This week Reception have been reading the traditional tale Jack and the Beanstalk. We have done lots of drawing club writing based around this story. We designed our own magic beans and then planted our own real beans! We spoke about what would be on top of our beanstalk if it grew as tall as Jack’s. In maths we have been looking at the number 6 and different ways we can make 6. 

Phonics: words ending in –ing

Tricky words: all phase 2 and 3 tricky words.

This week in Reception we have been celebrating Science Week by inventing and designing our own dens. These dens have been inspired by The Three Little Pigs story. From this, we have identified which materials would be best for the dens roof and how we can ensure it is made of strong materials. 

The children have loved working as a team this week to create dens. In addition, the children have been working hard to count to 20 this week. We have enjoyed learning new counting songs and using this to complete our learning. 

Phonics: ar, oa, er 

Words: carpet, boat, digger, power

It has been an exciting week in Reception as we kick started our World Book Week through an amazing theatre performance of The Gingerbread Man! Throughout the week we have been retelling the story, hot seating our favourite characters and rewriting the ending. We even practiced our acting skills and performed to a buddy class. In Maths, we have been consolidating our knowledge of doubles and have been exploring the differences between odd and even numbers and what these can look like. 

Phonics: er, ch, sh

Tricky words:  full, no go, of, push

This week in Reception we have started our new topic of traditional tales! We read Little Red Riding Hood and drew our own big bad wolf and cottage for grandma. We have also been retelling the story in Forest School. In maths we have been learning doubles. We have been using numicon to print doubles and finding doubles when looking at different numberblocks and dots on dice. In PE we have started our new dance based on traditional tales. 

This week in Reception we have been looking at the features of a non-fiction book. We explored the use of a front cover, back cover and contents page and even made our very own transportation non-fiction books! We have had fun exploring number bonds to 7 in maths, as well as looking at what happens to a number when 1 is taken away. In Phonics, we have been consolidating our knowledge of digraphs and trigraphs and recapping our phase 3 tricky words. 

Phonics: ee, oa, oo, or ar

This week we have been reading the book ‘The Way Back Home’ about a little boy who meets an alien on the moon. In Drawing Club, we have designed our own rocket to get to the moon and created our own alien friend. We used our drawings to write sentences. We have had a lot of fun for Maths Week! In Reception, we looked at different coins and worked out how much money we would need to buy the items to make a bookmark. We looked at the symbols for adding (+) and equals/ all together (=) We have been busy designing and creating our very own Scratch Art Bookmarks to sell at the Echelford Expo next week! 

Phonics: longer words eg carpark (car/ park) football (foot/ball)

Tricky Words:  Recapping all

This week in Reception we have been excitedly making our very own Naughty Buses! In Literacy, we made plans about how we would like to design our buses and the materials we will need. We have been working hard bringing our creations to life and have been evaluating our designs upon completion. In Maths, we have been exploring patterns in numbers, as well as looking at which number pairs we can find when looking at dominoes. 

Digraphs: air, er

Tricky words: are, sure, pure

In Reception this week we are creating our very own Naughty Buses. The children will be designing, creating and evaluating their creations. In addition, we are reading our new book Duck and the Truck. The children will be using the key words first, next and then to order the story. In Maths, we will be moving onto looking at number 6 and 7. What do we need to add to five to make 6? 

Phonics: ur, or, er

Words: burn, turn, surf, born, horn, digger, bigger

This week in Reception, we have learnt more of our dance inspired by The Polar Express. In Literacy we have read the book “Naughty Bus” and we went on a naughty bus hunt around the school to see what the little bus has been doing. He had made a mess! We had a lot of fun making wanted posters for the bus. During our Maths lessons, we have been looking at the numerals to 5 and matching them to numberblocks.

Phonics: oo (zoom) oo (hook) ar (march) or (horn)

Tricky words: was, you, they 

This week in Reception, we have started our new topic of Transport. In PE, we have begun learning a new dance inspired by The Polar Express, and in Literacy we have been discussing various modes of transportation, and whether you’d find them on land, sea or air. During our Maths lessons, we have been consolidating our understanding of subitising and have been searching for smaller number pairs within our whole number.

Phonics: ai, ee, igh, oa

This week in Reception we have loved reading the story ‘ Stick Man’. Through this story we have been designing our own stick men in the drawing club and used adjectives to describe them. In Maths, we have been looking at 1 less this week. The children have been listening to songs such as ‘10 in the bed’ and ‘10 bottles hanging on the wall’ to help us with our learning. From this we worked hard to write out our new equations for take away. On the creative table the children have been making baubles to display their Nativity and Christmas jumper pictures. The children enjoyed decorating their baubles and adding a range of resources. 

Phonics: Phase 2 recap

This week we have been reading the story The Christmas Pine by Julia Donaldson. We have drawn our own beautiful Christmas trees and written secret codes about them in our drawing club. In maths we have been using cubes and numicon to find one more and one less, focusing on numbers to 5. On Wednesday we had a very exciting Christmas themed day! We went to the lighthouse to read Christmas stories and we decorated our classroom door. 

Phonics: In phonics we have been recapping all the sounds and tricky words that we have learnt so far!

This week in Reception we have been using Drawing Club within our Literacy lessons to describe a variety of characters from the story of The Jolly Postman. Within Literacy, we have also been looking at how to compose letters and have practiced writing our very own letters to Santa. In Maths, we have been enhancing our subitising skills, as well as how we can represent numbers using our fingers and Numicon. In addition, we have had fun running through our final practices of our Nativity rehearsals before performing to our parents during the week.  

Phonics: review of digraphs and words ending in -s.
Tricky Words:  we, me, be

This week in Reception we have been reading The Jolly Postman. We have done drawings of our own character and setting from the story. We have also written our own secret codes for our pictures using cvc words. In maths we have been looking at the composition of numbers 1-4. We have used paint to stamp different compositions of numbers. We have been practicing our nativity songs and words!

Phonics: 
Digraphs sh (shell) th (thumb) ng (sing) nk (pink)
Tricky words: into she push he of

In Reception we have been reading the new story ‘My Granny went to Market’ this week. We have enjoyed designing our own magic carpets and writing about them in the drawing club. In Maths, we have started to look at our Part Part Whole models to support our addition skills. The children then used this to write their own equations. In our creative area we have been drawing our own portraits ready for our display. 
Phonics: 
qu, sh, ch, z
Words: queen, ship, chip, zig-zag 

This week in Reception we have been reading Funnybones! We have been writing about which animals the skeletons saw at the zoo. We listened to the sounds that we could hear in the words and practised using a sound mat to write them down. In maths, we have learnt to recognise and name some 2D shapes. We looked at how many sides each shape has and whether the sides were straight or curved. In playful learning, we have been using shapes to make pictures. We have also been learning our nativity songs this week. 
Phonics: In phonics this week we have learnt some digraphs. A digraph is where two graphemes make one sound. We have learnt ff (puff) ll (bell) ss (mess) and j (jellyfish)
Tricky word: Put, pull, full and as. 

This week in Reception we have been learning all about Autumn. Through our exploration of season change we have been looking out for signs of Autumn, and went for an autumn walk in Forest School, where we used our senses to explore our ever changing local environment. We have been furthering our subitising skills during maths and have explored the relation between numbers when making 4. 
Phonics: We have been consolidating our knowledge of all of our sounds, as well as recapping our tricky words: is, I, the. 

In reception this week we have been reading about the colour monster. His emotions are all muddled up! We have been talking about different emotions and what could make us feel that way. We have also started to think about what we could do if we are feeling angry or worried. We have created pictures of our own colour monsters and tried using some of the sounds we have learnt so far in our writing. In maths we have continued to learn our numbers to 5. We have also been looking at groups of objects and thinking about which has ‘more.’
Phonics: g, o, c, k

In Reception the children have been enjoying writing letters to the friendly dinosaur. They have been telling the dinosaurs all about their new school and the different things they love to do. In Maths, we have been focusing on number recognition to 5. They have been learning to count amounts and match the numbers to the correct amounts. In addition we have been making our own dinosaur eggs on the creative table. 
Phonics: i, n, d 
Words: sat, pin, tap, nip, sit