Reception Class News

Rocket word fun!

Here are some games to make learning the rocket words fun and engaging for your child.

BOO!

Preparation/Equipment:

Write the words on individual pieces of paper and fold into a cup.

Write the word BOO on some of the individual pieces of paper and fold into a cup.

How to play:

Take it in turns to pick a word out of the cup and read it.

If you get BOO put all your words back.

The winner is the person with the most words at the end of the game.

Splat!

Equipment:

Words on card/paper

Fly swatter

How to play:

Splat the words with the fly swatter and get your child to say the words OR

ask your child to splat the words as they read them.

Time to talk

We love hearing about what your child has been up to at the weekend during our time to talk sessions. It’s a great chance for your child to build their self-confidence by speaking in front of their peers. It’s also a valuable time to develop their communication and language skills.

If your child brings a time to talk sheet (which you can get from the parent partnership board in the classroom) on a Monday, they’ll be able to share their Monday news with their key worker group. You can also email pictures to support your child to remember what they did at the weekend.

As well as sharing time to talk sheets from home, your child gets the chance to draw a picture, label it (initial sound/word) or write a caption/sentence about their weekend. This is an opportunity for your child to write about something that is meaningful to them.

In this example the child has labelled her picture with the word red.

In this example the child has written a sentence – I went to a party.  

In this example the children enjoyed writing a list of jobs for the pirate crew – sweep the deck, walk the plank, fight the baddies, find the treasure.

When writing a sentence we encourage your child to think about their sentence, say their sentence aloud, count how many words are in their sentence and then write it. Finally, don’t forget to check it! Below is a picture prompt your child will be familiar with when writing a sentence.

Swimming dates (January-February)

Please see below your child’s swimming dates.

Christmas in F2

We have had a busy time in F2 so far…

Last week we introduced the children to ‘The Christmas Story’. Before reading the story we looked at the characters and the children were able to name most of them. The children then listened very carefully to the story about the very first Christmas.

• It’s Baby Jesus.
• Mary – Baby Jesus’ mummy.
• The 3 wise men, they gave presents to Jesus.
• Joseph and the shepherds.
• They are in a stable.

On Thursday, it was our Christmas dinner day. We all made a Christmas hat to wear into the hall.

So far this week, we have watched a Christmas pantomime. This was lots of fun but had an important message – how to keep safe on the road. Can your child tell you how to safely cross the road? (think, stop, look and listen).

We have also had a special visit from Father Christmas. He read us a special Christmas story and listened carefully when we told him what we would like for Christmas. We were all very lucky and received a present to put under our Christmas tree ready for Christmas morning.

All Stars cricket

Foundation and Key Stage 1 enjoyed a lively cricket assembly from Tom Bates (All Stars Cricket) today. The Year 1 and 2 classes then had a try playing some cricket skills games and a match, too!

Book People Book Fair

This week, we’ve a Book People book fair at school. The Book People are an online book shop, selling books at up to 70% off RRP prices. We’ve a great selection of individual books starting from £4 and a wide range of boxed books, too. Tomorrow is the last day we will be selling the books in school. We will open the book fair at 3.15pm for parents to buy and browse before the end of school. The fair is located in the main reception area.

Thank you to everyone who has already paid us a visit and bought a book.

The school earns money for the sales we make, which helps us replenish the school library, guided reading books and books for the children to enjoy in their classrooms.

Phonics Stay and Play

Thank you to those parents and carers who were able to attend the Phonics Stay and Play session today. The children really enjoyed showing you what they do! We hope you found the information useful and left with some ideas on how to support your child at home.

Home-link: Can your child say a cvc/tricky word in a sentence.

Can they: 

For example, read a cvc word – bag – then, think, say and use fingers to count out the words in the sentence. I can see a bag (5 words). This process is important as it supports the children to understand how many words need to be in their sentence before writing.

Please complete a wow sheet  or send an email to share this with us. Your child will earn a challenge cube for completing the challenge.

The next parent session with be the learning journey drop in on Monday 17 December. This is a lovely opportunity for you and your child to look through their profile together.

World Nursery Rhyme Week

This week we have enjoyed singing lots of nursery rhymes. The children have brought in books, jigsaws and objects to talk about their favourite nursery rhymes and it has also been great to find out what your favourite nursery rhymes were when you were growing up.

On Monday, our song of the day was 5 Currant Buns. The number 5 was also our new number of the week. The children had fun baking some buns.

On Tuesday, our song of the day was Humpty Dumpty. The children enjoyed sharing their favourite nursery rhymes and books, jigsaws and objects from home.

We also did a very excited science experiment. Professor Myers came to visit and told us that somebody was pushing Humpty Dumpty off the wall and we needed to find a way to protect him! We experimented with different materials to see which material would protect him the most. Before dropping the egg we predicted (a sensible guess) what might happen. The children also had some great ideas of what else we could use to protect Humpty Dumpty.

• “We could drop him on a cushion then he won’t break.”
• “We could wrap him in an apron.”
• “We could wrap him in paper.”

On Wednesday, the song of the day was A Sailor Went To Sea. The children enjoyed playing hand games together.

On Thursday, the song of the day was I’m a little teapot. The children had lots of fun experimenting with different musical instruments when singing the song.

On Friday, the song of the day was Round and Round the Garden. The children enjoyed making circle movements during squiggle whilst we wiggle. Squiggle whilst we wiggle is a great way to develop our gross motor movements that help with letter formation. On a Friday we also do dough disco – this is a great way to develop our fine motor skills that help with writing.

What a busy week we have had!

Children in Need

The children (and staff) had a great time wearing their pyjamas to school to raise money for Children in Need. We spoke to the children about Children in Need and the different ways in which we can help others.

We then asked the children why they were in their pyjamas instead of their school uniform. A selection of their responses are below:

• “…because it’s Children in Need.”
• “…wear pyjamas…so people who don’t have much money as we do…so they can get clothes, food and water.”
• “…so everyone can be happy and play with their friends.”

Fiddly Fingers Stay and Play

Thank you to all those that came along to the fiddly fingers stay and play. We hope you enjoyed the session and came away with lots of ideas on how to support your child’s physical development in terms of their fine motor skills at home.

The next stay and play will be Funky Phonics on Tuesday 04 December.