Reception 2023 - 2024

Welcome to Reception 2023-24

Mrs Williams

Mrs Olsen

Mrs McIver

Reception 2023-2024

Welcome back to our Reception class page which we hope continues to be useful to you throughout this year. We will regularly update the page with notices of forthcoming events and general messages. It will also include the areas of learning that we will be covering and activities that you might want to try at home to help support your child's learning. 

Summer Term 2

Welcome to our final term together! This term will prepare the children for their transition into Year One. They will have lots of opportunities to visit the year 1 classrooms and meet the teaching staff who will be working with them. There are also lots of other exciting things to look forward to including Sports Day, Refugee Week, Sports for schools event and watching the Year 6 Leavers production. 

As the weather continues to improve and get warmer, we ask you to please ensure that your child is wearing sunscreen and brings a cap/ sun hat to school them, along with a water bottle.

Dates for your Diary - 

                                     Reception Sports Day - Tuesday 18th June 

                                     Visit from GB athlete - mountain biker Danny Butler - Thursday 27th June

PE - This happens every Thursday and children need to come into school wearing PE Kit (plain black/navy shorts or joggers/leggings and a plain white tshirt and school jumper or sweatshirt). Children also need trainers which are suitable for indoor and outdoor use. 

Snack & Drinks We provide the children with milk, water and fruit for snack. Please don't send in any food for your child (unless it is for their lunch). Your child can bring a bottle of water into school each day but NOT juice. We also have children in Reception with severe nut allergies - please DON'T send in any products that contain NUTS. If your child has grapes in their packed lunch please make sure they are cut in half as they can be a chocking hazard. 

Clothing & Belongings Please label all items of clothing, footwear and belongings. We have 60 children in class and it is very difficult to find missing items, especially when they are not labelled.

Photographs Please continue to send photos in from home so that we can share them in class, for instance when it is your child's turn to be a 'focus child' or if they take the Story or Knowledge box home.

Wellies The children use the outdoor area just as much as the indoor. As the weather gets wetter, the children need to wear wellies when playinging outside to avoid their shoes getting wet. Please send in a labelled pair of wellies that can be kept in school until the end of the year if your child not done so already.

'Foodie Friday'  We continue to share and celebrate the food we make together! This half-term the children we will be making jam sandwiches - inspired by our Fvaourite Five book, 'The Great Jam Sandwich'. We will also be tasting the fruits featured in the story Handa's Surprise - mango, banana, avacado, passion fruit, tangerine, pineapple, guava and orange.

Identity Box The children are really enjoying this opportunity to share and talk about things that are special to them. Please help your child to fill the box with items which represent and reflect their identity and send it in for us to share.

Story and Knowledge Boxes We have beautiful sharing boxes that contain high-quality texts and various treats inside. One child from each class will take a box home weekly and the idea is that you share the text together. Please support your child with their illustration/fact after reading the information book. We would love to see photos of your children reading these books at home and tell us any comments they make about what they've read. 

Maths

We will be discussing the idea of fair and equal groups by drawing upon the children's past experiences. The children will begin to develop an understanding of sharing. They will investigate what sharing is and describe equal sharing as fair and unequal sharing as unfair. We will explore sharing and grouping which are both different methods of division. There will be lots of practical and visual activities to support this learning.

We will also continue to look at identifying units of repeating pattern. Children will deepen their understanding of different patterns and develop a secure knowledge of pattern rules and the ability to verbalise their thinking and explain it to others.

Phonics

We continue follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonic scheme of work. Please keep practising the letter sounds and tricky words we sent home at half-term. This is so important as the pace of the scheme is fast and the children will continue to learn new letter sounds and tricky words this half-term.

We will continue to review Phase 3 sounds this half-term  - ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, oo, ar or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, er

New for this half-term we willl focus on:

blending longer words

reading and spelling root words ending in -ing, -ed, -est, -es, -d, -id.

New tricky words - review all taught words so far and secure the spelling of them

Your child will be bringing home a reading book and it is essential that you listen/support them to read this every day. Please record a comment in the reading record each time you listen to to your child.

There are lots of fun phonic games online that are free and can also support learning. Some of the ones we use in school include PhonicsBloom, Phonics Play and Top Marks phonics.

RE - Stories Jesus Told

The question we will be investigating this half-term is 'Why did Jesus tell Stories?'. The children will explore the stories that Jesus told and know that he told them to teach us about God.

Our Favourite Five

Books are at the centre of everything we do. We love books in Reception!  Each half-term we focus on five different texts to get to know them really well. We  read them many times together and act them out with story props. We also use story maps to help retell the story. Throughout the year, via this page, we will show you the story maps so you can retell them at home too.

Here are 'Our Favourite Five' books for this short half term :-   

Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne

The Great Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord

Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson

What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson

All about Friends by Felicity Brooks

Open Door Policy

We love to communicate with YOU the parent. If you have any worries or questions please come and talk to us at the door, at drop off or collection time. Also we have a class email address that you can contact us on directly:

https://outlook.office.com/mail/kingfishershomelearning@chesterbluecoatce.cheshire.sch.uk/  - This is the email address if your child is in the Kingfisher class (Mrs Olsen & Mrs Williams).

https://outlook.office.com/mail/robinshomelearning@chesterbluecoatce.cheshire.sch.uk/ - This is the email address if your child is in the Robin's class (Mrs McIver).

Many thanks for your continued support. 

The Reception Team