Hello!

Each week we will give an overview of the week including some extra ideas for at home. We will also tell you a bit about what is coming next week. This will be posted to Tapestry and also on our class page of the website.

This week it has been so lovely to begin to get to know you and your children. They have all been great and have enjoyed getting involved in lots of different activities and we have been super impressed with how well they have come in and settled in the morning.

We have been playing games such as ‘Guess that sound’ where the children have displayed super listening skills and are learning to wait their turn if they would like to share an idea. We have been introduced to Fred our frog who can only speak in sounds. He has been asking the children to do some actions like h-o-p. In this game they need to listen carefully to the separate sounds and blend these into a word then do the action! For some words this might involve the word being repeated a few times, each time being blended a little more into a word. This is a great game to play at home, alongside other Fred games such as ‘What’s in Fred’s fridge?’ There might be items like h-a-m or m-i-l-k and the children need to blend each time to say what the word is. Or ‘Point to the…’ where you might say ‘Point to the m-a-t’. We have also been playing memory games such as the tray game (Show 5 items on a tray then cover them. Can you remember what was there?) and ‘I went to the shops and I bought’ where the children have to remember one item then add another then another. These games are all part of the children’s phonics journey. We have also read ‘Cows in the Kitchen’ where we have been exploring initial sounds and ‘Each, Peach, Pear, Plum’ where we have been spotting rhymes. If you have these stories at home, you might lie to share these with your children.

We have been singing the number rhymes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, once I caught a fish alive and 5 little ducks went swimming one day. We have also been comparing and finding matches using our compare bears which are different sizes and colours. Maybe you have a matching pairs game at home that you could play together. This can help promote not only turn-taking but also finding similarities and differences which is something we do lots more of in maths in reception. We have been using words like same, different, notice, see, colour, size. Perhaps you could compare things at home such as potatoes. Is this one the same as this one? How are they different? Can you find things that are an exact match; perhaps a pair of socks or two coins.

In understanding the world we have been learning about the staff in school and how the staff help us. We have been thinking about friendship and have been playing some friendship games to help us all get to know each other a bit more. We have read the story ’10 Little Friends’ and have talked about what sorts of things we can do together and how we can play together happily. We have also created our Class Charter which is a set of rules which we have decided on together to help us to be happy and safe at school.

The children have done so well this week listening to instructions and learning to follow our rules. They have immersed themselves in a whole range of activities. We are really looking forward to our year together and seeing them grow.

‘All about me’ bag

We have sent home a bag with an instruction label on. This is your child’s ‘All about me’ bag. Next week’s learning is focused around learning about each other and considering ways in which we are different and the same. Fill your bag with 3 things you can use to tell us about yourself. For more details about this, have a look at the label on the bag.

Please return these bags on Monday. Once we have finished using them, they will be returned home.

RE topic

As part of our RE topic abut where we live and what makes it special, we are asking if you could provide a photograph of your house. You can do this either by sending in a photo on Monday or uploading one on Tapestry. If you have the Tapestry app, this is the easiest way to upload any photos.

Wellies and spare clothes

If you haven’t done so already, please bring in a pair of named wellies for your child. We like to have the option of outdoor play whatever the weather so these are important if it is wet. We also use wellies in some of our outdoor areas, namely the sand area and the mud kitchen. Also it’s useful to have a spare set of clothes in school which will stay on your child’s peg just in case of any accidents.

Drink, sun cream and hat

Please provide a water bottle each day. If the weather is sunny then please apply sun cream before school and a hat for your child to wear when playing outside.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch. You can do this via email, phone or a message on Tapestry.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team