Reception - Daisy Class
Welcome to Daisy class!
Daisy class is taught by Mrs Stead and Mrs Pearson. We are also supported on Mondays by Mrs Webster.
Our classroom
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Our Curriculum
Personal, Social, Emotional Development
PSHE lessons will enable us to explore issues that arise in our children's experiences. This year our whole 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 can discuss the importance of relationships, rules and respect for ourselves and others. In the second half of the spring term, we will look at the consequences of eating healthily and unhealthily (as part of a balanced diet), the consequences of lying and the consequences of taking things without asking.
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. We are really enjoying using the Tales Toolkits resources to develop our story telling. In the first half of the spring term we introduced Drawing Club which gave further opportunities for children to develop vast vocabularies and explain their imagined ideas to their friends. Now we need to keep up the momentum!
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 be continuing to work on comfortable, strong pencil grips and pencil control and helping children to develop early writing skills. 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 unteach skills than to teach them. Writing 'correctly' will ensure children can write at pace and are ready to join. It also helps to distinguish similar letters such as b,d,p and q.
Our PE days will be Wednesdays and Thursdays 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 also hope to make more trips to the Jubilee Field as the weather improves.
Literacy
This half term, we will complete Phase 3 of our Twinkl Synthetic Phonics Programme and move onto Phase 4. This will allow us to complete our collection of vowel digraphs and trigraphs so that we have a grapheme t support almost every sound in the English language. We will continue to learn the names of the letters and the sounds they most commonly make. Each new phoneme (sound) will be shared with you on Seesaw so you can hear correct pronunciation and see correct letter formation. It is really important to reinforce these and insist on them being correct from the very start, as unlearning 'wrong' things is much harder than learning new things. Please take the time to read your child's reading 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. Sight words are exactly that - words children need 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 'small' numbers but we will REALLY understand them. We are now proficient at subitising and recognising the composition of numbers 1-5 so this half term we will be developing an in depth understanding of 6,7,8 and 9. We are beginning to read and write numerals to express our mathematical thinking. Our new Mastering Number Parent Project begins this half term with lots of lovely activities coming home to help you support your child's mathematical development.
Understanding the World
We are going to look briefly at weather before learning about spring and the spring festivals of Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Holi and Easter. We will then spend several weeks learning about dinosaurs, fossils and the great palaeontologist Mary Anning. We will also delve into changing materials.
In RE, we will consider why Jesus died and how Christians celebrate Easter.
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. We will offer the children an opportunity to engage with building strong bridges; a chance to design and make sweet and savoury pancakes and an opportunity to use new paint techniques to make art work linked to the Holi festival. We will use new materials and tools to make dinosaur footprints and fossils before creating lots of Easter crafts using a range of skills and ideas from the children.