Welcome back to all our families. Hopefully, you have had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends, full of fun and laughter and we look forward to hearing all about it.
Our topic this term is 'Awesome Adventures'. During this topic we will be exploring pirates and witches and wizards in Spring 1 and all around the world, dragons, castles, kings and queen and Easter time in Spring 2.
We will be exploring our topic through each of our areas of learning and we will be providing parents with a newsletter on Class Dojo, showing our story of the month, text of the week, rhyme/song of the week, activities we will be doing and key vocabulary. This will give parents/carers the information they need to support their child further at home.
Class Dojo: At St Botolph’s we have started using class Dojo as a positive behaviour system, rewarding children for their amazing work. You will be able to see the points they earn and children will be able to redeem their points for prizes. We will also use Class Dojo to keep parents updated with different events happening at school and any exciting things that are happening in class. Parents can also contact the class teachers directly with any questions they have.
Tapestry: We will still be using Tapestry to show parents/ carers what the children have been doing that week in more detail during maths. Please check this on a regular basis and when your child does wonderful things at home, you can post photographs or short videos on Tapestry for the teachers to see and comment on.
Our core Christian values for the term will be Trust in the first part of the term and then Respect in the second half of Spring term. We will explore these themes in our class worships.
PE: Our PE day should continue to be on a Friday afternoon. This will continue to be in the hall. I will send a Dojo message out if the day or place of PE changes to ensure that the children have the appropriate clothes. The children will be continuing to come home from school in their PE kits.
Areas of Learning
Personal, Social and Emotion Development: We will be exploring and sharing different emotions during our circle time sessions each week. We will be exploring mindfulness techniques. During our PSHE sessions we will be exploring the topics "Keeping Ourselves Safe" and "Rights and Responsibilities".
Communication and Language: We will be practicing answering different styles of questions such as, how, why, who, what and when. We will be working towards following two part instructions from an adult. We will again take part in circle time sessions where we share our own thoughts on our different PSHE topics. These will form part of our PSHE weekly sessions
Physical Development: The first part of this area of learning is gross motor skills, these are all the big movements such as climbing, negotiating space and ball skills. The children will practise most of these movements outside. The second part of this area is fine motor skills. We will participate in a daily Dough Disco session to develop muscle control in the fingers we use for writing. Pencil control is one of our top priories at this time year, the children need to practice this constantly.
Maths: In Reception, maths is taught through White Rose Maths. This scheme is all about supporting children and their understanding of numbers through using physical resources. Even though recognising numbers in an important aspect of maths, the key element in our new curriculum is learning about what makes a number and number, ie. three is three objects or one and two objects together. We will also give the children opportunities to learn about time, capacity and the comparison between different sizes. This term we will be focusing on the understanding and composition of the numbers to 10, one more and one less, combining numbers to make bigger numbers and explaining "why".
Read, Write Inc: In our daily sessions, we learn new sounds and words, revisit old ones and practise our blending and segmenting skills. Read, Write Inc is based on practising what the children already know. It is a celebration, an opportunity for them to shine at home with their adult. We also practise writing letters and words daily. You can help by completing daily practise of new sounds and/or words at home.
Literacy: This area involves everything from listening and enjoying stories to recognising letters to writing letters and words. We will have key stories throughout the term that we will be looking, as well as a different rhyme or song each week. At this age the performance is the key element. Children will be expected to be able to not only recite their song/rhyme but understand the words and sentences within each one. The children will be beginning to write words or sentences independently with correctly formed letters.
Expressive Arts and Design: This area explores music, songs, role play, construction, anything that involves creativity and imagination. We will be providing the children with lots of different opportunities to use their own ideas to create their own picture, structure or a whole new world. We will be exploring different structures such as Pontefract Castle. We will be creating using different mediums as part of our own learning in the provision and as part of our learning around different artists.
Understanding the World: This area is very knowledge based. We will be learning about history, geography, science and Religious Education. This term we will be exploring pancake day, Chinese New Year, different artists, different countries, Easter and science week.
As part of our topic we will be making, flipping and tasting pancakes and discussing the special days around this time. We will be celebrating Chinese New Year by creating our own lanterns and having our own party. We are exploring the artists Kandinsky and Picasso and creating pictures, using different mediums, just as they did. As part of exploring different countries we will be tasting different foods from different countries and creating some class artwork about Africa.
How you can help at home...
Homework: Homework will be sent home on a weekly basis. This will be letter formation sheets, number work, reading books.
Our topics: Awesome Adventures - To support your child in this topic please could you discuss different adventures that pirates may have been on using some new vocabulary that your child may not already know. Please discuss different countries and whether they may be hot or cold and how they may live differently to how we live in and England. To also discuss Easter and why this is important and celebrated in your home together.
British Weather: Please remember that the British weather does not always stay the same. If the weather is sunny on a morning, it does not mean the weather will always stay this way. If the weather is sunny, please send your child in a sun hat and apply sun cream before school when applicable. If the weather is cold, please send hats, scarves and gloves with names in. Please name any clothes or accessories that are sent to school to avoid any confusion or loss.
Your support in sending your child to school on time and regularly is vital to ensure that they receive the best quality education they can.
We are looking forward to a fantastic term together! If you have any questions about anything this term, either come in and see us or please use Class Dojo and we will get back to your as soon as we can.
We are wondering where our journey will take us this term. Exciting times ahead!
Miss Kaye and the Reception Team