Welcome to Reception.
Our Teachers are Mrs Dumont and Miss Young and our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Wonnacott and Mrs Panta.
Oct 242025
999 Emergency!
In Maths this week, we have been comparing quantities of objects. The activities this week will focus on developing this innate skill as children are encouraged to look carefully and use the language of comparison to describe sets of objects that they can see. Language is a key focus and adults will model the language of ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ to describe how many objects there are in each set. ‘Fewer than’ is used rather than ‘less than’ because the focus is on countable things.
In Phonics we have continued to learn the final Phase 2 phonics sounds, l, ll, f and ff as well as begin learning Phase 3 sounds j, v, w and x. We have practised writing these using the letter rhymes to help us. We have also thought about words that start with these initial sounds. The new ‘harder to read and spell words’ for this week were ‘as’ and ‘his’ as well as ‘buses’, ‘he’ and ‘she’. The children are really becoming confident in using their robot arms to segment and blend words for reading and writing.
In topic this week we have continued to learn about ‘people who help us’. We have enjoyed learning more about police officers and firefighters and how they can help to keep us safe. We also discussed which number we needed to call if we ever needed the emergency services to help us. We discussed people who help us at school. We could name so many people in school, such as the teachers, Mrs Stray, Lani, our lunch time staff, and Mr Edwards as our caretaker.
Key Points
- Please make sure your reading books and yellow diaries are in the trays outside the classroom each day. This will help the adults when checking books and to see if they need to be changed.
- Please bring back school library books on a Friday so that they can be changed for a new one.
- As it is getting colder please make sure your child has a coat in school every day and they are ready for all types of weather.
- Please make sure your child’s school uniform, coats, shoes and PE have their names in.
We hope you have a lovely week!
Reception Team
Oct 102025
People Who Help Us!
In Maths this week, the children have built on their subitising skills. They have continued to use ‘perceptual’ subitising – instant recognition – by saying the number of sounds that they can hear, such as claps or drum beats, without needing to count. They were encouraged to look closely at small quantities and observe whether the quantity has changed or only the arrangement.
In Phonics this week we have taught the digraph sound ‘h’ and ‘b’. We then spent the week recapping the Phase 2 sounds and practising the skills to segment and blend these for reading and writing. We have also been reading some short sentences and identifying any ‘harder to read and spell words’ within them.
This week we have started our topic of ‘People who help us’. We have discussed who are ‘people who help us’. We had many amazing ideas from the children. We then focused on the role of doctors, nurses and dentists and how they can help us. Some children also shared their own experiences. When learning about dentists we discussed how to keep our teeth healthy and why this is so important.
Key Points
- We are still learning about ‘People who help us’ until the end of the term. If there are any other volunteers that would like to come in and talk about their jobs, it would be greatly appreciated!
- We are also looking for any parents that could help with additional reading in Reception. If you could spare some time to help please let one of the Reception team know.
- Please could you ensure your child has a spare set of clothes at school, including underwear and socks , to change into if they have an accident or get wet outside.
Oct 032025
All About Friendships!
In Phonics we have taught the sounds u, r, ss and h. We have continued to segment and blend words for reading and writing. We have also enjoyed thinking of words that start with these initial sounds. The ‘harder to read and spell words’ this week were ‘into’ and ‘go’. We were practising to use these within sentences.
In Maths, the children will explore how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, begin to investigate the composition of 3 and 4. Composing and decomposing numbers involves children investigating part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. The children will learn from practical experience that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts. We will start to learn about weight and capacity, using the vocabulary heavier and lighter.
This week in Reception we have been focusing on friendships. We have read the story ‘We are friends’ and discussed the importance of being kind to others with both our words and our actions. We then read the story ‘Have you filled a bucket today?’. This story helped us to think about kind and unkind actions and how it will make others feel. We will continue to focus on friendships and how our actions can impact relationships.
In PE this week, our theme was our senses. We focused on running and changing directions. We practised using smaller steps, looking around us and then turning to a new direction through different games.
Next week, our topic is ‘People Who Help Us’ and we are having a couple of surprise visitors on Monday and Tuesday.
Key Points
- Just a reminder that the Phase 2 phonics sounds that we are covering this term are stuck into your child’s yellow reading record. On the school website you will be able to find a video that shows how we teach Phonics, including how we pronounce the pure sounds.
- Please put your child’s name in their uniform, PE kits and on their water bottles.
- Bring reading books and reading records every day and put them into the drawer. If you are unsure, please ask.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Reception Team
Sep 262025
Homes and Houses!
This week in Reception, we have encouraged the children to engage with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. They have used subitising to identify the number in a set; they will now develop their counting skills to enable them to identify how many there are in a set that cannot be subitised. This connects subitising and counting to cardinality whereby the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether. Using a ‘circling’ gesture to indicate all of the objects in a set will support children to develop an understanding of cardinality. They will also practise developing 1:1 correspondence, by counting numbers at the same time as moving or tagging the objects. We also learnt two new shapes this week (rectangle and triangle) and went on a shape hunt around the classroom.
In Phonics we have introduced the sounds c, k, ck, e and their corresponding rhymes. The children have enjoyed thinking of different words that start with these initial sounds. We have also been continuing to segment and blend simple words using our robot arms. It would be great if you could continue to encourage your children to use robot arms when reading at home.
This week’s topic focus has been about homes all around the world. We have enjoyed reading books and looking at pictures of different homes. We have then thought about why some homes are built differently and use alternative materials in different countries. The children then choose one of the houses they had learnt about to have a go at drawing.
We introduced Reception to junk modelling. We spent time thinking about what we would like to make and the materials and resources that we might need to create these. We challenged the children to make junk model homes for our small world area. Children can access the junk modelling resources in discovery time, any junk modelling and recycling that you have at home would be greatly appreciated.
Key Points
- We are in need of both girls and boys pants and socks if anyone has them going spare.
- In the next few weeks we will be learning about ‘People who help us’. If you or anyone you know is a doctor, nurse, paramedic, dentist, firefighter, police officer etc.. please let us know. We would love you to come in and talk about your role to the children.
Sep 192025
Imagination Galore!
This week in Reception we have continued to have a big focus on learning the school rules and routines, including making good learning choices in the indoor and outdoor environments.
In topic this week we have been thinking about our families and discussing how all families are different. All of the Reception team have shown the children their own families and the children seemed to be surprised that their teachers had families and pets at home. The children then shared and talked about their own family photos in front of the class. We then thought about how we could ask each other relevant questions. Some children have have done some lovely drawings of their families which have been put on display within the classrooms. We have also thought about the different homes that we all live in and introduced the children to the vocabulary ‘flat’, ‘house’ and ‘bungalow’.
In phonics we have recapped last weeks phonics sounds. We then introduced the sounds d, m, g, o. We have practised using the rhymes to write the letters in the air and then had a go on paper. We have also introduced ‘harder to read and spell words’, these are words that cannot be segmented and blended. These words are ‘a’, ‘I’, ‘the’, ‘no’, ‘put’ and ‘of’. Please read every day with your child at home where they get the opportunity to practise the sounds and harder to read words we have been looking at in class. Please record each time you read in the yellow diaries with comments to explain how your child has read and understood their book.
In Maths this week, we have focused on subitising to 3, and using their fingers to show the numbers in different ways. We also introduced 2D shapes, focusing on a circle and a square. The children went around the classroom to find items that show the two shapes.
This week we had our first PE lesson in the hall! We focused this week on being able to undress and dress ourselves independently. If you could practise this at home that would be much appreciated! In PE we then played a range of whole class games, allowing the children to get used to the space.
Both Reception classes joined Miss Dore this week for a music lesson. We had lots of fun singing familiar nursery rhymes and listening to some different instruments.
Key Points
- Please send in a family photo with your child if you have not yet done this.
- PE is on Mondays so please make sure your child has a kit on their peg every week.
- Please could the children bring their reading books and diaries every day so they can be read with and checked by an adult. Each day, please take them out of the book bags and place them in the top trays outside the classroom. If you are unsure, please ask.
Donation wanted:Mud Kitchen! Our old one is now broken and we are making do, however we would love to have a new/recycled one. If you know of anyone who may be able to make or donate one, please let us know.
Thank you so much for the donations so far, we really appreciate it!
Have a lovely weekend,
Reception Team
Sep 122025
Welcome to Alban City!
What a lovely first full week it has been for Reception!
The children have been super excited and eager to explore their new classrooms. We have played lots of games, spoken about how we feel starting school and even started our phonics lessons. The phonics sounds we have learnt so far are s, a. t, p, i, n.
Don’t forget:
- bring PE kits in and place them on pegs.
- bring a water bottle every day.
- bring wellies in.
- Please ensure all uniform, PE kits, wellies and water bottles are named.
- We are going to be making junk model houses and people next week, if anyone is able to bring in any materials for junk modelling it would be much appreciated. We would particularly like toilet rolls!
- Unfortunately our mud kitchen is broken, if anybody is able to build or donate a mud kitchen we would greatly appreciate it.
On Friday you will see reading books and reading records appear in your child’s book bag. It would be great if you could read with your child every day and write it into their reading records. Reading books will only be changed once it has been read 3 or 4 times.
At the front of your child’s reading record you will see there is a copy of all the phase 2 phonic sound that we are covering this term, these also show you the rhymes that we use in class to support the children to not only learn the sound but also how to form the letter correctly. It will benefit the children greatly if you could practice these sound at home. It is very important that we use pure sounds when we are pronouncing the sounds and supporting them to segment and blend for reading and writing. To support you as parents there is a video on the school website under ‘our curriculum’ then ‘phonics.
Have a restful weekend everyone!
Reception Team🙂
Jul 112025
From tadpole to frog
This week in Phonics we have spent time recapping our newest phase 5 sounds. We have been identifying these within words before segmenting and blending for reading. We have also continued with our simple sentence writing. Each day we gave the class a picture and then they each thought of a sentence they wanted to write about what they can see.
In Maths we have been comparing quantities of objects. We gave have been focusing on the numerosity of the group (how many there are) and making sure we are not tricked by the size or spatial arrangement of the objects! We encouraged the children to use the stem sentence: _____ is more than/less than _____ .
We have continued our topic lessons all about growing. We have been focusing on the life cycle of a frog and what happens at each stage. The children had some fantastic questions and ideas this week! We then looked at some different types of frogs and made comparisons between them, including what they looked like and their habitats.
In discovery time some of the children chose to follow the instructions to plant their own seeds. They are very excited to see what they grow into! We have recapped what we need to do to help our seeds to grow when we take them home.
Thank you to everyone that came to our open evening yesterday. It was so lovely to see so many people coming to look at and celebrate all the children’s learning!
Jul 042025
How do plants grow?
This week we have started our new topic all about ‘growing’. We read the story ‘The tiny seed’ to support our understanding of the life cycle of plants. We then had a go at retelling the story through our own story maps. We then researched and discussed how to care for plants and what plants need to help them to grow.
In Phonics we have taught the final set of Reception Phase 5 phonics sounds. These were C (making a S sound) and the split digraphs i-e, o-e, u-e. We have spent a lot of time spotting these sounds within words and segmenting and blending for reading and writing. To support your child’s continuing development and confidence please continue to read daily and practise writing regularly.
In Maths we have recapped many skills including subitising, counting larger numbers of objects, counting beyond 20 and comparing quantities.
A huge thank you to Juliette’s Mummy for visiting Reception to teach a fantastic art lesson. The children really enjoyed learning new drawing skills and creating their own self-portraits!
Key Points
- Thursday 10th July – Transition morning into Year 1 and Alban City School open evening 5-7pm.
- We are still in need of small yoghurt pots for planting seeds!
Jun 272025
Goodbye butterflies!
In Phonics this week we have been very busy learning some new sounds. We have introduced the children to ‘au’, ‘ey’ and two split digraphs ‘a-e’, ‘e-e’. A split digraph is a digraph where the two letters are not adjacent and are split apart by a consonant. The children became excellent detectives and were able to spot these new sounds in many words and sentences! The new ‘harder to read and write’ words for this week were ‘would’ and ‘could’.
In Maths this week we have recapped ‘equal’ and ‘not equal’ when sharing objects between different groups. We practised this by sharing toys between our teddies! We then moved onto doubles and thought about the different ways we could represent doubles e.g. on dice, fingers, draw them, using rekenreks. Each time we made a double the children used the step sentence: _____ is made from _____ and _____ ; _____and _____ make ____.
This has been our last week learning all about minibeasts. We definitely have some experts in Reception now! Both classes were lucky enough to see some of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalis in the classroom. We were very excited to watch them fly out of their tents and into nature. The children had lots of fun making up their own names for the butterflies and then voting for their favourite. In our topic lessons we have been looking at the body features of different minibeasts and how they are adapted to their specific habitats. We then looked at some different minibeast life cycles and made comparisons between their similarities and differences.
On Friday we had lots of visitors in school to talk about different careers with the children. We had a lot of fun visiting a games workshop in the morning. In the afternoon we then had a visit from a project manager in the Aerospace industry and a local youth orchestra.
We hope you have a great weekend in the sunshine!
Key Points
- Saturday 28th June is the School summer fair. There will be lots of stools and games to visit!
- Please collect and bring in any small yoghurt pots, we would love to use them for planting next week.
Aerospace Visitor
Orchestra visit Jun 132025
Minibeast hunting!
In maths we have been developing the children’s automatic recall of number bonds to 5 and 10. We have sung the song ‘5 little speckled frogs’ and used both hands to represent the frogs on the log and in the pond. We then moved onto representing number bonds using die frames and 2 coloured counters. We encouraged the children to use the same stem sentence to explain their answers e.g. _ and _ makes 5 altogether.
The new phase 5 phonics sounds this week were ir, ue, aw and oy. We segmented and blended different words including these new sounds. We then thought about words we knew with these sounds in. The new harder to read and write words this week have been ‘people’, ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’. We have also continued with our daily sentence writing. The children are getting really confident at using all the skills they have been taught!
In topic lessons this week we have been learning about where minibeast live and how habitats are similar and different. We also looked at how minibeasts adapt to specific habitats based on their need for food and shelter.
On Friday we walked to Normandy playing field for a minibeast hunt! We had great fun looking in all of the bushes, trees and grass areas to spot different minibeasts on our hunting sheet. We were lucky enough to see woodlice, spiders, ladybirds, ants, snails and many more! Thank you again to all the parent helpers that came with us today.
A huge well done to Lime class for your amazing assembly today. We are so proud of everything you have learnt and achieved!
Key Points
- Apple class sharing assembly is on 2oth June at 9:00am in the theatre
- Now the weather is getting warmer please remember to name all items of clothing, including hats and jumpers!
