Tom Palmer local events
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November
2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Autumn 1: Week 6
It’s been another busy week in the Reception classroom.
Art
We have been listening to the story Henri’s scissors and have learnt about the artist Henri Matisse.
We enjoyed looking at his artwork and talking about what we like and dislike about some of his famous pieces of art. His artwork inspired us to create our own representations!
Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.
Help at home: Practise your cutting skills at home.
Staying safe
Yesterday, two local PCSOs visited school to talk about how we can stay safe on Bonfire Night. The children listened well and were eager to share their memories of Bonfire Night.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can remember a top tip about stay safe around fireworks and bonfires.
Poetry picnic
On Monday, we started learning our new poem: Leaves are falling. We had lots of fun practising the actions!
Help at home: Next week, our focus story is Leaf Man. We will be creating our own leaf people. Please could you collect a bag of leaves and bring them into school on Monday.
JLT Elections
Next week, we’re holding elections for the Junior Leadership Team. Two representatives from each class are chosen democratically by their peers.
Elections will take place on Thursday 19 October. If your child would like to be a junior leader, please help them to prepare a short speech about why they would be a good junior leader. These will be shared on the morning of the elections.
Here are some more highlights from this week…
Finally…
Thank you to all the parents/carers who attended the Phase 2 stay and learn session. It was great to see so many of you and the children thoroughly enjoyed showing off their amazing phonics learning with you. We hope you found it useful!
As always, if you have any questions or would like to share any home learning please use our reception email moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org.
Autumn 1: Week 5
On Wednesday, we went on our local walk around Moortown. Before going on our walk, we used Google Earth to track our route. I was amazed at how sensible they were. Well done, Reception!
Yesterday, we had a go at drawing our own maps of our local walk.
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.
Help at home: Can you make collections of objects at home? Remember the objects don’t always have to be the same!
Literacy
This week our focus was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. We’ve had great fun using actions to retell the story. Click here to watch us.
Help at home: These pictures are mixed up. Can you remember the order of the story?
Chilli challenges
In the construction area, we had to build a cave for a bear. 
The Bee-Bots were very popular this week. We had lots of fun controlling the Bee-Bots around the bear hunt mat. Some children decided to make their own road!
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called Falling Apples. After listening to the poem, we talked about apple trees.
I’ve got an apple tree in my garden.
This apple is from my apple tree.
I have an apple tree at my Grandma’s house.
Click here to watch this week’s poem.
Reminders!
- Don’t forget to come to our Phase 2 phonics Stay & Learn and coffee morning next Thursday at 9am.
- Library books need to be returned every Monday.
- Please make sure your child’s reading record is in their bookbag every Thursday.
Autumn 1: Week 4
Literacy
This week, we’ve been reading The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson. We drew our own story maps of the Bear’s journey.
Yesterday, we took some bears on a journey around school. We followed a simple map to find all the classrooms. We even found Mrs Weekes office!
Help at home: Practise writing your name. You could use the name card in your book bag.
Maths
This week, we focussed on the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. We explored how all sorts of things can be counted, including sounds. We practised our 1:1 correspondence, by moving, tagging and using counting sticks when counting larger objects .
Help at home: Count everything! Practise counting your toys at tidy up time. When going up the stairs, count them. Count the knives and forks when setting the table. On your way to school, count how many buses you see.
Library
On Monday, we visited our school library. We had a fantastic time looking at books with our friends. In a couple of weeks, your child will bring their first library book home. Please make sure your child returns their library book every Monday so they can choose another exciting story.
Poetry picnic
Click here to watch this week’s poem.
Chilli challenges
This week, we’ve introduced the chilli challenges. Each week, there will be six 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). When your child completes a challenge, they will explain or show what they’ve done and an adult will tick the challenge off on their card.
Here’s some of the chilli challenges in action…
Drawing pirate maps.
Playing a subitising game.
Counting objects using 1:1 correspondence.
Using tweezers to pick up conkers.
Drawing our own maps.
Reminders
- Phase 2 phonics Stay & Learn and coffee morning – Thursday 12 October
- Please email any ‘WOW’ moments or new interests at home. We love receiving and sharing photos in school.
moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org - Please make sure your child reads their e-book daily alongside love of reading books.
Chop Chop
Click here to watch last week’s poem.
Help at home: Practise the poem at home. You could even teach your adults the actions!
Reading: Year 5 and Reception
As you all know, we love to read at Moortown Primary School. Year 5 will be reading with Reception every Friday. It was lovely to see and hear all the children engaged in a story.
Autumn 1: Week 3
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 drew pictures of them.
Yesterday, we talked about different types of houses and drew a picture of our house.
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 dots there are without counting?
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. We’ve also started writing initial sounds in our phonics books.
Help at home: Don’t forget to use your weekly phonics home learning sheet!
Poetry Picnic
Every week, when we’re having our milk and snack, we’ll learn a 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. Video coming soon!
Every Friday, your child will bring a paper copy of the poem home for you to keep practising at home.
Reading
Reading daily at home is an essential part of your child’s reading journey. Please make sure your write in your child’s reading record and return it every Thursday. If you have any issues logging onto Collins eBooks, please let me know.
Check out what else we’ve been up to in Reception!
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.
Important
Click here to find out about the Reception baseline assessment.
Autumn term after-school clubs
*Availability update*
Our after-school clubs are available for booking on schoolcomms. Please contact the office if you need any further information or help with booking places. Clubs will begin next week.
Autumn 1: Week 2
We’ve had a wonderful week in Reception! It’s been great to see a busy classroom. We’ve been so impressed with how well all the children have settled.
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.
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 every Friday.
PE
PE starts next Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit.
Important
Our cloakroom is very small and can get very crowded on a morning! For the safety of our children and to reduce the amount of people in our cloakroom, your child will line up in the playground 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. There are plenty of other opportunities for you to come into the classroom throughout the year.
Me and my family
Next week, we’ll be thinking about families. During this theme, we’ll share photographs of our families, make historical links and look at different types of homes.
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Transition
This week, we welcomed some of our Reception children. We’ve had a busy few days getting to know each other and the routines. They’ve settled really well into their new classroom. We’ve been drawing, building, painting, making playdough cakes and cooking delicious food in the role play area. We are really looking forward to welcoming the rest of the children next week!
Reminder!
Don’t forget to attend our Welcome to Reception at 6pm on Tuesday 19 September. You will find out some basic “need to knows” about life in Reception.