Mrs Evans - Cherry Class
Reception Teacher/ EYFS Lead/ Assistant Headteacher
Mrs Penny - Apple Class
Reception Teacher
Mrs Raikes
TA
Mrs Whetter
TA
Mrs Cotton
TA
Miss Egerton
TA
Mrs Charalambous
Lunchtime Supervisor
Mrs Bruce
Lunchtime Supervisor
We are so excited to get to know our new Reception children in Autumn term, and are looking forward to seeing what’s inside their All About Me boxes! The children will get to share their All About Me boxes with their new friends and the Reception staff, and get to explore their new learning environment. The Reception team support children to play cooperatively with others, gain confidence to make new friends, and to utilise the classroom areas. We begin to discuss feelings through our focus text, 'The Colour Monster'.
In Spring term, one of our We Thinkers topics is ‘The Group Plan’, where the children are taught collaboration skills, and learn the importance of following the group aim. Our SCARF sessions this term are all about keeping ourselves safe, and we will learn about listening to our feelings, and keeping safe online. With our Characteristics of Effective Learning animals, we have begun to learn about how we can be like Exploring Elephant, who plans and explores her own ideas.
Communication and Language
Communication and Language is a huge focus area for our new Reception starters: the sharing of All About Me boxes enables children to begin to enhance their early communication skills, and practise their listening skills whilst their friends share their own boxes. We will begin our WellComm and We Thinkers programmes which support social interaction and communication, speech, and language. We introduce basic Makaton signs which supports all children with language development, and helps to create an inclusive, welcoming environment for all children.
The children’s communication and language skills are continually developing, through group WellComm sessions, book talk, and small group work. The children are encouraged to share their photos and ‘wow’ moments from home on Tapestry (our online learning tool), and are learning how to ask each other questions, and how we can be good listeners.
In Spring term, our WellComm focus is learning the meaning of ‘when’, ‘after’, and understanding sentences containing ‘either’, and ‘or’. This term, we begin our ‘Show & Tell’ sessions, where the children take in turns to talk about and share photos of their weekend whilst using the past tense, supporting their understanding of 'the past' and building on their chronological awareness. It has been wonderful to hear the children share snippets of their wonderful weekends so far.
Physical Development
During our Autumn term, the children’s PE sessions cover a range of activities which support their physical development, including gross and fine motor skills. The children will take part in PE sessions where they will learn to jump safely, walk, and run using varying directions and speeds. Our Physical Development curriculum at Sandy Hill Academy is supported by our Healthy Movers programme, alongside yoga sessions. The children will develop their fine motor skills through a range of activities and daily letter formation practise.
The children have enjoyed taking part in their weekly Healthy Movers and PE gymnastics sessions this term. We have continued with our ‘funky fingers’ morning activities, which support the development of children’s fine motor skills, enabling them to hold their pencils effectively for accurate letter formation. The children have access to a variety of different tools, including paintbrushes, rolling pins and cutters. We encourage independence during lunchtimes, and support children to effectively use their knives and forks.
In Spring term, our PE sessions delve into the world of dance, where children learn to move with props to music with contrasting tempos, and to create their own movements to music. The children have enjoyed working with partners to create shapes and simple movement sequences. We are continuing to work on our fine motor control, and each morning, the children commence the day with a ‘funky finger’ activity, which supports their continued development. Now that the winter season is truly upon us, we have been working putting our own hats, scarves and gloves on. This supports our executive functioning skills, and encourages us to be more independent.
Literacy
Getting children’s early Literacy off to a flying start is our aim for the Autumn term. The children will begin daily phonics sessions, where they will be taught their first phonemes and graphemes, and have the opportunity to practise their new learnt skills. Our provision will include ‘funky finger’ activities to support the development of children’s fine motor skills. The children will practise their name writing daily and be supported to begin correct letter formation. We LOVE books and stories in Reception, and share our favourites daily!
This term, the children have developed into keen early readers, who now have their own books to take home, matched to their phonics level, and are now blending words and sentences! With our three weekly guided reading sessions, the children have the opportunity to embed the skills taught in their daily phonics sessions, in a group with a text matched to their reading level. The children are learning to form letters correctly, and have access to a variety of mark making tools and mediums… this term we have had postcards written to Zog, letters to Santa, and birthday cards created for friends.
In Spring term our focus text is ‘Supertato’, with our topic, ‘Do all heroes wear capes?’ The children have got stuck into the Supertato characters and stories, and have enjoyed retelling the stories using props and their own character creations.
In phonics, we begin with Phase 3 sounds. We are learning digraphs and trigraphs each day in our Little Wandle, Letters & Sounds Revised session, and are beginning to write short captions in our weekly guided writing sessions. We have begun this term with a weekly letter formation check in our special blue books. Each day, we practise forming 4 letters from the same letter family, and then on a Thursday, we get to practise in our letter formation check books. This lets our parents and carers know how the children are getting on with their letter formation.
Mathematics
Our Mathematics curriculum will begin with our Mastering Number programme, where children are supported to develop secure understanding of early number, including counting and subitising (recognising small amounts without counting). Mathematical opportunities are in every area of the learning environment, with loose parts for children to sort and count, shapes to discuss and describe, and fun puzzles to complete!
This term, we have continued to work on our understanding of numbers to 5, including composition of number, counting, and subitising. We have looked at the ‘one more/less’ relationship between consecutive numbers within 5, and created our own patterns. The children have looked at shapes within our environment, and discovered that there can be shapes within shapes.
In maths this term our focus is on building our familiarity with the numbers beyond 5, exploring capacity and comparing height and length. It’s safe to say that we are going to have a lot of fun in our maths sessions this Spring! The children have begun by looking at the composition of numbers to 5, and recapping our knowledge of ‘one less’. This will support our learning as we look beyond 5 to grow 6, 7 and 8!
Expressive Arts and Design
The children complete their first Reception self portrait in Autumn term, where we begin looking at colours and learning about colour mixing. Our focus text ‘Leaf Man’ is a stimulus for leaf art and creations such as leaf rubbings. The children will be supported to use scissors safely and effectively, including using a safe grip and making purposeful snips and cuts in paper. We love singing in Reception and will begin our Makaton Sing & Sign sessions!
We got very creative when we were exploring the celebration of Diwali! We created effective firework pictures, exploring different medias and effects, such as, black paper and pastels, chalk outside on the playground and within our transient art area of the classroom using loose parts. We have also used clay to create Diya lamps and explored pattern through Rangoli designs and Mehndi creations.
In Spring term, we will explore the celebrations held across the world for Chinese New Year, and delve into how we can celebrate at Sandy Hill. The children will create their own lanterns, and take part in a Chinese New Year dragon dance in PE!
Understanding the World
Our Understanding the World curriculum will support children to notice seasonal changes around us and in our local environment. We enjoy going on welly walks in the Autumn term, to collect lots of Autumnal treasures we can add to enhance our transient art area of the classroom. We notice different sounds in the outdoor environment, and notice any changes in the leaves on the trees. Through our ‘Who Are We?’ topic, we learn about different occupations through discussions with our friends about their parents and carers’ jobs, and people they have met in the community, such as dentists and nurses. We are very lucky to have the local fire brigade visit us too!
We have continued to notice seasonal changes as the weather has turned colder as we are approaching Christmas. We have talked about why Christmas is important to Christians and have enjoyed the traditional Nativity story. We have even been lucky enough to watch some of the older classes performing their Nativity Shows. We have enjoyed creating Christingles for our sing-a-long at Charlestown Church- what a magical evening this was!
In Expressive Arts and Design this term, we will explore the skills behind observational drawings, and look at the role of an illustrator. We were able to create some detailed Supertato illustrations, which we were very proud of ourselves for. We will continue to take part in our Makaton sing and sign sessions, and look at creating rhythms in our music sessions.
