Wheatfield Primary School

About Reception:

In Reception our teachers are Mrs Midlane (Class RM) and Mrs Bendall (Class RB). Our teaching assistants are Mrs Goldstone and Mrs Binding.

What should my child bring to school?
Please label every item that belongs to your child including their school uniform and belongings i.e. water bottle. You could use a permanent pen or buy personalised name labels which you can stick onto their belongings. Your child will have a peg in the cloakroom where they can store their coat and welly boots. Your child will have a drawer in the classroom for their book bag and snack.

Term 2 Learning

PSED

At Wheatfield Primary we follow a scheme called Jigsaw. We use the focus for each unit as an overarching ‘theme’ for each term, linking this to our other learning, as we really value the importance of PSED in your child’s development.

The theme for Term 2 is "Celebrating Difference"
We will be focusing on…

• Exploring our big question: ‘why are my eyes this colour?’
• Recognising our similarities and differences
• Things that make us special and unique
• Talking about who is in our family
• Talking about our house(s) and where we live

Each day, when children demonstrate going 'above and beyond' by representing our school values, they can be 'In the Spotlight' on our class display. If they reach this, they will be given a special sticker. When they come home with this sticker, make sure to ask them why. 

We are also encouraging children to talk about what they have been learning during their 'Adventure' time. If you see them with a sticker about sharing their learning, ask them what they learnt today.

Writing

During Term 2 we will continue to develop our gross and fine motor skills to strengthen our hand muscles which supports early writing. We will also focus on the following skills:

Our writing focus:

• Develop our pencil control and grip
• Link sounds to letters and practise letter formation
• Continue to practise writing our own name
• Begin to write captions, labels and simple words.

Reading and Phonics

We will be looking at books linked to our PSED overarching 'big questions'. We will also be enjoying our 'Fab 5' books. Each term we have five books that we read each week. On Monday we will read The Owl and the Pussy-cat, Tuesday is Octopus Shocktopus!, Wednesday is Dog Gone, Thursday is Meet the Oceans and Friday is The Very Busy Spider! 

Through whole class book talk sessions, we focus on listening to stories, asking and answering questions and orally rehearsing to develop our vocabulary.

We will continue to have daily phonic sessions where we will consolidate our phase 2 phonemes and we will be beginning to learn phase 3. We will continue to update you through Tapestry about which phonemes we are learning and ways you can support at home. 

Please write in your child's reading record book and ensure it is in your child's book bag each day, so we can see the reading you and your child have done at home. Every day they read at home, it counts towards a read in our whole school 'Reading Bug' challenge. When they reach a multiple of 50 reads, they will go to see Mrs Carver and choose their own book that they can keep at home. We will begin to send phonetically decodable books home for your child to read as and when they are ready.

Children will choose a book from the school library during our PPA sessions on a Thursday. When they return their book the following week, they can swap it for a new one. This is a book for you to share with your child together, not one you should except them to be able to read on their own.

You can also practise their word list and put this in the yellow box in the morning for us to check in school. We will then send home a new word list.

Supporting reading at home... 

• Share their school library book which will be changed on Thursday's 
• Read their word list
• When they have received their reading book, it should be read at least 5 times before we change for a new one.
• Work towards achieving 'reads' on our whole school ‘Catch the Reading Bug’ challenge. For every 50 reads your child will get to choose a brand new book to keep from Mrs Carver!

Maths

In Term 2 we will be covering the objectives of: 

• Learning to recognise, count and subitise numbers 4 and 5
• Exploring 1 more and 1 less than a number to 5
• Time to sequence events in the day (before, after, next)

We teach maths through class inputs, adult led groups and reinforcing the objective and learning in our provision.

Your child should have completed their Bronze Rings 2 booklet and will have received their Bronze Rings 2 booklet, which will have our termly objectives in. In this booklet, we have written suggested games and activities to support these objectives at home.

Each term your child will receive a new maths planet booklet which includes the objectives we are teaching in class. To earn a certificate, please upload photos/videos to Tapestry of your child engaging with the suggested activities in the booklet. Please make sure you write the maths planet booklet in the title e.g Maths Planets Bronze Rings 1.

If you have any difficulty with this please come and see us so that we can support you. The booklets can be kept at home and do not need to be returned to school.

To achieve certificates and badges, you must complete booklets for all the terms. If you have misplaced any previous terms booklets, please find a link to them below.

Bronze 1 (Term 1 booklet) found here = Certificate will be awarded at the end of term 

Bronze 2 (Term 2 booklet) found here = Bronze Badge will be awarded at the end of the term

Silver 1 (Term 3 booklet) found here = Certificate will be awarded at the end of term

Silver 2 (Term 4 booklet) found here = Silver Badge will be awarded at the end of term

Gold 1 (Term 5 booklet) found here = Certificate will be awarded at the end of term

Gold 2 (Term 6 booklet) found here = Certificate and badge will be awarded at the end of term  

Term 2 Wider Curriculum

 Throughout our entire curriculum for EYFS, we always centre the needs of the children as well as their interests as the focus of our learning for our wider curriculum.

At Wheatfield Primary School we are very fortunate to have such fantastic outdoor spaces including our amazing onsite forest ‘The Wild Wood’. We will be spending a Friday morning in our Wild Wood for our outdoor learning session. During this time, we think about and explore our four seasons and use our school grounds in all weathers, so it is essential your child has a waterproof coat and wellies in school every day. 

We will also be exploring…

• Seasonal changes and the weather
• Nature Weaving
• How to create art using natural resources
• Leaf kebabs

Across Term 1 and 2 we will also be exploring...

• Our 5 senses
• Looking after our bodies, including self-care
• Seasonal changes and the weather
• Day and night
• Getting to know our new school environment and where things are

During Term 1 and 2, the children will be developing their confidence in self selecting the classroom resources for their own learning. This may include junk modelling and using craft materials - using their imaginations to create and design their own creations. The children will be exploring digital media and printing within their art sessions. 

We also learn many rhymes and songs from Poetry Basket Autumn Booklet, as well as enjoying the many songs on the BBC Teach website. (Nursery Rhymes and Songs - A to Z - BBC Teach)

During Term 1 and 2 we will be thinking about how things have changed. We will talk about how we have changed since we were babies. We will share family and baby photographs. We will think about where we live and how is has changed in Bradley Stoke. We will think about how toys have changed too and compare our own teddy bears to the very first teddy bear ever created!

In PE we will be focusing on improving our ball skills, throwing and catching a ball and dribbling a ball with increasing control. We will be beginning to play team games in preparation for our sports day.

In music this term we are exploring the sounds of different instruments and continuing to respond to different styles of music. We will find the pulse of different songs and clap along to different rhythms. 

As always, we have overarching themes of the term but we also adapt our learning based on the children's current interests to keep the children engaged and learning purposeful to them.