Reception Class News

Themed menu 07 October 2022

Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Friday 07 October. Please contact the office if your child would like a school dinner on this day (no action needed if your child normally has a school meal on this day).

Check out the Cricket World Cup themed menu. 

What have we been up to this week?

From pirates in the small world area to fire officers putting out fires in our outdoor area, we’ve had another fantastic week. The children are really starting to show us their interests when exploring in the areas.

We also had a go at drawing our faces. We used mirrors to look closely at the details on our faces. When you come into the classroom, see if you can spot your child’s self-portrait.
Chilli challenges
This week, we’ve introduced the chilli challenges. Each week, there will be six green chilli challenges in different areas. The children will be encouraged to complete the challenges and tick them off on their chilli challenge card (see below). There will also be some red chilli challenges. These challenges are to extend their learning further. When your child completes a challenge, they will explain or show what they’ve done to an adult and the adult will tick the challenge off on their card.

Here’s some of the chilli challenges in action…

Literacy
This week, our focus story has been The Great Big Book of Families by Hoffman Mary. After reading the book, we talked about our families and why they are important. We even had a go at drawing our families!

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.

Phonics
This week, we’ve learnt more phase 2 phonemes: i, n, m and d. We’ve been trying really hard to pronounce the phonemes correctly.

Has your child come home saying some ‘fancy’ phonics words?
If so, please don’t be alarmed! We use these words every day in phonics and we want the children to use them too.
Here are the words we’ve been using so far…
Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound you can hear in a word. For example, ‘sat’ has three phonemes: ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’.
Grapheme: a ‘symbol’ of a phoneme –it’s a letter or group of letters representing a sound and we use the letter names for this.
Blending: merging the separate sounds (phonemes) in a word – this is a vital skill for reading. For example, the three phonemes m-a-t are blended to make mat.

Learn at home phonics sheet
Today, your child has come home with a ‘learn at home’ phonics sheets. The sheets link to our current phonics learning and will be sent home each Friday. 

Home-Link Challenge

Reminders

• The cold weather is creeping in! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
• Join us on Tuesday 27 September at 6 pm for our Early reading Zoom. This session will provide you with some information regarding the teaching of reading in Reception and how you can support their reading journey at home. You should have received the Zoom link in an email. If you’ve not received this, please contact the school office.

Transition: Week 2

We’ve had a wonderful week welcoming groups 2 and 3 into Reception. It’s been great to see a full classroom full of busy learners! We’ve been so impressed with how well all the children have settled.

Every morning, your child will come into the classroom and do their morning jobs.  Our cloakroom is only small and can get very crowded on a morning! To reduce the amount of people in the cloakroom, please encourage your child to do these jobs independently.

Snacks and water…
Please make sure your child’s water bottle only contains plain water.

Every day, school will provide a healthy fruit or vegetable. If your child would prefer to bring their own snack, please ensure this contains only fruit and/or vegetables. Snacks from home will stay in the children’s bookbags.

If your child is having grapes for their snack, please ensure that the grapes are cut lengthways.

Parent Partners
Alongside our themes, we try to plan other areas of learning according to the children’s interests. To help us do this, we need YOU! Throughout the year, it would be great if you could send photos of any ‘WOW’ moments or new interests your child has at home. You can bring these moments into school or send them to moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org.

PE
PE starts next Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit.

Me and my family
Next week, we’ll be thinking about families. This is our first theme for this half-term.  During this theme, we’ll be getting to know each other, share photographs of our families and make historical links by looking at photographs of families from the past.

Home-Link Challenge
Reminders
Monday 19 September – School is closed.
Tuesday 27 September – Early reading Zoom at 6pm.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy weekend.

Transition

This week, we welcomed our first group of Reception children. We’ve had a busy few days getting to know each other and the routines. They’ve settled really well and we’ve already started to see some amazing learning!

Every morning, we’ll encourage your child to be independent when doing their daily jobs. The jobs include: hanging up their coat, finding their name, choosing their lunch, and voting for a story.

Things to remember…

• PE will be every Monday and Friday. Your child should come to school in their PE kit. Our first PE session will be on Monday 19 September. Click here if you’re unsure about any items of clothing or footwear.
• Your child will need a labelled water bottle each day. Please ensure the bottle only contains water – no juice, please!
• The school day is 8.50 am – 3.15 pm.
• Please make sure all items of clothing are NAMED.

If you have any questions, please ask at the end of the day.

Zoom workshops
If you’re interested in attending any of these Zoom workshops, please either send us a message on the School Gateway app or email the school office. We’ll then email the Zoom joining details out to all those who have expressed an interest.

Reminder!

Phonics and early reading Zoom session on Monday 12 September.

We look forward to welcoming group 2 and 3 children next week!

Welcome

We’re looking to you seeing you all soon.
We’ve been super busy getting the classroom ready for when you arrive.

Here’s a sneak peak of the areas…

See you soon!

Goodbye Reception 2022!

We have reached the end of our year in Reception.

The children have all been amazing and we have been impressed with how much they have progressed. I will miss seeing them grow up!

Thank you for all your kind messages and presents.

Have a happy and healthy summer.

Summer of sport

It’s just 7 days to go until the Commonwealth Games begin in Birmingham. Watch this introductory video to find out more.

To keep active over the summer holidays, why not try these commonwealth personal best challenges at home. My Commonwealth PB incorporates skills that are used in 7 of the sports which will be taking place at the B2022
Commonwealth Games.

Use the QR codes below to see each challenge.

We’d love to hear how you get on!

Super Sports Day

What an amazing day yesterday! Our first full sports day since the pandemic and we came back with an amazing bang! Mrs Taylor did a grand job of organising everything, as always, and all the helpers that made it run smoothly were brilliant. Mr Roundtree is a little croaky today after his commentating but I’m sure you’ll agree, it was well worth it. You will see a photo of Mrs Burke completing her final egg and spoon race as a member of staff but you never know, she might be guest of honour next year. Thank you to everyone who came along to watch!

Scooter Training

The children had great fun on their scooter training session and learnt how to stay safe near the roads.

PE

PE will be on Thursday instead of Friday for the next three weeks.

Living and learning: drug education