Thank you for taking the time to come and look at the exciting learning that takes place in Reception. Please have a read of this blog to find some interesting information about life in Reception. We will keep this page updated regularly with blogs, pictures and information but please also regularly check Tapestry to see the exciting learning we have been doing in school! 

Learning in Reception 

As you know, children in Reception are on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (EYFS).  This curriculum is predominantly play-based and celebrates the whole child’s learning and development in a holistic approach.  Our planning comes from the children - through careful observations and assessments of their play, noting the gaps in their knowledge and primarily from their interests in an overarching ‘topic’.  

In school, we typically have a daily 30-minute phonics lesson, a 30-minute maths lesson and a short topic taught session. In addition to this, we have 10 minutes reading a day. We support the children’s writing development with weekly small group guided writing sessions.  This is where the children can apply their skills and knowledge of letters and sounds from their daily phonics lessons. The rest of the day is child-initiated play in the learning environments inside and outside.  We call this COOL time (Choosing Our Own Learning)!  This allows children the time for totally uninterrupted play; they can apply their learning from the taught sessions in a range of different activities and contexts.  This ensures the learning is meaningful to them and that it becomes embedded.  We try to ensure that the children have a minimum of 1.5 hours in the morning and the same again in the afternoon.  

In line with our school values, we promote the Characteristics of Effectively Learning through our learning characters; use of the following learning skills; ideas iguana (creativity), have a go hippo (enthusiasm) and keep going koala (determination). 

Morning routines 

Each morning, we ask that the children are dropped off at the little wooden gate between 8:35 and 8:45am. The children will then independently enter their classroom to organise their belongings and get ready for an exciting day of learning. This time of day is a busy time for teachers so we ask that any messages are passed on via the teacher on duty who will then pass the information on to the class teacher. If you have any further concerns or questions then an appointment can be made via the office. 

End of day routines

At the end of the day, please come to the same wooden gate by 3:10pm, so that we can dismiss your child to you and pass over any messages about the day. If you are ever unable to collect your child, please either phone the office or pass it on to the teacher on the gate in the morning. We will not send any child home with anyone different unless we have had a message to do so and the adult has your collection password. 

Things to bring to school

Full school uniform, a waterproof coat, book bag with reading record and book, and a water bottle. In the summer months, please bring a hat and sun-cream. We also kindly ask you to leave a spare pair of clothes on their pegs just in case they are need to change or have an accident.  Please ensure that every item is clearly named – including water bottles and packed lunch boxes.

Reading books - changed on a Monday and Thursday / library books on a Monday

Your child will soon receive a reading packet and a reading record.  It is really important that these are brought into school every day in their book bags. We will change your child’s reading book every Monday and Thursday.  By practising re-reading the same book over a few days, it will help your child to become more confident with the text and fluent.  The children will visit our wonderful school library on a Monday morning, where they will get to choose their very own book to take home!  They will need to return their library back to school every Monday morning, in order to change it for a new one.  We kindly ask you support your child with taking good care of our reading and library books at home, so that we can keep them in a nice condition for everyone to enjoy.

P.E kit - P.E on a Thursday

As independent changing for P.E is part of the of the Early Years curriculum, we will be supporting and encouraging children to get changed for P.E at school. Our P.E day is currently Thursday but please leave your child’s P.E kit on their peg. We will send home the kits for regular washing. 

Snacks

Free fruit will be provided for all of the children in Reception. However, if your child would like to bring their own fruit then they are more than welcome to. We kindly ask you to bring in a snack for the afternoons.  In order to promote healthy eating, we do ask that children only bring fruit to school. 

Lunch times

The children will continue to receive a free school lunch each day. Please ensure you order your child’s learning via ParentPay.  Alternatively, your child is welcome to bring their own packed lunch.

Tapestry

We know that the children often get up to some amazing things out of school too. If you have visited somewhere interesting or achieved an award (swimming, karate etc.) then please let us know and upload onto Tapestry! We love to celebrate all types of learning and achievements.  We share WOW moments and whole class special events, as well as key milestones of learning and development on the individual child on Tapestry.  Please take the time to view these and like the observations and share them with your child.

We look forward to letting you know more about Reception soon and sharing pictures and learning with you. 

Summer 2 - Weeks 5 and 6 - Let's make a pattern

We have had a very busy couple of weeks in Reception. In Maths we have been exploring odd and even numbers, followed by exploring patterns this week. We took our learning outside and found natural resources to be able to create patterns with. This tied in beautifully with Art week, learning all about Andy Goldsworthy.

In Literacy, we have continued our focus on beaches and read a story called 'Clean up!' which focused on the importance of cleaning up our beaches. This gave the children the opportunity to learn all about recycling and sorting materials for them to be recycled. They enjoyed learning what recycled materials could be made into. 

This week has also seen our first transition visit to Year 1. We were so impressed with how the children took this in their stride, and the Year 1 teachers commented on how wonderful all of the children are. They enjoyed taking part in all of the fun activities that Miss Lake, Miss Folland and Mrs Clarke had planned for them. 

Going into the final full week of Reception, we have sent out a reminder to return ALL reading books, library books and packets by Monday 15th July. To continue the love of reading, you can access a wide range of books (linked to your child’s book band) on the Oxford Owl website. Please visit: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk. 


Best wishes, 

The Reception team 

Summer 2 - Week 3 and 4 - Being a good sport

We have had an extremely sporty few weeks here in Reception, and the children have really done us proud. We had spent some time practising the sports day events, and the children's 'have a go' attitude on the day and impeccable behaviour throughout really did shine out. We are so proud of them, as we are sure you are too. 

This week, a small group of children attended a multi-skills event up at Wadebridge Leisure Centre where they took part in lots of events. They absolutely loved it  and were full of excitement on their return. The children have been wearing their medals as much as they can this week. 

As well as all the sport, learning has continued in the class with the children embedding their phonics learning, and progressing on to real and nonsense words, as well as impressing us with some fantastic writing when they come into school in the mornings. To make our reading time even more fun, we had Year 6 visitors on Wednesday afternoon. It was so lovely to see them sharing, talking and reading together so beautifully. 

In maths, we have been finding half of amounts up 10, and this week looking at sharing equally into groups. 

Our wider curriculum learning has continued on a sea theme, but focusing on the RNLI  and beach safety. We have talked about the lifeguards, the coastguard and the type of equipment that they use. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at how to keep our beaches clean, so if you have any pictures of your children taking part in a beach clean, please upload them to Tapestry for us to share. 

Reminders - Please can any toys from home not be brought into school. They can get lost and broken, so please have a check of their school bags to ensure nothing is being sneaked in! 

Requests - We would love any boxes, yogurt pots etc for our junk modelling area. Please nothing that has contained nuts or eggs though due to allergies. Thank you. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team 

Summer 1 - Week 4 and 5

Adding to our learning journey

Over the last 2 weeks, the children have been busy impressing us with their writing and maths skills. 

Writing - Every morning, the children have been coming into class and writing sentences based on a picture stimulus. The progress the children have made in their writing has blown us away. They are saying their sentences aloud, applying their phonics knowledge, correctly forming their letters and getting more confident in using finger spaces. Great work Reception!

Maths - We have been working on addition and subtraction  stories over the last two weeks. In their addition stories, the children started with using concrete objects, and were then able to move on to writing addition sums. We moved onto subtraction within 10 this week which the children are starting to grasp. 

Music - We were lucky enough to have Mrs Wade join us to give the children an African drumming lesson. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning how to play the drum. They were able to copy rhythms and made their own rhythm up to perform it to the class. Thank you Mrs Wade for giving up your time to give the children this experience.

PE - After half term,  Reception will be lucky enough to have Pro20 for a sports session each week. This weekly session will be on a Monday afternoon, starting from our first day back. For this session, the children will need to come into school already in their P.E kits. They will not need to wear their school uniforms on a Monday until Pro20 has finished (we will inform you closer to the time when this will be). P.E kits can then be kept at home. It would be handy to still keep a spare pair of clothes/uniform in their bags daily or kept on their pegs, just in case of water play accidents etc. The children will continue to have a P.E session on a Thursday but this will be in their uniforms, as it is rehearsing for sports day.

Thank you so much for your help in making drop off and pick up a smooth transition through our new gate. We really do appreciate it. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Best wishes,
The Reception Team 

Summer 1 - Week 2 and 3 - Amazing Africa

Over the last two weeks we have continued our topic based on' The World Outside our Window' by exploring a contrasting place to where we live in Cornwall -  the continent of Africa! We started by reading Handa's Surprise and discussed the setting and characters in the story. This led us to learning a wide range of facts all about Africa. We have looked at the 'big 5' animals that can be found there, what a carnivore, herbivore and an omnivore is,  the different types of homes that are there, the climate and the lovely fruits that Handa had in her basket. We really have been busy bees!

In maths, we have been blown away with how well they are getting on with learning their numbers up to 20. This week we have had a particularly focus on 1 more and 1 less of numbers up to 20.  The children have been true 'Have a Go Hippos' in their perseverance to understand this concept, and they are becoming more and more confident with this. Also, to help us recognise the numbers up to 20, we have been having a little game of bingo. Ask the children to tell you all about it! They absolutely love it and ask to play everyday! 

Reminders -

• Please ensure that bookbags come in daily.
  
• Sun safety - As we head into the Summer Term, we hope to see more of the sunshine and here are just a few reminders…

Summer 1 - Week 1 - A Warm Welcome Back 

Welcome back to you all. It has been so wonderful to have our fabulous Reception children back at school this week, just as some glorious, warm sunshine arrived for us too!

This week in our maths learning, we have been exploring numbers from 10-20. We have learnt their names and have dug deep to explore the tens and ones in each number. This helps the children to embed that two-digit numbers are made up of tens and ones. We experimented with this in many ways. We started by using numicon pieces to make a number from 10-20. The children had to use the 10 piece numicon and then find the ones numicon piece to build the shown number.

We then moved on to making numbers 10-20 with two tens frames and counters. Again, we broke down how many tens it had and then how many ones the number had. The children worked in teams to make the given number on their tens frame. They first made the whole ten and then how many ones the number had. They had to count their counters altogether to double check it had made the correct number.

We finished our week by learning how to build number 10-20 using cubes.

In other news, we were more than just a ‘tad’ excited about the new members of Reception! On Thursday, we met our class tadpoles. The children are very eager to learn all about them and to watch them grow and develop. There has already been much hype about when they’ll start to develop legs and change over time. Today we have spoken about frogs being amphibians and how they change during their lifecycle. We are sure that you’ll hear much more about them over the next few weeks.

This week we have started to attend whole class assemblies on a Friday afternoon. The children were praised for how beautifully they came into assembly and sat and listened. We even got to leave assembly first as we had sat so well. Well done Reception!

Next week, we will start learning all about Africa through our class text - Handa's Suprise.

Reminders - P.E is going to move to a Thursday morning. We obviously have the children’s P.E kits in each day anyway for extra sessions we add in. Our weekly library session will now move to a Monday. We kindly ask for you to ensure your child’s library book is brought in, in their book bag, on a Monday.

We hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Spring 2 - Week 4 - We're digging our learning.

Our focus story this week has been 'The Enormous Turnip'. The children have learnt the story and have looked closely at the characters and the setting. They have been able to sequence the story and both classes have created the own versions of the story. For this, they thought long and hard about the characters in the story.  We then discussed the vocabulary that they wanted to use and made the story map together. We were  very impressed with how well the children learnt and adapted the story.

In the creative area,  the children had a good look at some different root vegetables and were then able to create observational drawings of different veg as well. They took their time looking carefully at the colours and the shapes of the vegetables, using their pencils to sketch. They then added detail and definition using charcoal, finally adding a little colour using a coloured pencil. We have some fantastic artists is Reception. I'm sure they would love to show off their observational drawing skills at home too! 

In maths over the last two weeks we have been focusing on number bonds to 10, as well as ordering numbers to 10. Today we carefully placed the number cards in order on the carpet. We then asked then children to close their eyes whilst we stole one of the number cards. The children were so good at recognising which number had gone missing. Well done Reception. 

Reminders - If you have not booked in a parents consultation slot with us, please log on to Arbor and book a slot if you are able too. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Best wishes,

The Reception Team 

Spring 2 - Week 2 - Run, run as fast as you can!

Well a week of fun has been had in the Reception classrooms this week. Not only was the Gingerbread Man spotted on camera going through our classes, our attempts to capture him at the end of the week resulted in our classrooms being messed up. But luckily for us, the Gingerbread Man left us a little treat to congratulate us on our attempts to trap him. 

The conversations and ideas about how we could trap him really excited the children. Throughout the week, the children have been making traps, posters and even bridges to help him escape the fox. As you can imagine, the conversations and ideas that the story has sparked have been amazing. Every child has been totally immersed and a great deal of wonderful work has been completed by the children. They have been able to critically think, analyse and confidently share their ideas with each other throughout the week. We are sure the conversations will continue at home well into the weekend!

Reminders -  We change reading books on Mondays and Thursdays. Please ensure your child brings in their book bag each day as we read with the children throughout the week too. Please also ensure they bring their library books in on a Thursday. 

Tuesday 5th March - St Piran's Day - Children are encouraged to wear black, white and gold on this day.
Thursday 7th March - World Book Day - Children can come in in their pyjamas or onesies. They can come in as a favourite book character if they would like to, but do not feel you need to spend any money on outfits. Mrs Clayson will be donning her favourite onesie for the day! 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes, 
The Reception Team