Reception - Phonics this week...

Hello everyone,

Another week has passed and we have been learning yet more sounds! The sounds will begin to get more complex as we move into the vowel sounds. This is mainly because lots of them look and/or sound similar. I've also put some more words down below that could have a go at writing at home! Again, these are words we would be expecting children to segment and write themselves in school. 

'ng' - as in strong - life your arms up, pretending you are holding a heavy weight above your head saying ng, ng, ng.

'ai' - as in aim - cup a hand around your ear like you can't hear someone and say ai, ai, ai.

'ee' - as in week - put hands above your head like donkey ears saying eeyore, eeyore, eeyore. This action links with a later sound 'or'.

'igh' - as in night - stand to attention and salute saying igh, igh, igh.

Words to write: 

king

wait

pain

meet

night

Reception team

Reception - New Tricky Words!

Hello everyone,

Firstly, just to clarify about the black T-shirts: we can start collecting these from now! We have our final rehearsal on Monday 11th December so if they could all be in by then, it would be much appreciated. Thank you again.

Now, on to tricky words! We have introduced the next group of these to the children! They are listed below for you. Any practice at home with these is great. Writing them up on post-it notes around the house, using fridge magnets or just writing them down!

 We teach them as sight words so children learn the 'shape' of the word as well as the letters within it. 

'we'

'he'

'she'

Reception team

Reception - Christmas Costume and Prop!

Hello everyone,

Today we began our Christmas topic that will take us up until the end of this term! It's all very exciting and you may notice a few more festive changes to the classroom in the coming week. As we only have 3 weeks left to go we have begun learning the songs for the Christmas play too - tickets are now available from the office. Reception children have traditionally done a solo performance too and this year is no different.

This year, to support our performance, could we please ask for a plain black t-shirt that you wouldn't mind being sprayed - you will still get these tops back after the performances. Could we also ask you to bring in a torch... I will say no more. The torch can be a torch that can be held in one hand - this will also be returned to you at the end of the term! If you have any questions please come and speak to us! Thank you for your support.

Reception team

Reception - Fantastic Assembly!

Hello everyone,

A quick message to say a massive well done to everyone in the reception class for their superb efforts in the class assembly this morning! They should all be incredibly proud of themselves because standing up in front of a whole hall of people and saying something individually as well as collectively, it not an easy thing to do! And they did it with ease! Thank you to all your support at home with learning lines - we hope you got to see something that you enjoyed! We enjoyed a reward of watching the Gruffalo's Child this afternoon as the end of the Gruffalo topic we have been doing lately. Have a restful weekend and come back ready to start........... CHRISTMAS! 

Reception team

Reception - Phonics!

Hi all,

A final reminder that tomorrow morning is our first class assembly! We have had our final practice today and it was fantastic to see how many children had clearly been practicing their lines at home! Thank you for all your efforts in this. Start time is 9.20am in the hall.

On to phonics. This week signifies the beginning of the digraphs! These are sounds that are mad up of two letters. Naturally, these can become a little more confusing to begin with so any extra practice you can do at home is definitely worthwhile! I've popped a list of words for children to have a go at sounding out and writing at the bottom. Children will know all of the sounds and letters in all the words! 

'sh' - as in shop - Put your finger up to you lips and say sh, sh, sh

'ch' - as in chin - roll arms round by sides, like a train and say ch, ch, ch

'th' - as in thin - Pretend to be a naughty clown and stick your tongue out a little. This sound can be split in to two - soft & hard 'th' Soft 'th' is thin hard 'th' is that. We will be exploring the hard 'th' tomorrow. It is the same action. 

thin

shop

chick

fish

thick

Reception team

Reception - Displays!

Hello everyone,

We would like to tell you about some of the displays that you are able to see in the Reception classroom at the moment! 

Firstly we have our writing display that can be found just outside our internal classroom door - pictured above. This showcases the wide range of styles writing can take for children. This will continue to change as we progress with our writing so please keep checking in with it to see what we've been up to.

Next, we have our super home learning board that all of you are contributing to fantastically! The home learning that has been coming in has been has been nothing short of incredible! There is clearly a lot of effort going in to this and we cannot thank you enough for doing this and bringing it in to show us! Again, please keep looking at this!

Then we have our Class Dojo Challenge Board... This will get updated throughout the year with new challenges for the children to get their teeth stuck in to! We then also mark down every challenge that is completed and this goes towards us getting a class reward. Currently the target is 50 challenges to be completed - and we are on 26 at the moment! That is only after one week!

Please keep looking around our classroom for the displays as they are updated regularly to not only showcase children's learning but also to support and extend their learning.

Reception team

Reception - Assembly Lines and Outdoor Learning

Hello everyone,

A quick message to let you know that we have popped your child's learn for the class assembly this Friday in their book bags this evening. I hope you found them ok!? Please practise this as much or as little as you feel your child needs to. We had a practise in the hall today and all the children were very confident to stand up and have a go! They do not need to learn these lines off by heart as we will be there to support them all the way through on the day - however, children can feel more confident if they are more prepared. 

Secondly, we have started to learn about how we can help the world around us as we get ever closer to Winter! Today we began making some bird feeders that have been hung up around the roundhouse area. We spread peanut butter all over a kitchen roll tube and then rolled this in some bird seeds! It was hard for some of us not to lick the peanut butter off! 

Reception team

Reception - Class Assembly Friday 24th!

Hi all,

The first reminder of many that the Reception class assembly will be next Friday, 24th November. This will begin at 9.20am so you will be welcome to head to the office straight after drop off and then through to the hall! All are welcome! We look forward to showing you what we have been up to!

Reception team

Reception - Children in Need Tomorrow!

Hi all,

A quick blog to remind you all that it is Children in Need tomorrow! The Children's Voice have decided that we will dress up with a spotty theme for the day! So tomorrow please wear anything spotty that you have and of course please bring in any contributions for children in need that you can! Thank you.

Reception team

Reception - Phonics

Hello everyone,

We began learning the next group of sounds this week and they are all listed below. We have also now sent home a sound mat for phase 2 sounds. These sounds have been taught in school but children will need to continue seeing them to ensure they are concrete in their memory. On this sheet are also the tricky words that we have covered so far! Please use this sound mat as much as you need to - it is a resource we use endlessly in school. 

Next, thank you for some super home learning being bought in already! We have had some terrible creatures, rhyming words and some great maths problem solving! Please keep it coming! 

'y' - as in yum - Pretend you are eating a yoghurt with a spoon, lifting spoon to mouth saying y, y, y

'z/zz' - as in zip - flap arms and hands by the side of your body pretending you are a Bumble Bee saying zz, zz, zz.

Reception team

Reception - Learning Powers!

Hi all,

We have been carrying on with developing our 'Learning Powers' over the last couple of weeks. I thought a blog about this would be helpful to explain what's been going on! We are up and running with Class Dojo and this is used throughout every day to promote positive attitudes towards learning in school. 

We have introduced the Incredible power of 'Yet'. This is where we add a 'yet' to any sentence where we're saying we can't do something: 'I can't do my coat up.... yet!' This changes children's mindsets to believing that they will be able to do something in the future, if they are willing to work at it. 

We've added more qualities to our Learning Power of Resilience. We now have:

Absorption - getting 'In the Zone' with what you are doing and concentrating.

Perseverance - Trying again with something. Not only when you fail but also to make something better than it already is.

Managing your distractions - trying to block out the distractions around you.

We use this vocabulary with children at school so please go ahead and use it at home too! It is a fantastic way to get children to have power over their own learning. This is a gradual process and will take time to fully establish itself upon children's thinking.

Reception team

Reception - Home Learning Project

Hello everyone,

It has reached that time again where we are going to place another Home Learning Project out there for you to get your teeth stuck in to. Our topic so far this half term has been the Gruffalo and we have therefore linked our home learning with that! However, instead of one choice of home learning there are several choices below. You are welcome to try and do one, two or all of them! As usual, this is not a compulsory exercise. But as previously mentioned, home learning is a great way way to build up children's attitude towards learning - and we hope you find them fun too! Please bring in any learning that you do and we will make sure that we show it! Thank you!

• Make up your own imginary creature - You could draw a picture or make a model of it.
• The Mouse tells the animals about the Gruffalo's favourite food. Draw a picture of your favourite food and label it to say what you have got.
• There are lots of rhyming words in the Gruffalo. How many rhyming words can you think of that rhyme with 'Snake'?
• Use the internet or information book to find out an interesting fact about one of the animals in the story. It could be a Mouse, Snake, Owl or Fox.
• The mouse found 5 nuts of Monday and 4 Nuts on Tuesday. How many nuts did he find altogether? Use your fingers or draw a picture to help you.
• The Gruffalo story was set in a forest. Draw a picture of a forest you have been to and some of the animals you saw.

Reception team

Reception - Phonics & Group Reading Books

Hello everyone,

This weeks sounds that we have been learning are below!

Please may I also take this opportunity to ask that group reading books are kept in book bags. We have had several instances of books not being bought back to school. This then impacts another group as there are not enough books. Thank you for your support in this. The children have all started to show much more concentration and focus when it comes to adult focused tasks and like I have said before; 5 minutes a day is the way.

'j' - as in 'jam' - Pretend to wobble a plate of jelly and say j, j, j. 

'v' - as in 'van' - Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say v, v, v.

'w' - as in 'wind' - Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh

'x' - as in 'fox' - Pretend to be taking a photo with a camera saying ks, ks, ks

Reception team

Reception - Name Writing Competition

Hello all,

Although the winners of the name writing competition were announced on the Friday before half term, I would still like to praise everybody that took part in the name writing home learning project last half term! The work we had in was fantastic and was great to share with the rest of the class! It also sets a great principle that learning can take place anywhere - not just at school. 

If you would like to keep your name that you bought in to school they will be available for you to collect at the beginning or end of the school day for the rest of the week. We will pop them on a table. 

Once again, thank you for all your efforts - congratulations Tristan and Olivia! 

The next home learning project will be out this week - linked, of course, to the Gruffalo topic! 

Reception team

Reception - Thorncombe Woods Trip

Hi all,

Yesterday reception embarked on their first trip out of school! We got on to a coach and headed for Thorncombe Woods! This was to help begin our new topic of the Gruffalo for the next few weeks. We delved in to the deep, dark woods not just to fine the Gruffalo but also to have a go at some other activities too: We went on a hunt for all the characters from the story, explored some dens and went searching for natural objects to match up to numbers! 

All the children should be very proud of themselves! They all conducted themselves superbly and showed such great enthusiasm for getting stuck in to the activities. There was a lot of walking too so there may be a few tired legs out there! 

Reception team

Reception - Class Dojo

Hello everyone,

Yesterday you may have noticed that we sent children home with a little monster character! This is because we have started Class Dojo! This is a new reward system that we will use in the class for the rest of the year! This reward system will be used to praise children for the way that they are learning! This will also tie in with the 4 Learning Powers that we use right across the school: Resilience, Reflective, Resourcefulness & Reciprocity. Each of these Learning Powers has strands within it and we explore these with the children in a gradual way. To begin with we are exploring Resilience and the first part of that is being absorbed in your work. We describe this to children as being 'In the zone' or 'concentrating on one thing'. It is amazing to see how the children will pick up on this language quite quickly! Every time an adult spots children being 'Absorbed' they will get a Dojo point. The individual points don't go towards anything, they are given out for showing the Learning Powers and how much you are challenging yourself - the idea being that you should work hard to achieve your best, not always for a reward.

Much more will follow on this and hopefully your children will begin to explain bits of this as time goes on! If anyone has any questions, please come and ask! 

Reception team