Autumn Term 2019

Autumn 2

We hope your child had a well-deserved rest over the half term and that they are refreshed and ready for a very busy term.

 Reminders:

• Please label all clothing- this really does helps to ensure that they do not loose their new uniform.
• Please make sure your child has a named P.E bag. Our P.E days are on a Monday and Wednesday.
• A book bag or bag is necessary to have in school every day. Letters and Reading books will be handed out and your child will be encouraged to put them in their bag.
• Named water bottles can be brought in for your child to drink when required. However, we do provide fresh drinking water.
• Please remember to order your child’s hot dinner online. This is particularly important if your child has food allergies.
• Reading at least 3 times a week will significantly increase their reading progress.
• Any issues regarding your child should be discussed with Miss Hakes/Mrs Daynes

 Phonics/Literacy

• Re-cap set 1 sounds
• Continue to recognise and write our name
• Practice letter formation
• Sharing stories and talking about what we have read
• Begin to practice reading and writing simple words and simple sentences

Maths

• To recognise numbers 0-10
• To represent numbers 0-10 in different ways
• To count to 10 and beyond
• To identify shapes and talk about their properties
• One more/one less

We are also looking forward to rehearsing our Nativity to perform to you on Monday 16^th December.

Miss Hakes and Mrs Daynes (Class Teachers)

W/C 16^th December

What a busy week! We have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in all things Christmas. We are very proud of how well the children performed the Christmas Nativity. Miss Hakes was very upset that she missed it!

Our highlight of the week was our trip to Boston, to watch the Pantomime. The children listened with excitement, although some of us were a little bit scared at first. Again, we are hugely proud of the children and their impeccable behaviour whilst off school site.

Have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New year. See you on Monday 6^th January 

W/C 9^th December

Miss Hakes walked into the classroom on Monday morning and found a cheeky ‘elf on the shelf’. He was wrapped around the Christmas tree. The children found this very funny. However, they did not like the fact that he had messed up the tree. The children decided to create traps for the elf. The children used different materials to create different sized traps. Their ideas were fantastic. Some children even wrote signs to entice the cheeky elf into the traps!

The next day our trap had worked. We had caught the cheeky elf!

W/C 2^nd December

Some of our children have been creating music with the metal pots and pans. To extend this interest we explored African drums. We made different sounds and had a go at tapping out different rhythms on the drum. The children were fascinated at the different sounds that they could create using the African drums. Next week, we will explore using the Ocarinas!

We are also getting ready for Christmas in Reception. We have decorated our own Post box, looking closely at the features of a Post Box. We have assembled our tree and decorated it. We have also started writing our letters to Santa. The children are using their Phonics to write letters. They have enjoyed looking through different catalogues and cutting out something they would like. The children have then wrote labels to match the picture. Writing letters is also a perfect opportunity to practice writing their name!

Please remember to wear your Christmas jumper on Wednesday 11^th December 😊

W/C 25th November

We were very lucky to have a visit from Wes Magee (Children’s Author and Poet). We thoroughly enjoyed learning one of his poems- ‘Stroke the Cat.’  The children joined in with the actions and the words. The children were truly inspired by him. Miss Hakes asked the children during Phonics, “Why do we teach you how to read and write?” Child J replied, “We have to learn so I can become a famous Author like Wes Magee and write my own stories!”  This comment really does show that children as young as 4 years old can be easily inspired and want to achieve in life!

Some of our children have showed an interest in playing football. Miss Hakes decided to take the group of children out onto the playground to practice some skills. Alongside the skills, Miss Hakes also demonstrated how to record their points on a tally chart. At the end of the session, we discussed who had the most/fewest points. We have been learning this skill in Maths.

We have also began rehearsing our Nativity. The children have blown us away with their acting skills and their attention to detail. We can not wait to show you on the 16^th December!

W/C 11^th November

We were lucky enough to have a visit from the Police. We met PC Nic. PC Nic informed us of how Police Officers are here to help us and to keep us safe. We tried on the Police uniform- the helmets were very heavy! We also used special ink to print our fingerprint. Did you know that every human has their own unique finger print?

We then had the opportunity to go and look inside the Police car. We were very excited by this and we were on our best behaviour!

PC Nic asked if each child could learn the following facts about themselves:

• Full name
• Full address

This will help your child to quickly pass on this information, if they have to call 999.

In Phonics, we continue to practice our set 1 sounds and are beginning to read CVC words. Thank you for your support with helping your child learn them.

In Maths, we have been comparing quantities and using words such as ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘fewer’. We have found the word ‘fewer’ quite tricky to understand. We will recap this again next week

W/C 18^th November

An extremely busy week in Reception. Our intent of our curriculum is to provide your child with lots of different experiences that will inspire them as they grow up.

We had a visit from the Fire Service. We were thrilled to sit inside the fire engine. We learnt all about the different parts of the fire engine and how it helps us in an emergency.

We have also been supporting Sleaford Community. We volunteered to bag up the duck food ready to be delivered to different places in Sleaford. We also learnt that too much bread can be harmful for the ducks, so feeding them the correct duck food will ensure they stay healthy. Well done Reception!

Mr. Men story books have been a big hit this week. The children have really enjoyed learning about all the different characters. We used materials to create our own characters and used our Phonics knowledge to write labels and short sentences.

W/C: 4^th November

We have had a very busy week in Reception.

We were lucky enough to find spider egg sacks in our outdoor area. We observed them closely and discussed what was inside. We discovered that inside an egg sack there   are hundreds of tiny eggs.

This led onto us drawing the spiders and learning about spiders. We used the internet to find out some exciting facts. Did you know if a spider looses a leg he grows a new one?!

We have also celebrated Diwali. We joined up with Nursery and celebrated together. We took part in some Diwali related activities. We enjoyed making Diva lamps and finding out about how Hindu’s celebrate the festival.

Autumn 1

Welcome to Reception!

We are really pleased with how our new class has settled into big school. Our priority will be finding out all about your child and their individual interests. We will support them to feel settled, secure and to make new friends. If you have any worries about how your child is settling please do not hesitate to ask Miss Hakes or Mrs Daynes.

Reminders:

• Please label all clothing- this really does helps to ensure that they do not loose their new uniform.
• Our class door is open at 8.30am-8.45am. This is a 15 minute window for you to talk to us about any worries that you may have.
• Please make sure your child has a named P.E bag. Our P.E days are on a Monday and Wednesday.
• A book bag or bag is essential to have in school every day. Letters and Reading books will be handed out and your child will be encouraged to put them in their bag.
• Named water bottles can be brought in for your child to drink when required. However, we do provide fresh drinking water.
• Spare clothes are helpful to have in school at all times, especially if your child is not yet toilet trained.
• Fruit is provided every morning for your child to enjoy at playtime.
• Please remember to order your child’s hot dinner online. This is particularly important if your child has food allergies. It is your responsibility to make sure dietary requirements are catered for.

In the first few weeks we be learning how to:

• Find our way around the school
• Settle into the daily routines of school life
• Learn each others name
• Explore and investigate their new classroom and outdoor area
• Look after our own belongings e.g. putting our jumpers on our peg
• Collect our own lunch and eat at the tables together
• Respect our classroom rules e.g. use kind hands, help each other, take turns
• Manage our own feelings and behaviour
• Have fun!

Once the children are settled and routines are established we will move onto teaching the following:

Phonics/Literacy

• Learn our set 1 sounds (Read, Write Inc scheme)
• Learn to recognise and write our name
• Practice letter formation
• Identifying initial sounds in words e.g. ‘aaaapple’
• Begin to read simple words e.g. Mat, Sam
• Sharing stories and talking about what we have read

Maths

• To recognise numbers 0-5
• To represent numbers 0-5 in different ways
• To count to 10 and beyond

Throughout the year we will be observing your child and recording their achievements in their individual learning journey folders. Please feel free to look at them at any time. We would love it if you added your child’s home achievements to them.

Thank you,

 Miss Hakes and Mrs Daynes (Class Teachers) 

W/C 8^th September

 We have had an extremely positive week. We are very proud with how well the children have settled and are beginning to make friends and form positive relationships with the adults in the room. We are delighted with the children’s attitude to learning, independence and resilience to their new routines.

The children have shown a wide range of interests this week. We have explored making dens, obstacle courses and learning how to take care of babies. We have explored printing with different materials and have produced some super work. Come and have a look at our Art display!

Alongside the children’s own learning we have also began our Phonics and Maths inputs. The children have demonstrated fantastic listening during these adult- led times. Next week, we begin learning our letter sounds- m,a,d,s,t. Letter sound cards will be sent home shortly.

W/C 17th September

This week we have begun teaching letter sounds to the children. Our first set of letters are:

m   a    d    s   t

If you would like to learn how to say the sounds, please click on the following link:

Set 1 Sounds

 Volcanoes have been a huge hit this week. We have been learning interesting facts about them and carried out two science experiments. We observed the effect of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda and the Mentos in coke. We loved watching the eruptions!

 We have also been very impressed with the Art work this week. Molly brought in her ‘Moonscape’ project that she had completed over the summer. The children then asked if they could make their own. We discussed what we would need for our creations and the children had a go. The children really enjoyed joining two pompoms together and adding googly eyes to them to create aliens. The Moonscapes even had volcanoes on them!

Remember it is individual school photo day on Monday 23^rd September- bring your smile!

W/C 23^rd September

We have celebrated the first day of autumn. We have shared lots of non-fiction books about autumn and discussed the changes we might start to see. We also planted some beautiful autumn pansies in our planters for our garden. We discussed the colours we could see on the petals, looked closely at the roots and discussed what our plants needed for them to continue to grow. The children did a splendid job of planting. We look forward to watching them blossom.

We also acted out the lifecycle of an Oak tree. The children enjoyed curling up as an acorn, then being buried by a squirrel and then eventually growing into a gigantic Oak tree. Some great acting was observed!

Next week, we will be sending out autumn bags. We would love it if you could go for an autumn walk and collect with autumn treasures. You could include pinecones, conkers, sticks, and leaves. We will then share our finds J

In Phonics, we have learnt the following sounds:

i      n     p     g    o

In Maths, we have been developing our sorting skills. We sorted lots of objects by colour, shape and size. We will look forward to sorting our autumn treasures.

W/C 7^th October

This week we have read the story of ‘The Little Red Hen.’ We read it as a whole class and then story mapped it, focusing on the beginning, middle and end. We then acted out the story. On Friday, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to make bread rolls with Farm Kitchen. We thoroughly enjoyed kneading the dough.

Thank you for those who have already returned the autumn treasure bags. We have really enjoyed sharing your child’s collections and using our senses to smell and feel the different materials.

Phonics

In Phonics we have learnt the following letter sounds:

e    l   h    sh   r

Our letter formation is improving every day. We hope you received the letter sound cards that we sent home. Please practice reading and writing them every day.

Maths

In Maths we have continued to focus on sorting different materials by colour, size and shape. The children have impressed us with their different sorts and their explanations of how they have sorted them. Sorting our natural autumn collections has been a huge success.