EYFS – Newsletter – 20.01.2023

It’s been another fun-filled week in Reception, with lots of sunshine despite the freezing weather!

In contrast to the cold, we’ve begun looking at African animals as part of our topic and investigated some of the habitats found on this continent and what animals may be found there. We read stories based in Kenya and Tanzania and encouraged the children to look at some non-fiction books about Africa. Some children also chose to use watercolours to paint pictures of some African animals with careful control. We shall continue exploring African animals next week!

Tuesday saw Reception celebrating the Lunar New Year. We learned that 2023 is to be the year of the rabbit and the children engaged in rabbit related activities in their music, art and P.E. sessions.

In Phonics this week, the children have been introduced to the ‘digraph’ (two letters that make one sound) phonemes of ‘qu’ ‘ch’ and ‘sh’.  Activities have allowed children to experience these sounds and apply them in their listening, reading and writing, with an active chair game proving very popular!

Our focus in Maths has been the number 6, 7 and 8. The children showed they could recognise and count out objects to represent these numbers independently as well as verbally explain that each number was one more than the previous one. They represented 6, 7 and 8 in a variety of different ways including with pegs on a hedgehog, using cubes, with numicon and also with items on a tens frame.

Many children have also been very keen to explore the icy wonderland outside, with some fantastic observations of freezing and melting. Children discovered some letters had been frozen in the ice and had to free them before making words using their phonics skills. Some children even created ice artworks with watercolours painted onto the ice and worked together to build and paint an ice castle! 

Next week, Reception will have our fortnightly Forest School session on Thursday 26th January. Please can children arrive in weather appropriate clothing with suitable footwear. Thank you!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team.