Reception - Apple and Lime

Welcome to Reception.

Our Teachers are Mrs Dumont and Mrs Cooper and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Wonnacott and Ms Panta.

9th October

Real-Life Superheroes!

It has been an action-packed week in Reception as we launched our exciting topic on People Who Help Us! The children have loved diving into the world of doctors, nurses, paramedics, vets, and dentists. We've had wonderful conversations about how these dedicated individuals care for us, our pets, and our wider community.

Inspired by our key text, Real Life Superheroes, the children have been reflecting on their own medical experiences or even from visiting the dentist for a check-up to seeing a doctor or paramedic.

In Phonics, our target sound this week is ss. We’ve been practising hearing and writing initial sounds, oral segmenting and blending, and forming simple CVC words. We have also been reviewing the Phase 2 sounds and assessing where the children are. Over the next week, you will see them appear in your yellow books. If you have any questions, please ask your child's teacher.

This week, we have been investigating the composition of numbers.Composition involves exploring how numbers can be made up of smaller parts (for example, seeing that 4 can be made of "2 and 2" or "3 and 1"). Through sorting games, the children are discovering how numbers fit together, laying essential groundwork for addition and subtraction.

Key reminders:

• Parents' evening is next Tuesday 13th October and Thursday 15th October. This will be an opportunity to discuss how your child has settled into Reception and the progress they have made, as well as next steps. Unfortunately, we only have a 10 minute time slot and anything beyond this time, we will arrange a further meeting. 
• We are still wanting some more junk modelling for the children to use for projects in class. Any items such as; egg boxes, small cardboard boxes or toilet roll tubes will be greatly appreciated. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

Reception Team

2nd October

Celebrating Friendship, Empathy, and Community

It has been another wonderful week in Reception as we turned our focus towards the theme: Friendships and Differences. The children have been exploring what it means to be a supportive friend, how to recognise and respect feelings, and how our differences make our classroom community so special.

We have continued to learn more Phase Two Phonics sounds this week. Our target sounds this week are k, e, u, and r. We have been segmenting and blending these sounds orally, forming simple three-letter (CVC) words, and refining our letter formation.

In Topic, our story this week followed a rabbit who discovers just how important friends really are when we need a helping hand. We had some thoughtful discussions about how Rabbit felt throughout the story, as well as how the other characters felt. The children shared their own wonderful experiences of helping others and being helped at school and home. 

This week, we have also been exploring the wonderful tradition of Harvest. The children have been learning about where our food comes from, how crops are harvested during autumn, and why this is a special time for giving thanks and sharing with others.  We talked about all the people who help bring food to our plates—from farmers and tractor drivers to shopkeepers—and explored how we can care for people in our local community who might need a helping hand.

In Maths, we have been practising counting, cardinality, and ordinality. Cardinality is understanding that the last number reached when counting a set of objects tells us how many items there are in total. Ordinality is beginning to explore position and order (such as first, second, and third). Through practical activities and counting games, the children are building a strong, flexible understanding of how numbers work in sequence.

As part of our school’s Digital Innovation Week, Reception took part in an exciting, hands-on Duplo Train Workshop inspired by the story A Train Ride. Working together, the children designed and built an impressive network of train tracks surrounded by a bustling Duplo town complete with buildings and scenery. The real highlight was testing out electric Duplo trains and watching them travel around the tracks they had created! This activity provided a fantastic early introduction to technology, sequencing, and cause-and-effect, while giving the children another wonderful opportunity to collaborate, problem-solve, and develop their spatial skills.

Key reminders: 

• Please continue to bring in junk modelling! This can include: egg boxes, small boxes and toilet roll tubes.
• We are looking for parent volunteers to come in and help support the reading with the children in our classrooms. If you are able to volunteer once a week to read with the children - please let your class teacher know. Thank you for your continued support.
• Keep an eye out for a form sent by the office to support our topic 'People Who Help Us'. If you (or a partner/carer) work in the emergency services—such as the police force, nursing or healthcare, fire service, search and rescue, or paramedic services—we would love to hear from you! We are looking for volunteers who might be open to sharing a bit about their role with the children,  a brief classroom visit, a short Q&A session, or sharing photos and non-confidential equipment.

We hope you have a great weekend!

Reception Team

25th September

Houses, Homes, and Families

What a fantastic time we are having in Reception! The children are continuing to settle brilliantly into their new school routines, building lovely friendships, and learning how to take care of our classroom and resources.

Our topic this week is 'Houses and Homes', exploring where we live, how families are unique, and what homes look like all over the world. The children have drawn pictures of their own homes, paying close attention to features like doors, windows, and roofs. We’ve also introduced junk modelling, where the children are selecting materials, joining them together, and exploring textures to build 3D houses. We’ve been looking at family photos, talking about how all families are special and different, and creating class family trees. In art, we’ve been working on drawing people with increasing detail—remembering to include heads, bodies, arms, and legs!

Our key text is A Place Called Home: Look inside Houses Around The World by Kate Baker and Rebecca Green. We’ve also been reading Who Are You?. The children are getting fantastic at re-telling story events in their own words, building their confidence to speak in front of their friends during carpet time, and engaging in multi-turn conversations with adults and peers.

This week, we are continuing with Phase Two Phonics, learning the sounds: g, o, c, and ck. We’ve been practising forming these letters, spotting initial sounds in words, and playing oral blending and segmenting games. The children are doing brilliantly at blending these sounds together to read simple three-letter (CVC) words.

In Maths, alongside our initial baseline assessments, we are following the NCETM plans with a focus on subitising. We are playing lots of quick visual games to build this core foundation for number sense.

Fine Motor Skills: Through our morning "Soft Start" activities, children are building hand strength and coordination, getting their fingers ready for writing and precise crafting. If you notice that you have similar activities at home, this would help hugely with the development of your children's hand strength and movement.

Key reminders:

• Please keep bringing in reading books and reading records every day. This helps us to see who needs to be read with that week and if we need to change any books. Also a reminder that we only change books once the children have read it 4 times. Our main book changing days are Mondays and Thursdays. 
• The children are loving our junk modelling at the moment in the creative area so we would like to have more brought in for us to use! This includes: egg boxes, small boxes and toilet roll tubes.

We hope you have an amazing weekend!

Reception Team

18th September

Families!

In Topic this week, we have been learning about different families. The children have shared their family photos and even had a go at drawing their family trees.

This week, we have started Drawing Club. This is where the children use their imagination to draw and practise writing their secret code (letters and numbers). There are four lessons following the same pattern: character, setting, and two adventure times. Adventure times are questions the children have to answer. Our story this week has been Not Now, Bernard, so the children have drawn a monster and Bernard's house, then answered 'Where did the monster come from?' and 'How can Mum and Dad get the monster out of the house?'. We have been so impressed with their creativity and determination to draw and write!

We have also begun Maths lessons this week. Our focus has been subitising numbers 1 to 3. Subitising is the ability to instantly recognise a quantity without counting each item individually—for example, rolling a die and knowing the number is 4 without counting each dot. All of our Maths lessons are linked to Numberblocks, which the children already enjoy!

In Phonics, we have recapped last week's sounds (s, a, t, p) and learnt four new sounds (i, n, m, d). We have practised using our robot arms to segment and blend words, and practised writing the sounds in our phonics books. The children have also started learning 'harder to read and spell words' (which are words that cannot be sounded out). So far, they are learning to recognise: a, I, no, and the.

In Handwriting, we have focused on making different types of lines (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and crosses). The children have practised using ribbons outside to make large movements, as well as writing on whiteboards.

Key reminders:

• Reading books and yellow reading records are brought in every day. We will change the books after they have read it 4 times (recommended amount per week). Please leave the date and a comment so we can monitor this. 
• Remember to bring in Library books on Monday!
• Friday 25th September is Languages Day. Please come dressed up in your country's colours (football kits are only allowed if it is a country). 

We hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Reception Team :)

12th September

Welcome! 

What a fabulous start to the year!

The children have just finished their first full week of Reception and they have all settled really well into their class. We have been focusing on spending lots of time getting to know each other and their classrooms. 

In Phonics, we have begun learning Phase 2 sounds; s, a, t and p. We have been practising our robot arms to segment and blend words, and we even had a go at writing them! You will now see each child has a reading book and yellow reading record. Please make sure they are brought in every day and placed in their coloured trays. 

In Topic, we are learning about the similarities and differences between being a baby, toddler and now. The children had an opportunity to share their photos and talk about them. We have been super impressed with how confidently they spoke to their friends in class. 

We have started handwriting this week and our main focus has been on their posture at a table, their pencil grip and practising swirls and circles to develop their pencil control. 

We had an amazing PE lesson where the children played lots of games and practised many skills such as running, throwing and catching. The children get themselves changed independently before and after the lesson. Please could you keep practising independent changing at home as this is a really important skill in Reception and forms part of their Early Learning Goals for the end of the year.

Key reminders:

- Please name all clothing items (including socks and shoes), water bottles and book bags. We are finding lots of items without names which is making it tricky to return to the right person. 

- Reading books and yellow reading records are brought in every day. We will change the books after they have read it 4 times (recommended amount per week). Please leave the date and a comment so we can monitor this. 

- We will visit the Library on a Monday for both classes. Each child will choose a book and bring it home. Please return the book each week, ready to be changed. If you lose a book, please let your class teacher know. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend and we will see you all again on Monday!

Reception Team :)