This week we have started a topic on people who help us. We have been thinking about all of the different people who help us and have been thinking about the different ways they help us. We have been dressing up as different people who help us such as police officer, fire fighters, doctors and nurses. We even have our own role-play fire station outside. Can your child tell you about the different people that help us and explain how they help?
This week we started in our new phonic groups. We have been reading our new text and have done a range of activities linked to the book. You child will come home with their new book on Friday and their new online book will be set. Please make sure your child reads every night so they can practise the skills they have been learning in school. Your child also has their Reading wise log in now, so please try to go online each day for 5 minutes to support your child’s phonic skills.
In Maths this week we are focusing on more and fewer. We are identifying numbers that are more than a given number and fewer than a given number. We have also been practising our number bonds to 10. Please continue to practise the number bonds to 10. If they are confident with these then can they tell you the corresponding subtraction fact?
Thursday is World Book Day. Remember the children can come in wearing their pyjamas and bring in a soft toy for a story time session. If your child wants to wear a book character costume that is fine but please don’t go to a lot of trouble or expense. We will also be having our brunch time session so your child bring a healthy snack and drink to enjoy if they wish. Fruit and milk will be available as normal.
This week we have been focusing on the Fiction text ‘Alien’s Love Underpants’. The children have listened to the story, sequenced the story, sang alien songs, moved like aliens and done a wide variety of alien and space related crafts. The children also designed some underpants that the aliens came and stole! We wrote a letter back to the aliens and they came and hid our pants around the classroom for us to find! The children also had a pants session on staying safe and understanding that our pants cover our private areas and we talked about who we could trust to speak to if anyone was asking to see our pants.
This week the children were assessed on the story level they are currently on. The children will move into their new groups after the half term break. The children will not have a book bag book this week but will have work set on line, so please complete these activities. We have also sent out your child’s log in details for ‘Readingwise’ a phonics programme that will help the children improve on their phonics and reading skills. This login will remain with them as they go through school so please store it somewhere safe.
In Maths this week we have continued learning about numbers to 10. We have been focusing on the order of the numbers and the numbers that make up 10. The children have been learning their number bonds to 10 and have been set the challenge of learning them over the half term break. You can find the song here
It is world book day on the 2nd March. Please do not feel you have to go out and buy an outfit. The children are welcome to come into school in their pyjamas and bring in a soft toy and their favourite bedtime story for a story session we will have at the end of the day. We will be snuggling down with stories and hot chocolate.
During this week, your child has participated in maths activities related to Coventry, including its history.
As part of this, we are running a maths photo competition ‘Looking at Coventry Through Maths Eyes’. The aim of this is to help everyone realise that maths is all around us and our local environment is mathematically rich. Using the things around us is a superb way to engage your child in talking about maths.
Over half term, we would like you and your child to take a photo/snapshot of familiar things that capture some aspect of real-life mathematics in and around Coventry. We would like you to send your photo into us with a mathematical question (see examples below). There are prizes up for grabs!
Please send your ‘Looking at Coventry Through Maths Eyes’ photos/questions to Mrs Walton by Wednesday 1st March to [email protected] Please state clearly your child’s name and class.
This week is Mental health week. There will be a variety of activities happening across the school to touch on this important topic. We will be listening to some mindfulness music in Reception and will be talking about our emotions. We will also be thinking about the things that make us happy and will be designing a link to go on a whole school paperchain to raise awareness of mental health across the school.
This week we are having a focus on Fiction and Non-fiction texts. We will be learning the difference between the two types of texts and reading both a non-fiction fact based text as well as the fiction story ‘A Tiger Who Came to Tea’. We are focusing on ‘Tigers’ throughout the week, learning facts, moving like tigers, and discussing if a tiger really would come to tea. Please read this story to your child at home so they can talk to you about it and the activities they have been doing. If you do not have the story then please follow the link below for an online version.
The children are coming towards the end of their 6 week block of Read Write inc and will be assessed again next week to see if they have progressed on to the next colour group. Those children who are practising their reading every night by reading their book bag book as well as their online book ( both do not have to be done each night, this could be alternated) and are going through their letter sounds regularly will be most likely to make the most progress and should be ready for the next colour group. To give your child the best chance of becoming a fluent confident reader, please complete the activities set by your child’s phonics teacher. Once children feel confident with reading, their love of reading also improves as so much of the world becomes more accessible to them. Please spend some time watching the videos below with your child for some extra practise.
This week in Maths we are focusing on measure. We are using the language taller, shorter and longer and making play dough snakes that are longer or shorter than each other. We are also using non-standard units to measure how long the snakes are. You could do this at home with pieces of string and measure using pieces of pasta. See which one is longer/ shorter? How many pieces of pasta shorter or longer is it? We are also learning the days of the week and beginning to talk about time learning the o’clock time. This is something your child could do at home. See if they can find the o’clock time on a clock. Do they know the days of the week? What day comes after . . . . . . . . . . ? What day comes before . . . . . . . . . . . . .? What day will it be in 2 days time?
We hope you all have a lovely week. Remember to log on to Oxford owl to do the set reading activities as well as your home reading book.
The children had a great time last week learning all about Chinese New Year. They learned all about the celebration and even tasted some Chinese food. We finished the week with our own dragon dance parade using the dragon head we had made in the week and playing a range of instruments. It was great fun!
This week we are completing a PSHE topic all about our ‘Goals and Dreams’. We will be learning about goals and what this means and about setting our own goals that we would like to achieve this year. This could be something in school or at home. We will talk about things that are difficult and how we can develop strategies to help us deal with things we think are too difficult. The children will set their own goals to work on throughout the rest of the year. We will also think about how we can support others to reach their goals.
The children are working well in their phonics groups, it is lovely to see the progress being made. We are noticing that not all children are going on-line to do their reading activities. Please log on and do these activities every night. Click on Fred frog to go to your child’s reading book library once they have read the book once. You will find their past books here also, if you wish to do some extra reading practise. All children should now be bringing a reading book or ditty sheets home each week. Please go through these every day and sign the diary. Please remember to go through the sounds every night so that your child is fluent with these. We sent the sound cards home previously so you should have these at home to go through regularly. You will also find the sounds at the front of the reading books. Go through these before each read. We have added some videos below for some extra practise.
This week in Maths we are continuing to work on 6, 7 and 8. We are looking at different representations of the numbers and being able to look at an amount and know what number it is by explaining what we can see e.g. I can see a 3 and a 3, I know that makes 6. I can see a 5 and a 2, I know that makes 7. We are looking for the children to be able to subitise ( know how many there are without having to count). Try this at home with different collections of objects. Ask your child what they can see without having to count. We are also learning about pairs of numbers and combining two amounts. Again our subitising will come in handy here as we wont have to rely on counting e.g. I know 3 and 2 make 5.
Please be reminded that the children take their shoes off each week for yoga. We have some children mixing up their shoes. Please try to mark on your child’s shoe somehow so they know which ones are theirs, a lot of the boys have the same shoes and just grab the first pair they see. We want all children to go home with the correct property so please check that all items are clearly named. We have also noticed a lot of children coming to school in trainers with laces. Children should be wearing black school shoes that they can put on and take off by themselves. If they have laces then they should be able to tie these themselves.
We would like to say a big thank you to those parents who are paying into our 50p fund to help us purchase consumable resources for the children. This money allows us to do lovely activities such as food tasting, cake making and a variety of sensory activities. It is very much appreciated and we hope to plan lots more nice activities for the children.
Kung Hei Fat Choi – Happy New Year. This week are celebrating the Lunar/Chinese New Year. The children are learning all about the festival and comparing it to the other festivals we have learned about so far this academic year. They are learning about, how people celebrate the festival and are partaking in a variety of activities. We will be tasting some Chinese food, listening to music, hearing stories and acting out the story of how the animals raced. The children will also make some decorations and try to use chopsticks. See if your child can tell you about Lunar/chinese new year.
The children are working hard with their phonics each day and are now trying to use their knowledge of the sounds to write simple sentences. Continue to work on the reading activities sent home and if your child has log in details then please log in each day and do the quiz and reading book set. Remember if you click on Fred the frog you can find all past books set and can read the book again. This is essential for reading fluency – those children reading every night make the most progress. Can we also remind you that reading books and diaries should be returned on a Wednesday so that next weeks book can be sorted. We have added some links below to some of the on line videos that provide extra practise for your child.
In Maths this week we are moving on to 6, 7, 8. We are looking at how these numbers are made up and the different ways each of these numbers can be made. We would like the children to have a deeper understanding of the make up of each number so they don’t have to rely on counting. The children are confidently working with numbers to 5 and can tell you the different ways to make the numbers to 5. Ask your child to show you 5 on their fingers, then ask them to show you another way. Repeat this for the other numbers to 5. We will be doing the same with 6, 7, and 8 so the children know what makes up each amount and the different ways these numbers can be made up. This could be 3 and 3 or 2, 2 and 2, or 5 and 1 etc. See if your child can tell you different ways to make each number. If they find this difficult, use practical aids such as cars, bricks or pieces of pasta and get them to do it physically.
The weather has been very cold so far this week. Please ensure your child brings a hat and gloves to school each day and a warm waterproof coat. Please NAME all items as they easily get lost. If you would like to provide a pair of wellington boots for your child for wet weather then please send these in with their names clearly visible.
Please can we remind you that children should not be bringing in toys from home. I’m sure you can imagine how distracting this can be and children can get very upset if another child takes it or it gets lost or broken. The children have plenty to play with in the setting so do not need their own distracting resources. Please also bare this in mind with things like hair accessories as children tend to mess with these when they should be focusing on learning. Try to make sure hair bands/ bows/ headbands are appropriate for school and offer as little distraction as possible. Keep the pretty decorative items for home where they can be kept safe. Can we also remind you that children should not be wearing jewellery to school. If wearing earrings these should be plain small studs.
We have had a number of parents come to us about missing items of uniform. Please check that all of your children’s uniform is clearly named. If written on in pen, this will most likely have washed off by now and it makes it very difficult to return items to the correct owner. If you find your child has accidently taken someone else’s item of uniform home then please return it to school.
This week we are continuing with our topic of ‘Winter’. We are discussing Fairy tales and are focusing on the story ‘The Snow Queen’. The children will be listening to the story, retelling the story and sequencing the story. They will also be helping to write a story mountain for our own winter story. We will be concluding our winter topic on Friday with a ‘Frozen’ day. The children can come in dressed in cloths that represent the word ‘Frozen’. Please do not go out and buy anything for this, wearing winter colours will be fine. If your child is wearing dress up such as an Elsa dress, please bare in mind they will be outside for a large portion of the day so ensure they have warm clothing and sensible shoes.
The children have settled back into their phonics groups very well and it is lovely to see them using their phonics in their play – we have a number of budding teachers on our hands playing schools! Please try to do the online activities each night and continue to go through the letter sounds. The children are making great progress with their writing and need a good knowledge of the sounds to help them write. Please remember to return reading books and diaries on a Wednesday so that the books can be sorted and changed ready for Friday.
This week in Maths the children are learning about weight and capacity. They are focusing on the language of heavier, lighter, full, empty, half full, nearly full, nearly empty. See if your child can use these words around the house. Can they find something that is heavier than a . . . . . or lighter than a . .. . . . . . . ? Can they describe how full the cup of water is? Can they show half full with a cup of water etc.
As the weather as got colder this week, children should come into school with a warm waterproof coat, a hat and gloves – please make sure these are named. We are looking forward to a fun end to the week with our Frozen day and have some lovely activities planned.
The Reception team would like to wish you all a very happy new year. We all hope you had a wonderful break over the Christmas period. Thank you for all of the very kind cards and gifts, it is very much appreciated.
We have started the term learning all about Winter. We are focusing on the change of season and are encouraging the children to recognise the changes. The children are learning about what happens in the winter months and have been taking about how to dress appropriately for the weather. You could support this learning at home especially when experiencing frost and ice and encourage your child to share their ideas and understanding of the weather, how they should dress and how the weather feels.
We have started our new phonics groups this week. The children were assessed on the sounds they know and their ability to blend the sounds to make words. They will continue to work on the sounds they are finding tricky as well as learning new sounds. The children are working hard on blending the sounds to read simple words. Continue to practise the letter sounds at home every night. The set 1 sounds were sent home previously with your child. If you have misplaced these then please speak to a member of staff so we can send another set home. If your child is on a reading book you will find all of the sounds they are learning at the front of the books. Be sure to go through these every time your child reads. Remember the children need repetition to become fluent readers. Reading once a week will not encourage fluency. All of the children will have on line activities to do each week. Some children will be using QR codes to access videos while the rest of the children will have work set on oxford owl ( log ins are attached to the reading diary). Again please read the online book more than once. You can access the book again by clicking on Fred frog.
In Maths this week we are looking at all the ways to make 5. The children are exploring different ways of recognising amounts and ways to make 5 without counting. By the children knowing what makes up 5 they will gain a deeper understanding of number for when they move onto place value and larger numbers as they move through the school. You could support your child by getting them to share the different ways to make 5. Ask questions such as ‘ if I have 5 sweets and I eat 2, how many are left?’ Your child should be able to answer ‘3’ as they have learned that 2 and 3 make 5 without the need to use practical aids. If they are struggling then use practical aids to show them.
Can we remind all parents that children should only be bringing water in their water bottles and not squash. We have a duty of care to protect the children’s oral hygiene and the expectation is that between meals only milk or water should be drank. Squash should only be drank during meals. This is to protect your child’s dental health. We appreciate your help and support with this.
Next week we will be concluding our winter Topic with a ‘Frozen’ day. Look out for a letter this week explaining what we are doing.
This week we are on the final countdown to Christmas. We have finished our Read Write Inc phonics for the term so will be doing some class based revision games to practise the sounds and words we have been taught. Please continue to read your on line books and remember to click on Fred the Frog to go back and read any books you may have already read. Keep going over your phonic sounds and see if you can read words quickly. Follow the links below for some videos that you can practise with.
The children will be having their party day on Wednesday 13th December. Children can come in wearing their Christmas Jumper or party wear ( please be mindful of the weather as they will be spending a large portion of time outside and it is very cold). The children will be getting the opportunity to see Father Christmas during the party. Please send in your £1 towards the cost of a gift in a named envelope.
The temperature has dropped massively over the last few weeks. Please ensure your child comes to school in a warm waterproof coat and a hat and gloves. These should all be named and children should be encouraged to put their gloves in their coat pocket and their hat in the sleeve of their coat when not wearing them. The children have 3 sessions outside during the day so need to be warm.
We are looking forward to a lovely last few days before the Christmas break. Thank you all for working with your children on their phonic sounds and reading as it is having a positive effect. We hope you all have a healthy and safe Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.
This week we are getting ready for our Christmas Nativity play. We are rehearsing our songs and words so that we are ready to perform to you all. If your child brought words home on Friday please practise these every night so that your child is confident saying their lines. If they are struggling don’t worry as the staff will help. We also tried our costumes this week and are looking forward to showing you how great we look. Our performances are on Wednesday 7th at 2.15 and Thursday 8th at 9.15. This is a ticketed event so please make sure you have your tickets as we would hate for you to miss out.
This week our Read Write Inc teachers will be assessing us to see if we have retained the sounds we have learned so and are able to blend the sounds into words. These assessments will then be used to set our phonics groups for after Christmas. Please make sure you go on line every day so your child can read their book and do the quiz as well as reading any of the activities sent home in their reading diary. Please sign the diary every time your child reads or does one of the activities. Watch these videos and have a go to help reinforce the learning done in school.
We have been focusing on shapes with 4 sides and 4 corners this week. We have been using the shapes in different ways and talking about their properties. We are also looking at sequencing and beginning to talk about time.
While getting ready for the Christmas performance this week, we have noticed that there are still a large number of children who struggle with getting themselves dressed and undressed. This is a developmental milestone that children of Reception age should be able to achieve. Please encourage your child to get themselves dressed and undressed as often as possible please. Can we also ask that you help your child to learn how to pull their sleeves out the correct way and how to turn clothing the right way if inside out. If you are always doing it for them they will rely on staff to always do it for them in school also and then get upset when we ask them to try.
Next week we will be carrying out a wide range of different Christmas activities ( please see the email sent on Friday 2nd Dec). We will be having our Christmas party on Wednesday 14th December. Your child can come into school in their Christmas jumper or party wear ( please remember the children will be outside for large periods of the day so will need warm clothing and sensible footwear). They should also bring in a named paper plate of party snacks to enjoy in the afternoon ( they will have lunch as normal so do not need sandwiches and large amounts of food). We will play a range of games and the children will get the opportunity to meet Father Christmas. We are asking for a £1 donation towards the cost of providing presents for all of the children. Please send your £1 into school in an envelope.
On Monday and Tuesday next week we will be walking to the post-box on Southbank road to post our letters to Father Christmas. If you do not want your child to go on the walk, please let a member of staff know. We are looking forward to having lots of fun over the next couple of weeks and look forward to seeing you all at our Christmas Nativity.
