This week: 2nd - 6th December

December already!  And some very excited children talking about their elves and lead up to Christmas activities.  This week, we have started learning about the Nativity story and the idea of being kind and giving to others, not just in terms of gifts but in terms of how we can help others and be a good friend and be kind.  We want our children to look beyond the idea of Christmas being about just getting new toys.  We have started our Advent calendars this week as we tie it into doing our daily calendar where we look at what day it is, what number date, what month, what the weather is like and what season it is.  It would be beneficial to have these conversations with your children on the way to school, because building this kind of knowledge into a daily routine means they will learn about the days of the week, months of the year and seasons much more naturally.

In phonics, we have moved on to the digraph 'qu' and will begin looking at 'ch', 'sh', 'th' and 'ng' before Christmas.  Please, please practise these at home along with doing your daily reading because the children will find them harder to grasp at first.  We have now issued everyone with their login details for their Phonics Bug account, where you can access extra online books so hopefully you have found this useful.

We will continue with our Christmas activities next week, which will involve lots of dressing up and role play (the Nativity but also Santa, an elf and reindeer!), making our Christmas cards, making our calendars, painting and singing!  We will also have our Christmas party, Christmas dinner and Christmas jumper day so lots to look forward to.  We have been really trying hard also with our junk modelling skills with some children already bringing home some wonderful creations.

Half termly homework is due in on Monday so we will begin looking at this next week.  There will be no handwriting homework now until after Christmas but please continue with daily reading as it is really making a difference.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

Half termly homework

We've had a couple of enquiries about Tapestry because it was mentioned on the bottom of the homework.  Apologies, Tapestry is an old app that we don't use anymore.  Please put homework in the homework book or send pictures and videos to the reception email: reception@lostockhallcps.co.uk

The Reception Team

This week: 25th - 29th 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 also talked about the animals we might also find in Australia such as a koala and a kangaroo and we linked this to our English topic this week. We have been encouraging the children to write simple sentences using our tricky words but also emphasising the importance of using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Some children wrote some super sentences! 

In Maths this week, we have been looking at different ways we can make 5. We have been encouraging children to make 5 with 2 different coloured cubes. Next week we will be moving on to look at part whole models and finding parts of a puzzle to make a whole. 

Thank you for your continued support with handwriting homework and with reading. Whilst your child is completing this at home, please can you encourage them to write on the line, taking there time and thinking about the formation of each letter. You may notice that some children may find doing it too much in one setting or they loose concentration towards then end, if this is the case bring them back to it later. 

Have a great weekend everybody.

The Reception Team x

This week: 18th - 22nd November

This week, we have continued our journey round the globe and learned about the continent of Africa.  We have looked at Africa on a map and on the globe and have seen how all the countries within Africa fit together, a bit like a big jigsaw puzzle!  We have also looked on Google Earth and observed how the top of Africa looks a sandy colour but the middle looks a deep green colour, showing the vegetation and forests.  We have been practising our mouse skills on the computer, colouring in a map of South Africa and have enjoyed learning an African call and response song.  In the finger gym, we have been making beautiful African style bracelets and we have also been learning about animals we might find in the wild in Africa and comparing this to what we might find in the wild in our own country.  It took a while at first to grasp that we wouldn't find elephants or zebras wandering round in the wild in our own country but we would be more likely to see foxes or squirrels, but we got there in the end! Here is the link to the 'A Lion has a Tail' call and response song that we have enjoyed learning this week, if children would like to have a go at home: A Lion has a Tail...just click on the link and it will take you to the video.

In phonics this week, we have looked at x, y and z/zz, which finishes off all our single sounds.  Next week, we will recap before moving on the week after to digraphs.  We will start with qu, followed by consonant digraphs ch, sh, th & ng.  After this, will be our vowel digraphs and trigraphs in Phase 3.  Children do find these harder to learn and grasp so as much support as possible at home going over these phonemes when we are learning them will definitely help.  Next week we will introduce 3 more key words: got, not & his.  In English, we have been sentence writing based on the book Monkey Puzzle, and in Maths, we have been consolidating our understanding of numbers to 5.

Next week, we will continue our journey round the globe and look at Australia, the land down under!  In English, we will continue our sentence writing based on the book A Koala Who Could.  Have a great weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

This week: Monday 11th November - Friday 15th 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, Chapatis 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. 

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.

This week we have also completed our assessments, 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.  The children are also starting to find reading a little bit easier, 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).

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

The Reception Team

This week: 4th - 8th November

This week we have been learning all about people who help us.  We have looked at the different roles such as paramedics and the police, and how they might help us.  We have talked about how we get help if we need it in an emergency by calling 999 and asking for the service we need.  We have taken part in role play and some of us have painted a picture of either a firefighter, paramedic or the policeman or woman.  We have also looked at how to stay safe on bonfire night, which was enjoyed by many this week.

In our English, we have started to introduce the concept of a sentence and continue to focus on letter formation.  In Maths, we have started to learn about 'more' and 'fewer' and children often find the concept of 'fewer' trickier.  Another tricky concept tends to be 'how many more?' when they can recognise which group has more.  In Phonics, we have now finished Phase 2 and have started to look at the first few phonemes in Phase 3 - j, v, w. 

Next week we will carry out some assessments to see how much progress the children have made since starting in September and how much they have retained.  We will carry out a phonics assessment to identify the phonemes the children know as well as a key word assessment to see how many they can read.  Once we have collated this information, we will send it home for parents.  

Next week we will also begin our trip around the world and look at our first country - India, which will involve trying some Indian food next week.  It is also Anti-Bullying week next week and odd socks day on Tuesday, so please send your child into school on Tuesday with the whackiest odd socks you can find!  The aim is to celebrate our differences.

We were really impressed with handwriting homework this week, so thank you for continuing to support this, as well as reading each night.  We are noticing that after the excitement of Halloween and Bonfire Night that we still have some tired children in school, which can impact both behaviour and learning, so please ensure children are managing to get enough sleep at night and going to bed early.  If this is something you need to come and speak to us about, please do so.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

This week: 28th - 1st November 

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

In English this week we have read the story 'I Planted a Pumpkin' and we have started to write simple/short sentences for those that are ready.  We will continue to focus on using our phonics knowledge to spell words, correct letter formation, a good tripod grip and pencil control and also now using spaces between our words when writing a short sentence.  In our key words, we have been practising the first 16: and, to, the, no, go, I, into, her, is, it, as, at, can, get, up, me.  Please do practise these at home too to support your child in becoming much more familiar with these.

Please 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.  When you have read with your child at home please ensure that you write in the yellow reading diary each time you and please aim to read 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 and we can help and support your child if they are finding some parts tricky at home.
In our topic this week we have been using our senses to investigate our school grounds and see what we can see, hear and feel in different areas.  The children really enjoyed looking at how our school grounds have changed over the last 15 years or so by using Google Earth and creating our own maps in groups of the school grounds, using items that we have found on our sensory walk. Lots of children really enjoyed looking at the school and the changes they could see and were keen to see how there houses/ streets have changed over the years.

In Maths this week we have looked at the composition of 4 and the different ways in which we can see four. The children used green squares to show four and became much more confident on subitising 4.

This week some of the children in Mrs Bell's class finished their last session of forest school. The children have loved to play, explore and discover our outdoor areas whilst getting a little bit dirty 😊

Next week a new group of children will start their sessions with Miss Jones and Miss Goldsmith. Please ensure that your child brings in their kit each Friday from next week – The children this includes will have received a letter before half term.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team xx

This week: 14th - 18th October

And that's a wrap!  Our first half term in Reception complete and I think the children are all ready for a well deserved week of downtime with their families.  It was wonderful to see so many of you at parent's evening and to hear such positive comments about how the children have progressed so much over the last 7 weeks.  The children are beginning to form positive relationships with each other more now and it is lovely to watch and listen to the conversations they have with each other.

This week, we have been learning all about looking after ourselves, from learning about the roles of doctors and nurses (and the children have absolutely loved our healthcare pop-up role play - so much so that we might have to keep this going after half term!), to learning about healthy eating, exercise, washing our hands properly and looking after our teeth properly.

We have also opened two more of our new areas in the classroom this week - our home corner (domestic role play) and our small world and building area.  So far, the children have really enjoyed playing in these areas and we have seen some great creations and role play, the children really engrossed in their play.

In English, we have continued to look at initial sounds and some children have now moved on to identifying the end sound in words too.  That middle vowel sound (e.g. the 'a' in 'cat' for example) is always the trickiest to hear, but we are now getting more and more children who are able to segment and spell a full CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) word, using the phonics knowledge that they have learnt.  Please, please keep reading at home with your children (each day is preferential for good progress) and practising all the Phase 2 sounds on the sound mat we handed out in home learning packs.  In Maths, we have been investigating simple patterns (colour patterns to begin with) and have also been looking at the composition of numbers to 4.

After half term we will move on to beginning to write very simple/short sentences for those that are ready.  We will continue to focus on using our phonics knowledge to spell words, correct letter formation, a good tripod grip and pencil control and also now using spaces between our words when writing a short sentence.  In our key words, we will be practising the first 16: and, to, the, no, go, I, into, her, is, it, as, at, can, get, up, me.  Please do practise these at home too.

In our topic, we will be using our senses to investigate our school grounds and see what we can see, hear and feel in different areas.  We will also be looking at how our school grounds have changed over the last 15 years or so and creating our own maps in groups of the school grounds, using items that we have found on our sensory walk.

There will be no homework over the half term break, other than to keep reading and working on those blending skills.  Happy half term everyone - thank you for your continued support as always.

The Reception Team

This week: 7th - 11th 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.

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

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

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

The Reception Team

This week: 30th September - 4th October

This week we have continued the Ourselves topic, learning about how we can keep ourselves healthy, talking about ourselves and our families, starting to look at where we live in terms of our world and within our country (this will take some embedding because it's a difficult concept for the children to grasp at first) and also looking at feelings and emotions.  The children have enjoyed making fruity faces this week and eating them afterwards!  Please see pictures below.  We have also started to talk about the signs of Autumn when completing our daily calendar so do look out for the signs when out and about with your children, and talk about what you see or what you find.  Feel free to send the children in with any autumn treasures you find.  The children are now sitting for longer periods on the carpet as we continue to focus on good listening skills.  We have to get this right at an early age because if children don't have good listening skills, their learning will be hindered greatly.  This involves looking at the speaker, maintaining focus and concentration, responding to what has been said and also involves things like sitting in a sensible place on the carpet to avoid distractions.

In Literacy this week, we have read a book called The Leaf Thief which the children really enjoyed, and have focused on finding the initial sound of a word & some even went further to spell simple CVC words which is fantastic!  We continue to focus on building fine motor skills, good pencil grip and correct letter formation on a daily basis.  Next week, we will continue to focus on finding the initial sound and spelling simple words.  In phonics next week, we will learn the u, r & h phonemes and continue to learn to read our tricky words and, the & to, as well as introducing some new tricky words - no, go, I & into.  Please continue to read regularly with your children, practise these phonemes & tricky words and keep modelling and practising those blending skills, especially if your child isn't yet hearing that blend of sounds together to make words.  It will come - sometimes it just takes a bit longer.  In Maths this week, we have focused on good counting skills, and next week we will continue this as well as looking at basic mathematical patterns and continuing these.

Next week is Life Skills week, and we have a fun-filled week for the children, learning and developing skills needed for life, such as using cutlery, developing scissor skills, learning about money, learning about road safety and good mental health, all in a very child-friendly way.  We have also had a bit of a shuffle round in the classroom as we develop our classroom environment and introduce different areas of learning, which is always exciting.  On Wednesday, the Lancashire Evening Post came in to take the Reception starters class pictures, which will appear in the paper in the coming weeks - we aren't yet sure of the exact date, but last year's was around the 16th October.  It could be before this date though, so please keep your eyes and ears open just in case.

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

The Reception Team

This week: 23rd - 27th September

What a beautiful end to our week after all this rain!  Let's hope for a bit more sunshine over the weekend.  This week in Reception class, we have continued to build upon and practise routines which the children are becoming much more familiar with now.  We are encouraging all our children to say good morning as they enter the classroom in a morning and use their pleases and thank yous throughout the day as it is important to instill these things at an early age.  We are also encouraging better listening in class time, ensuring children are looking and focused when someone is talking.

This week, we have moved to a more structured timetable, especially in the morning.  Children are now used to having their daily phonics session and so far, we have covered the phonemes s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o & c.  Next week we will cover phonemes k, ck & e.  We will also cover the first 3 tricky words by reading them as flashcards daily: and, the & to.

Please help your child by going over the phonemes we have covered with your child to ensure they can say the sound on sight, and by reading the above tricky words.  Now we have introduced worded reading books with the children, please ensure children are reading each night and that you are modelling that blend to them if they can't yet hear it.  The more practise they have and the more they hear that s-i-t says 'sit', the quicker they will develop this skill for themselves.  In Literacy this week, we have had a go at writing our own names and drawing a picture of ourselves.  The children are getting better at this skill, but some aren't yet able to write their own name, so please use the whiteboard and whiteboard pen provided in the home learning pack to practise this if your child isn't yet able to write their own name.  We will also continue to practise in school.  In Maths this week, we have foscused on the early numbers 2 & 3 and worked on spotting groups of 2 or 3 without having to count them.  We call this skill subitising and it is a skill we will develop further throughout the year.

Next week in English, we will be reading a story called The Leaf Thief and will focus on the skill of identifying the initial sound of a word (e.g. knowing that the word 'sock' begins with an 's' or the word 'leaf' begins with an 'l').  We will also be encouraging healthy eating by making our fruity faces - watch out for some pictures next week!

We do hope you all received the letter that went out this week about Reception reading and homework and hope this clarified a few things.  As always, any questions, please just ask.  We are grateful that parents are allowing us to get the children in first before coming to speak to us in a morning, as this does make things a lot easier.  

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Reception Team

This week: 16th - 20th 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').

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.  Next week the weather is due to change so please can you ensure your child is coming to school with the correct attire as it is due to become cooler, 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.

The Reception Team. x

This week: 9th - 13th 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 of resources in their reading packs today for you to refer to throughout the year We have also uploaded the power point below for you to refer to. If you have any questions please let us know.

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

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

Please can you all ensure that you label your child's morning snack so they can independently find there own snack from our basket. 

Next week we will be starting our PE lesson's please can you ensure that your child comes to school in their PE kit every Friday going forward. 

We have also sent out letters to those children who will be starting Forest School on Friday. Please can you ensure that your child brings to school the waterproofs, wellies and a change of clothing. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Reception Team x

Reception Curriculum Meeting - Weds 11th Sept

Thank you to the parents who came to join us for the Curriculum meeting last night - we hope it was useful in providing an insight into how children learn in Reception and how you can best support them at home.  Below is the powerpoint from the evening as promised.  If you have any questions, please come and speak to us.

The Reception Team

This week: 2nd - 6th September

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

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

A few reminders:

-Please name all uniform - we've been taking jumpers and cardigans off with the warmer weather today and have had to put names in quite a few jumpers;

-Please also name shoes;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a good weekend everyone - we hope to see as many of you as possible at the Reception Curriculum meeting on Weds (11th September), starting at 5pm.  We will give everyone a home learning pack and discuss how we teach the children and how you can support at home to give the children the best possible start.

The Reception Team