Reception Class News

Multiplication in Reception

This week in Maths, children will be learning about multiplication and counting in 2s.

Multiplication is often seen as repeat addition, but it differs from addition in that the sets of objects you are totalling are made up of the same number of items. In Reception, children’s experience of multiplication as counting equal groups is done through pairing and counting feet, eyes, socks, gloves and pairs of shoes!

Counting two objects as one unit is an important multiplication skill.

How you can help at home

Give your child lots of practical experiences. Let your child help to put socks in pairs and count how many there are.

It is important that children also see multiplication as an arrangement of rows and columns. Examples of this around the home include

• egg boxes
• egg and bun trays
• squares in a large chocolate bar
• some of the buttons on most remote controls

Happy holidays!

We are reaching the end of the children’s first term in Reception.  It has been a delight to see how the children have changed and developed over the last few months.

Well done Nayaab, Enas, Aisha and Kirsten for  their increased confidence and to Zara for finally gaining the confidence to speak to adults.

Well done, Daniel, for always making good choices.

Jacob, Ben, Zakariya and Musa have  improved their learning behaviour and are listening more attentively on the carpet.

William and Charlie have kept us amused with their great sense of humour and Rabiya, Kismat, Gurnoor and Tasha have shown concern and care for their friends.

We are all impressed with Sam’s perseverance in holding his pencil to write his name and Ahmed’s speed in learning and using English.

Well done to Byron, Alexander and Evie for great learning in maths and Eve, and to Alexandra, Eliza, Eleni and Poppy for their progress in reading.

Everyone has been impressed with Arundeep and Zidaan for their great manners and Maggie and Finlay for their creativity and model making.

Have a great holiday and happy new year from everyone in Reception!

Writing!

Reception children are writing everywhere!

Getting ready to write!

The children are progressing quickly with their phonics learning and reading. Alongside blending to read, the children also need to segment words to spell. Children often find this harder and lack confidence in their ability to write.

In Reception, the children take part in shared writing activities where they can ‘have a go’ on whiteboards with the support of adults. We then encourage independent writing in all the areas of provision. This includes writing a label for their model, writing a shopping list in the role-play shop or writing a letter to a friend. We value all the children’s attempts at writing and model writing (and making mistakes) to them.

You can help at home by:

• Providing plenty of different types of pens and pencils and encouraging your child to use a correct grip
• Encouraging them to use the school’s handwriting style and to use lower case letters; we teach that a capital letter is required for the first letter in a name and at the beginning of a sentence
• Spelling is harder than reading words – praise, don’t criticise. Little whiteboards and pens are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting
• Remember that at this stage children’s phonetic attempts are valued. They will learn the correct spellings of words later.  We want the children to become confident writers by ‘having a go’ and using their phonetic knowledge independently.
• To be able to write, children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Games that help co-ordination include throwing balls at a target, under-arm and over-arm, and bouncing balls – also skipping on the spot, throwing a Frisbee, picking up pebbles from the beach and throwing them into the sea.

Have fun!

STOP!

Today is anti-bullying day, part of national anti-bullying week.  Several of our classes have taken part in anti-bullying dance workshops led by Melissa from Flex Dance Inc.  All the artists of the songs used in the whole school performances have been victims of bullying in their lives.  Well done to all the children involved who learned their routines in such a short time and produced very confident performances.

Last week at our latest School Council meeting, all school councillors agreed to keep our current definition of bullying:

Bullying is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, more than once and on purpose.

Alongside this definition we have used the following prompts for the children to remember:

• Several
• Times
• On
• Purpose

• Start
• Telling
• Other
• People

Advice about bullying is available on a number of websites.  These include Kidscape, Childline, anti-bullying alliance, BBC and ThinkUKnow.  Talk Time homework this week will give you chance to discuss this important topic with your child/children.

Our children tell us they would speak to an adult in school, family or friends if they were to experience bullying or if they saw bullying.

‘I feel safe because school would deal with bullying.’

‘I feel safe at school as there are always teachers there if you ever have any problems.’

‘I feel safe at school because everyone around me looks after me.’

Pupil health questionnaire 2013

If you do have any concerns about bullying, please speak to a member of staff.

Roundhay Juniors Park Run

Roundhay Juniors Park Run – Weekly Free 2km Timed Run for Juniors

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/roundhay-juniors/

It is only for juniors – if you’re not a junior, how about trying one of the weekly Saturday parkrun events?

What is Roundhay Juniors parkrun?

It is a 2km run for juniors only (4-14 year olds). If you are not a junior please try one of our weekly Saturday parkrun events instead.

When is it?

It is run every Sunday at 9:00am.

Where is it?

It’s run in Roundhay Park, Leeds. See Course page for more details.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/roundhay-juniors/course/

What does it cost to join in?

Nothing – it’s free! Please register before your first run http://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/. Only ever register with parkrun once. Don’t forget to bring a printed copy of your barcode (request a reminder).

How fast do I have to be?

We all run for our own enjoyment. Please come along and join in whatever your pace! We’re friendly! Every week we grab a post parkrun coffee in a local café – please come and join us!

Spiders!

Reception are loving their topic on arachnids. They even made their own web!

It’s half-term…

…so no specific homework, spellings or tables this week.  It’s a good time to relax and enjoy some time with your children – have you visited the free exhibition of Anthony Browne pictures at Leeds City Museum, for example?

More phonics

We have begun phase 2 of our phonics programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’.

In this phase children will continue practising what they have learned from phase 1, including ‘sound-talk’. They will also be taught the phonemes (sounds) for a number of letters (graphemes), which phoneme is represented by which grapheme and that a phoneme can be represented by more than one letter, for example, ll as in b-e-ll. We use Jolly Phonics actions to help children remember these phonemes. Each week the children will bring a set of letters home to learn. Please practise these every day and keep them in their book bag for us to add to.

Your child will be taught how to pronounce the phonemes correctly to make blending easier.

Sounds should be sustained where possible (e.g. sss, fff, mmm) and, where this is not possible, ‘uh’ sounds after consonants should be reduced as far as possible (e.g. try to avoid saying ‘buh’, ‘cuh’).

VC and CVC words

C and V are abbreviations for ‘consonant’ and ‘vowel’. VC words are words consisting of a vowel then a consonant (e.g. am, at, it) and CVC words are words consisting of a consonant then a vowel then a consonant (e.g. cat, rug, sun). Words such as tick and bell also count as CVC words – although they have four letters, they have only three sounds. For example, in the word bell, b = consonant, e = vowel, ll = consonant.

Now the children will be seeing letters and words, as well as hearing them. They will be shown how to make whole words by pushing magnetic or wooden letters together to form little words, reading words and breaking up words into individual sounds, which will help their spelling. These will be simple words made up of two phonemes, for example, am, at, it, or three phonemes, for example, cat, rug, sun, tick, bell.

How you can help at home:

Magnetic letters

Remember to make it fun!

Phonics

We are busy learning to identify alliteration and rhyme which will pave the way for the systematic learning of phonics.

The children are taking part in lots of activities where they listen attentively to sounds around them, such as sounds in the environment and to sounds in spoken language. Singing a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs and reading books to and with the children helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.

We are also learning to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word: d-o-g = dog. This merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.

Children will also learn to do this the other way around: cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.

This is all oral (spoken). Your child will not be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.

Ways you can support your child at home:

Play ‘What do we have in here?’ Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time. Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by repeating it, for example, ‘c c c c – car’, ‘b b b b – box’, ‘ch ch ch ch – chip’.