Saturday, August 29, 2015

Great songs for kids!



We listen to a lot of music in Reception, particularly Greg and Steve. This duo have a knack of capturing children's attention through catchy rock rifts and groovy lyrics! Follow the link below to view their complete collection. Make sure you have your air-guitar at the ready!
Happy Singing!

Greg and Steve

Support with Maths

In Reception children will learn early skills in Maths. These will include counting, ordering numbers, 2d and 3d shapes, patterns, measuring everyday concepts, and days of the week.
Here are some great websites to support your child's learning. As with the phonics, please allow your child to re-visit these websites regularly in order to help them embed knowledge and skills.



Top marks Maths games

Crickweb Maths games

CBeebies - Super Numtum Maths games

CBeebies - Numberjacks puzzles

Support with Phonics



In Reception children will be learning Phonics. It will be taught daily and skills are built up over time, eventually leading to early reading skills. Below are some links to websites that support Phonics learning. We recommend that children play these regularly in order to help them embed skills and knowledge.
The first link is highly recommended as it shows the order that we will teach letter sounds and also how to pronounce them. Correct pronunciation is extremely important in learning phonics.

How to say each letter sound

Starfall Phonics

Letter and sounds - improving listening skills

Letters and sounds - single sounds games

Letters and sounds - blending sounds for higher ability learners

Phonics play

A collection of phonics games

Please allow your children to explore the above games and videos and revisit them regularly to ensure that learning becomes secure.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Settling in!

Welcome to term 1! I hope you all had a great summer holiday.
The children settled instantly into their Reception class and we are already learning new routines. I am happy to see that all children are very independent and very eager to learn new skills.
We have had a lovely couple of days so far and the children are really enjoying the benefits of having a small class size.

Here is a video that I took of tactile play with a twist!


Here are some pictures of some of the discovery and learning that has taken place in our first 2 days of school. 

 Uss spends a long time making play dough food. He visits the play dough table several times during the day. 

 Alex paints an alien!
 Panboon draws herself! And it looks just like her!
 Alex learns how to use the drying rack. 
 Meleah busies herself in the role play area where she spends most of the day cooking up a storm in the kitchen area!
 Puma and Uss have fun together at the play dough table. 

 Neasha loves the play dough table and spends a long time investigating the tools.
 Grandae makes a beautiful picture using pencils and post-it notes.
 Grandae shows good independent skills when trying to put the apron on by herself. 
 Panboon and Alex make a mess with the cloud dough (made with baby oil and flour 1:8 parts)
 Making new friends at the water tray. 
 Meleah is still cooking....!
 Grandae shows intense concentration when clipping these shapes together. 
 Mr. Booth visits!
 Neasha and Uss sharing new toys. 
 Alex finds "Dinosaur fossils!"
P' Joo chats with Grandae and Meleah. 
 Hug time in the Reading Den!
 Arin tries some stamping! 
"Peek-a-boo!"