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Reception
MISS KATY LORD AND MISS LAUREN MITCHELL
For more from Flamstead End's Early Years team take a look at our Instagram page
OVERVIEW OF LEARNING
Learning in ReceptionCurriculum Progression of Knowledge and Skills Preschool-ReceptionCharacteristics of Effective Learning
EARLY LEARNING GOALS
TRANSITION INTO RECEPTION
Please see the attached information for ways to support a smooth transition into Reception.
Booklet
Herts for Learning
Herts for Learning Early Year’s team have produced activity cards that have been designed to support children starting Reception as part of their Supporting Smooth Transition procedures. Parents and carers can easily keep these cards on their digital devices, making them accessible for use during activities at home or on the go. These cards are a great way to introduce new ideas and help children develop skills that will benefit their learning journey at school.
Poster with QR code to digital transition cards
50 Things
50 Things is an exciting initiative that supports children’s learning at home. It is inspired by parents and carers with each activity developed by Early Years experts and language specialists to create a fabulous resource for families.
More information can be found here 50-things-introduction-letter-pdf.pdf
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Early Years Reforms
The Department for Education has published a new guide for parents, produced by Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre – ‘What to Expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage’ (formally called ‘What to Expect When’) which guides parents and carers through what to expect in their child’s development. It aligns with guidance given to schools to help practitioners and parents. Please click on the link to view the document - What to expect in the EYFS
British Values
British Values in the Early Years
Cultural Capital
Oral health
In Reception we support the understanding of good oral hygiene. Throughout the year children will take part in adult led tasks, child initiated play activities and hear stories based on visiting the dentist and cleaning their teeth.
LITERACY
Literacy is integrated within our topic and child initiated learning in the Autumn term. From the Spring term, Literacy is taught discretely in daily lessons in addition to elements integrated throughout the Reception environment, inside and outside. As soon as the children join us in September, a focus is placed on letter formation (see handwriting phrases in the phonics section of this page), continuing to develop listening and communication skills. Children begin whole class phonics learning in the first half term, after which, they are streamed via ability.
Writing expectations - Early Learning GoalReading and writing ideas
In each year group, children are expected to learn to read and write high frequency words/common exception words. These are words that appear frequently in texts, attached below are the high frequency words children are expected to learn throughout Reception.
First 100 high frequency word assessment
To see more photos of our mark making and Literacy, click here and select the Reception gallery.
PHONICS
For additional information and resources on please click on this link and then scroll down to phonics.
How to say the soundsHow to blendFred gamesFred game wordsSound blending books
MATHS
Just like Literacy, Maths is taught in discrete lessons as well as throughout the Reception environment, both indoors and out. Please click on the links below, for ways to support your child at home.
Household items to support maths
Maths at home - number concepts
To see more images of Maths in Reception click here and select the Reception button.
BEING CREATIVE
In Reception we love to explore our creativity through the mark making, craft, easels, construction as well as imaginary and role play.
Children are encouraged to independently plan ideas, use a range of resources and adapt their work to achieve their desired outcomes. We love to see how children take the skills we teach and come up with their own creative ideas! See more images here.
Making a train using Mobilo! Even added figures as passengers!
Using paintbrushes and cars to make marks using paint!
Creating Elsa castles using Lego!
Making food and patterns in playdough!
Making stairs using Duplo!
Building towers using foam bricks, with friends!
Making vehicles using junk modelling, as part of road safety week!
'It's Rapunzel's castle!'
Making masks!
OUTDOORS
As part of our Reception curriculum, we love to encourage the children to explore the outdoors! There are many benefits of being outdoors including: developing gross motor skills, communication skills, greater self-awareness, sparking interest in new topics, develop decision-making skills, as well as many other benefits.
Take a look in the gallery (Reception) for more photos of us exploring the outdoors!
Making ramps using guttering and planks! Building houses using connecting squares!
Making water systems using guttering!
Mark making using foam!
Exploring the instruments and stage!
Making sandcastles!
Reception Blog - Autumn 2024
WELCOME TO OUR AUTUMN BLOG!
The children in Reception have been settling in really well, exploring the different areas of the environment!
In PE, the children have been practicing their jumping, making sure that they bent their knees, when they landed!
Children have been exploring the beebots, having a go at programming them, much fun was had!
The children have been enjoying building lego!
The children have been enjoying the construction area outside!
Children have been improving their fine motor skills, using pegs to pick up pom poms.
The children have also been working on their PSED skills, taking turns playing games!
Children have been enjoying the construction area in the classroom, using Mobilo to build vehicles, 'We're going to the dump!'
On Thursday 14th October, the children enjoyed a Spooks and Sparkles disco - they played lots of party games and showed off their amazing dancing!!
On Friday 16th November, the children in Reception celebrated Children in Need, by donating money, making their own Pudsey's and making Pudsey biscuits!!
This week (18th - 22nd November) is road safety week, we have been discussing the ways to stay safe around roads, what types of vehicles we may see and watched a video on how to stay safe - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z62nxyc . As part of road safety week, the children have had the opportunity to make vehicles they may see using junk modelling! They waited for them to dry and then decorated them, they made boats, cars, buses, dumper trucks and motorbikes!
This week (26th-29th November) we have continued looking at our topic of 'Light' with this week having a focus on stars. We started by asking the children what sources of light they can think of. Children listened to the story of 'My Pet Star' and then retold the story in addition to making their own pet star! We have also looked at constellations and children had a go at making their own!
In the final week of school, the children had lots of fun meeting Santa and listening to a story, in addition to having an amazing Christmas dinner!
Reception Blog - Spring 2025
WELCOME TO OUR SPRING BLOG!
This half term our topic is 'The Wider World'. Each week we will be jet setting to a different part of the world learning about the animals and life in that area. In week 1 we will start in the rainforest, then heading to the desert, polar regions, ocean, woodland and finally heading closer to home when, in the final week, we look at gardens.
When we looked at deserts, the children learnt about hot and cold deserts. We spent some time looking at the pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt and the children had a go in the sandpit making their own!
When we looked at polar regions, the children completed an experiment to see how they could rescue the polar animals from the ice. Beforehand, we had a discussion to see what the children thought would help, these ranged from, "hit it with a hammer", "hot water, it will melt it", "use our hands it will make it warm" and "get a hairdryer on it". The children continued practising their scissors skills but cutting out shapes to make a penguin! They also had to follow a set of instructions to draw a penguin.
The children loved learning about the ocean! The children let their creativity flow when creating sea creatures using paper plates!
Our PE unit this half term has been gymnastics. The children have learnt what it take to be a 'Champion Gymnast' - balancing, pointing your fingers and toes and completing moves as quietly as possible. We have looked at moving high and low on and off equipment in addition to how to move over and under equipment in different ways. Take a look at some our moves:
In music we have enjoyed learning various nursery rhymes and finding the pulse of the songs. We also looked at the pitch and volume of the songs, but the element the children have enjoyed the most is learning to play the xylophone to the nursery rhymes -lots of fun has been had!
During Children's Mental Health week, with the theme 'Time to Talk', the children were lucky enough to have some Year 6's come over during child initiated to chat and play with them! On Friday the children then enjoyed mixing with Nursery and Pre-School talking and having a lovely hot chocolate!