Category: Reception Blog

This week we will be following the children’s interests in story telling, following on from our Frozen week last week. We will be looking at the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children will be learning all about the story, will retell and act out the story and will even help to plan our own story based on the text. We will be making bridges and taking on the roles of the different characters in the story. Maybe you could read a version of the story to your child at bed time and encourage them to act out the different parts by using different voices for the different characters.

In Phonics the children are working hard on blending words and are now beginning to read and write simple sentences. Make sure you log on to Oxford owl each week and do the reading activities set (log in details are on the front of your child’s diary). Don’t forget to sign your child’s diary each time you do some reading work. Continue to go through the sound flash cards to ensure your child is confident with all of the sounds. If reading C-V-C words confidently then move on to C-C-V-C or C-V-C-C (4 sound) words such as stop, clap, flash. Can your child segment and blend these words confidently.

This week in Maths we will be looking at the numbers 6, 7 and 8 in greater detail. We will be using the strategies used with numbers to 5 to gain a deep understanding of how 6, 7 and 8 is made up and what it looks like in its different forms. Can your child tell you or show you with visual aids such as pasta, building blocks, cars etc how to make 6, 7 and 8 in different ways?

The children had a wonderful Frozen day on Friday. They looked fantastic in their costumes and had lots of fun during the day, finished off with a frozen treat. We would like to say a big thank you to all of the parents for making the effort to dress your children in Frozen colours. We hope they enjoyed the day.

Have a lovely week

The Reception Team

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you have a happy and restful Christmas break with family and friends. The Reception staff would like to say a huge thankyou for the very kind cards and gifts that we received at the end of term. They were very much appreciated by us all.

The children have started their new phonics groups and are moving forward with learning new sounds and recapping the sounds previously taught. Most of the children will now have log in details to Oxford owl on the front of their reading diary. Please make sure your child goes on to Oxford owl to do the reading activities set and read any text that has been assigned to them by their phonics teacher. They have also been issued a book bag book or Ditty sheets to read at home. Please sign your child’s reading EVERY TIME they do a reading activity with you so that we can see how much they are reading at home. This will help us understand the children’s needs and why they may not be making the expected progress. Try to get into the habit of reading every night with your child as this is the only home work we expect of Reception children and it gets them into a good habit for moving through the school. If your child has QR codes in their diary please watch these videos with your child and encourage them to join in.

In maths we are continuing to work on deepening our understanding to 5. The children will be focusing on subitising amounts ( knowing how many are in a set without the need to count), finding more and less ( again without the need to count) and knowing the different ways to make 5. Below you will find a link to the Top Marks website where your child can play a range of games. Please focus just to 5 and see if your child can recognise the amounts without the need to count. Ask ‘What can you see and how can you see it?’ There is also a link to the numberbonds song to 5 that will help your child learn about the numbers that make 5.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=1

The children have been learning all about Winter. We have talked about the signs of winter and the clothes that we need to wear. This week we will be looking at the changes that have taken place between the Autumn and the Winter. Can your child tell you how winter is different to Autumn? We will be doing a range of winter crafts and challenges such as making a bird feeder, making snowmen and even having a snowball fight with paper snowballs. When you are outside with your child ask them about what they can see and what they know about winter. The children should know about dressing for winter and should be encouraged to put their coat on by themselves and do it up and put their gloves on last. We ask the children to keep their gloves in their coat pockets and their hat in their coat sleeve so they are easily accessible. When hats and gloves are put into bags the children leave them there and do not wear them all day as they are not easily accessible. Please encourage your child to do this at home also so it becomes a habit.

Now that the children are settled in school we will begin to award a child from each class with a head teachers award each week. This award will go to a child displaying our school values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Kindness, or demonstrating great effort, progress or behaviour. A letter will be sent out with the chosen child on a Friday inviting you as their parent/ guardian to attend a celebration assembly on the following Thursday at 2.45. It would be wonderful to see you there if your child has been chosen for the Head Teachers award so that you can share in their success.

Have a wonderful week

The Reception Team

The children break up for the Christmas Holidays today Friday 22nd December and will return on Tuesday the 9th of January. The staff would like to say a massive thank you for all of your support this term and for helping your child in their first term of school. The children have made fantastic progress in their learning and are working hard on becoming independent.

The staff would like to say a huge thank you for all of the very generous gifts and cards that we have received. They are very unexpected but much appreciated. We are looking forward to the Spring term and working with your children for the rest of the year.

We will not be sending books home over the Christmas break but please continue to read to your child. The holidays are a great time to spend some time reading stories together or visiting the library for your child to choose some books of their own. We have added some links below to some games and activities to help practise some of the skills learned this term.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/qktWI0gx/3E3Dq60e

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/KRutxIff/iPO1hWVU

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/y6cyApmb/8GNWl1dz

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/5oR5fvZc/WUedFKFr

Please follow the links below for some websites where your child can practise their Maths skills.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=1

https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths

Please enjoy the Christmas break, try and remember that your presence is more valuable to the children than presents! Spend time chatting and playing with your child as this will be the most beneficial thing you can do to help them feel safe, happy and secure.

Have a healthy and safe Christmas

The Reception Team

This week we will be focusing on the Nativity story. We will be practising our own Nativity as well as learning the story of the Nativity and talking about why Christmas is celebrated. We will continue to practise our songs for the Nativity and will be trying on our costumes for Next weeks performances. Please ensure your child is able to dress and undress themselves so that they can put their own costume on. Hopefully you have all got your tickets for the Nativity performance – remember entrance is by ticket only!

This week we will be assessing the children to see if they have retained the sounds they have been taught and are able to segment and blend words to read them. For your child to move on to reading books they need to be able to read all of the set 1 sounds including the special friends (2 letters that make 1 sound). They must also be able to blend these words together in simple VC and CVC words. Please continue to do the reading activities every night with your child and sign the diary to explain what you did and how they coped. The children’s library book is separate and does not need to be recorded in the reading diary. This is a book for you and your child to enjoy together.

Last week the children wrote their letters to Father Christmas. This week we will be going on a walk to the local post-box to post our letters so they get to him before the big day. The children will walk down together as a class and will be supported by staff from school. Fingers crossed the weather stays dry so we can make this fun and exciting trip.

The temperature has really dropped over the last few weeks. We are noticing that many children are coming to school inappropriately dressed for the colder weather. The children spend a significant amount of time outside every day including when it rains. Please make sure your child has a WARM waterproof coat, gloves and a hat. We would also appreciate a pair of wellies that stay in school so the children can change into them when it is wet. Please make sure all clothing is clearly named.

We are looking forward to a busy couple of weeks as we count down to the Christmas break. The children will be getting excited and will be feeling tired as the term comes to a close. So we will be easing off on some of the more academic aspects of the curriculum and will be doing our best to make our last few weeks as fun as we can.

Have a wonderful week,

The Reception Team

We are now on the countdown to Christmas in Reception. The children have learned all about Advent and why we count down to Christmas. We will be doing lots of Christmas activities as well as rehearsing for our Christmas Nativity. The children will be performing on Monday 18th at 2.15 and Tuesday the 19th at 9.15. If you haven’t got your tickets yet they can be purchased through My Child at School in the ‘School Products’ section. You will not be allowed entrance without a ticket. We will be providing all costumes for the Nativity so you do not need to worry about providing any. Can we ask that you encourage your child to dress and undress themselves as they will be expected to change themselves into their nativity costume. Children of Reception age should be able to dress and undress themselves at this stage of the year. Please assist your child in mastering this skill as it will be very difficult for the staff to dress and undress 60 children!

We will be visiting Ash End Farm on Tuesday. The children need to be clothed warmly with sensible warm footwear. The children will be on concreted areas so will be unlikely to get muddy unless the weather is wet. If wearing wellies then please make sure your child is wearing thick warm socks as feet get very cold in wellies. You child will also need a packed lunch in a NAMED carrier bag which will be thrown away. Please do not send in any plastic containers or bottles that you want returned. Please also make sure all hats and gloves are named as there will be other schools at the farm and it will be difficult to identify property without a name. All children should wear a warm waterproof coat, a hat and gloves. No scarves please as these tend to be a trip hazard and easily get lost. We are looking forward to a fun day seeing all of the animals, acting out the nativity story and visiting Father Christmas.

Thank you to all those parents listening to their child read every night and doing the online activities with their child. Please remember to sign the diary with a little comment each time your child does a reading activity. You do not need to comment about reading the library book as this is just for you to enjoy together. Continue to go through all of the letter sounds regularly with your child and put these sounds together to build simple words. We will be assessing the children again in a couple of weeks to see how they are retaining the sounds and if they are blending words confidently.

In Maths this week we will be focusing on sequencing. The children will be thinking of the sequence of familiar activities and will be talking in sentences to explain the sequence e.g. ‘In the morning I . . . . . At night I ….’ You could see if your child can sequence activities at home e.g. tell me how you get dressed.

As the weather is getting colder now we would like all children to come to school dressed appropriately. All children spend a portion of the day outside. Please ensure your child is wearing a warm waterproof coat and comes to school with a hat and gloves. We encourage the children to keep their gloves in their coat pockets and to put their hat in their coat sleeve – not bags as they are too difficult to get to in the packed cloakroom area. This allows the children easy access to them when needed. Please encourage this at home too so it becomes embedded and is the same process as at school. We discourage the use of scarves as they trail on the ground, become a trip hazard and can get caught up in the equipment and can be a choking hazard.

Thank you for all of your support in these areas

The Reception Team

This week we will be looking at Advent and what it means. We will be making our own Kindness Advent calendar. We will then open this throughout Advent and will try and follow what the calendar says. We will also spend some time this week rehearsing for our Christmas Nativity. The children will be given the opportunity to select what they would like to do in the play and we will try our best to ensure everyone gets a role they are happy with. Please do not worry about a costume for the Nativity. We have all the costumes we need in school. If your child comes home with some lines to learn then please help your child to learn these in a loud clear voice.

At the end of last week we assed the children so that we could see if they were retaining more sounds and were using the sounds to read simple words. This week some of the children will come home with Ditty sheets to read. The children have had a go at reading them this week and should now practise these at home. Please read one ditty sheet a night and don’t forget the online work. Some children will be bringing home a blending book. Go through this or the on-line book each night. Then the rest of the children will have some videos to watch and some of our green word cards to try and read. Please remember to sign your child’s reading diary every time you do a reading activity so that we can see if children are getting that extra support at home.

This week we will continue with our work on 4 and 5 . We will be looking at squares and triangles and their properties. The children will be working with shapes, going on a shape hunt and making their own models. The children should then be able to talk about the properties of a circle, triangle, square and rectangle.

Next week the children will be going on their Christmas visit to Ash End Children’s farm. Thank you to all those parents who have paid. Could we please ask those parents who are still to make a payment to do so this week so that we can ensure the trip can go ahead. If you are having difficulty paying then please speak to a member of the office staff. A letter will come out to you explaining everything the children need for the trip. Can we remind parents not to send more food that your child normally eats for lunch. The lunch will be kept on the coach till lunch time so children will not have access to this through the morning. We are looking forward to a great day and are sure your children will have a wonderful time.

Have a great week

The Reception Team

Across the week Reception had a focus on Maths across the whole week. The children made Rangoli patterns using the shapes learned in their Maths session, they looked at different ways to make both 4 and 5, the played a range of Maths games on the computers and they built and used obstacle courses and used positional language while tackling the course.

This week we will be continuing our work on celebrations. We will have a focus on birthdays and will be encouraging the children to talk about their last birthday celebration. We will be making cards and party hats and will play some party games to encourage turn taking and not always winning! Playing games with your child such as board games is a great way to encourage your child to wait, take turns and understand that they will not always win or come first in activities. We will also introduce the children to the Nativity story and will begin to learn some of the songs for our Christmas production.

The children will again bring home their reading activity in their reading diary. Continue to do this work every night and focus particularly on blending the sounds together to make words. There are some additional videos below for your child to watch for some additional phonic activities.

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/AkLYBJw1/UF2kfTjl

https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/BuJdXsmK/lj0YCHmQ

In Maths this week we will be continuing with the numbers 4 and 5. We will be subitising the numbers (recognising the amount without the need to count). We will also using our 5 frames to work out the different ways to make both 4 and 5. We will also looking at 1 more and 1 less of 4 and 5. Follow the link below to play a maths game of numbers to 5. Encourage your child to say what they can see e.g. a 2 and a 2 makes 4. Can they find the answer without the need to count?

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/ladybird-spots

Thank you to all of those parents who have supported the school over the past few weeks with our firework night and the art expedition. It was lovely seeing so many of you there supporting the school and helping us to raise vital funds to support your children in school.

Have a lovely week

The Reception Team

This week the children will be continuing with their work on celebrations. We will be focusing on the Hindu festival of Diwali. The children will be learning all about the celebration and will be learning about how people celebrate. They will be learning about the Diwali story and will be learning songs and dances as well as doing a range of craft activities. If you are celebrating Diwali in your home please send in photos so that your child can share them with the class and talk about their celebration. Email any photos to [email protected] or [email protected]

Your child should have brought home a reading diary on Friday. Please read the note inside and complete the activities with your child. Please remember young children learn through repetition so should do these activities more than once. Try to get into the habit of doing reading activities every night such as going through the flashcards, putting the cards together to make simple CVC words and getting your children to Fred talk the sounds then blend them together to read the word and doing the activities stated in your child’s diary. When you have carried out these activities sign the diary and write a short comment saying what your child has done.

This week in Maths, we will be looking at the numbers 4 and 5. We will be learning how to make the amounts 4 and 5 in different ways and will be identifying these without the need to count. We will be looking at groups and talking about what we see and how we see it. We will also be using five frames to check our amounts and recognising how many more we would need to make 5. We will also be looking a 1 more and 1 fewer. By the end of the week the children should be able to identify groups of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 without the need to count. At home see if your child can recognise groups of different amounts without the need to count. See if they can tell you what they see and how they see it For example “I can see a 2 and a 2 so I know that makes 4”.

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we will be hosting a special Art exhibition in the school hall. Each child in the school has produced a piece of art work that will be displayed for you to come and see and purchase. It would be lovely to see you all there.

Have a lovely week

The Reception Team