Reception - St Mary

Reception 2020-21

 

Welcome back from the Christmas holidays. Although things may be a little different we still have lots of fantastic learning available for the coming weeks. We are going to begin by basing our learning around the theme 'Dinosaurs'. 

 

We have updated the seesaw app for today's activities. There will be further learning added daily. 

 

Thank You

 

 

 

Class Information

Your teacher is Mrs Smith  

Your teaching assistants are Miss Burns, Miss Blamey and Mrs Santonastasi

 

Our class name is St Mary's

 

Please keep checking the school website as any changes to arrangements will be on here.  

Reminders:

The School Day

*some pupils may need a gradual or personalised timetable. This will be arranged with you directly.

 

Covid 19 Safety Measures

 

We have been working on various pre-opening strategies and the planning for running a school under socially distancing guidelines. Our priority is that everyone stays safe and that means there will be significant changes to what both the children, staff and yourselves as parents are used to.  Whilst government guidelines state that it is unlikely that pupils can socially distance from each other, schools as employers are in a very unique position; we have to be able to both accept that, children will not social distance from each other, whilst at the same time trying to ensure that they do socially distance from staff.

 

To that end, I wanted to give you an overview of the risk management measures that we are implementing so that you can begin to support your child over what a return to school will look like.  

 

Mini Schools

• School has been organised in to 4 ‘mini schools’
• Each Mini school will have either 1, 2 or 3 bubbles within it.
• Each mini school has its own set of staff, which include teachers, learning support, lunchtime organisers and cleaners
• We will aim for these bubbles to have minimal contact with each other, however the mini school staff will operate across the bubbles
• If there are 2 confirmed positive tests for Covid-19 then that mini school will close for 14 days in line with guidance.
• The majority of staff will only work in one mini school – a few staff, mainly senior staff, will work across more than one mini school.

Start and finish times

• Each mini school will have its own start and finish times; this is to minimise contact across the mini school and to minimise the numbers of people around the school building at any one time
• Latecomers will need to wait at the appropriate gate and telephone the school office. A member of staff will come and let your child through the gate.

 

Entry and exit to school for pupils:

• Each mini school will have its own entry and exit point to school
• Other than for EYFS parents will not be allowed in to the school grounds
• These will be marked with the colour allocated to that Mini school

 

 

More than one child

• If you have more than one child, you must keep them with you until all of your school children are in the building.
• Drop off and collect each child at their designated time keeping your other children with you at all times

 

For further information on this please refer to the section on the website under 'News and Events' 'Corona Virus'.  Thank you for your continued support during these difficult and unusual times.

 

Uniform

Please can I remind all parents that trainers are not school uniform and must not be worn to school. For full details on appropriate school uniform please see the policy section of the website.

 

PE

For the autumn term Reception will do PE as part of their daily outdoor learning opportunities.  They will NOT need a specific PE kit as yet.  Mrs Smith will inform parents when this changes.  

Information from school uniform policy:

 

Book folders and Homework

This week the children will begin to bring home their book folders.  These go out on a Thursday with a book to share at home, phonics activities and their Learning Log (includes weekly homework challenge).  These are to be returned to school on Mondays where they will then be quarantined and the activities changed over.

 

 

Outdoor Learning

Grace's Garden was opened in 2019 and has been a wonderful addition to our environment helping to support our EYFS children's curiosity and learning.

 

       

 

Our new Reception children have been using this space everyday.  We love riding the bikes, exploring the spaces with our friends, climbing, role playing and investigating the world around us.

     

 

 

 

     

 

 

Our Learning

We have had a fantastic start to our school year. 

 

We have enjoyed seeing our friends again and making new ones too.

   

 

We have spent time exploring our learning environment and engaging with lots of different activities.

 

Here are some of our favourites...

 

Exploring Mark Making, Drawing and Writing

    

 

Being Creative

 

   

 

Numbers and Shapes

 

    

 

 

Imaginative Play

 

    

 

 

Autumn Term

 

Our main topic for Autumn 2 is "Changes" 

 

 

As part of this topic we will be talking about how we have already changed since starting Reception such as what we can do now that we couldn't do before.  We will be looking at the changes around us as we move through autumn into winter, what similarities can we see and what differences.  We will talk about any patterns and changes we discover. There will be a focus around the vocabulary of the seasons, weather and the natural environment.  We will be exploring how to change colours and investigate different textures within our setting and of different objects and materials.  As we move into the season of Advent we will discuss the changes we make as we prepare for Christmas.

 

We will be starting with the fantastic text 'Leaf Man' by Lois Ehlert.

Other texts that we will be sharing

               

 

 

 

  

                 We will also be learning about celebrations of the season including Bonfire Night, Diwali, All Saints, St Andrew's Day and Remembrance.

 

Literacy

In literacy, we will continue to consolidate our phase 1 phonics and introduce phase 2 where we look at letter sounds and begin to use these to read and write simple words.  For more detailed information on the phonics phases please see the Letters and Sounds website (https://www.letters-and-sounds.com/).  We will be doing lots of mark making 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.

 

Maths

In Maths, our White Rose topics are 'It's Me 1,2,3' and 'Light and Dark'.  As part of these we will be looking closely at how to represent numbers 1 to 5 including number formation, number bonds, accurate counting and matching numerals.  We will be counting forwards and backwards, starting at different points and ordering numerals.  We will be comparing sets using the vocabulary more and less.  There will be a focus on positional language and the children's understanding of spatial awareness.  We will also be exploring maths within the environment especially looking at shapes including 2D and 3D shapes.  

 

Here is a list of websites/ apps and YouTube videos that we love and will help with our learning at home as well as school...

 

https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/

 

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

 

Phonics YouTube Videos 

 

Tricky words songs phase 2, 3 and 4

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMyssfAUx0&list=PLLhLRwvEimbCmlsD-JXwS2PqC0LvvIVTu

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri4u0TjAZ38&list=PLLhLRwvEimbCmlsD-JXwS2PqC0LvvIVTu&index=3

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NOzgR1ANc4&list=PLLhLRwvEimbCmlsD-JXwS2PqC0LvvIVTu&index=4

 

Letter names and sound song

 

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

 

Alphablocks

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qs3c0ehDvZkbiEbOj6Drg

 

Jack Hartman

 

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

 

Geraldine the Giraffe

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

Here is a sneaky peek at our topics...

 

 

Our curriculum is unique. The 'Early Years Foundation Stage' Curriculum enables children to develop the skills needed to become happy, successful and life long learners. Click the link to find out more about the Early Years Curriculum- Early Years Development Matters Document see below

 

The children access the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum through a mixture of adult directed and child initiated activities. Our activities are completed in both our inside and outside classroom so please ensure your child is is equipped for the weather each day! 

 

We plan in line with the children's observed interests and welcome you to let us know if there is something at home that your child has expressed a particular interest in.

 

Please feel free to approach us with any ideas, expertise and/or resources you would like to share!