Reception

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Dear Parents,

Welcome back, we hope you had a great half term. Our topic for Term 4 is ‘Off we go Exploring’ and our learning journey will begin with exploring the well-known text ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’. We will also be visiting our forest and local area. Then we will be using stories to explore other places around the world, including Jerusalem and linking this to the Easter Story.

Our key texts this term are:

Areas of Learning

Literacy

Our focus in literacy this term is using our phonic knowledge to write stories using narrative language, adjectives, nouns and verbs.  In reading, our phonics knowledge, high frequency and tricky words will develop further – we will be talking about the events in the books we read and predicating what will happen next.

Maths

In maths we are going to secure our knowledge of addition and subtraction with the support of objects. Through making fruit kebabs, we will be creating detailed patterns. We will also begin to look at weight, measuring and comparison of amounts.

Understanding the World

The children will be making lots of observations of the world around them, and virtually exploring other countries. As Easter approaches, we will be learning about the Easter Story and talking about our Easter experiences.

Home Learning

We would like to thank you all for your effort with last term’s home learning tasks including reading with your children.

Reading

Please read with your child regularly, even if it is a home or library book. At this stage it is really helpful to discuss the stories that you read and use story language such as, character, setting, beginning, middle and end. The more experiences that children have of sharing books at home, the quicker they progress in all areas of the curriculum as it develops their creativity, vocabulary and imagination, as well as furthering their reading and writing skills.

Letters and Sounds

Your child will be bringing home their focus phonic sounds and high frequency word lists.

 Home Challenges!

Please choose one or more of the following activities to enjoy at home and record these in your home learning book. These can be brought in at any time during the term.

• Make a mini fact file of a place you have visited.
• Try different foods from around the world and write about your favourite one.
• Paint or draw a picture of the forest or a place you have visited.
• Create your own collage of a ‘new place’.
• Find out about the animals that live in hot or cold places.

Websites and Links

• ictgames.co.uk and www.topmarks.co.uk for Literacy and Maths games.
• phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3, 4 and 5 games, blending sounds and words.
• uk.mathletics.com for maths games
• bbc.co.uk/cbeebies for literacy and maths activities and games
• If you wish to make learning games to have fun at home, you can print from twinkl.co.uk and browse the EYFS Reception section.

Quick Reminders

• Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle and their book bag each day.
• Our PE days are Tuesday & Wednesday but PE kits should be in all week.

Forest School  

This term, we will be doing Forest School sessions linked to our topic; there will be a letter with specific dates and times for these sessions. If you are able to help out at all please let us know.

We hope you all have a lovely term supporting the children in their learning. Please do not hesitate to come and speak to us if necessary.

Thank you for your support,

Miss  Denney and Mrs Smith

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Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back and we hope you all had a lovely Christmas holiday.

Our topic is ‘Off We Go!’ where we will be learning about different  types of transport and the journeys that they can take us on. We will also be looking closely at how transport such as cars, buses and planes have changed since they were first invented.  In addition we will be looking at the emergency services and what each one does to help us and the local community.

Key Texts

Areas of Learning

Literacy

Our focus in literacy this term is to secure our phonic knowledge to write sentences, instructions and stories through talk for writing. In reading, our phonics knowledge, high frequency and tricky words will develop further from our reading of key texts and sharing and discussing new stories together.

Maths

In maths we will be becoming more familiar with naming and describing 2D and 3D shapes. We will be continuing to secure our number skills to 20 and then exploring addition and subtraction with games and activities.

The main part of the topic is to use the vocabulary associated with all different types of vehicles and how they are different and the same. We will also be looking at maps to see where different countries and cities are and how we might get there.

Learning Journeys

If you wish to look through your child’s learning journey, please feel free to pop in on alternate Fridays starting 18^th January from 8.50-9.00am. As explained when the children began school, you are welcome to bring in any photos or contributions for the learning journey books.

Home Learning

Thanks to constant practise, the children’s reading is developing well. Thank you to all of you who support this at home. It really does make a difference.

Reading	Please read with your child regularly, even if it is just for a few minutes. Now that the children are using their sounds to blend new words, it is important that they begin to discuss each book and understand words such as ‘character’, ‘title’, ‘setting’, ‘beginning’, ‘middle’, ‘end’.
Letters and Sounds	Home learning books will continue to come home with the sounds that we have been learning. We have now moved on to learning ‘digraphs’ (two letters to make one sound).

Super Home Challenges!

You might like to choose one of the following activities to try with your child at home. You can record these in your home learning book and bring these into school whenever they are finished to share with the class.

• Go on a journey, take photos of how you got there and tell us about how long it took.
• Make a model of a new vehicle and give it a name! Be as creative as you can!
• Write a story about one of your vehicles at home that has been getting into trouble like the naughty bus!

Websites and Links

• ictgames.co.uk and www.topmarks.co.uk for Literacy and Maths games.
• phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 2,3 and 4 games, blending sounds and words.
• If you wish to make learning games to have fun at home, you can print from twinkl.co.uk and browse the EYFS Reception section.
• All information for the term is also on the school website.

Quick Reminders

• Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle and their book bags each day.
• Can the children please always have a coat in school particularly as the British weather is unpredictable.
• Our PE days are Tuesday and Wednesday but PE kits should be in all week.
• Please can all children have a spare set of underwear and socks in their PE bag in case of any accidents. It is much more comforting for children to have their own change of clothes to put on if the need arises.

Trip to the Fire Station

We are planning a trip to Uckfield Fire station as part this term’s learning, a letter with further information, will be sent out soon.

PLEASE HELP!

If you have any unusual vehicles such as an old bicycle, a tractor or a vintage car that you would be able to bring in and talk to us about, please let me know. Also if you have any models of unusual transport then we would love to see them.

Thank you for your continued support and please do not hesitate to come and see me if you have any questions of comments.

Miss Denney

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Dear Parents,

Firstly, we would like to say how impressed we have been with the children since they have started with us. They have all settled into school life amazingly!

Our topic for this first term is ‘Once Upon a Time’. We will be spending time exploring some familiar stories such as ‘The 3 Little Pigs’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Alongside this, we will be working on number recognition and formation. We will also be developing our foundation understanding of letters and sounds.

Our key stories this term are ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’

The boxes below explain briefly the areas we will be looking at and some of the work we will be doing which will be incorporated through play and teacher focused activities.

Home Learning

We encourage children to continue their learning at home which will enhance their progress at school. There will be a meeting on Wednesday 19th September 2.45pm in the learning zone, to discuss home learning, reading and phonics. We will then send home phonic reading books following the meeting.

Phonics – If you are supporting you child with their phonics at home please visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksblMiliA8  to ensure you are teaching the pronunciation of the sounds in the same way. There is also a link to the jolly phonic songs below.

As the year progresses and children’s understanding develops, home learning tasks will adapt and increase appropriately.

Reading

Please read with your child regularly. At this stage it is really helpful to encourage the children to use the pictures to tell stories. We change the children’s Home Reading books regularly. Their books and book bags will however be needed in school every day for 1:1 reading. Each child has their own reading record book, where there is a page in the reading record for each week, we ask that you initial whenever you read with your child at home or make notes as appropriate.  In school, we have our own record keeping systems and teachers/TAs will not write in these home records. It is expected in our school reading policy that the children should read at home at least three times a week. If the children achieve their ‘three reads’ they will receive a raffle ticket.  The reading records will be checked and raffle tickets given on a Friday and entered into a draw which will be held in the following week’s celebration assembly. More information about our reading strategies will be given at the reading and phonics meeting on Wednesday 19th September.

Letters & Sounds

Every week the children will bring home the sounds they have been working on in the week. In their home learning book, the children can practice these sounds by writing them, finding words that start with them and cutting pictures out of catalogues. It would be really useful to support the children in identifying these sounds when reading with them.

Quick Notes

• Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle and their book bag each day.
• Can the children please always bring a coat particularly as the British weather is unpredictable.
• Our regular PE day is Wednesday but PE kits should be in all week as we fit in other sessions where possible.

Useful websites

• www.phonicsplay.co.uk – Phase 2 – phonics games and activities.
• www.topmarks.co.uk – Early Years maths and phonics games.
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/eyfs – Games and activities for all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

We hope you all have a lovely first term supporting the children in their learning and please do not hesitate to come and speak to us if you have any questions.

Thank you for your support.

Miss Denney and Mrs Smith

Click here to download a printable copy of this newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Our new topic is ‘I Have the Power!’ During this term, we will be looking at how we are super, what super means and how we can be super learners. We will also look at people who help us in an emergency and answer the questions: When do we need help? What is an emergency? And what do we do in an emergency? We will also be learning some basic first aid! We are hoping to have visits to school from the local police and fire services. On Friday 2nd February, to celebrate our learning we will be having a Super Hero Academy Day at Chiddingly School which will finish with an award ceremony for parents to attend, further details will follow soon.

Areas of Learning

Literacy

Our focus in literacy this term is using our phonic knowledge to write sentences, stories and recounts through talk for writing about our favourite superheroes. In reading, our phonics knowledge, high frequency and tricky words will develop further from our reading of different books such as non-fiction texts about the emergency services. We will also be enjoying the book, ‘Super Daisy’ by Kes Gray and Nick Sharratt.

Maths

In maths we are going to secure our knowledge of number, then we will look at addition and subtraction with the support of objects. We will also explore and compare weights using different scales and our hands.

The main part of the topic is looking at the police and fire fighters and their different roles in emergencies and prevention. This term will be filled with role play of different scenarios and how we can act quickly and safely to keep people safe. We will also look into how we can make the world around us safe and how technology can impact on this.

To develop our personal, social and emotional skills we are going to think about how we are special, our goals and ambitions and how we express and achieve these.

Home Learning

We would like to thank you all for your effort with last terms home learning tasks including reading with your children.

Reading	Please read with your child regularly, even if it is just for a few minutes. At this stage it is really helpful to encourage the children to use the pictures and their developing letters and sounds knowledge, as well as spending time discussing the events of the story.
Letters and Sounds	High Frequency word cards will continue to come home. Please could you ensure that these are in the book bags every day so that we can monitor and review this with each child. There will be a group of words to learn at any one time but if you wish to do more, you could use others from the lists.

Super Home Challenges!

You might like to choose one of the following activities to try with your child at home. You can bring these into school whenever they are finished to share with the class.

• Make a superhero badge.
• Make a superhero vehicle using construction or junk modelling.
• Write a superhero story or design a superhero costume.
• Give someone in your house a super power and make a poster about it.
• Find out about someone who helps others, eg. Coastguard, lollipop ladies, doctors, nurses etc.
• Bring in any books that you have at home about people who help us to share.

 

Websites and Links

• ictgames.co.uk and www.topmarks.co.uk for Literacy and Maths games.
• phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 2,3 and 4 games, blending sounds and words.

Quick Reminders

• Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle and their book bag each day.
• Can the children please always have a coat in school particularly as the British weather is unpredictable.
• Our PE days are Tuesday and Friday but PE kits should be in all week.
• Welly Boots – Please can all children have a set of Wellies in school at all times, this is so we can use the field and outside areas when it is wet and muddy.

Please tell us what you think of our termly newsletter, this letter is for you and we would love to hear how we can improve it. Any comments welcome! We hope you all have lovely third term supporting the children in their learning and can see how much they have learnt already and how they are continuing to grow. Please do not hesitate to come and speak to us if necessary.

Thank you for your support,
Miss Denney and Mrs Smith

Click here for a printable version of this newsletter

Dear Parents,

Welcome back, we hope you had a relaxing half term break.  Our topic for term 4 is ‘Story Rhyme, Story Time!’ We will be enjoying looking at lots of books by the author Julia Donaldson and learning about her exciting characters.

During this term we will be looking farm animals and exploring what makes them unique. We will be visiting Plumpton College Farm to experience this for ourselves. Alongside this we will be developing our knowledge of rhyme and making our own rhyming words.

Our key texts this term are:

Areas of Learning

Literacy

Our focus in literacy this term is using our phonic knowledge to write stories using narrative language, adjectives, nouns and verbs.  In reading, our phonics knowledge, high frequency and tricky words will develop further and we will be talking about the different Julia Donaldson texts. If children have their own Julia Donaldson books at home, we would love for them to bring them in and share them with the class. (Please ensure they are clearly named!)

Maths

In maths we are going to secure our knowledge of addition and subtraction with the support of objects and begin to estimate and count in 2’s. Alongside this we will be exploring shapes and measures, as well as beginning to use money in our role play farm shops.

Understanding the World

Throughout the term we will be finding out about what happens on a farm, the foods which are produced and the animals that live there. We will also be developing our use of technology.

Home Learning

We would like to thank you all for your effort with last terms home learning tasks including reading with your children.

Reading	Please read with your child regularly, even if it is a home or library book. At this stage it is really helpful to discuss the stories that you read and use story language such as, character, setting, beginning, middle and end.
Letters and Sounds	We have sent home High Frequency Word Lists for the children to focus on. They need to be able to read these on sight. Please focus on the 5 words with a dot next to them. When we read with your child, we will look at these words and send home the next ones so that they always have some to learn at home.

Term 4 Home Learning Tasks!

Choose two of the following activities to try with an adult at home. You can record these in your home learning book if you wish. Bring these into school whenever they are finished to share with your class.

• Make a puppet from your favourite story.
• Make a list of all of the Julia Donaldson books that you know.
• Build a model farm in a shoe box or with construction and take a photo of it.
• Visit a farm shop near you and see what they sell. Write a list of all the things you could see.
• Explore measuring of different objects in your house. Can you put them in size or height order and draw a picture? Could you write down the measurement?
• Make a song or dance to teach your friends about Zog or a farm animal.

Story Day at Chiddingly

On Tuesday 21st March, East Hoathly will be visiting Chiddingly School for a special story day. More details to follow soon.

Plumpton Farm Trip

We are planning a trip to Plumpton College Farm on Thursday 9th March to support our learning about farms and animals. More details will be in the letter to follow.

Websites and Links

• ictgames.co.uk and www.topmarks.co.uk for Literacy and Maths games.
• phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3, 4 and 5 games, blending sounds and words.
• mymaths.co.uk – Maths Games
• If you wish to make learning games to have fun at home, you can print from twinkl.co.uk and browse the EYFS Reception section.

Quick Reminders

• Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle and their book bag each day.
• Our PE days are Tuesday & Friday but PE kits should be in all week.
• We have a range of trips and workshops this term so will be restarting forest school in term 5.

We hope you all have a lovely term supporting the children in their learning. Please do not hesitate to come and speak to us if necessary.

Thank you for your support,

Miss Denney

Click here for a printable version of this newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back and we hope you all had a lovely Christmas holiday.

Our topic is ‘Off We Go!’ where we will be learning about different types of transport and the journeys that they can take us on. We will also be looking closely at how transport such as cars, buses and planes have changed since they were first invented. As well as this, we will be taking a close look at places we have visited and how we got there!

Key Texts

Areas of Learning

Literacy

Our focus in literacy this term is to secure our phonic knowledge to write sentences, instructions and stories through talk for writing. In reading, our phonics knowledge, high frequency and tricky words will develop further from our reading of key texts and sharing and discussing new stories together.

Maths

In maths we will be becoming more familiar with naming and describing 2D and 3D shapes. We will be continuing to secure our number skills to 20 and then exploring addition and subtraction with games and activities.

The main part of the topic is to use the vocabulary associated with all different types of vehicles and how they are different and the same. We will also be looking at maps to see where different countries and cities are and how we might get there.

Learning Journeys

If you wish to look through your child’s learning journey at home, please feel free to pop on alternate Fridays starting 13^th January from 8.50-9.00. As explained when the children began school, you are welcome to bring in any photos or contributions for the learning journey books. Also, please continue to complete ‘I Can’ slips to celebrate your child’s home achievements.

Home Learning

Thanks to constant practise, the children’s reading is developing well. Thank you to all of you who support this at home. It really does make a difference.

Reading	Please read with your child regularly, even if it is just for a few minutes. Now that the children are using their sounds to blend new words, it is important that they begin to discuss each book and understand words such as ‘character’, ‘title’, ‘setting’, ‘beginning’, ‘middle’, ‘end’.
Letters and Sounds	Home learning books will continue to come home with the sounds that we have been learning. We have now moved on to learning ‘digraphs’ (two letters to make one sound).

Super Home Challenges!

You might like to choose one of the following activities to try with your child at home. You can bring these into school whenever they are finished to share with the class.

• Go on a journey and take photos of how you got there and tell us about how long it took.
• Make a model of a new vehicle and give it a name! Be as creative as you can!
• Write a story about one of your vehicles at home that has been getting into trouble!

Websites and Links

• ictgames.co.uk and www.topmarks.co.uk for Literacy and Maths games.
• phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 2,3 and 4 games, blending sounds and words.
• If you wish to make learning games to have fun at home, you can print from twinkl.co.uk and browse the EYFS Reception section.
• All information for the term is also on the school website.

Quick Reminders

• Please can you make sure your child brings in a water bottle and their book bags each day.
• Can the children please always have a coat in school particularly as the British weather is unpredictable.
• Our PE days are Tuesday and Friday but PE kits should be in all week.
• Forest School Kit MUST be in school so that children do not come home muddy.
• Please can all children have a spare set of underwear and socks in their PE bag in case of any accidents. It is much more comforting for children to have their own change of clothes to put on if the need arises.

Chiddingly and East Hoathly Special Bear Day!

We are planning a special Bear Activity day at East Hoathly School on Wednesday January 25th. Chiddingly children will be joining the East Hoathly reception class to spend the day with their special bears, carrying out lots of fun outdoor activities. More details to follow soon.

PLEASE HELP!

If you have any unusual vehicles such as an old bicycle, a tractor or a vintage car that you would be able to bring in and talk to us about, please let me know. Also if you have any models of unusual transport then we would love to see them.

Thank you for your continued support and please do not hesitate to come and see me if you have any questions of comments.

Miss Denney

Term 6 Newsletter