Red - Reception
Spring 1 Newsletter
Welcome back after Christmas. We can't believe the children have already completed a term in school! This half term our topic is Fairytales and we have some wonderful learning planned for the class!
Literacy and Maths
In English, we will be focussing on the fairy tales of The Three Little Pigs and The Gingerbread Man. We will get to know the stories well before we read and create some alternative versions such as The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, and The Runaway Chapatti. Alongside these stories, we will be exploring lots of other fairy tales, reading them in our reading area and performing them on our stage or acting them out in our fabulous castle role play created by Mrs Bradley.
In Maths, we will be getting even more confident with our number to 5 before learning about the numbers 6, 7 and 8. We will also be developing our understanding of mass and capacity and use the language of heavier, lighter, more and less to compare items. We will learn to use scales and to try to make them balance.
Communication and language: This half-term we will be focusing on developing our confidence at talking and holding a two-way conversation with an adult or friend. We will learn to retell a simple story that we have heard a lot, some as exact repetition and some in our own words. We will develop our understanding of 'why' and 'when' questions and be able to answer these about our learning.
Phonics: The children will be focusing on phase 3 and 4 using the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme. We will be teaching phonics lessons 5 times a week and learning how to do shared reading each week with our reading partner. We will be practising reading and spelling more harder to read and spell words.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: Throughout this topic we will look at maps and why they are important. We will look at our local area and the natural world during our Forest school sessions, particularly focusing on the changing seasons. We will also be sorting and describing materials by their properties and investigating what happens when we heat and cool materials.
Expressive Arts and Design: This half term, we will be investigating bridges and learning how to make them extra strong to hold the three Billy Goats Gruff. We will take part in baking, recognise the equipment and explain how the ingredients change. We will learn how to use a pair of scissors correctly to cut along wavy and zig zag lines carefully.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: We will be looking at our dreams and goals and how we can set ourselves a target to achieve and work towards it. We will also develop our knowledge of the different factors that support our overall health and wellbeing including sleep, diet, washing hands, cleaning teeth, exercise and stranger danger.
Additional information
PE day – Friday. We have changed our PE this term to focus on dance. Please can children come to school wearing their PE kit on a Friday. Children will need their outdoor kit (trainers and joggers in the colder months). This should be unbranded white t-shirt, black joggers/shorts in the summer months. We will be continuing their fundamentals of PE by learning basic skills of throwing, catching, kicking, aiming etc within our outdoor area.
Forest school – Our forest school session will continue to be every Thursday. Children should come to school wearing weather appropriate clothing including a pair of wellies that can stay at school.
Class bear – We will continue to send home Rufus with a different child each Friday. Please return Rufus the bear on Tuesdays ready to share our adventures with the class. The children love to hear what he has been up to each week!
Reading – children will be reading every day and can change their books every Friday. Please ensure book bags are in school daily with reading records updated with a comment to let us know when they have read at home. Our library day is on Fridays and children can exchange their book for a new one each week if they have returned their library book.
Homework will be sent home every Friday and will be due in on the following Friday. Homework will consist of alternate phonics and maths activities and each child will receive a homework book to complete their work in.
If you have any queries throughout the year, please come and see us.
Best wishes,
The Reception team.
Mrs Probert, Mrs Langley and Mrs Bradley
Autumn 2
We've really loved our trips to nature school this half term. As the weather grew colder we wrapped up warm and explored the changes in the area. We've spotted lots of wildlife and thought about how we can use the natural resources that we find down there to support our learning. To celebrate the end of the term, we gathered around our first red class fire and shared hot chocolate and marshmallows. It was a real treat! Take a look at our gallery to see some of our favourite moments from nature school so far.
Autumn 2 Newsletter
Welcome back to Red Class! We have a busy term ahead of us and will be having so much fun together. We can't wait to get going!
This half-term our topic is Celebrations. We are going to be learning all about different celebrations around the world and each week we will focus on a different celebration. We will also be taking part in the Nativity performance in December.
Literacy and Maths
In English, we will be focusing on the engaging and entertaining stories Wow said the Owl and Owl babies, and we will be finding out more about nocturnal animals and colours. Then we will be learning about Dear Father Christmas and The Grinch, where we will be focusing on how to recognise and write a letter to Father Christmas.
In Maths, we will be learning more about 2D shapes and numbers 1-5 where we will focus on subitising and the composition of the numbers 1-5.
Communication and language: This half-term we will be focusing on sharing our ideas and talking about ways to solve a problem. We will be exploring how important it is to listen carefully to each other. We will be looking at what a good listener does (gives full attention, eye contact etc) and how listening to others can help us in our learning both inside and outside the classroom.
Phonics: The children have completed their phase 2 phonics sounds and will be moving into phase 3, which focusses on digraphs (two letters that make one sound). The children will be using their knowledge of digraphs in their reading and writing.
Understanding the world: Throughout this topic we will look at, discuss and celebrate the similarities and differences between celebrations in different cultures and religions. We will look at the history and stories of all the different celebrations in our topic. We will continue to look at the different seasons by exploring Autumn in our Forest School activities. We will talk a lot about animals who hibernate and how we can help.
Expressive Arts and Design: Our main focus in our creative work this half term is learning how to mould and manipulate different materials to create something new. We will be using clay to design and create our own Diwali lamps. We are going to be learning lots of songs and dances for our Christmas Nativity too!
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: We will be looking at how to become effective learners by breaking down each characteristic of learning in the EYFS development matters. Can we ask lots of questions like Mr Nosey? Can we challenge ourselves in our learning like Mr Brave?
PE days – Tuesday and Friday. Please can children come to school wearing their PE kits on these days. Children will need their outdoor kit (trainers and joggers in the colder months). This should be unbranded white t-shirt, black joggers/shorts in the summer months.
Forest school – Our forest school session will be every Thursday. Children should come to school wearing weather appropriate clothing including a pair of wellies that can stay at school.
Class bear – We will continue to send Rufus home with a different child each Friday. Please return Rufus the bear on Tuesdays ready to share our adventures with the class.
Homework will be sent home and collected every Friday. We will also be collecting reading records on a Friday for children to change their books. Please aim to read with your child 3 times a week and record this in their reading record. We will also be visiting the library every Friday for children to change their library book which they take home.
If you have any queries throughout the year, please come and see us.
Best wishes,
The Reception team.
Mrs Probert, Mrs Langley and Mrs Bradley
Autumn 1 - Settling in
What a fabulous start to the year we've had in Red Class! We have all settled in so well, enjoyed getting to know our new classmates and exploring all the different areas. We have loved having the opportunity to try out the large apparatus during our PE lessons and this has been great for developing our gross motor skills. On the other hand, we've really enjoyed developing our fine motor skills in our daily funky fingers sessions! Here are some of the children's thoughts on their favourite moments this term:
"I liked eating the green eggs and ham. It was so yummy I ate it all!"
"I love the naughty doggy in Hickory Dickory Dog when he ripped the cushion!"
"I liked making a ramp for the cars to go on and they zoomed up into the sky!"
"I liked making hot chocolate in the mud kitchen."
"I loved forest school but I can't choose just one because I've loved so many!"
"I made up a new game called 4 little pumpkins. I loved singing the song."
Have a look at our gallery to see some photos of the children over the first half term!
Welcome to Red Class
Hello everyone, we hope you have all had a fantastic summer and are looking forward to starting your school journey in reception. This school year is going to be filled with lots of exciting learning and fun.
Our topic this half-term is ‘All about Me’. Throughout this topic we will be learning our new class routines and rules, as well as exploring our new classroom and outdoor environment. We will be learning all about ourselves and our bodies, senses and changes. We will be encouraging children to discuss their families, houses, religion and heritage.
Literacy and Maths
Once the children have settled in we will begin our more structured whole class lessons.
In literacy, we will be starting off by looking at nursery rhymes and our focus text is a story called ‘Hickory Dickory Dog’ focusing on Poetry and linked to starting school. We will then move on to the comical and engaging ‘Dear Mother Goose’ focusing on writing to entertain. We will be focusing on Phase 2 sounds in our phonics lessons. We will be doing lots of work on hearing initial sounds in words and beginning to blend sounds together in simple words. We will also be learning how to retell different stories to others.
In maths, we are going to be exploring numbers to 3, sorting, ordering and comparing. We will talk about measure and patterns.
The wider curriculum
Understanding the world: We will discuss and celebrate the similarities and differences between all the different pupils in our class. We will be looking at, smelling, feeling and tasting lots of different fruits and vegetables during our Harvest festival.
Expressive Arts and Design: Our main focus in our creative work this half-term is learning how to draw simple representations of people. Our focus artist is Vincent van Gogh. We will be talking about and drawing our families as well as looking closely at ourselves to paint self-portraits. We will be encouraging children to choose appropriate colours when colouring and painting people. It would be great if you could encourage this at home too! Our role-play area this half-term is a home corner.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Our main priority this half-term is ensuring that all pupils settle happily into school life. We will be playing lots of ‘getting to know you’ games to help children develop the confidence to speak about themselves and to develop new friendships. We will be introducing children to our important school rules and ensuring that they become familiar with our school routines.
Physical development: Children will have an indoor and outdoor PE session which will focus on special awareness, negotiating space successfully, how to share equipment and take turns. They will practise new skills such as jumping, galloping and sliding.
Additional information
PE days – Tuesday and Friday. Please can children come to school wearing their PE kits on these days. Children will need their outdoor kit (trainers and joggers in the colder months). This should be an unbranded white t-shirt, black joggers/shorts in the summer months. They can wear their school jumper over this.
Nature school – Our nature school session will be every Thursday. Children should come to school wearing weather appropriate clothing, including a pair of wellies that can stay at school. Please ensure they have full length trousers and long sleeves to protect their arms and legs!
Class bear – We will be sending our Red class bear home from week 2. We choose a name as a class and the bear will spend the weekend at someone’s home alongside a book to write and include photos of the fun activities the children had. We look forward to looking at the bear’s adventures as a class.
Reading – children will bring their home reading books home starting from week 3. Please ensure book bags are in school daily with reading records updated with a comment to let us know when they have read at home. Our library day will be on Fridays. Children can exchange their book for a new one each week if they have returned their previous library book.
Homework will be sent home every Monday and will be due in the following Monday. Homework will consist of alternate phonics and maths activities and each child will receive a homework book to complete their work in.
If you have any queries throughout the year, please come and see us.
Best wishes,
Mrs Probert, Mrs Langley and Mrs Bradley.