Welcome to our Reception Class at St James’
Welcome to Reception Class, my name is Miss Guthrie and I am the Class Teacher along with Ms Capot (Class Teacher) who works in Reception one day per week. Mrs Watson is our Nursery Nurse and we are supported by Teaching Assistants Mrs Mullen and Ms Walton at different times during the week.
Reception Noticeboard
- PE in Reception is on Thursday. Children should come to school wearing their full St James PE kit on this day.
- We use Tapestry as a means of sharing our learning, celebrations and activities.
- Please bring fresh water daily.
- As the term progresses all children will be given a home school reading book which should be kept in their book bags. We ask that you read with your child at least three times per week and that book bags are brought to school every day. We will listen to your child read once a week in school and books will be changed weekly.
- We pray every day in school. Please help your child to become familiar with our prayers here Little Book of Prayers EYFS and KS1 Little Book of Prayers EYFS and KS1
Autumn Tern in Reception Class
To begin our learning journey in reception class we will be learning about ourselves. We will spend some time getting to know one another and will have lots of fun playing and making new friends. We will learn about our school rules and routines and will grow more confident as each day passes.
We will read The Colour Monster Starts School to support our understanding of the different feelings and emotions that we may go through each day, and we will read Elmer to help us to understand that we are all valued and unique.
In R.E. we will learn about our names and will learn that we are all part of the St James family. We will learn our daily prayers and will spend some time learning new hymns. The first hymns we will learn are Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed and If I Were a Butterfly.
Phonics will begin within the first few weeks of term. We follow the Sounds Write programme and in Reception Class we learn the initial code. We will work through units 1 – 7 by the end of the autumn term, learning to read and write CVC words with the sounds; a, I, m, s, t, n, o, p, b, c, g, h, d, e, f, v, k, l, r, u, j, w, z, x, y, ff, ll, ss, zz. We will also learn to read and write our name.
We follow the White Rose Maths curriculum and begin the term by learning to match, sort and compare. We also explore shape, measure and pattern before moving on to explore numbers to 5.
In our exploration of the natural world the children will learn about our local environment and seasonal changes. We will visit our local park and search for signs of autumn. As the term progresses the children will learn about hibernation and explore different animals that hibernate with a focus on hedgehogs.
We will find out about farmers and their crops, and we will learn why harvesting is important and why it happens at certain times throughout the year. We will learn about harvest festivals and why/how people celebrate harvest time.
Tips on how to help your child’s learning during the Autumn Term:
- Look at family photos together, drawing attention to the people and the places in the photos.
- Talk about things that you have done or are going to do together as a family.
- Develop and reinforce good hygiene practices such as washing hands and brushing teeth.
- Develop good bedtime routines.
- Draw children’s attention to seasonal changes you notice when outside. Talk about the leaves changing colour and falling to the ground, search for autumnal items together.
- Read a story daily with your child, talking lots about the illustrations and characters. Can you predict what might happen next in the story? – Access the free Sounds Write Training for parents available at – https://sounds-write.co.uk/support-for-parents-and-carers/ to help your child learn to read and write.
- Help your child to complete their phonics homework each week.
- When reading books are issued later this term, read with your child at least 3x per week, to support them with their reading journey.
- Return reading books to school each day so that they are available for your child to read in school with a member of staff.
- Help your child to learn to write their name by practicing this with them.
- Play with playdough to help develop fine motor skills. This will help with their pencil grip when writing.
- Sing number rhymes together.
- Talk about shapes and patterns you notice in the world around you.
- Bake together, reading recipes and measuring out ingredients.
