EYFS Newsletter – 06.01.2023

Happy New Year everybody!

It’s been a lovely week back in Reception and the children have come back full of enthusiasm, ready to learn. 

Our new topic of Amazing Animals has seen parts of the classroom turned into a vets surgery and a pet shop, with the children having a great time choosing to role-play in these areas. We’ve spent time telling funny stories about our pets and learning about where in the world different animals live in the wild. We’d love to learn more about any pets you all have at home, so if you can send in (or upload to Tapestry) any photos of your animals that would be brilliant.

Phonics sessions this week have seen us crack on with learning the beginning of Phase 3 sounds with the phonemes j, v and w. The children have spent time learning these new sounds and how to apply their knowledge into reading and writing activities. We’ve had some fantastic writing already and it’s only the first week back after Christmas. We’re all very excited to see what the children will be capable by the end of Summer term in July!

In Maths, we’ve been exploring the composition of numbers and in particular pairs of numbers that add to make 5 (number bonds). The children investigated this in different ways and everyone has begun using mathematical symbols to write number sentences to note down their understanding. 

Speaking of maths, we have introduced the children recently to the NumBots software on the iPads, which has proven very popular with some! Every child has been given their own login details on a letter that came home this week so that they may access NumBots from computers or tablets at home. This is in no way to be viewed as homework! Some children may wish to play the maths games on NumBots and it offers a fun and interactive way for the children to practice their maths work, but please do not feel it is expected or obligatory in any way.

It has been wonderful to see how many children are enjoying their home reading books. Children are reminded that they may change their book on ANY day of the week in school if they place it in the blue box. Reading record books are requested to be brought into school for us to check on a Friday. In both cases, we do not have time to go searching through every book bag, so please remind children to deposit these books in the boxes at they come into school. 

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend! 

DATES: Thursday 12th January – Forest Schools: please send children in weather-appropriate clothing as we will spend a lot of time outdoors.