Reception - Robin Class
Welcome to Robin class!
Robin class is taught by Mrs Stead, Mrs Gorry and Mrs Barrett. We are also supported by Mrs Webster, Mrs Burkin and Mrs Marston.
Learning in our classroom
Newsletters and Timetables
Our Curriculum
Personal, Social, Emotional Development
PSHE lessons will enable us to explore issues that arise in our children's experiences. Our school is using Restorative Practice as part of our behaviour management and children will be encouraged to understand feelings - their own and others' - so that they can develop emotional literacy and empathy. Children will be encouraged to understand their own bodies and growth patterns as well as being encouraged to develop independence in looking after themselves. We discuss the importance of relationships, rules and respect for ourselves and others. We are looking forward to taking in part in more Philosophy for Children (P4C) enquiry sessions to help us explore pertinent issues.
Communication and Language
Wide-ranging opportunities in both the indoor and outdoor environments will enable children to develop their communication and language skills: talking to others in one-to-one and group situations, asking questions, reciting rhymes and expanding vocabulary. At all times, children will be encouraged to speak in sentences rather than phrases. Children will continue using the Tales Toolkits resources to develop story telling and will also continue to use Drawing Club to engage with their imaginations. Philosophy for Children (P4C) sessions have also had a huge impact on our communication and language skills.
Physical Development
We have daily fine motor sessions and activities in provision to help strengthen our muscles for writing. Writing and mark making is encouraged in all areas of the classroom so that the writing becomes meaningful and purposeful for children. We will support children to establish comfortable, strong pencil grips and pencil control as they begin to form letters and make meaningful marks. Please use the phonics posts on Seesaw to review correct letter formation and discourage children from writing the letters incorrectly even if they are recognisable - it is much harder to un-teach skills than to teach them. Writing correctly will ensure children can write at pace and that they are ready to join in later years. It also helps to distinguish similar letters such as b,d,p and q.
Our PE days will change to Wednesdays and Fridays but there are other opportunities to develop gross motor skills using action songs, the outdoor area and our wide selection of bikes, trikes and scooters. We have also planned outdoor learning lessons within the school garden, at the Jubilee Field and around the village on Friday mornings. This half term we are very excited to be taking the children swimming on Wednesdays. Each child will need a bag with a towel, short swimming trunks or one-piece swimming costume, goggles if you have completed the permission slip and enough space for their water bottle. No soaps please.
Literacy
This term, we will start phase 4 on our synthetic phonics programme. Children will be taught to blend consonants at the starts and ends of words so that can read and spell a greater number of words independently. There will also be further tricky words (words that can only be read from memory and not through phonetic decoding) to learn.
Please take the time to read your child's book with them several times. The books will be changed once children are reading words fluently without having to stop and segment and blend each word individually. Most children now have sight words to learn. Sight words are exactly that - words for children to learn to recognise at sight (i.e. no segmenting and blending!). You can read more about sight words here.
Mathematics
It is a common misconception that children who can count really high are great mathematicians and very advanced. In fact, counting is a very basic skill and has quite limited use in calculation so we will spend a long time on 1small1 numbers but we will REALLY understand them. This term we will become amazingly confident in subitising numbers 1-10 and know the different ways in which these numbers can be composed.
Understanding the World
This term we will be finding out as much as we can about growing plants. The children will be in control of what they would like to find out and we will make the learning as hands on as we can, including growing our own plants. We will also continue to explore the natural world around us and observe seasonal changes through our weekly outdoor learning sessions.
In RE, we will find out explore which places are special to us and why and which places are special to come religious people.
Expressive Art and Design
There are always many different art and craft materials available for children to use in their choosing time as well as lots of props for role play and story telling. The children will continue to use their voices and percussion instruments to explore melody and rhythm in music sessions. We are going to learn how we can use different media and techniques to make artworks relating to plants and the children can then explore using these techniques for their own creative ideas too.