Welcome to Reception!

Every week this page will be updated with information about what we have been doing for that week. There will be recaps of the learning, activities recommended to try at home, phonics videos to watch with your child and photographs of the children learning at school. We recommend that you check the website weekly and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask your child's class teacher.

Week 3

Week beginning 29.4.24

Reception have had a busy week! As the weather is (hopefully) starting to warm up, please ensure that you apply suncream to your child before coming to school. We spend a lot of the day outside and although the temperature may not be high, the UV still can be. Therefore there is a risk of being sunburnt. Please bring in a named hat for your child to wear outside. Children still need to bring a coat, even on sunny days as the wind can still be chilly.

Phonics 

Here are some phonics videos for you to watch at home this weekend.

Please note these videos will expire after 3 weeks.

Maths

This week in maths, we have been finding out about adding and taking away. We used first, then, now stories to help us understand the problems and then used counters on ten frames to work out how many altogether and how many are left problems. We also introduced missing number problems where we had to work out what was added and what was taken away. 

Wider Curriculum 

In Topic we used our phonics skills to read the names of real animals and created our own mixed up animals and reading their nonsense names. We also understood how scientists often make detailed drawings of animals and used sketch pencils to carefully copy animals features and patterns. 

In English we explored descriptive writing. We discussed how the fruits in the story and chose words to describe their look, taste, smell and feel. We also learned how to use reading to ‘find out more’ and looked at information websites online to learn facts about the amazing animals in Handa’s surprise. 

In PE we continued to explore how animals move and learned new movements such as gliding, waddling, stomping, slithering etc. 

Makaton 

Our new Makaton sign this week was ‘bin’. See if you can use it at home this weekend.

Monday is bank holiday, so school will be shut. We will see you all on Tuesday. Have a lovely (hopefully sunny!) bank holiday weekend.

Week 2

Week beginning 22.4.24

We have had another lovely week at school despite the rainy weather! We have been busy getting to grips with our new topic and we have been doing lots of amazing writing in class based on the story ‘Snail trail’. 

Phonics 

Here are some phonics videos for you to watch at home this weekend.

Please note these videos will expire after 3 weeks.

Maths

This week in maths, we've continuing to learn about numbers beyond 10. We have been using different kinds of equipment to represent numbers 11-20 including multilink cubes and rekenreks.We have been able to count beyond 20 and have been able to use what we know about groups of ten to help us count large numbers of sea creatures for example I can see 2 whole tens and 5 more, so the total number of sea creatures must be 25. 

Wider Curriculum 

In Topic we have been learning about different types of animals including mammals, birds and reptiles. We explored what kinds of features these animals have such as fur, beaks or scaly skin, and used this knowledge to sort different animals into these categories. We have also begun to learn about the diets of different animals and found out about herbivores and carnivores and omnivores. 

In English we continued to investigate our story ‘Handa’s surprise’. We wrote sentences to explain what we would surprise our friends with thinking carefully about their particular likes and interests. We also made predictions about what will happen next as well as explore the feelings of the main characters. 

In PE we moved to the music of ‘The carnival of the animals’ by Camile Saint-Saens and then created an animal parade by moving in the style of different animals. 

Makaton 

Our new Makaton sign this week was ‘tidy’. See if you can use it at home this weekend.

You will have seen that children have begun to bring home some new green level practise books. These are the same books that we have been looking at in phonics. The aim of reading these at home is so that children can practise reading it a number of times so that they become familiar with it and begin to read the sentences with more fluency and speed. This will help support children’s comprehension and understanding. You are welcome to add this to boom reader as a log of your child’s progress and share any thoughts with me. If you need any advice on how to support your child with their reading at home please do not hesitate to ask.

We hope you have a great weekend! 

Week 1

Week beginning 15.4.24

Welcome back! We hope you had a great Easter, We have had a great start to the new term and we have been very busy in Dragonfly class! We have now moved into our new and permanent classroom and have enjoyed exploring and getting to know our new surroundings. We also have been having our lunch in the main hall which everyone was very excited about. In phonics we have moved onto a new level and are now reading green books. We also had some visitors to the school when having our vision exam and our class photographs. All in all, a very busy but wonderful week. 

Phonics 

Here are some phonics videos for you to watch at home this weekend.

Please note these videos will expire after 3 weeks.

Maths

This week in maths, we've been building numbers beyond 10. We looked at how numbers can be represented in different ways and represented numbers on Rekenreks and bead strings. 

Wider Curriculum 

In Topic we began our new topic Animal Safari and our mini topic ‘Creep, crawl and wriggle’. We spoke about different habitats, identified which animals live where and discussed why they chose that habitat. We also went on a school safari to look for animals in the environment. 

In English we looked at our new story ‘Handa’s Surprise’, we looked at the front cover and described what we could see. We spoke about the fruit that Handa has in her basket and tried them!    

In PE we worked together as a team to collect and carry objects and move them to a new location. We learnt that this is how ants build and repair their nests.  

Makaton 

Our new Makaton sign this week was ‘share’. See if you can use it at home this weekend.

Now that the weather is becoming milder, we will be using the water wheel a lot more. Please can you ensure that your child has waterproof clothing kept at school for when we use this resource as well as wellies. 

You may also know that as part of this topic, we will be heading on a trip to Beale Wildlife Park. Please can you ensure that you have given your permission for your child to attend. We also would love to have any parent volunteers to come along and help make the trip a success! If you would be interested in this please do let us know.