This term

Below you will find information about what the Reception classes are learning about this term.  Please also read our topic page to find out more about our Topic Work.

Spring 2024 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

The children have really grown in independence during their first term in Reception and are all enjoying learning in a new environment. This term we will continue to use ‘Achievosaurs’ to help the children understand how they learn and what makes a good learner.  We are encouraging the children to resolve their own conflicts with our school ‘high five’ system to effectively manage their feelings and behaviour, whilst also continuing to build relationships with each other. We will be encouraging the children to take risks and complete tasks with increasing independence.

Communication and Language

The children will be given more opportunities to use ‘talk partners’ to share ideas and discuss these in front of a larger group. We will also encourage the children to extend their vocabulary by learning new and exciting words to describe animals and places. In addition to this, we will be asking lots of ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions to prompt the children to talk in full sentences and link their ideas together. We will continue to encourage good listening including turn taking in conversation and responding appropriately.

Physical Development

The children will continue to develop their gross motor and fine motor skills during PE and within provision. In P.E this term we focus on ‘Real P.E’ units that develop balance and co-ordination skills. The children are all encouraged to zip up their own coats, put their own shoes on and get themselves changed for P.E without adult help. We will continue to learn about healthy food through our ‘fruit and veg shop’ roleplay and our ‘Talk for Writing’ story The Enormous Turnip. The children will continue to learn how to form all letters correctly.

Literacy

This term our ‘Talk for Writing’ texts will be Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Enormous Turnip and Dear Zoo. The children will learn these stories through story maps and will have the opportunity to retell them in a variety of ways in the provision areas. They will also continue to practise writing simple sentences using their phonic knowledge. The children will also learn how to write a simple letter. We will promote reading in a variety of purposeful contexts within the areas of the classroom and the children will continue to bring home reading books and their phonics activity sheets. Please encourage your child to read as often as possible at home.

 

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Maths

In Maths, we will be continuing to develop the children’s depth of knowledge of numbers to 10. The children will learn to recognise these numbers, subitise quantities, write them and say what is one more and one less. We will also begin to add and subtract numbers practically and compare quantities. Our shop role play will give the children an opportunity to explore the language of money. The children will also learn how to describe objects by their weight, length, height and capacity.

Understanding the World

This term the children will be learning about what life is like in other countries and we will look at maps, homes and habitats, traditional foods, and animals. They will have the opportunity to discuss similarities between the different countries as well as drawing comparisons. The children will learn how to talk about the past by learning about dinosaurs and how transport has changed over time. Please see our topic maps for more information.

Expressive Arts and Design

The children have opportunities to show their creativity in all areas of the classroom. We will continue to provide purposeful challenges and activities for the children to develop their skills independently such as, making a home for a dinosaur, making Chinese lanterns, and we will be exploring textures making collaborative collages of animals. The children will be encouraged to use a variety of different resources for a purpose and use tools effectively to adapt and change their work. The music area in the classroom offers the children a chance to express their creativity through singing and playing instruments. This term we will explore the sounds of a xylophone and see if we can follow a musical pattern whilst playing it.