Magnolia Class

Reception Staff (ID 1194)

Welcome!

Welcome to our Reception class page! Here is the start of your child's journey through school!

In Reception, the majority of our learning is play-based and child-led, giving the children a chance to develop their imaginations, natural curiosity and risk management skills. They learn to work as a team, be independent thinkers and to ask questions. We encourage children to develop the characteristics of effective learning through our learning zoo. So expect your children to come home as 'Exploring Elephants', 'Go-for-it Gorillas' and 'Persevering Parrots' as they play and explore.

Continuous Provision, or Activity time, builds a large part of our day where the children have a chance to explore maths and reading challenges as well as role-play, art and physical skills. Our outdoor area is always open during this time and the children are usually quite happy to don waterproofs and wellies to brave the elements and discover nature!

I feel very privileged to be a part of your child's first year of school!

Miss Ward

Timetable 

Class News

Click the links below to see the latest learning in Reception on our Tapestry page!

Tapestry

Autumn 1 - This term we are learning...

Our term will start with a quick transition into full time school, giving the children a chance to settle into new routines. During the first few weeks of term, we will be assessing each child using the official Reception Baseline Assessment. The children are not aware that this is a test as it is conducted 1:1 through games.

The EYFS curriculum is split into 7 different areas which can be viewed in detail on the Early Years page of the website. Below is an overview of the first term outlining how the children will be given learning experiences designed to help them meet their Early Learning Goals by the end of the Reception year.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

With support, the children will develop their own class charter, deciding the rules they want our class to follow to keep ourselves happy and safe. In our PSHE circle times, we will be thinking about ourselves and our relationships - what makes me special and how can I express my feelings?

Communication and Language Development

The children will have daily story time to develop their listening and attention skills. They will also have opportunities to talk about the stories they have heard. Small world play and role-play time also provide time for children to develop their communication skills.

Physical Development

Children will have daily opportunities to practise both fine motor and gross motor skills through our 'activity time'. This will include activities such as cutting, threading, mixing and playdough, as well as ball skills, and chances to explore big movements such as climbing and jumping. Children will have access to outdoor learning every day.

Literacy

Phonics

Children will begin Phonics in their first week of school, initially as a whole class to learn the first set of sounds and develop their blending skills. Please see our Phonics page for more information.

Drawing Club

Drawing Club will start towards the end of this term. This is an exciting scheme with develops children's storytelling, speaking, understanding and writing through stories and drawing. We will begin by looking at the stories below.

Maths

Our maths focus for this first term will be matching and sorting, followed by talking about measures and patterns. The children will be given opportunities to explore these areas through whole class learning, small group activities and play based learning during activity time.

Understanding the World

In our Science lessons we will be looking at seasons and the changing weather through stories such as The Leaf Thief.

In our Geography lesson we will begin to look at how maps work as we look at our school surroundings and the wider community of the village of Maiden Newton.

In RE, we will be thinking about what makes people special?

Expressive Art and Design

The children will have lots of opportunities to explore art and design through daily activity time. This will include a mixture of free choice access to materials, but also some guided artwork linked to our drawing club theme, giving the children the chance to use media and materials they may not have experienced before.

Autumn 2 - This term we are learning...

As we continue through the Autumn term, the children will continue to have many opportunities to develop in the prime areas of learning. In our weekly PSHE sessions, we will be concentrating on how we can value difference, which links directly to the British value of Tolerance. 

Literacy

Phonics

Assessments for Phonics have now taken place and the children will be moving into smaller groups. This enables us to give them more targeted support. Some children will also begin to bring home decodable books this half term. Please see the Phonics page for more details.

Drawing Club

Drawing Club will continue this half term using the following stories to inspire our drawings and writings.

Maths

Our maths focus for this first term will be exploring numbers up to 5, including recognising, subitising, representing and composition of these numbers. We will also begin to look at shapes, starting with circles and triangles before moving on to 4 sided shapes. The children will explore these themes both independently and through guided group activities.

Understanding the World

In our Science lessons we will be looking at living things, starting with our own bodies before looking at animals.

In our History lessons we will start to think about continuity and change. We will begin by looking at photos of ourselves as babies to see how we have changed. We will also look at different artefacts to show how life has changed within living memory. As part of this, we will also take a trip to the local fire station to learn how to keep ourselves safe, and also how the fire service has changed.

In RE, we will be thinking about Christmas! The children will be beginning to learn Nativity songs from the beginning of November!

Spring 1 - This term we are learning...

Drawing Club - We will be looking at a mixture of traditional tales, classic animations and beloved children's stories as a stimuli for drawing and writing.

Maths - We will be exploring the composition of numbers to 10, looking at comparing mass and capacity, and adding numbers by combining two groups.

Science - Our topic this term is Potions! We will be looking at different states of matter, chemical reactions causing fizzing and how materials can change.

People, Culture and Communities/The Natural World - Our Humanities topic this term is Geography based and we will be looking at how we can explore World Geography through stories. We will start by asked 'Where in the world do the real bears live?' through the book 'Something about a bear' and think about the Geography of a pine forest. We will move to the habitat of the Arctic with the story 'Sweetest Kulu' and the non-fiction book 'Arctic life', and think about what it might be like to live in a desert through the story 'Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy'. We will compare each place to our own homes.

In our RE lessons we will be looking at different celebrations around the world including Chinese New Year, Persian New Year and the Hindu celebration of Holi.

Spring 2 - This term we are learning...

Drawing Club - We will be looking at a mixture of traditional tales, classic animations and beloved children's stories as a stimuli for drawing and writing. We will also begin to introduce non-fiction books this half term.

Maths - We will be exploring the comparing numbers to 10, learning number bonds to 10, exploring 3D shape and looking at patterns.

Science - Our topics this term are Materials and Powers. We will start by looking at properties of materials and thinking about how they are suitable for the jobs they do. Then we will move on to exploring how magnets work and begin to think about forces, floating and sinking.

People, Culture and Communities/Past and Present -  Our primary enquiries this term will be linked to the Crown and the King's Coronation. We will be asking and answering questions such as 'Why do people wear hats?', ' Who wears a crown?' and 'What happens at a Coronation?'. We will then begin to think about what it might be like to live in a city as we find out a bit about London.

In our RE lessons we will be learning about the Easter story and begin to learn a song to sing in the Easter service.

Summer 1 - This term we are learning to... 

Drawing Club - We will be looking at a mixture of traditional tales, classic animations and beloved children's stories as a stimuli for drawing and writing.

Maths - We will be exploring numbers to 20 and beyond, beginning to look at place value and recording numbers. We will also continue to investigate adding more and taking away. We will also review our learning about shape and think about how shapes are made up of other shapes.

Science - We will start by looking at Health through exercise and healthy eating. We will then begin to look at Plants as the beginning of a topic on living things. The children will learn the different parts of a plant and some of the conditions plants need to grow.

People, Culture and Communities/The Natural World -

In our RE lessons we will be asking 'Which places are special and why?' as we look at special places for Christians and Muslims.

We will begin a new Geography enquiry called A Place called Home. We will look at our own homes and compare them to homes around the world, specifically a family in Kenya.

We will continue with our Forest School sessions every Wednesday afternoon.

Summer 2 - This term we are learning to...

 Drawing Club - We will be looking at a mixture of traditional tales, classic animations and beloved children's stories as a stimuli for drawing and writing.

Maths - In Maths, we will be continuing to deepen our understanding of number and number patterns by looking at doubling, sharing and grouping. We will revisit and consolidate our understanding of odd and even numbers. We will also continue to look at the patterns and relationships between numbers.

Science - In Science we will be continuing to think about living things. We will start by looking at different habitats before looking at bugs and exploring flowers and trees in our local area and further afield. Our weekly Forest School sessions will support us with this.

People, Culture and Communities/Past and Present - Our primary enquiry this term will be 'Who was the famous lady who discovered a plesiosaur?' as we find out about our local significant figure, Mary Anning. As part of this topic, we will also be going on an exciting trip to Lyme Regis!

In our RE lessons we will be finding out about special stories in different religions, and what we can all learn from these stories.

To the fire station

Andy and Harry, our local firefighters, showed us around our fire station. We learned how to keep safe and how firefighters can help us.