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Reception - St Joseph

Welcome to Reception!

Our class saint is St Joseph

The Reception Team

The Reception Teachers are: Mrs Farrell, Miss Gerrard and Mrs Khan. (Mrs Farrell and Mrs Khan are in a job share).

Learning support staff are: Mrs Murphy, Mrs Hussain, Miss Glendon and Mrs Bailey.

The Early Years (Nursery and Reception classes) gate opens at 8:30am and closes at 8.40am. If your child is late you will need to enter the school through the school office. Please ensure your child arrives promptly to school each day.

At the end of the day, the doors open at 3.10pm. Please arrive on time to collect your child. For further information on where to collect your child from on the Early Years playground, please refer to the letter we sent before the summer.

Our Learning through the year

Through the year we guide and progress the children in the 7 inter-connected areas of learning and development within the EYFS Framework.

These 7 areas are:

Prime Areas:

Communication and Language (Listening, Attention and Understanding, Speaking)

Personal, Social and Emotional Development (Self-Regulation, Managing Self and Building Relationships)

Physical Development (Gross Motor Skills and Fine Motor Skills)

Literacy (Comprehension, Word Reading and Writing)

Maths (Number and Numerical Pattern)

Understanding the World (Past and Present, People, Culture and Communities and The Natural World)

Expressive Arts and Design (Creating with Materials and Being Imaginative and Expressive)

We monitor the children's progression through adult and child daily interactions, observations during whole class, group, individual teaching and play during continuous provision.

	AUTUMN	SPRING	SUMMER
THEME	All about me	The world and everybody in it	Animals Visit to a farm
PRIME AREA Communcation and Language	How to listen carefully. Use new vocabulary Ask questions Articulate ideas in sentences Connect ideas using connectives Engage in story times Describe events Retell a story Learn rhymes, poems and songs taken part in a performance: Nativity Listen to and talk about non-fiction to develop a deep familiarity with new knowledge and vocabulary.
PRIME AREA PSED	See themselves as a valuable individual Build constructive and respectful relationships Express their feelings and consider the feelings of others Show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge Identify and moderate their own feelings socially and emotionally. Think about the perspectives of others Manage their own needs.
PRIME AREA Physical Development	Fundamental movements Developing control and grace Strength, control and balance Fine motor skills Protected my environment: made a bird feeder and litter pick with Y6 Good posture at a table Use of large and small apparatus Ball skills Handwriting style Health and wellbeing: regular physical activity, healthy eating, tooth brushing, sensible amounts of ‘screen time’, having a good sleep routine, being a safe pedestrian
Literacy Key Texts	Where the Wild Things are Anasi the spider Halibut Jackson I am Henry Finch	The magic paintbrush Super Milly and the Super School Day The tiny shed The extraordinary Gardener	My shadow is pink So much The Night Pirate And Tango makes three Hairy McClary Oi Frog
Phonics	Little Wandle programme Secure Phase 1- seg/blend/initial sounds/nursery rhymes Complete Phase 2 graphemes and tricky words Read cvc words/captions Guided Reading	Little Wandle programme Phase 2 quick revisit Complete Phase 3 graphemes and tricky words. Read simple captions and sentences Guided Reading	Little Wandle programme Phase 3 consolidation Phase 4 graphemes and tricky words Application of all graphemes and tricky words learnt Guided Reading
Literacy Writing	Name writing Letter formation of phase 2 graphemes Initial sounds Phase 2 cvc words	Letter formation of phase 2 and 3 graphemes Spell words by identifying the sounds in phase 2 and phase 3 words Write phase 2 and phase 3 captions	Write recognisable letters in lower case and capitals, mostly formed correctly. Application of phase 2, 3 and 4 phonics in spelling. Write cvc, cvcc words, phrases and sentences that can be read by themselves and others.

	Begin to write phase 2 Tricky words		Begin to write sentences using capital letter, finger spaces and full stop Begin to write phase 2 and phase 3 tricky words Begin to write about familiar texts.		others with sentence conventions Begin to sequence sentences within purposeful fiction/non- fiction writing
R.E.	To know you more clearly Creation and Covenant Prophecy and Promise		To know you more clearly Galilee to Jerusalem Desert to Garden		To know you more clearly To the ends of the Earth Dialogue and Encounter

R.S.E	Ten Ten Created and loved by God Religious Understanding		Ten Ten Created to love others		Ten Ten Created to live in community
			Religious Understanding		Religious understanding Living
	Me, my body, my health		Personal Relationships		in the wider world
	Emotional Wellbeing		Life Online
	Life Cycles		Keeping Safe
Maths	Counting Subitising	Connect quantities	Subitising within and beyond 5	Odd and Even	Counting larger sets	One more/one
	Subitising different	and	Making 5	Counting	10 frames	less
	arrangements	numbers	6 and 7 (5 and a	sequence	Doubles in 10	Identify when
	Conceptual	One more	bit)	Cardinality	frames	sets can be
	subitising skills	Cardinality	Equal and unequal	Order	Compare	subitised and
	Small numbers	1:1	groups	numbers	quantities	when to
	hiding in larger	correspond	2 equal groups can	Track games	and numbers	count
	numbers	ence	be double	Counting to	Develop	Conceptual
		Compare	Find patterns	20	sense of	subitising
		sets			magnitude	skills (using a
		Part and whole				rekenref)
Understanding the world	Black history month Their unique qualities Toys Mapping Visit from immediate family and someone in the community Occupation visit from local hero Autumn Walk Materials Seasons The Natural World		Mapping Recognise some similarities and differences between our country and another. Visit from a historical character Spring walk Materials - Recycling and Reusing, states of matter Growth Different environments Changes in the natural world		Grandparents storytime Mapping-make own map of local area Summer walk Materials Seasons Life cycles Habitats
Expressive Arts and Design	Art work in the style of Kandinsky Tie dye t-shirts Self portrait Mixing colours Christmas crafts Music scheme		Artwork in the style of J pollock Collage out of recyclable materials Junk modelling construction Easter craft Printing, paper mache		Art work in the style of Yayoi Kusama Line drawings of animals, observational drawings Making props Colour, design and texture of different animals
Music	Singing Listening and appraising EYFS - Henry Hall (Classical) Teddy Bears Picnic		Singing Listening and appraising EYFS - Brass Bands		Practicing and Performing for the Summer Festival Listening and appraising EYFS - Bob Marley (Reggae) Don’t worry, Be happy Three little birds Performing for the Summer Festival

Home Learning

Book bags and reading books will be issued on a Friday. These need to be returned each Wednesday.

Within your child's bookbag there will be: a guided reading book, a library book and the weekly phonics activity.

You will have access to your child's QR code to access our Seesaw home learning page.

We use Seesaw to give you the opportunity to share photographs with the class bears, when it is your turn over the weekend.

We use Seesaw to upload maths home learning and the phonic words from that week.

The children love to share their home learning with the other children each morning so please upload anything your child is interested in. They especially like to watch video clips of their friend's learning at home.

Please see a member of staff as soon as possible if you are still having any problems accessing your Seesaw account.

What else can you do at home?

Daily activities to complete with your child which will support and help to embed the learning we do within Reception-

Communication is key! Strong early communication skills enable children to express needs, regulate emotions, and engage in social play. Share attention with your child as often as possible, whether this is during their play or during a walk out to the shops; respond to what they share with you, expand or build upon what they have said and build upon it by adding more words to turn it into a sentence, hold conversations with your child that encourage extended back and forth interactions, giving your child time to listen, process and reply.
Gross motor skills activities- Gross motor skills are controlled movements that integrate a child's strength, co-ordination, stability, balance and positional awareness. Examples of activities to support this: Swinging, using playground equipment such as a roundabout, spinning cups, seesaws, slides, bouncing on a mini trampoline, using space hoppers, rolling around and down, riding bikes, trikes, scooters and scooter boards, walking on a 'tight rope' (a chalk line or skipping rope on a floor), playing Twister or hopscotch, yoga poses such as downward dog, plank, airplane, tree, dancer, warrior.
Fine motor skills activities - Fine motor skills are the ability to control small muscles in the hands, fingers and wrists to perform precise, coordinated movements. Examples of activities to support this: painting, using chunky chalk, using zips, using large plastic tweezers to pick up items such as pompoms, fastening buttons, using scissors to snip paper, kneading and modelling with playdough. Developing these skills increases independence and dexterity.
Regular name writing practice - please encourage your child to practice writing their first name, encouraging them to use an upper-case letter for their initial and lower-case letters for the other letters. Please focus on forming letters correctly and neatly. Please share any writing on Seesaw.
Letter formation practice - Writing words carefully sitting on a line, using the Little Wandle mantra phrase to support correct letter formation. When children write, it is important to notice how they hold their pencil/pen/mark making implement as we encourage a 'tripod' grip.
Pinch: Use your thumb and index finger to pinch the pencil about 1–2 cm above the tip.
Rest: Rest the pencil on the side of your middle finger.
Tuck: Curl your ring finger and pinky finger into your palm for stability.

Regular practice of recognition of the Little Wandle Phonics scheme phase 2 and phase 3 tricky words and regular practice of the phase 2 and phase 3 graphemes.
How to pronounce the Phase 2 and 3 phonemes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTe5_Em0BHQ

Daily reading practice - it is crucial that you engage in daily reading with your child; this could be through singing rhymes, poems and songs also as well as reading stories. It is really beneficial to read aloud to your child each day. This will prepare them to succeed as a reader. Bedtime stories are so valuable to encourage good future reading habits with your child.

Daily number/counting practice - Counting up to 10 and beyond. Sing number songs and rhymes. Using mathematical language such 'more' and 'fewer'-this could be done when playing or when preparing food together. Go on a number hunt around the home or outdoors-focus on identifying numerals 0-10. Order numerals to 5, then 10 and 20.

For more detailed information on the phonics scheme we follow, please see the Little Wandle website: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/ and click on the parents tab.

We will be doing lots of writing in a variety of contexts and for varied purposes, encouraging the use of the letter formation as we learn them.

We will be working hard on our speaking and listening skills, having paired discussions with our 'talk partners', telling our news and sharing lots of stories and rhymes. We will be using the Tales Toolkit approach ( https://talestoolkit.com/) to support shared narratives and independent story telling.

PE (Physical Education) in Reception will begin each Friday (from after October half term) outdoors on the astro turf pitch. Your child should arrive to school in their PE kits each Friday. They will not need their standard school uniform on this day as they will stay in their PE kits all day.

As in line with our school uniform policy, your child’s PE kit should be as follows:

Plain navy joggers (no brands or logos).
A pair of trainers (velcro trainers if they cannot tie their laces independently).
Your child can wear their usual white polo shirt and navy school jumper on a Friday. The school uniform shop in Heaton Moor sells St Mary’s PE hoodies. These are permitted to be worn on a Friday but please do not feel that you have to purchase one as the normal school jumper is fine.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to speak to a member of the Reception Team.

Many thanks for your continued support

The Reception Team

Phonics websites

Mr Mc is doing fun and interactive daily phonics lessons for children age 4-5. He focuses on new digraphs and has lots of different ways to revisit already learnt sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTcZnvuTeovlznioLRo0GOA/videos

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk

https://monsterphonics.com/games/

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-3-games.html

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

Phonics apps

Jolly Phonics Lessons

Meet the alphablocks

Read with phonics games

First words sampler

Teach your monster to read

Maths websites

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks

Maths Apps

Kids counting

Maths Tree

Bugs and Numbers

Busy things

Maths ages 3-5

Maths YouTube videos

Jack Hartman

https://www.youtube.com/user/JackHartmann

Monkey floss counting backwards from 20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hD26XpuUCc

2D shape song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTeqUejf3D0

3D shape song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cg-Uc556-Q

Numberjacks

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWKuiktSh-V3E4ysPU0VC3Q

Numberblocks

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPlwvN0w4qFSP1FllALB92w

Counting by 10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gmEe0-_ex8

Counting by 5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ4jV14Oz5I

El Nombre for number formation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB6RGn7x4ks

Money song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzAU3u06Ps

The Early Years Framework

As you may already be aware, the DFE (Department for Education) have introduced a new EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) framework, commencing September 2021. Your child will follow the updated EYFS framework and will work towards the final assessment at the end of the Reception year, using the new ELGs (Early Learning Goals). These goals are short statements that teachers assess your child against at the end of the year. The 7 main areas of learning remain the same. These are;

Communication and Language
Physical Development
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Literacy
Mathematics
Expressive Arts and Design
Understanding the World

As part of the changes to the new framework, it also means that there is less emphasis on recording paperwork, meaning we, as adults, can spend more time with your child getting to know them and having those quality interactions. The new framework is also more aligned with the KS1 curriculum, further ensuring your child’s educational journey from Reception to KS1 is building upon previous knowledge. See the attached link below for the statements that your child will be assessed against at the end of Reception. We have also provide a link below to the Development Matters 2021 document, which outlines the principles behind the new framework.

Early Learning Goals

eyfs-elg-one-page-document.pdf

Development Matters 2021 New EYFS Framework

What to expect in the Early Years A guide for parents/carers

Partnership with Parents

It is important for parents and early years settings to have a strong and respectful partnership. This sets the scene for children to thrive in the early years.
This includes listening regularly to parents and giving parents clear information about their child's progress.
The help that parents give their children at home has a very significant impact on their learning.
Some children get less support for their learning at home than others. By knowing and understanding all children and their families, we will offer extra help to those who need it most.
It is important to encourage all parents to chat, play and read with their children.

Useful Information for parents from the NSPCC

Positive parenting (nspcc.org.uk)

Look Say Sing Play: to build your baby’s brain every day (nspcc.org.uk)

Handle with care: How to keep your baby safe (nspcc.org.uk)

Talking about difficult topics | NSPCC

Helping Your Child Cope with Your Divorce or Separation | NSPCC

Online Safety for Children - Tips & Guides | NSPCC

Useful Information for parents from Early Education

Babies - learning starts from the first day.pdf (early-education.org.uk)

Children as artists.pdf (early-education.org.uk)

Going out to play and learn (3).pdf (early-education.org.uk)

Helping children cope with change.pdf (early-education.org.uk)