Welcome back! It has been so lovely to welcome back the children after the Christmas break. They have returned fresh and ready to learn. We have had a busy two weeks back in Reception. In our topic lessons, the children have been comparing two countries: Trinidad and Tobago and England. We explored maps together and learned what an island is. The children enjoyed spotting land and sea and talking about how the two countries are similar and different. In phonics, we have been reviewing our previous knowledge of special friends: ng, qu, nk, ch, sh, th. We also introduced double consonant special friends: ll, ck, ff, ss.  The children practised reading and writing words such as hill, lock, sniff and miss. In writing, the children have been using the sentence stem “I can see…” to describe a winter scene. They are beginning to use finger spaces between words, and some children are even starting to use full stops—fantastic progress! In the Creation Station, the children have created beautiful sunset artwork to represent Trinidad and Tobago. They used warm sunset watercolours and added silhouettes of animals and trees using black paint. The finished pieces look wonderful and really show their creativity. This term, we have introduced Stars of the Week, where every child in the class gives compliments to the chosen stars. This has been a lovely way to celebrate kindness and friendship. In our weekly Star Moments Assembly, the children will receive a special certificate and a class list of all the compliments from their friends. In maths, we have been ordering numbers and using our mathematical reasoning skills to explain our thinking. The children are becoming more confident at talking about how and why they know their answers.

   

  

                                        

Messages: 

• Please can you continue to give us donations of clean recycling to add to our junk modelling as we use it throughout the year - small boxes, toilet rolls etc. However, we cannot accept anything that once contained nuts, eggs or fish.

• If your child has borrowed any clothes, please make sure these are washed and returned. We are running very low!

• Every Friday, we celebrate any star moments your child has had at home e.g. learnt to ride a bike, helped their siblings at home, started a new club, used wonderful manners to a relative etc. The spare ‘Star Moments’ sheets can be found hanging on the door if you run out.

• Please continue to bring in reading folders every Wednesday and these will be returned with new books on Thursdays. Please listen to your child read at least 5 times a week and record their progress in the reading record.  

• Upcoming date - Thursday 12th February We will be having our own Reception Carnival Day to conclude our Trinidad and Tobago topic. The children can come to school in their own brightly coloured clothes. More details to follow.