at home, then you're all set! We have also been learning how to fasten up our own coats now the weather is getting colder and finally, working on our scissor skills! At this age, there can be a big difference in how children use scissors; some are quite adept and confident, other children are only just starting out and it can be a tricky skill to master at first.
In the first week back, we will be learning about the Hindu celebration of Diwali which actually happens during our half term holiday. We will make Diwali lamps out of clay, developing our fine motor skills and creativity when adding sequin decoration to our lamps. We will also look at Bonfire Night again with this being on the Saturday after our first week back.
There will be a new group of children doing Forest School on Friday afternoon after the half term break. Letters will be sent out tonight for those children involved.
Have a great half term everyone - thank you for your continued support. ☺
The Reception Team
This week 10/10/21 -14/10/21
This week we have been continuing with our topic work all about ourselves. We enjoyed talking about our families and looking through some of the photographs sent in. We also had a great time developing our understanding of healthy eating further by creating fruity faces, which all looked fantastic! We have developed our observational skills this week too by looking at ourselves in mirrors and drawing self portraits.
In phonics this week we revisited the phase 2 sounds that we have covered so far; s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, and r. Most children are now able to recognise all of these sounds now and many are having a go at blending them too. We also looked at the tricky/ key words; I, to, no, go, the, into, as, is and it.
In Maths we have been exploring the composition of numbers up to 3, so knowing for example that 3 is made up of 2 and 1. We have also looked at patterns and had a go at continuing a repeating pattern.
On Thursday we enjoyed watching the Year 5 Harvest Assembly and had a go at singing some of the Harvest songs that we have been learning. They did a great job!
Next week is Life Skills week. The children will have the opportunity to practise their cutting skills and we will be looking at keeping safe in a range of different ways.
This week: 3rd - 7th October
We've had another busy week in Reception this week, learning all about how to keep ourselves healthy. We have talked about healthy food choices, the foods that give us energy (bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, cereals) and have had the opportunity to try different healthy snacks. We must say, the children really impressed us with their willingness to try different healthy snacks which was fantastic to see. We also talked about the importance of getting enough sleep, turning off our tablets well before going to bed to let our brains switch off a bit and about getting lots of exercise to keep our heart healthy. And finally, we've also discussed good hygiene and practised washing our hands properly. We know that we should to keep our hands clean to stop germs spreading.
This week in phonics, we've learnt the phonemes ck, e, u and r and have continued to read tricky words the, to, no, go, I & into by sight by practising these words each day. Next week, we will add the words is, it & as and practise reading these too. We find that, as the children begin reading and developing their blending skills, knowing how to read lots of common words like these help with developing the fluency of reading, which is where we would like most of the children to be at the end of the year. We will not be learning any new phonemes for the next couple of weeks before half term, but instead be doing activities and games to consolidate the phonemes we have already learnt - s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u & r. And of course, doing lots of blending and segmenting practise. Many more children are now hearing the blend, so thank you for all your reading support at home; it really is making the difference. Thank you also to everyone for supporting the first Phonics/Handwriting homework sent home last week. We very much appreciated the parental comments too.
In Maths this week, we have focused on good counting skills - making sure we count in the right order, making sure we know that the last number we say is how many there are (cardinality) and making sure we touch count each object only once.
Next week we will be talking about our families, so please feel free to send a family picture in by email (reception@lostockhallcps.co.uk) which we can show to the class. We will also be learning about where we live (in Preston, in the United Kingdom) and looking at this on a globe. On Monday, the Lancashire Evening Post will be coming in to take the class pictures for the first year in primary school which will feature in the paper for those of you that have consented for your child to appear in this photograph.
Looking forward to seeing many of you on parents evening next week. Have a great weekend everyone.
The Reception Team
26th-30th September
Last week was a week of firsts for our Reception children. They had their first ever P.E session in the hall and also attended their first celebration assembly. All of the children listened really well and sat beautifully throughout!
During the week the children learned all about their senses. They used their sense of taste to try different flavour crisps, their sense of touch to explore and describe a range of objects and they used their sense of hearing to listen to and identify different sounds. In phonics the children were taught the phonemes g, o, c and k and in Maths they practised identifying 2 and 3 within larger groups. In Literacy we started one of four different activities. Each child will do one of the following over the next four weeks: identify and explore alliteration in words, practise writing their name, write about their mum or learn the story of 'The Gingerbreaad Man'.
On Friday children should have received a phonics and handwriting homework book. This will be given out every Friday and is to be completed and brought back to school the following Wednesday please. This is to provide children with the opportunity to practise the phonemes we have been learning at school and how to form them properly.
This week children will be learning the phonemes ck, e, u and r and will continue looking at our tricky words. In Maths we will be practising counting more accurately with the help of some puppets and in the afternoons we will be learning all about keeping ourselves healthy.
This week: 19th - 23rd September
Another week flown by and we are now nearly approaching the end of September. We are noticing a lot of tired children this week, so plenty of early nights and rest at home are definitely needed.
Our children continue to settle in well and learn their routines. We have had a big focus on tidying up well this week when the music comes on, and also on encouraging children to tidy away one area before leaving that area to play somewhere else. We are getting stuck into the phonics learning now and have already covered s, a, t, p, i, n, m and d! Please go over these phonemes at home and encourage your child to tell you the sound the letter makes as well as the action we do. Remember, the actions are in the yellow Phonics Handbook sent home in your home learning pack, for your reference. Next week, we will be learning g, o, c and k and we will begin learning to read our key words, starting with the, to, no, go, I & into. Please also practise these words at home.
This week, we have also sent home our first reading book alongside the yellow reading diary. We have started with a wordless book this week, as the children are still consolidating their first phonemes. Once they are more secure with the first phonemes we have taught them, we will start sending home worded books. However, it is important that the children learn to blend sounds together as soon as possible, so they are able to access the worded books and read them independently. That is, sounding out a word (e.g. s-a-t) by recognising the sounds the letters make, but then also being able to blend these 3 sounds together to read the word (in this case, 'sat'). As yet, there are a good number of children who can't yet hear the blend (and this is perfectly normal at first), but the more you can practise this skill at home, the better, to complement what we are doing at school. Some children will be ready for worded books next week, others may continue with a wordless book for a short while longer. Please write a comment in the yellow reading diary when you hear your child read.
We will be sending home the half termly homework book tonight, as well as a letter explaining our Phonics Bug scheme and your child's login details so you can access online books at home to read with your child (as explained in the Curriculum meeting).
In our Literacy this week, we have been looking at words that rhyme. It's a tricky skill to hear whether two words rhyme, but an important one as it does help when learning to blend and segment. Those listening and auditory discrimination skills are essential as children grow through Reception and beyond. In Maths, we have been looking at the numbers 1-3 and learning to 'subitise' - that is, seeing how many there are without counting, and recognising 1, 2 and 3 in different positions and patterns.
We have been learning how to play well both inside and outside this week, as well as finishing off our self portraits which are now proudly on display just outside the classroom.
Just a couple of notices - please can all fruit be named. Either in a named bag or pot or if you can write on the skin (bananas, oranges), you can do that also. We place all morning snacks into a basket for each class and children are responsible on the whole for finding their own morning snack out of the basket, as it encourages independence. If there a number of apples / bananas un-named, it can prove a little tricky for the children finding their own snack, so everything named please. Now it is coming cooler weather, it is also important for the children to be able to put their own coat on and fasten it up, so please practise this at home where possible.
Have a lovely, restful weekend everyone.
Autumn Term- Week 3
Firstly, 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 for you and your child to refer to throughout the year. The meeting Powerpoint can be accessed in the Key Information section.
We have had a wonderful, creative week this week. We have been busy making self-portraits for our class displays and we have also showed our respects to The Queen as well as our new King by drawing pictures of them. We have also started learning our first set of phonemes in phonics this week; s, a, t and p. Next week we will introduce our next set of sounds; i, n, m and d and we will introduce reading books. In English we will be listening and recognising words that rhyme. In Maths we will be recognising amounts from 1-3 (subitising) and we will also be introducing our All About Me Topic aswell.
Settling In
Our first blog post comes this year with the sad news of the passing of our Queen, Elizabeth II. Children will inevitably hear about this and we will spend time in school talking about it in a way that is appropriate for the age of our children and will endeavour to answer any questions they may have.
Well, we must say how much our new Reception children have absolutely amazed us this week. They have settled in so, so well and we are really looking forward to our year ahead. There are so many new routines to learn as the children start school, but they have done so well remembering what to do when they come in to school and they have really made us smile - there is never a dull moment in a year group full of 58 four year olds! ☺
Children have also done really well with their dinner routines, choosing what to eat from the options, lining up ready for dinner and also doing really well eating their dinner in the hall with all the other children. We couldn't be prouder of them. We do think there could be a few sleepy heads this weekend though, as children get used to full days at school. Do remember that tired children in the coming weeks could also mean over emotional children - please do not worry if your child is a little unsettled at times or cries coming in to school. Starting school is a big step and all children are different in the way they deal with it. It doesn't necessarily mean your child isn't enjoying school if this happens, but more likely that at times, it could just be a little too overwhelming (especially for tired children!). Perfectly normal, and with a little TLC, it doesn't often last too long. If separation in a morning does start making your child upset, remember that you have a 10 minute window to bring your child into school, so it might be beneficial to bring them a little later on, towards 8.55 when it is a little less busy on the playground and staff are more readily available to encourage your child in. ☺
Just a reminder about naming items - we have had to write names in a few jumpers and cardigans this week. As the weather is still quite warm, many children are taking off their jumpers and cardigans and although we encourage them to pop them on their pegs, children are still getting used to where everything is and most of the jumpers and cardigans are the same size at this stage so can get easily mixed up. So, to try and prevent any of your newly bought jumpers getting lost, please, please ensure everything is labelled, even if it is just written in pen on the label. Snack pots & bags must be labelled too, even bananas (just write on the skin) - just fruit or vegetables please, no crisps or biscuits. Can we also ensure grapes are cut in half length ways if sending this as a snack.
Next week we will be beginning our baseline assessments, which just gives us an idea of each child's starting point as they begin their school journey. They are very child friendly and children won't even realise they are taking part in assessments, rather that they have just done a little activity with their teacher.
Our curriculum meeting will be held in the school hall next Wednesday, 14th September at 5pm. It will probably last about an hour. A letter will be sent home about this and we hope you are all able to attend.
