Welcome to Reception!
We’ve now visited all of the children and are looking forward to them starting next week. We are confident that they will settle well and enjoy the new challenges of ‘big’ school!
There are three members of staff in Reception this year: Mrs Boulton, Mrs Maqbool and me, Mrs Burke. In addition, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Taylor will be taking the class for a short time on Tuesday afternoons. When your child starts school we encourage you to come in each morning and settle them in classroom. This is an ideal opportunity for you to find out what your child is learning, look at your child’s Learning Journey and discuss their learning with us.
We’ll open the doors at 8.50 each morning and take the register. When collecting your child, please wait at the gate. We’ll let your child out at 3.15 when we see the adult who is collecting them. Please make sure to bring and collect your child on time. Children can become very anxious if they arrive or leave late from school.
Our main emphasis this term is the children’s personal, social and emotional development. We’ll be settling the children into school life and familiarizing them with routines and expectations. The children will be forging new friendships, learning to share and care for one another and look after their environment.
Here are some of the ways you can help your child at home over the coming weeks:
Mathematics – Encourage your child to count objects and actions. For example, counting while going up the stairs or how many knives and forks on the table. Look for numbers around the house and in the environment. For example, on the remote control, on the telephone, house numbers, bus numbers and numbers on car registration plates. Look for different shapes within the home and environment, clothing, the walls and windows.
Writing – Provide your child with opportunities to use pencils and pens. Encourage your child to ‘mark make’ and develop good pencil control. Encourage your child to use writing in their play. If they are playing shops ask them to write a shopping list. If playing police get them to write an incident report! If your child is writing their name please help us by teaching them that the first letter of their name is a capital letter and the rest are lower case letters. Please use the school’s handwriting style. There is a copy in your ‘Welcome Pack’.
Reading – Share books with your child. While reading encourage your child to talk about the illustrations and predict what may happen next. After reading, talk about what happened in the story and encourage them to re-tell the story. Look for letters and print in the house and environment – encourage your child to look for letters from their name while you are out and about. If your child shows an interest in letter shapes encourage them to use the ‘sounds’ the letters make, for example ‘sssss’ for snake, ‘mmmm’ for Mummy, and ‘zzzz’ for zebra.
As the term progresses, I’ll send you more information about how we teach reading and phonics. Keep checking on-line, too!
Please remember that we want you to be very much involved in your child’s learning so please ask if you need more information or have any questions or concerns.
For more information about the Foundation Stage and how children learn in Reception go to www.foundationyears.org.uk
Goodbye Reception Class 2012!
As the end of the school year approaches, we have been remembering the past year and thinking about moving on. The children have all made fantastic progress and we are proud of everyone. Well done especially to Matteo for settling so well and Daanyaal who has begun to make good choices with his behaviour. Well done, Neive, for trying hard to write neatly and to Oliver for his increased confidence. Have a great summer!
Health questionnaire
There will be no further homework this term. However, please support your child to complete the health questionnaire sent home today in order to find out their views on some of our key health issues at school.
Emotional health and obesity are the two targets we are working on in school to further our healthy schools status and the questions, devised last year by the school council, are linked to these areas. These include:
- Are you happy at school?
- What do you enjoy most about playtimes and lunchtimes?
Completed questionnaires to be returned by Monday 16 July.
Jubilee Day
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee
We had a great Jubilee themed day and were joined by David Hockney and David Attenborough!
Reception children get messy…
…and relax!
What is a ‘split digraph’?
This week your child may come home with more unfamiliar vocabulary to do with their phonics learning. A ‘split digraph’ is simply a long vowel sound that has been split as in the words make, lake, shake, like and bike. You might remember how this used to be referred to: ‘magic e’. That term is no longer used as it may be confusing. The ‘e’ is not magic – it’s doing a job.
Enjoy your ‘split digraphs’!
Magical Maths in Reception
This week we have been learning doubling and halving- a year 1 objective! Great learning by everyone especially Isobel, Stanley, Oliver and Enya.
We love to write!
Reception children can’t stop writing! Keep encouraging your child at home to write letters, lists, notes and birthday cards. Fold a piece of paper to make little books for story writing. Let them see you write, too!
Ready, steady write!
This term the children will gain confidence in their writing. All the children have learned enough phonemes to enable them to confidently write using their phonic knowledge. This term they will write stories, lists, poems, messages and letters, practise letter formation, good pencil control and when to use a capital letter and a full stop. It is important for children to know why we write. In the classroom children will see adults writing for a variety of purposes, for example, notes, cards, labels and instructions. Through such experiences children will come to realise the importance of writing and the pleasure that can be gained from it.
We will be using lots of ‘Modelled Writing’ in which we will explicitly demonstrate the process of writing by ‘thinking aloud’ as we write and talking through the process step-by-step to show children what to do. Children will see that writing is an interactive process and will be reassured that writers make mistakes.
Children will be taught that
– printed text is recorded speech.
– writing can be read to or by others.
– writing can be used for different purposes.
You can help your child at home by encouraging them to write shopping lists, greetings cards, messages and stories. Let your child see you writing and talk about what you are doing. Most importantly, their writing should have purpose, be relevant and interesting and remember to give lots of praise.
Please ask if you have any questions relating to your child’s learning.