EYFS – Newsletter – 10.10.24

It’s been a short but wonderful week in Reception! As part of our topic of ‘All About Me’ we have concentrated on three key words: independence, responsibility and perseverance. To demonstrate their independence, the children have been mixing their own secondary colours to complete rainbow pictures (we only gave them the three primary colours so the rest was up to them!). The children have also been practising their independent serving skills as used in the dining hall at lunchtime – in an effort to reduce messy spillages! We’ll continue this on next week with cutting skills using a knife and fork.

Phonics sessions this week have been spent revisiting and recapping the learning of the six sounds we’ve taught so far (s a t  p i n). We’ve concentrated on hearing these sounds at the start of words (the initial sound) and finding how this helps us with reading and writing words. The children have taken part in sorting activities, matching pair games and discerning which words start with which letter sounds. Please be aware that we are holding a phonics information session at 5pm on Thursday 17th October next week for anyone who would like to understand a bit more about how we teach phonics in school and some ideas for how you can support your child at home. 

In Maths, we have introduced the concept of repeating patterns. The children have loved exploring how to recognise patterns in different ways and how to present their own patterns. We’ve done activities involving making patterns with our bodies (stomp, clap, stomp, clap) or spotting patterns in stories (squelch, squerch, squelch, squerch) as well as lots of lovely colourful caterpillars and necklaces made with blocks and beads.

The children’s perseverance was tested as everyone was invited to take a turn at using the DT equipment to practise their sawing and hammering skills. As it can take some time to saw through a piece of wood with the junior hacksaws, this sawing can require a fair bit of perseverance to keep going long enough to see success – but we’re pleased to say that the children are no quitters!  

As usual the classroom is a hive of activity during our choosing time, as the children get busy with all sorts of activities. We’ve seen lots of pattern practise, bowers built and imaginative role play games in our dress up clothes. Lots of children also enjoyed an opportunity to have a go on the class iPads to explore phonics and maths games. It has been great to hear of so many children trying out these games at home with the log-ins we provided. Just a reminder that these games and activities are not compulsory and just there as an additional way that children can practise their learning at home if they so wish. 

Thursday this week was our fortnightly Forest Schools session, which coincided with the whole-school ‘Hello Yellow Day’ to raise awareness on World Mental Health Day. For more of what we got up to and photos from the day please see the separate website post.

Have a great weekend!

The Reception Team 

Dates for the Diary:

Friday 11th October – School closed for staff training day

Thursday 17th October – Reception Parents Phonics Workshop (5pm). Form to book on can be found on the EYFS page of the website.

Friday 25th October – Last day of Autumn 1 before half-term break begins.