Welcome to Reception

In Reception, Miss Libby is the class teacher, and we are supported by Mrs Lowe.

Important dates and times

Our PE days this term are Monday and Thursday. Please send your child to school wearing PE kit on these days, bringing school shoes in a separate bag to change into indoors if it is wet/muddy. Our PE in Term 1 will be Dance: Nursery Rhymes and Locomotion: Walking.

Our Forest School date this term is Thursday 2^nd October. Our growing wild session this term is Friday 17^th October. To fully participate in these sessions, please ensure that wellies and a waterproof coat are brought into school ahead of this date, if they are not already here. Please ensure children are wearing long sleeve tops and long trousers so they can climb trees and join us in the meadow if appropriate for that session.

Library sessions will be every Wednesday morning – please return books in the children’s bookbag every Wednesday so they can take a new one home weekly.

Drop everything and read is every Wednesday morning 8:40am-9:00am. Please do join us if you are available to do so.

We will also have an open morning on Fridays 8:40am-9:00am from the week commencing 29^th September for all parents to join our class in learning and reviewing the sound of the week. More information to follow.

Topic

Our topics for term 1 are ‘Me and My Community’ and ‘Autumn’.

Me and My Community

This topic is predominantly designed to support children with settling into the new routines and rules of school. It encourages children to make new friends and find confidence within their new class. It teaches children about being kind, helpful and thoughtful at both home and school. The topic also highlights how we are all unique and special, with an emphasis on the importance of friendship and how people in our families, schools and local communities are important and can help us.

Autumn

In this topic we will explore the wonderful season of autumn. Focussing on seasonal changes, harvest and the change to our local environment during this time. Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting autumnal experience!

These topics encompass all areas of the EYFS curriculum: 

• Communication and Language 
• Personal, Social and Emotional development
• Physical Development
• Literacy
• Mathematics 
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design 

Phonics

We follow Little Wandle phonics and reading scheme. We practice our phonics sounds, skills and tricky words every day. We will be learning and reviewing phase two this term.

For more information, please visit https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/.

Literacy

Drawing Club is an approach designed by Greg Bottrill that immerses children into a world full of imagination.  

It is through drawing club that we open up the magic world of tales and story to children whilst at the same time enriching their language skills, developing their fine motor and share a really special time with them. Drawing Club is a fantastic place to start a child’s experience of school ‘Literacy’

Drawing Club is based upon the 3M principle. These are making conversation, mark making and mathematics. We use a book, traditional tale or an animation as a portal for the week. Children learn new, exciting vocabulary that we revisit each day of the week. We draw characters on a Monday, settings on a Tuesday and we ‘wonder’ on a Wednesday and Thursday.

We add maths to our drawings by talking about shapes, doubling, halving, addition, subtraction etc… We might be drawing a troll with a spherical shaped head, 2 strong, wiry hairs on his chin and double this amount coming out of each ear. He has one more than 4 buttons on his filthy, ripped shirt. Children observe as the teacher models drawing club each morning and then get the opportunity to complete their own drawings. They are invited to wear a lanyard showing they are part of drawing club and can borrow ideas from the teacher or create their own amazing ideas to share.

One of the most exciting parts of Drawing Club is adding secret symbols and passwords to our drawings. We always draw a secret symbol that can make anything happen! Sometimes we press them and aliens or unicorns become 3 times bigger, pencils turn into chocolate or hair turns multi-coloured! We then add a password to make the secret symbol work. This can be a mark, letter, digraph (2 letters that make one sound), a word or a sentence. As children make progress and become more confident with their phonics, their passwords develop and move towards phrases and sentences.

This term in drawing club we will be discovering the magical stories and adventures of The Little Red Hen, Not Now Bernard, Magic Roundabout and Chicken Licken.

Maths

We follow White Rose for Maths and Maths Mastery.

Supporting your child at home

Each week, your child will bring home a Sound Book, which outlines what we are learning during our daily phonics sessions in school and hopefully provides a helpful reference point for you to practise and reinforce our learning at home. It explains how we teach pronunciation and letter formation and suggests words that you could practise blending.

Your child will also bring home a decodable reading book, which we have already explored in small groups in school; please read frequently with your child - we are aiming for fluency! They will also bring home a high quality sharing book from our library. Explore the pictures and talk about them together. Help your child make connections to the picture and what they know about the world and their life. Enjoy the book together! Sharing a book together will help your child grow their vocabulary. 

Photos of our classroom

Useful Documents for Reception

Recommended Reads for Reception

One Minute Maths