Category: Reception Blog

We would like to say a big well done to all of the children for their hard work in phonics, this last term. They have worked amazingly hard, which shows in their phonics assessments, that took place last week. Most of the children have now been assessed and have been placed in their new phonics groups, ready for when we return after the Easter break. Therefore, our phonics learning will be as a whole class this week and this will consist of recapping sounds, playing phonics games and writing sentences about what we know about Easter.

As it is the last week till Easter, we are swapping our maths learning for lots of fun Easter activities. This week, the children will be creating their own Easter cards and writing them to someone special. We will also be creating Easter hats, which the children will be decorating themselves, using different materials. At the end of the week, the children will be going on an Easter hunt in our outside learning area, and making chocolate nests that they can take home and show you.

In the wider curriculum this week, we will be learning about Easter and why people celebrate Easter across the world. We will be discussing the story of Jesus resurrecting, and how this is an important part of Christian celebrations. We will also be discussing different traditions, focused around Easter, such as, family feasts, egg hunts and the Easter bunny.

A reminder that the children will not be sent home with any phonics homework or library books over Easter. If you could please make sure that all phonics books, reading records and library books are given in before Friday, and they will be sent out again when the children return after the Easter break.

The reception team would like to thank parents for their hard work and support throughout this term. Have a fabulous Easter break, you all deserve it!

The reception team

This week we are continuing on with our Spring topic with a focus on New Life. We are learning about the life cycle of a Frog, hen and a Butterfly and talking about all of the new life we see in Spring. Last week we went on a Spring walk and we are talking about the signs of new life that we say such as buds on trees, blossom, insects and plants growing. We will also experience stories based on a butterfly and a chick. When out and about, keep looking for those signs of spring.

We are coming to the end of this half terms phonics and will be assessed again at the end of the week ready for new groupings after half term. Continue to read both your book bag book and your online homework every day. Regularly go through you phonic sounds and any red words sent home in your reading diary. Please also remember to get a grown up to share your library book with you and return it on a Friday.

This week we have continued to consolidate our Spring term Maths. We are focusing on counting on and back/ making 10 and recapping our 3D shape names and properties. The children have struggled with 3D shape names so look out at home for the different shapes – cube, cuboid, sphere, cylinder and pyramid and talk about their properties to help support this.

Thank you to all those families who have attended our after school library session we hope the children are enjoying choosing a book to share with you. We currently have a collection of jumpers/, cardigans and water bottles without names on. They are outside RMT’s classroom, so please take a look if you have lost any property. Please ensure all clothing and property is named so we can return items to the rightful owner. This week is due to get cold later in the week so can we remind parents that children should come to school each day with a warm waterproof coat as the weather has a tendency to change as the day progresses.

Have a great week

The Reception Team

This week we have followed on from our growing topic to look at Spring. We are looking for different signs of Spring and talking about the differences between Spring, winter and autumn. We are going on a walk to look for signs of Spring. When you are out and about see if you can see any signs of Spring. The children are also watching their beans and cress grow to notice any changes.

This week in Maths we are consolidating some of the work covered this term. This week we are concentrating on the language of more and less and identifying which group has more or less. We are trying to describe what we see in groups to help us identify amounts without having to count e.g. a group with 3 and 2 makes 5. We are also recapping on Making 10. We are trying hard to learn our number bonds to 10 and being able to say what is needed to make 10, again without having to count.

We are all working hard in our phonics groups. We are regularly revising our set 1 sounds with particular attention on our special friends sh, ch, th, qu, ng, nk, ck. Remember to keep practising these at home. We are reading our texts in school and ask that you go on to your online activities and book bag book/ sheets every night. The children should be trying to read the text with fluency as it is a text they have read in the school in the week. Please get in the habit of hearing your child read every night. The more your child reads the greater their fluency and sight word recognition will become.

Thank you for the very generous contribution of cakes for our cake sale last week. The children all got to enjoy some cakes and have even been able to have one this week. Your kindness is greatly appreciated. We are having a number of jumpers going missing at the minute. Please regularly check your child’s clothes to check that their name is still visible so that we can return lost items to their rightful owners. We are sorry that we had to cancel this weeks library session due to parents evening. RMT’s session will commence Monday 28th March straight after school.

Happy Science week everybody! It is a very exciting week for the children, as they will be taking part in their very first Science week, here at Coundon. To celebrate Science week, we will be learning about ‘growth’ and the different ways we can look at growth. The children will be visiting the new Science laboratory and they will have the opportunity to grow their very own bean. We will be placing the beans on the window in the classroom and watching them grow, as the weeks go by.

We will also be linking our learning on growth, with our shared reading. This week we are reading ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We will be discussing the different parts of the story and reading alternatives and discussing the similarities and differences. Some of the children’s challenges will be linked to the story, such as growing their own cress giant head.

In phonics this week, the children will be continuing their learning in their specified phonics groups. The children will be reading, writing and spelling during their lesson times and using the different learning strategies to support them, such as, Fred-fingers, pinch the sounds and letter formation phrases. Some of the children are still struggling with their letter formation. Any writing they are doing at home, can you please reinforce the correct way to write the letters and using the Read Write Inc. phrases to help them.

In maths this week, we will be introducing the children to subtraction. We will be focusing on the subtraction facts to 5 and using our number bond facts to help us. The children will be pretending to be hungry monsters and eating some of the ‘monster food’ and investigating how many they have left. We will also be creating our own ‘Now, Next, Then’ subtraction stories. The children will be drawing their own stories and then sharing them with the rest of the class.

We have had a great response to the library visits on Mondays. A reminder that RHB sessions started this Monday and will be held every other week. RMT sessions will start Monday 21st and will be held every other week. It is a great opportunity for the children to share a love for reading with you and to be able to take a book home that they enjoy.

Have a fabulous week!

The Reception team

In phonics this week, we are continuing our learning in our phonics groups. All the children in reception, are now reading the Read Write Inc. books, although these are still differentiated depending on the specified reading level. Before the half term break, the children were reassessed and have either stayed in their phonics level group, or moved up a group. If your child has been sent home with the same reading book they have already read, this could mean they are not consistent in their progress and has remained in the same group. Remember, to keep logging onto the online learning and to record your child’s progress in their reading records, each week.

In maths this week, we are learning about 3D shapes. The children will be introduced to some 3D shapes and will be learning the names of them. At the start of the week, we will be showing the children the different shapes and allowing them to investigate what they look like, if they can be stacked on top of each other and if they can roll. We will then be showing the children that these shapes can be found in our environment. The children will be investigating tin cans, balls, party hats, cardboard boxes etc. and placing them in the correct shape category. At the end of the week, the children will be using the 3D shapes to make prints and patterns. They will be investigating the different ways the properties of the shapes create different marks on the paper.

In the wider curriculum, we are learning all about healthy teeth. At the start of the week, we will be discussing visiting the dentist and the children’s personal experiences of visiting the dentist. We will then be talking about the different ways we keep our teeth healthy. We will be asking the children about the different foods and drinks we can eat to keep our teeth healthy. The children will also have the opportunity to create an instruction poster, on how we brush our teeth, and some children will get to present their poster to the nursery children and discuss with them what they have learned.

On the theme of ‘healthy teeth’, can we please remind parents that children should be coming into school with water to drink throughout the day, rather than squash. We appreciate that some children may prefer to drink sweet drinks, however, it is crucial for their oral health that they minimise their sugar intake throughout the day.

Have a fabulous week!

The reception team