Reception Class News

Spring 1: Week 2

Maths
This week, we continued to develop our counting skills. Our main focus was the stable order principle—understanding that numbers always stay in the same order. To explore this, we used cubes, marbles, bottle tops and counters to build staircase patterns. We also had to use our super fine motor skills, especially when working with the marbles!
When creating our staircase patterns, we discovered that each number has a value that is one more than the previous number.
Help at home: Try making a staircase pattern at home. What could you use?

Literacy
This week, we continued reading Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. For our writing activities, we created missing posters and drew pictures of items we would pack if we went on a journey to the South Pole. We also enjoyed watching the live penguin cam at Edinburgh Zoo.
On Wednesday, some of the children went on a walk around the school to take photos of signs of winter. We shared the photos with the class and discussed how we know it is winter.
Encouraging love of reading at home
Thank you for your continued support with reading at home. Sharing books regularly helps to build your child’s language, imagination and confidence, and most importantly, helps them develop a love of reading.

Even a few minutes each day makes a big difference. Letting children choose books they enjoy and talking about stories together helps reading feel fun and meaningful.

We would love it if you could share a photo of you and your child enjoying a story together so we can display it in our reading corner. Please send your photos to moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

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!

Poetry basket: Let’s put on our mittens

This week’s poem is called Let’s put on our mittens.
It’s perfectly timed with the freezing temperatures this week!

We’ve been focussing on a couple of words in particular: snug/snuggly and mittens.

Spring 1: Week 1

Happy New Year to all of our wonderful Reception families! We hope you had a lovely break and are feeling refreshed, recharged, and ready for an exciting half-term ahead!

Living & Learning
On Monday, we talked about how we can respect ourselves. Mrs Boulton shared lots of different examples of how we can look after our bodies, make good choices, and feel proud of who we are. Some of the children were eager to share how they respect themselves.

Ar – I respect myself when I don’t want to play someone’s game and I choose a different game to play with different people or I sit by myself.
Fin – I wear my helmet when I ride my bike.
Oy – I hold the railings when I walk to school to keep myself safe.
Meh – I respect myself when I cross the road and wait for the green light.

Maths
This week, we’ve been using our “fast eyes” to practise subitising (recognising quantities without counting) using more complex dot arrangements. The children looked carefully at the dots, took a “picture” with their eyes, closed their eyes, and then explained what they saw. We used spatial language to describe the arrangements, for example:
“There are 3 dots on the top and 2 dots on the bottom.”

Help at home:
Draw some linear and paired dot arrangements similar to the ones below for numbers 3 to 6.
Ask your child to:

1. Take a picture with their eyes
2. Close their eyes
3. Explain the arrangement
   They could even try drawing it in the air.

Literacy
Our focus story for the first two weeks is Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. On Wednesday, we talked about what we would do if we found a penguin. Some of the children’s ideas were:

If I found a penguin, I would…

Give it a hug
Ask Mummy to draw a map to help the penguin find its home
Make a cold area in the house
Help the penguin find its mummy
Be a good friend to the penguin

We’ve also been learning about Antarctica. We located England and Antarctica on a map, watched a clip from Frozen Planet, and discussed the differences between the climate in England and Antarctica.

Our word of the week was iceberg. We looked at pictures of icebergs and talked about what an iceberg is.
Help at home:
Ask your child if they can remember what an iceberg is.

Next week, we’re looking forward to learning more about winter and colder regions.

Take a look at some of this week’s winter learning in the areas of provision.
Reminder

• Library session has moved to Fridays
  Please make sure your child’s library book is returned every Friday.
• Every Thursday, we write in your child’s reading record. Please make sure you write a comment in your child’s reading record for us to celebrate in school.
• Phonics Phase 3 Stay & Learn – Wednesday 4th February
  9:00–9:20am – Phase 3 phonics presentation
  9:25–10:00am – Watch a Phase 3 phonics lesson
  Due to limited space, one adult per child may attend.

Fire and ice

Spring term after-school clubs

Autumn 2: Week 7

What a busy final week we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of all the Reception children for their fantastic singing — they’re all shining stars. Thank you to everyone who came to watch. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
On Monday, your child should have brought home a bag of reindeer food. The food is environmentally friendly. It is made from bird seed, porridge oats and sultanas. Don’t forget to sprinkle it outside on Christmas Eve for the hungry reindeers to enjoy.

Yesterday, we had lots of fun using the Christmas photobooth.
Things you could be doing to support learning over the Christmas holidays:

• Continue to read your eBooks together.
• Practise saying and writing the Phase 2 graphemes. Use the Little Wandle letter formation phrases to help.
• Practise reading all of the Phase 2 tricky words in your red phonics home-learning book.
• To support counting, involve your child in setting the table — How many forks? How many knives?
• To support fine motor skills, encourage your child to help an adult cut up vegetables.
• To support communication and language, make sure you have daily chats with your child. Regular interactions help to develop language skills.

Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy break. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of the Reception Team!

Autumn 2: Week 6

Literacy
This week, we have been learning all about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the events, and the children really enjoyed joining in. Click here to watch us.

We wrote our own sentences about a scene from The Christmas Story. The children used their segmenting skills to write the sounds they could hear. In Reception, we encourage them to try writing by themselves. Sometimes you will see words spelled phonetically – this is absolutely fine. It helps the children become confident, enthusiastic writers!

On Tuesday, we had great fun decorating the Christmas tree in the hall. It now looks wonderfully festive and ready for next week’s Christmas performances and parties!
Here’s a snapshot of some of the Christmas challenges we’ve been completing this week.
Christmas events happening next week

Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 – Christmas Production: Wriggly Nativity
Tuesday 16 December – 2:15pm–3:00pm
Wednesday 17 December – 9:30am–10:00am
Thursday 18 December – Christmas Lunch
Friday 19 December – Non-uniform Day & Christmas Party

Leeds Rhinos festive match

The annual Wetherby Whaler Boxing Day Challenge against Wakefield Trinity is back again this year; and alongside the match children and families can experience family friendly festive fun as Father Christmas will once again take over game day proceedings before returning to the North Pole.

The match day will also feature Santa’s elves and a sing along with Frozen Princesses Anna and Elsa. Plus children can also take part in our half time snowball fight lead by a certain Christmas loathing Grinch!

Use the link to find out more and purchase tickets.

The 2025 Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge is on sale now!

Poetry Basket: Wise Old Owl

This week’s poem is called Wise old owl.
One of the words in the poem that we’ve spent time talking about and learning is wise.
The class performed with an enthusiasm the owl would no doubt have admired – though perhaps not the level of dignity he had in mind!