Poetry Picnic
The fun, seasonal poem we’ve been learning this week is Five Little Pumpkins.
Hope you enjoy the (slightly raucous) performance!
Autumn 1: Week 7
Autumn
We’ve had a busy week doing lots of seasonal activities. After reading Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, we looked closely at the beautiful leaf illustrations and used them as inspiration to talk about all the amazing changes we see in autumn.
We also began learning about hibernation and explored why some animals start to hibernate around October and November. We even made our own clay hedgehogs!
Help at home: Ask your child which animals hibernate and what they do to get ready for the colder months.
Maths
Our focus has been on using the language of ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ to compare groups of objects. Since we’re working with countable items, we use fewer rather than less.
Help at home: Gary and Barney are still arguing! Can your child help them out? Use this sentence to compare: “___ has more/fewer ___ than ___.”
(For example: Gary has more apples than Barney.)
Phonics
We’ve been busy recapping all the graphemes we’ve learned so far. There are no new graphemes or phonics sheets this week or next. Please continue to use the phonics home learning book.
Here’s a snapshot of some of this week’s seasonal chilli challenges…
Poetry Picnic
The poem we’ve been learning this week is called Leaves Are Falling. They’ve really enjoyed this one and performed it with breezy gusto! The children loved joining in with the actions and exploring all the swirling, twirling movements of the autumn leaves.
Autumn 1: week 6
Look at us – we’re artists!
We’ve been learning all about what an artist is. After reading Henri’s Scissors, we talked about the key events in Henri Matisse’s life. He loved to paint, but later in life he started making beautiful pictures using only scissors and paper!
We looked at Matisse’s bright and colourful artwork and shared what we liked (and didn’t like!) about it. Using our cutting skills, we made our own collages by cutting out different shapes and arranging them into creative designs. We had so much fun exploring colour, shape, and imagination—just like Matisse did!
Help at home: Practise your cutting skills.
Phonics Superstars!
The children are becoming real phonics superstars! Every morning, they eagerly help each other get their phonics packs out and ready to learn. We’re proud to share that we have now learned all of the Phase 2 phonemes for this half-term.
Over the next two weeks, we’ll be focusing on practising our blending skills and recapping all of the phonemes to strengthen our reading confidence. Well done, everyone!
Help at home: Use your phonics home learning book on a daily basis. Practise saying the pure sounds and writing the graphemes.
Look how we’re growing!
This week, we measured how tall we are. Throughout the year in Reception, we’ll keep checking to see how much we’ve grown.
Home learning challenge
Reminders
- Water bottles: Please ensure your child brings a filled water bottle to school each day.
- Lost uniform: We’re seeing a lot of jumpers and cardigans go missing. Please label all clothing clearly with your child’s name to help us return lost items.
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Parent-Teacher Zoom Meetings: These are coming up soon. Don’t forget to sign up if you haven’t already!
Reading: It’s so important!
We hope that you’re enjoying reading your child’s library book with them. We call this a ‘love of reading’ book – to do just that, encourage a love of reading for your child! Reading to and with your child can have a huge positive impact on your child’s education.
This research is a powerful message of the impact you can have when reading to/with your child:
At school, your child reads a physical book four times a week – with a focus on teaching phonics skills. This is then sent home as an eBook. The purpose of the eBook at home is to celebrate your child’s success (in phonics skills). Your child should be able to read most of this book confidently and really feel like a reader.
We’ve chosen to use eBooks at home for many benefits. Allocating eBooks frees up about two hours of teacher or TA time changing books – now spent teaching reading!
Here’s some information on how to access eBooks but if you’re having any problems please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Happy reading!
Stay and learn: Phase 2 phonics
Thank you for coming to today’s phonics stay and learn session. I hope you found the session useful and went home feeling a bit more knowledgeable about Little Wandle and how we teach phonics in school. Your feedback is highly valued. We would appreciate it if you could complete the parent feedback form.
The Little Wandle parent page has some useful videos on how to support your child’s reading at home. If you were unable to make the stay and learn session, click here to view the slides. Like always, if you have any questions, please ask me at the end of the day.
We look forward to seeing you again at the number stay and learn session on Tuesday 18th November.
Poetry Picnic
The poem we’ve been learning this week is called Fallen Apples. As well as performing it in class, the children did an amazing job of reciting it in front of the whole school in our assembly celebrating National Poetry Day on Thursday afternoon!
Here’s a video of the children performing it in class.
Autumn 1: week 5
Literacy
This week our focus was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. We had lots of fun using the actions to retell the story. We even made our own binoculars and used them for our sensory bear hunt on Wednesday.
Help at home: The family came across some obstacles on their journey. Can your child remember them?
Maths
This week, we’ve explored 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’ is made up of smaller parts.
On Tuesday, we helped the three bears find collections of 3 things for their picnic. We used the stem sentence: 1 and 1 and 1 makes 3 each time we found a collection of 3 things.
Help at home: Can you make collections of objects at home? Remember the objects don’t always have to be the same!
Independent learning
Here’s a snapshot of some of the learning we’ve been doing in the areas of provision.
Home learning challenge
Reminders!
- Don’t forget to come to our Phase 2 phonics Stay & Learn and coffee morning on Monday 9am.
- Library books need to be returned every Tuesday.
- 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 phonics home learning books need to be returned every Thursday.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will learn a new poem and will recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Breezy Weather.
Breezy Weather
Breezy weather. Freezy weather.
When the leaves fall, we all fall together.
Breezy weather. Freezy weather.
When the wind blows, we huddle together.
Here’s a video of us performing the poem. Apologies about the shaky camerawork – I can’t record and do actions at the same time!
Autumn 1: Week 3
You might be thinking what your child is doing at school on a regular basis. Here’s a snapshot of what a typical day might look like in Reception at Moortown Primary School. 
Maths
This week, we’ve focussed on perceptual subitising (recognising the number of objects without counting) up to 3. We’ve been learning how to use our fast eyes when looking at small sets of objects.
Help at home: Can you say how many conkers there are without counting?
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 for you to watch at home.
Here’s our first poem…
Every Friday, your child will bring a paper copy of the poem home for you to keep practising at home.
Reading practice
Reading daily at home is an essential part of your child’s reading journey. Click here to watch a useful video about how to use a wordless book at home with your child. If you have any issues logging onto Collins eBooks, please let me know. Please make sure your write in your child’s reading record and return it every Thursday.
Finally, thank you to all the parents/carers who attended the Reception welcome meeting on Tuesday. It was great to see so many of you. As always, if you have any questions or would like to share any home learning please use our Reception email moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org.