Owl Class - Nursery & Reception 2024 - 2025
Mrs Hidalgo
Mr Roberts
Dear EYFS parent/carer,
Our aim at Newtown is to inspire and excite children at the beginning of their learning adventure and provide every member of our EYFS with a sense of awe, wonder and pride in their everyday learning and achievements. We are excited to welcome all our children back for their second term.
In Literacy this term, our reception children will be exploring the text ‘Star in the Jar' by Sam May. We will be using this book to ignite our imaginations as we begin to wonder what how we will return our friend the star.
To transpire our love for reading, we will be sharing lots of story books and poems throughout the day as well as in our shared reading sessions.
At Newtown, we use Ready Steady Phonics to teach children phonics and letter formation. More information on how to support your child at home can be found on our home learning page.
We will also continue our maths journey this term using Power Maths to develop our numeracy skills. We will particularly focus on numbers to 5, whilst having some time to look at shapes and groups.
This term we will exploring the themes of light and dark as we begin looking at the celebrations we have this term. We will travel across our history to look at Guy Fawkes, Remembrance and the history of light. RE will see us look at the story of Jesus' birth and the celebration of Christmas.
We will delve into relationships and what makes us unique and special in PSHE and in Science we are exploring what light is, how shadows are created and what the moon is.
Our Expressive Arts and Design units will see us explore different media and marks resulting in a picture to represent light and dark and Music will see us move to music like fireworks and sing Christmas carols.
Home-learning:
Children in Reception will be sent a decodable reading book home each week, this book will have been taught and practiced in school during the week previous. We suggest reading with your child every day for around 5 minutes. This will help solidify their phonics knowledge, help with their reading fluency and holistically aid children in all aspects of our curriculum.
You can find lots more information to support learning at home in our home learning section.
CVC Word Practice Cards will also be sent home to practice, as well as sound mats to help with any home learning.
Research shows that children
At Newtown we recognise the importance of speaking and listening skills. Speaking and listening underpins all that we do and therefore are the building blocks of learning. Therefore, we also be sending home 'Talk Homework' to guide you and your child to share in the learning that has taken place in school.
It will provide an opportunity to:
* retreve and consolidate the information and vocabulary learnt in school and,
* provide time to develop their speaking and listening skills
PE:
PE lessons will take place on Wednesday morning and Friday afternonn. Children are required to come to school wearing their full PE kit.
Nursery
To continue to develop the love of reading and sharing stories our nursery children will also begin their Book Talk sessions where they will learn 'Peace at Last' alongside sharing their favourite stories and visits to the library.
Super Sounds activities will see our nursery children to learn the vital skills in preparation for their Ready Steady Phonics lessons in Reception. Activities include alliteration, syllables, intial sounds and oral blending.
The children will explore Maths throughout the environment as they sort, match, make patterns, explore shape, count and recognise numbers.
Through Understanding the World the children will begin to learn about festivals and families, learning about similarites and differences within cultures and communities.
In Expressive Arts and Design they will explore marks using their hands and feet to make autumnal patterns and learn a range of nursery rhymes.
Forest School
Forest School will be held on Friday's. We have our own all-in-ones and wellies for the children to use over their school PE kits. However, during the colder weather we will ask that you send an extra layer of clothing, hats and gloves into school for the children to put over their PE kits to put on to keep them warm. Please also put a spare set of clothes in their bag incase they get wet or cold.
Key Information
- Please label all clothing to avoid the loss of property.
- Children should wear full uniform and black school shoes each day (unless it is a PE or forest school day).
- Our PE sessions will be on a Wednesday and Friday. Children are required to wear their full school PE kit to school with sensible trainers on these days. (PE kits can be purchsed from the school shop)
- Children should bring a water bottle everyday. Children are asked to bring water only.
- Children do not need to bring pencil cases or other personal items to school.
To find out more about who will be teaching the class click on our Meet the Team page.
Any questions we are always available at the end of the school day.
We are really looking forward to starting another amazing school year with you all and don’t forget to follow what goes on in our school on our Class Dojo page!
Mrs Hidalgo
