It has been lovely welcoming Reception back into school this week and having our classroom filled with smiles, laughter and lots of excitement for the term ahead. I hope you have all had a restful Christmas; it is clear that Reception are ready for the new year as they have been busy growing their brains from the first day back!

The children are now very familiar with the routines in Reception (even after a two week break!) and it is wonderful to see how they are making the classroom their own and unique to their interests and passions. What is particularly exciting is the amount of their own writing that is appearing all around the classroom. They are thoroughly enjoying learning to read and write and this is reflected across the room; from notes and labels that they have chosen to write and display, to sounds and words that they can read and identify in the different classroom areas. The joy on their faces when they realise they can read a sound or word is just magical to see! We even started sticking googly eyes onto the ‘special friends’ sounds that we found around our classroom, we found so many that we had to print more!
I wonder if you can spot them in the pictures below…

What have we been learning this week…

Phonics: This week we began by re-capping all of the sounds we learnt in the previous term and it is clear that lots of children have practised over the holidays, we are getting even speedier with our sound recognition! Then we looked more closely at the Set 1 special friends, they are two letters together that make one sound e.g. sh, th, ch, ng, nk, and the additional special friends ll, ss, ff. Over the week we have thought about words that have these ‘special friends’ in and looked for them in words around the classroom.

Maths: This week we have been thinking about mass and have compared the weight of different objects. To make direct comparisons, we acted as human balance scales to identify which object was heavier and had a stronger downward pull. We descried what we felt or noticed using language such as heavy, light, heavier than and lighter than.

RE: This week we discussed the Epiphany and as a whole school, we joined together at church for a special mass service. Reception really enjoyed attending their first mass service with Father Peter and they certainly did our school proud. This week we have also been thinking about how we can follow in Jesus’s footsteps, being role models in all areas of school and at home.

Let’s Celebrate!

As we went to Church this Friday, certificates will be given out in next weeks assembly.

Important Notices & Polite Reminders:

Please ensure your child brings their reading packet to school each day as we will be reading in school regularly. The children are really enthusiastic about learning to read and are making such wonderful progress, so we want to keep this up!
In your child’s reading packet this week you will find three QR codes sharing some Fred Talk games which your child can practise at home. Fred talk is something that we used daily in our phonics lessons so your child will be able to follow the ‘my turn your turn’ cues as shown on the video. This oral blending is a really important step in your child’s reading journey so lots of opportunities to practise and play these games at home are extremely beneficial.
When you read at home with your child it would be useful if you could write a note in their yellow reading record with the pages read and a short comment as this helps us to know where to continue from in school; thank you.

As always, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact via email - s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a wonderful Christmas,
God bless,

The Reception Team