Author: Marcella Towner

This week we will be beginning to do some work on our Transition into Year 1. Over the next few weeks we will be talking about the changes to come and will be helping the children to prepare for this future change. We will start this work exploring how they have already changed from when they were a baby up until how they are now. We will talk about the human life cycle, which links into the work we did in the Spring term on animal life cycles. The children will identify what they were able to do as a baby and what they can now do. They will also think about what they will be able to do as they grow older. Please send in a photo of your child as a baby to [email protected]. We will be doing some work where we will see if we can identify who each baby is and use the photos to identify changes that have occurred. Talk to your child about the year they have had and all of the amazing things they are learned to do. Help them to identify the things that they will continue to learn over the year ahead to help them prepare and get excited about Year 1.

The children are all working hard in their phonic groups and are busy reviewing sounds already learned as well as learning new sounds. Please continue to go over the sounds at the front of the online reading books to check which sounds your child is confident on and which sounds they need further practice on. Your child’s online book is the book they have read three times in school the week before, They should be able to read this book fluently and should be encouraged to read with a readers voice adding expression and intonation to their voice as they read. Below are some extra videos to help support the learning in school.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/eKGsRn2F/Am29V0Ol

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/UVuz2onC/bcfmU0vc

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/lSUi4Acb/K38NMToV

Previously, children experienced creating maps to represent well-known routes and places. This week, children move on from these real-life scenarios and focus more on interpreting story situations. To support children’s imaginative thinking and develop their ability to adapt scenarios depending on their interests, create scenarios and ask questions about them such as, “What if Red Riding Hood didn’t go straight to Grandma’s house?” Encourage your child to make up their own role-play stories using a variety of items. They can then develop maps and enact their adventures using the mathematical language of map making, position, direction and spatial reasoning.

The children are currently enjoying making models with recycled materials. We are always happy for any donations of empty cardboard boxes and containers that they can use to make models. Please send them in to us rather than throwing away so we can keep our supplies stocked and ready to be used.

Have lovely week

The Reception Team

This week we will be focusing on ‘Oracy’. Research shows that the quality of a child’s early language development is a powerful predictor of their future academic success and life chances. The research is clear that those children who are supported to develop strong language skills in their earliest years are more likely to succeed in school and work and lead happier lives. We will be developing oracy this week by encouraging the children to read familiar Nursery rhymes as well as performing a series of poems linked to our healthy living topic. We want the children to be confident in speaking out and using their own voice. We will encourage the children to act out stories using puppets as well as acting out roles using different props. Encourage your child to join in with stories when reading to them and sing/say some familiar nursery rhymes such as ‘Twinkle Twinkl little star, Humpty Dumpty, Incy Wincy Spider, Little Miss Muffet etc. Try to do these without the use of technology so children are not relying on watching a screen but are engaged in the activity and using their own memory to say/sing the rhyme.

In Math’s this week, children will build on the learning from previous steps by now manipulating shapes. Children will explore moving, turning, rotating and flipping shapes to fit into the spaces provided. In this small step, tangram pieces are introduced for the first time and children will use their previous knowledge of positional language and now progress to explaining more complex shape arrangements.

This week the children will be assessed on the sounds they have been learning over the past few weeks. Once assessed children will be moved into their new groups for the final time this academic year. Continue to go over the sounds your child has been taught so far this year and put the sounds into words to ensure your child is able to read the sounds within words confidently. Below are some extra blending video’s to help develop this skill.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/8gRbHSOb/LsOysl9W

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/osBNOofd/M2EHTp0j

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/8psGyYdk/N2rzy2SZ

This Thursday we will be celebrating Cultural diversity in our school with a cultures day. We would love your child to come in to school dressed in the colours associated with where in the world you and your family come from. This could be national dress or coming in, dressed in the colours of your country’s flag. If you come from a different part of the world (non UK) then please send in a little note about where you are from and anything we may find interesting (or feel free to email this information). We will be looking at a world map and marking on the different parts of the world our families are from. We are looking forward to learning all about the wonderful parts of the world that the children in our classes come from.

We break up this Friday for the half term break. Please encourage your child to be active over the break and not rely on an increased use of technology. They have done lots of work over the last few weeks on Healthy living and on how they can stay healthy. One of the things we have talked about is reducing the time spent on technology and being more active so you could talk about this with them. Thank you to those parents who have sent in photo’s of their child enjoying fruit kebabs at home. The children loved making fruit kebabs in school and were really enthusiastic about the activity. Your child could make simple kebabs at home with a cocktail stick or kebab stick or my just putting cut up fruit in a bowl. This is a great way to get them enjoying different types of fruit.

Have a lovely half term break and we will see you back in school on Monday 1st June for our final few weeks of your child’s Reception Year!

The Reception Team

We would like to congratulate all of our Coventry City fans and hope you had a lovely weekend celebrating our historical promotion to the premier league after 25 long years. If you have any photos of your child celebrating then please send them in in to us so that we can show the rest of the class and give your child the opportunity to share how they celebrated.

This week we will be starting our topic on healthy living. The children will be learning all about how to lead a healthy lifestyle. We will be focusing on healthy and unhealthy foods and how exercise helps us to stay healthy. Please talk with your child about their food and about making healthy food choices. Encourage your child to help you make their food and allow them to say if the food is healthy or unhealthy. Can we also remind parents once again that water bottles sent into school should only contain water. Government guidelines on oral hygiene recommend only water for children to drink between meals as juice and squash stick to children’s teeth and lead to tooth decay, even those stating no sugar.

The children are all working well in their phonic groups with most of the children having now been taught their set 2 sounds of ay, ee, igh, ow, oo, oo, ar, or, air, ir, ou and oy. Please continue to go over these sounds regularly and make sure your child can read these words fluently. Add the sounds to the set 1 sounds already learned and see if your child can read words such as sheep, fight, part etc. Below there are some videos to help with reading words with these sounds.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/TwloHLIK/GMp93n2E

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/GpJvGejf/OTVVTlbQ

In maths this week the children will build on their understanding as they explore the change structure of subtraction (reduction) by taking away. Children will have experience of taking away objects in everyday life and this is built on by focusing on taking away more than 1 object. The focus is on decreasing a quantity by a given amount, while continuing to work within 10. You could encourage your child to use real objects to see that the quantity of a group can be changed by taking some away. Prompt them to remove the items and then count or subitise to see how many are left. The ‘first, then, now’ structure is an effective way to help build their understanding by creating mathematical stories in meaningful contexts. An important element of the Maths Early Learning Goal is that your child can say their number bonds to 5 and knows the corresponding subtraction fact. Below is our number bonds song for extra practice.

We have had some lovely sunny weather recently and are hopeful that the weather has taken a turn for the better. Please remember to send your child into school with a named hat and a botte of water (not squash) each day. We also ask that your child brings in a waterproof coat or jacket with a hood even on the sunniest of days as the weather often changes throughout the day and the children spend a substantial part of the day outside.

Enjoy your week

The Reception Team

This week we will be learning all about the celebration of Easter. We will compare the celebration to the other celebrations we have learned about so far and will be learning how people celebrate. The children will also learn about the easter story and its importance to Christians. The children will be involved in a wide range of Easter activities and crafts and will even try hot cross buns and take part in an Easter egg hunt. On Friday all of the children will join the rest of the school in the hall for our Easter egg raffle. Every child has been given one ticket for the raffle. If you would like to purchase more tickets then these are 50p each. Send any money into school in an envelope with your child’s name on and the amount. We break up on Friday for the Easter holidays and will return to school on Monday 13th April.

This week the children will be assessed on the phonics work they have been doing over the last five weeks. They will be assed on the set one sounds and all of the set two sounds they have been taught. They will also be assessed on using Special Friends, Fed talk, read the word to segment words to read. The results from these assessments will be used to form the new groups for after the break. Please continue to go on line and practice your child’s reading. Click on Fred the Frog to access all of the books they have read so far. There are also some videos below for extra practice.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/resources/vc-pathways/387884/EbbdIYK5HVBbVG6c

In Maths this week, children will explore different representations of 9 and 10, the focus is on finding the representations rather than making them. We will start by ensuring children can confidently say the number names ‘nine’ and ‘ten’. Once they can do this, they will match the verbal number names to numerals and quantities. We will encourage children to count to 10 using objects in different arrangements by touching each object as they count. They should recognise that the final number they say is the quantity in that set. ​We will encourage children to find objects in provision and notice groups of 9 and 10 as well as the numerals. This will prepare children to then be able to make their own representations as they have become so familiar with seeing 9 and 10 in different ways. ​Below is a subitise song to recognise numbers to 10. As well as our doubles rap that the children have been enjoying.

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Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better the children are enjoying being outside for even longer periods. Please remember to send in a waterproof coat with a hood into school each day so that our child can still access the outside area even in Spring showers and when the weather turns a bit chilly. Can we also remind parents that children should not play on the equipment before and after school. Many items of equipment are getting destroyed which means they are not then available for use in the children’s learning. Can we also ask that younger siblings do not play on the equipment also. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation in this matter.

Have a wonderful Easter break, we hope the children have a well earned rest and prepare themselves for a very busy Summer Term.

The Reception Team

Welcome back to all of our children and families, we hope you had an enjoyable half term break and managed to have a rest. We are looking forward to a very busy half term where the children will continue to develop their independence and will now begin to show all the amazing things they have learned so far in this school year. Can you believe that the children are half way through their Reception year? Thank you for your continued support and we ask that you continue to reinforce the learning taking place in school, at home. Hopefully the weather will now begin to pick up a bit and we may even start to see some sunshine. We please ask that you send your child into school every day with a waterproof coat with a hood. As you know the British weather has a tendency to change by the hour so children need a waterproof coat incase of rain or cold weather throughout the day.

The children will move into their new phonic groups this week. They are doing remarkably well with the majority of children now on reading books or Ditty sheets. Please continue to hear your child read every night at home and sign your child’s reading diary to share how they are getting on. Don’t forget to log on to Oxford Owl to do the online work also. Practice, practice, practice is the best way to help your child on their reading journey- you are vitally important in helping your child to learn to read. Below are some extra practice videos that you can watch with your child and encourage them to join in with.

http://schools.ruthmiskin.com/resources/vc-pathways/353845/H7gBW9uGvuR8JXQN

This week, the children will continue to engage with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. The children will also revisit the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether. They will continue to be provided with opportunities to hear, join in with and develop their knowledge of the counting sequence and to become secure enough with their counting skills to be able to count out a set of objects from a larger set, remembering the ‘stopping number’ and knowing that this means they have selected the correct number. To begin to understand the word pattern embedded within most of our number names, the children will also be given opportunities to practise counting beyond 20. Attention is drawn to the repeating pattern of the counting numbers by the use of a puppet or soft toy. This is intended to support the children in joining in with verbal counts beyond 20 using the repeating pattern of the ‘1s’. Note that the expectation is not that the children should become secure with knowing ALL of the number names beyond 20, but rather that they hear the repeating pattern in the numbers and develop confidence in using the familiar sequence within 10 to count to bigger numbers.​

This week we will be learning all about people who help us. We will be talking about the different roles in our communities and how these people help us in our everyday lives. The children will get the opportunity to dress up and act out different roles as well as learning key facts about the different jobs people do. You could use this as an opportunity to talk about your job or your role as a parent and how you help your child every day. This is a great time to talk about your child’s role at home and in school and how they can be helpful.

We hope you and your child have a lovely first week back,

The Reception Team

This week we will be focusing on the book ‘Aliens Love Underpants’. The children will be hearing the story, will be talking about the plot and will do a series of activities across the week linked to the text. Talk to your child about the story and see if they can retell it to you and talk about their favourite part. If they are enjoying the story, there is a wide variety of ‘Aliens love . . . . ‘ books. Maybe you could visit the library and look for the books to enjoy together or you could find copies of the stories online to enjoy with your child. We have attached a few links for other Aliens love stories.

The children have been working in their phonics groups now for several weeks. Next week they will be having their next assessment to see if they are ready to move into the next colour group. They will be assessed on the sounds they have been taught as well as segmenting words to read. Continue to hear your child read every night and go through the letter flashcards that have been sent home with your child since they started in Reception. Don’t forget to log in to Oxford Owl and do the reading activities set by your child’s reading teacher. All groups except Mrs Alfords group should now be bringing home Ditty sheets or a book bag book to read and will have work set on line. Try to do one of these activities with your child each night and sign the diary to let us know how they got on. There are some additional links below to videos that you could watch with your child at home to reinforce the work being done in school.

http://schools.ruthmiskin.com/resources/vc-pathways/339718/QiFvHCa3OXl3NW6z

This week, the children will continue to engage with activities that develop their understanding of composition, or the numbers within numbers.​ A key focus will be on exploring ways to represent numbers using the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern). These key representations will help to underline the ‘5-ness’ of 5, and provide structures that will support exploration of its composition and its relationships with other numbers. The children will secure their understanding of the pairs of numbers that make 5, and then use double dice frames to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’. ​The children have been working hard on their number bonds to 5 which is essential knowledge they need to help them understand how numbers are made up and will help them with future subitising. Below is the number bond song that the children have been learning in school. Play this for your child and see if they know their number bonds and can tell you the different ways to make 5.

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We have had very mixed weather recently with lots of rain, snow and frost. The children in Reception access the outside area in all weathers and we go outside every day no matter what the weather is. Please provide your child with a pair of wellington boots to stay at school so that they can go outside and play with their friends. Some children are getting wet feet especially as they have to walk over to the canteen at lunch time each day. If they have boots in school we can make sure they change into these when the weather is wet

We hope you have a lovely week

The Reception Team

This week we will be completing our topic on ‘Winter’. We will be looking at the story ‘The Snow Queen’ and will be using this to help us plan and write our own story set in the Winter. We will also be concluding the topic with a winter themed ‘Frozen’ day on Friday 23rd January. A separate letter has been sent out explaining this so please make sure you check your emails. We will have a frozen themed day with different activities and the children can come in dressed in Frozen colours.

The children have now settled in to their new phonics groups and are working hard to plug any gaps in their sound knowledge and are learning new sounds. When working with your child at home continue to go through the sound cards and if you notice they are stuck on a particular sound then please spend some time going over this. Continue to read the ditty sheets or book in your child’s bag and don’t forget to go on line to do the work on Oxford Owl that has been set by your child’s Phonics teacher. All groups except Mrs Alford’s should now have online work set. Mrs Alford’s group will have QR codes in their diary for videos that they need to watch to help with their blending.

This week, the children will continue to engage with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. Adults will continue to name the objects being counted to emphasise the numerosity of the set, e.g. Would you please collect 6 crayons and bring them to me? The children will also revisit the concept of cardinality – that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are ALTOGETHER. They will continue to be provided with opportunities to hear, join in with and develop their knowledge of the counting sequence. A key focus this week will be the stable order principle – rehearsing the order of the first 5 numbers and understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. While continuing to work with numbers to 5, the children will develop their understanding of the ordinal aspect by investigating the difference in value of consecutive whole numbers. They will spend time discovering that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number. Using blocks and squares to order quantities from 1 to 5 will help to embed this key understanding.

Reception have their PE session on Monday’s. Your child should come in to school on this day in a red Coundon Primary T-shirt and hoodie and black bottoms suitable for PE lessons. They should also wear suitable footwear such as trainers. We ask that children are able to do their trainers up and would recommend if possible that Velcro shoes be worn. The laces on some of the children’s shoes are often coming undone and staff are spending a lot of time doing up shoelaces multiple times throughout the day.

Thank you for bringing your child into school when we had the snowy weather it was lovely to see them enjoy playing in the snow. We noticed that there were a number of children that still do not have a pair of wellington boots in school. This meant that they could not join their friends having fun in the snow outside as their shoes and socks would have become wet and cold. Please provide a pair of cheap wellies for your child to be left in school so that they can change into them when the weather warrants it.

Have a wonderful week

The Reception Team