Welcome to Reception - Robins!

Welcome to Robins class! We are very excited to learn and play with you this year. 

Meet our team

Miss Warmoth is the Robins class teacher. Mrs West, Miss Moore and Mrs Brendling are teaching assistants who all help in the Robin class. 

Mrs Arnott will be teaching in Robin class on Wednesday mornings. 

• A reading book is sent home daily – please write a comment or sign the home school diary to show that you have read with your child each day. We change our books on Mondays and Thursdays. Please ensure that your child's book bag is in school each day.
• We do on Wednesday afternoons and this is done outdoors whenever possible or in the school hall. Every child needs a full P.E. kit in school and a pair of trainers and /or plimsolls.

Our Learning 4.5.21

Next week we will be continuing with our learning based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We really enjoying planting our beans and the children have loved watering them every day and checking to see if they have grown. This week will be planting sunflower seeds as part of our maths work on measuring.

In literacy the children will be thinking carefully about the story, the setting and the characters and using this information to make a lift the flap book. We will be using our developing phonic knowledge to spell and write the words we need and trying really hard to spell some of the tricky words correctly.

In maths we will be measuring lots of different sized cubes using a range of resources including cubes, tape measures and ruler. The children will be using the vocabulary longer than or shorter than and trying to find objects in the environment that are longer or shorter than his footprints. Maybe you could have a go at measuring different objects at home.

The role play area has been transformed into a garden centre and next week will be continuing to support the children when they are buying items, adding the prices together and finding the correct coins.

In phonics the children will be developing their phonics knowledge, revising phonemes and learning new ones. We will continue to focus on letter formation and sight words to support their reading and writing.

Our Learning - 26.4.21

For the next 2 weeks our learning will be based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We will be planning runner beans, thinking carefully about what plants need to grow. We will be observing how they change as they begin to grow and measuring them regularly. We will also be taking part in a sunflower growing competition with each class across school.

As part of our literacy work we will be thinking carefully about the castle that Jack discovered at the top of the beanstalk. The children will be thinking carefully about what they would like to find at the top of a beanstalk, I’m sure they will think of lots of amazing ideas. Each week a member of staff will read the story and send it out via the ‘activities’ tab on Tapestry for the children to access at home.

In Numberland we will be measuring the length of our gardens using cubes and comparing the length of each one to work out which is the longest and which is the shortest. On the maths challenge table the children will be completing the more or less number rockets, using a number line or resources to support them. You could support your child at home by telling them a number and asking them to tell you what 1 more or 1 less than that number is. For an extra challenge what about working out 2 more?

In phonics the children will be developing their phonics knowledge, revising phonemes and learning new ones. We will continue to focus on letter formation and sight words to support their reading and writing.

Our Learning

Our learning next week will focus on the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ We will be listening to different versions of the story and discussing each of the characters, their actions and their emotions. The children will be using masks and stick puppets to act out the story with their friends.

As part of our literacy work we will be looking carefully at each of the characters and describing how they look and their personality to help us write a character description. We will also be joining in with the repeated refrain, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.”

In maths we will be visiting our new Numberland area which the children are very excited about. To enter Numberland the children need to count forwards along the numbered path and to leave they count backwards. This week the children will be counting the number of sides on each garden and matching it to the correct house before adding the correct number of objects into each garden.

We will also be planting some potatoes and watching them grow over the coming months before finally harvesting and cooking them. We will be continuing to plant a range of fruit and vegetables over the next few weeks.

In phonics the children will be developing their phonics knowledge, revising phonemes and learning new ones. We will continue to focus on letter formation and sight words to support their reading and writing.

A day in Reception

To begin our day, the children will come into the classroom hang up their coat and bag and wash their hands. Next, they find their name card and place it inside a robot to show they have arrived at school for the day. They will then independently find and start a busy-finger activity. These activities are designed to help develop fine motor strength which is important for good pencil grip and control. Then, the children take part in a whole class phonics session followed by a child-initiated learning time.  After snack the children listen to the story of the week being read, join in with repeated refrains and discuss the story. This is followed by a short maths session and opportunities to consolidate this new learning are provided during child-initiated learning.

 During the lunch hour, the children will be supported by mid-day supervisors who help them with their lunch and encourage them to try new foods. After lunch, the children play in the outdoor learning environment and particularly enjoy using the climbing equipment. The afternoon starts with a reading session, small groups of children will be heard read individually and the others will take part in a larger group guided reading session. This is followed by another period of child-initiated learning. At the end of the day, the children have a circle time session or a story before getting ready for home.

What are we learning about?

This half term, our topic is 'All about me.' We will be thinking about ourselves and what makes us unique and special. As part of our PSED work will be talking about our families and the activities we like to do together when we are at home. We will also be exploring the reception environment and finding out all about our new friends.

In phonics lessons, we follow the 'Letters and Sounds' scheme of work and introduce the Jolly Phonics' actions for each sound. Watch out for the children singing the songs at home and doing the actions, they are quite catchy!  We will be learning new Phase 2 phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (written letters). We will also be encouraging the children to have a go at reading and writing simple words and captions independently. For more information about phases 2 and 3 phonics, please visit the link at the bottom of this section.

In maths lessons, we will be exploring and recognising numerals to 10 and placing them in order as well as developing our understanding of place value. 

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2.html

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-3.html

Tapestry

Your child will have an online learning journal through the Tapestry app. For guidance on how to use the app, please speak to Miss Warmoth, who can support you with: signing up, viewing observations and uploading observations from home. We would love for parents to contribute to the journals by uploading learning achievements from home! This could be from a club, new experiences or a skill that has been mastered at home!   

Handwriting 

At Hillshott Infant and Nursery school we follow the PenPals handwriting scheme. Our younger children are introduced to four main characters which help them to memorise the sequence for writing each letter correctly. The key thing to remember is that all letters start from the top
(apart from d and e).

Pattern practice and ‘play’ writing are an important part of handwriting development. Your child will be practicing letter formation in a number of exciting ways: in sand, using paint, in the air, on the interactive television screens and iPads, as well as on paper with a pencil!

Parent messages

Use the websites below to help your child with their home learning.

For lots of great ideas, games and practical activities in all areas of learning (including e-books)

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/ 

For phonics games (they have a free login which will be valid for a short period of time)

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

For phonics games

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/ (phase 2 and 3 games)

For practical maths activities

https://nrich.maths.org/13371

For some great practical Literacy activities

https://www.firstdiscoverers.co.uk/early-years-literacy-games-activities/

For activities and different topic games

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?AgeGroup=1

and

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

For practising sciences skills and engaging children in conversations

https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/ (free to sign up)

For filtering results on any of these websites children in Reception are working at ‘EYFS’ stage or ‘Early Years’