Reception Class News

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds

Our themed week, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds,  has been filled with visits and visitors providing a variety of experiences for the whole school.

We would like to thank the following for their support with our themed week:

• Heart Research UK
• d:side (drug education)
• Betty Sutherland tai chi
• White Rose martial arts
• Chapel Allerton squash and tennis club
• Leeds United
• Molly Cawthorn (Leeds United ladies)
• Leeds Rhinos
• Tesco Seacroft Farm to Fork trail
• Jhardine Farrell who delivered ‘respecting everybody’ circle times
• Leeds anti-social behaviour team
• Year 6 for taking over PE lessons for the rest of the school
• Mr Catherall for introducing the teachers to our new whole school sport, tchoukball
• parents/carers who talked about their health related job to different classes
• Public health resource centre for the loan of resources and providing health related leaflets

Finally, thank you to all staff and pupils who have fully engaged with all the learning throughout the week.  Take a look at the Class News sections of the website to find out what each class have been doing.  We have enjoyed a fun-filled week.

For further information about healthy bodies and healthy minds have a look at the Kids health website and Leeds Let’s Change for advice on more local health issues.

And an extra note from me, Mr Roundtree: I’d like to also thank Mrs Taylor for continuing to organise wonderful, packed themed weeks around being healthy or staying safe.  She puts an incredible amount of effort into ensuring our pupils enjoy some wonderful learning opportunities from staff and visitors. 

Ronnie the Rhino and the Challenge Cup!

Yesterday, we had a fun-packed assembly from two Leeds Rhino Coaches who recapped some very important messages about how to have a healthy lifestyle. They introduced us to their friend Ronnie the Rhino – who had successfully changed his unhealthy lifestyle by eating a more balanced diet and doing lots more exercise. We were also very lucky as Ronnie had brought in The Challenge Cup which the Leeds Rhinos won recently.

Learning 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. At the moment the children are busy writing messages to their favourite superheroes! 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!

It’s half-term…

…so there’s no specific homework this week, apart from ensuring your child spends at least 20 minutes each day reading and 5-10 minutes learning their number bonds / times tables.

Enjoy your October break. If you stay in Leeds, check out all the activities the museums and art galleries have on offer.

The characteristics of effective learning

In Reception we observe and assess children’s learning in seven areas. These are: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; maths; knowledge of the world and expressive arts and design. Alongside these we observe children’s characteristics of effective learning.

These characteristics and the areas of learning and development are all interconnected.

‘The ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment – playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically – underpin learning and development across all areas and support the child to remain an effective and motivated learner.”

The characteristics of effective learning are:

Playing and exploring – engagement

• Finding out and exploring
• Playing with what they know
• Being willing to ‘have a go’

Active learning – motivation

• Being involved and concentrating
• Keeping trying
• Enjoying achieving what they set out to do

Creating and thinking critically – thinking

• Having their own ideas
• Making links
• Choosing ways to do things

Phonics in Reception

At Moortown we follow the Letters and Sounds programme for teaching phonics.

We’ll be inviting you to a ‘phonics morning’ where you’ll be able to watch a short phonics lesson and observe the types of activities which will help you to support your child at home. These will be held on 15, 16 and 17 October at 9.20am. A letter will be sent home with your child.

This week, we’ll be 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’re 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 won’t 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’.

When sounding out, try to avoid the ‘uh’ sound – say ‘sssss’ rather than ‘suh’, ‘mmmmm’ rather than ‘muh’.  This is to keep the sound as ‘pure’ as it can be so there’s no confusion with extra, unwanted sounds when blending and segmenting words.

Cooking in the new curriculum

Teachers have been busy learning about the different cooking skills we’ll be teaching your child this year!
Today we’ve made a tasty (and healthy) garden salad!

Welcome!

Welcome to Reception Class!

Thank you all for welcoming us into your homes. It was lovely to meet you all and get to know your child a little bit more.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life and hope you’ve been provided with all the information you need. As always, please ask if you are not sure about anything.

The children will all begin this week, with the last children arriving on Thursday.

After your first day, school will begin at 8.50am and finish at 3.15pm. Please bring your child into the classroom and help them in the different learning areas to have a go at a learning challenge. Take this time to look at your child’s learning journey.

We try to get the children to be as independent as possible early on, so please let them hang their coat up and sort themselves out while you wait in the classroom.

At 3.15pm, please wait at the gate to the Reception outdoor area to collect your child.

See you all soon!

Smile for miles on the St Gemma’s sponsored walk

One of our chosen school charities, St Gemma’s Hospice, is holding their first ever Happy Walk on Saturday 20 September. This is a good opportunity to support our school charity but also to take part in a great morning with your family while walking 3.5 or 5.5 miles around Roundhay Park. The event starts at 10am.

We’ll be co-ordinating registration for the event and registration forms are available now from the office.

Entrance for this event is £5 (children under 12 walk free) and each walker will get a free hot drink and cake. All participants are asked to raise sponsorship money. It is also a pram and wheelchair friendly route so the whole family really can get involved.

There will be an activity pack that children can take with them on the walk where they can look out for wildlife and take some tree rubbings. Before the walk starts there will also be a face painter, a chance to meet Olaf from Frozen, and time to make your own Happy Loom band to wear and keep.

St Gemma’s are also encouraging all walkers to wear what makes them Happy on the walk – whether that’s a silly hat, fluffy socks or a brightly coloured t-shirt.

We hope you are able to join in with the St Gemma’s Happy Walk.

Ready to learn

It’s the summer holidays and, in line with our homework policy, there is no formal homework set over the six-week break.

That doesn’t mean that your child won’t be learning!  We learn all the time – and so do children, whether it’s through play, day-trips, independent reading, discussions at home…

And of course, you’ll be keen to support your child at home so the basic facts aren’t forgotten.  Please think about key English and Maths knowledge that you can gently practise over the holidays:

• number bonds: knowing pairs of numbers that add to make ten, like 3+7=10 and therefore 10-7=3).  When your child is secure with pairs that total ten, can they extend this knowledge to pairs which make 20 (13+7=20, for example) and 100 (such as 30+70=100) – make this fun by using some sweet treats or how about stringing ten loom bracelets on string and then hiding some and making the link with the ones that are left (how many are hidden if you can see three bracelets?)
• times tables: Year 2 children should have an emerging knowledge of the 2 times table and the 10 times table at least, and children who have just finished Year 4 should know all their times tables (up to 12 x 12) and the division facts, too (7×8=56 so 56÷7=8) – think about chanting some times tables or buying an app to practise just a few minutes every day to keep your child’s knowledge sharp!
• reading: lots of reading over the holidays will help your child in lots of different ways – visit the local library; take part in our Extreme Reading competition; if you’re going to a theme park or museum, read the leaflet and the website… there are loads of opportunities to build in reading as a daily activity!
• writing: reading will help your child’s spellings and writing style, so don’t force lots of writing, but do try to encourage some useful, purposeful writing – write some postcards to friends and relatives , or send some emails instead, and make lists for what to pack on holiday, or what to buy if planning a sleepover.

Check out this guide about supporting learning, useful whether it’s term-time of holiday time!

Finally, make sure you enjoy the summer break!