Reception curriculum letter

Woodland Base Spring Term 2014 2014 January 2014 Dear Parents, Welcome back to a new term!

The children have returned to school full of excitement about their lovely Christmases. They have settled back into the familiar routines of school eager to continue their learning journey in Reception. We have already started to join the rest of the school in early morning active time which takes place after assembly time each morning. This will require the children to change into their trainers when they arrive at school in the morning please encourage them to do this INDEPENDENTLY and to put their shoes under their pegs ready to change back into later.

PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL SHOES AND TRAINERS ARE CLEARLY NAMED – thank you!

Thank you for your support with showing time and with Milly, Billy and Bobby. I will be sending the bears home again this term and showing time will now ONLY be on a Friday I have explained this to the children too. They may of course bring in things during the week linked to our learning and we have been very interested in the books and pictures that have been brought in already about our new learning topic - Space. As the weather has been colder please also ensure that any hats, gloves or scarves are named as well. Some of our learning this term as you already know will be based around the theme of Space which we are all very enthusiastic about.

The children have already thought of some very interesting learning questions which you can see in our classroom. We will also be taking part in the RSPB Birdwatch over the next two weeks as well as Enterprise Week.

Personal, Social & Emotional Our work this term is based on the SEAL theme of Going for Goals. We have started by talking about what we are good at and we will we develop this into discussions about things we might like to improve or be able to do and how we can achieve this _ a key part of this learning is the idea of persevering, and being able to keep on trying at the skill even if it is tricky e.g learning to ride a bike without stabilisers. You could support us with this work by talking to your child about what they would like to achieve - think of something fairly simple and easily achievable e.g do up their coat on their own, write their name independently, swim without armbands etc.

Physical Development We will be working on balance, body shape and continuing with ball skills. We will be playing racing and chasing games and continuing to use the large apparatus to develop confidence and skill in moving around, under, over and through climbing equipment – you could support this by encouraging these skills when you visit the park, playing with balls to develop throwing and catching. We will also continue to develop our fine motor skills for handwriting and beginning specific letter formation with those children that are ready for it now. We will also be talking about healthy eating and exercise.

Communication & Language We will be continuing to develop attention and concentration during activities as appropriate. We will be learning new vocabulary and developing language during role play activities such as in the Space role play, and when developing small world play with the space items, the castle and other small characters. The children will continue to share special things from home in showing time explaining

what they have brought with them, why they like it, where they got it from. They have the opportunity to ask each other questions about their special objects.

Mathematics We continue with our counting, consolidating counting and ordering numbers to 10 and to 20 and learning to count in 10s, 2s and 5s. We will also be comparing and ordering numbers talking about numbers which are 1 less and 1 more than each other and in practical activities begin to think about adding and subtracting moving onto ways of recording the activity using numbers, marks or pictures. You can support this at home by looking for numbers when you are out and playing simple number games that involve adding or subtracting and keeping a score for each other. We will be sequencing familiar events and using language related to time as well as exploring weight, height, capacity and money. The children will also continue to investigate patterns and sorting and be able to talk about their patterns or the ways they have sorted certain groups of objects.

Literacy This term we will be looking at the differences between story books (fiction) and information books (non – fiction). We will be finding out facts for our work on space from non- fiction books and also the internet. You could look in the library for books about space. We will also be taking part in the Big Birdwatch for schools during this half term so we will also be finding out about different garden birds and making information posters and fact books. We are learning how to talk a sentence in preparation for writing it down and we will continue to develop our writing skills by writing simple recounts of activities we have done for example at the weekend as well as labels, speech bubbles, sequencing familiar stories and adding captions to pictures. You can support our story making work by asking your child to tell you the stories we have learnt or ask them to draw you a story map of the story. There will continue to be a daily phonics session and as well as consolidating last term’s learning we will finish learning the more tricky sounds made with two and three letters. The children will need lots of practise with theses so that they become really familiar with them.

Alongside the letter sounds we are also learning the alphabet so the children know the name of the letter as well as its sound. Your help with this work and with your child’s reading is invaluable - thank you. Our work on blending and segmenting is ongoing.

Understanding Understanding the World We will be continuing to use the computers and to investigate and explore the world around us. We will talking about seasonal changes in the environment and making observations during the birdwatch. During Enterprise Week we will discuss different jobs adults have and think about what the children might like to do when they are grown up. We will be finding out about how Chinese New Year is celebrated.

Expressive Arts and Design We will continue to use the musical instruments exploring simple rhythms and how sounds can be changed. We will be looking at sound patterns and matching movement to music. The children will continue to work in the role play and storymaking area acting out stories and familiar situations both inside and outside. Our outdoor mud kitchen is still very popular so we will keep that at the moment and change our inside role play area in response to the children’s learning currently it is a space area and rocket.

We have been exploring colour mixing and will be exploring adding texture to pictures.

Please come to see me if you need any other information. Please keep looking at our blog for useful websites and information about our learning.

Thank you for your continued support – please see me if you need to discuss anything further with me.

Kind Regards Sue Flavell