Reception Mr Taplin | Christ The King Catholic Primary School

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us, you can email or message us via Tapestry.

This page is where you will find out lots of useful information about all the learning and fun we are having in Reception. Throughout the Reception Year, your child will partake in an ambitious curriculum which is designed in a sequential way to ensure progress towards our end of year curricular goals.

We use Tapestry to keep you up to date with your child's learning. Tapestry is an on-line system which allows us to create an individual Learning journey for every child in Reception. We can add comments, notes, photographs and videos of your child and then link these to the Early Years Curriculum. It can be accessed via the internet or downloaded as an app.

There are two Reception classes.

My name is Mr Taplin and I am a Reception class teacher

and also the Early Years Lead.

Key information:

Fruit and milk is available daily at snack time and the fruit changes from day to day. This is a great opportunity for your child to try something new with their friends.
Please ensure your child has their book bag and water bottle in school every day.

How to support your child at home:

Please read daily and sign the yellow reading records. Return the reading records and completed books to your class teacher the following school day.

There are six key areas of early mathematics learning, which provide a platform for everything children will encounter as they progress through their maths learning at primary school, and beyond:

Cardinality and Counting
Comparison
Composition
Pattern
Shape and Space
Measures

These areas form the fundamental mathematical basis of a CBeebies series of five-minute animated programmes called Numberblocks. We use these and the NCETM materials to draw out and build on the maths embedded in the stories contained in each episode.

Useful websites:

Maths

Topmarks: Lots of great Maths games.

Numberblocks: Sing along and learn all about numbers with the Numberblocks!

Literacy

Oxford Owl: Here you will find free e-books that match your book band colour. Choose the correct book band and read a book every day.

Alphablocks: Watch as the letters of the alphabet tell stories and make words using phonics. Play the learning game, watch clips and print colouring pages.

Summer Term

Heat Wave

Sinking and Floating

Let’s be water scientists. We’re going to find out which things float on top of the water and which things sink to the bottom. Before we drop anything in, let’s make a guess. This is called a prediction.

Here’s a stone. What do you think will happen when we put it in the water? Will it stay up or go down? Let’s try it… Look, it sank all the way to the bottom.

Now here’s a leaf. What’s your prediction this time? Let’s see… it’s floating! It’s staying on top like a tiny boat.

How about this plastic spoon? Do you think it will float or sink? Let’s test it… splash! It floats.

You’re doing great noticing what happens. Scientists look closely, make predictions, and test their ideas. Let’s keep exploring and see what other things float or sink.

Capacity

Now we’re going to be explore capacity. Capacity means how much something can hold. Let’s look at these containers. Before we pour anything, let’s make a prediction about which one can hold more and which one holds less.

Here’s a big jug and here’s a small cup. Which one do you think can hold more water? Let’s test it. We’ll fill the cup and pour it into the jug. One cup… two cups… three cups… wow, the jug can hold a lot.

Now look at this tall container and this wide container. Which one do you think has the bigger capacity? Let’s fill them up and see. Sometimes tall things don’t hold as much as we think, and wide things can surprise us.

Scientists explore, compare, and talk about what they discover. Let’s keep pouring and see what else we can find out about capacity.

Expressive Arts and Design

How about becoming artists, lets think about the sun. The sun is bright, warm, and full of colour, and we can make it in lots of different ways.

Here’s one idea: we can make a sun using yellow paint. Let’s paint a big circle, then add long lines for the rays. Does your sun have short rays or long ones?

Or we can make a sun with torn paper. Let’s tear little pieces of yellow and orange paper and stick them around a circle to make a bright, fiery sun.

We could even make a sun using handprints. Let’s paint our hands and press them around a circle so the handprints become the sun’s rays.

Reading stories to your child

Apps for EYFS:

Meet the Numberblocks: Can you count the Numberblobs?
Numberblocks: Hide and Seek: Find and add the Numberblocks!
Numberblocks: Card Fun!: Learn with the Numberblocks!
Meet the Alphablocks!
Alphablocks: Letter Fun: Learn to read with phonics
CBeebies

Curriculum Information

The curriculum in Reception is delivered through a balance of adult led and child led learning.

It incorporates everything we want the children to experience, learn and be able to do. Meeting all the requirements of the educational programmes in the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the flexibility to allow us to respond quickly to children’s new interests and needs.

Religious Education and Worship

We learn about the importance of prayer and pray throughout the school day. Reception also partake in whole school acts of Worship.

Literacy

Our school uses ‘Talk for Writing’ to help children develop their skills in talking about and writing stories. Talk for Writing starts with enjoying and sharing stories. Through regular reading we want children to build up an extensive rich vocabulary for use in their own writing. Each half term we focus on a particular story. The children will hear the story several times and we will explore the story in a variety of ways and explore new vocabulary.

Phonics

Phonics is recommended as the first strategy that children should be taught in helping them learn to read. It runs alongside other teaching methods such as Guided Reading and Shared Reading to help children develop all the other vital reading skills and hopefully give them a real love of reading.

Our school uses the Read Write Inc. programme to get children off to a flying start with their English. RWI is a method of learning based upon letter sounds and phonics, and we use it to aid children in their reading and writing. for Phonics. It provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.