Welcome to Reception meeting
It was great to see so many of you at the ‘Welcome to Reception’ meeting this week. For those of you who were unable to attend, please find attached the PowerPoint shared at the meeting.
Autumn term after-school clubs – places available
As we start week two of our new after-school club schedule, there are some clubs with spaces available and it is not too late for your child to join a club.
Monday
- Y3/4 Table tennis 1 space
- Y3-6 Chess spaces
- Y4-6 Dodgeball 1 space
Tuesday
- Y1-3 Foot-tech football 1 space
- Y1-3 City of Leeds Basketball spaces
- Y5-6 now open to Year 4 Table tennis spaces
Wednesday
- Y1-3 Fun and games spaces
- Y4-6 City of Leeds Basketball spaces
Thursday
- Y5/6 Coding 2 spaces
- Y5-6 now open to Year 4 Netball spaces
Wow reading records!
The children really impressed me with their reading records this first week. The activity was ‘predict the future‘ which asks them to predict what may happen; in the next chapter, at the end of the book or in the sequel. These records are to help me keep track of the children’s reading progress so it’s fantastic to see the children’s evidence of this.
I choose an activity for the whole class to complete on their book each Friday. More information on these activities are inside the record. If you are ever unsure which activity it is, please ask or choose a random one!
This week’s activity is ‘fact file’.
Class Novel: The Legend of Podkin One-Ear
In Year 4, our current class novel is The Legend of Podkin One-Ear by Kieran Larwood.
“Podkin is the son of a warrior chieftain. He knows that one day it will be up to him to lead his warren and guard it in times of danger. But for now, he’s quite happy to laze around annoying his older sister Paz, and playing with his baby brother Pook. Then Podkin’s home is brutally attacked, and the young rabbits are forced to flee. The terrifying Gorm are on the rampage, and no one and nowhere is safe. With danger all around them, Podkin must protect his family, uncover his destiny, and attempt to defeat the most horrifying enemy rabbitkind has ever known.”
We’re not very far in but we’re all really enjoying it so far! We can’t wait to find out what happened to Podkin.
Your children have been sharing their opinions and making some predictions…
I predict that Podkin lost his ear in a battle.
I think that Podkin is a hero and he will save his warren from the evil enemies.
I predict that the bard knows Podkin and they used to fight together.
I’m excited to keep reading it because I want to know how Podkin lost his ear.
Help at home: ask your child to summarise what they’ve read so far. You can also explore some of the other books from Kieran Larwood.
Living and Learning: 8Rs
In Living and Learning this week we have been focussing on the 8Rs for learning and thinking about ways we can show the 8Rs in all our lessons.
I’ve seen the whole class using their 8Rs in different lessons this week. In PE, we’ve been working on our teamwork by playing different games. We had to have strong communication and listening skills. Everybody showed resilience and were very responsive.
Today, we started reading with the Reception children. This is a Year 5 tradition. The children were very excited and showed great kindness and maturity when they were reading. The children showed great responsibility.
Throughout all the lessons this week Year 5 have shown they are ready and that they can take safe risks by answering questions even if they are not sure.
Help at home by discussing when the children can use the 8Rs at home.
Reading with Year 5
This afternoon, our Reception children enjoyed a special reading session with Year 5 pupils. The older children took the lead, sharing stories and reading aloud, while the younger ones listened with excitement. It was a lovely opportunity for both year groups to connect – building confidence, friendship, and a shared love of reading.
Topic- Geography
This week in our topic lessons the Year 1s have been learning about the four countries in the UK. They worked really hard on identifying and colouring the four countries and the borders around each one. They’ve had a really good start to the year with a lot of them showing off their geography skills.
Autumn 1: Week 2
We’ve had a fantastic week getting to know each other and our new routines. I’ve been super impressed with their fantastic listening skills and how good they already are at “3, 2, 1 stop”.
Morning drop off
Our cloakroom is very small and can feel very overwhelming. We want to make sure all our children feel safe and have a happy and healthy start to their school day. Therefore, from Monday, your child will line up in the playdough and come into the classroom independently. This will also allow a prompt start to learning and encourage independence. Please wait with your child in the playground until a member of the Reception team opens the gate.
Phonics
This week, we’ve started our phase 2 phonics sessions. We’ve been trying really hard to form the graphemes (a ‘symbol’ of a phoneme –it’s a letter or group of letters representing a sound and we use the letter names for this) and pronounce the phonemes (The smallest unit of sound you can hear in a word. For example, ‘sat’ has three phonemes: ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’) correctly.
If you’re unsure on how to pronounce the phonemes, there are some really useful videos on the Little Wandle parent page.
Phonics home learning
Today, your child has come home with their first phonics home learning sheet and a phonics home learning book.
Please make sure you return your child’s phonics home learning book every Thursday so we can add new graphemes and tricky words.
PE
PE starts next Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit. Our Uniform policy has a really helpful PE kit guide if you need some help!
Families
I look forward to seeing you all at the second Welcome to Reception meeting on Monday at 6pm.
Best start in life
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has written a letter to parents with a focus on ensuring children have the best start in life. It signposts parents to the best start in life website – there’s information on Best Start Family Hubs and support with your child’s early health and learning.
Maths – Number formation
This week in maths, the children looked at their number formation again. Building on from the previous week where they looked at identifying and writing numbers up to 20, they worked on identifying and writing numbers to 40, or in some cases even higher. I was really impressed with the work they produced, the support they showed each other and their attitudes towards learning. Well done Year 1! You are all super stars!
