Reception Class News

This week’s bible story

Four friends help a paralysed man: Luke 5: 17-25 

If I asked you to tell you one of the things they liked doing best of all, I imagine it would be playing with their friends. Have a think about your friends and think about what you feel is special about them. In our story, we hear about how four friends help a paralysed man.

Reflection:
Think about the story.
Were there good friends in it?
Think about your friends.
What makes a good friend?
Think about yourself.
Are you a good friend?

Prayer:
Dear God
We thank you for our friends and for the happy times we share with them. Help us to be a good friend to them. Teach us how to play fairly and to share. Help us to recognize loneliness in others and show friendliness towards them. We know that you are our friend and will be with us always.
Amen.

Another busy week!

Reading Zoom meeting
Thank you to all the parents that attended the Zoom reading meeting. I hope you found it useful. For those parents that were unable to attend, click here to watch the recording.
Below are the links some of you requested during the meeting.
– Unfortunately, the pure sounds video created by two of our federation teachers is not working. However, click here to watch this video.
–  Jolly Phonics rhymes

Literacy
Our focus story is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.
On Tuesday, we went on our very own bear hunt around school and found a bear hiding in the pond area!
They had fun doing actions, using instruments, and drawing their own story maps. They were fantastic at remembering the order of the obstacles!
Click here to watch us retell the story.

One of the chilli challenges this week was to retell the story using the stick puppets. We witnessed some amazing retelling!
Next week, the children will be making up their own versions of the story by changing the main character and some of the obstacles.

Maths
Every week, the children will be introduced to a new focus number. This week, it was number one. We’ve explored what one is, watched the Numberblock 1 video, drew pictures of our own One Wonderful Worlds, and introduced the part-whole model.
One is a part. Zero is a part. One is the whole 
Zero is a part. One is a part. One is the whole.

Some examples of the children’s One Wonderful World pictures:
Library Time
Every Thursday, we visit our school library. The children really enjoy visiting the library, sharing books with their friends, and listening to a whole class story at the end.
Reminders!
– A sound book has been put in your child’s bookbag. Have fun practising the first three phonemes (s, a, t) at home.
– The cold weather is creeping in! Please make sure your child comes to school wearing a suitable coat.
– Next Wednesday, your child will need to come to school wearing their school uniform.

Home-Link Challenge

This week’s bible story

David and Jonathan: 1 Samuel 18-19

Friendship is a precious gift. Everyone wants to have friends. If we are fortunate, we will have a group of close friends, people with whom we can share our lives. However, sometimes, things go wrong. There can be disagreements that lead to friends falling out and maybe not talking to each other altogether. When David was a young boy, he had been told that one day, he would be the future King of Israel. As he grew up, David became famous for defeating the giant, Goliath, and for being a skilled soldier. He also wrote many songs that are recorded in the Book of Psalms in the Bible.

When David was a boy, a man called Saul was the King of Israel. Saul had a son who was called Jonathan. David and Jonathan became great friends. One reason was that Saul (Jonathan’s dad) was the present king and David was going to be the future king. David was also a great soldier and King Saul became very jealous of him! Another reason is that, if the usual practices were followed, Jonathan would have followed in his father’s footsteps as the future king – not David! Jonathan had a good reason to be jealous of David!

Reflection:
It would have been very easy for Jonathan to be jealous of David. Instead, he always protected him – sometimes, even saving David’s life!
How do we treat our friends?
Do we get jealous when they are successful or if they are better than us at something?
Or do we encourage them? Do we stand up for them? Do we feel happy when something good happens in their lives?
In David’s case, he really did get by ‘with a little help from his friend’.

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for friends whom we can trust.
Thank you for friends who stick with us when we need them.
Please help us to be a friend to anyone in need.
Amen.

What have we been up to this week?

Maths
This week, we’ve been learning all about repeating patterns. We’ve been noticing patterns everywhere. The children even pointed out my patterned dress on Tuesday! Each day, the children were asked to make a repeating pattern using different objects/resources. They were fantastic at talking about their patterns and spotting mistakes – oops!

Phonics
This week, our daily phonics sessions have been a mixture of phase 1 activities. Phase 1 focuses on listening to different sounds and oral segmenting* and blending* skills. We went on a listening walk, made rhyming silly soups, and played I spy. Next week, we will begin phase 2. By the end of next week, the children will know the first three sounds: s, a, t.
PE
The children loved their first PE session! Mrs. Palmer will be teaching PE  every Wednesday morning. The children had lots of fun travelling around the hall like animals. Mrs Palmer was very impressed with their amazing listening skills – well done Reception! Even though we only do one PE session a week, in early years we make sure we stay active throughout the week.
Snacks and Water…
Please make sure your child’s water bottle only contains plain water.

Every day, we provide a healthy fruit or vegetable at snacktime. If your child would prefer to bring their own snack, please ensure this contains only fruit and/or vegetables. Snacks from home will stay in the children’s bookbags until snack time at 10 am.

If your child is having grapes for their snack, please ensure that the grapes are cut lengthways.

Chilli challenges
The children have been introduced to the chilli challenges. Each week, there will be six green chilli challenges in different areas. The children will be encouraged to complete the challenges and tick them off on their chilli challenge card (see below). There will also be some red chilli challenges. These challenges are to extend their learning further.

Home-Link Challenge

*Segmenting – breaking down a word into individual sounds. 
   Blending – combining all the sounds to read a word. 

Early Reading

This week’s bible story

Zacchaeus is friends with Jesus: Luke 19: 1-10

In today’s story, we hear about a man called Zacchaeus. He had always been a loner. He had never had as much as one friend. Not surprising, really. He had lived most of his life as a cheat. It was easy. Just demand more money. That was the beauty of his job as a tax collector. People were a bit afraid of tax collectors. You would not want to get on the wrong side of a tax collector, especially one like Zacchaeus.

He was a small man, was Zacchaeus. Perhaps he was bullied or laughed at. Sometimes people get picked on by others – the tall ones, perhaps, or the short ones, or ones with straight hair, or ones with curly hair, or ones with the wrong clothes. People are certainly not born cheats.

Or perhaps Zacchaeus just thought that money could bring him happiness, or friends. Or maybe he was just a rogue!

One day Zacchaeus was out and about in the streets of Jericho. He heard people talking about Jesus. All excited, they were, that Jesus was going to be passing through their town that day. Read the story to find out what happened to Zacchaeus.

Reflection:
Zacchaeus was a man with a hard heart and no friends. We don’t know why, but Jesus cared for Zacchaeus. Jesus also believed that Zacchaeus had some good in him, if only he could be persuaded to change his ways. Zacchaeus mattered to Jesus, and Jesus’ friendship was able to change how Zacchaeus acted. Think about yourself and your friends. Are there any ways in which you can treat people that might help them to become friends?

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that you know us and that you care for us.
Help us to be kind and generous to other people,
like Zacchaeus after he met Jesus.
Amen.

Transition: Week 2

This week, we welcomed groups 2 and 3. It has been lovely to see the classroom full of busy children doing lots of fantastic learning.
Click here to see what groups 2 and 3 got up to this week.

On Thursday, we had a circle time session. We read the story All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold. We talked about the book’s key message. No matter what we look like, we all have a place in our school. The children were asked to work with a partner to spot things that were the same and things that were different.
Miss Marsden introduced the class bear to the children. They were asked to think of some names for the bear – we had a variety of names! We wrote their suggestions on the whiteboard and the children voted for their favourite. We counted the votes and Sparkle Shots won!
Isolation work
Next week, we will start emailing isolation work to your personal email addresses. Your child only needs to do this work if they are self-isolating.

PE
PE starts next Wednesday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit.

Parent Partners
This half-term, we’ll be learning about different families, where we live, and autumn changes. Alongside the main themes, we try to plan other areas of learning according to the children’s interests. To help us with this, Parent Partners are key in this process! Throughout the year, we really encourage that you send photos of any ‘WOW’ moments or new interests your child has at home. You can bring these moments into school or send them to stjameseyfs@speherefederation.org.

Reception Zoom session
Thank you to everyone who has attended our recent Zoom sessions to help you support your child at home. Watch the phonics session and the Early Years introduction. (And apologies for the distracting cursor in the latter – maybe that’s a nervous habit of Mr Roundtree!

Home-Link Challenge

Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA)

The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) is statutory for all schools from September 2021.

It is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early
literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin
school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with.

All Reception children will be participating in the reception baseline assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting school.

The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between reception and year 6 / the end of key stage 2.

For further information about the RBA, please see this guide.

Introduction to Reception – Zoom session

We’d like to welcome new Reception parents to our school by inviting you to a short Zoom session on Wednesday 15 September at 6pm. This session will be a 30 minute introduction to Reception at our Sphere Federation schools.

The sessions will outline the recent changes to the EY’s Framework and the introduction of a Reception Baseline Assessment. It’ll also offer you a few top tips on how you can support your child at home.

The session starts at 6pm. It will last around 20-25 minutes, plus there will be a questions and answer session at the end of around 5-10 minutes.

If you’re interested in attending this Zoom session, please either send us a message on the School Gateway app or email the school office. We’ll then email the Zoom joining details out to all those who have expressed an interest.

Watch out for further workshops relating to both English and Maths on your child’s class website page in the coming weeks.

Transition: Week 1

This week, we welcomed our first group of Reception children. It was lovely to see all of you in your new uniforms! They’ve settled so well and have already started to show us what amazing things they can do! As always, the Reception classroom is a busy learning environment.

Click here to watch what we’ve been up to.

Every morning, we will encourage your child to be independent when doing their daily jobs. The jobs include: hanging up their coat, finding their name, choosing their lunch, and voting for a story.  When you drop off your child, a member of staff will always be available for a quick chat.

Things to remember…

• PE will be every Wednesday – your child should come to school in their PE kit. Our first PE session will be on Wednesday 22 September.
• A pair of wellies are essential in Foundation! We go outside to play in all weather!
• Your child will need a labelled water bottle each day. Please ensure the bottle only contains water – no juice, please!
• The school day is 8.50 am – 3.15 pm.
• Don’t forget to encourage independence when your child is getting ready for school!

Don’t forget to attend the Reception Zoom session next Wednesday.
It will provide an overview of some of the key aspects in early years.

We look forward to welcoming group 2 and 3 children next week!