How wonderful to see the children settling into the Reception routine!  As part of our topic ‘all about me’ we have discussed how families are all different, and the children had the opportunity to share their family pictures with the class and talk about their own family.  The children then drew their family pictures in their writing books.  This week, the children have been introduced to phonics, we have learnt m, a, s and d. Please reinforce these sounds at home, the children can start to use these sounds to blend words using Fred Talk: s-a-d = sad. In maths, the children have been sorting and comparing pictures and objects, using key vocabulary such as sort, compare, same and different. We have been developing our gross motor skills in our lovely learning garden. We have been taking turns to ride the bikes and scooters as well as climbing up, crawling along and climbing or jumping down the climbing frame.

Key messages 

• You should have received in your child’s bag their name writing sheet. You can re-use this by using a whiteboard pen. Please practise with your child at home, use the red dot as the starting point, encouraging your child to hold the pencil correctly and use the correct formation of the letters.

• Any donations of tissue boxes would be very much appreciated.

• Any donations of compost would also be greatly appreciated so we can make our ‘mud kitchen’ more fun for the children!

• The children have started phonics this week. To review the phonics sounds that your child has been learning, please visit the phonics website: 

https://sites.google.com/thevineyardschool.org/phonicsthevineyard/reception 

• Please remember to check your child’s bag every day in case they have brought home anything from school, or in case they have a first aid slip.