Welcome to Reception

In Reception, Mrs Grice is the class teacher. Reception is supported by Miss Rizzo, Mrs Liana-Stellmach, Mr Gibbons and Miss Bees.

Our PE days this term are Wednesday and Thursday. Please come to school wearing your PE kit on these days.

Drop Everything and Read - Every Tuesday morning 8.40 - 9 am.

Forest School is on a Monday afternoon.  Please come to school wearing old clothing and waterproof coats plus trousers on these days. long sleeves and long trousers/leggings are advised due to children being able to climb trees. Children can wear their wellington boots that are already in school. 

Reception will be having Forest School on Week 1 - 02.06.25, Week 3 - 16.06.25, Week 5 - 30.06.25 and Week 7 - 14.07.25 of this term.  

Library sessions will be every Friday afternoon - please return in bookbag every Friday so your child/children can get a new book weekly.

Our topics during Summer Term 2 are Creep, Crawl and Wiggle then On the Beach.  

Creep, Crawl and Wiggle - This mini project teaches children about invertebrates that live in their gardens and local environment.

On the Beach - This project teaches children about the plants and animals that live at the seaside. It also explores holidays in the past and the importance of keeping safe in the Sun.

Supporting your child at home

Creep, Crawl and Wiggle

• Go on a minibeast safari, looking under rocks, in dark spaces, in the trees and in soil.
• Make a bug hotel using instructions found online. Take a photograph of your bug hotel and share it with the rest of the class.
• Choose your favourite insect and draw a detailed picture with labelled body parts.
• Find out some fascinating minibeast facts. You could look up some facts on the internet or watch episodes of Minibeast Adventure with Jess on BBC iPlayer.

On the Beach

• Visit the beach or look at photographs of days out at the beach. Talk about the activities you enjoy when you visit the beach. Think about the things you need to take so that you can have fun and keep safe.
• Visit the beach to observe the animals that live on the seashore and in rock pools.
• Use Google Earth to look at the seas and oceans around the world. Look at the map and colour the seas and oceans blue. Then find the UK.
• The oceans contain some of the largest animals on the planet. Use a tablet or computer to take a look at these amazing animals. Choose one of the animals and find out three fantastic facts to share in school. Blue whale, Giant Squid, Ocean Sunfish,  Manta Ray, Whale Shark,  Coconut Crab,  Giant Pacific Octopus or the Great White Shark.

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 to teach Phonics. This term, we will continue to review teaching Phase 3 abd tricky words with the Children.  Please continue to practise these at home.

Please click the link for more information: 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.

Maths

We follow White Rose for Maths and Maths Mastery; this term we are focusing on:

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