Lessness Heath Primary School

Wednesday 19th October 2016

Reception Parent Meeting 2016

Aims of the meeting

To find out what they are learning and

how

To find out what the do all day!

An introduction to phonics

An introduction to cursive handwriting

To find out about our Maths Passport

Ideas and suggestions for supporting at

home

What are they learning?

Early Years Curriculum In Reception we plan a curriculum based on:

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and Development Matters

This outlines 7 areas of learning in which we need to plan for, assess and develop children within:

Communication and Language

Personal, Social, Emotional Development

Physical Development

Literacy

Mathematics

Understanding the World

Expressive Arts and Design

End of Year Expectations The Development Matters document works in ages and stages. Giving

statements within each stage to assess the children against.

At the end of the Reception year, all children are assessed against each area of learning by looking at the Early Learning Goals.

The Early Learning Goals are statements which give a description of what the children are expected to be able to do in each area.

How do they learn it?

Learning at Lessness Heath In Reception over the last year we have developed a free flow

environment whereby children can access all the areas of learning

through zoning.

Insert pictures of each classroom

Each learning zone ‘base classroom’ offers a different area of

learning.

Each Teacher and Class have a base classroom for teaching inputs but

during free-flow they can access any of the learning environments and

the outside areas.

What do we do during the school day? Every morning children independently put away their things, come in

to class, self register by finding their name and putting it into the

‘here’ tray. Then independently writing their name.

Insert picture

Once they have done both of those things they can access their own

base classroom learning. During this time staff carry out 1-1 reading,

focused learning eg name writing, turn-taking games and playing with

the children

At 9:30 all children have either a literacy carpet input or topic input

based around their book for the week.

From 10-11 children can access all areas the learning zones. During

this time staff get involved in play, initiate activities and carry out

Literacy and Maths Focus activities with children based on where they

are and need to progress with their learning.

Before lunch all children have either a maths carpet input or a circle

time.

What do we do during the school day? In the afternoon children have a 25 minute phonic session before

carrying out their second free-flow session.

At the end of every day children have a story and are rewarded with

their ‘staying on green’ star stickers.

Insert pictures of freeflow play

Every week your child will:

Read 1 to 1 with their teacher (guided reading when

ready)

Guided writing in a group

Group maths focus activity

4 maths whole class teaching sessions

4 Literacy whole class teaching sessions

5 phonic sessions

1 PSED session

1 topic session

Daily handwriting/physical development sessions

Phonics

Sounds (Phonemes)

Phase 2

s, a, t, p i, n, m, d

g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r

h, b, f, ff, l, ll, sshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksblMiliA8

All the way through we also teach the skills of ‘blending’

and segmenting’.

Blending

We teach the children how to blend or merge sounds

together to read each word, in the right order, to read a

word. E.g. c-a-t = cat.

Segmenting

We teach the children how to segment each word to

spell. E.g. cat = c-a-t

The aim is for the children to read the whole word

automatically.

These activities are all done orally. The emphasis is on

helping children to hear the separate sounds in words

and to create spoken sounds.

Magnetic letters

Buy magnetic letters for your fridge, or for use with a tin tray. Find out

which letters have been taught – have fun finding these with your child

and place them on the magnetic surface.

Making little words together

Make little words together, for example, it, up, am, and, top, dig, run,

met, pick. As you select the letters, say them aloud: ‘a-m – am’, ‘m-e-t –

met’.

Breaking words up

Now do it the other way around: read the word, break the word up and

move the letters away, saying: ‘met – m-e-t’.

Both these activities help children to see that reading and spelling are

reversible processes.

Spelling is harder than reading words – praise, don’t criticise. Little

whiteboards and pens, and magic boards, are a good way for children to

try out spellings and practise their handwriting.

Your child might be trying to use letters from their name to write; this

shows that they know that writing needs real alphabet letters.

Make or buy an alphabet poster.

Sound-talking or Robot-talking

Find real objects around your home that have three phonemes

(sounds) and practise ‘sound talk’. First, just let them listen,

then see if they will join in, for example, saying:

‘I spy a p-e-g – peg.’

‘I spy a c-u-p – cup.’

‘Where’s your other s-o-ck – sock?’

‘Simon says – put your hands on your h-ea-d.’

‘Simon says – touch your ch-i-n.’

TRICKY WORDS

These are words that can’t be

sounded out and need to be learnt

by sight

I the go no to into a

He she was they we be you

all my her

Maths Passport

What is Maths Passport? So today is ‘Maths Passport’ launch day in EYFS.

Maths Passport is an approach to learning

rapid recall in maths

From Nursery until Year 6 children complete

challenges linking to their year groups

expectations.

It works on the idea of travelling the world.

This year we have introduced it to reception

through the book ‘Meerkat Mail’ a Meerkat

called Sonny who travels the world.

What is Maths Passport? In Reception we start with ‘packing our suitcase’ ready to travel the world.

Each item represents a new challenge.

Once the children have completed that challenge they are then able to stick

it onto their suitcase, which is in their learning journey.

By the end of Reception, we expect all children to have packed their

suitcase and be all ready beginning to travel around Number 1: Europe.

What is Maths Passport?

Handwriting

Pencil grip

Using their whole body

For handwriting children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Games that help co-ordination include throwing balls at a target, under-arm and over-arm, and bouncing balls – also skipping on the spot, throwing a Frisbee, picking up pebbles from the beach and throwing them into the sea. Have fun!

Hand and finger play

Action rhymes such as ‘Incy wincy spider’, ‘One potato, two potato’ and ‘Tommy Thumb’ are great fun and get their hands and fingers moving. Playing with salt dough or clay really helps strengthen little fingers, as does cookery and using simple toolkits.

Hand–eye co-ordination

Pouring water into jugs and cups of different sizes, sweeping up with a dustpan and brush, cutting, sticking, tracing, threading beads, completing puzzles, peeling off stickers and sticking them in the right place – these all help hand–eye co-ordination.

Pencil hold

The ‘pincer’ movement needs to be practised. This is important as it enables children to hold a pencil properly as they write. Provide them with kitchen tongs and see if they can pick up small objects. Move on to challenging them to pick up smaller things, for example, little cubes, sugar lumps, dried peas, lentils, first with chopsticks, then with tweezers.

Ask children to peg objects to a washing line.

Provide plenty or different types of pen and pencil; hold their hand to practise the correct grip.

Cursive Script

Expectation all children to have

joined clear handwriting by Year 1

Term 1

Why cursive?

All children are expected to join by Year 1 and cursive

makes it easier for them.

All the letters start on the line

Helps with spelling

Helps with letter identification of tricky letters

Children have to only learn one way, rather than re-

learn

Writing flows better