Happy New Year!
Happy new Year!
Happy New Year to all our Reception Class families. Welcome back.
What a first term we had! Everyone made such a great start to school life during the first term – we’re so proud of your children. We’re looking forward to all the fun learning we have planned for you this term.
A look back over some of the festive activities we shared together:
- Learning about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. We especially liked learning how Santa needs to change into shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops when delivering presents in Australia. He asks the kangaroos to help him deliver presents to give the reindeer a little rest. We also loved searching the class for the hidden almond just like some people search for the hidden almond in the rice pudding in Denmark. It’s thought to bring good luck to those who find it.
- We got a phone call in class to let us know that our teachers had received a very special email. It was very mysterious. The email was a video of Santa himself exploring the Nursery, Reception and KS1 classes. He had hidden a bag of presents in our classes for us to find and we each got to take home a little gift.
- Performing songs and poems for parents and carers in the Christmas show.
Swimming
School Trip
A gentle reminder to please pay for the upcoming trip on Arbor. We’re visiting This Green Moon and the cost of this visit is £21.44 per child to cover entry and the ever-increasing travel costs. During this visit, children will explore the outdoors, get mucky, build dens, sit around a fire, learn crafts and skills and all the while, appreciate the surroundings and develop a love of nature.
Fire and ice
The Nativity
Some of our learning is top secret this week, as we continue preparations for the festive season! There’s been Christmas crafts and of course, lots of practise for our very special show.
Here’s a little insight into the super learning we can share from this week…
Advent and The Nativity Story
We’ve been learning about the story of the first Christmas- The Nativity. Nativity is our word of the week.
We started the week by finding out why Christians choose to celebrate Christmas and where the word ‘advent’ comes from.
Did you know both Rainbow and Sunshine Class has their own Advent tree? ‘Star of the Day’ gets to choose a decoration each morning. See if you can spot it next time you are in the classroom!
We learnt a version of The Nativity with actions and enjoyed re-telling the story using a Nativity scene in the classroom.
In our writing, we used an image of The Nativity to either write a sentence or label characters and/or animals from the image.
We discussed that people have different traditions and reasons for celebrating Christmas. Next week, we’ll be looking at how Christmas is celebrated across the world.
Maths; 2d Shapes
In maths this week, we’ve been re-visiting 2d shapes. We’ve been naming shapes and discussing their properties. We’ve been exploring which shapes can fit within other shapes. We’ll continue our shape explorations into next week.
Expressive Arts and Design; Observational drawing
The children developed their observational drawing skills by carefully looking at a Poinsettia before drawing it with wax crayons. As they examined the plant, they noticed details like the veins running through the leaves. Using these observations, they chose colours purposefully.
Phonics
It’s review and assessment week! This week the children have been re-visiting all they have learnt across the autumn 2 term and completed a phonics check.
It’s been fantastic to see the progress made since September and how all of the children’s confidence has grown in regards to both their reading and their writing skills.
Help at home; Please keep re-visiting the learn at home sheets. If your child has been at school, you will have received an updated ‘GPC mat’ with the sounds and tricky words we have covered so far. If any GPCs or tricky words have been highlighted, these are the ones your child was unsure of during the phonics check and therefore need a little more re-visiting. If your child has a blank sheet in their bag, they knew all GPCs/tricky words covered in the assessment.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will 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 called Who has seen the wind? By Christina Rosetti.
We’ve also been learning a range of winter/Christmas themed poems, ready for our EYFS production- we’ll keep those ones a surprise!
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Swimming
Posters detailing the dates for swimming sessions (after half term), will be put on classroom doors this week. They will also be posted with further details next week, on the Class News post.
Reminders and Diary Dates
- Tuesday 16 December 1.30pm / Wednesday 17 December 9.45am Early Years Christmas Performance
- Thursday 18 December Christmas Dinner
- Friday 19 December Non-uniform day and Reception Christmas Party day.
Owl Babies
This week in Reception, we enjoyed reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. 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.
Using a story map, we created our own actions to help us retell the story from the beginning to the end. We practised remembering key events from the story and included the repeated phrases.
I want my Mummy!
All owls think a lot.
What’s all the fuss?
Phonics
In phonics this week, we’ve focused on:
- words with s /s/ added at the end (hats, sits)
- words with s /z/ added at the end (bags)
- words ending s /z/ (his)
We’ve learnt the tricky words: we, me, be
Tricky words are words that children learn to recognise by sight. Children have been introduced to many new Phase 2 tricky words this half term. Regular practice, both at home and at school, will help them to remember and recognise these words.
Help at home: Here are a few games you can play to help your child learn their tricky words:
-
Tricky word doorbell/password: Stick a tricky word on a doorframe. Children say the word correctly each time they go through the door.
-
Tricky word hunt / hide-and-seek: Write tricky words on pieces of paper and hide them around the house. Children find them and read each word aloud.
-
Pairs: Write each tricky word twice on separate pieces of paper. Mix them up and play a simple pairs game where children have to read the word and find the matching card.
In provision, we’ve been reading and highlighting our focus tricky words.
Poetry Basket
Each week we learn a new poem and say it together every day. Reciting the poem out loud helps children to hear the sounds and rhythm in the words, which supports their early reading skills. This week’s poem is called ‘Wise Old Owl‘. Please follow the link to enjoy watching the children recite it.
Maths: counting, ordinality and cardinality
This week in Maths, we’ve been busy:
-
practising one-to-one correspondence by carefully matching objects to their representations
-
developing our understanding of cardinality — knowing that the last number counted tells us the total
-
counting abstract things such as claps and jumps
-
counting beyond 20 to spot number patterns
-
linking quantities to numbers within 5
-
exploring how an amount stays the same even when it is moved or rearranged
Learning journey drop-ins
Thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to join us for the first look at your child’s learning journey book. We’ll be inviting you back to view these again on specific dates in the spring and summer terms, but they are also available at any time in the classroom if you would like to take a peek.
A few parents and carers asked about the written observations and the numbers that were written next to them. Our Early Years Curriculum Guide describes our curriculum and explains the age-related expectations for children in Reception. Please ask if you have any questions.
Diary Dates
- Friday 12 December 3.15-4.15 FOSP Christmas Disco (bring named party clothes in a bag to change into at the end of the school day)
- Tuesday 16 December 1.30pm / Wednesday 17 December 9.45am Early Years Christmas Performance
- Thursday 18 December Christmas Dinner
- Friday 19 December Non-uniform day and Reception Christmas Party day. More details to follow.
How To Catch A Star
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). We read the book and spent time retelling the story in our own words.
Phonics
During our recent Phonics lessons we’ve been expanding our digraph knowledge. Digraphs are two letters that make one sound. Here are the ones we now know so far:
ck, ss, ll, ff, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, nk
Help at home: you could write these digraphs on paper to play with your child. They’d be great as flashcards to practise or if you made two sets, you could play games such as Snap or Matching Pairs. You also hide one pack around the house and then use the other as a prompt to find the right one.
The Phonics challenge in class this week was to challenge a friend to a Tricky Word Boo game. You need to read as many words as you can and collect them in a bowl as you go. Be careful though! If you come across the word ‘Boo’ – you need to put all your words back. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end.
Help at home: You could play a game of Tricky Word Boo at home.
Word Of The Week
Our word of the week this week is ‘reflection‘.
We use this song to help us practise the word of the week in class:
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’ by Rose Fyleman.
Here’s Sunshine Class reciting it 🙂
Maths
After watching an episode of Numberblocks, we enjoyed making our own Stampoline prints to show different ways of making 5.
Help at home: You could watch the Stampolines episode with your child
PE
During our PE lessons, we’ve been using the large equipment in the hall to practise our balancing skills. Balancing is one of the fundamental movement skills. It is a key skill for many sports such as tennis, gymnastics, football, ballet, dance, golf and many more.
Winter weather
The winter weather is well and truly here. We had fun in our outdoor classroom mark making in the frost with paint brushes and water and being ice detectives.
Night Monkey, Day Monkey
We’ve been reading Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson.
The story follows two monkeys who find themselves awake at their opposite times of day. They are very confused by what they see and need help understanding everything! Our word of the week is: nocturnal. We know that nocturnal means “active at night”
We’ve been writing about nocturnal animals and features of day/night.
Understanding the World- Science; shadows
We’ve been investigating shadows, by spotting them outside and by exploring a ‘dark tent’. We know that to make a shadow, we need a source of light. When that source of light is blocked, it casts a shadow. We explored using mirrors to reflect lights differently and used colour paddles to change the colour being projected onto the tent wall. We’re looking forward to continuing our dark tent investigations next week.
Maths; part-whole
In Maths, we’ve been looking at the ‘parts’ that make the whole of something. For example, the parts of us that make our whole body. Our head, eyes, legs etc. are the parts and our body is the whole. Here is a detailed explanation of how this understanding is a crucial knowledge base for later mathematical learning:
“Composition of number is a key area of mathematics … By investigating their own bodies and familiar toys they will begin to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts… As part of their work on subitising, the children have previously begun to spot numbers within numbers, and this skill of de-composing and combining numbers (taking them apart and putting them back together again) will build firm foundations for later calculation strategies”
-NCETM Mastering Number 2021/2022
Maths Stay and Learn
A big thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us on Monday for our Maths Stay and Learn session. We hope you enjoyed seeing a lesson in action and taking part in activities with your child. Hopefully, you have also come away with some ideas on how to support your child further at home. If you do have any further questions or would like any further advice, please don’t hesitate to ask the class teachers.
We’d Love Your Feedback
Thank you again for joining our Stay and Learn session. We’d love to hear your thoughts! Please scan the QR code to fill out our feedback form.
Expressive Arts and Design; Artist Focus- Howardena Pindell
We’ve been discovering the art of American artist Howardena Pindell. Take a look at our thoughts about some of her artwork.
In Reception, we are focused on the art process. We try and replicate the art we see through exploring different methods and mediums. We also make comments on what we like or dislike about the art we see.
Much of Pindell’s art is based around ‘the circle’. This week, we’ve been using hole punches to make a stencil in squares of card.
Next week, we’ll use a sponge printing method and our pre-made stencils to create our art.
Phonics
Autumn 2 week 3 has focused on the single letter phoneme z and digraphs zz, qu, ch
We’ve learnt the tricky words; go, no, to, into
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing what’s in the box and reading the words to match pictures we find.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will 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 called Basket of Apples.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Rainbow class recite this week’s poem
Understanding the world; Snow much fun!
The turning weather and snow brought so much excitement this week. It was lovely to see the fascination and wonder, as we explored the snow and ice outside. The interest led us to creating our own ‘ice experiment’, leaving bowls of water overnight in the hopes that they would freeze!
Help at home; Stars
Next week, we’ll be looking to the skies again! We are reading How to Catch a Star and learning about the night sky.
We know this is a topic of interest for many children in Reception. If you have any books or resources to share that are linked to this topic, we would love to see them.
Reminders and Diary Dates
Learning Journey Drop in 01.12.25 & 04.12.25; 3.00-3.30pm – An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Each Peach Pear Plum
We’ve had such a busy week! We enjoyed celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week, marking Remembrance Day, taking part in Odd Socks Day and supporting Children in Need.
World Nursery Rhyme Week
Children loved taking part in World Nursery Rhyme Week, singing and exploring some of our favourite rhymes. Nursery rhymes play an important role in early years education for many reasons. Here’s an overview of a few of them.
If you’d like to find out even more, you can read about seven key benefits of nursery rhymes for young children on the BBC Tiny Happy People website.
Each Peach Pear Plum
Linked to World Nursery Rhyme Week, we’ve been reading the classic Ahlberg book, Each Peach Pear Plum. We listened for rhyming words and spotted familiar fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme characters hidden in the illustrations.
History: Household objects from the past
The illustrations in our focus story inspired discussions about household objects from the past and we learnt about some objects that we had never seen before. We compared these to objects we might have at home, in the present.
In addition to pictures, we looked carefully at some old household artefacts and had a go at sorting past and present objects.
Ask your child which objects from the past they can spot in this picture from the story. Can they remember what they are called and what they are used for?
Phonics
This week, we focused on the new GPCs (Grapheme-phoneme correspondence) v, w, x, y.
We’ve also learnt some new tricky words; and, has, his, her. Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
Help at home – Please continue to revisit this week’s sounds and tricky words using the ‘Learn at home’ sheets.
Poem Of The week
This week’s poem is called ‘Shoes‘.
Reminders
- It’s our Number Stay and Learn session on Tuesday 18 November (9–10am). We hope you can join us for a short maths lesson, followed by some time in the classroom taking part in maths activities with your child.
- Please make sure all uniform is clearly named. Please could you also double-check that your child has brought home the correct uniform, as jumpers and cardigans can sometimes end up in the wrong place!
- Rain, rain and more rain! Please ensure that your child has a pair of wellington boots at school so that they can enjoy learning outside in all weathers.
Next week:
We’ll read Night Monkey, Day Monkey and explore how the two monkeys experience the world at different times of day. We’ll also be learning about daytime and night time activities, including discovering some amazing nocturnal animals.
Odd Socks Day!
Today, children came to school wearing odd socks in support of Anti-Bullying week. We discussed how important it is to celebrate our differences and respect everyone.
Reception children loved showing off their mismatched socks while learning about kindness, inclusion and celebrating differences.
Welcome back!
Welcome back everyone! It was so nice to see the children again and see so many smiling faces upon their return to school on Monday. A great start to the new term!
Phonics
This week in Phonics we have learnt some more digraphs. Digraphs are two letters that make one sound. They were:
We also learnt the phoneme and grapheme /j/ along with the new tricky word ‘as’.
Maths
This week, we’ve been engaging in activities that highlight the purpose of counting – finding out how many objects there are altogether. We’ve reinforced our understanding of cardinality, recognising that the last number we say when counting represents the total number of objects in the set.
A key focus has been deepening our understanding of the number 5 as a quantity. We’ve been linking the number to familiar representations, such as the five fingers on one hand. The children are also beginning to explore different ways to represent numbers up to 5, using both their fingers and the Hungarian number pattern (die frame).
Poem Of The week
This week’s poem is called Cup Of Tea.
Celebrations
Over the last couple of teaching weeks we have been learning about some of the different celebrations that people celebrate in our country. We have thought about and discussed Diwali and Bonfire night. We have also been paying close attention to the season of Autumn and thinking about some of the things that happen during this beautiful season.
My Money Week
Throughout school the children have been learning about money this week. We joined in with Key Stage One and created the school logo from the pennies that pupils had brought in to school. Thank you to everyone that donated money!
Next week:
- Anti-bullying Week and Odd Socks Day. Next week we will be partaking in Odd Socks Day on Monday the 10th November. All children are welcome to come to school in odd socks. This is to raise awareness for Anti-bullying week. The odd socks will help us to discuss all of our wonderful similarities and differences.
- Remembrance Day. In school we will observe a minute silence at 11am on the 11th November. This is to commemorate Armistice, to honour the service and sacrifice of the armed forces and to show respect for all the lives lost. This will be done and explained in a child friendly and age appropriate manor.
- Nursery Rhyme Week. This week in reception class we will also be celebrating Nursery Rhyme week. Look out for next week’s web post to see some of the wonderful learning that will have taken place.
