Conifer Class – Reception
Welcome to Conifer Class! Mrs Cook teaches everyday, except Tuesday afternoon when Mrs Maggs covers her PPA . Mrs Bazeley is our class TA and works closely with Mrs Cook to support the children in their learning and play.
WELCOME TO CONIFER CLASS!
We have an exciting year ahead of us, with varied and engaging topics leading our learning. Over the year, our topics can be flexible, including learning led by the children’s passions and interests. The adult led learning sessions such as Phonics, Drawing Club and Maths will be supported by child led learning. We call this Discovery time and it gives the children the opportunity to work in their preferred environment and practise the skills previously learnt.
These are the topics we will be learning about this year. Each theme has plenty of opportunities to adapt to suit the children’s interests and needs
Please see our to find out more information about expectations for the year.
Term 5 Come Outside
As we move into the Summer terms, we will be spending as much time outside as possible, exploring and investigating the Great Outdoors.
Our main focus this term will be all about growth – our growth, plants, trees, animal life cycles and comparing plants and animals in different areas of the world
In phonics we will start Phase 4.
Phase 4 focuses on adjacent consonants – starting with simple 2 consonant words such as plum and tent, then moving onto 3 consonant words such as spring and scrunch. We will continue to practise chunking and adding the suffix s/es/ing/est/er to the end of words. Weekly home learning sheets will come home on a Friday, and as there are no more sounds to learn, the new Phase 4 tricky words will be added to the children’s sound books.
In Maths, after reviewing our combining numbers to 10, we will move onto teen numbers, learning that the 1 in a teen number is not really a 1, but a 10 in disguise!! We will use the Growth topic to learn and practice how to measure using length, weight, time and capacity.
Over the first 4 terms, we have become amazing independent writers. English and Drawing Club will continue working on these skills. We will plan and write stories, and learn how to write instructions.
We will spend a lot of time this term focusing on Handwriting, consolidating the Curly Cat letters before moving onto the 1-Armed Robot letters (r/n/h/m/p/b/k) We also call these letters the bouncy letters as we come down and bounce back up.
Let’s hope we get some lovely (and drier) weather as we move into Summer. Below is the Term’s overview or click on the link for a closer look.
Term 4 Under my Feet!
We have looked up and now we are going to look down!
Having already completed our Knowledge Harvest with the children, we have found out that there is a real interest in Dinosaurs, so the majority of the term will focus on these. The children were also curious about sewers, pipes and where the poo goes! so we will spend some time investigating this too.
In phonics, Term 4 focuses on the Phase 3 graphemes already learnt in Term 3, building on this knowledge so that we are not only experts with reading Phase 3 words, but also writing them. Handwriting will continue to focus on the ‘curly cat’ letters, as a lot of the children are finding these quite challenging. It’s important to get them right now, so the children do not form bad habits and have to relearn them when doing cursive handwriting in Year 1 and 2.
Reading at home has really improved – thankyou all for supporting your children in their reading and phonics learning – it really does make a difference. We won Booksby in Term 3 and have already won him again in week one this term, so let’s see how many more times he can come to Conifer class!
As the weather hopefully gets warmer, we will be Spring detectives, comparing the church ground now to what they were like in Autumn. We will also finish the term joining in Easter activities – you never know, the Easter Bunny may even come to see us…..
Below is our Term 4 overview for Under Our Feet
or click on this link Dinosaur project plans
You may also find these helpful when supporting your children with their letter formation
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Term 3 Look up to the Skies
Welcome to a new term and a new year!
After all the business of Christmas, we will use this term to really make strides in our progress. This term our topic Look up to Skies will focus on 3 main areas – the weather, air transport and space. We have already done a Knowledge Harvest, where we found out what the children already knew (ie planet names and all about asteroids!) and will plan the term using this knowledge – focusing on what the children want to find out and what questions they have. We are hoping to have some visitors in this term to help with our learning – the PCSO’s and a team from Tui based at Bristol Airport
In phonics and reading, we will move onto Phase 3 – the vowel digraphs and trigraphs (3 letters that make one sound). Sometimes, children find this a harder phase to retain, as some of the digraphs are similar and can easily be confused. Therefore, it is really important we work together, so the children are practising at home as well as at school – so here are some ways you can support their reading and phonics:
- Practise sound books everyday – 2 mins (you do not need to go over those sounds they are really secure in)
- Look at the weekly phonic home learning sheet sent home on a Friday. This gives you the sounds, words, sentences and tricky words we have practised in phonics over the week. The children can practise reading and even writing these – this can count as one of their 4 reads.
- READ, READ, READ!! Please make sure you are hearing your children read (or sound book/phonic practise) at least 4 times a week. Reading really is the key to learning. If children are confident readers they will do well in life (evidenced in research).
- So that the children are entered into the reading raffle, please remember to note it down in the yellow book!
In writing we will continue to develop our sentence writing and follow topic related books in Drawing club. We will also be focusing on handwriting, starting with the ‘curly cat’ family. This is a hard motion for a lot of children to do, as it feels like you are going the wrong way!! However, as it is the basis of so many of our letters (c/a/o/d/g/f/s/q), it’s important that the children get it right now, and don’t fall into any bad habits! In maths we will continue our journey up the numberline, becoming experts with numbers 6-10, addition, subtraction, more, less, and partitioning these numbers.
Lastly, this term we would like to invite you 2 events – On Thurs Feb 1st, we will be going to the church for our service with our buddies and the children will be presented with Bibles from the church, then on Fri 9th Feb (last day of term) we’d love you to come in about 2.50 ish so we can sing you some Space songs and the children can share their Space Rocket gallery with you.
It’s going to be another busy and very fun term!! We look forward to sharing our weekly learning blog, out on Dojo every Friday.
Below in our Term 3 overview…
or click on this link Look up to the skies term 3 overview
Term 2 Terrific Tales
Welcome to a new term!
This term, our theme is called Terrific Tales. We will use quality stories to explore different animals, seasons and festivals such as Diwali and Christmas.
Now we are familiar with our class surroundings and the adults and children who work with us everyday, we will begin to develop this further, celebrating the differences between us and our friends and finding out about how children may celebrate in different ways. We will also Buddy up with our Oak friends.
In phonics, we will continue to learn Phase 2 sounds, spending more time learning new digraphs and tricky words. We will also join the reading raffle, with children’s names added to the raffle if they have read/practised sounds or keyrings 4x or more at home. On a Friday, one child’s name will be pulled from the raffle pot and they will win a prize.
We will finish the term with lots of Christmas celebrations – our Nativity in the church, Christmas dinner and a class Christmas party.
Below is our term 2 overview….
or click on this link Term 2 Terrific Tales
Term 1
Our first term in Conifer class focuses on becoming part of the school community. We will create new friendships within the class and work on following new routines and school expectations. Starting school is a huge deal in your child’s life and we endeavour to make sure the transition into ‘big’ school is a seamless and a happy experience.
This term we will focus on ‘All about Me’ giving the children the opportunities to create positive relationships with the children and adults who work with them. We will talk about our families, our homes, our emotions and learn to work and play alongside others.
Adult learning such as Drawing Club, Phonics and Numbersense will be used to lay the foundations on which the children will build their skills and knowledge throughout the year.
Communication will be through Class Dojo, and a weekly ‘Class Story’ will be sent out on a Friday so you can find out and celebrate what the children have been up to that week!
Please click link for the Term 1 overview
EYFS
For more information about the EYFS curriculum and links to our EYFS progression documents, please visit the EYFS pages on the website.
Supporting your child with reading
It can be really tricky knowing how to support your child with reading, so I’ve made a video to give you some ideas about how you can help. It is also good to read the same book with your child at least 3 or 4 times, this enables them to develop fluency when reading a book that has become more familiar.
Conifer 1:1 Reading with Mrs Cook
As always, you can also contact me through office@dundry.com
USEFUL LINKS:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
DUNDRY BOOK WEEK
During the week beginning 1st March we will enjoy a whole week of book themed fun, to celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 4th March. Each afternoon the children will choose an activity or two to try from an exciting menu created by their teachers. See the video below to hear Dundry teachers reading some their favourite stories and poems.
