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Bathampton Primary School

EverybodyBelongs ~ Aspires ~ Thrives

Reception

 

Welcome to Reception

In Reception, Mrs Grice is the class teacher. Reception is supported by Miss Rizzo, Mrs Wang and Miss Bees.

 

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

 

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

 

Forest School is on a Monday afternoon fortnightly.  Please come to school wearing old clothing and waterproof coats plus trousers on these days.  Children can wear their wellington boots that are already in school. Reception will be having Forest School on Week 3 and Week 5 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 Spring Term 1 are Winter Wonderland and Starry Night.  

 

 

In the Winter Wonderland project, your child will explore the seasonal changes that happen during winter. They will find out about the different weather associated with the winter season and explore changes that happens to water as it freezes. They will find out about what happens to plants and animals during cold weather and explore places in the world that are always cold and snowy, including the animals that live there.

Supporting your child at home

  • Go on a winter walk and talk about how the environment has changed since the summer months.
  • Put bird food out in the garden or on a window ledge and observe the birds that visit.
  • Leave water out in a shallow container overnight on a cold night and see if the water freezes.
  • If it snows, build a snowman, and take a photo of it to share with the rest of the class.

 

In the Starry Night project, your child will explore the differences between the world at night time compared with daytime, through a range of exciting and creative activities. They will find out about nocturnal animals and how they find food when it is dark. They will find out about people who work at night and the different jobs that people do when we are asleep. They will discuss bedtime routines and the importance of a good night’s sleep. They will explore the night sky and find out about the Moon and stars.

Supporting your child at home

  • Look at the night sky and see how many stars you can see each night.
  • See how the Moon changes shape each night.
  • Go on a short walk after dark or go into the garden. Take a torch to light the way. Discuss how things look different in the dark

 

Visit the CBeebies – Let’s celebrate website to find out more about different celebrations that happen at this time of year. You could look up Diwali, Christmas and Hanukkah.

 

This topic 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 teaching Phase 4. Children will learn how to read and spell words containing long vowel sounds such as toast or joint. They will be learning about different endings to words such as -ing or -ed.

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:

 

Week

Maths Concept

1

Subitise within 5 focusing on die patterns. Match numerals to quantities within 5. 

2

Counting – focus on ordinality and the ‘staircase’ pattern 

See that each number is one more than the previous number.

3

Focus on 5, Focus on 6 and 7 as ‘5 and a bit’

4

Compare sets and use language of comparison:  more than, fewer than, an equal number to make unequal sets equal.

5

Mass and Capacity White Rose Maths

6

Length, Height and Time White Rose Maths

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. 

 

 

Books will come home every Thursday and should be returned the following Monday.

Library books will be changed every Friday.

 

 

Photos of our classroom

Useful Documents for Reception

Recommended Reads for Reception

One Minute Maths


 

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