Reception

Welcome to Reception's Learning Page

MEET THE TEAM

Mrs Hayes

Mrs Littlewood

Mrs Dalby

Miss Harrison

Mrs Wilson

Our main driver project this half term is:

This project supports children to develop a love of stories and reading. It encourages children to learn, retell and act out familiar and traditional tales including: Cinderella, Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Support your child at home by:

🧩 Prime Areas
1. Communication and Language

Activities at home:

Read different fairy tales aloud each day — talk about the beginning, middle, and end.
Use puppets or toys to retell the story in their own words.
Play “Who said it?” — quote a line and have your child guess the character.

2. Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Activities at home:

Discuss how characters feel — e.g., “How did the bears feel when Goldilocks broke their chairs?”
Role-play sharing, kindness, and helping others through story play.
Create a “hero chart” — talk about what makes a good character or friend.

3. Physical Development

Activities at home:

Build story-inspired obstacle courses (e.g., climb the beanstalk, run from the wolf).
Make playdough “magic beans” or “porridge” — strengthen fine motor skills.
Use scissors to cut out pictures of fairy-tale items to decorate a story board.

🧠 Specific Areas
4. Literacy

Activities at home:

Read or listen to fairy tales; match pictures to story parts.
Encourage mark-making by “writing” letters to story characters.
Create a mini book: draw pictures and add simple labels or sentences.

5. Mathematics

Activities at home:

Count objects in stories (e.g., 3 bears, 3 bowls, 3 chairs).
Sort items by size — small, medium, large.
Build houses for the pigs using blocks and count how many bricks you used.

6. Understanding the World

Activities at home:

Explore real vs. pretend — talk about what’s make-believe in the stories.
Grow your own “magic bean” and observe it sprout.
Compare different homes or materials (like straw, sticks, and bricks).

7. Expressive Arts and Design

Activities at home:

Create story hats, crowns, or masks from cardboard.
Act out stories with music or dance — e.g., “The Ball at Cinderella’s Palace.”
Build small worlds from recycled materials to retell stories.

Children can access home learning activities by logging onto Seesaw. These are updated on a regular basis and support learning that is taking place in the classroom.

Our companion project is:

This project teaches children about the celebrations that take place during the autumn and winter seasons, and focus on the significance and symbolism of light at this time of year.

Support your child at home by:

🧩 Prime Areas
1. Communication and Language

Activities at home:

Talk about things that sparkle or shine around you — lights, jewellery, stars.
Read books about light and celebrations (The Nativity Story, Kipper’s Snowy Day, Diwali stories).
Play “Guess the Object” — describe something shiny and have your child guess it.

2. Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Activities at home:

Discuss how people shine inside by being kind and helpful.
Celebrate achievements — make a “Star of the Week” chart for home.
Talk about different celebrations (e.g., Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid) and how families share happiness.

3. Physical Development

Activities at home:

Use glitter paint, glue, and sequins for crafts — great for fine motor control.
Dance with ribbons or torches in a dark room — move like twinkling stars.
Thread shiny beads or pasta to make “sparkly necklaces”.

🧠 Specific Areas
4. Literacy

Activities at home:

Write “sparkle words” — think of shiny things (sun, moon, gold, glitter) and label drawings.
Read and retell light-themed stories (The Rainbow Fish, Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear?).
Make a “sparkle book” with photos, drawings, and simple captions.

5. Mathematics

Activities at home:

Sort shiny and dull objects — count how many of each.
Create patterns using shiny buttons or foil stars.
Compare shapes and sizes of lights or decorations.

6. Understanding the World

Activities at home:

Explore sources of light — torches, lamps, the sun, candles (adult supervision).
Talk about why we need light and what happens in the dark.
Learn how people around the world celebrate with light (Diwali lamps, Christmas lights, fireworks for New Year).

7. Expressive Arts and Design

Activities at home:

Make glitter jars or “snow globes” with water and sparkles.
Paint with metallic colours and foil printing.
Create a “light show” with torches behind coloured paper or fabric.
Sing sparkle-themed songs: “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “This Little Light of Mine.”

Again, don't forget to look out for the fun, weekly activities on Seesaw and also look what we have been up to in class on class dojo.

Maths

Here is our overview for this term:

This half term we will be focusing on:

Shapes- especially circles and triangles to begin with. We will be looking at shapes in the environment also.
Focusing on the numbers 1-5 and looking at how to make the numbers.
Subitising numbers 4 and 5
1 more up to 5.
1 less up to 5.
Shapes with 4 sides

Key books that we'd recommend that will support your child(ren's) understanding in this terms maths:

• Zero is the Leaves on the Tree by Betsy Franco • None the Number by Oliver Jeffers • Anno’s Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno • I Spy Numbers by Jean Marzollo • The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson • Five Small Stars by Elizabeth Matterson and Madge Bugden • Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson • Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen • Balancing Act by Ellen Stoll Walsh • A Beach for Albert by Eleanor May • Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne • Sidney the Silly Who Only Eats 6 by M.W. Penn • Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore • 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle • Kipper’s Toybox by Mick Inkpen • Quack and Count by Keith Baker • Simon Sock by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

Literacy

This half term we will be focusing on:

Giving meanings to marks as they draw.
Recognising and writing own name.
Writing recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.
Forming lower-case and capital letters correctly.
Reading simple phrases and sentences made up of words with known letter–sound correspondences and, where necessary, a few exception words.
Reading individual letters by saying the sounds for them.
Using one-handed tools and equipment, for example, making snips in paper with scissors.
Using a comfortable grip with good control when holding pens and pencils.
Drawing story maps.
Using phonic knowledge to write captions and sentences.
Using stories to create opportunities for writing across the areas of provision.
Re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense.
Writing short sentences with words with known sound-letter correspondences using a capital letter and full stop.

Reading and Phonics

We are continuing our ELS phonics journey. Your child has learnt all the phase 2 sounds and is now learning the phase 3 sounds now.

We will continue recognising phase 2 and 3 sounds segmenting words with sounds we have learnt, then blending the sounds together.

We will continue to practice to read the harder to read and spell words daily.

Books are changed every Friday and we ask that children practice reading at least four times a week.

Check out the following links to help at home:

How to pronounce pure sounds

How to blend words to read

This grapheme sheet and harder to spell and read words have been sent home but click the button below to see it online.

Key Days:

Both Reception classes will be doing PE on a Friday this half term.

Reading books will need to be returned by Thursday in order to send out a new book on Friday. Please ensure you bring your child's their reading book to school every day to support reading in school.

Grapheme Sheet for Parents

Grapheme Sheet for Parents

Harder to Read and Spell Words

Here is our Reception Class Charter challenge sheet. You can also download a copy by clicking on the image.

Download all the Charters as a PDF file