Early Years
Welcome to Reception Class
I hope you enjoy reading about what we get up to in Reception, we have lots of fun while learning.
I am happy to answer any questions you may have and am always here to support your child in every way possible. My email address is cbevan@featherstonewood.herts.sch.uk or pop and speak to me on the door any time.
Mrs Hares is the Reception TA and is always avaliable at pick up time for any quieries you have.
Appointments can be arranged for longer meetings, if necessary. Please contact us in writing to let us know of any pre-arranged absences (e.g. Dental/Medical Appointments) and let us know if anyone different will be collecting your child from school at any time.
Reading in Reception
We read every day in school. It is important that children read at home, this helps with their development in all areas. Children should read every night on bug club or their reading book if they bring one home and in school we will count these reads, working towards reading certificates. There are also phonics games set by the teacher on Bug Club and children earn coins to spend on stickers on the website. Please make sure children's reading diaries and books are in school every day and that they are written in by a parent every time the child reads.
Here is a link to some very important information on reading at Featherstone Wood. Reading Leaflet
Our school library is back in action and children will be bringing a library book home on a Friday for you to enjoy over the weekend. These must be returned the following Friday to be changed.
Reminders for this Term:
- We have PE on a Thursday. Children must come into school dressed ready for PE every Thursday. This includes suitable footwear for outdoor PE, a white t-shirt and Navy tracksuit.
- Children should have a water bottle in school every day.
- A change of clothes to leave at school is a good idea incase they get messy or wet.
- Reading diaries and books should be in school every day.
- We are a nut free school and promote healthy lunches, no chocolate or sweets in packed lunches please
- Grapes must be cut up in packed lunches
Bug Club
Please click the link below to go to the Bug Club log in page
https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0
If you have any technical difficulties please do not hesitate to contact us.
In the Early Years we have high expectations of all children and lay the foundations for future learning at Featherstone Wood. The attached document outlines the vision and ambitions of our Early Years curriculum: Early Years Curriculum
We work hard every day focussing on the 7 key areas of learning:
Autumn Term Learning:
Mathematics
We are subitising. We use our super powers to say how many objects there are without counting them. We are enjoying playing dominoes and matching games. We enjoy active maths lessons and learn to play games independently. We have learnt about length and height and using mathematical vocabulary to describe objects. We have moved on to pattern and really enjoy creating patterns with our favourite characters!
Literacy
Our focus book during the first half term is Coming to England. We have really enjoyed learning about Trinidad and talking about the things that the characters saw while on the boat travelling to England. We are learning to develop our listening skills and be able to answer questions about stories.
We enjoy our trips to the school library on Fridays and have learnt the rules of this area of the school. We are very good at keeping it tidy.
Phonics
We use Bug Club for our Phonics learning. We are working on phase 2 sounds and have started learning how to write the sounds we learn each day.
Physical Development
In PE this half term we are focusing on fundamental skills including hopping, skipping, catching and throwing and how to move confidently in a range of ways. We will be practicing our control and co-ordination when moving around also.
To develop fine motor skills we will be using activity boxes every morning, including threading, puzzles and tweezers.
Expressive Arts and Design
We are learning how to use all of the resources in the creative area and put them away safely. We will be junk modelling so any clean recycling you have at home we would appreciate you donating it! We are working on patterns using printing tools and collage.
We are also acting out stories and lets not forget our Nativity songs and play which we are recording for you to enjoy at home.
Personal Social and Emotional
This half term we are focusing on turn taking and friendships. We will have circle time to celebrate how we are all different and what we like about each other. We will be talking about the importance of rules and why we have them. The children set their own class rules last half term which we will be revisiting to see if we are following them every day.
We are also learning about managing our emotions and to use our words to describe how we are feeling.
Understanding the World
We have been learning about religion and celebrations. We will be comparing festivals of different religions. We have learnt about Diwali and are moving on to Christmas.
We have also been learning about animals and their habitats, we even made our own set of pretend binoculars to use on our welly walk. Ask me what we spotted.
We are going to be using the ipads to take photos and also are learning how to use the interactive white board to play phonics and maths games.
Communication and Language.
Every day we choose a different child to be child of the day. This means that all of the adults will have a conversation with that child on that day. The children really enjoy this and chat away about all sorts. The adults use this opportunity to improve that child's language and conversational skills. This half term we are encouraging the children to tell stories, they are getting very good at this and Mrs Bevan has written some of their stories down to go in their special folders.
