Reception Class News

Spring 1: Week 4

This week, we’ve been super busy being superheroes.
On Tuesday, the children arrived in the classroom to discover that the Evil Pea had been up to his mischievous tricks. He had trapped the super veggies in a bowl! We used our fantastic detective skills to search the classroom and spot clues he had left behind. We made wanted posters and displayed them around the school to help find him.
On Wednesday, the Evil Pea was up to his mischievous tricks once again! He had taped the super veggies to the window and left us a message saying, “Mwah ha ha! You can’t catch me!”
On Thursday, we couldn’t believe our eyes… the Evil Pea had trapped the super veggies up high in a basket. We really had to use our detective skills to help capture the Evil Pea.
What a busy week we’ve had! They’ve wowed us with their amazing creativity and imaginative play. From finding and writing signs for clues to designing and building traps, we’ve seen some fantastic teamwork.
Maths
In Maths, we continued to develop our understanding of composition. We used the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern) to explore ways of making 5. We sang 5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer to help remember the pairs of numbers that make 5.
On Wednesday, we noticed there wasn’t enough space on the die frame for 6 aliens. To extend our learning, we used a double dice frame to explore numbers 6 and 7, understanding them as 5 and a bit.

Help at home: Number bonds to 5 game

• Put 5 small things into a bag.
• Ask your adult to take some things out of the bag.
• Then, you take the rest of the things out of the bag.
• How many things does your adult have? How many do you have?
• How many altogether?

Phonics
This week, we learnt our final phase 3 graphemes (air, er) and tricky words (are, pure, sure)
Next half-term, we’ll revisit all of the phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs. We’ll also be reading words with:

• double letters (h-a-mm-er)
• two or more digraphs (ch-a-tt–er)
• ending in –ing (l-oo-k/i-ng)
• s /z/ in the middle (visit  sounds like v-i-z-i-t)
• s /s/ /z/ at the end (c-oo-k-s)
• es at the end (t-or-ch-es)

Reminders

• 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.
• Parent-teacher meetings – Tuesday 10th & Thursday 12th February
  I look forward to chatting to you all about your child’s learning.
• School trip – Wednesday 25th February

Packed lunches

Does your child have a packed lunch at school? If so, please download our Guide to Healthy Packed Lunches.

Did you know that popcorn and whole grapes are a choking hazard for children under 5? Lot’s of people don’t! The Food Standards Agency. has published the following advice on how to prepare food safely for your young child.

• Early years choking hazards food safety advice
• Early years food choking hazards

Poetry Basket: Jack and Jill

This week’s poem is a well-known nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill.
Who knew that paper and vinegar was a remedy for a banged head?!

Spring 1: Week 3

This week in our literacy lessons, we enjoyed reading Penguin Huddle by Ross Montgomery. In the story, the penguins huddled together during an icy storm, but it was so cold that they got stuck together and couldn’t break free!
Our word of the week was huddle. To help us understand the word, we made our own huddle in class. Ask your child if they can explain what huddle means and use it in a sentence.
We also talked about how Antarctica is different from the United Kingdom. We looked at photographs of Antarctica and compared them with images of the UK, identifying similarities and differences.
Maths – Composition

This week, the children consolidated their understanding of the composition of 5 using the familiar rhyme 5 Little Speckled Frogs. By singing the rhyme and moving the frogs during each verse, the children explored part–part–whole relationships. For example, they discovered that 5 can be made up of 3 and 2.

We talked through examples together:

There are 5 frogs on the log and 1 frog in the pool. 5 is made up of 4 and 1.
There are 3 frogs on the log and 2 frogs in the pool. 5 is made up of 3 and 2.

We also used our fingers to represent this, holding up 5 fingers and then putting one down each time. Fingers pointing up represented the frogs on the log, and fingers pointing down represented the frogs in the pool.
Phonics
In Spring 1, Week 3, we focused on the digraphs ur, ow, oi and the trigraph ear. We also learned the tricky words my, by, all. Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
Help at home: Play Tricky Word Splat

• Write a selection of tricky words on paper or sticky notes
• Place them on the floor or table
• Say a tricky word for your child to splat
• You could jump on the words, splat them with a masher, or create your own fun ideas!

Here’s a snapshot of some of the learning that’s taken place across the areas this week.

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