Author: Reception Team

We’ve continued our learning on coastal habitats this week, by taking a closer look at rockpools and some of the sea creatures you may find in them.

Sharing a Shell

We enjoyed reading Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson.

We looked at the characters, events and settings and matched them with real images and text in a non-fiction book.  In our writing, we wrote about what you might find in a rockpool.

The book also had some great messages about sharing and how to treat others. Linked to this, our word of the week was thoughtful.

Maths; counting and recognising the pattern of the counting system

This week, we’ve revisited our some of our key counting skills. Here are some of the skills that we have practised:

• tagging each object in a group of up to 10 objects (1-to-1 correspondence)
• knowing number names to 10 and their order (stable order principle)
• knowing that the last number counted gives the total in the set (cardinal principle)
• counting up to 10 things that can’t be seen or tagged, such as jumps, hops, sounds, etc. (abstraction principle)
• understanding that the quantity remains the same when (up to 10) objects are counted in a different order (order irrelevance principle)
• developing strategies to keep track of what has and has not been counted (e.g. rearranging objects into a line, moving objects as they’re counted.

Holidays in the past

We’ve been looking at the way people enjoyed a seaside holiday in the past, specifically in Victorian times. We’ve talked about the similarities and differences with seaside holidays in the present day.

Home Learning – Ask your child what they can remember about seaside holidays in the past. 

Phonics 

Summer 2 week 3 has focused on:

Phase 4 words ending –s /s/
Phase 4 words ending –s /z/
Phase 4 words ending –es
Longer words

Please continue to use the Little Wandle sheets, sent home with your child each week.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers.

This week’s poem is the traditional rhyming song- The Big Ship Sails.

The big ship sails on the ally ally oh,
The alley ally oh,
The alley ally oh.
The big ship sails on the ally ally oh,
On the last day of September.

The captain said, ‘It will never, never do,
Never, never do,
Never, never do.’
The captain said, ‘It will never, never do,’
On the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
On the last day of September.

More of our learning this week…

Reminders and Dates

Wednesday 2 July, 10.00-11.30am- Meet your new teacher. Your child will visit their new teacher this morning.

Thursday 03 July- Class trip to Nell Bank.

Friday 04 July, 3.15-4.15pm- Rec/KS1 FOSP summer disco.

Tuesday 08 and Thursday 10 July  – 8.35am or 3.15pm – Learning journey drop-in.

Friday 11 July, 9.15-10.30am- Sports Day.

Swimming

Rainbow- 25 June, 09 July

Sunshine- 02 July

This week, we wrapped up our topic ‘Life on Earth’ by diving into the fascinating world of the human body.

Using a range of non-fiction books, we shared what we already knew and discovered even more amazing facts about how our bodies work. The children were especially engaged as they explored the many ways our bodies help us live, grow and stay healthy.

In Music, the children listened to a fun skeleton song and enjoyed working as a team to put together a life-size skeleton.  (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).

Science

We had a very special visitor on Monday – Professor Myers! The children were excited to take part in a fun experiment all about dental health. Using eggs to represent tooth enamel, we explored how different drinks affect our teeth.

We began by applying toothpaste to one half of each egg before placing them in different liquids: milk, water, cola and fresh orange juice. We talked about the sugar content of each drink and made predictions about which ones would be the most or least harmful to our teeth. It was a great way to see how everyday choices can impact our dental health.

Living and Learning – Healthy Me!

Throughout this half term, we’ve been learning about what it means to be healthy – not just physically, but mentally too. During Circle Time, we explored real-life scenarios, such as why someone might feel very tired at school. The children shared thoughtful ideas, including going to bed too late, not eating well, not drinking enough water and spending too much time on screens.

We’ve played fun circle time games focused on healthy eating and the importance of getting our ‘five a day’. We also discussed the different ways we stay physically active and how this helps both our minds and bodies.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and recite it every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Monkey Babies.

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Home Link

We hope that you have a wonderful holiday and if you go on any adventures, please share them with us using our email.

 

 

Literacy

This week, we enjoyed reading a story that many of the children already know and love — The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Because the story is so familiar, it allowed children to join in with re-telling it, using the language and repeated refrains from the book. It was great to hear them confidently recalling key events and phrases, building their storytelling and early literacy skills along the way.

As a class, we then explored how we could change the story to create our own versions. Together, we came up with new character ideas — including The Very Hungry Bee! The children had great fun thinking of alternative foods that their character might eat, from strawberries and cake to honey and flower petals.

 Maths

This week, we have continued to develop our subitising skills (see the quantity without counting) in complex arrangements.

We have explored creating arrangements of 6. The children explained how they could see 6.

I can see 3 and 3. I know that double 3 is 6.

There are 4 spots there and 2 there. 4 and 2 make 6.

That’s not six because there are 6 counters here and I can see one more.

Phonics

This week, we have continued to learn phase 4 words such as frog, shift, chimp and drum.

We’ve also learnt more phase 4 tricky words; some, come, love and do

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

Remember, there are lots of ‘tricky word games’ that we’ve shared in the past (see previous Class News posts) to help your child learn and remember these words. Thank you for your continued support — regular short practice sessions really help children consolidate their learning.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and we recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Under a Stone. Watch here.

Creative

Children have also enjoyed being creative with clay as part of their Expressive Arts and Design (EAD) learning. Inspired by our ongoing topic on minibeasts, they explored the shapes and features of tiny creatures like ladybirds, caterpillars and spiders. They rolled, pinched and shaped the clay to create their very own minibeast models.

More pictures of our learning this week…

 

This week, we’ve been reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Some of the children recognised the illustrations, knowing that the author also wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

The story follows the journey of a tiny seed, tracking its journey through the four seasons.

We decided to go on a season walk to find signs of spring. The children spotted buds, leaves, blossom, snails and even the sun!

Miniscule is our ‘word of the week’. We’ve been learning that miniscule is even smaller than tiny!

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been doubling! Ask your child explain how we find doubles.

Phonics

Spring 2 week 5 has been a review of phase 3 sounds. We’ve been reading longer words, words with s in the middle /z/ (like ‘visit’), words ending –s and words with –es at end /z/ (like ‘foxes’)

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and recite it every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Hungry Birdies.

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Click here to watch us recite this week’s poem!

The Hundred Decker Bus

This week, we’ve been reading another ‘Hundred Decker’ story by Mike Smith. The Hundred Decker Bus.

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.

In this story, a driver who is bored of his daily routine decides to take himself and his passengers on a long ‘adventure’. As more people get on the bus, more decks need to be built!

Linked to the story, we’ve been comparing cities/towns to the countryside and discussing the similarities and differences. Countryside is our ‘word of the week’.

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been comparing numbers and noticing whether change creates a number that is more or less than another.  In provision, we used the ‘bus stop’ number story to explore subtraction (creating less) and recorded our number stories.

Phonics

Spring 2 week 3 has been a review of phase 3 sounds, reading words with two or more digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound). We review tricky words (a word you can’t sound out – you just have to know it) daily.

Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try…

Tricky word stick person (a modified version of the ‘hangman’ game)

We often play this game in class. Write the correct number of dashes for your chosen tricky word and let your child make guesses. Encourage your child to use letter names rather than sounds for spelling tricky words. Draw a part of the stick man for each incorrect guess- you can give extra chances by adding a hat, shoes, gloves etc. to the stick person!

 Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to  children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is the traditional nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake.

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Reading reminder 

Children should be reading fluently by the time their book is issued on-line at the end of the week.  Your child will have read their book at least 4 times at school – this is where the teaching of reading happens. The aim of reading sessions at home is to celebrate their reading and to showcase what they have learnt during the week. It’s a great way for your child to recognise themselves as a ‘reader’.

If you believe your child is reading from memory you can ‘spot check’ particular words in a sentence or play games with the e-book (such as spotting tricky words).

Remember to encourage reading for pleasure through sharing library books, magazines and other texts at home.

Reminders and Dates

‘Number’ Stay and learn – Tuesday 18 March 9:00am

Our Stay and Learn sessions are a chance to find out more about your child’s journey through Reception. You can observe some teaching and learning, and pick up some tips to support your child at home. This session is all about Number.

 

This week, we’ve been reading Great Fairies of the World by Stephanie Moss. This rhyming story features fairy characters that have jobs that help others; architect fairy, doctor fairy and engineer fairy, to name just a few! We’ve been discussing how the author uses the most interesting descriptions/words that they can think of. We’ve been describing images and making words more adventurous. This has helped develop our oracy skills and helped us in our writing too.

In our writing, we’ve created our own fairy characters and written about the jobs that they do.

In provision, we’ve linked our fiction reading to non-fiction information about real-life heroes in the community.

We’ve also used the fairy theme in our classroom challenges.

Living and learning: Internet Safety

We joined in with learning about  Safer Internet Day  on Tuesday 11 February.

When asked what being ‘online’ means and what you can do online, children had lots of ideas. Many of them talked about different games and programmes that they play and watch on-line at home.

We spoke about some important uses for the internet, such as the way we use it for our learning- our eBooks. We also discussed how we should limit our time online to keep our body and brain healthy and why we shouldn’t use electronic devices close to bed time.

In Reception, we used the story The Adventures of Smartie the Penguin to talk about internet safety. Smartie receives a tablet for his birthday but encounters some problems when using it, including adverts, websites that are too old for him and people saying unkind things online, during a game. He makes the right decisions and always asks Mummy and Daddy for help. There is a memorable song throughout the story:

Ask your child what they can remember about keeping safe online.

Maths: Length and height

We’ve been developing our understanding of how to compare and measure length and height. We’ve been ordering by length and comparing the length of objects; saying which are shorter, longer, the shortest, the longest or the same (equal). We’ve been measuring objects using non-standard forms of measurement. We measured the length of our bodies using different objects.

Phonics

It was assessment week in phonics and we’ve been reviewing and revisiting our Spring 1 learning. Your child will have come home with a grapheme mat and a tricky word mat. If any sounds are highlighted on the grapheme mat, these are those that your child is not yet secure on. Please keep practising these at home.

Tricky words can be just that-tricky! In Little Wandle phase 3, we learnt lots of new words. The children will continue to learn new tricky words fairly rapidly so it’s important to keep practising them. We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try!

Help at home: Musical tricky words

• Write the tricky words on individual pieces of paper, lay them out on the  floor.
• Play your child’s favourite song for them to dance to.
• When the music stops, your child should pick a word to quickly run to and stand on.
• Your child reads the word they have landed on.
• Remove that word and repeat until there are no words left!

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and we recite this poem every day.  By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem was Furry, furry squirrel.

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm. Can your child re-tell this week’s poem to you?

Parent-teacher meetings

Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to the parent-teacher meetings this week. It was great to see you all there, keen to find out how your child is doing in school and how you can continue to support at home.

A few people asked about how to say the graphemes correctly, using pure sounds   – here are links to help you pronounce  Phase 2 graphemes and Phase 3 graphemes.

If you’d like to email us any photos of your child’s home learning, share any achievements or tell us about any exciting events, please send them to our Reception email.  Children love to share them with their friends and it’s also great for their confidence and communication skills too!

Reminders

SWIMMING DATES- Spring 2

Rainbow Class- 26 Feb, 12 Mar, 26 Mar

Sunshine Class- 5 Mar, 19 Mar, 02 Apr

These dates are also stuck to your child’s classroom door or window to view whenever needed. 

Sponsored maths challenge –  Please see the Sponsored Tens Frame Challenge letter that has been sent home this week.

World Book Day 2025: Stay and Read – Thursday 06 March. Further details to follow (see calendar).

Happy half term! Enjoy the break and we’ll see you again on Monday 24 February.

In our literacy lessons this week, we enjoyed reading Penguin Huddle by Ross Montgomery.  In the story, the penguins huddled together during an icy storm but it was so cold that they got stuck together and couldn’t break free!

Our word of the week is: huddle.  Ask your child to tell you what it means. Can they use it in a sentence?  

Here is some of our super writing from this week.

We also watched a short clip from an episode of BBC Frozen planet  to find out more about where penguins live. We located the UK and the Antarctic on a map and found their locations on a globe.

How is the Antarctic environment different to the United Kingdom?  After watching the clip, we looked at some photographs of the Antarctic and compared them to the United Kingdom to find similarities and differences.

Focus Artist: Yayoi Kusama

This week, children loved exploring the art of Yayoi Kusama. We found out about her life and why her artwork incorporates so many polka dots!  On Tuesday afternoon,  we visited a special ‘pop-up’ Art Gallery in the Hub.

When looking at the artwork, we used sentence stems to talk about our opinions.

I like it because…

I don’t like it because…

I love this one because it’s like a domino.  Cillian

This one is my favourite because the dots look like they are sparkling. Hugo

This one has lots of bright balls. I like it. Jazmin

After looking at the gallery, we took inspiration from some of the pictures to create our own Yayoi Kusama inspired artwork. We’ve also been exploring colour mixing to find out what happens when you mix two of the primary colours (red, blue and yellow) together.

Maths -composition

This week, children  consolidated their understanding of the composition of 5 using the familiar rhyme ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs‘.   By singing the rhyme and moving the frogs during each verse, children investigated part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 5 can be made of 3 and 2.

There are five frogs on the log but when one frog jumps into the pool, we can see that there are four frogs on the log and one in the pool.  5 can be made of 4 and 1.  When another frog jumps into the pool, there are 3 frogs on the log and 2 in the pool. 5 can be made of 3 and 2. 

We also used our fingers to show this, first holding up 5 fingers and then putting one down each time.

Poetry Picnic

Our poetry sessions this week have been a little different as we learnt and recited a traditional nursery rhyme.

The children used gestures and expression to recite ‘Jack and Jill’.

Watch it here. .

Phonics

Spring 1 week 3  has focused on the digraphs ur, ow, oi and the trigraph ear.

We’ve learnt the tricky words; my, by, all.    Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.

Help at home:

Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.

This week’s game is: Tricky Word Splat

• Write a selection of tricky words on paper/sticky notes.
• Place around the room/floor.
• Say a tricky word for your child to splat. You might jump on the words, splat with a masher or create your own ideas.

What a busy week of festive fun!

The Christmas story 

We’ve been learning about the story of the first Christmas- The Nativity. We learnt that this is why Christians celebrate Christmas and we enjoyed using story props to re-tell the story.

Christmas around the world 

Children were really interested in learning about how different countries celebrate Christmas around the world. We looked at the difference between Santa in the UK and Santa in Australia.

We heard about the good witch, La Befana, who brings presents to children in Italy and we went hunting for (a picture of) the lucky almond!  In Denmark, it’s a Christmas tradition to hide an almond in pudding. The finder has good luck for the year!

In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas leaves gifts in children’s shoes. We added drawings of presents and sweets to a picture of shoes.  At playtime, our shoes were magic and turned into real treats!

 

Phonics

This week, we’ve been revisiting and consolidating everything that we have learnt across phase 2.  The children have been brilliant in their reading groups and independent writing activities. It is fantastic to see them confidently using all of the skills that they have developed this term.

Help at home: Over the holidays, please keep reading and practising all of the graphemes and tricky words that we have learnt so far. It’ll help children to consolidate them before the next phase of our phonics learning begins in January.

EYFS Christmas Sing-along

Thank you to everyone that came to watch our Christmas Sing-along. We hope you enjoyed all of the singing, dancing and poetry. We were really proud of the children – it’s quite daunting to stand on a stage in front of so many people! Well done, Reception.

Someone special visited our classrooms…

On Wednesday, the children received a special video. Santa had been to visit and play in our classrooms and he’d left us all a present!  We were so impressed that he came to see our school.

Christmas Dinner and party time!

Reception had a yummy Christmas dinner on Thursday and enjoyed exploring the Christmas inflatables which were kindly organised by Mrs Pennock. This is always a Christmas highlight at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School!  On Friday, we had lots of fun dancing, playing games and being with our friends.

A message from the Reception Team

The Reception team would like to thank everyone for your kind Christmas greetings, cards and presents. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy spending time with family and friends this festive season. We’ll see you all again on Monday 06 January.

Literacy

This week our focus story was ‘How to Catch a Star‘ by Oliver Jeffers. (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).

In the writing area, the challenge was to think, draw and write about what we might see if we went into space.  At the end of the week, we thought of our own ways to catch a star. We had lots of amazing ideas.

Maths

This week, we have built on our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5.

We composed and de-composed numbers by investigating the part, part, whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2.

After watching an episode of Numberblocks, we enjoyed making our own Stampoline prints to show different ways of making 5.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and we recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to  children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Mice.

Art

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been inspired by Monet’s series of paintings, Houses of Parliament. We looked at the colours that we could see in the sky and thought about what time of day it might be.

The colours are reflected in the water. It’s the morning.

We created our own art work by using blocks to print shapes and make a building silhouette. Then, we explored using water colours to create the sky. We thought carefully about how different colours can change the feeling of a painting and represent the sky during different weathers or times of the day.

Help at home

• Spot some signs of winter.  You may choose to take photos, draw pictures or talk about the change in season, from autumn to winter. Let us know if you spot any signs of winter – send us an email, bring in your pictures or tell us about what you found.

• Please remember to complete your child’s reading log every week to let us know how they are getting on with their reading book at home. Thank you.

Dates 

Learning Journey drop-in sessions 

Every child in Reception has a Learning Journey book that celebrates their learning – this might be with photos, our observations and your updates from home. Come in and share with your child their Learning Journey so far. There are four sessions planned next week – we look forward to seeing you at one of them.

Tuesday 03 December and Thursday 05 December

Times – 8.45 am-9.15am   and   3.15pm-3.45pm

 

 

Welcome to Autumn 2!  This half term, our theme is light and dark.

We’ve covered lots of important events and topics this week…

Bonfire Night

We learnt about why some people celebrate Bonfire Night, with an introduction to The Gunpowder Plot.  The children enjoyed sharing their experiences of Bonfire Night and how they celebrated at home or out and about.

In the construction area, we built replicas of The Houses of Parliament. We explored casting shadows of our models with torches and used colour paddles to make the shadows look like fire!

Diwali

We found out about the Hindu festival of lights – Diwali.   Our focus book was Binny’s Diwali by Thrity Umrigar.

We also found out about the festival through sharing non-fiction texts and watching My first festivals.

Take a look at some of the activities we explored, when learning about Diwali.

Our word of the week is: festival. 

Maths; identifying and composing 5

In Maths, we’ve been using our fingers to identify 5. We ‘grew our fingers’ using the peas in a pod song.

Five little peas in a pea pod pressed,

One grew, two grew, so did all the rest,

They grew and they grew and they did not stop,

Until one day the pod went pop!

Later in the week, we used 5 frames and 5-die frames to explore the different ways to compose 5.

Phonics

This week, we focused on the new digraphs ff, ll, ss and the single letter phoneme j.

We’ve also learnt the tricky word; as

Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In as, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and we recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Who has seen the wind?

Click the link to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!    Who has seen the wind?

Help at home; World Nursery Rhyme Week

Next week, we’ll be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week.

If your child would like to, we’d love to share a recording of them telling their favourite nursery rhyme in class. Please send your videos to the email address below.

Dates for your diary

Anti-bullying Day and Odd Socks Day- 12.11.24   To support anti-bullying week, please send your child to school wearing a pair of odd socks (Tuesday only). 

Maths Stay and Learn – 13.11.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 Please join us in the classroom to watch a short maths session and enjoy some maths activities with your child.

Children in Need – 15.11.24     Non-uniform day for Children in Need.

Swimming

Rainbow class loved their first swimming lesson this week! There were lots of happy faces splashing  in the pool on Wednesday.  Next week, Sunshine class will be swimming.

On your child’s swimming day, please provide a swimsuit/swim shorts, a towel and a pair of goggles if needed. No floatation equipment is required, as we provide these in school. Your child should still come to school wearing their PE kit.