Welcome to Reception!

Welcome to your new class and for some of you, a new school! I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and making lots of new friends!

Thank you parents for attending the meetings - if you didn't get to talk to me - don't worry, you can see me after school. 

Check out alphablocks website to help your child with phonics (letter sounds) as we will be looking at these throughout the year.

Don't forget to read every night :)

Miss Cullen

Have you seen the Kids’ Zone? Play games and visit some cool websites. You can vote for your favourites.

Christmas Stamp Design Competition 2017

The Royal Mail is running a prestigious competition for primary school pupils to design stamps for Christmas 2017.

The competition theme is ‘What does the Christmas season mean to you?’ and so the children can design an image that best describes what the festive period means to them.

St. Mary’s has signed up for the Royal Mail’s Stamp Christmas Stamp Competition. If you would like to enter you can find a limited number of entrance forms in the leaflet pockets by the School Office.

Alternatively you can download the form at home.

Link to entry form:

https://ich-rmstamps.azurewebsites.net/pdf/rm/Entry%20Form.pdf

Designs must be returned to school by Monday 6^th March, addressed to Mr Elgey.

It has been a wonderful first couple of weeks in school. From day one the children have been learning the school rules and routines. I am very proud of the children for settling in the way they have and for the parents being so supportive and encouraging.

It is very important that your child is in school every day and we advise that you contact the school office if your child is absent for any reason, and that holidays are during school holiday time.

At home it would be very useful for the children to practise changing their own clothes, using a knife and fork and writing their name – you may see a worksheet in their bag to help them write their own name.

Thanks!

Welcome to Miss Cullen’s Reception Class

There are 25 amazing children in this class, everyone different but equally important and special!

We have brilliant teaching assistants in reception – Mrs Cooling and Mrs Marques – who help the children each day they are in school and assist the class teacher.

There are a wide range of interesting resources and activities in school that will help develop the children’s knowledge and skills for the rest of their education.

In reception we are guided by the EYFS learning goals.

Please use the link below to give you more information on the EYFS goals.

www.foundationyears.org.uk

The main areas are:

Personal, Social and Emotional development, Communication and Language, Mathematics and

Physical development.

Autumn Term 1

The topic we have been looking at and will continue to look at is ‘Ourselves’.

The children will be talking about why they are special and how everyone is different but special in a unique way. We are learning to draw ourselves and other people (from babies to older people), focusing on body parts – where they are and the names.

Autumn Term 2

The topic for this term is ‘Weather and Seasons’

Talk to your child about the seasons and the different types of weather.

The School Day

The children daily lessons: Phonics, Literacy and Mathematics.

Phonics involves learning the names of letters and their sounds – this is a vital process for the children to master as it is essential to help with reading, writing and spelling.

There are lots of learning tools online that can be used at home.

 Literacy:

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

www.starfall.com

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html

Games on this website such as:

Word wheel

Reading machine

CVC maker

Mathematics:

 http://www.familylearning.org.uk

http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html

Week beginning 03/10/16 

Learning about colours, shapes names and properties! 

 Our class Timetable 

Homework will be starting the week beginning 14/11/2016

Reading books will be given out, check your child's book bag every day.

Please go through the sounds of the alphabet every night and read every night with your child (if your child can't read a word please tell them the red (tricky words) and sound out the green words).

Reading Books

Please spend 5-10 minutes every night reading with your child. Discuss the book with your child and encourage your child to talk about the pictures. We would encourage all parents to write a short comment in your child’s reading record book. 

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder, Christmas Nativity is on Friday 9th of December.

A note when out about time and place, please ask the teacher if you are unsure about this.

Please help your child learn their lines.

25/11/16

We had our first spelling test this week!

Please help your child learn the 4 words every week. 

I will call out the four words and the children will have to write down the words.

The words will be called out in a different order so the children need to write the words in the order I call out to be marked correctly.

New Year fresh start! Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a well deserved break over Christmas.

Thank you everyone for the lovely presents at Christmas.

We are now back into the school routine and ready to learn!

Our topic this term is ‘Food’.

In class we will be talking and learning about food and even baking!

Please talk to your children about the importance of healthy eating and making good healthy choices.

Spring Term 1

Food: throughout this term we will be learning the names of different fruit and about the different food groups and what our body needs to stay healthy.

This term so far, the children have already made gingerbread men, the children loved this experience!

We will be making a healthy fruit surprise!

Great British bake off...watch this space!

A few of the books that we will be reading this term are:​​​​​​

The Gingerbread Man,

Handa’s Surprise,

Oliver’s Vegetables ,

The Tiger Who Came to Tea (A favourite book of mine!)

Green Eggs and Ham.

Please remind your children to

1. always wear a coat for going outside
2. go to the toilet before school, break time, dinner time and play time
3. drink water after carpet time, free flow and during the breaks

Homework will be given every Monday to be completed by Friday in the green books.

Please hear your child ready every night, and practise phonics – repetition is key J

Practise writing the spellings each night – correct number and letter formation is very important.

Keep up the great support you are giving your children – every little bit at home helps your child in school.

I am very proud of the progress children have made and looking forward to helping the class achieve their best.

We had a fun week learning about ‘Positional language’. The children went on a treasure hunt to find the hidden gold coins.

We read ‘The tiger who came to tea’. The children imagined what animal they would like to come to their house for tea!

We have now started learning a new set of sounds – Phonics Phase 2 and 3.

This week we have been learning about time - on the hour. For example 3 O' Clock!
We have also discussed what you might do at different parts of the day - morning, midday, afternoon, evening and night time.

The children has also been learning about words that rhyme!

Can you believe it is February already?

Over the mid-term break, could you keep reading with your child, maybe let your child pick a book and read to to develop their love of reading and ask them to sound out words that you know they will be able to - this will help increase their confidence.

Practice writing - the words that are in their spelling book would be great as we try to use these words in class when the children to to write independently. 

Also, enjoy the week off! The children have been working hard and I can really see the progression they are making! I hope you can see that too! 

Thank you for your wonderful support :)

After mid-term, if you could send into school any 'News from home' about what your child did over the mid-term break, that would be greatly appreciated and shared with the rest of the class. 

Save the date!

International Food Day.... Wednesday 22nd February 2017, in the afternoon.

Week beginning 27th February - Science week - Focus on 'Change'.

Class Liturgy - Thursday 9th March at 10.10 am - everyone welcome 

Hope you had a lovely half term break!

This week the class are reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'

We are discussing food, healthy eating, growth and change!

We are really focusing on learning numbers 1-20 - a lot of children can easily count to 20 so now it is really important children can recognise the numbers and not just count out loud. 

Keep reading each night - 5 to 10 minutes - repetition is key, ensuring children can read fluently and confidently then with expression.

Practice spellings every night - writing the letters correctly - handwriting is very important throughout life so it is very useful to practice correct letter formation and spelling the words correctly.

I look forward to working with the children this term - it is a very busy one and lots of exciting events coming up!

Parents Evening

Taking place on Monday 27th March and Tuesday 28th March 2017.

Each meeting is 5-10 minutes long, so please arrive on time and I will also do my best to see everyone at their given time.

Please send back your note to confirm that you will be attending the meeting.

Please let me know if you can not attend and I will arrange another day and time.

Thank-you

Miss Cullen

Thank you all for attending the parents evening.

Please contact me or write me a note if you have any further questions.

Keep practising letter formation, recognising numbers and adding and subtracting.

Lenten reflection 10.00 am Thursday 6th April 2017.

Easter Holidays - April 7th - April 23rd - Back to school Monday 24th April.

Easter Bonnet Thursday 27th April 2017.

Welcome back for summer term 1!

I hope you had a lovely and well rested two weeks off and enjoyed the Easter Holidays.

Please label all summer uniform and P.E clothes

Practice set 2 sounds - these are 2 or 3 letters that have one sound - please refer to the phonics assessment you received during parents evening.

Practice correct letter and number formation - this is very important to get right.

Read every night 5-10 mins.

Important dates - 

Cake sale Thursday 27th April at break time and after school in the small play ground.

School class photos - Monday 22nd June

Class trip - 15th June - information will be sent out via a note when everything is confirmed.

Class Liturgy - Thursday 13th July at 10.10am

Sports day - Friday 14th July.

Bank Holiday Monday 1st May - no school

New topic this term is all about 'Bears'

During week 2 - the children will be talking and writing about a favourite teddy bear - if you could talk with your child about their favourite teddy bear this will help them in class. Thank you

All the bonnets were fantastic - thank you for all your effort and the children had a brilliant time showing them to family, friends and the rest of the school!

Class trip - 15th June 2017

Please put on sun cream as the weather forecast has high temperatures.