Thank you so much to all the families that joined us for our final Stay & Play of the year. We are so grateful to have had such fantastic participation in all our events and weekly reading/writing café sessions throughout the year. 

The children have been creating their own collections of 20 this week and making arranging their objects in rows/arrays to help them count and check they have 20. Some children chose to create rows of 5 whilst others chose to create rows of 10. Some pairs arranged their collections into numicon shapes of 10. This really helped them to quickly identify how many more they needed or if they had too many. So many subitising and calculation opportunities in this play!

Today, we released our butterflies into the nature garden. We talked about how the butterflies had grown and needed to be in a bigger, wild space. Although the children were sad to see them go, they were also very excited and we made links to their transition to Y1. 

We had a lovely time on our visits to the library today. It was great to see the children sharing lots of books with their parents/grandparents and even better to hear the children reading some of the Little Wandle reading books to the adults! It will benefit the children so much to keep up reading some decodable books from the library over the summer holidays as well as taking advantage of all the other fantastic picture and information books they have on offer. If you haven’t registered for a library card yet, please do so from home by scanning yhe QR code on the back of the leaflet the children brought home and take advantage of this fantastic FREE resource on the doorstep! Thank you so much to all the adults that joined us on our visits today. We are looking forward to another visit next Wednesday afternoon 😃

Maths

This week we have been exploring place value using number tracks. The children have been ordering and positioning numbers on a track. they have compared numbers to work out their position, deciding if they will come before or after 5. Once the children were secure with this concept then we have had lots of fun playing dice and track games. It has been interesting to see how the children develop their understanding of counting on 'jumps' on the number track. It would be fantastic if you could play some dice an track games at home this weekend, for example snakes and ladders. Be sure that the children count on the number of jumps accurately!

Phonics

The children have been continuing to work through Phase 4 of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds program. This week we have been learning to read and write words with different endings: -ing, -ed (t), -ed (id) and -est.

Please practise reading the following words and captions together at home:

bumping, twisting, squelching, helped, smashed, blinked, grunted, melted, plumpest, strongest, strictest

We are swimming in the pool.

He jumped and bumped his legs.

The frog hunted for food in the pond.

I have the softest blanket ever.

Please practise spelling the following words and writing the caption, reminding your child to use a capital letter to start the sentence, a full stop to finish and finger spaces between words:

jumping, snapping, helped, cracked, hunted, melted, softest, strongest, swimming, trusted

We are cool and fresh.

I have the strongest arms in the class.

The big croc was snapping at the swimming ducks.

Reception have been very busy today! We have been learning about the new king and his love for conservation. So we planted some wildflower seeds that will hopefully attract and feed bees and butterflies. We think that King Charles would be very proud of all our hard work in nurturing local wildlife 🌱🐝🦋

Maths

The children have continued to develop their understanding of the composition of numbers to 10 this week by exploring how numbers between 5&10 are made up of ‘5 and a bit more’. The children have been making arrangements of objects to show that the amount is made of 5 and some more. They have used small world toys, cubes and counters to show their number arrangements and are experts at demonstrating the composition on their hands using the stem sentence “7 is made from 5 and 2. 5 and 2 make 7.” Could you spend some time exploring this further at home over the weekend? Maybe collecting different amounts of daisies or dandelions and encouraging your child to make an arrangement showing 5 and some more? Please share your learning on Tapestry - the children love to share their work at home with the rest of the class 😃

We were so fortunate this week to have some frog spawn and tadpoles in our setting. Trigan and his Mummy very kindly brought some from their pond for us to observe for a couple of days. The children were fascinated by them and spent long periods of time watching them and making careful observations about what they could see. 

We have been exploring double arrangements on the tens frame in maths today.

Some very high levels of involvement were on display this afternoon in our woodwork project. Just look at the concentration on these faces! 
 

This week the children have brought home some tricky word flash cards to help practise at home. Cut them out and have a go at some of the games in the video to help the children learn them and be able to recall the words quickly to help their reading become more fluent. 
Once your child has mastered this set of words, we will send home the next set. Please share your learning from home onTapestry and we will celebrate it in class - the children love showing their photos and videos and telling the class all about what they have done 😃

Maths

This week the children have been exploring doubles as 2 equal parts. We have been making doubles on our hands and also by using cubes, counters and marbles.

They have enjoyed playing “Double or No Double” by looking at my arrangements of counters and deciding if they show 2 equal parts - this could be something you could practise together over the weekend. The favourite doubling activity of the week was the game we played on Friday which was a barrier game using 2 halves of a butterfly to see if the children could listen and follow instructions about how many items to position on the butterfly’s wings to create a double pattern when the barrier was removed. This was great fun! 

Science Week - Home Challenges

This week we are celebrating Science Week at Cross Gates Primary School and our theme is ‘Connecting With The Great Outdoors’. Why not try some of these challenges/activities together at home and add your observations to Tapestry so we can share them in class? 
1. Following all the snow and ice yesterday, go for a walk and encourage your child to notice and talk about how the snow is different today to yesterday. Why do they think this is? Can you spot any icicles? Leave out a container with some water in tonight. Ask your child to describe what the water looks like, feels like, how it moves etc? Then check on the water in the morning - is it still the same as it was last night? How has it changed? Continue to check on it throughout the day and leave the container so you can repeat the observations for the next few days.
2. Once the snow thaws later in the week, go for a walk to spot any signs of spring. Can your child draw or write about what they have spotted? 
3. Why not have a go at planting some seeds together? Sunflowers and beans are so easy to grow in pots and give the children lots to talk about as they grown and change. It would be great to see their photos, comments and observations over time.

Phonics

This week we have continued to revisit all the digraphs we learned last half term. Many children are able to recognise the digraphs in isolation but find it harder to spot them in words so practising reading single words with digraphs in is really important. This week we will be sending home a game to play to practise this together, please upload photos and comments to Tapestry to show how your child is getting on with this. The focus of our lessons this week has been to read and spell words with 2 or more digraphs in. Please practise reading and spelling the following words together: shark queen teeth torch farmer magnet short power chart helmet thinker chain powder It might help to write some of the words out and encourage your child to highlight/circle/underline the different digraphs to help them spot them. We have also been reading the following captions:

The sheep march up the hill and into the sunset.

The queen has seven sheep and a shark.

The singer has a helmet with a torch.

We tell the farmer that his goat has got into the shower.

Maths

This week, the children have taken part in activities that draw attention to the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. The children also revisited the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether. They had opportunities to hear, join in with and develop their knowledge of the counting sequence and to become secure enough with their counting skills to be able to count out a set of objects from a larger set, remembering the ‘stopping number’ and knowing that this means they have selected the correct number. To begin to understand the word pattern embedded within most of our number names, the children were given opportunities to practise counting beyond 20. Attention was drawn to the repeating pattern of the counting numbers by the use of our class teddy - they were all big fans of teddy and were very quick to correct teddy when he made mistakes in his counting! This helped the children to join in with verbal counts beyond 20 using the repeating pattern of the ‘1s’. The expectation is not that the children should become secure with knowing ALL of the number names beyond 20, but rather that they hear the repeating pattern in the numbers and develop confidence in using the familiar sequence within 10 to count to bigger numbers.

Another key focus this week was to consolidate the ‘stable order principle’ – rehearsing the order of the first 10 numbers and understanding that the position that each number holds in our number sequence does not change. While working with numbers to 10, the children developed their understanding of the ordinal aspect by consolidating their understanding that each number has a value of ‘1 more’ than the previous number. Images of the Numberblocks, alongside the children’s own fingers, were used to represent ‘5 and a bit’ quantities, which will help to embed this key understanding.

Phonics

We have now learnt all of our phonemes (sounds) for Reception - can you believe it? This half term, we will be revisiting all digraphs and trigraphs to ensure that children are really secure and fluent reading and writing words and sentences containing them. 

This week, we have revisited the digraphs and trigraphs: 

ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, oo, ow, oi, ear 

The children have been practising reading and spelling words containing these digraphs and trigraphs. Please practise reading and writing the following words and captions together at home:

tail, deep, fight, soap, food, hard, born, curl, took, down, join, beard

The cat has a ribbon on its tail.

He has loads of carrots in his bucket.

This duck got in the boat - quack!

We put the rabbit down on the carpet.

I can put the coat on.

It would be great if you could also practise reading and writing the following tricky words: is, as, his, has, the, I

Maths

This week we have continued to explore the composition of 5 with the song '5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer' and the use of a Hungarian number pattern (die frame - dot pattern for 5 on  dice). These key representations help to underline the ‘5-ness’ of 5, and provide structures that help the hcildren explore its composition and relationships with other numbers. The children secured their understanding of the pairs of numbers that make 5, and then used double dice frames (Hungarian Tens Frames) to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’.

Phonics

The children have learned to read and spell words with the trigraph air and the digraph er this week. Please practise reading and writing the following words and captions together at home:

air, fair,  hair,  pair,  chair 

ladder,  hammer, letter,  boxer 

The chair was in the air!

I was as high up as the ladder.

We have also been learning to read and write longer words with double letters. It would be great if you could practise reading and then writing the following words and captions too:

rabbit,  rubber,  carrot,  bigger,  hidden, puppet, kitten,  toffee,  ribbon

My rabbit needs a bigger carrot!

The kitten has hidden in the ribbons.

They had a kitten and a rabbit.

Tricky & Key Words

These are the tricky & key words that your child has learned in school so far. Please practise reading them at home to help them recall the words quickly. This will develop their fluency and confidence in reading at this point. Choosing a few words to focus on each week and playing games like splat, snap, pairs or even hunting round the house for hidden words supports this learning through play.

The children were very excited when they spotted something growing in the garden this morning.

“I think it’s a flower” Aniah

 “There’s another one here. I think it’s going to grow into a carrot.” Sofia

Let’s see what happens…

In our woodwork project this week we had a talk and demonstration from Mr Childerson (our school Site Superintendent). The children enjoyed learning about the tools he uses to fix things around our school and they told him all about the tools they had been learning to use. There was great fascination about the spirit level and the children were very focused on trying to get the bubble in between the markers to show that it was straight. 

Phonics

The children have been learning the digraphs: ur ow oi and the trigraph: ear in their Phonics sessions this week. Please practise reading and writing the following words and captions together at home:

coin, join, hurt, surf, town, down, hear, near

We curl and turn in the surf.

Pop down to town with me.

Join me in the park.

I hear an owl in the night.

Is that a cow with a beard?

Maths

This week we have been exploring the composition of 5 using the song ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs’. The children became frogs themselves initially (role playing the song in our outdoor learning sessions and in the classroom), then we used some origami frogs, created by our lovely student teacher Miss Tyson, and finally we made some representations of the frogs in our drawings to show our mathematical mark making and understanding of the composition of 5. Throughout all our learning we have been showing how many frogs in the pool and on the log on our fingers - the fingers still up show how many on the log and the fingers down show how many in the pool. We kept reinforcing that there were 5 frogs altogether because we were using 5 fingers to show the composition. Murphy class really are becoming ‘masters of number!’ 😃

Phonics

We have been learning to read and write words with the following digraphs this week: or ar oo (long 'ooooo' and short 'u' sounds). Please practise reading and writing these words together: boot, moon, zoom, cook, look, foot, horn, sort, born, dark, charm, car. You could also try reading and writing the following captions:

zoom to the moon

hook a book

march in the dark

born with a horn

Maths

This week we have been creating 'staircase patterns' to explore the stable order principle – rehearsing the order of the first 5 numbers and understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. While continuing to work with numbers to 5, the children have developed their understanding of the ordinal aspect by investigating the difference in value of consecutive whole numbers. They discovered that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number. Using blocks and squares we ordered quantities from 1 to 5 to help embed this key understanding. Why not build or draw some of your own staircase patterns and share the learning on Tapestry with us?

Phonics

Happy New Year! It was so lovely to see all the children again this week and we have loved hearing all about their experiences of Christmas. We have now moved into Phase 3 of our Phonics Programme and we have been learning to read and write words with the following vowel digraphs: ai ee igh oa. Please practise reading and writing these words together: rain, sail, pain, sheep, beep, feet, night, light, high, road, goat, soap. You could also try reading and writing the following captions:

tail in the rain

sheep in a jeep

a light in the night

soap that goat

Phonics

We have been learning the digraphs (2 letters that make 1 sound): sh ch th ng nk. At home you could practise reading the following words to help us to learn the digraphs: ring thing wing king pink tank think wink bank shell shop fish ship this thud moth bath with chick chat chin much.

We have also practised reading these captions:

Can I fix a van?

Can a moth quack?

It is a mess in that bag.

I can ring a bell.

This duck got wet.

We have been spelling and writing the following words: fix fill jam leg bell dad mess duck

Important Dates Coming Up...

Friday 9th December - Christmas Jumper Day, visit to the church in the morning, Christmas Dinner and Christmas Fair.

Monday 12th December - Christmas Stay & Play @ 1.30pm with our Singing Performance to finish the afternoon off.

Tuesday 13th December - Christmas Party Day, children can wear their party clothes instead of uniform (£1 charge)

Friday 16th December - finish for Christmas Holidays @ 3.15pm.

Tuesday 3rd January - Return to school after the Christmas Break 

Phonics

This week in phonics we have learned the new graphemes for qu, z and ch. We would like you to practise reading the following words together at home: chip quack buzz fizz
mix yes zip sun off

If your child can read the above words then have a go at reading the following captions:

I can kick and yell.

Hop in the back.

Run and tell Mum.

Run in the sun.

The dog is wet.

This week we have been writing and spelling the following words: can back run had sun

It would really help the children if you could practise spelling and writing these words at home too. don't forget to upload any pictures o comments to Tapestry - the children love to share their learning with us and get smileys on their charts for work at home!

Maths

This week the children have started to explore composition by focusing on the preliminary skills: the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. By investigating their own bodies and familiar toys they have begun to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts.

Key language in this area can be tricky; clarity around a ‘whole’ and how it is different from a ‘hole’ needs to be made explicit. Further confusion can arise from other composition language, e.g. when do we mean ‘a part’ and how is this different from ‘apart’? Using the following stem sentence will support your child's understanding of wholes and parts: My [body part] is a part of me and the whole of me is [child's name] eg 'My hand is a part of me and the whole of me is Ruby.' We started to explore the Numberblocks 2 & 3 and how many parts they were made up of using yellow and orange card squares to represent their bodies. For number 2 we used the sentence: So 1 is a part, and another 1 is a part, and the whole makes Two.

You could explore chopping vegetables in half and matching the halves up to make a whole or encourage your child to cut their food on their plates into half. We would love to see some of your explorations together around halves and wholes.

Maths 

This week we have been comparing quantities using the vocabulary: more than, fewer than & equal to. The comparison of quantities is something that children begin to do as babies. When comparing, children notice attributes and begin to understand similarities and differences. This week’s activities focused on further developing these innate skills. We encouraged the children to compare the number of objects in 2 sets by matching them 1:1. Seeing that objects in some sets can be matched without any being left over will draw the children’s attention to instances when the quantities of objects are equal. Playing games at home together such as taking turns to roll a dice and counting out that number of pasta shapes or raisins then comparing how many you have will support the children in their understanding of this concept. If your child finds it hard to use the language (more than, fewer than, equal to) then simply say the sentence for them - hearing you using and modelling the language will help them learn how to use it themselves. Please upload to Tapestry any observations you may have of you playing games like this together at home. We really do value parent contributions towards our assessments of the children 

Phonics

The children have now learned the phonemes to match the graphemes: v w x y and we have learned the tricky words: and his has her.  We have been practising reading the words: van vet wet wig wag fox six box yes yum yap rock nap fat peck dig sock hiss sad hug fun and applying our phonics knowledge to read the captions:

a fat hen on a hill

a red sock in a van

a sad cat on a bed

a big dog at the vet

a nap in a box

This week we have also been spelling and writing the words: fat sock sad hug rock

It would be great if you could spend some time together this week playing some games to practise reading these words eg displaying 3 of the words at a time on the floor (van, wig, fox) and asking your child to jump on the word that says 'fox'. You could write out one of the captions each day and have a go at reading it together. Maybe you could take turns to sound out and blend words from the caption then read it back together? Taking 5 minutes out of the day together to practise spelling one of the words fom the list above would also greatly benefit your child. Help them to segment the word first by hearning all the phonemes (sounds) and saying them in order. They may need you to exaggerate some of the sounds when you first start practising this together, then you could ask your child to write down the letters that match the phonemes you have identified. If your child is not quite ready to write the letters then perhaps they could point to the letter on a grapheme mat? I have attached a grapheme mat below that you could use at home. The most important skill at this stage is being able to identify the sounds in the word but any practise you do together on letter formation is also greatly beneficial.

Don't forget to keep revisiting the graphemes (letters) we have already learned. Each day we play 'speedy sounds' where I show the children the grapheme (letter) and they make the phoneme (sound). The more practise they have with this, the more confident they become when reading and writing.

This week we have been creating Poppies through our artwork with paint and loose parts.

This week we have welcomed Miss Woolley to the staff team in Murphy Class, she is our lovely new TA!

Phonics

This week in Phonics we have learned the graphemes: ff ll ss j We have also been revisiting tricky words: I the is. It is so important to keep up with some daily practise of recognising the graphemes and saying their sounds (phonemes). The quicker the children can recognise the letters and say the sounds then the more easy they will find it to read and blend words. This week we have been reading the words: puff, mess, hill, jam, bell, fuss, off, huff, puff, jug, jet. We have also started spelling and writing words. This week we have been writing: cat, tap, bed, ten sock

Any practise you can do together at home makes a huge difference to the children in terms of their skills and also confidence. Going for a phoneme hunt around the house is a great way to get children talking and thinking about Phonics. Choose a letter sound eg p and go for a hunt around the house to find as many things as you can that begin with that phoneme. You could also try writing some simple words using the letters we have covered so far and seeing how many your child can read in 1 minute? Or just practise matching simple labels to pictures eg, pig, cat, dog. 

Maths

This week in Maths the children have been exploring the number 5 through the song        '5 Little Peas in a Pea Pod Pressed...'

Initially we started off practising 'growing' 5 on our fingers then moved on to representing the 5 peas using counters. The children practised counting out 5 and matching one counter to each finger to represent the 5 peas. We then used a die frame showing 5 and found out about 'doubling' by placing another die frame showing 5 next to the first one and counting how many altogether. We discussed how doubling meant adding another of the same value. The children quickly realised that they could show double 5 on their fingers and we explored showing other doubles on our fingers too. One of the children suggested we could find more doubles on the dominoes and we had fun playing 'double or not double'. Perhaps you could play dominoes or dice games together this weekend to spot some doubles? Or you might like to practise counting out 5 with your child and playing with arrangements of 5 objects, eg arranging 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom or 4 on one side and 1 on the other.

Don't forget to add any observations to Tapestry for your child to share with us next week!

Phonics

The children are doing so well in their phonics lessons! Thank you so much to parents for practising and learning the letter sounds at home together. It really does show and the children are becoming more and more confident, especially with their reading. This week we have been learning: f h b l

We have also learned tricky word: the

Thank you to everyone who has joined our Reading Café sessions this half term. Next half term Reading Café will be on Monday afternoons starting from 7th November at 2.40pm. We look forward to seeing you there 😃

Phonics

This week we have been learning the phonemes to match the graphemes: ck u e r

The children have been reading matching objects to these graphemes according to their inital or final sounds (for ck) and they have been reading the following words in our phonics sessions: dig pat dad man cat sip cap tap top sad kit dog cat nod sock pick get cup mum duck pet red sock ten. We have also been learning tricky words: I & is

It would be great if you could practise reading some of these words at home together too!

Many children have been enjoying games in the outdoor area where they have been looking for hidden graphemes (written letters) or running to the grapheme that matches the phoneme (letter sound) I call out. this is a great way to practise their early reading skills without having to be sat down inside and it's loads of fun too!

Maths

In our maths sessions this week we have been exploring number 4 and making patterns with 4 blocks. The children have then been using positional vocabulary to describe the arrangements of the blocks. Later in the week we moved from concrete representations (using the actual blocks) to more abstract representations (using green dots) to show/record the different arrangements. This is a very important stage in helping children develop their understanding of number and quantities. The children also had a great time finding the dot pattern cards that were hidden in the outdoor area and sorting them into groups.

Following the children’s interest in vegetables, we brought in some pumpkins to spark curiosity and discussion. The children have really enjoyed making their own ‘pumpkin shop’. There has been lots of fantastic role play and maths work involved in this play and they also worked together to use their new phonics learning to create a sign for the shop too! 
We would welcome any donations of pumpkins - any colour, size, texture & shape to support this play further. Also donations of 1p coins would be greatly appreciated too as the children have requested 'real money' for their shop!

Phonics

This week we have been learning the phonemes and graphemes for: g o c k. It would be great if you could practise the formation of these letters at home. Don’t forget to use the formation rhymes on the parent download earlier on this webpage to support the correct formation of each grapheme. Here are a couple of useful definitions for you to support your understanding of the vocabulary used in phonics teaching:

phoneme - the sound a letter makes

grapheme - what the letter looks like written down

digraph - 2 letters that make one sound eg sh, ll, ai

Maths

We have been working on developing our counting skills and teaching our 'careful counting rules' to our number puppet - Counting King. He's not always the best at counting carefully but the children are being excellent teachers, explaining to him where he has gone wrong and how to improve. They have really embraced their roles as teachers!

Our Careful Counting Rules:

• Count everything once
• Say your number names in order
• The last number you say is how many are in the count

Phonics

Phonics lessons have been going really well over the last couple of weeks and the children are now recognising many of the phonemes we have covered so far and beginning to blend to read words with them in. So far we have covered the phonemes: s a t p i n m d

Please spend some time together practising the sounds for each letter. It would be gret if you could go for a hunt together round the house to find items starting with these phonemes (maybe focus on just 2 letters at a time) or display the letters in the garden and play games where the children have to run to the letters you say.

To support with the correct enunciation I have attached a guide which gives instructions about how to make each sound and also how to form the letters correctly using the phrase we use in school to support the children know how to move their hand. It would also be great if you could spend some time together working on the correct letter formation too. This doesn't need to be done with a pen and paper, your child may prefer using their finger to write in a pile of flour or with a paintbrush and pot of water on the ground or a wall outside.

We had our first Tatty Bumpkin Yoga session on Thursday afternoon and the children were learning the 'Tree Pose'. It was so lovely to see how well they joined in and listened to the instructors whilst having fun and giggling lots! We will be taking part in Yoga sessions each Thursday afternoon for the rest of the half term. Please could we ask that you make sure your child wears socks instead of tights on these days? This would help us out greatly as the children need to have bare feet during the sessions. Each week we will add the parent information sheet for the new Yoga pose/stretch that we have been learning so oyu can have a go together at home. Don't forget to upload any photos or videos to your child's Tapestry account to share their progress and achievements with us!

Welcome to our Reception Class Webpage! Reception class are called Murphy Class after the author Jill Murphy; we will be reading lots of her books over the course of the year and you may enjoy sharing some together at home. Some of our favourites so far have been the books about the Large Family (a family of Elephants).

Reception is a magical time for children where they learn vast amounts in short spaces of time - you won't believe the transformation in your child's skills and knowledge by Christmas never mind the end of the year! Our promise to you is that we will do everything we can to ensure that every child is happy and thriving in our class. This page will be used to share with you our achievements, celebrations, important messages and information about what we have been learning in school and how you can help us at home.