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.

Spring 1- Around the world

This half term our topic is 'Around the world'. We will be reading some non-fiction books as we explore different countries. Our Literacy text will be The Gingerbread 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 be reading a range of Traditonal Tales which will develop our story telling language. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

We will continue to build on the skills we were learning during Autumn 2. 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 'The Gingerbread 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 and captions. We will use pictures from the story as a prompt and continue to focus on writing simple CVC words such as 'fox' and 'dog' and writing simple captions such as 'the bad fox". 

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)

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

-continue 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'

Understanding the World

Children will be learning all about different cultures from a variety of countries such as France and China. We will be exploring and tasting a range of foods from around the world. We will encourage the children to talk about and share their own experiences whilst also beginning to recognise that people have different traditions and ways of celebrating them. 

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. In the classroom we will create models of the Eiffle Tower using art straws, and with building equipment in our Forest School sessions.

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 be gymnastics. 

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...

Trip to China Town- Week beginning 27th January 2025

National Storytelling Week- 1st- 9th February 2025

Children's Mental Heath Week- 3rd- 7th February 2025

Safer Internet Day- 11th February 2025

There will also be 'stay and play' sessions schedhuled throughout the half term. Please look out for school emails with further information!