Welcome to our Reception Classes

Week beginning: 28th April 2025

Shared Reading is on Friday morning - we hope to see many of you there. 

Our Learning this week includes:

Literacy - The children have been practising applying phase 3 phonemes when reading and writing, practising saying sentences out loud, counting the number of words and then segmenting the sounds in each word, remembering to put finger spaces between each word when writing. Both classes have a ‘sentence checklist’ to refer to whilst writing sentences which includes checking it makes sense/reading it back and using finger spaces. We focus, in particular, on applying both of these in our sentence writing this week. Using the text ‘Pip and Egg’ by Alex Latimer we will be thinking about the two main characters in the story and writing thought bubbles for what we think they may be thinking at different parts of the story. 

Maths - This week, the children will continue to develop their subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting). A key focus will be to use the children’s developing understanding of doubles to support their subitising skills, for example, knowing that two sets of three make six. By moving away from counting for sets that can be subitised, the children will develop their abstract understanding of number, which will help to support future calculation strategies. 

Another key focus this week is the ongoing development of visualising skills. The children will be encouraged to look carefully at structured arrangements on a 10-frame (two rows of 5), and then to close their eyes and explain what they see, using spatial language and hand gestures. This will deepen the children’s understanding of part–part–whole relations and allow them to further consider composition (the numbers within numbers).

Understanding of the World - This week we focus on identifying different parts of a flower, learning new vocabulary such as stem and petal. We will look at real flowers and label the different parts verbally, and then draw a picture of a flower and label it. We will also be planting seeds this week, some of which the children will bring home to be nurtured at home before coming back into school to be planted. We also take part in forest schools this week with Mrs Wells. 

Expressive Arts and Design - In preparation for our trip to the Berkhamsted Art Society we will be creating self portraits this week, which will then be displayed at the exhibition next week. We focus on adding detail to our drawings, considering how best to represent our own features. We will also create a fun and colourful background for our portraits so that they stand out on display! 

Bike Coaching will be on Wednesday again this week, the children enjoyed their first session last week and we hope they're keen for another go! SuperStar sports will also be coaching a session on Friday. 
 

Our termly Class letter is viewable here