Mr Spendlove (Class Teacher)
Ms Brougham and Mrs Fairhead (Support Staff)
- Reception Reading Spine (523KB)
- Reception Intent (250KB)
Summer 2023
I cannot believe we are in the final term of Reception, where has the time gone? It has been such a pleasure to watch the children grow and develop so far, building relationships, understanding their emotions and learning across the curriculum.
This term we will have more of a History focus in half term 1 and a Geography focus in half term 2 through our topics of Dinosaurs and Around the World. In Summer term 1 we will be having our first school trip to Knebworth House to explore the dinosaur trails. On this trip we will have lots of opportunities to tell stories, find out facts and see the dinosaurs around the grounds.
We will also be integrating the King’s coronation into our learning as it is such a special occasion, we will learn about the King’s life so far, his role going forward and we will write letters to him, with the hope we get a reply.
Maths this term will be very number based, learning our number bonds to 5 and some to 10, exploring and representing patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally. Maths will be very hands on this term exploring different ways for the children to remember their number facts.
Distributing equally in Maths will link into our Personal, Social, and Emotional Development where we will be focusing on sharing and how to be a good friend, the different types of support we can give to ourselves and each other. We will also spend some time talking about our feelings and how we feel about the changes upcoming as we move into year 1.
Spring 2023
This term Reception are continuing to develop their skills further across the curriculum. All of the children have come out of their shells and are showing their true colours and personalities now as their confidence continues to grow in the classroom. I am lucky enough to have a classroom full of kind, caring and bright young children who make each and everyday fun and interesting.
We will be exploring the theme of ‘Traditional Tales’ in Spring half term, diving into books such as: ‘The Gingerbread man’, ‘Goldilocks And The Three Bears,’ and the theme of growing in term 2 utilising the books ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ and ‘The Tiny Seed,’ as well as many others, we will also be having some duck eggs so we can watch the life cycle of a duck. These books and resources will be incorporated into our lessons, subjects and provisions.
In Literacy we will be retelling stories, creating our own stories, describing characters from the books and writing simple sentences about our Traditional Tales and growth. We will also be using our duck visitors to explore the concept of diary writing and exploring changes in animals.
In Maths this term we will be introducing the concept of 0, learning our days of the week and time, working on numbers 6-10 and doing lots of comparing in terms of their mass, height, length and capacity.
We will be spending time focusing on our goals and dreams and what we need to do to be able to achieve them. Discussing how different people have different aspirations and how we can feel proud when we achieve our goals through hard work and practice. The children will also be thinking about being healthy and what they can do about their lifestyles to ensure they are making health choices for their body and mind.
To end the term we will be thinking about Mother’s Day and how we can celebrate this. We will be exploring a book titled ‘My Mum’, by Anthony Browne, writing our own class poem and performing this in a Mother’s Day assembly. We will also use this assembly to explore drawing from observation, producing portraits of all our lovely mummies making sure we pick suitable colours.
Autumn 2022
We have welcomed the children to school for their first time and I am so impressed and proud of how quickly they have settled and are starting to thrive. Not only are they achieving academically they are also showing how kind, helpful and caring they all are as friends.
Reception have begun their journey through education and we will be introducing their school routines from the beginning. We will have a big focus on wellbeing, making sure the children are not worried and what to do if they do feel worried for any reason. We will begin to show discussing out emotions and what to do in order to manage them effectively and think about the effects on other peoples’ emotions.
Our topics this term will be ‘Being Me’ in Autumn half term1 and ‘Pets’ in Autumn term 2. We will be exploring these topics in detail through topic sessions, Literacy sessions looking at specialist books and during child initiated learning time.
In Literacy we will spend lots of time focusing on our names making sure the children can recognise and write it forming letters correctly. The introduction to phonics will allow us to focus on our initial sounds and ascribe meaning to marks. We will also be looking at pencil grip, making sure we are holding pencils with 2 fingers and a thumb.
In Maths we will be looking at numbers 1-5, comparing, matching, count and representing making sure we recognise them in lots of different scenarios and representations. We will also be learning about 2D shapes, focusing on circles, triangles, square and rectangles, learning their names, properties and where we might find them in our environment. We will be looking at basic patterns making in lots of scenarios with artificial materials and natural materials.
The children will have lots of opportunities to explore their surroundings and the areas they are learning in. Their areas of learning are constantly changing to fit themes of book topics and the children’s interest to ensure they are all engaged and motivated in their child initiated learning. They will be able to visit different areas of the school to become familiar with their setting which in turn will enable them to settle very quickly.
