F2 - Reception

Many parents often ask - what can we do to help our child at home? Here are some suggestions of things that you can do, play and talk about together at home to support your child in meeting the Early Learning Goals by the end of F2/Reception.

ELGs Activities to Try at Home

Our theme this half term is 'Food On the farm'.

Our core text is Oliver's Vegetables. We will be learning about story structure, settings and events, and learning lots of rich story vocabulary.

We follow maths mastery approach. This half term, our maths units are 'visualise, map and build' and 'make connections'. We will be consolidating all of our learning from throughout the year and ensuring our strong foundations in maths are secure before moving to Year 1.

Reception Key Instant Recall Facts Autumn 1

Reception Key-Instant Recall Facts Autumn 2

Reception Key Instant Recall Facts Spring 1

Reception Key Instant Recall Facts Spring 2

Reception Key Instant Recall Facts Summer 1

Reception Key Instant Recall Facts Summer 2

The Foundations Of:

RE – This half term we are using NATRE - National Association of Teachers of Religious Education, to focus on which stories are special to them. Our key question is “Which stories are special and why?” Within the unit, pupils reflect upon stories that are special in their own lives and they will encounter stories from different religious worldviews and find out about why these might be special to a believer.

Geography Week – We will be exploring our local area of Finningley, and making comparisons between the local areas of other schools in the Trust.

Geography - We will be looking closely at the land use of our school, and making comparisons between school and farm land. We will be asking the question, could we have a farm on our school?

Science - What’s happening to the trees? What’s the weather like today? We will be continuing to make observations on the changes happening around us, as well as using what we have learned throughout the year to make comparisons throughout the seasons.

Computing - Data: To understand how to sort and categorise objects, and learn how to create data. To use technology to organise data into groups, creating a whole class pictogram. To interpret greater or less from looking at the data created.

The Foundations Of:

PSHE – The Fiver Enterprise Challenge is a fun, national programme run by Young Enterprise that introduces children aged 5–11 to basic business and money skills. During the challenge, children are given a small £5 pledge to help them create and run a simple mini-business, such as making crafts, offering a service, or selling handmade items.

For Reception children, the focus is on developing confidence, creativity, teamwork, communication and early problem-solving skills through practical, hands-on activities. The challenge helps children understand simple ideas about money, sharing ideas, making choices and working together in an exciting and age-appropriate way.

Children will work with adult support to:

• Think of a simple business idea

• Create products or plan a service

• Learn about spending and earning money

• Work together as a team

• Build confidence speaking to others

The project is designed to be enjoyable and educational, helping children develop important life skills while having fun. Children will decide as a team how to use any profits made.

Parents can find out more at Young Enterprise Fiver Challenge.

The Foundations Of:

Music - Charanga: Rhythm Adventure

This unit has two traditional songs, ABC and The Bear Went Over The Mountain. As the children learn to sing the songs, they will discover how some phrases have many words with busy rhythms and others have fewer words and simple rhythms. The class will select their own words as building blocks and arrange them in different ways to compose repeated rhythms called ostinatos.

Design & Technology – Cooking & Nutrition. Children will be learning about healthy eating and food preparation through making a fruit salad. Children will explore different fruits by discussing their taste, texture, smell and appearance, while learning why fruits and vegetables are important for a healthy diet. They will also practise important cooking skills such as washing hands, using kitchen equipment safely, peeling, chopping and measuring ingredients, before finally evaluating their finished fruit salad using descriptive vocabulary such as crunchy, juicy and soft.

We will also be continuing our learning about the primary colours and how to effectively mix powder paints to create new colours, and different shades of colours.

PE – Gymnastics: In this unit children will develop basic gymnastic skills through the topic of 'traditional tales', to include 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Children explore creating shapes and balances, jumps and rolls. They begin to develop an awareness of space and how to use it safely. They perform basic skills on both floor and apparatus. They copy, create, remember and repeat short sequences. They begin to understand using levels and directions when travelling and balancing.

We will also be using our outdoor area to develop our gross motor skills. The children love to practice their running, moving, climbing and throwing skills and have access to our outdoor area every day to practice these. Children should come dressed appropriately to play outside every day in all weathers. In the warmer weather, please ensure sun cream is applied before school, and that children have a sun hat and water bottle in school each day. Water bottles should contain only water. Thank you.

PE

F2 PE day is on a Thursday. Children need to come to school wearing their PE kit and will stay in their PE kit all day. School uniform is not required on a Thursday.

Our school PE kit is: black or blue shorts, white t-shirt (no logos please), trainers and a tracksuit for colder months (again, no logos please). 

Reading in School

In school, we teach reading daily using Read Write Inc (RWI). More information regarding this can be found on the RWI school website page or on the Ruth Miskin website copied below.

Phonics - Read Write Inc

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parentsandcarers/

Reading at Home

• Reading books will be changed every Monday unless the children have not read the book.

• Children should be encouraged to read their book at least 3 times a week and this should be recorded in their reading record.

• The children will bring home a RWI book and a book of their choice for reading for pleasure.

• Please find attached below a list of reading questions you can ask your child to promote discussions about what they are reading. This will help to improve their fluency, recall,  retrieval and inference skills.

EYFS Reading Questions for Parents

EYFS Recommended Reading List

We use Class Dojo to share information about what is happening at school. We add photos and information weekly to our class page so you can find out more about what we have been busy learning! You can also upload photos from home for us to use in our 'Show and Share' sessions. 

Curriculum Games Online

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/list/phonics-games-phase-2