We have had another wonderful week in Reception and the magic of Christmas is really starting to appear as the children have enjoyed practising their nativity on the stage! Thank you for your help practising lines at home, it would be great if you could continue to practise these, we are focusing on using our big clear voices to reach everyone in the audience!

We had a lovely surprise on Tuesday when Year 6 came to visit us in our classroom. Each Reception child has a Year 6 buddy who we will meet up with throughout the year. This time they came to introduce themselves and to share a special story together. Thank you for being such kind and caring buddies year 6, we know you will take wonderful care of our Reception children this year!

What have we been learning this week…

RE: This week we have continued to reflect on the birth of the true meaning of Christmas and the events that led up to the birth of Jesus. As a class we discussed Angel Gabriel’s message for Mary and the special job that God had asked her to do. Reception have also been enjoying discussing the travelling Nativity and it become an exciting part of the day when we find out who will be taking it next!

Phonics: This week we have learnt to read and write the sounds y, w, and th and thought of words for Fred’s book that begin with these sounds. Alongside focusing on the correct letter formation and hearing these sounds in words (oral blending), we have been using the technique ‘Fred Talk read the word’ e.g. ‘w-e-b web’ to help us decode and read words with these sounds. When we introduce diagraph sounds such as ‘sh’ and ‘th’, we describe these as being ‘special friends’, when these two letters are sat together in a word they make 1 sound.

Maths: This week we have continued to compare quantities; however, our focus has been on which group has fewer objects. We used the STEM sentence ____ has fewer than ____ to help us compare the two groups. We talked about why the word fewer is used instead of less. We noticed that when we are comparing quantities that can be counted (quantifiable) e.g counters, blocks, pencils etc. then we use the word fewer. The word less is used when the amount cannot be counted e.g. sand or water. This week the focus was on using fewer than.

Let’s Celebrate…

Each week children across the school are celebrated for demonstrating our learning characters and our school virtues. They are celebrated in class and in our Friday assemblies.

Focused Cooper Crab: Bertie!
Bertie, you have been so focused during our phonics lessons and you have been determined to get even speedier at recognising the sounds. We are so proud of you and its been lovely to see you notice how all of your focus and hard work has helped; you had the proudest smile on your face when you noticed how many sounds you have learnt! It’s brilliant to see you enjoying your learning journey.
Well done Bertie!

Focused Cooper Crab: Marcel!
Marcel, your focus in Phonics has been brilliant and we can see just how much you are enjoying learning a new sound each day! You have also been focused on your writing and really taken your time with your letter formation. This has helped you to do some beautiful writing this week! Keep up this great focus.
Well done Marcel!

Whole School Virtue - Faithfilled: Rebecca!
Rebecca, you are always patient and treat others with kindness. Your recognise how important this is and try to follow in Jesus’s footsteps by taking care of your friends and the environment around you. Thank you for bringing so much kindness and care to our classroom.
Well done Rebecca!

Important reminders:

Polite plea to please double check uniform that you have at home as we have few items missing e.g. cardigans. It may be that these have become mixed up on pegs and gone home with the wrong child by mistake. Please also double check that all items are clearly labelled as this helps us to identify who they belong to quickly when found it class. We have one unclaimed cardigan in class that has faded green pen mark but the name is faded and unreadable. If you think this may belong to your child please let me know.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Hartley
s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a wonderful weekend
God Bless,
The Reception team