Reception Newsletter – Summer Term
Dear parents,
Welcome back to a new term. We do hope that you all had a restful and enjoyable Easter break. We warmly welcome Eva Brown and her family to the school who joined us in January.
We have another busy term and we trust that this letter will provide you with some useful information.
Our topics for this term are; Once Upon a Time, introducing children to story language through reading a variety of traditional tales. We hope to grow our own bean stalks as tall as Jack’s! Then after half-term, what minibeasts inhabit the world around me? Due to the short nature of last term, we will continue our space topic for a few weeks learning about astronauts (very current) and making space models out of recycled materials. Please save a range of useful boxes, bottles and foil from your recycling along with any other useful items to make a space vehicle. We will let you know when to bring them into school.
| Communication and Language | Extending vocabulary, talking about the world around them and sharing opinions, listening to different versions of a traditional tale and retelling in their own words. Explaining how they will help their own beanstalk to grow and keeping a bean diary. |
| Personal, Social and Emotional Development | Taking steps to resolve conflicts – reaching a compromise, showing sensitivity to the needs of others, adjust behaviour to different situations, take change in their stride. |
| Physical Development | Handle and use simple tools safely and effectively, show good control in large and small movements, move confidently in a range of ways and negotiate space, know the importance of exercise and diet towards keeping healthy. In PE, we will be working outdoors with balls, and tennis rackets. We will also prepare the class for sports day!
We will also be thinking about health and hygiene and advising the Giant at the top of the beanstalk how to become healthier! |
| Literacy | Write meaningful sentences in a range of contexts, ascribe meaning to the marks they draw, write and paint, break flow of speech into words, read and understand simple sentences using phonic knowledge to decode regular words, read some common irregular words: Phase 4 Tricky Words; said, have, like, so, do, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what. Please display these words at home. Begin to use traditional story language heard in their own writing. We will also focus on comprehension in our guided reading sessions getting the children to demonstrate an understanding of what they have read through questioning. |
| Maths | Number – ordering numbers, counting reliably, counting in 2s and 5s, doubling and halving, adding and subtracting.
Shape – 3D shapes around – recognising names and properties. Capacity and Weight – water play measuring and balancing. |
| Understanding the World | Show interest in the lives of people familiar to them, notice that children don’t always share the same interests, thinking about special days. Forest School – minibeasts, growing beans. Using technology – cameras, recordable devices, IPads, Laptop, bee-bots. |
| Expressive Arts and Design | Introduce story narrative into their play, compose music with the instruments, create minibeast inspired art work – Eric Carle and models. |
Reading Books – we will continue to hear the children read regularly in phonics and their guided reading sessions. Please continue to hear your children read regularly at home including their sound and tricky word book. Please make sure the children have their reading book, diary, sound and tricky word books in school every day in the home folder.
PE Days – Tuesday and Friday – please ensure children now have PE shorts to wear and that their trainers are still fitting them! But we may change days depending on the weather and other events.
Snack – all children need to bring a healthy snack to eat before morning break time. Please make sure snacks are raw or dried fruit or vegetables ONLY – no crackers, cheese strings or fruit winders as snacks should be as natural as possible. They will have the Government funded snack during the afternoon.
Weather – now that we are getting warmer weather please could all the children bring in plain water in a named bottle and sun hat. Sun cream should be applied at home before school (when necessary).
Labelling – please continue to make sure all clothes are clearly labelled with your child’s name. Please also relabel if you have hand-me-downs from other families!
Forest School – we will continue to visit the wood every other Friday this term. It will be a privilege to watch how the wood changes from the Spring into Summer and play in the magical cow parsley that often grows taller than the children! Our dates are:
17th April, 1st May, 15th May, 5th June, 19th June, 3rd July
Please let us / the office know if you are able to help on any of these dates.
We hope to invite parents and younger siblings to one of our later sessions at the forest for a picnic. More details nearer the time!
Please do continue do use Tapestry to follow your child’s learning journey but all messages and queries must go via the school office please. Remember, the children love to share their Tapestry news and photos with the class from the big screen.
Useful Dates:
Forest School -17th April, 1st May, 15th May, 5th June, 19th June, 3rd July
15th April – Reception Height and Weight measurements
1st June – INSET Day
18th June – School Talent Show tbc
29th June – 3rd July – Art Week
13th July – Class Swap – children visit new teacher and classroom during the morning.
17th July – end of term
There will be a parent assembly for the class this term too, dare tbc
Best wishes to you all and looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Alison Course, Holli Thomas and Wendy Berrett
