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 and cards.  They are all hugely appreciated.  We have loved teaching all our children this year and we cant believe how quick they year has gone. We are so proud of all our Reception children and how they have grown and progressed this year. 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.  Have a lovely relaxed summer holiday making lots of memories before they join year 1.

See you all in September.

The Reception Team x

This week: 8th - 12th July 

We have had a wonderful week in Reception this week. At the beginning of the week we had the sun shining for our sports day. The children were all amazing and were very proud of themselves as were we. We have also been to watch the Year 6 play 'The School-o-vision' in the hall which was fantastic. The children enjoyed listening to the songs!

This week we have continued our farm topic and looked at animals and their babies, the children were able to spot the different animals they saw on our school trip to the farm. 

As we head into out last week in Reception we will not be sending home reading books and would please ask for all books to be returned including library books to ensure these can be used for our new children next year.

Thank you for all your support this year, we can't believe how quick the year has gone!

Have a lovely weekend watching and cheering on England! The children have all be very excited!

The Reception Team 

This week: 1st - 5th July

How proud are we of our Reception children this week!  It's been a completely different week for them with lots going on, especially with the trip on Tuesday and then our sampler day yesterday where they spent the day in Year 1.  And this afternoon we've enjoyed a brass music concert, so it's been a week full of change and different activities.  But they have been just amazing, adapting to change well and showing in their behaviour and maturity just how ready for Year 1 they are.  We all had the best time at the farm on Tuesday and we had some really tired children on the way home!  They were a real credit to both yourselves and to our school in their impeccable behaviour whilst out and about and in the way they threw themselves into the activities and got involved.  Here are some pictures of our day - there are quite a lot!

Have a great weekend everyone, thank you for your continued support.  Please do keep up with the reading even at the end of the year because it is something that needs keeping on top of.

The Reception Team

This week: 24th - 28th June

We have come to the end of another month in Reception and only have a few weeks left now until the Summer! We cannot believe how quick this year is going. We are looking forward to having lots of fun in the coming weeks before the children leave Reception for Year 1!

We also continued learning about Mini Beasts this week, we have been on a Mini Beast hunt where the children enjoyed looking for different insects within the school grounds. In English we have continued looking at writing our own riddles and in Math's we have continued with our assessments and continued learning about teen numbers to ensure that they are Year 1 ready. In the coming weeks we will recap some of our previous learning which will 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 Monday we have our sports day. All information has previously been sent out via the app. Children will need to come to school in there PE kit. 

Just a reminder that Tuesday is our class trip to Smithill's Farm. Please can children wear their school polo shirt, sweatshirt, tracksuit bottoms and suitable footwear. Please remember if your child is bringing a packed lunch this needs to be fully disposable. 

Finally children will have a sampler day with there teacher in Year 1 on Wednesday ready for September. This will give the children the opportunity to meet there new teacher and also see there new class room. We are sure all the children will love there sampler day and are all ready for Year 1.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Reception Team

This week: 17th - 21st June

We've had a busy week this week in school doing our assessments to see how far the children have come in their learning since September.  We will continue these partly into next week because they are carried out on 1:1 basis in an informal way.  We continue to prepare the children for Year 1 and this week, we have learnt who our new teachers will be so we will continue to discuss this in the coming weeks ready for their transition after the holidays.  

It was lovely to see so many of you at our Stay and Play day on Tuesday - I know the children enjoyed it and I hope you got as much out of the day as they did.

Have a great weekend everyone.  Hopefully the sun continues to shine and we can enjoy some good weather.

The Reception Team

Monday 10th June -Friday 14th June

We have returned back from half term into our last term of the year! We cannot believe how fast this year has gone, the children have 5 weeks left in Reception before they start their next journey in Year 1. This term we have lots planned for the children, please keep an eye on the school app and blog for regular updates.

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. 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.

This week we have been writing minibeast riddles which has been so much fun! The children have loved it! They have been amazing at giving different clues as to what minibeast they may be, using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces more independently.

Letters have been sent home this week for our school trip to Smithills Animal Farm on Tuesday 2nd July.  The trip is free, so it is just the permission forms that need filling in, as soon as possible please.  On the day of the trip, children can either bring their own (completely disposable) packed lunch, or they can have one made up from school.  All you need to do is indicate your preference on the reply slip and make a note of this. Please ensure if you select for your child to bring their own lunch is it completely disposable. We will not be bringing back any lunch boxes or water bottles. The trip will be a lovely finish and celebration for the end of the school year.

Next week we are looking forward to welcoming you into our class to spend some time with your children.  We know the children are very excited to have you in our class and to show you all our areas.

Finally, we would just like to say how absolutely proud we were of all the children in Thursday's performance.  Everyone took part with so much enthusiasm, remembered all their words (and for 4 and 5 year olds, learning so many words is quite the challenge!) and projected their voices confidently.  Thank you to everyone who came to watch; the children were absolutely beaming to see you there to watch them after they had worked so hard.

Have a lovely Father’s Day weekend.

The Reception Team

This week: 20th - 24th May

And that's a wrap!  Summer term 1 has come to an end and we only have one more half term left in Reception class - where does the time go?  Next half term we will find out our new classes and teachers and we will begin the transition process, getting our little Receptioners ready for the next stage in their primary school journey, where learning will be a little more formal and less play-based.  To enable that successful transition, please, please continue doing little bits over the long summer break, especially reading, because the children need to be ready to hit the ground running when they start back in Year 1 in September.  6 weeks is quite a long time in the lives of 4 and 5 year olds and skills can easily take a backward step if children don't keep up with their learning.  It doesn't need to be a lot, because of course we want the children to enjoy the summer and the outdoors, playing, spending time and making memories with their families, but a little and often approach does work wonders for getting the children really ready for September.  We will put new books on the Active Learn accounts so children can access Phonics Bug books online throughout the summer.  Please just get in touch with us if you need reminding of your child's login details.

This week, we started off enjoying the outdoors, spending more time on the trim trail, practising our throwing and catching skills and developing our listening skills when using the parachute.  We even managed to plant some flowers in our planters ready for Summer term 2, but the rain came in on Wednesday and Thursday with a vengeance and put paid to our outdoor pursuits!  So the rest of the week has been spent inside, playing and learning.  Unfortunately our Axia Fun Day had to be cancelled on Thursday because of the rain.  We won't be setting any spelling homework over the holidays.  

We return to school on Thursday 6th June and we will continue practising our poetry/singing assembly which will be performed on the following week commencing 10th June.  We will send an app message out nearer to the time with the actual day and time of the performance so parents can join us to come in and watch. 

Our topic when we return will be all things creepy crawly as we begin to learn about minibeasts.  We will be writing riddles about minibeasts in our Literacy work and in our Maths we will continue learning number bonds to 10.  

Have a wonderful break everyone.  Thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team

This week: 13th - 17th May

This week we have honed our Science skills and been mini scientists during our Science week.  We have been designing and making mini boats, ensuring we chose the right materials so that it floated well and problem solving if anything went wrong.  We have carried out our own investigation to see which material kept the ice pop the most frozen - out of tin foil, kitchen roll, felt and bubble wrap, we found that bubble wrap was the most effective, followed by the felt.  We made sure we made a prediction first, trying to give a reason for our prediction.  We've investigated minibeasts using the eggscope (a mini microscope attached to a laptop) to observe the little details and found that many minibeasts have little hairs or spikes on their legs! We also enjoyed exploring a mix of cornflour and water, developing our vocabulary at the same time by talking about how it felt and its consistency - a liquid or a solid? ☺ 

This week, in English, we have also started our Caterpillar Shoes topic, where we have been writing a thank you letter to the caterpillar thanking him for the shoes he has given.  We had to pretend to be a spider, woodlouse, grasshopper, beetle, snail or flea in our letters.  If you would like to watch this little video at home, please click on the link: Caterpillar Shoes video.  In Maths, we have continued to consolidate odd and even numbers and the children have done really well in beginning to grasp this.  Next week, we will move on to looking at number bonds to 10.  In Phonics, we will continue to look at words with adjacent consonants, moving on to words with two consonants at the beginning and two at the end, such as drift, stamp or twist.  We will also be learning the key/tricky words some, come, were, there & little and for some children, these will be the spellings to learn for our challenge next week.  Other children will continue to focus on spelling particular phonemes.  

Next week, we will be focusing on our physical skills and doing lots of activities that will involve being active, so let's pray for good weather so we can get outside!  On Thursday will be our Axia Fun Day, where we will invite Reception class children from our Axia schools to come and join us at school for the day and enjoy a carousel of different activities with other children.  We also will continue to learn the song that we will sing all together at the end of our fun day, which is Best Day of My Life Kidz Bop version!  The link is below if your child would like to practise at home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNog54ovi8Q 

Have a good weekend everyone, only one more week until a half term rest.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team

Fun Friday!

This morning we have spent some time on our trim trail developing our balance and co-ordination skills but also our resilience. The children were fantastic in helping and supporting each other. Well Done Reception!

This week: 29th April - 3rd May

This week we have continued looking at journeys but focused on journeys to the Coast.  We have looked at some traditional British seaside towns and how you might travel there and what they might do when they visit them.  Lots of the children talked about visiting Blackpool and Southport beaches. They talked about building sandcastles, eating ice cream and watching the illuminations.

Next week we will be looking at Space.  We will discuss the planets we find in space and what it might be like. We will look at how we might travel to space and how fast we could travel.

This week Mrs Bell’s class enjoyed our PJ party and watched the movie 'Wish' whilst eating popcorn and biscuits. Well done to all the children for winning our attendance race competition!

In Maths this week we have continued looking at doubling. The children have learnt the doubling song to help them double numbers to 5. You may have heard them singing this at home! Next week we are going to be looking at comparing objects in size, shape and colour.

Today the children have enjoyed the football festival. We played a game of Football against each other in Reception and then we had a go at scoring a goal against Mrs Bigg’s. Mr Bigg's was very tired at the end and may feel a little sore this weekend!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend!

The Reception Team

This week: 22nd - 26th April

This week, we have continued our topic on journeys, with a particular focus on transport.  We have talked about different forms of transport, compared transport from the past and the present and how it has changed and also talked about our own experiences of journeys and the transport we used to get to our destination.

In English, we have continued our carousel of activities - writing about the seasons, writing a sentence about where the treasure is hidden in our pirates themed topic, learning the story of Little Red Riding Hood and using our phonics knowledge to write a sentence about the story or writing a sentence about what we can see out of the window in a train journey.  We have another two weeks left of this carousel before it will change.  In phonics, we have now finished Phase 3 and will move on to Phase 4 next week.  Phase 4 focuses on words with adjacent consonants, so, for example, words with two consonants at the end (e.g. film, past) or two consonants at the beginning (e.g. stop, grab) or two at the beginning and the end (e.g. glint).  We will then move on to words with three consonants at the beginning (e.g. split or string).  We will learn these over the coming weeks, so please continue to support with spelling homework.  In Maths, we have been learning doubles this week, and working hard to understand the concept.  The children have made a really good start to doubles, and we will continue this focus next week.

We have noticed a bit of a dip in home reading entries in yellow reading diaries.  I know many of you do read regularly with your children at home but don't always record this in reading diaries.  Can we ask that a good majority of home reading is recorded in yellow reading diaries, even if it is a simple 'Good reading, mostly independent blending', just so that we can see how children are getting on at home.  It makes a huge difference to children's reading if they are reading often at home and being able to read almost fluently will give children a great start for Year 1.  Even if it is only 4-5 pages a night, rather than the whole book, this can still make such a positive difference and sometimes doesn't feel as onerous when children have already done a full day in school.  So please do try and do a little bit of reading each night, and record in reading diaries at least 3 times a week (more is great if you can, but 3 times at a minimum).  We've spoken to the children about this too, so they know our expectations for home reading.

Our topic next week will be journeys to the coast and we will look at some traditional British seaside towns, how you might travel there and what you might do whilst you visit.  We will give the children the opportunity to write postcards, so if you have any spare ones at home lying around that you don't need, please feel free to send them in!   Our key words next week will include on, look & give, so please practise these at home.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team

Week commencing 15^th April

This week we welcomed the children back from half term. The children have come back and settled well. We have started our summer term and we can’t believe how fast time year has gone.

We have started talking to the children about getting them Year 1 ready and will continue this over the next 2 final terms in Reception.

This week we have recapped our phonic sounds which we started at the end of last term air and ear. We have been practicing using these sounds in our writing. Next week we will be moving onto er and ure . We have sent home today the weekly homework for our spelling test which we start again next Friday. Please can you continue to practice these at home for the spelling test next week along with frequent reading at home too.

In maths this week we have been looking at number 7. We have been partitioning 7 into 2. The children have used practical resources to make 7. Next week we are focusing on doubling.

We have been practicing our songs for our poetry performance which will happen later this term, we will continue to learn these and some new one’s next week too.

Please can you also ensure that you are sending children with a snack for their morning break, this needs to be clearly labelled.

Thank you for your continued support.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Reception Team 

This week: 25th - 28th March

Easter already!  This half term has just flown by.  We have enjoyed learning all about growth and change and have particularly enjoyed looking after our ducklings and watching them grow.  We've made a large collage of a duck alongside little ducklings to remember them, and put it up on display in school.  

There will be no homework over the Easter holidays as we want our little Receptioners to have a rest and enjoy spending time with their family.  All we ask is that you continue reading regularly and have given 2 books in book bags to read over the Easter break.  You can also log on to Active Learn Primary and access your online Phonics Bug books if you want extra.  

There will be no spelling homework until the second Friday back.  There will also be a new Forest School group beginning on the first Friday back - letters have been sent out to those children who are in this second group.

Have a lovely Easter everyone.

The Reception Team

Monday 18^th March

We are nearing the end of our Spring term; the children are getting ready for a break. This term the children have worked really hard and we are pleased with the progress they are making.

This week has been our final week for Tot’s on Tyres, the children have grown so much on confidence and have all made super progress, many of the children are now able to ride a bike independently or with little support which is huge progress and we are extremely proud of all the children. Please can you keep this up at home as this is a fundamental skill.

This week we have completed our Spring assessment’s across reading, writing, maths and phonics. The children have made good progress since our last assessments. Whilst it is the Easter holidays, please can you keep up with reading to ensure the children continue to build in confidence and support fluency.

We have had a exciting week welcoming our ducks into our class. The children have been extremely excited watching the eggs hatch and observe the ducks play, eat and sleep. This weekend the ducks will be going home with Mrs Bell and she will update the blog on Monday with the fun they have had. Next week the children will be encouraging the ducks to take there first swim and also hold the ducks. We will also send a new link for the ducks on Monday too.

Thank you for your support with our fundraising Easter party, the children thoroughly enjoyed all the activities – creating a chick hat, making an easter crispy cake, going on a egg hunt and finally all watching Peter Rabbit. We had a special delivery of easter eggs from the Easter Bunny.

Next week we have our final week at school before Easter, please remember that we finish on Thursday at 13:15 and all children will need collecting, there is no after school club.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Reception Team.

Good Afternoon,

Today we have had 5 eggs delivered as part of our growing and change topic.

Please see below the link for you to watch the development of our eggs.

Can your child observe the changes?

What can they see?

https://youtube.com/live/JdG7WhfG1gY?feature=share

Have a lovely evening. 

The Reception Team

This week: 11th - 15th March

It has been STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) week this week, and the children have really enjoyed getting stuck into their different activities.  We started the week off with a super assembly with Explosive Ericka from the Mad Science company.  She taught us about different Scientists from the past, such as Jacques Charles, Robert Boyle and Thomas Edison.  We watched as Explosive Ericka used some mad science to squeeze Eggbert (the egg scientist) into his 'laboratory' (a funnel flask where the opening was smaller than Eggbert!) by first heating up the air in the flask.  As cool air was then drawn into the flask, this sucked Eggbert into the flask.  We also watched red cabbage water turn pink or blue when mixed with different household liquids to show whether they are acid or alkaline. And finally, we watched the lightbulb being lit up after touching a plasma ball!

Reception enjoyed their own slime making workshop on Tuesday.  We have also been learning about bridges and what might make a bridge strong.  We've had a go at making our own bridges using a variety of resources and the children came up with some fantastic ideas and had to use their problem solving skills when something didn't go to plan.  We enjoyed making our own 'rainbow explosions' by mixing bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and food colouring.  We enjoyed watching the reaction and the bubbles that were formed.  Finally, we have created some transient art pieces by using natural outdoor materials to create images.  We've had some new construction out this week and children have really enjoyed being creative in the continuous provision.

The next two weeks will be our Easter countdown.  On Monday we will be welcoming the duck eggs into class which we will watch hatch into ducklings.  The children don't yet know we are getting ducklings, only that there will be a surprise on Monday, so please keep this quiet so it is a surprise for them.  We will also be decorating our Easter baskets and learning about the story of Easter and the traditions involved.  Our after school Easter event is on Thursday, and if you would like your child to attend, please pay £5 online as explained on the flyer we handed out in book bags.  This event will run after school until 4.45pm, so if you have paid and your child is attending, please pick your child up at the front of school at 4.45pm.

There will be no extra spellings given out this Friday.  Please continue with the same spellings for another week, as children need further consolidation on these phonemes before we do a spelling challenge next Friday.  Finally, thank you to so many of you who have encouraged that independence in the children and allowed them to walk into school themselves, after waiting a bit further back.  If you do need to speak to us, please wait to one side until the majority of the children have come in to school, because it can become very busy by the back doors and if we are speaking to parents, we are not able to fully concentrate on greeting the children and ensuring they come into school happily and safely.  We will then be available to speak to you after the children are in.  Thank you for your support with this.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

Week commencing Monday 4^th March 2023

This week has been another busy week in Reception. The children have enjoyed learning about life cycles. We have looked at the different stages of a butterfly, frog and a plant. We will continue to look at life cycles and how things grow. In the next couple of weeks, we will have a little surprise for the children so keep an eye out on our blog for more updates!

In phonics this week we have focused on the oi sound and next week we will look at ear and air phonemes. Please can you continue to support the children with these sounds and complete phonic and spelling homework each week at home. If you have any questions, please let us know.

This week we have celebrated World Book Day, the children looked fantastic. The children brought their favourite stories in from home and we sat and read them all together on Thursday. It was lovely to see all the children very excited and sharing their favourite stories with their friends.

Next week we will be celebrating STEAM week and we have lots of different activities planned for the children. We will be starting off the week with a Mad Science Assembly!

Also, next week we will continue with our Tots on Tyres sessions so please can the children bring in their helmets on Thursday.

Although the weather is slowly getting better, please can you ensure your child is still bringing a coat into school.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Reception Team

This week: 26th Feb - 1st March

Our second week of this spring half term done and dusted already, and we are starting to see more and more signs of spring - the lighter mornings and nights, the daffodils, the buds and shoots surrounding us, the birdsong each morning....please talk about these signs with your child....do they know we are soon leaving winter behind and welcoming spring?  We talk about the changing seasons a lot in school, but it does help to consolidate that knowledge if the same discussions are going on at home too. 

This week we have been learning all about the human life cycle stages - baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult & elderly, and discussing how we change in terms of what we can do in different stages of our lives.  We've introduced the terms past and present, to try and encourage children to understand the passing of time and that in the past, they used to be babies, but now, in the present time, they are children.  We've worked on our artistic portrait skills this week, in the painting area, as a sketch and on the computers, to take a snapshot of ourselves at this age, as a child.  We've also introduced the Garden Centre role play which we will open fully next week.  In English, children are taking part in their new carousel of activities, so that will include: writing a sentence about Evil Pea from the Supertato books, writing some instructions about how to plant a seed, labelling the troll from The Three Billy Goats Gruff or leaning some spring poems.  This will continue for the next two week, by which time the children will have completed each activity.  In phonics, we have been learning the 'ur' and 'ow' phonemes, and next week we will learn the 'oi' phoneme as well as consolidating some previous learning.  Next week we will also introduce the next 3 key words: all, was & mum.  Please continue to practise these at home.  Thank you also to our families for continuing to support home reading and recording this in yellow reading diaries.  We do check them every week when we read with the children, and it is beneficial for us to see how the children are getting on with their reading at home. ☺

In Maths this week, we have been ordering numerals and amounts to 10, with a particular focus on the '5 and a bit' pattern.  That is, seeing 6 as '5 and 1', 7 as '5 and 2', 8 as '5 and 3' and so on.  We have started looking at one more and one less than a given number this week also, and will continue this focus next week.  In previous years, children have found the concept of '1 less' quite tricky, so your support with this at home would be greatly appreciated.

Next week, in Topic, we will move on to the life cycles of animals and plants.  Next Thursday is also World Book Day, and children can come to school dressed as their favourite book character or in their pyjamas if they would prefer.    If any children have a favourite book they would like to share with the class, they can bring this in also, but please make sure it is labelled.

Tots on Tyres (Reception learning to ride bikes) will only be on certain dates, rather than each Thursday and Friday.  The next dates children will be doing this will be the 14th and 15th of March, so children do not need to bring in their helmets until the 14th March.  After this, the final session will be on the following week, on the 21st and 22nd March.

Finally (and apologies for such a long blog post, and well done for making it to the end if you have done!), as we are now trying to get our children 'Year 1 ready', we would appreciate your help in encouraging more independence in our children.  Each year, around this time, we ask that parents stand further back from the door (perhaps about half way in the playground) and let children come into school by themselves.  We find that not only does this ease congestion at the door, but it also really encourages that independence and the children growing up, getting ready for their next stage.  Of course, if you need to speak to us one morning, no problem, but can we please request that parents stand to one side whilst we ensure the children are all in school happily and safely, and then we will always come back out to speak to any parents that need to see us.  Our priority is ensuring the children are in happily and safely so our initial focus will be on them, and we would appreciate your patience in allowing us to do this before you speak to us.  

And, finally, that's it!  Thank you as always for your continued support.  We will look forward to seeing many of you at Parent's Evening on Tuesday.  Have a lovely weekend everyone.  Keep looking for those signs of spring. ☺

The Reception Team

19^th February – 23^rd February

Welcome back everyone!  Hope you all had a lovely half term break.  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. Today we will also be sending home this terms homework, again, this can be completed in the scrap book or by sending pictures through to the reception email address. If you any questions about this or you are missing the scrap book, please can you let us know next week.

This week has been learning all about the winter season. The children have enjoyed going on a winter walk around school spotting changes and using a checklist to find lots of signs of winter.

This week we have covered the 'or ' and ‘ar’ phoneme, some children have found this particularly tricky.  Next week, we will look at ‘ur’ and ‘ow’.  We are back to learning our key words every day, next week we will be introducing we, are and you.

The children have enjoyed taking part in our school yoga festival, they were great at remembering some of the previous poses we have learnt such as the mountain pose and tree pose. The children were able to say ‘I am strong’ ‘I am brave’ ‘I am graceful’.

This week we have taken part in our first session of tots on tyres, this will take place over the next couple of weeks. The children will be learning how to balance, pedal to build the skills they need to ride a bike.

Have a good weekend everyone

The Reception Team

This week: 5th - 9th February

This week we have been learning all about Chinese New Year.  We have enjoyed role playing in our Chinese restaurant, The Fortune Cookie, learnt all about how Chinese New Year is celebrated (and were particularly fascinated by the dragon dance!), practised our scissor skills by making Chinese lanterns, practised some Chinese writing, enjoyed learning about The Great Race and how the animals were chosen and also enjoyed trying some Chinese food with a fortune cookie to finish off with! After half term, our topic will predominantly be all about growth and change, and then Easter celebrations towards the Easter holidays.  We will learn about human, animal and plant life cycles and discuss changes throughout the growth.

In Maths this week, we have been learning about how 6 and 7 are made using the '5 and a bit' pattern, which we will continue to learn about within numbers 7-10 when we return from the half term holidays.  In Phonics this week, we have been learning the long 'oo' (as in 'room') and short 'oo' (as in 'good') phonemes.  Thank you for all your support with spelling / handwriting homework, because it is really giving the children more confidence in their writing.  We will set new homework on Friday before the half term but children will have two week to practise rather than just one, because they won't have their spelling challenge until the Friday of the first week back.  This will be on words with the 'or' and 'ar' phonemes (e.g. 'fork' or 'card').  We will move on to key/tricky words they, we  & are in the first week back and it is important that children learn to spell these words off by heart, so any practise you can do at home will really help.

The children have really enjoyed sharing their half termly homework this week.  When the children started school, they were given a colourful scrapbook to record their half termly homework in.  Each half term, we issue a new homework sheet, with a list of different tasks to do, that you can choose from.  Children are to choose one task from each section to complete and homework can be stuck into the homework book or pictures and / or videos emailed to the reception email address if you prefer.  Homework is shared with the class either way, and children really enjoy having their special time to talk about what they have done at home.  If we don't receive any homework back either via the email or stuck in books, then children have nothing to share and we do want all children to take part and not feel like they have missed out when they see their peers sharing their homework.  The next half termly homework will be sent out on the Friday in the first week back after half term, so please look out for this in book bags.   Thank you in anticipation of your continued support with this.

Children are really ready for a break now, so other than spelling homework and reading, we will not be setting any other homework.  It is important to keep up with regular reading during the school holidays, because we do find that, at this age, children can take a step backwards quite easily if they aren't doing something regularly, and particularly reading.  To give them the best possible start in Year 1, it is important that by the end of the Reception year, most children are sight reading the majority of words in their reading books.  So please continue to support this during the half term week.

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

The Reception Team

Week commencing Monday 29th January

This week we have been looking at the animals and all the different habitats. We have discussed how they have adapted to their habitat. We then compared 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 this week we have been continuing our learning of our number bonds to five and how many different ways we can make 5. The children have used lots of practical resources and had lots of fun. The children are now ready to move onto 6 and 7 using 5 and a little bit more.

Next week we will be looking at the Chinese New Year celebration and trying some Chinese food.

This week in phonics we have consolidated our learning of sounds reading for next week. In phonics next week we will be learning the ‘oo’ digraph, the long ‘oo’ sound, as in pool and the short ‘oo’ as in ‘look’. This will be the diagraph to practise in most children’s spellings this week too.

Have a lovely weekend.

Reception Team.

This week: 22nd - 26th Jan

This week we have been learning all about the cold - from cold places to live to see how our lives might be different/similar, to learning about animals that live in cold places and investigating conditions for melting ice.  We carried out our own little science investigation, thinking of ways that we could melt ice, from using warm water, to putting it near a warm place (such as the radiator) or even using salt!  We found that the warm water melted the ice the quickest.  This week has provided lots of opportunities for discussion and development of language and vocabulary.

In phonics, we have been learning the 'igh' and 'oa' phonemes this week.  'igh' is a trigraph, because it is 3 letters that make one sound together, and 'oa' is a digraph because it is 2 letters that make one sound together.  Mrs Parker's group have been learning the 'qu' and 'ch' phonemes this week.  Hopefully children will have been practising their words / phonemes this week (little and often each day is best, maybe 15 minutes each night to copy them out), ready for their spelling challenge today.  Next week, we will recap the 'ch' and 'sh' phonemes, so spelling will be based upon these.  We also continue to learn our key words.  Next week, we will add the words my, by & they to the words we read each day.  Please practise reading and spelling these words at home on your child's whiteboard.

In Maths, we have been consolidating number bonds to 5.  It is important that children know 3 + 2 and 4 + 1 make 5 off by heart, as well as being able to identify that if they had 5 and took 2 away then they would be left with 3.  They need to be able to recall this information as number facts rather than using practical equipment each time.  We've done lots of work in school using practical equipment, so that children understand the concept, so now it is important that the children know these number facts by heart.

We enjoyed a yoga session on Tuesday morning this week.  Children were engaged and followed the instructions in the session really well.  It was a lovely, relaxing start to Tuesday for us all! ☺

Next week, we will be learning all about contrasting habitats for different animals (comparing hot deserts to cold, snowy places, for example) and learning about how different animals are adapted to live there.

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

The Reception Team

Week commencing Monday 15th January 2024

This week we have started our topic on Buildings, we have looked at different building around the world such as the Colusseum in Rome, Taj Mahal in Indian, Big Ben in London and also the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.  The children looked at each of these building and how each of these were different in shape and size but also the materials they might have used to build these buildings.  

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.

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. We are asking the children to be much more independent in getting their own things at the end of the day. As you can imagine getting all children ready at home time with there coats fastened is a big job, so please can you all talk to your children about gathering all their own belongings and checking it has their name in it before they leave. This will save us a lot of time chasing jumpers, hoodies etc each week.

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 we sent home at Christmas.

Have a lovely weekend.

Reception Team.

Magical snow!

How we enjoyed going outside this morning to play in the snow.  It was a lovely opportunity to experience a wintery wonderland and build up those language skills! 

Friday 12th January 2024 - Our Sporting Hero Joe Wicks

Today all children have enjoyed taking part in our Joe Wicks 10 minute Teddy Bear workout. The children completed 10 different exercises within 10 minutes whilst having a short rest in between.  The children were fantastic and had a brilliant time with their bears. 

We then read the Burpee Bears story written by Joe Wicks. 

The children have enjoyed learning all about Joe and having fun in school with their bears.

This week: 8th  - 12th January

Happy New Year to all our families. ☺ This week has gone so quick and we are working hard on getting back into school routines.  The children have come back with a good attitude after Christmas and have been keen to tell us all they have been doing over the holidays. Many have been quite tired though, so early mornings, new learning and school routines has certainly taken it out of them - please can all our families support early bedtimes because we feel it is certainly needed at the moment!  Well rested children are more resilient and certainly learn better.

This week we have started a topic on houses and homes.  We have been talking about our own homes (and we are encouraging children to talk in full sentences, modelling to them how to articulate their thoughts, rather than just speaking in words and phrases), making models of houses, building and painting houses.  We have opened up our new role play area: the building site.  Children have enjoyed playing in here.

In phonics, we have recapped on the digraphs ch, sh, th & ng.  Next week we will move on to the first of the vowel digraphs ai & ee.  Children will now find phonics a little trickier so supporting at home by writing simple words with these digraphs in (e.g. rain, feet, mail, peel etc) on the home learning whiteboards you have will really pay dividends and ensure the children gain more confidence at school.  Next week, we will also add the key words got, not & his.  

In Maths, we have continued our subitising skills (recognising how many without counting) up to 6, and we are now starting to see smaller amounts within - e.g. seeing 2 and 2 and knowing there are 4, or seeing 2 and 3 and knowing there are 5 altogether.  In English, we have started our carousel of activities on The Three Little Pigs, Owl Babies, Homes (non-fiction) or non-fiction writing about animals from cold, snowy places.

Next week, we will look at different types of buildings in our topic work, famous buildings from around the world and what different materials are used to build with.  We will hone our building skills with large and small scale construction.

Finally, we have noticed that children aren't as confident in their phonics, reading and writing after the Christmas break.  We appreciate that children have had a couple of weeks off and have had some time to switch off after the long term before Christmas, but it is really important we get back into normal routines with reading and writing now, so children can continue to progress like they were prior to the holidays.  Home support with reading (and even writing on the mini whiteboards you have at home) makes so much difference to the skills and confidence of children at home, so please do support this, recording any reading in home reading diaries, even if it's a simple 'Good blending'.   Thank you.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

This week: 18th - 21st December

And that's a wrap!  We've finished our first term in Reception class, and our children have done so well to keep going, smiling and learning in such a long term.  It's amazing to see how far they have come since their first days in September, and we are proud of each and every one of them.  

We have had a super last week which included our Christmas party on Wednesday, when a special visitor paid us a visit!  It was really lovely to see so many excited faces when Santa came to see us at the end of our Christmas party.  And the children were all fabulously behaved throughout the party - joining in, having fun and also understanding that we can't all win everything.  The children dealt with this really well and showed us just how much they are maturing.

Thank you so much for all your generous cards and gifts, each and every one appreciated.  It's been a really long term and the children are more than ready for a break, so we'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope that you all have a restful break with your families.  Thank you once again for all your continued support.  We'd also like to say a huge 'Well done!' to Myla for winning Mrs Webb's writing competition for Reception, writing about her greatest gift - we hope you enjoy your prizes Myla! ☺

Here are some pictures of our last week.

We'll see you all in 2024. ☺

The Reception Team

Week commencing 11th December 2023

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 singing our Christmas 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.

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 this week 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.

The children enjoyed our school trip to our local church visiting Father Mathew. The children were all very sensible walking to the church and remembering how to cross roads safely. The children listened to Father Mathew and we retold the true meaning of Christmas story. The children remembered lots of the story we have learnt in class. We were very proud of all the children!

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: 4th - 8th December

This week we have been in full Christmas mode - writing letters to Santa in English, learning all about the real meaning of Christmas and the Nativity story (finished off by watching the Year 2 Nativity tomorrow!), discussing Christmas traditions, making candy canes in the finger gym and painting area and acting out the Nativity in our very own 'stable'!  In Maths we have started looking at splitting numbers 2-5 up in different ways and we will continue this for the next couple of weeks.  Next week we are ready to move on to the digraphs ch, sh, th & ng.  Tomorrow will be the last set of handwriting homework until after Christmas.  We have also started making our calendars and Christmas cards ready to take home in the last week.  Next week is our trip to the church on Thursday, so if you haven't yet returned your slip, please do so by Monday at the latest. Children will not be allowed to go without the return of the permission slip.

The children are definitely getting ready for a break now, but please persevere with little and often reading as much as you can.  We are so impressed by the progress they are making and that is certainly helped by the support given at home.  We hope you are starting to notice a positive difference at home now too as children are beginning to gain more confidence.  Thank you for all your emails to the reception email address for homework.  We will look at these as a class next week.

Have a lovely weekend everyone & enjoy any festive activities you get up to.

The Reception Team

This week: 27th November  - 1st December

December already, and some very excited children!  We do our daily calendar with the day, date, month and weather every day, so we have been on the countdown towards the end of November so the children were eagerly anticipating the arrival of December this morning and no doubt there were a few elves in the midst too! It's been icy cold this week so it's important the children are now wrapped up warm with thick coats, gloves and hats.  It does help if children can put on their gloves independently and if gloves with fingers are too tricky at this stage, mittens are just fine.  We encourage the children to put their gloves in their pockets at the end of breaktimes and their hat in their sleeve, so if you can reiterate this message at home, that would be great.  Children also need to try and be independent when fastening up their coat because with only 15 minutes at break time, fastening up 44 coats and putting on 44 pairs of gloves is not something we physically have enough time to do, so as many children as independent as possible really does help.  We used our imaginations to warm up a little this week, watching and listening to a crackling fire on Youtube on the big screen!  The children enjoyed 'warming' their hands. ☺

This week we have been learning all about animals!  Animals that come from different places - which we might find in our country in the wild and which we might find in India or Australia.  We have sorted the animals in different ways and have also developed our colour mixing skills when painting a crocodile, tiger or elephant.  The children were only given the 3 primary colours (red, blue, yellow) and the shades black and white and we experimented mixing different colours.  We also talked about what we could do to adapt the colour slightly if, for example, our green was too dark/too blue etc.  Because it was icey outside, we got out our Arctic animals and we also enjoyed playing with the monkey island small world that Miss Goldsmith set up for us.

We have had assessment this week and the children have taken part in small tasks to show us what fantastic progress they have made this term, and considering the fact that many children weren't yet able to write their name at the start of Reception, there are many children now who can write words and even simple sentences independently, so we are so proud of the progress the children have made.  Reading is also becoming easier and quicker, so thank you for all your support at home.  The aim by the end of the Reception year is to have children reading age appropriate books fluently, to give them a good head start for Year 1.  The children have also made fantastic progress in Maths, and we will build on this in the coming weeks before Christmas as we begin looking at how numbers 2-5 are made in different ways.  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).

Next week we will begin our Christmas topic, where we will turn our calm corner into a stable complete with costumes to act out the Nativity story.  We will begin making our Christmas cards and our 2024 calendars as well as writing letters to Santa in our English.  In phonics we will finish the single phonemes with y and z and then begin looking at the digraphs qu, ch, sh, th & ng.  We will also be sending home key word assessments with a covering letter and key word flashcards printed out on card so you can cut them up and practise at home.  Next week we will move on to the next 3 key words: she, am & an.

Have a great weekend everyone - wrap up warm!  Thank you for your continued support.

The Reception Team 

This week: 20th - 24th November

G'day mate!  This week, we've continued our Around the World topic and started learning about Australia.  We have learnt that Australia is on the opposite side of the world to us and when we have winter, they have summer!  So at Christmas it is hot and sometimes people who live in Australia will spend Christmas day on the beach.  We also listened to a traditional Aboriginal dance from Australia, to the sound of the didgeridoo which we decided produces quite a low sound.  We looked at the Australia flag and saw that our flag, the Union Jack, was also part of their flag.  We also looked at some pictures of school children and saw that they wear a uniform, just like we do, but that a sun hat was part of their uniform and this is something we don't need because it is not as hot here as it is in Australia.  We have started learning about the animals that we might find in Australia, but we will continue learning about this next week when we learn all about animals!  Finally, we tried a drink that is popular amongst Australian children - milk mixed with a teaspoon of Milo!  And we absolutely loved it!  Milo is a malted chocolate powder which can be mixed with milk and enjoyed hot or cold.  It has lots of vitamins and minerals in it and tastes yummy.  The children mixed a teaspoon of milo with cold milk - then enjoyed drinking it and because the milo doesn't completely dissolve, we enjoyed spooning it off the top of the milk and eating it!

In Maths this week, we have been learning about the concepts of 'whole' and 'parts' which is the knowledge and understanding we need before beginning to understand that whole numbers can be split into parts too.  We have started looking at numbers 2 and 3 initially, understanding that 2 can be split into the parts 1 and 1 and that 3 can be split into the parts 1 and 1 and 1 or 2 and 1.  We will move on to numbers 4 and 5 before Christmas, and it is important that throughout the Reception year, children become fluent in splitting these early numbers into their parts and putting the parts back together again.

Thank you for your continued support with handwriting homework and with reading.  It is really starting to pay dividends and we have been really impressed with the quality of handwriting homework over the last couple of weeks....so thank you for your perseverance with this.

Thank you also for beginning to send in homework bits and bobs to the reception email - we have seen these and will share them with the classes when the homework is finally due in.  It is up to you how you present the homework - if you prefer to put it in the book that's absolutely fine but if you've got a video or picture to share you are welcome to send on to the reception email as some of you already have done.

Have a great weekend everybody.

This week 13th-17th 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 bracelets and masks and explored making sound patterns using African instruments.

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. 

In phonics this week we have started to learn our phase 3 phonics and have been learning j, v and w. 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.

The children have ended there week this week with non-uniform and celebrating Pudsey.

Please can we ask for you to ensure all your children’s uniform is correctly and clearly labelled so the children can quickly identify their own items.

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you all next week.

This week: 6th - 10th November

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, what the weather is like there (and that they have a monsoon season with lots of rain), the types of food that are popular in India, the clothing 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, made some rangoli patterns with coloured sand, learnt about the story of Rama and Sita and also made some clay diya lamps to light on Sunday, the 12th, Diwali.  We also tried some traditional Indian food this week, and children did so well with this; we were impressed with how open the children were to trying different types of foods - some completely cleared their plates!  We tried poppadoms with mango chutney, pilau rice, vegetable samosas and onion bhajis.  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 really 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.

In phonics next week, we will be moving on to the first of our Phase 3 phonemes - j, v, w & x.  Please continue to practise blending and taking part in regular reading at home, recording entries in reading diaries.  Children gain the most confidence in their reading and make the best progress when they read each night at home.

Next week is Anti-Bullying week, and we will start the week with Odd Socks Day!  This is on Monday, so please can children come to school with odd socks - it is a way to celebrate our differences and uniqueness, which is a really important message for our young children as we teach them to accept and celebrate difference amongst each other, understanding that we are all special in our own way.  The theme of Anti-Bullying Week this year is 'Make a Noise About Bullying' which is encouraging children to speak up, not just if something is happening to them, but also as a bystander if they see something happening to someone else.  It is also important this week for children to begin to understand what is meant by 'bullying', as it can often be used in the wrong context (not usually at this age but as children get a bit older).

We will also move on to looking at another place in the world next week, this time the continent of Africa.  We will learn an African dance, look at some African instruments, African dress, lifestyle, weather and where it is on the globe.  We will begin to look at the similarities and differences to our own lives.

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

The Reception Team

This week: 30th October - 3rd 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 they were dressing up as on 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.

We have been learning all about people who help us this week - from doctors, nurses, firefighters, paramedics, refuse collectors, dentists, postal workers, teachers....and many more.  We've sung songs, painted, created collages, listened, read stories and taken part in role play.  The children have really enjoyed getting into their learning this week.  We've also talked about Bonfire Night safety this week and taken the opportunity to go over teeth brushing - children should have come home with their free toothbrush and toothpaste.  Hopefully they can talk to you about what they have learned.

In English, we have started our new carousel of activities based around Handa's Surprise, non-fiction writing on tigers, Elmer the Elephant and Percy the Park Keeper.  This will run for 4 weeks, where children will take part in an activity based around each text.  In Maths, we have learned about 'more than' and 'fewer than' and worked on our subitising skills.  In phonics, we have learned the phonemes h, f, b & l.  Next week, we will continue this focus and include ff, ll & ss.  We will add 3 new key words to our learning next week - can, get & up.

Next week, we will be learning about a different country - India - and the Hindu festival of Diwali, in the lead up to the actual day which is on Sunday 12th November.  Children will create colourful Rangoli patterns, learn about the story of Rama and Sita, read all about how families celebrate Diwali and create Diya lamps out of clay.

Just a quick note about reading - please endeavour to read as much as you can with your child at home, because, even if it seems difficult now if children are still struggling to blend, it will pay dividends in the end.  We would like you to write in the yellow reading diary each time you hear your child read, and at least 3 times per week.  Comments don't have to be really long, but it does give us a good idea as to how children are getting on with their reading at home.  We do check comments in diaries at least once a week.  Thank you for your continued support with this.

Have a great weekend everyone - enjoy Bonfire Night & stay safe. ☺

The Reception Team

This week: 16th - 20th October 

Happy half term everyone!  Our first half term in Reception is 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 have sent home some more phonics/handwriting homework which will be due back when the children return. We would also ask that you keep up 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. 

In the first week back, we will be learning about the people who help us. We will be looking at how all these people help us each and every day.  We will also look at Bonfire Night again with this being on the Sunday after our first week back. 

Have a great half term everyone - thank you for your continued support. ☺

The Reception Team

This week: 9th - 13th October

Only one more week before the end of the first half term - it has really flown by and doesn't seem two minutes since the children were starting their first day in September.  By now, the children are coming into school much better and learning the routines of the school day.

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.  In a world where we do most of our spending online or with the tap of a card at the till, money is sometimes a difficult concept for Reception children to understand, so if you can, when you are out and about, try and give your children the experience of buying something small with coins or notes, helping them to understand how much something is and whether or not they have enough.  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 and role playing how to safely cross the road.  So a busy week all in all!

We have been consolidating phonemes this week in phonics, going over the first set of sounds up to r - see your Phase 2 phonics mat at the back of the Phonics Handbook to see and practise these phonemes.  Although some children are getting there with blending, there are still a good number of children finding this tricky and not yet hearing the blend of 3 sounds together.  Please keep practising this at home, because the sooner they can master this skill, the sooner they will begin to progress much quicker with their reading.  We will continue to consolidate phonemes we have learnt next week, not moving on to any new phonemes until after the half term break.  We will add a further 3 words to our key word list we are learning next week, adding as, at & her, so please practise these at home.

Tonight we will be sending home the first set of handwriting homework.  Children might find this quite tricky at first, but please do persevere, even if it is only one line & letter per day.  It is due in next Wednesday.  Please ensure children complete this in pencil and what is really important is that they form the letters correctly.  In this first set of letters, each one is formed as a 'c' first - please see the letter formation star tab above if children would find this useful to see videos of how each letter is formed.

Thank you for your continued support everyone - have a good weekend.

The Reception Team

Week commencing: Monday 2nd October

This week we have been continuing with our topic work all about ourselves. We enjoyed talking about who we live with, in our houses and how we are all different. We have also enjoyed developing our understanding of healthy eating further by creating fruity faces, which all looked fantastic! We are super proud of our children for trying some fruits which they have never had before.

The children have been out in our school grounds looking at signs of Autumn, picking leaves, pine cones and berries.

In phonics this week we have learnt some new sounds ck, e, u, and r. Next week are going to revisit all the sounds we have learnt to become much more confident and to consolidate our learning. We have 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.

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.

Please can all school reading books be put back into the reading bags each night because throughout the week we will listen to the children read in class and also change books.

Have a lovely weekend.

This week: 25th - 29th September

This week, we have been learning all about how to look after ourselves - from making healthy food and drink choices, to learning about how exercise keeps our heart healthy, keeping our hands clean so that we keep germs to a minimum, getting enough sleep and taking care of our teeth properly.  We have tried a selection of healthy snacks together, learnt about good hand washing and carried out some exercises to feel our hearts beating faster afterwards.

In phonics, we have learnt the phonemes g, o, c & k and continued to revise s, a, t, p, i, n, m & d.  Constant repetition of these means that the children are gaining more confidence, but do keep going over these at home as it will really help the children to master the recognition of these phonemes quickly.  We have started learning our key words daily now too and have so far looked at the words and, the, to, no, go, I, into, is & it.  We will continue to read these words as flashcards next week, so the children learn to read them by sight, which will ultimately help with their reading.  In terms of reading, you will now see that we have sent home worded reading books containing the first 8 phonemes: s, a, t, p, i, n, m & d.  Lots of the children are finding the blending quite tricky as yet, so in school, we are doing lots of good modelling of blending, clearly sounding words out and then blending the sounds together to read (decode) the word (e.g. sounding out s - i - t and then saying the complete word 'sit').  Do the same at home, let your child sound out the word and then blend for them if they are unable to as yet.  Ensure children put their finger under the text as they are reading / sounding out and that they repeat any words that you have had to blend for them.  It is important they connect what the word looks like with what it says (the visual and auditory), so rather than looking at you, or anything else in the environment, do encourage them to look at the words.  Please read school reading books with your child as often as possible, because this home support in these early days pays dividends.  Write in the yellow reading diary at least 3 times a week & we would encourage children reading the same reading book until they can sight read each word.  

In Literacy, we have started our carousel, so children will be either learning The Gingerbread Man, learning how to write their own name & describe themselves, learning about the beginning sounds in words or completing an activity based on the text Monkey Puzzle, depending on what animal group they are in.  Over the next 3 weeks, we will continue this, so that each child has had a chance to do each activity.  In Maths, we have been learning all about good counting - only counting each item once, knowing that the last number we count is how many there are and even learning to count sounds!  This did prove a little trickier! ☺

Please remember that in our bottles should be water, not juice, and snack in a named pot or bag (or the skin written on).  Children are getting better at putting on their coats independently, but still finding it a bit tricky to pull their sleeves the right way around from being inside out, so please, please practise this at home so children can be a little more independent.  And many thanks for waiting for us to get the children in before coming to speak to us if you need to in a morning - it is our priority to ensure the children are in and getting sorted, and it does get very busy by the door, so if you do need to speak to us in the morning, you may need to just stand to one side whilst we get the majority of the children in & we will then be available to speak to you.  Thank you for your patience.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

Reception Curriculum Meeting

Please find below the link to the video presentation of the curriculum meeting held last week.  If you weren't able to attend, please take the time to watch the video as it does explain more about the Reception year and how you can support your child at home.  We will also be sending home the home learning packs for those that couldn't attend shortly, so please look out for those in your child's book bag.  Books for the online Pearson Active Learn accounts have also now been allocated, so you should see these when you log on to your child's account (login details sent out earlier this week with the reading letter).

Reception Curriculum Meeting video click here

Week commencing Monday 18th September

Another week flown by and we are now nearly approaching the end of September. Our children continue to settle in well and learn their routines. 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. 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.  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'). 

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. 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.

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 weekend.

Week commencing Monday 11th September 

Firstly, thank you to all the parents who attended our curriculum meeting this week. The children whose parents could not attend will receive a pack next week of resources in their reading packs for you to refer to throughout the year. We will also be uploading the presentation to our school blog.

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, m and d. We have completed all of our Baseline assessments and the children have done really well settling in and following our daily routines. In English we will be learning and recognising words that rhyme focusing on our book Oi Frog. In Maths we will be recognising amounts from 1-3 an we will also be introducing our All About Me Topic aswel.

During our curriculum meeting this week we also mentioned to parents that can you all ensure that all uniform is labelled and snack is clearly bagged and labelled.

Have a lovely weekend.

Reception Team x

This week: 04.09.23 - 08.09.23 Settling In!

Our first full day at school today and first week at school finished!  Our new Reception children have amazed us with how well they have been coming into school, dealing with new routines, new people & a new environment.  There is certainly a lot to take in, so we are really proud of how the children have approached their first few days, getting to know each other and their new school.  It's been super hot this week as well so no doubt this will add to the tiredness this weekend after a busy few days at school.  

Just a couple of reminders - children do need to bring in a snack (fruit or salad / vegetables) for their morning snack, in a labelled pot or bag.  If it is something like a banana or an orange, you can simply write their name on the skin.  Water bottles also need to be labelled.  Please don't forget we also have our Curriculum meeting next Tuesday at 5pm.  Do come along if you are able to make it because we will go through some important information about how the children will learn during their Reception year.  Finally, if you haven't yet downloaded the school app, please do so, and turn on notifications for this app as this will be the main method of communication school will use about upcoming events.

In the coming weeks, please do not worry if you have an upset or reluctant child coming into school in the morning.  Starting school is a big change and all children deal with it differently.  Children will be more tired than usual also, which can have an impact both on behaviour and emotions.  The best thing to do in this case is to encourage children into school, let us take them in, talk positively about school with your child and try not to overly worry - it will pass and is a completely natural reaction for some children.  Coming to 'big' school will soon become a routine they are used to.

Next week, we will begin formally teaching phonics and will start with the first 4 phonemes - s, a, t & p, so if you could support this at home, going through these sounds and finding things in the environment that begin with any of these 4 sounds that would be great and would give the children a good start.

Have a lovely weekend everyone - let's hope it's a sunny one. ☺

The Reception Team