Reception Class News

Rainbow Class Presents…

Festive Fun with Rainbow Class!

Please click here to be taken to our special Christmas video. We hope you enjoy it 🌈

Please note, where possible the singing performances have been recorded outside or in a larger space. When recording in the classroom, the room is well ventilated with open windows/ door. Children are encouraged to face forwards during the performance.

Isolating at home? This learning is for you.

Here is some home learning for when you can’t be with us at school.

Remember to send pictures of your child’s home learning to scholesf2@spherefederation.org.

Maths

For this week’s maths learning, we are continuing to learn about the number 5. Spread the activities across the week, at your own pace. For video sessions, your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Sessions 1-3 – White Rose Maths Alive in 5 Week 2 

We are continuing to embed our knowledge of five.  Do you know what a 5pence (5p) looks like? What colour and shape is it? Do you recognise a 2p and a 1p coin?  How many 1p or 2p combinations to make 5p can you make?

Can you go on a ‘five hunt’ around your home? What do you find five of? Take photos to record.

We will also be looking at repeating patterns and shapes. Can you spot a pattern, describe a pattern and repeat a pattern? Could you use some toys or objects to create repeating patterns?

Phonics

This week we will be continuing to recap our phase 2 sounds.

Watch and join in the Jolly Phonics songs.

(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)

Lesson 1– Blending

Read each word by saying the sounds then blending together.

pat, doll, fuss, gap, sock, kick, sack

Lesson 2– Recap Phase 1- listening for blends.

Play ‘eye spy’ together, by sounding out things you can see in the environment. For example:

“eye spy with my little eye, something that sounds like d-o-ll” and the child would say “doll”

You can swap roles so your child has a go with both sounding out and blending words.

Lesson 3: These are our tricky words we have learnt so far. They are tricky because we can’t use our phonics to help us read them.

Can you read each word?

Take turns to put the word/s into a sentence. For example ‘I didn’t steal the cookies from the cookie jar.’

Literacy

This week, we are looking at Christmas around the world.

Lesson 1– Think about Christmas in Australia. What season is it there? What season is it here? Can you dress up in an outfit you might wear for Christmas Day in Australia (sunhat, glassses, shorts etc). Take a photograph and send it in.

Lesson 2– Can you find out what Christmas is like in China? Make a paper lantern.

Lesson 3– Can you find out what Christmas is like in Mexico and India? What Christmas plant do they have in common? If you have one at home, why not complete an observational drawing of it.

Topic

Choose some of these activities to complete throughout the week. These are based on our topic – Christmas.  They may spark other interests and ideas that result in other learning opportunities. Let your child lead the learning!

It’s beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas…

We are all feeling full of festive cheer this week after a virtual visit from Santa!

He left a video for us to watch and even rang our classroom to tell us he had left presents for each class.

We have completed lots of Christmas challenges in both classrooms; decorating pine cone trees; making Christmas pictures using shapes; writing about our class elf and wrapping gifts in the post office.

We also became gardeners and planted some bulbs. They are currently sleeping and we can’t wait to see them grow.

Home-Link

Design some Christmas wrapping paper. Can you use a repeated pattern in your design?

Notices

Thursday – Christmas dinner day

Friday – Non-Uniform and  Christmas party snack

Isolating at home? This learning is for you.

Here is some home learning for when you can’t be with us at school.

Remember to send pictures of your child’s home learning to scholesf2@spherefederation.org.

Maths

For this week’s maths learning, we are continuing to learn about the number 5. Spread the activities across the week, at your own pace. For video sessions, your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

Sessions 1-3 – White Rose Maths Alive in 5!

 Number 5 picture story

One way that we learn about number bonds and number composition in class, is through number stories. Look at the picture below and ask your child what they notice about the picture (‘There are 5 elves’/ ‘There are 5 presents’)

Next, have a look at the differences and talk about them in full number sentences, for example:

Q: How many elves are wearing trousers, and how many are wearing skirts?

A: There are 2 elves wearing trouses, there are 3 elves wearing skirts. There are 5 elves altogether.

Q: How many elves are wearing belts and how many are not wearing belts?

A: There are 4 elves wearing belts, there is 1 elf not wearing a belt. There are 5 elves altogether.

What other features, questions and number sentences can you come up with?

Phonics

This week we will be continuing to recap our phase 2 sounds.

Watch and join in the Jolly Phonics songs.

(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)

Lesson 1– Blending

Read each word by saying the sounds then blending together.

Lesson 2– Recapping sementing to write and digraphs at the end of words

 Grab a piece of paper and a writing tool. Ask your child to write the following words- Remind them the think about which representation of the sound they should use at the end of a word:

Lesson 3– Recap Phase 1- listening for blends.

Play ‘eye spy’ together, by sounding out things you can see in the environment. For example:

“eye spy with my little eye, something that sounds like t-a-p” and the child would say “tap”

You can swap roles so your child has a go with both sounding out and blending words.

Lesson 4: These are our tricky words we have learnt so far. They are tricky because we can’t use our phonics to help us read them.

Can you read each word?

Play tricky word pairs. Write the word twice and lay face down. Take turn to find matching pairs of the words. Ensure you both say each word you turn over.

Literacy

This week, we are reading The Jolly Christmas Postman

Lesson 1– Read the book if you have it at home or watch the story below, read by a VERY special reader!

Make a story map of the Postman’s journey. Which characters did he visit along the way?

Lesson 2– In the story, some characters are sent cards. Make your own Christmas card with your own design on the front. Don’t forget the important features:

• We write To and the person’s name, so that the person who the card is for, knows that the card is for them.
• We write From/ Love from, and then your name so the person who the card is for, knows who has sent them the card-you!

Lesson 3- In the story, The Jolly Christmas Postman meets Humpty Dumpty. Can you make a list of things that Humpty Dumpty needs to be repaired and to feel better, after his fall.

Lesson 4- Which is your favourite character that the postman meets in the story? Talk about why they are your favourite. Can you use your imagination to come up with a Christmas adventure for your favourite character? Tell an adult your story and create a story board of pictures.

Topic

Choose some of these activities to complete throughout the week. These are based on our topic – Christmas.  They may spark other interests and ideas that result in other learning opportunities. Let your child lead the learning!

Brilliant Buccaneers!

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

What a swashbuckling, super turn out we had on pirate day! THANK YOU to our incredible children and parent crew-mates of the good ships Sunshine and Rainbow, for joining in with your amazing costumes.

We had fun playing buried treasure in our phonics lessons, continuing with our pirate themed activities (making flags, counting treasure, reading pirate stories and role play), listening to pirate songs and going on a QR code ‘treasure’ hunt outside.

We have also been busy with all of these activities this week…

Home-Link Challenge

Next week, we start preparing for the festive season! We will be reading the story of The Jolly Christmas Postman. 

Challenge 1- We would like you to either write a letter to Santa/ Father Christmas or to a friend. This can be on any topic you like- it could be your Christmas list or writing to a friend about what your plans are during the upcoming school holidays.

Your child should write independently, recording any sounds they can hear in sequence. They should also record any tricky words they know.

Challenge 2- Now we are in December, we have entered the season of Winter. Talk to your child about what you might see in the environment during winter. You might be able to see these signs of Winter outside. Please take a photo of anything you spot, that we can then share and discuss in class.

Virtual after school clubs

Children in Need

A Big Thank You!

The children came to school in non-uniform and we asked for voluntary contribution to support this cause. We’ve been completely blown away by your generosity as you’ve raised £566.35. Well done and a massive thank you.

Ahoy Maties!

We have had a week filled with fun, pirates, paper planes, exploring capital letters and learning!

We have been using our counting and number recognition skills, to pay for items at the shop.

On Wednesday, a mystery occurred in Rainbow Room! There was a ‘hole’ in the ceiling and someone was stealing the golden underpants! We received a scroll letter from ‘The Captain of the Black Bloomer’ who asked if we could help him find who had stolen the golden underpants by making WANTED posters. We used our imaginations to draw pictures and add adjectives (descriptive words). The captain told us we might receive a reward if we helped him find the criminal who stole the pants!

We have been really engaged in our learning this week and will continue our Pirates theme next week too. This gives us the perfect opportunity to dress up as Pirates for the day!   PLEASE REFER TO YOUR CHILD’S LETTER ABOUT DRESSING UP AS A PIRATE NEXT WEDNESDAY 2 DECEMBER.

Home Learning Link: Please design, draw and label a picture of yourself in your Pirate costume. If you have time, why not create a special pirate hat to wear on Wednesday too?

On Wednesday 9 December we are asking all Reception children to come to school in non-uniform. For this day we are asking for your child to come in something Christmassy, sparkly or bright. We plan to film a little festive surprise for you all on this date.

Challenge Cubes

Has your child been coming home and talking about challenge cubes?

Perhaps they have shown you a certificate they have earnt by getting all of their challenge cubes that week?

Each week, the children are set a ‘Rainbow of Challenges’ with the aim to encourage them to visit different activities (and therefore access different areas of learning)

There are six challenge cubes to collect each week. In the classroom, the challenges are displayed on small blackboards placed in the areas and also on our ‘challenges’ display wall.

Some challenges also include a STAR CHALLENGE, where children can earn a star on their star chart, in addition to their challenge cube.

Challenge cubes are collected in the children’s trays and counted at the end of the week.

Take a look at an example below, of the type of challenges you might expect to see in the classroom.

Isolating at home? This learning is for you.

Here is some home learning for when you can’t be with us at school.

Remember to send pictures of your child’s home learning to scholesf2@spherefederation.org

Maths

This week’s maths learning is on our focus number 4.

Click on the screencast links below:

• Screencast 1
• Screencast 2
• Screencast 3
• Screencast 4

Your child’s learning will be most effective if you sit with them to pause the clip and check / praise / support your child as the clip moves on.

More maths fun at home…

In class this week, we will be setting up a ‘shop’ and using pennies to pay for items. Perhaps you would like to play shop at home too?

Phonics

This week we will be learning  l/ ll and ss.

Watch and join in the Jolly Phonics songs.

(This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)

• Lesson 1: Screencast new sound l/ll
• Lesson 2: Screencast new sound ss
• Tricky words recap- watch the tricky words youtube video to recap all the words we have learnt in phase 2!

• We have now reached the end of phase 2! Until the end of term we will be doing lots of revision of the sounds we have learnt so far!

Here are all of our sounds on a mat. Go through the sounds each day.

Have a go at reading the following words:

Literacy

This week we are moving on to a new Pirates topic and reading the story – Pirates Love Underpants

• Lesson 1: Watch the story. Recap the main events. What characters are in the story? Create a story map of the events that happen.

• Lesson 2: Oh No! Someone has stolen the golden underpants! Can you create a WANTED poster describing the person we are looking for. Draw the person and add some word labels to describe them, using your sounds.

• Lesson 3: Make a treasure map. Add words to label the map. You might like to have a go at tea staining your map to make it look old and well-used!

• Lesson 4: Create your own pirate adventure by changing the setting or characters. Add your new characters/setting to your story map or create a new one. You can be as imaginative as you like! Make sure you tell your story to an adult, so they can let us know all about your super adventure!

Topic

Choose some of these activities to complete throughout the week. These are based on our new Pirate topic!  They may spark other interests and ideas that result in other learning opportunities. Let your child lead the learning!