Welcome to Reception's class page!

Key Information

We are a class of 12 children. Our teacher is Mrs Benson and our teaching assistant is Mrs Boyd. 

• Our P.E days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please bring your child to school already in their P.E kit.
• Snack is £1 per week or can be paid upfront for the half term. 

• School meals are to be ordered on the school hub website. 

• Please make sure that your child brings their book bag to school every day.

• Read at least five times a week to gain Strive for Five. (See further down the page for more details).

Useful Information...

- Achievement assembly. Each Friday a child will be selected as our Star of the Week and Class Dojo Champion. If this is your child, please remember that they may come in to school the following Friday in non-uniform.

Useful documents and links

As parents you may find these documents useful when assisting your child's development at home. The curriculum map outlines each of the topics which we will be covering over the school year and the newsletters look at the half termly topics and include any additional  information on what will be happening in school.

Children's Mental Health week

As part of Children's Mental Health week the Reception children have been focusing on their emotions and how things like music can make you feel differently. They took part in an activity listening to different soundtracks (some fast and some slow) and moved their body to match how they felt. They then painted to the same tracks, trying to control the brush strokes on the paper to match their emotions. Reception also took part in yoga during PE, really focusing in on their mindset and slowing things down. 

What Lives in your Garden?

To begin the Spring 1 topic of minibeasts, the children had a visit from Pet Encounters who brought in different species of minibeasts for the children to investigate. The children were so excited to be able to hold and find out more about the creatures, which included stick insects, a praying mantis, a flower beetle and a sleepy tarantula. The children also came up close with a scorpion, explored minibeasts in resin, watched a chameleon eat his mealworms with his very long tongue and found seven hidden minibeasts in our small world area. 

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

Autumn 2 learning has been based on an African story 'Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain', which details a village in Kenya, Africa suffering from a drought and all of the village animals leaving to find water elsewhere. The children have so far explored African instruments and introduced instruments in to the story. They have carried out experiments giving them the opportunity to explore where rain comes from and they have looked at African patterns, working together to create some beautiful artwork. 

Roald Dahl Day

The children have enjoyed celebrating Roald Dahl's birthday today, learning about some of his most popular stories through sensory activities. They enjoyed mark making in chocolate to represent the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, took the dirt out of Mr Twits beard using tongs and tweezers, created Mr Fox's face using paper plates and threaded dream catchers to represent The BFG. It was such a fun day! 

Mastery Maths

In Reception we follow White Rose Maths. This programme of study allows children to learn practically while utilising the learning environment. We build upon core principles that allow children to progress their mathematical skills throughout the year. Creating a mathematically rich learning environment also provides children with opportunities to develop, practice and consolidate their skills in different contexts and using different media. 

We also use Numberblocks to support the cementing of newly learned numeracy areas- all of these videos can be accessed for free on BBC iPlayer. Please use the link below to access them at home.

Alongside our maths lessons, the children enjoy playing different maths games, some of these can be found online on Top Marks- please use the link below to access these.

NSPCC Number day

To support and build recognition for NSPCC, the children took part in Number Day. They participated in a number of different activities, which meant applying different skills (which had previously been taught through White Rose). Some of the activities included creating their own Numberblocks (focusing on the numbers 4 and 5), stacking number cups to match the number representations, making shape pictures using 2D shapes and practising their number formation and recognition using bingo dabbers.

Read Write Inc.

We have daily Read Write Inc. sessions, streaming Reception and Key Stage 1, where we practise saying each sound and segment words with our focused sound in, reading the sounds aloud to blend words back together. Our lessons include lots of modelling and repetition, helping the children to recognise their focused sounds in the environment and to support them when using their letter/sound representations in their writing. We also use the letter formation rhymes to support the children when writing them.

Below is a chart, which will help your child to form their letters at home.

Alongside our phonics lessons, we enjoy playing different phonics games in our class. Some of our favourite online games can be found on Phonics Play, please use the link below to access the website and play the games at home. 

Strive for Five

If your child reads at home five times each week, for a full half term, they will receive a prize on the final day of half term. Each time your child reads, please record this in their reading record.

Below is an image of the 'Strive for Five' display board in the Reception classroom. Each of the children are runners and their aim is to run from the startpoint to checkpoint 5, at the top of the mountain, each week. Each checkpoint marks off how many times the children have read that week. The children love to check how well they are doing and understand that if they are at checkpoint 2, they need to read 3 more times to get to the top. At the beginning of each week, the children go back to the starting point and begin their weekly reading journey again.

Try Day Friday

Each Friday the children enjoy taking part in 'Try Day Friday', where they are encouraged to try a new food. The chosen food promotes conversation amongst the children and often they have questions about where the food grows or comes from. Occasionally, the children have mixed opinions as to whether or not they like the foods but sometimes, they go home telling their families that they have found something new that they like. So far, we have tried watermelon, pineapple, mango, blackberries, beetroot, tinned pears and grapefruit and so much more.