Welcome to Reception Class - Autumn 2

Our Vision for our Children in EYFS is in line with our school vision;

We believe every child is amazing and everyone deserves an excellent start to their learning journey. Everything in our nurturing environment sparks enjoyment, curiosity, awe, and wonder encouraging a lifelong love of learning through play, discovery, and meaningful experiences.

Contacts:

Mrs Saunders          ssaunders@redhill.worcs.sch.uk 

Mrs Tomkinson        gtomkinson@redhill.worcs.sch.uk 

Let's Celebrate! 🎆

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half-term break and are ready for another exciting and busy half term in Reception!

This half term, our topic is 'Let's Celebrate!' We will be exploring a variety of festivals, celebrations and special events, including Diwali, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Day and Christmas.

The children will learn about how and why people celebrate different occasions, discovering traditions from around the world. We will be sharing stories, creating artwork, exploring music and taking part in lots of exciting activities. We will also be thinking about kindness, respect and the importance of celebrating our differences.

As we approach Christmas, we have lots of festive fun planned, including preparing for our very special Nativity performance!

English

We will begin the half term by exploring fireworks poetry. The children will use their senses and imaginations to think of exciting words to describe fireworks. We will have lots of fun creating our own firework-inspired words, phrases and artwork.

We will then continue our exciting Drawing Club sessions, using the wonderful stories:

• Goldilocks and the Three Bears

• Owl Babies

• The Emperor's Egg

Through Drawing Club, the children will develop their creativity, imagination, vocabulary and storytelling skills. We will encourage them to talk about characters, settings and events, draw their own imaginative ideas and begin to use their growing phonics knowledge to write labels, words and simple sentences.

We will also continue our daily phonics sessions, practising recognising sounds, blending to read words and developing our early writing skills.

Maths

This half term, we will be exploring 2D shapes and numbers to 10.

The children will learn to recognise, name and describe familiar 2D shapes, including circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. We will explore their properties, look for shapes in our environment and use shapes to create pictures and patterns.

Our number work will focus on developing a secure understanding of numbers to 10. We will be:

• Practising counting objects carefully and recognising numerals.

• Developing our subitising skills – recognising how many objects there are without needing to count them individually.

• Exploring different ways to make numbers using practical resources, fingers, dice and ten frames.

• Comparing groups of objects and using language such as more than, fewer than and equal to.

• Finding one more and one less than a given number.

• Exploring how numbers can be made up of smaller parts.

We will continue to make maths fun and practical through games, songs, stories and hands-on activities.

Understanding the World and Expressive Arts

Our celebrations topic will give us lots of opportunities to explore the world around us. We will learn about different cultures, beliefs and traditions and talk about celebrations that are special to our own families.

We will also be getting creative with firework pictures, Diwali-inspired artwork, poppies and Christmas crafts. There will be plenty of opportunities for singing, dancing, imaginative play and exploring different materials.

As winter approaches, we will also observe seasonal changes, discuss the weather and discover how some animals adapt to colder environments.

Reception Nativity

We are already looking forward to our Christmas Nativity! The children will be busy learning songs, practising their parts and preparing to share a very special performance with you.

Our Nativity performances will take place on:

• Tuesday 8th December at 9:30am

• Wednesday 9th December at 6:00pm

Please save these dates in your diaries! We cannot wait to welcome you and celebrate this magical time of year together.

⭐ Important Reminders

• Reading books and reading diaries should be brought into school every day, even if your child has not finished their book. Please continue to enjoy regular reading at home and record this in their diary.

• PE is every Friday. Please ensure your child has the appropriate PE kit in school.

• Water bottles should be brought into school daily, clearly labelled with your child's name.

• Clothing and belongings should be clearly named, particularly jumpers, cardigans and coats.

• Outdoor clothing: As the weather becomes colder, please ensure your child brings a warm, waterproof coat each day. We enjoy learning and playing outdoors in all weathers! 

• Independence: Please continue to encourage your child to put on their own coat, fasten zips, dress independently and look after their belongings.