Category: Reception Blog

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

We are continuing our topic of superheroes this week . We will be learning about real life superheroes like Florence Nightingale. We will listen to superhero stories and learn what qualities superheroes have. We will also share our own amazing super talents. We will finish our topic on Friday with a superhero dress up day. A separate letter will be sent out regarding this.

RKB Assembly

Please join us on Wednesday 29th April at 9.00am for our superheroes assembly.

In Maths, this week, children will build on their understanding as they explore the change structure of addition (augmentation) by adding more. The focus for this step is on increasing a quantity by a given amount, while continuing to work within 10 Children will use real objects to see that the quantity of a group can be changed by adding more. The ‘first, then, now’ structure is a very effective way to help build their understanding by creating mathematical stories in meaningful contexts. At first, children may need to re-count all the items (for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) to see how many they have altogether. When they are ready, support them to count on instead (for example, 4, 5, 6, 7). Encourage children to enact and represent number stories using ten frames, number tracks and their fingers. ​

The children are working really hard in their new groups. It is lovely to hear the children reading and writing so well. Please continue to support your child at home to practice reading the book and completing the online quiz on Oxford Owl.

Parent’s Meetings

Parent’s meetings will be held this week; RMT’s will be on Monday and Wednesday and RKB’s will be on Wednesday and Thursday. Please book an appointment to see your child’s Teacher if you haven’t already.

Have a great 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.

​

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