Welcome To Reception
Cygnets Class – Mrs Davies and Mrs Stansfield
Ducklings Class – Miss Knee
Welcome to EYFS. The teachers currently in reception are Mrs Davies and Mrs Stansfield (Cygnet class) and Miss Knee (Duckling class) who are supported by Miss Murray and Mrs O'Connor
Starting School!
Welcome to Cygnet and Ducklings and the Swiss Gardens Family!
In our first term together at Swiss we focus on settling the children into new routines, environment, friends and building their independence.
• Independence: Right from the start of term we encourage children to be independent coming in and putting their things away, self-initiating activities throughout the day, getting, eating and clearing lunch things, becoming responsible for putting on and taking off coats, jumpers, socks and shoes by themselves all the way through to organising their belongings for home time – there is an awful lot of new things to learn! We spend a lot of our initial weeks teaching the children how to do all of these things for themselves (and practising at home definitely help, too!)
• Routines: There are many new routines that we introduce, build upon and practise until the children are confident and independent, including coming in in the morning, lunchtimes and getting ready for home. Over the term we gradually will increase the number of routines to include other aspects of learning, such as Song of Sounds each day, Dough Disco and Beefit PE.
• Learning environments: while as a school we don’t have the largest amount of space we work hard to ensure we make the most of all available space and in EYFS offer access to our outside area in all weathers. Children enjoy large climbing equipment, mud kitchen, sand, construction and role play to name a few! For each of these areas the children must learn about the behavioural expectations, resources they will find there and how to use, care for and tidy them away so that they can use them successfully and safely
• Friendships: One of the most important aspects of the Autumn term in Reception is getting to know one another! The children have plenty of time through free play to build new friendships and initiate activities and games together. We also plan in carpet times and team building activities which are designed to help support and develop their social skills.
Our School Day
We start our day coming into class independently and completing our morning jobs. First we organise our belongings before self registering and practicing writing our names. Before the class register we enjoy some self-initiated choosing time.
During our day we will...
- sit on the carpet for whole class adult directed inputs such as phonics, maths or getting to know you games
- have choosing time inside in our classrooms and outside with free flow between all the spaces
- have playtime on the main playground and enjoy a fruit snack and milk (for those who register for it)
- have some lunch followed by some outside playtime
- in the afternoon we come in and do Dough Disco to start strengthening our hands ready for writing before a session of free flow learning
- at the end of the day we sing songs and read a story before singing our goodbye song together.
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What We've Been Learning- Marvelous Me and My Community
Our first topic is all about ourselves. As the term goes on we begin to think about our community and people who help us, starting with our helping hands at school and then thinking about the wider community including emergency services. We use lots of books to start conversations and have visitors to help us learn about what they do.
Weekly parent updates:
Please click on the documents below to see what Reception have been learning this week
(These will be added weekly once the children have settled into routines)
Dough Disco
We have been using dough disco to help strengthen the muscles in our hands ready for writing!
You can see the moves we have learn't below.
Why not make or buy some playdough and practice at home!
Try some of the vidoes on youtube!
HOME LEARNING
Things you could do at home with your child
-Taking your jumper on and off by themselves
- Retelling a story and acting it out using role play or small world.
- Playing a turn taking games (and sometimes loosing).
- Keep on going until you complete a puzzle.
- Using a knife and fork to eat your dinner.
- Have a go at using scissors using the other hand to guide the paper
-Writing the letters in their name
Reading
Reading is one of the very best ways to support your child's learning across all areas! Just a little every day increases their vocabulary, enhances their understanding of the world and develops their comprehension. Children have now begun brining home library books to share with you at home. Use these books to support your child with early reading skills.
How can you help?
- Choose a convenient time for many children 5-10 minutes may be long enough
-Use pictures and characters to engage their attention
-Give plenty of praise!
-Stop if they are bored or become uninterested
Use your child's reading record to note down some comments
You might consider-
-What they enjoyed/did not enjoy about the book and why
-Any comparisons they made to other stories or their own lives
-Comments about the events of the story
-Ideas for what could happen next
-Comments about what they notice from the pictures
The most important thing is to enjoy reading together!
Song of Sounds
We have now started to learn the stage one song of Song of Sounds. You can find the video with actions below to practice at home. In the next few weeks you can also find our weekly focus sounds here too.
Click here to see the Song of Sounds Parent Guide
Parents are also invited to join us for our phonics and reading parents meeting at 9.15 Wednesday 5th October