Blast Off Into Learning in Reception! 🚀✨

 Hello Reception Families and Friends!

What an action-packed week we have had in Reception! The children have been busy exploring, discovering, and learning. Here is a look back at what we’ve been up to this week, along with a few important updates and notices for the coming weeks.

Literacy & Phonics (Read Write Inc.)

Our phonics sessions are in full swing! This week, the children worked hard learning new sounds: 

o

c

 k

 u 

b

We’ve been practicing hearing these sounds at the beginning of words, recognising the letter formation and forming the letters carefully.

Children have taken home some letter formation worksheets to practise at home. These are completely optional and do not need to be returned to school. We have also created some pathways to support your children with their Phonics at home if you have a spare 5-10mins with your child.

Set 1 Sounds with Fred and Ellie (Reception W4 Home Learning)

In English, our focus turned cosmic! We had an absolute blast exploring initial sounds and diving into the hilarious story Aliens Love Underpants to practice our rhyming skills.

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been exploring numbers in-depth using five-frames. We spent time investigating "Lots of Fours" and "Four of Something," as well as solving puzzles with tetrominoes. Later in the week, we challenged our subitising skills (recognising amounts without counting) by comparing "Three or Four?" and creating out-of-this-world alien-themed repeating patterns!

🌍 Understanding the World (UTW) & Expressive Arts

The highlight of our week was definitely finding a mysterious crashed spaceship in the woods! This excited discovery kicked off a range of fantastic independent table activities and space-themed play, both indoors and in our outdoor area. The aliens from this spacecraft kindly left us a letter and a book all about Aliens and pants! I'm certain this is not the last we will hear of our new visitors!

Communication, Language & Personal Development (PSHE)

We exercised our decision-making and speaking skills with a fun game of "Would You Rather?" and reflected on what makes each of us unique during our PSHE lesson, "What Makes Me Special."

We were also very lucky to be joined by our Year 4 Buddies, who spent time reading stories to our class—a lovely opportunity for building community and boosting confidence!

Important Announcements & Notices

Upcoming Reception 'Space Day' & Box Appeal!

To celebrate the end of our Space topic, we are hosting a special Space Day on Friday, 2nd October!

Space Helmet Craft: 

Each child will be designing, making, and decorating their very own cardboard box space helmet! To make this happen, we urgently need donations of cardboard boxes that fit comfortably over a child's head (yes, it sounds funny, but they make the best helmets!). Please send any suitable boxes into school over the coming week.

Dressing Up: 

On Space Day, children are invited to dress up! Please do not feel you need to buy a new outfit—DIY costumes are our favorite! Plain black or white clothing works brilliantly as a spacesuit base (with their box helmets completing the look), or they can wear space-themed pyjamas, rocket-print tops, or sparkly night-sky t-shirts.

Reminder: Checking Bags & Lost Classroom Toys

We have noticed that a few of our small classroom toys have recently gone missing. Please could we ask all parents to double-check their child's school bag and pockets at home? If you happen to find any school resources or toys tucked away, please simply return them to a member of staff - no questions asked! Thank you for your support with this.

Support at Home: Toileting Social Story

We know that transitioning into school routines can sometimes lead to unexpected toilet accidents, both at school and at home. To support our children through this, I have created a Toileting Social Story designed to gently reinforce positive routines and independence in a reassuring way.

If your child is currently experiencing regular accidents at home or if you think they would benefit from reading this together:

Using the Reception Toilets

Thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm. Have a wonderful week!

Miss Godden and The Reception Team

What We’ve Been Up To: Reception's Week 3 Update

 Hello Reception Families and Friends!

What a fantastic week we’ve had in Reception! The children are settling so beautifully into their school routines, exploring our continuous provision, and building lovely friendships. "Who Am I?" gave us wonderful opportunities to focus on Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED), Communication and Language, Physical Development, and so much more!  

Here is a look back at everything we’ve been up to this week.

Phonics (Read Write Inc.)

Our little learners have been super phonics detectives this week! During our daily RWI Phonics sessions, we introduced five new sounds:

t

i

n

p

g

We’ve also been practicing writing our names during our afternoon English focus groups, alongside fun afternoon oral blending activities like Fred Games.

Children have taken home some letter formation worksheets to practise at home! These are completely optional and do not need to be returned to school. We have also created some pathways to support your children with their Phonics at home if you have a spare 5-10mins with your child.

Fred Games

Phonics with Fred and Ellie

Early Maths & Problem Solving

In Math, we spent the week exploring number 1-3, focusing on counting, recognising quantities,  subitising (instantly recognising a small number of items without counting) and we have worked with Five Frames to build understanding of amounts up to 3.

To round off our afternoons before home time, we also enjoyed watching educational episodes of Numberblocks and highly recommend watching with your child if you have screen time at home. 

DT: Junk Modelling Masterpieces

On Tuesday afternoon, our classroom transformed into a design studio as the children explored Junk Modelling! Using a wide variety of recycled materials - from cardboard boxes and paper tubes to bottle tops and egg cartons - our little engineers got busy planning, selecting, and assembling their own unique creations.

This hands-on activity is a staple of our Early Years DT curriculum and supports Fine Motor Skills, Expressive Arts & Design, Problem-Solving & Critical Thinking and Communication & Language. From tall towers and speedy vehicles to imaginary creatures, the children showed fantastic imagination and perseverance!

Year 4 Buddies

On Wednesday afternoon, we were delighted to welcome Year 4 pupils into our classroom to read stories with our Reception children. It was heartwarming to see such great companionship across year groups and we are so pleased to see how well the children are connecting with our buddies.

POW Passports & Special Visitor 

We ended our week with an exciting visit from a special visitor for our POW Passports session!

Outdoor Play & Adventure Time

Through child-led continuous provision (Adventure Time), the children spent ample time exploring both our indoor and outdoor learning areas. This allowed them to follow their own interests, role-play, build, and extend their social interactions at their own pace.

Parent Class WhatsApp Group Announcement

I have been informed that a parent WhatsApp group has recently been set up for our Reception class! While this is managed independently by parents and is not an official school channel, it is a wonderful way for families to connect, ask quick questions, organise playdates, coordinate birthday celebrations, and stay up-to-date with upcoming class events.

If you are not yet part of this group and would like to join, please feel free to ask around among other parents at morning drop-off or afternoon pick-up time to get added to the group!

Thank you all for your continued support as your children settle into their school journey. Have a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to another exciting week ahead!

Warm regards,

The Reception Class Team