Hello and welcome back from Reception! We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Christmas and New Year! We would like to thank you all for the many cards and messages we received at the end of term and our lovely gifts. We very much appreciated it.
Even though we have only been at school for 2 days, the children have settled really well back into the routine and have achieved a lot – well done Reception!
This week
After the festive break, we were very keen to hear all about what the children got up to and encouraged them to share all of their news with us and their friends. If you would like to share an observation on Tapestry about your Christmas and New Year festivities, it’s not too late and we would still love to receive them. We talked about how people celebrate New Year’s Eve around the world and that people often make New Year’s Resolutions. As part of the provision, the children enjoyed creating New Year Firework pictures, built London landmarks using construction materials to recreate the scene of New Year’s Eve and coming up with New Year’s Resolutions.
On Friday, we heard the story ‘Don’t Worry Hugless Douglas’ by David Melling. In the story, Douglas is given a wonderful new woolly hat by his Dad. As Douglas races outside to show it off he doesn’t realise that it’s unravelling! Douglas now has a problem and he’s not sure how to overcome his obstacle. Douglas’ friends have lots of ideas about how to put things right. In the end Douglas works out what the best thing to do it – he tells Mum and Dad what happened. They reassure him not to worry about they help him to overcome his problem. The children really enjoyed hearing this story and came up with some fantastic suggestions about how Douglas might be feeling as well as ideas for how to solve his problem. We shared this story with the children to mark the start of new topic in Jigsaw (RHSE) all about Dreams and Goals. The intention of sharing this story was to allow the children to understand that if they persevere, the can tackle any challenge they encounter, where at school or at home.
In Phonics this week, we took the opportunity to recap some of our previously learnt phonemes and tricky words. It is lovely to see how much the children are to remember from the prior learning. Throughout this coming term, we will continue to apply our phonics knowledge as we develop and reading and writing skills.
In Maths this week, we introduced children to the concept of zero (0) representing nothing. We used counting nursery rhymes and songs to help understand this more.
Next week
- For our main teaching, our learning will centre around the theme of People and Places. We will find out about various occupations and what life is like in other countries.
- We will enjoy reading the book ‘What People Do All Day’ by Richard Scarry.
- In Phonics, we will learn new Phase 3 digraph sounds ch, sh, th(v), th and ng.
- In Maths, we will be learning to make comparisons with numbers to 5 and understand the composition of numbers up to 5.
- In Jigsaw (RSHE), we will continue our learning about Dreams and Goals and talk about a time the children didn’t give up until they achieved their goal.
Supporting your child at home
- Read the monster phonics ebook that has been allocated to your child, at least 3 times in the week, and note down in your child’s reading record when you have done so.
- Talk to your child about your job. What do you do at work? What equipment do you use? What skills are particularly useful in your daily work?
- We would very much appreciate you supporting your child to become as independent as possible when putting on their coat – including zipping it up. As the weather continues to get colder supporting your child to put their gloves on as independently as possible would be much appreciated.
Any other information
- PE – PE will be starting this week on Wednesday. Please come to school dressed in your PE Kit.
- COLD WEATHER – We continue to be outdoors as often as possible even during the colder weather. With this in mind, please could you ensure your child has a suitable coat and any additional clothing you may want to provide such as gloves and a hat.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr. French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
