Well we had a very exciting first day back as our caterpillars and transformed into butterflies! The children were fascinated by these and at the end of the day we released them into the wild. At first, some of the butterflies didn’t want to go but with a bit of time and encouragement they then flew away.

In Reception we have started our brand new topic, On the beach beginning with our Talk Through Story of Lucy and Tom at the seaside. They really enjoyed the hook lesson where we had different beach related items in a box. Through this topic we will be comparing holidays past and present, while also developing our creative skills by creating seaside picture using different materials and techniques.  The last two weeks in reception our topic will be Moving on and every Wednesday we have started to help your child to prepare themselves for moving to year 1 as this is one of the hardest transitions in school. We will be working in year 1, looking around and becoming familiar with the areas and answering any worrying questions your child might have.

In our daily phonics lessons we are working hard to continue to learn new sounds and orally blend words, this is something that can be done at home. We use fred talk to sound out a word e.g. c-a-t and see if your child could tell you what that word is. We are getting ready to transition into year 1 so are developing our sentence writing and trying to remember to use capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Some of the children are finding our special friends really tricky (sh, ch, th, ng and nk) and are having lots of practice at school, could these also be done at home to really give the children a boost.

Our maths work this half term we have been preparing for transitioning into year 1 and have been using a rekenrek to help with their understanding of number, this is a piece of equipment which they will continue to use in Year 1 and 2.

As always we have been continuing to subitise numbers to 5 in a variety of different representations, the children find fingers and dice easy but find counters on a five or ten frame tricky.

In provision our role play area is now a travel agent and the agents have been working really hard making sure you get the best deal for your money! I can see a few amazing travel agents in the future!

This half term, our children will also experience forest school, we are very lucky to have forest school so close to our school. The children will learn about health and safety, walking with a partner, in a line and being safe on a pavement as well as being safe in forest school. In forest school we will be doing some exciting activities which we don’t want to tell you just yet, it might spoil the surprise.