Welcome to our Reception Class Page.  

Reception Curriculum Information for Parents and Carers – Autumn Term 2023

The Autumn Term is here and we would like to share with you a summary of what your child is learning in class.  We would also like to share some ways that you can support your child at home.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This term, we will focus on the transition from Nursery to Reception class.

We will be playing lots of games to welcome children to the setting and help them get to know each other and the staff.  There will be lots of opportunities to spend time playing and being with children in 1:1 and small groups as well as in the whole group to support the children in developing feelings of security and belonging in their new classroom and school.

At St Elizabeth’s, we follow the ‘Zones of Regulation’ to help us learn how to describe and manage our own feelings.  In the Autumn term, this begins by learning the names of different emotions and through sharing stories such as ‘Angry Arthur’ by Hiawyn Oram and ‘The Way I feel’ by Anita Cleare.

We will be spending time establishing new routines including snack time and lunch time, where we will be able to sit with our peers and practise our social skills, in addition to thinking about healthy choices and how to look after our own bodies.

Physical Development

This term, we will develop our fine motor skills by using resources that help us pull, twist, grip, squeeze and pinch, which all help our hands get ready for writing: for example, activities such as playdough, threading and construction toys such as k’nex.  We will have a go at mark-making and trying to write our name, starting each letter in the right place and trying to write from left to right.  We will have group carpet times where we use our bodies in different ways including a dough disco, which everybody loves!

Our creative area gives the children opportunities to mark-make and explore a range of tools including scissors, tape dispensers, paint brushes and a variety of pens.

We have a PE lesson each week and Mr Sagar, our PE teacher, will be helping us develop our movement skills through the topic of 'All about me'.  We will learn how to stay safe using space, working independently and with a partner.  The first term is an introduction to PE as well as looking at ball skills.  Children will have the chance to consolidate these skills in our outdoor area which we are lucky enough to have access to each day.  Make sure you bring your coat!

Communication and Language

We love talking in Reception!  As we make friends and get to know each other, there will be opportunities to speak in small groups as well as in front of the whole class.  We will play lots of games to help us feel confident to talk about ourselves as well as sharing the ‘All about me’ boxes in the first few weeks.

We will read many stories with repeated refrains, dances and action songs involving looking and pointing, and songs that require replies and turn-taking as well as playing games which involve listening for a signal, such as Simon Says.  These will all help us develop our listening skills in preparation for our Phonics lessons.

We will learn new words as part of our topics and we will be encouraged to use these to talk about our learning. In the classroom, the adults will help us try to answer in full sentences, which will help us prepare for writing.

Each week, our ‘Talking Activity’ will be set on SeeSaw, our virtual class learning environment, so you can talk about something linked to our learning in school.

Literacy – Reading

This term, we will begin our Phonics lessons.  We follow the programme, ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds’. Information about this can be found here.  These will be taught as a whole class in short sessions where we will start to learn the initial sounds and begin to blend the sounds together to read.

The children will also take part in small group ‘Reading Practice Sessions’, where they will initially share wordless books to learn the habits of a reader and talk about what they can see.  These books will then be sent home.

There will be a parent information session focussing on Phonics which will go into more detail.  Please come along and find out more about our whole school approach to Reading and how your child will be taught.  This will take place on Tuesday 10th October at 9am.

We love reading in Reception and we have lots of opportunities each day to share stories related to our topics, non-fiction texts and revisit old favourites.  The children love to answer (and ask) questions about what we are reading.  We will continue to visit the library each Friday to choose our own book to share at home.  We encourage all parents to join your local library and enjoy the experience of choosing and borrowing books.  There is also a PDF of recommended reads for each year group on our school website. 

Literacy - Writing

We have lots to write about in Reception!  As we share stories such as ‘The Little Red Hen’ and ‘Pumpkin Soup’, we will start to have a go at writing some of the sounds we can hear.  We will learn how to form all of the lower case letters and have time each week to practise our letter formation.

Mathematics

This term, we will begin to explore mathematical language and take part in activities which ask us to match, sort and compare.  We will sort objects to a type and create our own sorting rules as well as comparing amounts using the words ‘more’ and ‘less’.  We will learn about shapes including circles, triangles and four-sided shapes as well as exploring, copying and continuing simple patterns.

Our number work will focus on the numbers 1-5.  We will have opportunities to submit and represent these numbers in a variety of contexts as well as finding 1 less and 1 more.  We will use carpet time to listen to and learn songs and rhymes which help us with our number fluency.

Understanding the World

This term, our topics will be ‘Myself’ and ‘Seasons’.   We will have plenty of opportunities to talk about ourselves and our families as well as what we like to play with and who our friends are.  We will notice the changes in the weather and what is happening in our Reception garden as the leaves begin to fall.  We will also start our Autumn gardening jobs including planting bulbs and harvesting the potatoes!

Expressive Arts and Design

Our classroom provides endless opportunities for the children to express themselves.  We will use our home role play area and small world to enable the children to play characters and create and narrate their own stories.  The children are encouraged to invent, adapt and narrate stories with their peers including some of our key texts.

The children are encouraged to create using a variety of tools and experiment using a variety of techniques and materials.  This term, our topic inspires us to draw pictures of special people in our lives, explore texture in paint and make houses and homes using our construction area.  The children love to share their creations and we encourage them to take photographs of their work as well as using our classroom to display and celebrate our work.

Music

Autumn Half Term 1: The children will be exploring pulse through songs, body percussion and untuned percussion.  They will be developing confidence to sing as a whole class, but also in small groups and by themselves.  They will start listening to music critically (slowly introducing the idea of fast and slow, loud and quiet, high and low).

Autumn Half Term 2: The children will be preparing for the Christmas performance!

RHE (Relationship and Health Education)

In RHE, we will learn about family relationships, as well as discussing ‘special people’ we can trust.  We will discuss friendships and learn to look to Jesus as a role model for being a good friend.  We will use Jesus’ example to resolve conflict in friendships through saying sorry and asking for/receiving forgiveness.

Educational Visits and Other Important Dates

Tuesday 26th September, 9am - Class Information Session.  

Tuesday 10th October, 9am - Phonics workshop for Reception.  

Thursday 7th December - Reception Christmas sing-along.

How you can help your child at home

In Reception, we use the online programme ‘SeeSaw’ to set activities related to the weekly learning.  There will be a Maths and Speaking activity each week.  Details of how to access this and how to join our class page will be provided in the first few weeks once the children have settled.

Reading

Phonics - review and recap taught sounds.  These will be sent home at the end of each week.  You can practise making the sound correctly and recognising the sound.

Tricky words - use as flash cards to encourage instant recall.

Read to your children (anything they enjoy).  This not only promotes reading for pleasure but is invaluable in developing vocabulary and comprehension skills.  The children will bring home a library book each week.  This is their free choice and is for them to share with you.

By half term, the children will begin to bring home reading books to practise their blending and phonic skills.

Handwriting

Each week, the children will bring home the letters that we have learnt that week.  Please use them to help your child remember where to start and stop each letter.

Mathematics

A suggested Maths activity will be added to SeeSaw each week which reflects the children’s learning that week.

Speaking

Find any opportunity to talk to your child!  Use a lot of statements and comments and fewer questions to build natural conversation.  When you do ask a question, use an open question with many possible answers.  Show interest in the words children use to communicate and describe their experiences.  Expand on what children say by repeating it and adding a few more words, helping children use more complex sentences.  If you are bilingual, please do this in your home language too!