Whiteley Reception

  Friday 17th April  People Who Help Us Phonics In phonics this week, we have learnt to read and write words with the digraphs and trigraphs  ur ,  ow and oi . The new tricky word is  you. It would really support your child to remember the new digraphs that we are learning if you could play some games related to these sounds on your child's bug club account. Thank you Maths This week, the children used practical objects to sort objects according to different criteria. They have been encouraged to notice different attributes in groups of objects – such as colour, size or function – and to describe what they have noticed.  They have played games of ‘How am I sorting?’, the children have gone on to develop their own criteria for sorting.  Parent top tips! Encouraging your child's independence It is really important to encourage your child to be independent so that it builds their confidence and self- esteem. In school we try to encourage the children to b...

Friday 27th March  Welcome to our last blog before the Easter holidays. This week we have been busy doing doing lots of Easter activities in school..  There is no set homework over the next 2 week break but we hope that the children will continue to read regularly with you at home.  We wish you all a lovely break with your families. RE We have been learning about Easter through the concept of 'new life'.  First, we discussed when / where we have seen signs of new life e.g. new buds on trees, spring flowers.  We talked about the signs of spring - lambs being born and chicks hatching.  Then we learnt what Christians believe about new life and Jesus at Easter. We enjoyed making our Easter cards. Phonics This week in phonics, we have learnt the phonemes 'oo' (moon), 'oo' (book) 'ar' and 'or'. We also learnt the tricky words 'you' as well as recapping all previously learnt tricky words. Maths In Maths this week, we have been learning the names...

  Friday 20th March This week we have been thinking about special clothes. The children have talked about their own special clothes and when and why they wear them. We have discussed how wearing special clothes makes you feel. We have also learnt about the special clothes that are worn during a Christian baptism and a Hindu wedding. The children have considered the question 'Are special clothes important?'  Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in photos of their child wearing special clothes. Phonics In phonics this week, we have learnt to read and write words with the digraphs and trigraphs  ai ,  ee ,  igh  and  oa . We have consolidated our recognition of the new "tricky" words -  me, my, he, she, be, by.  These are words we recognise by sight. It would really support your child to remember the new digraphs that we are learning if you could play some games related to these sounds on your child's bug club account. Thank you Maths...

 Friday 13th March T his week we have continued with our work about Supertato, the veggie superhero.  We have been very busy writing speech bubbles for the super veggies we made last week. We have tried hard to remember to write our sentences with a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. Phonics This week in Phonics, we have ben learning about the sounds sh, ch, th and ng.  We have practised writing words and sentences using these sounds. We have started to learn the Phase 3 tricky words: me, my, he, she, be, by Click here to listen to the phase three tricky word song Maths This week the children have consolidated their understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the numbers within 7. eg. seeing that 7 can be made of 5 and 2. They have begun to recognise that numbers can be made by combining parts in different ways and have been encouraged to make links by considering similarities and differences in the various ways of making 7. Parent top tips! H...

  Friday 6th March This week, we have been reading the story of 'Supertato'.  He is a supermarket hero who saves the day when there is an evil pea on the loose! We have discussed our likes and dislikes about the story and have explored new vocabulary such as 'gasped', 'vanished' and 'in distress'.  We have practised joining in with the reading using lots of expression in our voices. We have even made our own Super Veggies!  We had lots of fun. Phonics This week in Phonics, we have been learning about the sounds y, z, zz and qu.  We have practised writing words and sentences using these sounds. We have started to learn the Phase 3 tricky words. Click here to listen to the phase three tricky word song Maths This week, we have been learning about comparison of quantities using the language 'more than', 'less than' and 'equal to' to describe the relationship between numbers e.g. 5 is more than 4. You may like to encourage your child t...

  Friday 27th February This week at school we were excited to walk to the postbox to post our letters.  We hope that they arrive soon!  On our walk, we practised using positional language to describe our journey and the features of our local environment e.g. "We walked past the bus stop", "We went over the stream". We made simple maps to show our walk and used Digimaps to show the route we took. We used google Earth to zoom into our school from space.  We discussed how our world looks from above and identified features.   Phonics This week in phonics we have learnt to read and write words with the phonemes  j ,  v ,  w  and  x .  We have learnt the new tricky words me and be - these are words we learn to recognise by sight. Please use the games on your child's bug club account to practise these new sounds.  Please also check your child's reading log to find out which book has been allocated this week to practise these soun...

  Friday 13th February This week we have looked at the story 'Rosie's Walk' by Pat Hutchins.  We have learnt about positional language (over, across, through) and used these words to retell the story using story props. Click here to watch 'Rosie's Walk'. This image shows some of the other positional words we have been using this week. We have also been very busy writing letters to our families that we are going to pop into the postbox the week after half term.  Thank you if you have already sent in a stamped addressed envelope. Please ensure that your child's name is written clearly on your child's envelope. If you have not yet done so, please send in the named stamped addressed envelope  straightaway after half term as some children will be walking to the post box on Monday 23rd February. Phonics This week in phonics, we have been learning the letters l, ll, s and ss  with a particular focus on letter formation and writing CVC words such as leg, sun and...

  Friday 6th February This week we have continued to discuss the story of Stanley's stick. Using the sticks we bought to school, we talked about what they could be.  Then we have written a sentence about what we pretended our stick could be.  For example...                                                       The stick is a dinosaur. The stick is a fishing rod. The illustrator of Stanley's stick, Neal Layton, sent a video for the children to watch about how he creates his illustrations. It was very interesting.  Phonics This week in phonics, we have been learning the letters h, b, f and ff  with a particular focus on letter formation and writing CVC words such as hat, bin and fan. Maths This week in Maths we have been focusing on the language of 'more than', 'fewer than' and 'have an equal number'. We have compared sets of objec...

  Friday 30th January This week, we have been reading the story of 'Stanley's stick' by Jon Hegley and illustrated by Neal Layton.  We have discussed the language used in the story and talked abou t all the different things that Stanley imagines his stick to be. Maths This week, we have continued our work on activities that develop the children's understanding of composition, or the number within numbers. The children developed their understanding of pairs of numbers that make 5, and used double die frames to begin to explore 6 and 7 that are composed of '5 and a bit'. Phonics This week in Phonics, we have revisited the sounds ck, e, r, and u with a particular focus on letter formation and writing CVC words such as pen, rug and rat. Reading Thank you for returning the phonic reader books each Wednesday.  Unfortunately we are not having enough books back each week and baskets of books are looking rather empty. Please check you at home if you have any phonic readi...