Welcome back to a brand-new term in Reception! It’s been a fantastic first week as we’ve settled back into our routines and dived into some exciting learning activities. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Phonics

This week, we’ve been revisiting our Level 2 phonics sounds, practising writing them, and going over the tricky words we’ve learnt so far. The children have shown great focus as they completed their Level 2 phonics assessments, and we’re so proud of how well they did!

Maths

In maths, we’ve been working on recognising and ordering numbers from 1 to 5. We’ve had some great discussions about the concept of "more," exploring how 2 is one more than 1, 3 is one more than 2, and so on. The children have also been learning about shapes with four sides, identifying and naming squares and rectangles during our shape hunt.

Drawing Club

Our Drawing Club story this week was The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The children were introduced to exciting new vocabulary like feast, slurping, crouch, and farewell. They created wonderful drawings of the tiger, the café, and even imagined what the tiger’s bus might look like after he left. Their creativity and storytelling were brilliant!

PE

This week marked an exciting milestone for the children as it was their first time getting changed for PE at school! They did such a fantastic job and were so grown-up about it. In PE, we’ve started a new topic: ball skills. This week, the children practised rolling a ball to a target and stopping a rolling ball, building their coordination and teamwork.

In term 3 we’ve started a new PE topic: ball skills. This week, the children practised rolling a ball to a target and stopping the rolling ball, building their coordination and teamwork in different scenarios. For example, pretending to be a dung beetle and rolling the ball around on the floor. This week, the children also got changed for PE for the first time at school. Everyone did a fantastic job at being independent!

Continuous Provision

Our new topic this term is Dinosaurs, and it has already sparked so much excitement! During choosing time, the children have:

• Worked on pencil control sheets with a dinosaur theme.
• Matched dinosaur figures to their numbered eggs.
• Followed dinosaur footprints to call out phonics sounds.
• Explored the concept of “one more” with dinosaurs, using hands-on activities to deepen their understanding.

Star of the week: Congratulations to Isabella, who is our star of the week, for her amazing writing in phonics. Isabella will be taking home her certificate and Wilfred the Elephant to write in the book all about his time spent with Wilfred over the next week and will bring him back next Thursday.

Please remember to read with your child, even for just 5 minutes! Please do also remember to record it in the reading record. We will only change your child's book if you have read with them 2 or more times in that week! Please remember to have the library book in your children's book bag on Thursday to be changed. 

Any issues or concerns we need to know about, please speak to the Acorn team before and after school or email at: acorn@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

It’s been a busy and productive start to the term, and we’re so excited for the learning adventures ahead. Thank you for your continued support, and we can’t wait to see what the children achieve this term!