Category: Uncategorised

This week we will be learning all about Spring. We will be going on a Spring walk to spot the signs of Spring, spotting changes in the weather and in nature. Can your child spot the signs of Spring when you are out and about?

In Maths, the children will continue to practise recalling the composition of numbers as doubles. Then, towards the end of the week, the children will apply their sorting skills to numbers and will investigate ways to sort the Number blocks. They will use their previous experience of investigating doubles to begin to practically explore even and odd numbers. Within the context of building Number blocks characters, they will investigate when a number can be composed of 2 equal parts. It is anticipated that the children will quickly identify that even numbers can be composed as doubles, through their experience of seeing numbers composed of 2 equal parts. ​Practise recalling the doubles to 5 with your child.

The children have now been in their new groups for a couple of weeks and are moving forward with their learning. They are recapping over sounds already learned and are learning new sounds. Every child now has an online login in their reading diaries. Please make sure you follow the link to Oxford Owl and assist your child to access the learning set for them. Your child will also have either a reading book or Ditty sheets to read alongside this online work. Please try to find time each night to do one of these reading activities and sign the reading diary to say how your child read.

Have a great week

The Reception Team

This week is Science week. Children across the school will be taking part in a range of different science activities and learning opportunities. In Reception we will be focusing on planting and growth. The children will be involved in a live lesson online as well as carrying out an experiment involving cress. Each child will also plant their own bean to go alongside our focus story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. As we move into the season of Spring we will be talking about new growth and different signs of Spring. This is something you could talk to your child about and look for when out and about.

The children have now been in their new groups for a couple of weeks and are moving forward with their learning. They are recapping over sounds already learned and are learning new sounds. Every child now has an online login in their reading diaries. Please make sure you follow the link to Oxford Owl and assist your child to access the learning set for them. Your child will also have either a reading book or Ditty sheets to read alongside this online work. Please try to find time each night to do one of these reading activities and sign the reading diary to say how your child read.

Scan this QR code with a phone or tablet or follow the link for extra practice videos. https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/resources/vc-pathways/373069/bEaieYkDTo8l5a3Q

In Maths this week, children are introduced to the concept of doubling and they learn that this means ‘twice as many’. They will be given opportunities to see a range of visual representations of doubles and to find them in patterns, in pictures and in arrangements of manipulatives. At home you could prompt your child to notice doubles by playing games such as dominoes, where they can use their previous knowledge to match the same number of dots. Model finding doubles, for example, on a dice: “There are 3 here and 3 here, so double 3 makes 6!”

Doubles rap https://youtu.be/Ik_-OAgzD-8?t=1

At last we have started to see some better weather with the sun making a welcome appearance. We ask that you still send your child into school with a waterproof coat with a hood, even if the weather forecast is saying there is no rain. As you know the British weather is unpredictable and can become wet or cold without much warning. As the children have access to outside throughout the day and spend a good portion of their lunch time outside, it is essential they have a coat if it is needed. They get very upset if they can not go and play with friends or do the activities available outside because they do not have protection from the weather.

Have a wonderful week

The Reception Team

This week we will be continuing our work about ‘Celebrations’ and are beginning to look at our own Nativity. The children will be told the story of the Nativity and encouraged to learn the different songs that accompany our play. The children will have a go at remembering the lines to various songs and begin to practise the actions that accompany these too.

The children have been in their new phonics groups now for two weeks and are beginning week 3 this week. They will have brought home their reading diary and there will be some reading activities inside. If your child is not yet accessing the online reading scheme (Oxford Owl – check diaries as this will have been explained at the start of the diary) then please scan the QR codes in their reading diaries so the children can have a go at following the sound lessons for the phonemes they have been taught this week at home. Please sign the reading diary each time you do these activities with your child. Continue to go over the letters that have been sent home and make simple CVC words to practice word blending. Below are some blending videos to help with this.

http://schools.ruthmiskin.com/resources/vc-pathways/287385/GeDIAmxBU3aEDGw1

This week in maths we will be learning all about more than and fewer than. The children will have a go at comparing different quantities and using the stem sentence ‘_____has more than ____I know this because ____ is greater than ____’. The children will use dice to compare who has the greatest quantity. Perhaps you could talk about who has more at dinner times or when playing with your child at home too, who has more blocks? The children will then be learning all about the number 5. They will learn to count 5 objects, recognise 5 by subitising and know when they have 5 or not 5 by using die frames.

Miss Blowers is leaving to start her maternity leave on Friday 21st November. She has thoroughly enjoyed teaching your little ones this year and is very proud of how well they have all settled in and the progress they have already made. We welcome Mrs Beynon and Mrs Frost-Townsend as teachers into RKB and are sure the children will continue to make great progress and show our new staff what brilliant pupils they are.

Have a wonderful week,

the Reception Team

We would like to offer a huge welcome to you and your child for their Reception year. The children have all come into school so well and have have had lots of fun exploring the setting and finding out what there is to play and learn with.

Thank you for helping your child come in to school each day ready for the day ahead. Please remember to provide your child with a waterproof coat with a hood and a water bottle, only containing water (no juice please as new government guidelines indicate this helps lead to tooth decay). Please allow your child to come into the classroom with their coat and bag so that they can learn how to take them off and how to organise themselves and their belongings. This year the children will be working hard on independence and doing things for themselves – your help with this is extremely welcomed.

Thank you to those parents who have sent in wellington boots for their child. We ask that all children please have a named pair of wellington boots in school so that they may continue to play in the wet weather. Send these in to school and place them outside your child’s classroom door.

The children have coped very well in the canteen this week and have been independently choosing their lunch. You can find the school dinner menus on the school website. Please go through this with your child so they can choose something they are likely to eat. Some of the children are getting a little upset or are not eating very much as they do not know what to choose. If you wish for your child to change to packed lunches then you must notify the school office preferably a week in advance so that adaptions can be made to the amount of food ordered.

Click to access Autumn-Spring-Menu-2024-2025.pdf

This week we are looking at the Author David McKee for our Author study with a focus on Elmer. The children will be involved in hearing the story, sequencing the story, making, colouring and collaging different Elmer’s as well as acting like an elephant and taking part in an Elephant parade. Please send in a clean empty plastic milk bottle so your child can make their own model Elmer to add to our class parade of elephants.

On Friday, your child should have come home with the gift of a story book. This is their book to keep and has a special message inside for them. At Coundon we foster a love of reading and hope that your child adds this book to their home library and enjoys reading it with you.

If you have any problems or need to speak to a member of staff then please speak to us at the start or end of the day or email us on

[email protected]

[email protected]

Have a lovely week

The Reception Team