The classroom has been full of wonder and joy again this week as we have welcomed Reception back after the holidays. The children have returned with even more enthusiasm and determination and are certainly ready for the next challenges and adventures that this half term will bring. Our Reception family has also grown as we have welcomed a new friend into our class whom the children have welcomed with big smiles and open arms!

What have we been learning this week…

RE: This week we have continued to reflect on the birth of Jesus and have retold the story in detail. We also thought about the light that Jesus brought to the world and what we can do to shine our light. This is something that the whole school has been reflecting on this week and will be used to create a new display in our worship area at the front of school.

Phonics: This week we have been busy practising all of the sounds we have learnt so far, especially the special friends that we learnt recently ‘ng’ and ‘nk’. We have also used our phonics skills to spell words that have these sounds in. Because we have grown our brains so much in the last term we are ready for our next challenge. We have new phonics teams and will start to combine all of these skills as we move onto RWI ‘ditty sheets’ which involve more reading and partner practise where we get to be the teacher (always the most exciting part!). We will also be introduced to red words, these are common exception words (or tricky words) such as ‘I’, ‘the’, ‘you’. These are words that cannot be blended.
Over the next few weeks we will share more information regarding this next stage of our phonics programme.

Maths: Over the next few weeks we will be exploring the composition of number - how numbers are made. To introduce this concept we began thinking about the word ‘whole’. We thought about the two meanings (hole and whole) and came up with actions to help us understand the difference. We were excited to have a new toy in our classroom, but unfortunately, it was in lots of parts. We soon realised that we had to put the parts together to make the whole toy. We then explored other objects that have parts which combine together to make a whole.

Understanding the World: This half term our new topic is ‘Once upon a time’. To start this topic we will be exploring a variety of different objects which we will explore and investigate together.

As part of this topic we will be thinking about time and exploring past and present. We would love to do this by looking at pictures of ourselves in order to investigate how we have changed over time. If you are happy to, please email a baby picture of your child to: s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

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.

Co-operative Roger Robin: Nellie!
Nellie, we have had a wonderful first week back at school, but what has made it even more special has been having you join our Reception family! You have settled in so well this week and we have already seen how kind and caring you are towards others – just like Co-operative Roger Robin. We are so happy that you have joined us and we know you have a very exciting adventure ahead.
Welcome to the Reception family Nellie!

Focused Cooper Crab: April!
April, it was wonderful to see how excited you were to come back to school and you’ve come back with even more enthusiasm and focus! This week in phonics you have really impressed us with you focus, remembering to use your magnet eyes when recognising sounds and reading words. We can see how much this is helping you to grow your brain and we have also seen how proud you are of yourself. We are proud of you too!
Well done April!

Whole School Virtue - Eloquent and truthful: Jack!
Jack, it is lovely to see how you are growing in confidence and when you speak with teachers and peers in school, you also so do with kindness and respect. Thank you for being such a kind and caring friend and a wonderful role model for our class and school.
Well done Jack!

Lunch time awards:

We also have lunch time certificates which are awarded by the lunch time team to those children who they see being wonderful role models and using marvelous manors:

This weeks role model: Nellie!
Nellie, in Reception we have spoken about how well you have settled and what a kind and caring friend you have shown yourself to be already. What is lovely is that this has been seen by other adults around the school as well.
Thank you for being a brilliant role model Nellie!

This weeks marvelous manors: Kian!
You always remember to say please and thank you and you use those kind manors with everyone at lunch time. This doesn’t go unnoticed.
Thank you for being so considerate towards others Kian!

Important reminders:

An important letter has been sent home earlier in the week regarding NHS health checks for Reception. Please check your child’s school bag incase you have not seen this yet. The health check will be taking place in school on 31/1/24. The letter contains further information regarding the checks and how to opt out should you wish to.
Some children in Reception are beginning to show an interest in sharing achievements, talents and things they may have made at home with their class in school. This is a wonderful thing and we always encourage them to be proud of these accomplishments and to share and inspire others. In order to make it fair and ensure we have time for everyone, we will allocate certain days to each house team so they have an opportunity each week if they do wish to share something. This might be a piece of writing they have done at home, a musical talent, a certificate / medal from a sport outside of school or even a family photo from a special family event that they wish to tell their class about etc.
(We kindly ask that toys/teddies from home are not included in show and tell.)

If your child has an achievement or something they wish to share they are welcome to bring it on their house teams day:

Mondays: Bamber (Yellow team)
Tuesday: Harcourt (Blue team)
Thursday: Marsden (Green team)
Friday: Plessington (Red team)

(Please note this is not compulsory and doesn’t have to be each week, it is only if they have something they wish to share).

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Hartley
s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend
God Bless,
The Reception team