Author: Reception team

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

What a swashbuckling, super turn out we had on pirate day! THANK YOU to our incredible children and parent crew-mates of the good ships Sunshine and Rainbow, for joining in with your amazing costumes.

We had fun playing buried treasure in our phonics lessons, continuing with our pirate themed activities (making flags, counting treasure, reading pirate stories and role play), listening to pirate songs and going on a QR code ‘treasure’ hunt outside.

We have also been busy with all of these activities this week…

 

Home-Link Challenge

Next week, we start preparing for the festive season! We will be reading the story of The Jolly Christmas Postman. 

Challenge 1- We would like you to either write a letter to Santa/ Father Christmas or to a friend. This can be on any topic you like- it could be your Christmas list or writing to a friend about what your plans are during the upcoming school holidays.

Your child should write independently, recording any sounds they can hear in sequence. They should also record any tricky words they know.

Challenge 2- Now we are in December, we have entered the season of Winter. Talk to your child about what you might see in the environment during winter. You might be able to see these signs of Winter outside. Please take a photo of anything you spot, that we can then share and discuss in class.

 

Has your child been coming home and talking about challenge cubes?

Perhaps they have shown you a certificate they have earnt by getting all of their challenge cubes that week?

Each week, the children are set a ‘Rainbow of Challenges’ with the aim to encourage them to visit different activities (and therefore access different areas of learning)

There are six challenge cubes to collect each week. In the classroom, the challenges are displayed on small blackboards placed in the areas and also on our ‘challenges’ display wall.

Some challenges also include a STAR CHALLENGE, where children can earn a star on their star chart, in addition to their challenge cube.

Challenge cubes are collected in the children’s trays and counted at the end of the week.

Take a look at an example below, of the type of challenges you might expect to see in the classroom.

Here is some home learning for when you can’t be with us at school.

Remember to send pictures of your child’s home learning to scholesf2@spherefederation.org

Maths

This week’s maths learning is on our focus number 4.

Click on the screencast links below:

• Screencast 1
• Screencast 2
• Screencast 3
• Screencast 4

Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

More maths fun at home…

In class this week, we will be setting up a ‘shop’ and using pennies to pay for items. Perhaps you would like to play shop at home too?

Phonics

This week we will be learning  l/ ll and ss.

Watch and join in the Jolly Phonics songs.

(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)

• Lesson 1: Screencast new sound l/ll
• Lesson 2: Screencast new sound ss
• Tricky words recap- watch the tricky words youtube video to recap all the words we have learnt in phase 2!

• We have now reached the end of phase 2! Until the end of term we will be doing lots of revision of the sounds we have learnt so far!

Here are all of our sounds on a mat. Go through the sounds each day.

Have a go at reading the following words:

Literacy

This week we are moving on to a new Pirates topic and reading the story – Pirates Love Underpants

• Lesson 1: Watch the story. Recap the main events. What characters are in the story? Create a story map of the events that happen.

• Lesson 2: Oh No! Someone has stolen the golden underpants! Can you create a WANTED poster describing the person we are looking for. Draw the person and add some word labels to describe them, using your sounds.

• Lesson 3: Make a treasure map. Add words to label the map. You might like to have a go at tea staining your map to make it look old and well-used!

• Lesson 4: Create your own pirate adventure by changing the setting or characters. Add your new characters/setting to your story map or create a new one. You can be as imaginative as you like! Make sure you tell your story to an adult, so they can let us know all about your super adventure!

Topic

Choose some of these activities to complete throughout the week. These are based on our new Pirate topic!  They may spark other interests and ideas that result in other learning opportunities. Let your child lead the learning!

Draw a Pirate! Use your own imagination or this drawing tutorial. How to draw a pirate tutorial.  Great for listening and attentions skills, following step-by-step instructions.

Make a floating bottle top boat with things you find around the house Great for using materials with purpose, experimenting with floating and sinking and using vocabulary to describe the process.

Go on a shape ‘treasure hunt’ around the house Can you find an object to match each shape: circle, square, rectangle and triangle. Great for keeping active and shape recognition!

Buried Treasure Phonics Game- Free to play https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/buried-treasure Great for practising phonics skills and using technology to complete an age appropriate programme.

Popcorn and the Pirates Cosmic Yoga Great for keeping active and mindfulness.

Peg Pictures! Draw and cut out a sea animal. Use your fiddly fingers to peg on some parts of your creature. It could be an octopus with 8 legs, a spiky fish or a shark head with sharp peg teeth! Great for fine motor skills, imagination and understanding the world (sealife)

 

Our World Nursery Rhyme Week learning areas…

Rainbow Class Superstars singing their favourite nursery rhymes…

(click the image below)

 

 

Please find our Parent Partnership presentation link below. It is a PowerPoint presentation. If you are unable to access the file, please let us know.

click here

After you have viewed the presentation, please let us know if you have any questions.

The Reception Team.

Another busy week here in Reception! We posted about our Remembrance Day activities on Wednesday. We’ve also been celebrating…

Diwali

Understanding the World: People and Communities: Early Learning Goal; Children… know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.

We had some fantastic Diwali home-link emails last weekend. Thank you and well done to the children in Sunshine and Rainbow Class who watched the video and shared what they had learnt with their friends.

When we looked at the festival, we shared our knowledge and made links to some celebrations we already know:

“It is The Festival of Light”- Perla

We noticed that during Diwali, there are special meals, people spend time with their family and people give and receive presents. We discussed other celebrations that have similar traditions:

“Christmas!”- Edward

We’ve been colouring and decorating Rangoli patterns, making Rangoli patterns with coloured rice, carefully painting Mehndi patterns on hand outlines and writing Diwali cards. We learned the story of Rama and Sita and that the festival represents good (light) winning over evil (darkness)

The children really enjoyed Diwali dancing in PE on Wednesday. The first dance used dance moves to journey through the five days of Diwali. If your child would like to revisit this at home, you can find the link here

 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Our final traditional tale (which also links to the final week of our current focus number-3), was The Three Billy Goats Gruff. As well as story-telling and story mapping, the children have been thinking about materials…

Children in NeedA HUGE thank you for your donations and participation in our Children in Need celebrations. Today, the children have enjoyed…

Reminder: Next week is Anti-bullying week.

On Monday 16th November we’re asking children to join in with Odd Socks Day, celebrating our differences and that we are all unique. We’ll also be talking to the children about what makes us special and how we respect the differences of others.

Home-Link Challenge

Next week  is also  World Nursery Rhyme Week . In class, our provision will be based around well-known nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are so important for early development in Literacy. They help with sequencing, re-telling narratives and hearing rhyme (a really important skill for phonological awareness for reading and writing)

We’d like you to practise telling or singing a nursery rhyme of your choice with your child. These should be easy enough to find online or just practise ones you already know. We’d like the children to feel confident enough to perform these in front of their friends in a little show (if they want to)

Your child might also like to draw a picture of their chosen rhyme, for a classroom display.

The children have jumped straight back in, starting Autumn 2 with amazing confidence! Here are some highlights of another fantastic week in Reception:

We have been showing off our story-telling skills again this week! Click here to watch clips of Rainbow Class retelling this week’s story, The Three Little Pigs

Home-link challenge for w/c: 09.11.20

We will be setting home-link challenges each week, which link to the current or upcoming learning in class. You can send in your child’s home learning any day in the week it is set for.

Next week is a super-busy, with lots of important dates and events to learn about:

Wednesday 11th November 2020- Remembrance Day

Friday 13th November 2020- Children in Need  (Children can wear their own clothes on this day, voluntary donation)

Saturday 14th November 2020- Diwali, Festival of Light

We will be doing lots of activities in class but in preparation for next week, we have a couple of home challenges you can take part in…

1. Watch this quick video/ song about Diwali. Talk about what you see and hear in the video. In what ways do people celebrate Diwali? What is the festival a celebration of? Click here
2. Find out why we use the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance. Where could you look to find this information? Perhaps you would like to make a poppy at home? You could paint one, draw one or make one out of recyclable materials.

Please email your child’s responses and any pictures of poppies you have made at home. Thank you.

Welcome back Reception!

It was so lovely to see your happy faces arrive at school this morning. We are looking forward to another great term ahead.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has sent in photos of their half-term activities and adventures. We saw lots of great costumes, pumpkin picking, visits to the circus, welly walks and more. We will enjoy sharing these pictures in talk-time this week.

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep you all involved in classroom life, whilst restrictions continue to be in place, this morning we filmed a little snapshot of the classroom buzz and activity. You will see that as soon as the children walk through the door, they are ready to learn!

Click here to watch a short video of our busy morning 

Keeping safe

This morning, we revisited how we are keeping safe, our hygiene routines and why it is important to follow them.

We had a swift mention of the fact that the leaders of our country have put in some ‘new rules’ to continue keeping us all safe.  Well done to Gracie who told us that Boris Johnson “is the Prime Minister” when he was mentioned!

We spoke about how great we already are in our school, at making sure we are safe. We wash our hands carefully and use the ‘vampire arm’ to catch any sneezes or coughs. We practised this again.

Well done to Lewis, who gave a very detailed description of how we wash our hands:

“with soap, front to back, through our fingers, all over them, wash it off with water”

Thank you to our parents and carers, who have obviously done an amazing job at sharing these messages at home too.

Lunches

From next week, children will be having a different school dinner menu to choose from. There is more variety in the new menu. We wonder whether this might encourage some of our packed lunch children to try a school dinner?

You are of course welcome to continue sending a packed lunch, if this is your child’s preference.  You may also choose a mixture of school dinners and packed lunch throughout the week.

 

Well done Reception, a fantastic first half-term of school life. You have all been fantastic.

We want you to enjoy your time with family over the break, to relax and have fun.

You might already have lots of plans but here are a few suggestions of things to keep you busy (only if you want to be busy of course!)

Funny-Bones-Addition-SheetFunny-Bones-Addition-Sheet

funny-bones-pencil-control-path-activity-sheets

Thank you to all of our parents who joined us for our Parent Evenings this week. We’ve really enjoyed catching up with you all and sharing your child’s learning. We are so proud of them all!

We received some questions about useful websites and apps that help with phonics and letter formation. Here are some suggestions:

Apps and websites to support phonics and letter formation

Some online apps and games to support phonics and letter formation at home…

Free website– www.phonicsplay.co.uk –> click ‘free play’ –> choose phase 2 –> select a game (select options up to where your child is in their phonics learning.

(‘Dragon’s Den’, ‘Buried Treasure’ and ‘Pick a Picture’ are free without subscription)

2.99– ‘Hairy Letters’ app (available on Apple Store or Google Play)- supports sound recognition, letter formation and blending.

Free CBeebies game– ‘Get Squiggling’–> https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/get-squiggling-letters-mobile -supports letter formation.

Free website- www.phonicsbloom.com –> choose the phase suitable for your child and select a game – supports sound recognition, segmenting/ blending and tricky word recognition.

Free to register- https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk –> wide selection of free e-books, including Oxford Reading Tree (Biff, Chip and Kipper) stories- supports all aspects of phonics through reading.

A game to play to support blending

In addition to word boxes for segmenting and blending, ‘Toy Talk’ is a great listening game to play to support blending.

Use a toy or teddy to segment the sounds of a picture or object.  For example,  if you had a picture of a cat, the toy would say ‘c-a-t’ and your child blends the sounds the toy has made together, to say the word ‘cat’

Sounds so far

These are the phonemes we have covered so far, sounded out by our super helpers in Sunshine and Rainbow class…

click here

Enjoy!