Week beginning 21st April

Welcome back and welcome to the Summer term! We hope you had a great break and we are so pleased to see the children (and sunshine!) back! ☀️

What are we learning?

Phonics During our phonics sessions we will be reading and writing CVCC words (consonant vowel consonant consonant), for example ‘milk’ or ‘shelf’ (with sh acting as the consonant). In book bags this week we sent home an information sheet about what phonics will look like during the Summer term. From next week, we will continue to add the information sheets to your child’s phonics folder. 

Literacy Our first story of the term is ‘The Sleepy Bumblebee’. This week we became familiar with the story. We will then learn to retell the story with support from a story map.
Maths We have been learning about doubles, using our fingers to show the double facts. We have been practising the sentence “2 is 1 and 1, 1 and 1 make 2” for each of the double facts to five. We have also been learning about odd and even numbers. We have looked at the Alphablock shapes when presented in a column and decided if they have an “odd top” or a “flat top”.

Understanding the World This half term our topic is ‘Fun at the Seaside’. This week we have discussed what we already know about the seaside, created some seaside art work and enjoyed role playing in the beach shop.

We thank you for your continued support. Please can we ask that siblings remain on the track during pick up- thank you. 

We are excited for this half term and would love for you to come and help in class- please speak to your child’s class teacher.

Week beginning 17th March

What a colourful day we had fundraising for Red Nose Day! The children loved going back to the 1980s and exploring fashion from a different era. We also had so much fun dancing to 1980s music at lunch time.

At the beginning of the week, Reception welcomed some duck eggs into school. Would any of them hatch?... YES! Three ducklings hatched and are now happily staying in Squirrels classroom. The children are loving the opportunity to observe them and learn about how to take care of them. 

It was also lovely to have some sunshine this week! Hedgehogs and Squirrels have loved using our trim trail again.

What are we learning about?

Understanding the World We are continuing to enjoy our Amazing Animals topic. Last week we learnt about animals that live in the rainforest. This week we have been finding out about farm animals and next week is the highly anticipated Pet Week!

Literacy This week we completed our fiction unit on the Little Green Dinosaur by innovating the story. We chose new charaters for him to meet. Next week we will be beginning our non-fiction unit, writing facts about animals.

Maths We are going to be exploring the composition of number within 7. We will investigate the part-part-whole relations between numbers, for example seeing that 7 is made of 5 and 2.

Maths vocabulary part, whole, split, made of 

It was great to meet with you all this week and have the opportunity to celebrate your child's achievements 

Week beginning 3rd March- Book Week

This week we have had so much fun celebrating Book Week. We have taken part in a variety of activities to help develop our love of reading- sharing books with children in different classes, all reading together in the hall, adults from across the school coming to read to different classes and, of course, the mystery readers! All the children were so excited to see who had come to read- thank you to all who took part and helped to make Book Week even more special. On Thursday we loved dressing up as book characters and took part in a parade so we could all see each others outfits. Next week we will continue with our Little Wandle reading books.

What are we learning about?

Literacy We will be learning the story of The Little Green Dinosaur. 

Maths This week we have been learning about height and length. We have focused on using our Maths vocabulary to make comparisons between objects and people.

Maths Vocabulary tall, taller, tallest, long, longer, longest, short, shorter, shortest

Understanding the World Last week we learnt all about animals that live in cold climates. Next week we will be finding out about animals that live in the rainforest.

It looks like Spring has sprung! Enjoy the sunshine this weekend.

Week beginning 10th February 

Hedgehogs and Squirrels finished off our ‘On the Move’ topic with a visit to the railway bridge. We enjoyed watching the trains arrive in and out of the train station and waving at the trains as the travelled under the bridge- the train drivers gave us big waves too and hooted their horns for us! 🚆

What are we learning?

Literacy We have been learning to write instructions on how to plant a bean seed. We recorded the instructions on a story map, which helped us to retell them and become familiar with the key vocabulary, for example first, next, after that, finally. 

Maths We are continuing to practise our subitising skills- the instant recognition of a number without needing to count as well as building our understanding of the composition of numbers, for example knowing that 5 is made of 3 and 2. We have also practised counting out a given number of objects from a larger group, group example counting out 6 cubes from a tray of cubes.

Maths vocabulary part, whole, count, amount, total.

Understanding the World Next half term we will be learning all about animals! We will begin by finding out about animals that live in cold climates. ❄️🐧🐻‍❄️
 

Thank you for all your support this half term. We wish you a very happy half term!

Week beginning 27th January

Reception have been busy bees and working hard in all areas of their learning. We have enjoyed learning the story of the Lunar New Year. We have used masks and figures to act out the story during our playing and learning time and even performed the story using yoga poses during this weeks yoga session!

 What are we learning?

Literacy We have been retelling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk as part of our Talk for Writing unit. We also began to innovate the story and we had lots of fun thinking of who we could find at the top of the beanstalk instead of a giant- Hedgehogs chose a monster and Squirrels chose an alien! Next week we will be learning to write instructions. 
 

Maths We have been exploring weight, mass and capacity. We have learnt how to use balance scales and investigated how much different containers can hold. Next week we will be exploring different ways to make 5. 
 

Understanding the World Reception are continuing to enjoy our ‘On the Move’ topic. We particularly enjoyed a visit from one of our Reception parents who bought in a working model traction engine to share with us! 
 

📚Please remember to record each time you hear your child read at home and aim for at least 3 times a week. Your child gets a raffle ticket for each time they have read during the week and a winner is chosen during assembly on Friday!

Thank you again for all your support. Enjoy your weekend!

Week beginning 13th January

Squirrels and Hedgehogs are well and truly back into the swing of school after the break and have been up to lots of excellent learning. They enjoyed the visit from the nurse this week and showed excellent understanding on why we need to brush our teeth and wash our hands carefully. The children have also been busy creating their own vehicles. They have been selecting what they would like to use from a wide range of resources and then planning how to put it together to make their chosen vehicle- we have had fire engines, helicopter and even submarines!
 

Next Week

Phonics We will be learning the sounds ur, ow, oi and ear and the tricky words are ‘my’ ‘by’ and ‘all’.

Literacy We will be drawing a story map to help us remember the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We will use it to help us retell the story, as well as using actions.

Maths Our focus will be on counting and the concept of cardinality- that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether. We will also explore that each number has a value of one more than the previous number.

Maths vocabulary counting, more, altogether. 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Week beginning 6th January

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! We hope you had a lovely Christmas break. We are excited for the children to be back at school and have enjoyed getting stuck back into our learning this week. Squirrels and Hedgehogs have loved beginning our new topic 'On the Move'. This week we have been learning about flying vehicles and emergency vehicles. 

Next Week

Phonics Our sounds will be oo (both the long sound as in 'moon' and the short sound as in 'look'), ar and or. Our new tricky words are 'was' 'you' and 'they'.

Maths We will be continuing to develop our subitising skills by encouraging the children to represent quantities in different ways. We will also be recognising numerals and matching numerals to quantities.

Maths vocabulary  subitise, numeral, numbers 1-5, represent

Literacy We will be starting to learn to retell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Understanding the World We will be learning about Chinese New Year.

Stay warm and have a great weekend!

Week beginning 16th December

What a fantastic end to the term! The children sang beautifully on Wednesday during 'Music and Mince Pies' and they all had so much fun playing party games during our Christmas party yesterday. 

What are we learning in our first week back?

Phonics We will be learning the sounds ai, ee, igh and oa and we will be revising the tricky words the, put, I, pull and full.

Maths We will be practising our counting skills, inclusing that the purpose of counting is to find out how many objects there are. We will focus on the concept of 1:1 correspondence. 

Maths vocabulary count, how many, altogether

Understanding the World We are excited to start our 'On the Move' topic. The overview of this topic is available to view on this page.

Thank you so much for all your support this term. Well done to the children (and adults!) for finding their way through their first term of school. We are very proud of all of you. Thank you so much for your kind words and kind gifts. 

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Love from the Reception Team 

Week beginning 9th December 

Reception really enjoyed making special party hats to wear for Christmas lunch. Everyone enjoyed trying all the different food and the Christmas cookie was a huge hit! 
 

Next week

Phonics We will be recapping all the sounds and tricky words we have learnt this term. 
 

Reading We won’t be hearing the children read in groups next week. Instead all the children will read 1:1 with an adult. We will not be sending reading books home for the Christmas holidays so please take the time to revise previously learnt sounds and words in your child’s phonics folder. 
 

Maths We are continuing our topic on the composition of numbers and will focus on the composition of 3, 4 and 5.

Maths vocabulary part, whole 

Understanding the World We are going to find out about the different ways Christmas is celebrated around the world. 
 

Important Dates for next week

18th December- 2.30pm ‘Music and Mince Pies’ Christmas celebration for Reception parents

19th December- Christmas parties. Children can come to school in party clothes and have a day of fun activities.

20th December- End of term. School closes 1.30pm Honeybees After school club closes at 4.30pm

Hopefully we will see lots of you on Wednesday for a festive celebration 🎄

Week beginning 2nd December 

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to come in and help on Art and DT morning. The children had so much fun and created lots of super decorations. Our classrooms look very festive!

Next week

Phonics We will be reading words that end in ‘s’ as well as reviewing and assessing previously learnt sounds. Our tricky words are ‘me’ ‘we’ and ‘be’. 
 

Maths We will be exploring the composition of number through the concept of ‘parts’ and ‘wholes’. They will begin to understand that whole things are made of smaller parts and that a whole is bigger than its parts. 
 

Maths vocabulary whole, part

Understanding the World We will be learning about how Jews celebrate Hanukkah.

We hope to see lots of you at the school fair on Sunday 11-2! 🎄🎅❄️

Week beginning 25th November 

Reception are really enjoying our Dinosaurs topic! We have explored dinosaur bones, learnt dinosaur facts and even helped the dinosaurs escape from the ice! We also really enjoyed our visit from Mrs Clements and her baby and we are all pleased to see them doing so well.

Next Week

Art and DT morning On Wednesday morning the children will spend the morning creating different Christmas crafts. Thank you so much to all of you who have volunteered to come in and help. Please could your child bring in one white sock and one coloured sock for one of our crafts? We would also appreciate toilet roll tubes you can donate! Thank you 🎄

Phonics Next week our sounds are sh, th, ng and nk and our words will be she, he, push and of.

Maths We will be comparing numbers, for example recognising which group has more or less.

Maths vocabulary more than, fewer than, equal to

Gymnastics This half term we are doing gymnastics with our Kiko coaches. We will be focussing on balance, rolls, jumps, shapes and strategy.

Enjoy your weekend!

Week beginning 18th November 

This week Reception enjoyed their first yoga lesson. We learnt about how yoga is a great way to feel peaceful and to use our body in a slow, careful way. We listened to the ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ story whilst following the instructions to complete the poses.

Next Week

Phonics Our sounds will be z, qu and ch. Our words will be go, no, to and into.

Literacy We will be orally retelling ‘Rosie’s Walk’, using a story map and actions to help us.

Maths Our topic will be length, height, capacity and mass. We are going to take part in a variety of practical activities to help us practise our measuring.

Maths vocabulary length, height, short, shorter, shortest, tall, taller, tallest, long, longer, longest, full, empty, heavy, heavier, heaviest, light, lighter, lightest.

❄️As the weather is getting colder, please ensure your child has a coat in school and all hats, gloves and scarves are labelled- thank you and have a great weekend!
 

Week beginning 11th November

One of the highlights this week was our visit to Ashtead Common. We were so impressed with how well the children walked from school, around the common and back again. A big thank you to all the parents who came to help- without your support we would not be able to offer these experiences. Our outing helped to consolidate our learning about Autumn and was a lovely way to complete our topic.

It was also great fun seeing everyone in their ‘happy’ outfits today!
 

Next week

Phonics Our sounds next week will be v w x and y and our tricky words will be ‘and’ ‘has’ ‘his’ and ‘her’. 

Literacy We will be writing poems about our story, Rosie’s Walk.

Maths We are continuing to focus on activities that encourage children to understand the purpose of counting- finding out how many there are altogether. We will also be deepening their understanding of 5 as a quantity.

Maths vocabulary how many, count, five, altogether, amount

Understanding the World Next week we are beginning our Dinosaurs topic! 

Have a great weekend!

Week beginning 4th November

It was lovely to see the children again after the half term break- they all came back rested and ready to learn! This week we have been learning about Diwali. We have found out how and why it is celebrated, explored Rangoli patterns and created our own Mehndi hand designs. 

Next Week

Phonics Next week our sounds will be ff ll ss and j and our tricky words will be put, pull, full and as.

Literacy We will continue to learn our focus story, Rosie's Walk. We will be discussing the nouns in the story and then thinking of adjectives to describe them.

Maths Our topic for the week will be comparing numbers. We will be solving problem such as can you give the tiger more toys than the duck?

Maths vocabulary more than, greater than, less than, equal to, same.

Understanding the World We will be looking for the signs of Autumn next week. 

Have a great weekend!

Week beginning 21st October 

This week Reception enjoyed visiting St George’s Church and watching Year 1 and 2 perform their Harvest assembly. The children then wrote a recount of their visit as their first piece of writing in their writing books! In phonics this week we have been recapping the sounds we have already learnt, therefore there is no new phonics sheet this week. 
 

First week after half term

Phonics We will spend one more week recapping the previously learnt sounds. We will then continue to introduce new sounds and tricky words. 
 

Literacy We will be learning the story of Rosie’s Walk.
 

Maths We will be working on the children’s subitising skills- the instant recognition of a number without needing to count (for example when you roll a dice and you see 4 dots, you instantly recognise it is 4 without needing to count the dots). 
Maths vocabulary two, three, four, group, set, recognise 

Understanding the World We are going to be talking about how Hindus celebrate Diwali. 
 

Snacks The Reception snack bar is open both in the morning and after lunch. Schools snacks are provided but if you are finding your child is hungry you may want to bring two snacks for them. 
 

Well done to Squirrels and Hedgehogs for settling so well during their first ever term at school! We are very proud of all the children and thank you for all your support. We hope you have a well-deserved break over half term and we look forward to welcoming the children back on Monday 4th November. 

Meet the Teacher

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the meeting on Wednesday 11th September. For those of you who were unable to attend, please take some time to read through the slides in the link below. 

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to your child's class teacher. 

Week beginning 14th October

Reception loved their first Barnett Wood Crazy Hair Day! All the children look great- we loved seeing all the colourful dos and fun accessories. This week we introduced the children to our Talk for Writing approach to Literacy. As a class we made up a story, choosing together the characters, settings and a special object for our character to find. We plotted our ideas onto a story map (a story plan) using pictures and then told our story out loud using actions. 
 

Next Week

Phonics We will be revising previously learnt sounds and tricky words.

Maths We will be learning about squares and rectangles. We will be identifying and describing their features, as well as sorting the shapes into different groups (such as 4 sides and not 4 sides).

Key Maths Vocabulary square, rectangle, four, sides, straight, same, different, length.

Harvest Festival Reception will be going over to St George’s Church on Monday to watch the Year 1 and 2 rehearse the Harvest Assembly. They will then write about their outing in their writing books.

Share their Learning On Thursday 24th we invite to you to come in and look at your children’s work 2.30-3pm.

We hope to see lots of you at our Bake and Taste Open Morning tomorrow!

Week beginning 7th October

This week we have enjoyed using the Interactive Whiteboard to create our own works of art. We have also been experimenting with mixing colours when painting and using our voices in different ways when singing. 

Thank you for returning your reading books so promptly on Monday. The children have been reading new books this week and are looking forward to sharing them with you over this weekend.

Next Week

Phonics Our sounds next week will be h, b, f and l and our word will be the.

Maths The children will explore how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, begin to investigate the composition of 3 and 4. This involves investigating part-whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. Through practical experience, we will learn that a 'whole' is made of smaller parts and is bigger than its parts.

Key Maths Vocabulary part whole bigger smaller made of makes 

Understanding the World We will be learning about Ashtead and identifying the key features of where we live, such as our houses, school and the shops.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Week beginning 30th September

This week we began our group reading sessions. The children read their book 3 times in the week, with each session focussing on a different skill- decoding (for example blending the words), prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension (understanding and discussing the book). In your child's reading record, you will see when each session took place and with which member of staff. There will also be a comment from staff once a week. Your child brings their book home on Thursday. Please read it three times and record when you read it in their reading record. Please return the book on Monday.

The whole school had a fire drill today and Reception really impressed us with how sensibly they were able to line up and walk around to our meeting point on the front play ground- well done!

Next week

Phonics- Our sounds will be ck e u r and our word will be I.

Maths- We will be hearing and counting in sequence to 5, including using songs and rhymes.

Understanding the World- We will be naming and labelling the parts of our body and discussing their functions.

Have a lovely weekend!

Week beginning 23rd September

Reception have had another fantastic week at school and have been working very hard. They really enjoyed their PE lesson with Coach Finley and they loved playing different games on the field. Please keep practising getting dressed and undressed with as much independence as possible.

Next Week 

Phonics Our sounds next week will be g o c k and our tricky word will be 'is'.

Reading  We will be starting our group reading sessions. The children will read their reading book three times during the week and then bring it home on Thursday. Please share the book three more times with your child and return the book on Monday. To begin, all children will have a wordless book. This is to help develop their language skills through discussion of the text. As the children begin to blend sounds to make words, they will bring home books with words. This will vary for each child. 

Maths We will be learning about circles and triangles. We will be using the correct mathematical language to describe the shapes, for example round, straight sides, corners. We will also be using positional language, such as on top, next to and under.

Understanding the World We will be discussing why birthdays are a special celebration and sharing our own experiences of birthdays. We will also talk about other celebrations, such as weddings and religious festivals.

The weather is currently very unpredictable. Please ensure your child brings a coat to school each day- thank you.

Have a great weekend!

Week beginning 16th September

Well done to Squirrels and Hedgehogs for having such a fantastic first full week at school! The children have been great at going over to the servery and enjoying their lunches. We have even been able to have some playtimes on the field and enjoy the sunshine. 

In the classroom we have been continuing to learn the rules and routines, as well as exploring the different areas of learning- for example creating faces with play doh, painting our families and creating models from different materials. 

Next Week

Phonics Our sounds next week will be I M N D. 

Maths We will be matching groups of objects that have the same number, for example 3 buttons and 3 cubes. 

PSED We will be talking about how we recognise and manage our feelings.

Expressive arts and design We will be learning about what an artist does and what a self-portrait is. We will then find out about the artist Frida Kahlo.

Please can you upload a family photo and a baby photo of you child on to Tapestry for our learning next week? 

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Week beginning 9th September

Well done to all the Hedgehogs and Squirrels for settling so well into school! The children have had lots of opportunities to get to know their new friends and new school. We have been exploring different activities both inside, such as role play, squirrels and hedgehog crafts and play doh and outside, for example the sand pit, bikes and the trim trail. So busy! We also went for a tour around the school, meeting all the Year 1 and 2 children and even popped in to say hello to Mrs Gibbard in her office. 

Next week

Phonics  We will be introducing the sounds S A T P. We will be learning to listen for words that begin with those sounds and practising the correct letter formation.

Literacy There will be lots of opportunities for the children to practise the new sounds they have learnt in the message centre! 

Maths We will be learning to match objects, recognising that objects and pictures match when they are the same. 

Topic Our topic this half term is 'Ourselves'. We will be recognising what our faces look like when we feel different ways, creating self-portraits using loose parts and painting our families.

Have a great weekend!