We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Literacy
This week, our focus book was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
The children were able to use their knowledge of the story to retell it using pictures and props.
Geography
On Tuesday, we went for a walk in our local area. This involved following a map and looking at different symbols to find landmarks.
Philosophy Friday
Did you know, each Friday morning we take part in Philosophy Friday? In Reception, we use this time to focus on asking questions that encourage the children to think beyond the ‘here and now’. We are starting with some ‘Would you rather…’ questions. This week’s question was would you rather live with chickens in a coop or a dog in a kennel?
Kennel because I love dogs.
With a chicken because I like to eat eggs.
A dog because they are fluffy and cute.
Maths
This week, we have explored how numbers can be composed of 1s.
We have will learnt that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts.
Phonics
Autumn 1 week 4 has focused on the new phonemes:
ck,e,u,r.
Ck is our first diagraph ( two letters that make one sound).
We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; I.
Poetry Picnic
Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Falling Apples.
Watch Sunshine Class recite the poem here.
Other learning
Stay and Learn
Our first stay and learn session will be on Thursday 12 October.
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about phonics and watch your child learning in school. There will also be a coffee morning after the session.
The Everywhere Bear
The Everywhere Bear
We’ve been reading The Everywhere Bear by Julia Donaldson.
The story follows a class bear that goes on quite the journey! We’ve been re-telling parts of the story and have used it to introduce our own travelling teddies- Lissy and Monty. Lissy and Monty will be coming home with a child each weekend, along with a book to record their adventures.
Rainbow Class- The Everywhere Bear 
On Thursday, we watched a specially streamed video of our focus author (Julia Donaldson), as she spoke about her new book The Oak Tree. We also watched the illustrator of the book demonstrate how she created her digital illustrations.
Maths; counting principles
In Maths, we’ve been using toys to demonstrate accurate counting. We’ve been reminding our toys to ‘stop at the stopping number’ to find the total amount (cardinality), only count each item once (one-to-one correspondence) and know that objects can be counted in any order (order irrelevance) We’ve been looking at ways to make counting easier. We’ve also been counting things that cannot be seen (such as sounds or actions) and things that cannot be moved, by using a ‘tagging wand’.
In our groups we’ve been counting knocks we can hear, making marks and counting them and counting different quantities of small objects.
Maps; Exploring maps of our local area
Our focus story has led us to discussions about journeys we have been on. We’ve been exploring some maps of our local area and next week, we’ll begin to make our own maps. We will also we taking a real walking journey around Scholes!
Philosophy Friday
Did you know, each Friday morning we take part in Philosophy Friday? In Reception, we use this time to focus on asking questions that encourage the children to think beyond the ‘here and now’. We are starting with some ‘Would you rather…’ questions. Last week’s question was: ‘would you rather have a jungle, or water outside your house?’
Phonics
Autumn 1 week 3 has focused on the new phonemes:
g,o,c,k
We’ve also learnt our first tricky word; is
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In is, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Breezy Weather
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
More pictures of our learning this week…
Help at home; Autumn Walks
Dates for your diary; time changes
We have changed the timing of some our stay and learn session to incorporate anopportunity for you to meet with your child’s teacher and other parents at a coffee morning.
Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Phonics Phase 2 – 12.10.23 – 9.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
Maths – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00
Phonics Phase 3 – 16.01.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
Fine Motor Control and Writing –06.02.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
World Book Day- 07.03.24 – 8.50- 9.20
Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Week beginning 11.12.23
Week beginning 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24
Swimming
Due to work being done on the pool, next week’s swimming lessons for Rainbow Class are cancelled. Please still send children to school in their PE kit, as they will take part in a Foot-tech PE session. We will keep you updated of any future changes in each week’s class news post.
The Great Big Book of Families
We’ve been reading The Great Big Book of Families. Through the book, we have explored and celebrated the variety of families.
What is a family?
People who live in the same house.
People don’t have to live in the same house.
They love each other.
Grandma and Grandad because they can live in your house.
In our writing, we created our own family pictures and labelled with initial sounds or words.
Maths
This week, we’ve been using our subitising skills.
When subitising, we can say how many there are in a small group by ‘just looking’ and knowing without needing to count.
We used counters to create our own arrangements of 2 and 3.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) i,n,m,d.
During our phonics learning, we became detectives by searching for objects with the initial sounds s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d.
Each week we will be sending a ‘learn at home’ sheet, which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Chop Chop.
Within the first 6 weeks of Reception, your child will participate in the reception baseline assessment.
“The RBA is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021.”
Click here to find out more.
Help at Home
Sound Detectives – Find objects around your house or outside that have an initial sound we have learnt.
s a t p i n m d
Family photos
Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking about our homes. To help support our discussions and art project, please send in one picture of your front door. You can also email photos to the email address below.
Settling in
All of the children are now in full-time and are continuing to settle in, get to know each other and learn our daily routines. We’ve had lots of fun exploring our learning this week. Take a look at what we’ve been up to:
PE; Foot-Tech
The children really enjoyed their first Foot-Tech PE session.
Each Monday and Friday, Reception will take part in a range of fun activities and games. In Early Years, our PE lessons have a key focus on developing the fundamentals of movement and ensuring that children are continuously engaged and active throughout.
Phonics
We started our Little Wandle phonics lessons this week! The children were introduced to their first four sounds- s,a,t,p
They have learnt how to identify the sounds by their graphemes and how to form the graphemes in their writing. They have practised identifying initial sounds and blending sounds together to say the whole word.
We have introduced new vocabulary linked to our phonics learning:
Phoneme– The sound a letter (grapheme) makes
Grapheme– The letter that represents the sound
Segmenting- Breaking up a word into its phonemes and sounding aloud (ie. cat becomes c-a-t)
Blending- Blending the phonemes together to read the word. (ie. d-o-g becomes dog)
Each week we will be sending a ‘learn at home’ sheet, which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Help at home; Family photos
Next week, we will be thinking about our families. To help support our discussions, please send in one picture of your family together. We will keep the photograph on display, so please send photos you are happy for us to keep. You can also email photos to the email address below.
Reminders and diary dates
Welcome to Reception
21.09.23 – 6pm – 6.30pm An invitation to this event was emailed to you back in July but here is a reminder. Come into school to find out some basic “need to knows” about life in Reception.
Welcome to Reception!
We’ve started to welcome children into Rainbow and Sunshine Class this week. All of the children are settling in brilliantly and have been superstars! We hope they’ve had lots of exciting news to share with you. We look forward to welcoming the rest of Reception, on Monday.
PE; Days and Swimming
Reception’s PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please send your child to school in their PE kits on these days, including on days when they will be swimming.
Swimming will begin in week 3. Children swim fortnightly. Please send your child with a swimsuit/swim shorts, a towel and goggles if needed. You do not need to send floatation supports.
Swimming Dates:
Rainbow Class- 20 September, 4 October, 18 October
Sunshine Class- 27 September, 11 October, 25 October
Bookbags, spare clothes and wellies
Please send your child with their bookbag each day. Please also send a pair of wellies and a bag of spare clothes/underwear that can be left at school. We will send this home if it needs washing or replacing.
Please double check that all of your child’s school items are labelled with their name.
Dates for your diary (sent home on your child’s first day)
This year we will be offering various opportunities for you to find out more about Early Years at school. There will be after school meetings with your child’s teacher. There’ll be stay and learn sessions where you can come into school and be part of a lesson and then find out how you can help at home.
Then, opportunities to pop into school to share your child’s learning journey book with them. We hope that you can join us for as many of these sessions as possible.
Welcome to Reception
An invitation to this event was emailed to you back in July but here is a reminder. Come into school to find out some basic “need to knows” about life in Reception. 21.09.23 – 6pm – 6.30pm
Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Phonics Phase 2 – 12.10.23 – 2.20 – 3.00
Maths – 15.11.23 – 8.50 – 9.30
Phonics Phase 3 – 16.01.24 – 8.50-9.30
Fine Motor Control –06.02.24 – 2.20 – 3.00
World Book Day- 07.03.24 – 8.50- 9.20
Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Week beginning 11.12.23
Week beginning 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24
The Finale!
Wow what a fun-filled last week! We’re so impressed with this week’s fantastic learning. We’ve seen children working hard in their maths: counting and comparing the people they could see in some snapshots of the school year. We’ve seen impressive writing, as children wrote about how they’ve grown and changed. We’ve seen so many happy friendships, with children working together to problem solve. We’ve enjoyed designing and building ice-creams in the sensory area, playing ‘teacher’ in the phonics areas and using our fine motor skills to make paper chains. Take a look at some of our learning this week…
Reflecting on the year
At this time of year it is lovely to look back and reflect on everything we’ve done and achieved. During Living and Learning time this week, the children reflected on some of their favourite things during their time in Reception:
I like assembly and I like going outside- Skyla
I liked being the ‘star of the day’- Olivia
I like doing six challenge cubes- Thomas
I like swimming- the races- Alfie
I really liked PE, because we play games- Esmé
I like getting ten stars and getting Monty- Jack
I like ‘wake up shake up’- Ella
Snack time!- Eddy
The beach party!- Henryk
Playing with my friends- Ted
I liked doing writing- Keira
I liked doing yoga- Mollie G
The Beach Party
On Thursday, the weather was kind to us and we had a beautiful beach party. It was so much fun!
The Selfie Station
The children have enjoyed being in charge of taking the photos this week- take a look out our selfie-station snaps!
Professor Myers
Professor Myers visited us on our last day and showed us the cola and Mentos experiment! We loved seeing the cola bubble up into a “volcano!”
A final message
The Reception team would like to thank you all for your partnership and support this year. We’ve had a truly wonderful year and are so proud of all of the children. We wish you all the best as your child moves up to year one and continues their learning journey at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School. Have a happy and healthy Summer and we’ll see you in September!
Being Healthy Week
What a fun-filled, healthy week we have had! Despite the rain, the children enjoyed taking part in their first sports day.
On Tuesday, we took part in a yoga session.
Throughout the week, we have focused on a personal best challenge. This involved timing ourselves while running laps and counting how many star jumps we could do in 1 minute to see if we could improve over time.
Literacy
This week, we read The fish Who Could Wish.
The children thought about their own wishes for year one.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers.
This week’s poem is Dance.
A huge thank you for sending videos of your child reciting the poem at home.
Poetry Picnic Superstars!
Science
We have continued exploring floating and sinking by making our own boats and testing how many coins they could hold before they sank.
More of our learning this week…
Reminders
Swimming – Rainbow- 19 July
Beach Party – Your child can come to school dressed in their own clothes ( please make sure they are suitable to wear all day) and can bring a special snack and drink.
All children are welcome to bring swim wear and water pistols. A towel to get dried with is essential. The children are also welcome to bring any outdoor play equipment eg: bats, balls, hula hoops, footballs etc.
Please name as many items as possible and don’t send anything too precious.
Carrier Bag – Please send a labelled carrier bag on Thursday in order to send home your child’s books.
Living and Learning (Being Healthy week) : Yoga and mindfulness
Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 5 and Year 6 all enjoyed yoga sessions from School of Yoga this week. This helped us learn about the importance of mental wellbeing and wellness, as well as physical health. Time to be mindful is important for our mental health.
Living and Learning (Being Healthy week) : Soggy Sport Roundabout
A big THANK YOU to everyone who came to support our rather wet Sport Roundabout afternoon today.
We all still had fun, despite the rain. The winning team was France – but check out where your team came.
Another THANK YOU for sending children in fantastic coloured clothes to match their country team too.
1st France
2nd England
3rd Nigeria
4th Spain
5th Italy
6th Portugal
7th Germany
8th Colombia
9th Norway
10th Netherlands
11th Argentina
12th Brazil
The Snail and The Whale
The Snail and The Whale
We’ve been reading The Snail and The Whale. Another book by one of our favourite authors, Julia Donaldson.
We’ve been retelling the story in our own words and writing special blackboard messages, just like the snail trail messages in the story!
The book had some fantastic adventurous words to describe landscapes and actions. Our word of the week was humongous. We discussed the meaning of lots of other words too.
Can your child tell you what each of these words mean? They could use the images to remind them.
Maths; composition
This week, we’ve re-visited the composition of 5 in various ways.
We also made matching patterns on butterfly wings and used the symmetrical patterns to explore doubles (as we had added the same amount of shapes on both sides). We worked with a partner to create our own matching pictures and to find the double we had created.
Transition
Thursday morning was full of excitement and a few little nerves, as the children visited their year one classrooms and spent some time with their new teachers. When they returned to class, the children were excited to share what they had been doing. Those little nerves had flown away and in their place was a super positivity for the big move in September. Well done Reception superstars!
The dancing raisin experiment
Phonics
Summer 2 week 5 has focused on:
root word ending in: –er, –est
longer words
In provision, we’ve been reading words ending in –ed and sorting them by
the sounds that –ed makes:
‘t’ final sound: jumped, helped, screeched etc.
‘id’ final sound: boasted, painted, printed etc.
Help at home; Sentence Substitution Throughout the school year, we’ve suggested lots of practical ways to explore phonics at home with easily made resources and games. There are also some great quality online phonics games. Sentence substitution is a great way to practise both reading and comprehension. The goal is to replace one word in the sentence, whilst ensuring that the sentence still makes sense. This is a free to access game on ‘Phonics Bloom’ Click here to play at home!
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers.
This week’s poem is Sliced Bread
Help at home; Poetry videos This week, we’d like to mix it up a little. We’d love for you to record your child retelling this poem or another ‘poetry picnic’ poem of their choice at home. We will make a special video of their performances to be featured in next week’s class news post! You can send your videos to the usual email address (below)
More of our learning this week…
Reminders and Dates
Sports Roundabout- Monday 10 July 1.15pm Please remember to come in your sports kit/team colours on Monday and PE kit for the rest of the week. Thank you.
Learning journey drop-ins- Week commencing 10 July
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them. We would like to welcome you into the classroom on one of the following sessions:
9.00 – 9.30 Monday 10 July
9.00 – 9.30 Tuesday 11 July
3.30 – 4.00 Thursday 13 July
Swimming
Rainbow- 19 July
Sunshine- 12 July