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.

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

 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 :)