Reception Class Newsletter – Spring Term
Reception Class Newsletter 2020 Spring Term 2
Dear parents / carers,
We hope you all had an enjoyable and restful half term.
We have another exciting half-term ahead of us in early years. We will continue to use Tapestry – our online learning journal – to make individual, group and whole class observations. Many of you are looking at the photos, videos and notes so that you can see how much learning is going on! Please do let us know if you are having any technical issues. Thank you for those parents who are responding with comments and activities you are doing at home, helping us to get the whole picture of your child. It is also great feedback for us.
This half-term, out topic is Houses and Homes. We will enjoy learning about different places around the world and compare the homes there. We will also be reading fiction books about homes – The Lighthouse Keeper, The House that Jack Built and animal stories. We will start by focussing on our own homes, what makes a home and what we love about out home. We will be reading and responding to the traditional tale The Three Little Pigs.
Personal, social and emotional development. | Children are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. |
Communication and language | Children listen attentively in a range of situations. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. |
Physical Development | Children show good control and coordination in large and small movements. Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. |
Literacy | Children read and understand simple sentences. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read. Children use the phonic knowledge to spell words to write ad begin to write sentences. |
Mathematics | Children count reliably with numbers from 1 to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. |
Understanding the World | Children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. |
Expressive Arts and Design | Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function. |
Phonics – we are continuing to follow the Letters and Sounds programme Phases 3 and 4. We will learn the final single letter phonemes and move onto digraphs and trigraphs as well as revising previous learning. Please refer to the sheet given out at parents evening which includes all of the phonemes, digraphs and trigraphs: qu, sh, ch, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo/oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er. We will be learning to read and write new tricky words. It would be worth having these up at home – my, we, me, he, be, she, are, was, they, you, her, all.
Reading – all children now have a reading book. DO please hear your child read / discuss the book with them as often as possible and record in their reading record book so that they can continue to make progress. Children will also be doing Guided Reading in small groups so please make sure their reading folder with both books are in school every day.
Library – we will visit the library on Wednesday afternoons so that the children can return their book and borrow a new one. Please keep their book mark in the book. They only need to bring the book in on Wednesdays so they don’t have to carry it in their school bag all week.
Forest school – we will continue to visit the wood on alternate Friday mornings. Please make sure children are dressed suitably in plenty of warm layers and wear a hat, scarf and waterproof gloves if possible. Again, we need some parent helpers – three per session – please. DO sign up for a slot in the classroom if this is possible. The dates are as follows:
Friday 28th February (this Friday), Friday 13th March, Friday 27th March
Snack money – thank you for your contributions towards morning snack. The Government funded fruit is provided in the afternoons. Snack money continues to be £10 for the half term. Please send cash in a named envelope in the Home Folder.
Helpers – we currently have parents who help at snack time on Tuesday and Thursday – thank Beth and Helen. If you would be free to help at all on the other days especially on a Monday morning with admin, with snack or hearing readers, admin etc we would be really grateful.
Named items – please make sure ALL items are clearly labelled – water bottles, clothes, bags and P.E. bags especially could be named on the outside to differentiate them from others! Our P.E. day this half term may change to a Wednesday morning from the Tuesday slot and Thursdays. If the weather is appropriate we will go outside for PE.
Proud Clouds – thank you for all the lovely proud clouds you have sent in informing us of their out of school achievements. The children love sharing them with the rest of the class. We have been displaying them on the wall in the Quiet Room. Do please continue to send them in. The children could make them and cut them out and even write them for you!
Please continue to support your child at home using their sound book and numbers and by reading with them.
Useful Dates
Professional Themed Week – 2nd – 6th March
Parents Consultations – 4th and 5th March (sign up for a slot online)
Dance Festival – 25th March (in school time)
Tray Day AND Church Service – 31st March
End of term – 3rd April
We look forward to catching up with you all soon.
Mrs Course and Mrs Berrett.
Reception Class Newsletter 2020
Dear parents / carers,
Happy New Year to you. We trust you all had a lovely Christmas. Again, let me say an enormous ‘thank you’ for all the kind presents and cards that we received at the end of term. You were so very generous, thank you very much. Thank you also for coming to see your talented and wonderful children in our nativity – what a special morning. Your support has been brilliant.
We warmly welcome Phoenix and her family to our class.
We have another exciting term ahead of us in early years. We will continue to use Tapestry – our online learning journal – to make individual, group and whole class observations. Many of you are looking at the photos, videos and notes so that you can see how much learning is going on! Please do let us know if you are having any technical issues. Thank you for those parents who are responding with comments. It is great feedback for us.
The children are now full-time at school so the Spring term timetable is slightly different in that there will be more focussed group work in the afternoons. Please let us know how they children are adjusting to full days – we would like to help in any way we can.
We are starting this term with a topic all about Space. We will be sharing and learning facts about the solar system with a view to writing a non-fiction class book. We will also read a number of fiction texts set in space. We plan to make models of space craft / vehicles so please do not recycle any useful boxes, tubes and foil as we would love to use them at school! Would you mind collecting these bits at home as storing them at school will be tricky! After half-term, our topic will be Houses and Homes. We will be looking at homes/castles in the past and at different houses around the world. If you have any books or resources about these exciting topics please do send them for the children to look at.
Personal, social and emotional development. | Children are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. |
Communication and language | Children listen attentively in a range of situations. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. |
Physical Development | Children show good control and coordination in large and small movements. Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. |
Literacy | Children read and understand simple sentences. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read. Children use the phonic knowledge to spell words to write and begin to write sentences. |
Mathematics | Children count reliably with numbers from 1 to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. |
Understanding the World | Children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. We will also learn about the traditions and storied celebrated during Chinese New Year. |
Expressive Arts and Design | Children sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function. |
Phonics – we are continuing to follow the Letters and Sounds programme Phases 3 and 4. We will learn the final single letter phonemes and move onto digraphs – where two letters make up one sound e.g. sh/th/ch/ee/oo etc. We will send these home in their sound books so please make sure they bring this to school in the home folder every day. Please refer to the sheet given out at parents evening which includes all of the phonemes, digraphs and trigraphs. We will be learning to read and write new tricky words. It would be worth having these up at home my, we, me, he, be, she, are, was, they, you, her, all.
Reading – all children now have a reading book. DO please hear your child read / discuss the book with them as often as possible and record in their reading record book so that they can continue to make progress – it is noticeable which children read regularly at home. Children will also be doing Guided Reading in small groups so please make sure their reading folder with both books are in school every day.
Library – we will visit the library on Wednesday afternoons so that the children can return their book and borrow a new one. Please keep their book mark in the book. They only need to bring the book in on Wednesdays so they don’t have to carry it in their school bag all week.
Forest school – we will continue to visit the wood on alternate Friday mornings. Please make sure children are dressed suitably in plenty of warm layers and wear a hat, scarf and waterproof gloves if possible. Again, we need some parent helpers – three per session – please. DO sign up for a slot in the classroom if this is possible.
The dates for forest school are as follows:
Friday 24th January, 7th February, 28th February, 13th March, 27th March
Snack money – thank you for your contributions towards morning snack. The Government funded fruit is provided in the afternoons. Snack money continues to be £10 per half term. Please send cash in a named envelope in the Home Folder.
Helpers – we currently have parents who help at snack time on Tuesdays, and Thursdays. If you would be free to help at all on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays, please do let us know. It is so helpful for us.
Named items – please make sure ALL items are clearly labelled – water bottles, clothes, bags and P.E. bags especially could be named on the outside to differentiate them from others! Our P.E. days continue to be Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Proud Clouds – thank you for all the lovely proud clouds you have sent in informing us of their out of school achievements. The children love sharing them with the rest of the class. Do please continue to send them in. The children could make them and cut them out and even write them for you!
Junk modelling reminder – we hope to make space vehicles this half term and would love for you to start collecting useful boxes, containers, tubes etc that you might otherwise recycle. Please would you keep this at home as it will be tricky for us to store in the classroom. Thank you.
Ways to help at home – read with your child regularly and hear them read – they don’t need to read the whole book but you could ask questions and get them to point to sounds or words. Count with your child and ask them to recognise numbers and shapes while you are out and about. If they want to write, give them a purpose – write a shopping list using their sounds. You could display the tricky words listed earlier to help with recognition.
We look forward to catching up with you all soon.
Mrs Course and Mrs Berrett.