Welcome
to
Reception!
Welcome to our Reception Class Page.
Here at King Street, we are an Early Years Foundation Stage Unit which means that Pre-School children and Reception both have their own focused large indoor learning classroom space and all EYFS children share the 'Learning Landscape' outdoor space, in all weathers.
Children are grouped into small 'Family Groups' led by a Key Person.Reception are split into two Family Groups - Miss Whitfield's Purple Group and Miss Starkie's Green Group. (You may hear your children talking about Purple Group and Green Group!)
We start and end each session with shared and focused time where we learn together as a group or class. The rest of the time we access our learning landscape where all of our staff use their skills and knowledge of individual children to move learning on through play.
We encourage Reception children to complete carefully chosen activities within different areas of the setting such as writing using their phonic knowledge and practicing their number skills. Through play, they are often learning, developing and embedding new skills without realising!
We encourage a love of reading at King Street. We take Reception children to a library session at Spennymoor Library every half term. We hold regular whole-setting reading sessions led by staff in the setting or sometimes visitors. Please see below for more information about Phonics and Reading.
We do ask that you check your Tapestry account regularly as we add information here, tasks to support learning at home as well as updates on your child's progress.
Thank you
Miss Whitfield
What is it like to be a child in Reception?
In Reception class, every morning and afternoon we choose a classroom monitor who has various responsibilities throughout the day.
A new responsibility that we have added is to use their ICT skills by using the tablet camera to capture learning by taking photographs of things the children like and enjoy and things that are important to them around the setting.
It's been wonderful to see life in our Reception class from the view of the children and we hope that you enjoy it too!
Phonics and Reading
Children are taught to read using phonics, which is all about teaching the sounds that make up words. Children are taught letter sounds in Reception. This involves thinking about what sound a word starts with, saying the sound out loud and then recognising how that sound is represented by a letter.
The aim is for children to be able to see a letter and then say the sound it represents out loud.
Children then need to go from saying the individual sounds of each letter, to being able to blend the sounds and say the whole word.
Children are taught sounds such as ‘s’ ‘a’ ‘t’ ‘p’ 'i' and ‘n’ in the beginning and start to be able to blend these sounds together to make words such as ‘sat’.
We use the Bug Club programme to teach phonics. The children learn at least 3 new sounds each week giving time to consolidate their learning and use their new sounds to blend.
In Reception, children are given a school reading book, which is linked to their phonic ability, to read at home as well as a book to share for pleasure.
Every child also has a reading record/diary. This helps us to find out how your child is getting on with their reading book at home. Please remember to complete this. Even the date and a signature is useful as we then know that your child has read at home.
Books are changed once a week to help develop fluency and we listen to your child read every day. This enables us to spend quality time sharing reading and tracking reading progress in school. If your child reads other books at home you are able to record this in their reading record too.
Along with their reading book, children will be given tasks on Tapestry to complete and a handwriting sheet linked to the sound taught. Please practise these with your child.
Some simple steps to help your child learn to read through Phonics
- Please read with your child every day. Little and often is key.
- Please bring your child’s Book Bag and Reading Record to school every day. The Reading Record is a great way for teachers and parents to communicate about what children have read. It can tell you whether your child has enjoyed a particular book and shows problems or successes he or she has had, either at home or at school.
- Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ unfamiliar words and then blend the sounds together from left to right rather than looking at the pictures to guess.
- Word games like ‘I-spy’ can also be an enjoyable way of teaching children about sounds and letters.
Online Safety for Reception
Please find below Activity Sheet 1 and Activity Sheet 2 linked to Online Safety.
Each activity should take 15 minutes and will enable you to support your child with online safety at home.
Welly Wednesdays!
Every Wednesday our class goes off to explore the outdoors and learn new skills. Welly Wednesdays will take place for Reception every Wednesday, whatever the weather!
We spend time at the Forest garden in both the morning and afternoon session. Your child will need suitable clothing (listed below) as Welly Wednesdays will take place at the Forest garden (beside the Hub building).
We would like children to come to school dressed in their old clothes on a Wednesday. Please ensure all items are labelled with your child's name.
- Wellies (Can be left at school if needed in a name labelled bag),
- Waterproof trousers or puddle suit
- Old jogging bottoms/trousers/leggings,
- Old T-Shirt or long sleeved top
- Old jacket/hoodie
- Spare socks
Please make sure your child is wearing clothes that you don't mind getting dirty as it can often get quite wet/muddy/messy!
PE
In Reception we are active every day. We have weekly PE lessons on our Movement Mondays. Children should come dressed in their joggers, leggings or shorts and bring their coloured T-shirt to change into.
