We would like to offer a huge welcome to all of our Reception children and their families. The children have all settled in wonderfully and have had a great start to the year. We are currently working hard on becoming familiar with the routines and expectations and how to work happily together. The children are making friends and exploring the setting well and learning how to tidy away after themselves. Please talk to your child about their day and encourage them to talk through any incidents that may have occurred or they may be worried about. Encourage them to think about what they can do to help e.g. speak to an adult, ask somebody to play or come back to a resource later if somebody is already using it. We also ask that you encourage your child to do things for themselves at home such as tidying away their toys, putting on their own coats and shoes, eating with cutlery and wiping themselves when they go to the toilet. They will be expected to do these things for themselves in school so expecting them to do it at home also will help them to become confident and independent.
This week the children will be starting on their Phonics program. They will be introduced to new sounds and how to hear these sounds to make words. At the end of the week your child will bring home the letter sounds they have learned. Please go through these letter sounds with your child every day to help them learn them. These letters will be your child’s reading homework over the next half term. As they bring home more sounds, add them to the pack and rehearse all of the sounds. Once they have the first 6 sounds they can begin to build simple words. put two or three of the cards together for your child to say each sound and blend the word e.g. a-t, s-i-t, m-a-t. The link below shows a parents guide on our phonics program and how it works. Something that also helps your child is using Fred talk to give instructions e.g. go and get your b-a-g, put on your s-o-c-ks.
This week we will be starting our Math’s program. The children will use the simple sorting skills they have developed so far to now explore different sorting techniques. We will be encouraging the children to sort objects and discuss how they have sorted them. We will be focusing on sorting according to type and thinking about different ways we can sort items. This could be supported at home by getting your child to sort items from around the house. They could sort their toys according to size, colour, type or could think of their own way to sort their toys.
Please provide your child with a named waterproof coat with a hood every day and a water bottle only containing water please. The government ask that children only drink water or milk throughout the day to help reduce the risk of tooth decay. Coventry currently has a very high number of children who have severe tooth decay and juice in bottles can make this wose as it sticks to the teeth. We also request that children of Reception age no longer use a dummy as this again can encourage not only tooth decay but also speech problems which can prove extremely difficult to rectify. Can we also please remind you to label all of your child’s uniform including their shoes, coats, bags and water bottles. If items are named we have more chance of returning them to the correct child.
If you would like to speak to a member of the team at the start or end of the day can we ask that you please wait to the side while the staff member is welcoming or dismissing the children. Once we have ensured all children are safely with an adult we will then gladly speak with you. Alternatively please send us an email and we will respond as soon as we are able to on: [email protected] or [email protected]
Have a lovely week
The Reception Team