Reception Class News

Have you seen Leaf Man?

We have really enjoyed reading the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.

After reading the story, Reception children went to look for Leaf Man around school.

We sorted leaves and learned their names.

The children have printed leaves, mixed autumn colours and made their own leaf people.

Where is Leaf Man?

Phonics learning in Reception (and at home!)

At Moortown Primary, we follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme.

At the moment, we’re focussing on Phase 1 where children learn to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.

The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.

We’re also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.

Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.

All of this learning at the moment is oral (spoken). Your child won’t be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.

Ways you can support your child at home:

Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.

When sounding out, try to avoid the ‘uh’ sound – say ‘sssss’ rather than ‘suh’, ‘mmmmm’ rather than ‘muh’. This is to keep the sound as ‘pure’ as it can be so there’s no confusion with extra, unwanted sounds when blending and segmenting words.

Our first week!

Welcome!

Welcome to Reception Class!

Following our series of home-visits, we’d like to say thank you all for welcoming us into your homes. It was lovely to meet you all and get to know your child a little bit more.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life and hope you’ve been provided with all the information you need. As always, please ask if you are not sure about anything.

The children will all begin this week, with the last children arriving on Thursday.

After your first day, school will begin at 8.50am and finish at 3.15pm. Please bring your child into the classroom and help them in the different learning areas to have a go at a learning challenge. Take this time to look at your child’s learning journey.

We try to get the children to be as independent as possible early on, so please let them hang their coat up and sort themselves out while you wait in the classroom.

At 3.15pm, please wait at the gate to the Reception outdoor area to collect your child.

See you soon!

Newsletters

This term’s newsletters have been emailed and paper copies will be sent home later this week.

This year, we’ll publish the newsletters on the website, too. Here are the first half-term’s…

• Year 1 and Year 2 newsletter
• Year 3 and Year 4 newsletter
• Year 5 and Year 6 newsletter
• The whole school newsletter

Reception provide their own newsletters and lots of photos, top tips and news on their class news page.

Rugby world cup activities

As the Rugby World Cup approaches, Roundhegians are organising activities for both children and adults at their local facilities.

SEAL New beginnings

As we start the new school year, our SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) theme focuses on New Beginnings.

We have three new members of staff making a new beginning at Moortown, Mrs Wells, Mr McKeon and Mr Lawton, alongside new children joining our school and our new Reception class.

‘I make someone feel welcome‘ is the first SEAL statement to launch the theme.

New beginnings allows children the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they or others may feel in a new situation or setting. This SEAL theme offers children the opportunity to see themselves as valued individuals within a community, and to contribute to shaping a welcoming, safe and fair learning community for all.

During the theme, the key areas of learning are empathy, self-awareness, social skills and motivation.

Through discrete SEAL lessons, circle times and across the curriculum, children will explore feelings of happiness and excitement, sadness, anxiety and fearfulness, while learning (and putting into practice) shared models for calming down and problem-solving.

New Beginnings supports the development of a learning community in each classroom where all members feel that they belong. Class contracts, produced at the start of the year, allow children to contribute to how they feel they can achieve a safe and fair learning community.

Reading

Just as the summer started, the papers were full of articles about ideal holiday reading for adults and children alike. (I think ideal holiday reading is any reading you want to, whether it’s in the holidays or not!)

How many books has your child read this holiday? More importantly, what sort of discussions have you had with your child about what books you’ve been reading, and of course what they’ve been reading. (I’ve already had chats with Mrs Weekes and Miss Valentine about my summer reading. including a great children’s book, ‘Grace‘ by one of my favourite authors, Morris Gleitzman.)

As we approach the end of the holidays, it’s an ideal time to reflect on what we’ve read – and start the new school year off taking a positive, encouraging approach to your child’s reading.

Encourage your child to read anything and everything: a story, leaflet, brochure, comic, flyer, advert… It could be for pure entertainment, or with a different purpose: to use a recipe, make a shopping list, read street signs, or any kind of text!  The more varied reading your child does, the less likely they are to be put off reading a text.  Don’t be too pushy either – texts which are too difficult can put children off (harder books might be best left to bedtime reading); all children should be able to read their reading book 90-95% accurately and fluently in order to enjoy and gradually progress in their reading.

• Build reading accuracy – as your child reads aloud, point out words they miss and help them sound out and read them correctly.
• Build reading comprehension – talk with your child about what they’re reading, asking about new words and what new information they’ve learned.
• Read together every day – don’t forget reading aloud to your child at bedtime reading can count, too!
• Don’t overlook non-fiction texts – spend time talking about pictures and diagrams.
• Visit the library regularly – did your child take part in the local libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge (see News article on 13 July 2015)?
• Use the Internet – find out more about the books your child has read or would like to read next, and just enjoy surfing the internet for facts and figures about whatever interests your child.

Enjoyable, regular and short practice is the best way for your child to progress and learn through reading.  Make sure your child spends 10-15 minutes reading each day and use the guidance below to ensure (s)he is getting the most from every book they read.  The questions will need to be varied according to the book and your child.  The book may lend will to developing knowledge, phonic, punctuation, writing or comprehension skills.

Don’t attempt to try to cover all the bullet points! It might be a good idea to focus on just one of these areas every few days or so, or just choose a question from two or three sections.

Comprehension

• Did you enjoy the story – why?
• What happened at the start / in the middle / at the end?
• Was there a problem?  How was it resolved?
• How would you have resolved the problem?  Can you think of another way?
• What would you do if …
• What was the main idea of the story?
• Can you summarise the story in a couple of sentenced?
• Try to predict what will happen before the story ends.
• Write about a memory or experience of your own that is similar to something you’ve read in your book.
• Write a letter to someone telling them about the book and your opinion of the book.
• Construct a time line to fit the story.  Include all the main events

Characters

• Who are the characters?
• What do they look like?
• What kind of clothes do they wear?
• How did the character feel when …?
• What kind of mood was the character in?
• What kind of personality do they have? Kind, caring, nasty, bully, liar, friendly, quiet, noisy …?
• What does it say in the text that makes you think this?
• What do other characters think or say about this character?  Why do they feel this way?
• How does your character treat other people in the book?  How does the character change throughout the story?  Explain and give support for your answers.
• Can you re-write the story and include your own character?
• Write a description of the main character – their looks, the way they dress, the way they talk and their personality.
• Draw and label a character or a setting from a description in the book.

Story setting

• Where is the story set?
• Imagine you are in the story …
• What can you see?  What can you hear?  What can you small?  What can you feel?
• Can you write a description of the story setting using adjectives?  eg I found myself standing in the middle of …
• What is the weather like?

Non-Fiction

• Research the subject further using the internet or local library.
• Write down in your own sentences some facts you have learnt from the book.
• Can you think of anywhere we might be able to find additional information about this?
• What do the pictures or diagrams in this piece of information add to the text?
• How are these different to the pictures you might find in a story?
• Can you point out: a heading, sub-heading, caption, diagram, introduction, contents page etc?
• Why has the author organised the information in this way? (You could refer to sections and sub-sections, bullet points etc)
• How do you feel about …?  Can you explain why?

Goodbye, Reception Class!

We’ve come to the end of  a busy and exciting year!

The children have been a delight to teach and we will have very fond memories of them all…

Albie, Henka and Will have amazed us with their knowledge of the world. Well done, Emma and Sakina, for having better handwriting than the teachers! Emily, Hifza and Olivia have star potential with their singing and dancing and Ethan and Jasraj have both grown in confidence throughout the year. We’re so impressed with Georgie’s determination to form her letters correctly and we can now read her writing! Harris and Felix have been great mathematicians and Jemima, Phoebe, Leo and Safiya-Mishal have impressed us with their love of writing. Jessica and Raima have been happy and positive members of the class. Thank you, Liam, for fantastic tidying up and sweeping! Well done, Musa – you have amazed everybody with your progress and enthusiasm to learn. Pollyanna, we are sure you will be a famous artist one day and we’ve loved seeing your work. Sami and Rayn have been polite and helpful members of the class. Well done, Kashif  and Noah, for keeping us entertained and well done, Maya and Isabella, for being so caring. Taha, you have pleased us by trying new foods and being so enthusiastic about your learning. Well done, Yusayrah, for always doing your homework and being so kind and helpful.

Have a great summer and we look forward to hearing about your time in Y ear 1.

Summer Reading Challenge 2015

This year, the Summer Reading Challenge returns with the challenge of breaking records!

It’s really simple to join in and complete the challenge. All you have to do is

1. Join any Leeds library (including mobile libraries).
2. Borrow three books and read them. (You could write a short book review on them too.)
3. You can borrow any book: stories, joke books, information books or even audio books.
4. Return these (to any Leeds library) and borrow another three books.
5. That means you need only borrow six books altogether – or more, of course!
6. Once you’ve returned your second lot of three books, your challenge is complete!

We’re hoping to get lots more children taking on the challenge this year and enjoying their reading over the summer. Try not to borrow thick books that you’re never going to finish and make sure you pick books you’re going to be interested in, or, try something new. For any more information, take a look at the leaflet below.