Category: Reception Blog

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 celebrating Chinese New Year. 2026 is the year of the horse. We will be learning about the story of Chinese New Year and how people celebrate this festival. We will be making crafts, acting out the story, learning about ordinality of numbers, doing Chinese dancing, learning songs and tasting some Chinese foods. We will be trying noodles, rice, prawn crackers and chilli sauce. Please advise of us any allergies your child has or if your child is unable to try the different foods.

In Maths, we will be learning about capacity and mass​. The comparison of quantities is something that children begin to do as babies. When comparing, children notice attributes and begin to understand differences and similarities. The activities this week will focus on further developing this innate skill as the children are encouraged to focus exclusively on the numerosity of sets, without being diverted by colour, shape or size. They will then be encouraged to notice when quantities are equal or unequal, and will begin to consider how they can manipulate the number of objects in 2 sets to make them equal.​

Language is a key focus and adults will need to reinforce the language of ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’ to describe how many objects there are in each set. ‘Fewer than’ is used rather than ‘less than’, as the focus is on countable things. ​

In phonics, the children will be assessed on their phonics progress in readiness for their new groups after half term. We look forward to seeing the progress they have made. Please continue to support your child by listening to them read their reading sheets, books and accessing any phonics homework set online. All the work the children do at home helps to consolidate the learning they have done in school and is essential for their progress.

Please remember we break up for half term on Friday 13th February and return on Monday the 23rd February.

We are missing some Tonies toys from school, an Elsa, Aladdin and Jungle book characters. Please can you check if your child has taken them home accidently.

Thank you for your continued support.

Have a great week.

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

In Maths, the children will consolidate their understanding of the composition of 5. Composing and decomposing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 5 can be made of 3 and 2. The children will deepen their understanding of a ‘whole’ being made up of smaller parts through practical experience, in this case moving frogs from a log to a pool in a nursery rhyme. 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. The children will also be given opportunities to practise counting beyond 20.

The children 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.

In topic this week, we will be reading the story of the Billy Goat’s Gruff. We will retell the story using sequencing cards, make a story map, discuss the character’s feelings at different points of the story. We will be also be making bridges out of different construction and acting out the story.

Friday the 30th January is a Teacher training day and school will be closed for pupils that day.

Have a great 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

This week we will continue our topic of Winter. We will be comparing the different seasons, discussing the changes in weather, clothes and changes in our environment. We will be exploring ice and seeing what happens when we use paint, water and salt on it. We will use our senses to write a class poem together about Winter.

This week in maths, the children will use their perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) in increasingly complex arrangements, moving from dots in a line and arrangements of 2, to a focus on standard dice arrangements. For larger quantities, the children will begin to use skills of conceptual subitising, beginning to quickly see the sub-groups within these larger numbers. A key focus will be on developing skills of visualising; the children will be encouraged to look carefully at arrangements of dots and then to close their eyes and explain what they saw. Using spatial language to describe sub-groups within these arrangements will deepen the children’s understanding of part–whole relations and allow them to further consider composition (the numbers within numbers).
This week, the children will be encouraged to continue representing quantities in different ways, including by showing amounts on 1 hand ‘all at once’. There will also be a new focus on the symbolic representation of number and the children will work on their recognition of numerals to 5, matching numerals to correct quantities in various games.
Towards the end of the week, the children will use a number track (with numbers placed in equal spaces in ascending order) to play dice-based games. Playing games with dice will consolidate the children’s understanding of the stable order of numbers and allow them to link the numbers on a track to the quantities on a die.

The children are working hard in their new phonics groups. Please check your child’s homework as they will bring home either a reading book, Ditty sheets or will have a QR code with videos to watch. Please continue to do this work each night and sign the diary to say you have heard your child read. More children will now also have reading work set on line on Oxford Owl for you to do together. The reading teacher for your child will let you know in the diary if this applies to your child. If your child has already been accessing Oxford Owl then they will continue to do so.

Have a great week.

The Reception Team

The children are back to school on Tuesday 6th January. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and managed to spend time with family and loved ones. We hope the children are well rested and ready for the busy term ahead where they will continue to develop their independence and apply their learning across the curriculum. Please continue to encourage your child to develop their independence at home by dressing and feeding themselves and helping with small tasks around the house especially tidying up after themselves.

This week we begin our topic on winter. We will find out what the children already know and will extend their knowledge with stories and songs and going outside to look for signs of winter. If the weather is particularly wintery talk about this with your child and see what they can tell you about the wintertime. You will be amazed at how much they are learning! Continue to send your child into school in a waterproof coat with gloves and a hat. The children are now used to keeping their gloves in their pockets when they come inside and their hat in the sleeve of their coat.

Before the break the children were assessed to see if they were ready to move on in our phonics scheme Read, Write inc. This week the children will move into their new groups and will be working on any gaps identified in their assessments. On Friday your child will bring home either a reading book, Ditty sheets or will have a QR code with videos for your child to watch. Please continue to do this work each night and sign the diary to say you have heard your child read. More children will now also have reading work set on line on Oxford Owl for you to do together. The reading teacher for your child will let you know in the diary if this applies to your child. If your child has already been accessing Oxford Owl then they will continue to do so.

This week, the children will continue to develop the skill of perceptual subitising. This form of subitising refers to instantly recognising the number of objects in a group without needing to count them. In this step, the concept of subitising zero objects is introduced, as well as the instant recognition of up to five objects. You could encourage your child to represent their subitising by showing the numeral ‘0’, showing no fingers or pointing out the difference between zero items and not zero.

The staff would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’, for all the very kind gifts and cards so kindly given to us before the Christmas break, they were very much appreciated by us all.

Have a wonderful week,

The Reception Team