Welcome to Reception!
Important information:
Physical Education
PE days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays and children will need to wear their PE kits on those days.
Reading Books
Please ensure that your child brings their reading book every Friday.
Books will be collected on Fridays and new books will be given out on Mondays. Please ensure your child has their reading diary signed to say they have read to an adult. Please try to listen to your child reading for at least 5-10 minutes each day.
Sharing a book at bedtime or reading a story to your child will help them develop a love for reading!
If you have any questions about Reception and the things we do, please come and talk to either Miss Garbutt, Mrs Richards (on Fridays), Mrs Cham or Miss Siddik.
We had a mysterious visitor sneak into our classroom this week, they left us clues to read and footprints to follow! Together we read the clues and followed the footprints around the classroom and we found The Gingerbread Man! He was hiding in the oven in our role play area. After this, we listened to the story of The Gingerbread Man and decided that he must have escaped from the baker and tried to hide in our classroom.
By the end of term only 2 of our butterflies had emerged from their chrysalis’ and so Mrs Richards took them home so her two girls could look after them. On Saturday and Sunday both other butterflies appeared but the weather was too cold to release them. We kept them in the house until Tuesday when although it was a little windy it was warmer than it had been. See the videos too.
Here is a copy of our class curriculum letter that was sent home on Friday the 4th March 2022. The letter shares what we will be learning this half term and key dates.
This half term our topic is Things That Grow, we will be looking at different life cycles such as butterflies and plants. We have started looking at the life cycle of a butterfly and are very lucky to have our own class caterpillars to look after! Over the next few weeks, we will be observing how the caterpillars change and watch them turn into beautiful butterflies.
This half term, Reception have been learning all about seasons. We have learned about hedgehogs and how they can hibernate in the winter. We were very lucky to have a visit from Mrs Clayton's hedgehog, Buddy!
This week in Maths, we have been learning about mass and capacity. We practiced our skills by decorating some cakes. We worked in small groups to carefully measure out the ingredients. Our cakes looked great and tasted great too!
Here is a copy of our class curriculum letter that was sent home on Friday the 7th of January. The letter shares what we will be learning this half term and key dates.
We had a fun Christmas season in Reception this year. We were kept busy with decorating the tree, writing cards, writing Christmas lists and wrapping presents. We especially enjoyed looking after Santa's Christmas Post Office and practicing our Nativity play. We ended the half term with a Christmas Party. We had fun with our friends dancing and playing party games.
This half term, our topic is transport. Our model text is based on the book, The Train Ride by June Crebbin. The children learn the model text to perform aloud using actions. This will help children develop confidence in speaking and retelling stories. Children should use the pictures in the story map to remind them what comes next. Here is a video to help the children practice at home.
We are having a great time learning all about transport. We are especially enjoying creative activities like making a train and a hot air balloon!
This half term, our topic is transport. Our model text is based on the book, 'Mr Gumpy's Outing' by John Burningham. The children learn the model text to perform aloud using actions. This will help children develop confidence in speaking and retelling stories. Children should use the pictures in the story map to remind them what comes next. Here is a video to help the children practice at home.
Here is a copy of our class curriculum letter that was sent home on Friday the 5th of November. The letter shares what we will be learning this half term and key dates.
In our Literacy lessons, we use Talk4Writing and focus on different text types to help us develop our skills. This week, we have read the picture book, 'The Colour Monster' by Anna Llenas. The children learn the model text to perform aloud using actions. This will help children develop confidence in speaking and retelling stories. Children should use the pictures in the story map to remind them what comes next. Here is a video to help the children practice at home.
This week, we helped the Colour Monster to sort his feelings. The children worked in a team to sort the wool into different jars to represent different feelings. Yellow is happiness, blue is sadness, red is anger, black is fear, green is calm and pink is love!
In our Literacy lessons, we use Talk4Writing and focus on different text types to help us develop our skills. This week, we have read the picture book, 'Hug' by Jez Alborough. The children learn the model text to perform aloud using actions. This will help children develop confidence in speaking and retelling stories. Children should use the pictures in the story map to remind them what comes next. Here is a video to help the children practice at home.
When we start a new focus book, we do a hook activity to spark the children's interest. This week, we visited the nature garden to collect materials to make a jungle home for our small world animals. Reception enjoyed building a home for the animals and exploring nature.
Reception class have enjoyed their first week of school. They have enjoyed exploring the different areas of the classroom both indoors and out. We can't wait to see them develop and grow during their time at Quarry Mount.
It has been fantastic welcoming our new Reception class to Quarry Mount over the last week. The children have settled in well, have enjoyed exploring their new environment and making new friends. Well done everyone!
Preschool Reading
Children can learn a lot about reading even before they come to school and are formally taught. Young children learn about reading when
Starting School
We would like children coming into school to
Strategies used in teaching a child to read
Children use many strategies when reading. Phonics or ‘sounding’ a word out is the most important stage and we teach a scheme of work for synthetic phonics in our Reception class as recommended by the ‘Rose Report.’ Children also learn to use visual memory, that is looking at a word and remembering it. Children also learn when reading a good story. If the story makes sense and holds his/her interest the child can gather clues from the text and the pictures, making logical guesses about unknown vocabulary.
Helping your child progress with reading
Once children have started to read they will make better progress if you can help them by reading with them daily.
Helping Your Child with Maths
Activities to do at home
Helping Your Child with Writing
Children usually experiment with their own pretend writing first and this should be encouraged. Children are making marks at this stage but often to them they are writing. Ask your child to read back their writing to you and give them lots of praise, don’t tell them it is wrong or ‘just scribble.’ Young children learn writing when:
A young child encouraged in this way will soon be ready to form letters correctly and will develop a love of writing which will stay with them throughout their learning.
Activities to do at Home
In Reception, when children first learn their letter sounds they are taught to form their letters correctly. We will send out more information about this in the first half term.
Websites to help support your childs learning;
http://www.numberjacks.co.uk/kids/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/alphablocks-games
www.oxfordowl.co.uk
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=37
Recommended Books to help with Maths;
Books to enjoy at home include:
A good website for buying books at discounted prices is www.thebookpeople.co.uk/schools