The Dinky Ducklings (Reception)

Spring 1 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and would like to wish you all a Happy New Year-let’s hope it is a good one! I am extremely proud of how far the children have already come during their first full term at school and can’t wait to see what they can achieve this half term too.  

 This half term our topic is ‘Real Life Superheroes.’ Here the children will explore lots of different occupations and discover their roles in helping us with day to day tasks. We will split the topic into areas such as People who help us; at home, at school, stay healthy, get food and keep safe. In the final week of this topic we will then look at what the children would like to be when they grow up! This will be celebrated with a “When I grow up” dress up day where the children will be invited to dress up as the occupation they would like to do when they grow up.  This will be on Friday 14^th February 2025.

English (Communication, Language & Literacy)
We will be focusing on looking at non-fiction texts this half-term. Here we will be exploring how these differ from picture books and identifying some of their key features. We will also include the talk4writing practice similar to that used when looking at Jack and The Beanstalk last half term. This encourages children to organise facts as well as recognise language used when writing them down.  Using similar techniques we will also learn a version of the story ‘Cops and Robbers’ by Allen Ahlberg.

 The children will be encouraged to use full sentences when writing and break their flow of speech into words. We will be looking for them to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops, so any support at home with this would be very useful. 

The children will be given a range of opportunities to utilise these skills this half term with different activities such as creating posters to promote helpfulness at school or writing about what a doctor might need in their bag.  The children will also be completing a weekly independent writing activity to further develop their confidence to form sentences and words using their own knowledge as some of the children have become extremely reliable on adult presence when writing, and are reluctant to have a go. We have tried this out last term and it has been extremely successful and the progress made already has been amazing.

I have noticed that some children are still very dependent on adult support when writing. If children do any writing at home I advise that you help them plan it by saying the sentences together a number of times, marking each word by using your fingers (a video will be posted on dojo about how to do this) and then leaving your child to write the sentence on their own. This may be a challenge at first, but it will help them read over their work to see what sounds come next as well as develop their critical thinking skills, enabling them to sequence their own ideas. Once they have completed this, I would recommend going over their writing and correcting one or two things such as letter formation, or adding in some missing sounds. This again encourages your child to think about reading over their work and editing it.

Please find below two examples of writing that children did independently, with no adult support at all. This is the expectation at this point in the year and what we are aiming for with home learning. Sometimes I know it can be difficult to know what we are aiming to achieve so thought this would give you more of an understanding. Please note, not all children are at this level yet as they all learn at different rates.

‘not I said (sed) the dog.’                                                                    ‘The princess (prises) wos sad she had no money (muny.)’

Phonics
We are going to continue Level 3 of Twinkl Phonics this half term where children will concentrate on learning new digraphs (2 letters which make one sound eg ai as in r/ai/n .) They will also be introduced to trigraphs, (3 letters which make 1 sound eg igh as in t/ight/t) new tricky and HFW and also encourage the blending and segmenting of CVCC words (as in frog). New high frequency words(HFW) and common exception words (Tricky words) will also be introduced. Bookmarks for these will be sent home in the new year.

It is vital that children practice their reading and writing at home as well as school as it consolidates their understanding and also heightens their confidence. Also please may I express the importance of letting the children use their robot talk to isolate each sound in a word independently, and not being given a word to copy as this makes them reluctant to have a go on their own and hinders their progress. I can often tell which children are reliant on their parents for this when it comes to writing in school or with their homework.

Maths
We will begin this half term with exploring Shape. Here the children will be identifying 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. To support your child in this area you could begin to look at shapes in the environment and allow them to play and construct with various shaped items to make images and models to develop their understanding of tessellation and edges.  Please note I will be using the term ‘rectangle’ and not oblong, due to recent studies suggesting this is the correct name for this shape!  After looking at shape, we will then continue developing our number knowledge, this time looking at numbers 6,7 and 8. We will start by practicing ordering numbers and counting accurately to these totals. We will also be looking at combing two groups to make these numbers as well as the usual composition facts and subitising skills.

Homework

Please see the timetable below for the homework- I will also set it weekly on Dojo.  I have also added a number of spare sheets at the back (which are labelled) if you notice children need additional support in certain areas or if they want to do some additional work.  Please continue to encourage neat handwriting and correct one or two handwriting ‘mistakes’ on the homework and ask your child to practice these multiple times at the bottom. This is a strategy used at school to help develop their hand muscle memory to make writing easier.  I have also added weekly words to try and encourage your children to read by sight in their books to improve fluency.

Memory Games

Playing memory games can improve other brain functions, such as attention, concentration, and focus. Memory games give space to critical thinking and that helps children nurture their attention to detail. Memory games can improve visual recognition. With this in mind I will be including some ideas that you can try at home to help develop these skills in a fun and engaging way in each newsletter.

Jumping Sequence- Use large squares of paper, which are coloured, numbered or lettered. Begin with coloured squares taped to the floor. Show the child a sequence, initially only two colours/numbers etc. Child then jumps onto the squares in the correct sequence. Increase difficulty by increasing amount of squares in the sequence and move onto letters and numbers.

A few further bits of information:

• PE will continue to be on Monday and Wednesday.
• If you have any questions about anything in this letter then please do not hesitate to ask. I look forward to another fun filled half term.
• Independence is key this half term in order to help the children make good progress. To help this you could encourage children to do little jobs at home such as set the table, make their bed, match socks etc and this in turn should help them regain their independence and allow them to redeem critical thinking skills, encouraging them to process information by themselves and act on what they have heard with little adult intervention. If independence is lacking, children will find making progress very difficult as they become reliant on an adult doing absolutely everything for them which is not beneficial in the long run.
• If you would like to come into school to talk about your job (any job would be fantastic) then please let me know and we can organise a time that suits you.

 
Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Jolly

Curriculum Web and Topic Knowledge Organisers for this half term. 

Please take a look at the wonderful things we will be learning about this half term. 

Knowledge Organiser Spring 1

Key Vocabulary 

 Please see below the vocabulary that we will be using in class this half term.

Autumn 2 Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

 I hope you have a restful break after such a busy, but fantastic first half term at school. I am extremely pleased with how the children are settling in and can already see some brilliant progress as they embrace all the new topics and learning concepts I keep sending their way.

Autumn 2 is going to be another action packed half term, particularly with all the celebrations in the run up to Christmas, which is always an extremely exciting time of year for the children.

Topic

This half term we will be looking at Traditional Tales. We will be focusing on exploring the language included in these books, different character roles and beginning to learn how we can be authors and change elements of a story ourselves. We will also be learning about celebrations and family traditions such as Diwali, Firework night and Christmas.

 To help your children develop in this area it would be great to share some of your favourite traditional tales as well as the more modern ‘messed up fairy tales’ which often tell the stories from a different perspective. It would also be great if you use the vocabulary triangle, reflective questions and story starters at home. This will help extend the children’s vocabulary even further and also explore the concept of differing narratives.

Phonics

Many of the children are rapidly picking up the new sounds introduced, as well as the skills needed to read and write words and captions. Due to their hard work, we will be continuing to introduce the rest of the Level 2 sounds this half term and have a real focus on developing the children’s understanding of how we form these letters and how we use these sounds in our blending and segmenting. We will then move on to Level 3, however more information about this will be sent home about this when the children are ready.

We will also continue to introduce high frequency words (HFW) and common exception words (Tricky words.) Learning these by sight make for much more fluent readers and make spelling them a lot easier. These can be found on the bookmarks sent home in the first week of school.

If your child is a little reluctant to read at home, this could be due to several things such as time of day, lack of understanding of the narrative so it therefore becomes boring, or un-engagement. To try and help with these issues I would firstly suggest picking the reading time according to your child’s mood. If you know your chid is more responsive in the mornings, try and have a morning cuddle and spend 5-10 minutes reading before the morning routine kicks in. To hook the child into the narrative and help them learn how to understand these through the use of pictures and text you could first act out what you think will happen using the pictures to help before ‘being a detective’ and actually reading the story to see if they were correct. Please see the vocabulary triangle and questions sheet for a little inspiration about how to try and get your child to engage with the books that they are reading.

 Literacy

Literacy will focus on encouraging children to use their phonic knowledge to segment words in order to build sentences with less adult support as previously needed. This is due to the majority of children showing great understanding of how to use skills taught in phonics lessons to do this. We will also be using ‘talk 4 writing’ methods to look at Jack and the Beanstalk. I will be including lots of videos on Class dojo so that you can see how talk 4 writing is used to develop children’s language and understanding of the features of a book. This will give you insight into little activities that can be done at home to help develop these further. I will also be showing you how we encourage children to write independently, without copying words and going over dots to help them grow into independent writers.

Maths

This half term we will continue to focus on number work. This includes recognising numerals to 5, (or beyond) counting objects, actions or even noises accurately and matching totals to a number. We will also continue to develop the children’s understanding of subitising and practicing recognising the total number in different arrangements of objects or dots without counting.  Finally we will move on to exploring more compositions of numbers to 5 and try to encourage children to use number facts to recall these rather than using counting methods. An example of a composition of 5 is ‘2 and 3 make 5’ or ‘1 and 4 make 5.’ Finally, in the last week, we will be beginning to look at simple patterns, ready to lead us to shape in the Spring term.

I have noticed that there are some children who have come to school lacking basic number knowledge or number sense making it difficult for them to recognise numbers 1-10 and count out totals to match each numeral. Any additional practice at home would help develop these skills quickly. You can also use the number games I have created on the home learning section of the website.

Home Learning

The response to the writing home learning activities has been fantastic and the children are consolidating skills learnt at school very quickly by practising them at home too. I have seen a huge improvement in the children’s handwriting who have been doing these activities regularly, so thank you for your support with this. Home learning will continue over Autumn 2 and I will now include a maths activity linked to what we have been learning in school. This will alternate between being paper based or online using a website called ‘Maths Seeds’ which is very fun and engaging. The logins for this have been sent home. Each week the correct task will appear on a Monday, (see below for what these will be.) However, I have added some additional tasks your child can work through in your own time to develop number knowledge or consolidate skills. It has been fantastic to see how many children get excited about this weekly, and I see a huge difference in the children who complete it regularly. May I remind you it is not compulsory, however strongly recommended that this is completed as again it consolidates skills and builds independence. Please see the timetable below for the homework.

Reading Books

We will continue to operate the reading book system as we have been doing so that you keep one book at home which matches your child’s reading level. The free reads books and games will also be put out on a Monday if you would like additional books. I will also be adding more games on Twinkl Go for you to access at home to support reading skills.

Memory games, Executive Function and Language

As mentioned in my previous newsletter, executive function skills play a key part in development. It enables children to maintain attention and avoid getting distracted, to enhance concentration, to remember instructions, and to keep track of what they are doing as they are working…and lots more. With this in mind, along with my communication and language course I am undertaking, I have two lovely storytelling ideas you could try at home that would not only support developing children’s memory, executive function and language skill, but will also be very fun too.

Storytelling requires that children hold and work with information in their working memory. With practice, and as their executive function skills develop, they can plan and organise more complex narratives.

Activity 1- Write down children’s stories, or get children to draw pictures and create their own books. Use this record of the story to revisit it, which will help children to elaborate further on the story or support them to organise the events in a more effective way. You could even record them telling their story.

Activity 2- Get children to act out the stories they have written. This requires children to pay attention, hold the story structure in working memory, and inhibit the impulse to change the story. They can use the pictures from task 1 to support this.

I will be setting this as an activity on Dojo as I would love to see what you get up to at home.  

Mr Ted’s Vocabulary Journey

To help children expand their vocabulary and use new words in different situations, we’re starting a Vocabulary Journey with Mr Ted! Each week, a child will take home Mr Ted along with a book to help him learn new words as he joins your everyday activities.

When Mr Ted comes home, get him involved in your routine – whether it’s going to the shops, a walk, or reading a story. During this time, introduce Mr Ted (and your child!) to new words using the vocabulary flower in the book. Select two objects, two describing words, and an action linked to your activities.

Encourage your child to use these words in sentences and model the correct pronunciation and context. Please record a few examples of how the words were used in the space provided in the book. We’ll discuss these new words in class during circle time each Friday, so all children benefit from the rich language used at home.

Don’t worry, there is an example of what to do in his book!
I’m excited to see what adventures Mr Ted goes on and the new words he learns!

Other Information:

• The communication and language workshop will be on Tuesday 19^th November at 4pm-5pm. I would love to see as many of you there as possible. Hopefully this will give you lots of information about the development of these skills, along with ideas you can use at home to support your child.

• Nativity Book- Children will come in costume on Thursday 5th December to create our Nativity book and perform the story for parents at 9:10am. The performance will last about 30 minutes, and we kindly ask that each child is accompanied by no more than two adults.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Jolly

Curriculum Web and Topic Knowledge Organisers for this half term. 

Please take a look at the wonderful things we will be learning about this half term. 

Knowledge Organisers Autumn 1

Key Vocabulary 

 Please see below the vocabulary that we will be using in class this half term.

Autumn 1 Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to Reception! I’m thrilled to welcome both returning and new families to the Barlborough Primary School community. I’m excited to get to know your little ones throughout the school year. Our main focus in these first few weeks is to help the children transition smoothly into school life, ensuring they feel comfortable and safe as they adjust to their new environment and routines.

This newsletter will provide some insight into your child’s day and what to expect during the first half term. I hope it helps ease you into the school’s routines and structures. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Morning Routine

Children are expected to be dropped off at 8:50 am. To help your child settle quickly in the morning and begin to gain independence, we have a few tasks for them to do each day. Practicing these tasks at home can make mornings easier for both your child and the class.
-When entering the cloak room your child will find and recognise their name, this will help them learn the letters that make it up and therefore distinguish it from others in other contexts such as on book bags, PE bags and cardigans/ jumper.
-Your child will then put their coat on their peg. Practicing taking coats off and putting them on (including zipping and buttoning) at home will help them do this independently.
-After hanging up their coat, children will go to the toilet and/or wash their hands with soap and water before entering the classroom.
-Once all tasks are complete, children will enter the classroom and sit down, ready for the register.

Topic

Our topic for this half term is "Marvellous Me," where the children will explore the unique ways that make them special. We will look at their individual features, interests, and characteristics. This will lead to learning about families and how they differ from one another in the UK and other countries. Finally, we will explore the amazing human body and the importance of staying healthy. To make the topic more engaging, we will use books by Lisa Bullard, which explore cultural diversity and the similarities and differences between ourselves, our families, and our homes. Please see the vocabulary triangle and discussion points provided to support your child’s learning at home and encourage discussions about your unique family.

Phonics

We will begin Level 2 of the Twinkl Phonics scheme starting the week of Monday, 16th September, depending on how the children are settling in. They will be introduced to a new sound every day, practicing these in reading and writing tasks to build the skills needed for blending to read and segmenting to spell.

To support you at home, I will conduct a Phonics Home Learning Support Workshop on Monday, 16th September, at 4:00 pm. It would be wonderful to see as many of you as possible, as it is crucial we work together to develop the fundamental skills needed for reading and writing in Reception. If you cannot attend, I will upload a video of the presentation on Class Dojo.

Phonics can be tricky to understand at first, especially initial sounds. The Oxford Owl website offers excellent demonstrations of pronunciation: [Oxford Owl Phonics](http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/phonics-made-easy). The Twinkl Phonics YouTube channel also has helpful videos: [Twinkl Phonics YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SzkjubQ-Ok).

As we start phonics, I will send home weekly handwriting practice sheets. These will be sent out on Fridays, starting the week we begin phonics lessons, and should be completed and returned the following Friday. Guidance will be uploaded on Class Dojo.

I will also upload fun phonics games via Twinkl Go that can be accessed at home. Parents have given great feedback about these, with children enjoying them regularly.

Reading

As we start Phonics, it’s important for your child to recognise and practice the sounds they hear at school in various contexts. We will be sending home a Rhino Reading book linked to our Phonics lessons for you to share with your child. Reading regularly at home is crucial, so we recommend reading with your child at least three times a week. This will help develop their sound knowledge, segmenting skills and comprehension skills. You will receive an information leaflet with your child’s first book for guidance. Your child will also have a Reading Diary to date and sign each time you hear them read. Please keep this diary in your child’s book bag.

Initially, we will send home Lilac books without words. These encourage children to create their own stories by looking at pictures. As they progress, we will send Level 2 A books to help them practice blending sounds to read words. We will change these books on Fridays.

I will also send a ‘How to Read with Your Child’ guide to help you use similar strategies at home. This guide explains our reading reward system to encourage home reading.

Maths

During this half term, we will be focusing on number recognition with numerals to 5 and counting objects and actions to this total. We will also be teaching children how to subitise as this is a key element of the new EYFS curriculum as it underpins a secure understanding of numbers and their compositions. Subitising can help children to build images for numbers, to visualise and to learn number facts. For instance, most four-year-olds readily learn to recognise five dots on a dice, which helps them to understand the cardinal value or 'howmanyness' of five. We will develop their recognition of different arrangements of objects to represent numbers to 5 along with the standard dots on a dice.

With number recognition we encourage children to explore the shapes of numbers and the different lines which make each up. This allows them to distinguish them from one another and will encourage them to begin to record numerals with their own representations. When you are out and about see how many different numbers you can see on doors, shop windows, price tickets or number plates. This will help children with their development with this.

Counting underpins all operations and the more we practise, the better we get. If possible, count with your child as much as possible at home. Children can count anything and everything, shoes, claps, carrots or jumps! – encourage them to count things wherever they are and if possible, begin to integrate matching the total counted to a numeral for development of number sense and understanding. Some great games can be found on this website; www.maths-games.org/counting-games.html

Boys Learning

It is common knowledge that some boys often have a completely different approach to learning than girls. Although this comes with it many positives, it has also created a global problem where girls can be seen out performing boys throughout their whole school life. With this in mind it is absolutely crucial that we work together to try and engage both the girls and boys in the class and create that love of learning from the outset. Independence is key when it comes to boys learning and I will be sending home some activities to all students which are designed to encourage independence in thought processes as well as when involved in tasks. I will also be sending home information by Gary Wilson who has published many books to help practitioners and parents nurture boys and build them to be successful learners. I have a fantastic book by him for parents called ‘help your boys succeed the essential guide for parents.’ I would strongly recommend for parents to purchase this, or I am happy to lend my copy out if you are interested in reading it.

Separation Anxiety

It is completely normal for children to get upset when you first start dropping them off at school, especially when they are not used to the new routine and structure that they are experiencing and having spent a lot of time at home these last few months. To help upset children it is vital that we work together and make the goodbye in the morning positive and not sound so final. Using phrases such as ‘see you this afternoon’ or ‘ I can’t wait to see you when I pick you up later’ will help with this. It is best in these situations that you leave the playground quickly as this makes the anticipation of you leaving less intense. In some circumstances children will latch on to you, making it difficult for you to leave, in these cases I will always ask your permission before I intervene. Next, I will ask that you give them a kiss and a cuddle before you leave. I will then take your child from you calmly and gently and comfort them until they calm down. Often, they take very little time to settle, and we will always contact you to assure you that they are ok, likewise you are welcome to ring the office if you are concerned as I understand that it can be very upsetting for you too. If your child isn’t clingy, yet still upset, allowing you to leave easily, please make a member of staff aware as some children will then try and follow you. More information about making separation easier in a morning can be found on the school website, under the ‘New Starters’ tab.

Memory and Executive function skills

Executive function is a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life. Trouble with executive function can make it hard to focus, follow directions, and handle emotions, among other things. Over the summer, it may be useful to try and build in some fun games which will help your child exercise and develop these skills- ready for when they come to school. One of the biggest ways to support with this is by giving your child time to think of an answer to a question, before jumping in with the answer or thing they would like. Anther way is to ask them lots of questions so that children begin using their working memory to retrieve information as they respond.  Children who struggle with these skills often find following one or two instructions difficult as they cannot yet retain and retrieve information in their working memory. If you ask your child things such as “Take your shoes off, then hop 3 times.” Can they do this? You could build up these simple instructions into your everyday routine. “Take your coat off then get your cup please.” Etc.

An easy game to play when in the car is an auditory sequential memory recall game! Say 3 or 4 words which the children have to try and repeat in order. E.g. suitcase, lamb, sock, sandwich. Then ask children to repeat a sentence e.g. “The baby cries a lot.” Can your child remember the list of items?

Another favourite is the “What’s missing?” game. Place up to 5 objects on a tray, let your child see what is on there. Cover this up and remove one item. Can your child tell you what has gone? If they are really good at this, you could try taking away two items.

A few further bits of information:

• We will have PE twice a week. An indoor and outdoor kit will be needed. The days these will be on will be confirmed when we return to school, and you will have two weeks’ notice to organise kits. Children are asked to be sent into school in their kits on these days.
• Please look out for First Aid letters which children will be given at home time if they have had an accident at school. This gives you information about what minor injury your child received and how/when.
• Each half term, our class newsletter is available to read on the school website.
• It is important that your child begins to develop their independence in order to undergo day to day school life confidently. With this in mind we ask you to support your child in practicing certain skills at home such as getting dressed and undressed, taking their jumper off and putting it on, recognising their name, putting their coat on, using a knife and fork and tidying away what they have been using before moving on to something else! Another great skill to try and develop which may have been delayed slightly from spending lots of time at home is recall of and following instructions. This is part of the Early Years curriculum so it would be great if you practice asking your child to do something once and letting them try and remember this and follow it up without reminders. This can then be increased to two and then three things within the sequence. An example of this would be “go and wash your hands, put your coat on and then sit down.”
• Mrs Gilbert will lead the class on my PPA afternoons as it is my allocated planning time. Here they will take part in natural learning activities in the garden.
• Please ensure all clothes (including PE kits/water bottles etc) are named as things will go missing and we are always eager to reunite it with its owner.
• Book bags and mice will now be expected to be brought to school daily, so we have access to their reading diaries. These will not be checked daily, so any letters being returned to school should be handed in to an adult or will be taken out of book bags on a Friday when these are checked. Any letters to be sent home will also be put in book bags during these Friday checks too.
• Any letters or important information will be put on Class dojo, or the website so please check these regularly.
• The school finish time for KS1 is 3.20pm.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak with Mrs. Stokes or with me. We understand there is a lot of new information, and we are always happy to help.

I look forward to starting this learning adventure with your little ones in September and hope you have a lovely summer.

Kind Regards,

Miss Jolly and Miss Stokes

Curriculum Web and Topic Knowledge Organisers for this half term. 

Please take a look at the wonderful things we will be learning about this half term. 

Key Vocabulary 

 Please see below the vocabulary that we will be using in class this half term.