Welcome to Reception!

There are 3 classes in Reception -

Class RH - Miss Hatton, Class RBC - Mrs Birch (Mon - Wed) and Ms Cooper (Thurs & Fri)  and Class RL - Miss Lindsay.

Teaching assistants who also work with us are Miss Hadfield, Miss Roczniak, Miss Poulton and Miss Zahra.

Autumn 2 - Celebrations

This half term our topic is 'Celebrations'. We will be reading some non-fiction books as we explore different celebrations. Our Literacy text will be Stick Man and lots of our learning will be based around this story. 

Communication & Language

Children will be practisiting their story telling skills during our 'Helicopter Stories' sessions. In these sessions, children will orally tell their own stories whilst their classmates act them out. The sessions encourage creativity and imagination alongside developing language skills and building children's confidence. We will also be re-telling the story of Stick Man, using actions and props to help us. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We will continue to build on the skills we were learning during Autumn 1. We will be focussing on building friendships and the importance of turn-taking and sharing. Through the Zones of Regulation, we will continue to learn how to express our feelings in a safe way and begin to regulate our emotions.  

These topics will also be delivered through circle times using our 'Think Equal' programme. 

Physical Development

The children will continue to develop their fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, hopping, skipping and climbing during our weekly PE sessions and also during outdoor provision. They will also continue to develop their fine motor skills through daily activities such as cutting with scissors, threading beads and playing with playdough. 

Literacy

This half term we will be reading 'Stick Man'. The children will become familiar with the story, joining in with the repetative refrains. We will be discussing the characters in the story and children will use their phonic knowledge to begin to read simple words. We will use pictures from the story as a prompt and continue to focus on writing initial sounds and begin to write simple CVC words such as 'man' and 'dog'. 

Mathematics

This half term children will: 

-continue to develop their subitising skills for numbers up to 5. 

-continue to work on their counting skills, ensuring that they say one number for each object

-to understand that they last number spoken when counting gives the number in the entire set (cardinality)

-begin to recognise some numerals and link these to dot patterns and what they can count

-begin to count beyond 5 

-explore the composition of numbers within 5

-use the language of comparison, including the language of 'more than' or 'fewer than'

-copy, fix, extend and create AB and ABC patterns

Understanding the World

Children will be learning all about different celebrations. We will begin by talking about Bonfire Night and Diwali and then at the end of the half term, Christmas. We will use non-fiction texts to understand what these celebrations are and how people celebrate them. We will encourage the children to talk about and share their own experiences whilst also beginning to recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. 

Expressive Arts and Design

Children will have lots of opportunities to create different art work. The children will create their own art work while learning and developing skills such a folding, joining, sticking and cutting. We will create our own Diya lamps for Diwali and explore using clay for the first time. We will also focus on the artist Andy Goldsworthy  during our forest school session. 

Things to remember...

Reading/Book bags

Reading books/sheets will be changed every Monday. The children will also be able to choose a book from their classroom as their "Reading for pleasure" book. Please take the time to read your child's reading sheet/book with them as many times as you can throughout the week. This really helps build their confidence and makes such a difference to the progress they can make. 

Please make sure the children keep their reading books/sheets in their book bags and bring their book bag to school every day. This is so teachers are able to read with your child at any given opportunity throughout the week. 

PE

This half term we will continue with our Manchester City PE sessions every Monday and our indoor PE sessions will be on a Thursday. Our indoor PE sessions will continue to be dance. 

Please make sure that children come to school in their PE kits on their PE day. 

Please also make sure that your child comes to school each day dresssed appropriately for the weather. They will need a warm and waterproof coat as we will go outside to play in all weathers!

Dates for the diary...

Wednesday 6th November - Phonics Meeting

Thursday 14th November  - Nursery Rhyme Week- Stay and Nursery Rhyme in Reception  (Stay and Play)

Wednesday 11th Decemeber - Reception Christmas Sing Along

Friday 13th Decemeber - Stick Man Theatre Trip