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.
Welcome to Reception meeting
It was great to see so many of you at the ‘Welcome to Reception’ meeting this week. For those of you who were unable to attend, please find attached the PowerPoint shared at the meeting.
Reading with Year 5
This afternoon, our Reception children enjoyed a special reading session with Year 5 pupils. The older children took the lead, sharing stories and reading aloud, while the younger ones listened with excitement. It was a lovely opportunity for both year groups to connect – building confidence, friendship, and a shared love of reading.
Autumn 1: Week 2
We’ve had a fantastic week getting to know each other and our new routines. I’ve been super impressed with their fantastic listening skills and how good they already are at “3, 2, 1 stop”.
Morning drop off
Our cloakroom is very small and can feel very overwhelming. We want to make sure all our children feel safe and have a happy and healthy start to their school day. Therefore, from Monday, your child will line up in the playdough 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.
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.
If you’re unsure on how to pronounce the phonemes, there are some really useful videos on the Little Wandle parent page.
Phonics home learning
Today, your child has come home with their first phonics home learning sheet and a phonics home learning book.
Please make sure you return your child’s phonics home learning book every Thursday so we can add new graphemes and tricky words.
PE
PE starts next Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit. Our Uniform policy has a really helpful PE kit guide if you need some help!
Families
I look forward to seeing you all at the second Welcome to Reception meeting on Monday at 6pm.
Best start in life
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has written a letter to parents with a focus on ensuring children have the best start in life. It signposts parents to the best start in life website – there’s information on Best Start Family Hubs and support with your child’s early health and learning.