A fab (and warm!) week in Reception. We have now joined the rest of the school for lunchtimes on the main playground, and the children are really enjoying exploring and making the most of everything our lovely playground has to offer - a mud kitchen, construction, stage, bikes, Lego, and more. If you haven't done so, please bring in wellie boots as we'll continue to be outside as the weather changes.

 

Phonics -

Graphemes - g, o, c, k.

Tricky word - is

Tricky words have graphemes in them that do not make the sound that we know; the 's' in the word 'is' makes a 'z' sound, making it a tricky word. The children will learn to recognise these words just by looking, as they can't be sounded out.

Here is a link to the Little Wandle parents page, which gives information on how we teach phonics.

For parents | Letters and Sounds

 

Maths -

This week, we have engaged with activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. We have used subitising to identify the number in a set; we are now developing our counting skills to enable the children 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 has supported the children to develop an understanding of cardinality. We have also practised developing 1:1 correspondence, by counting numbers at the same time as moving or tagging the objects.   

Ideas for home -

  • Play skittles so the children can count how many skittles they have knocked down. 
  • Make 'counting wands' for the children to use to help them keep track of their tagging.
  • Provide a selection of containers that allow for the development of 1:1 correspondence, e.g. ice cube trays so the children can put 1 object in 1 space.  

 

Topic -

We enjoyed reading 'It's OK to be Different' this week, which is a lovely story that encourages children to identify and celebrate their uniqueness, with each sentence beginning with 'It's OK to...'

We sat in a circle and listened to statements, such as 'stand up if you have black hair' and 'stand up if you enjoy reading' - this encouraged us to think about ourselves again, as well as seeing if we had the same answer as others.

After, we all had a leaf to draw on, where we drew something that we like about ourselves, there were some lovely discussions and pictures, some examples were 'I like that I'm a kind brother' and 'I like my curly hair'. These leaves will be turned into wreaths to proudly display in our Reception coridoor. 

 

Notices -

Antarctica's library day is Friday.

Australia's library day is Thursday.

As well as wellie boots, we recommend sending in waterproof clothes that can be stored on your child's peg so they can continue to access our garden and playground, without getting their school clothes wet.

 

Have a lovely weekend!