• Reading and Writing
• Maths help

Welcome to Reception Class

Class Teacher - Mrs Keating

Teaching Assistant - Mrs Murphy

Learning support: Mrs Chu

WELCOME TO THE AUTUMN TERM!

aa

Our main focus for the first half term of the Autumn term in Reception will be the topic ‘Magical Me’. Each week the children will enjoy a different story from which the learning activities will be based. We will be thinking about who is in their family; how they are the same and different; looking after themselves; their body; their feelings and their friendships.

During the second half term, our topic will be about ‘Celebrations’. The children will be learning about: bonfire night, Remembrance Sunday, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas. Our topics in Religion, across the Autumn term, will be ‘Creation and Covenant’ and ‘Prophecy and Promise’. These will be taught in a child friendly way, exploring ideas through discussion and engaging, practical tasks.

Throughout the year, there will be a strong emphasis on building up finger strength for writing, using a variety of activities, for example, using scissors for cutting, using a range of mark making materials, using small construction and other fine motor control resources. Any activity of this type strengthens the hands and fingers and is essential for the development of good pencil control and handwriting.  Doing these activities at home is very beneficial in helping your child to write. Early in September, we will be starting ‘dough disco’ which the children (and adults!) absolutely love. We also hope to build our gross motor skills with ‘Squiggle me into a writer’-a wonderful resource which involves movement and music.

In Literacy, the children will be learning the sounds of the alphabet. We will be learning these sounds in our phonics lessons through the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics programme. More information will be sent out soon regarding how you can support your child with their phonics and reading and we will soon be inviting you to an information evening about this. The children will also learn to form the letters correctly, ensuring they use the correct pencil grip.  As we move through the term, we will progress to using these sounds for spelling and sounding out simple words. 

In maths, we will be following the NCETM Mastering Number programme and using White Rose to supplement ‘Space, Shape and Measure.’ We will be finding, subitising and representing numbers to 5; identifying 1 more and 1 less; understanding how we make numbers to 5; matching the same and comparing different; sorting objects into sets. We will also be learning about circles, triangles, and shapes with 4 sides. Alongside this, the children will begin to learn about Ten Town, which is a fun and engaging way that we learn about the numbers and develop number skills. This will also support the children to write numbers.

Early in the Autumn term, all children will start to bring home ‘Sharing Books’. This is a similar idea to a Library book as they can choose the books they bring, and they are for you to spend time reading together. We will then begin our small group reading lessons and the children will start to bring home books from these sessions to share with you at home too.  

Snacks

School provides a fruit snack mid-morning for our children which they can access from our ‘rolling snack’ table.  The children are also offered milk or water to drink each day. They do not need to bring a snack in from home in September as they are encouraged to have a piece of fruit from school.

PE Kits

Our Reception children will come to school on their PE day, which is currently set to be a Thursday, in their PE kits. They will not need to bring their uniform with them to change back into. By doing this, children can spend plenty of their day enjoying learning activities, rather than lots of minutes spent getting changed!  We would encourage you, however, to ensure you do let your child practice getting dressed themselves in the morning-fastening buttons is a wonderful way to practise their fine motor skills and developing independence. Please do refer to our Uniform Policy on the school website, so you know what to dress your little ones in.

We can't wait to spend the term getting to know your lovely children and working closely with you too! 

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa