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 in more detail the issues that arise in our children's experiences. This year our whole school is exploring Restorative Practice as part of our behaviour management and children will be encouraged to explore 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 explore the importance of relationships, rules and respect for ourselves and others. In the first half of the spring term, we will have a particular focus on aspects of our health such as food, sleep and exercise before looking at how we stay safe online.
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 Spring Term we will be introducing Drawing Club which will give further opportunities for children to develop vast vocabularies and explain their imagined ideas to their friends.
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 (Dance) and Thursday (Real PE - a scheme developing core muscles and skills) 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.
Literacy
This term, we will complete Phase 3 of our Twinkl Synthetic Phonics Programme and move onto Phase 4. This will allow us to explore many vowel digraphs. 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 and 7. We are beginning to read and write numerals to express our mathematical thinking.
Understanding the World
We are going to use our studies of traditional tales to explore what we can learn about the past from stories. Linking to history topics further up the school, we will discover: what is meant by a monarchy; who lived in castles and why; how houses and homes have changed over time; how jobs have changed over time; and why people celebrate Chinese New Year.
In RE, we will consider where we belong, an opportunity to think about the different sized communities we are part of. We will learn about how religious groups welcome new babies into their communities.
Expressive Art and Design
This term we will specifically be offering children the opportunity to design and make products from wide ranging materials. Children will be encouraged to think about the end user of their product, the characteristics of their design that will make it successful and how they can use their own creativity to enhance those designs. We will help children to learn a range of techniques for joining materials as well as helping them to add moving parts to their models where required.