Reception

Welcome to Reception

Summer term information

After May half term we will be comparing similarities and differences between houses, the natural environment, likes and dislikes. On Tuesday 4^th June we will be discussing something that is special to us. We are inviting children to bring in a special object from home or a photograph that they are happy to share and discuss.  If your child brings in a special object please make sure that it fits inside their red school bag and is named.

On Friday 7^th June we would like to invite all Foundation Stage parents to a Maths workshop starting promptly at 2pm. The workshop will include a selection of problem solving activities for you to take part in with your child. 

We hope that the sun will continue to shine when we return from half term. Please can you ensure that your child has a named sun hat and water bottle. If you wish for your child to wear sun cream we advise you apply this in the morning before school. Children can bring in a named bottle of sun cream, but will be encouraged to apply this themselves. 

Words of the week: doubling, halving and sharing

Over the next two weeks we will be busy doubling, halving and sharing.

The children will be:

• creating their own ladybirds and butterflies, ensuring that they double their spots on each side of their wing carefully.
• cutting up a selection of foods and fruits to find half.
• solving word problems that involve sharing different quantities and amounts. 
• playing games that involve doubling, halving and sharing.

Thank you Mrs. Shaw!

We had a lovely surprise in our garden this morning as Mrs. Shaw (our Site Agent) had made us a mud kitchen to play with. We had lots of fun exploring it today in the sunshine, making pancakes, silly soup and hot chocolate in the kettle. Thank you very much Mrs. Shaw, we love it! 

We have been enjoying learning in the sunshine.

It has been lovely to go outside to learn and play in the beautiful weather. Here are some of the things we have been doing.

Gardening Club

Gardening club has now begun in Foundation Stage. The children have thoroughly enjoyed planting different vegetables, weeding the area and watering. Over the next few weeks we plan to plant some more vegetables and bedding plants in order to brighten up our garden. If you have any unwanted pots, tubs, watering cans, tools or plants that you would be willing to donate to the Foundation Stage garden they would be gratefully received. 

We are very lucky to be able to introduce you to Bug Club, an online reading programme that we have recently purchased. Bug Club will complement our existing reading scheme so your child will still bring home their home/school reader and reading record. Books will still be changed as they are currently.

Teachers have been busy this week allocating books to your child’s log in so that when you access Bug Club you can jump straight into reading and explore a range of books. Any books allocated to your child will be stored in ‘My Stuff’.  Throughout the books there are quiz questions for your child to complete. To answer a question, just click on the bug icon. Your child does not need to finish all the quiz questions in one sitting and can come back to a book later.

When your child has finished all the quiz questions in a book, he or she will earn ‘Active Learn Coins’. By reading more books, your child will earn enough coins to ‘buy’ a reward in one of the many reward zones online. The answers to the quiz questions will be sent back to our teacher site so that we can see how your child is progressing.

We will also be able to assign more books for your child to read if the virtual book bag is running low.  This will be done on a half termly basis, so if your child finishes the books allocated before the May half term holiday we would encourage them to go back and re-read their favourite books that they have read, these will be stored in ‘My Library’ within the Bug Club programme. They will also still have their reading books sent home from our reading scheme to read alongside those accessed through Bug Club.

You will get some more information sent home with your child today that further explains the programme, how to access it and get logged on. When you are logged on please explore the ‘grown up section’ for some ideas for how you can support your child’s reading at home.

We hope that you and your child will love these books and enjoy reading them at home.

We will organise information sessions for parents to further explore Bug Club after the Easter Break.  Dates and times will follow.

Mrs Scarrott and Mrs Toyer

Word of the week: Author

When we return from the Easter break we will be focusing on developing our reading skills using our phonetic knowledge. We will begin by exploring books written by Eric Carle.

Firstly we will be sharing the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

During the first week we will be:

• reading simple words, captions and sentences in order to gather and record simple facts about caterpillars and butterflies.
• creating our own stories and posters that can be read by ourselves and others.

Word of the week: Easter

This week we have shared and sequenced the Easter story. We have also been learning about different Christian ceremonies including weddings and christenings. The children have been discussing their own religions and beliefs and comparing similarities and differences in appearance, families and interests.

Word of the week: Number

Over the next few weeks we will be exploring the concept of number. 

We will be: 

• forming our numbers in fun and exciting ways.
• ordering numbers from 0-20.
• investigating the value of numbers. 
• exploring addition in the indoor and outdoor environment.
• exploring subtraction.
• exploring different ways to find the answers to maths questions such as using objects, number lines and counting on in our heads. 
• creating our own board games. 

World Book Day 

Thank you to everyone who dressed up as their favourite book character and to all the parents who joined us to share stories with their children.

We have received some fabulous ‘books in a box’ which are now displayed around the school and being admired by many.

We also had a special visit from some beautiful princesses who shared some of their favourite tales and stories.

Dates for your diary: 

Thursday 4th April- Last day of Spring term 

Tuesday 23rd April- Summer 1 term begins 

Monday 27th May- Monday 3rd June- May half term

Tuesday 4th June- Summer 2 term begins

Wednesday 12th June-Friday 14th June Father's day shop

Summer term 1: Learning Log dates: 

Tricky Word Song

Here is the 'Tricky Word Song' that we enjoy singing in Phonics.

Phonics  Ideas for home

Silly Soup

Have a bowl and a spoon. Ask children to make your soup yummy by putting objects or pictures with your selected sound in the soup.  Any items that don't start with your initial sound will make the sound disgusting. As you mix the soup, sing;

We're making lots of silly soup,

We're making soup that's silly.

We're going to put it in the fridge,

To make it nice and chilly.

Cross the river

'Can we cross the river Mr Crocodile?' 'Only if your item starts with...'

Children to have a picture card or an item. If their picture starts with the initial sound you have called, they can attempt to cross the river. The adult is the crocodile who is very hungry and attempts to catch the children.

Bingo

Have a grid with four or six words. Children to cross the words as they are called. When all the words off, children call 'bingo'. This game can also be played with sounds or tricky words.

Splat

Have a selection of words or sounds in the middle. When a sound or word is called, it's a race to splat it as quick as possible. The first player to splat the word or sound is the winner.

Tricky Words

Tricky words are words which we can not use our phonics to decode. We must learn them by sight. The Phase 2 tricky words are; I, no, go, the, into.

At school we learn these by playing games, such as bingo, splat and snap.

Useful website links

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=phonics

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/expert-help/phonics-made-easy

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/

Sound Pronunciation Guide