Hello!

This week the children have been working hard in their phonics groups, learning new sounds or recapping previous ones. They have all been blending sounds together to make words and have been practising reading words. In addition, they have been working on their writing, forming letters and words. Please continue to practise the sounds at home, making words using the cards and forming letters. We really appreciate all practise you are doing with your children at home; it doesn’t go unnoticed.

In Maths, we have been learning about the number 4. We have explored what 4 looks like and where we might see 4. The children have come up with lots of ideas about what they can see 4 of and what represents 4. We have been comparing the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 using the language one more and one less. We have looked at 4 on a ten frame and have thought about different ways of making 4. We have also explored the squares and rectangles and talked about their properties. At home, you could go on a square and rectangle hunt around the house. Talk about the 4 corners and 4 sides of the shapes, as well as how a rectangle has 2 longer sides and 2 shorter sides where a square has sides all the same length.

In understanding the world, we have been learning about people who help us and focusing on the emergency services. The children have really impressed us with their knowledge. They have enjoyed playing doctors and dentists in the home corner and have been making fire engines from boxes and other materials.

We have also been learning some songs for our Christmas play. We have posted some of the songs onto Tapestry and will put some others on this weekend. We hope that you find these useful to help your child practise the songs at home.

Next week:

In phonics, we will continue in our groups recapping sounds and blending them to make words.

In Maths, we will be very hands-on using resources such as multilink, Numicon, counters and fruit to explore more about the number 4.

In understanding the world, we will be learning about animals and the different types of animals we have in our world.

We will also be starting our Talk for Writing unit on Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. The children will be learning the story using actions and will create their own story maps to help them to retell the story. Talk for Writing helps the children to develop their own vocabulary and storytelling techniques.

We hope you have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday!

The Reception Team