Autumn 1: Week 5
Literacy
For the next two weeks, our focus is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. We’ve been using a story map to help us retell the story and remember the different parts in the correct order.
Make sure you look out for a video of us retelling the story next week!
Help at home: Use the story map sheet to practise retelling the story together.
Maths
This week, we’ve been exploring how numbers can be composed of 1s. Throughout the week, we’ve been collecting groups of 2, 3 and 4 objects to help us understand that a whole can be made up of smaller parts.
On Tuesday, we helped the three bears find collections of 3 things for their picnic. Each time we found a collection of 3, we used the stem sentence:
“1 and 1 and 1 makes 3.”
Help at home: Can you make collections of objects at home? Remember, the objects don’t always have to be the same!
Art
This half-term, our featured artist is Frida Kahlo. We’ve looked at examples of her artwork and talked about the shapes and colours, how the paintings make us feel and what we like about her pieces of artwork.
Over the past two weeks, the children have created their own wonderful self-portraits inspired by Frida Kahlo.
Living & Learning
Throughout the week, we’ve been talking about what a good listener looks like and why being a good listener is important.
Here are some of the children’s quotes:
Ol: I’m a good listener when I’m in the car because I need to keep my seatbelt on.
Lo: I’m a good listener when I’m talking to my friends.
Ai: I’m a good listener when I listen to my Daddy at home.
El: I listen to my Mummy and Daddy when I clean my teeth and get ready for school.
Za: I’m a good listener when Mummy and Daddy call me for my food.
Finally, here’s a snapshot of some of our fantastic independent learning this week.
Reminders!
- Library books need to be returned every Friday.
- eBooks are assigned every Thursday. To celebrate your child’s reading skills, make sure you listen to your child read their eBook daily.
- Reading records and blue phonics home learning books need to be returned every Thursday.
Tuesday 29 September: Fine Motor Stay & Learn
Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended this morning’s Fine Motor Stay and Learn session. It was fantastic to see so many of you getting involved in the challenges and ticking them off on your sheets with your child. If you would like to revisit the presentation, you can take a look here.
Key points to remember
- Fine motor activities can be done at home using everyday objects.
- Fine motor activities are essential for developing your child’s finger and hand muscles ready for writing.
- Alongside fine motor activities, gross motor activities such as crawling, climbing and hanging help to develop core strength.
- When mark making or writing, remember to talk about the 4 Ps: posture, pencil grip, paper position and pressure.
- Most importantly, make the activities fun and engaging!
Poetry Basket: Breezy Weather
This week’s poem is called Breezy Weather. Hope you enjoy the performance!
Autumn 1: Week 4
Rainbow challenges
This week, the children have really started to enjoy completing their independent rainbow challenges during choosing time.
Each week, there’ll be seven challenges across different areas of learning. The children are encouraged to complete the challenges independently and tick them off on their rainbow challenge card.
When your child completes a challenge, they’ll be encouraged to explain or show an adult what they’ve done. This helps us develop their confidence, independence and ability to talk about their learning.
Help at home: Ask your child if they’ve had a go at any of the rainbow challenges this week. Can they tell you what they did?
Daily movement (PE)
We’ve really enjoyed our daily movement sessions this week! We have been practising lots of different movements: running, balancing, rolling and crawling.
These activities are important for developing our core strength and gross motor skills, which provide an important foundation for later writing and fine motor control. Movement also supports our physical health and wellbeing, helping us to be happy and healthy learners.
Help at home: Have a go at crawling around a room together. Can you crawl forwards, backwards or around obstacles?
Maths
This week in maths, we’ve been exploring the purpose of counting – finding out “how many?” objects there are. We discovered that we can count all sorts of things, including sounds. We’ve also been practising our counting sequence by singing “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”.
Help at home: Look for opportunities to count together at home. You could count toys, steps, pieces of fruit or even sounds such as claps or taps!
Stay & Learn
We’re very excited about our first Stay & Learn session on Tuesday!
The focus will be on fine motor control and early writing. You’ll have the opportunity to take part in some fun fine motor challenges alongside your child before joining us for a short presentation.
We hope you leave the session with a better understanding of the learning that takes place in Reception and some ideas about how you can support your child’s learning and development at home.
We look forward to seeing you there! Have a happy and healthy weekend.
Autumn Hunt
Thank you for finding and bringing in so many autumn treasures. This afternoon, we sat on The Green in the sunshine and explored and talked about the pinecones, conkers, acorns, sticks, leaves, feathers and other autumnal objects you found on your hunts. We then sorted and grouped them in different ways, such as by their size or colour.
We also found time to count tyres and trees – and, of course, have a play on the trim trail!
Poetry Basket: Chop chop
Welcome to our first Poetry Basket performance! Each week our Reception pupils learn and perform a new poem. We practise throughout the week before sharing our performance video every Friday. This week, we’re kicking things off with Chop Chop! Enjoy!
Autumn 1: Week 3
We’ve had a busy week in Reception! The child have coped really well with all of the carpet sessions. They’ve shown some fantastic listening skills and have been ready to learn during all of our carpet sessions.
Phonics
This week, we’ve started our Phase 2 phonics sessions. We’ve been working really hard to form our 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 our phonemes (The smallest unit of sound you can hear in a word.) correctly.
For example, the word sat has three phonemes: s – a – t.
If you’re unsure how to pronounce the phonemes, there are some really useful videos on the Little Wandle Parent Page.
Help at home: Today, your child has come home with their first phonics home learning sheet. Please use this sheet alongside their phonics home learning book.
Poetry Basket
Every week, we’ll learn a new poem. Throughout the week, we’ll rehearse it, practise the actions and talk about the poem. On Fridays, we’ll perform our poem and Mr Wilks will post the video for you to watch at home
Help at home: Every Friday, your child will bring a paper copy of the poem home for you to keep practising at home.
Welcome to Reception – Part Two
Thank you to all of the parents and carers who were able to attend our Welcome to Reception – Part Two presentation yesterday. We hope you found the session useful. As always, please ask one of the Reception if you are unsure about anything.
Key reminders from the presentation:
- Reading records and phonics home learning books need to be in school every Thursday.
- Your child is more than welcome to bring a healthy snack to school. Please ensure this is a piece of fruit or vegetable only.
- PE happens every day. Your child will take part in a 20-minute movement session. They do not need to get changed.
- eBooks are assigned every Thursday. Your child’s login details can be found in their reading record.
- Continue to enjoy stories together to support and develop your child’s love of reading.
- Please check the Reception class news page each week to see what we’ve been learning.
Thank you for your continued support!
Autumn 1: Week 2
We’ve had a fantastic first week getting to know each other and becoming familiar with our new routines. The classroom has certainly been busy now that we have a full class of 30 children exploring and learning in our areas of provision. We also enjoyed a little tour of our new school.
Morning Drop-Off
Our cloakroom is very small and can feel quite overwhelming, particularly at the start of the day. We want to make sure all our children feel safe and have a happy and healthy start to their school day.
Therefore, from Monday 21st September, your child will line up in the playground and come into the classroom independently. This will also allow us to make a prompt start to learning and encourage the children to develop their independence.
Please wait with your child in the playground until a member of the Reception team opens the gate.
To help your child develop their independence, please continue to use the morning routine sheet that we sent home on Tuesday.
Snack
Every day, we have a morning snack. School provides a healthy snack of either fruit or vegetables for the children to enjoy with their friends.
If you would prefer to provide your child with their own snack, please ensure that this is fruit or vegetables only. If you send your child with grapes, please remember that these must be quartered lengthways from stem to bottom.
Reception Email
Learning doesn’t just happen in school! We love hearing about the wonderful things the children are doing at home. Please feel free to send us any ‘WOW’ moments. If you have any photos you would like to share with us, please use our Reception email: moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
Reminders
Don’t forget to attend our Welcome to Reception meeting at 6pm next Monday. This will give you some basic ‘need to knows’ about life in Reception. They’ll also be an opportunity to ask any questions.
Finally, please make sure your child’s water bottle is clearly labelled and filled with water before they come to school. We can refill bottles throughout the day if necessary.
We’re so proud of how well the children have settled and are looking forward to another exciting week together! Have a happy and healthy weekend.
Leeds Rhinos ticket offer
Here’s an offer for tickets for the final Leeds Rhinos home match of the season against Hull FC on Friday 11th September.
Junior tickets can be purchased for just £5 in all standing areas of the stadium. Up to two £5 junior tickets can be purchased per adult.
