Wheatfield Primary School

About Reception:

In Reception our teachers are Mrs Midlane (Class RM) and Miss Bendall (Class RB). Our teaching assistants are Mrs Goldstone and Mrs Binding.

What should my child bring to school?
Please label every item that belongs to your child including their school uniform and belongings i.e. water bottle. You could use a permanent pen or buy personalised name labels which you can stick onto their belongings. Your child will have a peg in the cloakroom where they can store their coat and welly boots. Your child will have a drawer in the classroom for their book bag and snack.

Term 5 Learning

PSED

At Wheatfield Primary we follow a scheme called Jigsaw. We use the focus for each unit as an overarching ‘theme’ for each term, linking this to our other learning, as we really value the importance of PSED in your child’s development.

The theme for Term 5 is ‘’Relationships!”

We will be focusing on…

• Exploring our big question: ‘how can we help others?’
• How we can help our friends and family
• How to make friends and stop ourselves from feeling lonely
• Solving problems and staying friends
• What to do if we fall out with a friend
• Managing our emotions
  

The theme for Term 6 is all about how we change.
We will be focusing on…

• Exploring our big question: ‘why don’t caterpillars have wings?’
• Understanding that everyone is unique and special
• Understanding that we grow and change from babies to adults
• Preparing for our transition into Year One

Each day, when children demonstrate going 'above and beyond' by representing our school values, they can be 'In the Spotlight' on our class display. If they reach this, they will be given a special sticker. When they come home with this sticker, make sure to ask them why. 

We are also encouraging children to talk about what they have been learning during their 'Choose and Learn' time. If you see them with a sticker about sharing their learning, ask them what they learnt today.

Writing

During Term 5 we will be continuing to develop our oracy and writing through 'Write Stuff'. We will continue to learn how to build grammatically correct sentences and begin to record these with less support from an adult. We will continue to focus on our handwriting this term and ensuring we are forming our letters correctly but activities to develop our fine and gross motor skills will still be available in our provision. We are also supporting children in applying their Phase 3 phonemes and writing Phase 4 words in their writing. 

Our writing focus:

• Develop and strengthen our fine and gross motor skills, helping form letters correctly
• Develop our pencil control and grip
• Confidently write our own name
• Continue to write simple words, labels and captions.
• Begin to write simple sentences.

Reading and Phonics

We will be looking at books linked to our PSED overarching 'big questions'. We will also be enjoying our 'Fab 5' books. Each term we have five books that we read each week. On Monday we will read The Squirrels who squabbled, Tuesday is Angelica Sproket's Pockets, Wednesday is The Great Cheese Robbery, Thursday is Mad About Minibeasts! and Friday is Amazing! T 

Through whole class book talk sessions, we focus on listening to stories, asking and answering questions and orally rehearsing to develop our vocabulary.

We will have daily phonic sessions as a whole class. We have now learnt all phase 2 and 3 phonemes. We will spend this term consolidating this learning before moving on to Phase 4 next term. We will update you through Tapestry about which phonemes we are learning and ways you can support at home. 

Reading books usually get changed on a Monday. Please write in your child's Reading Record book and ensure it is in your child's book bag each day, so we can see the reading you and your child have done at home. Every day they read at home, it counts towards a read in our whole school 'Reading Bug' challenge. When they reach a multiple of 50 reads, they will go to see Mrs Carver and choose their own book that they can keep at home. We will only change reading books if they have been read 5 times at home. 

Children will choose a book from the school library during our PPA sessions on a Thursday. When they return their book the following week, they can swap it for a new one. This is a book for you to share with your child together, not one you should except them to be able to read on their own.

You can continue to practise their word list and put this in the yellow box in the morning for us to check in school. We will then send home a new word list. Well done to those children who have now completed all their word lists!

Supporting reading at home... 

• Share their school library book which will be changed on Thursday's 
• Read their word list
• Read their Phonics book (this has a green bug on the cover)
• Their reading book should be read at least 5 times before we change for a new one.
• Continue to work towards achieving 'reads' on our whole school ‘Catch the Reading Bug’ challenge. For every 50 reads your child will get to choose a brand new book to keep from Mrs Carver!

Maths

In Term 5 we will be covering the objectives of:

• Consolidating and mastery of all objectives covered with a focus on counting, composition, comparing and ordering
• Counting to 20 and beyond.
• Building numbers and looking at patterns beyond 10
• Addition and subtraction within 10
• Doubling to 10
• Sharing and grouping
• Odd and Even numbers
• Recognise and describe the characteristics of 3D shapes

We teach maths through class inputs, adult led groups and reinforcing the objective and learning in our provision.

Your child will have received their Gold Rings 1 booklet, which will have our termly objectives in. In this booklet, we have written suggested games and activities to support these objectives at home.

Each term your child will receive a new maths planet booklet which includes the objectives we are teaching in class. To earn a certificate, please upload photos/videos to Tapestry of your child engaging with the suggested activities in the booklet. If you have any difficulty with this please come and see us so that we can support you. The booklets can be kept at home and do not need to be returned to school.

To achieve certificates and badges, you must complete booklets for all the terms. If you have misplaced any previous terms booklets, please find a link to them below.

Bronze 1 (Term 1 booklet) found here = Certificate will be awarded at the end of term 

Bronze 2 (Term 2 booklet) found here = Bronze Badge will be awarded at the end of the term

Silver 1 (Term 3 booklet) found here = Certificate will be awarded at the end of term

Silver 2 (Term 4 booklet) found here = Silver Badge will be awarded at the end of term

Gold 1 (Term 5 booklet) found here = Certificate will be awarded at the end of term

Gold 2 (Term 6 booklet) found here = Certificate and badge will be awarded at the end of term  

Term 5 Wider Curriculum

 Throughout our entire curriculum for EYFS, we always centre the needs of the children as well as their interests as the focus of our learning for our wider curriculum.

At Wheatfield Primary School we are very fortunate to have such fantastic outdoor spaces including our amazing onsite forest ‘The Wild Wood’. We will regularly be learning in the woods We think about and explore our four seasons and use our school grounds in all weathers, so it is essential your child has a waterproof coat and wellies in school every day. 

We will also be exploring…

• Seasonal changes and the weather
• Nature Weaving
• Planting Seeds
• Nature Faces

In Term 5 we will be exploring materials. We will test key materials such as plastic, cardboard, wood and paper against their strength and suitability for a house. In Term 6 we will be growing our own plants. We will also explore minibeasts, and we will look at the life cycle of a caterpillar by hatching our own butterflies. We will explore habitats and the minibeasts that live in them. We will also be planting beans and watching them grow.

During Term 5 our focus will be on drawing. We will be focusing on the artist Picasso. We will be drawing and painting self-portraits through observations, alongside emulating his style with creating ‘mish-mash’ faces! In Term 6 we will focus on the skill of collage and we will be exploring an artist called Henri Matisse by making our own snails using collages materials.

We also learn many rhymes and songs from Poetry Basket Spring Booklet, as well as enjoying the many songs on the BBC Teach website. (Nursery Rhymes and Songs - A to Z - BBC Teach)

In RE this term, we will be learning about different places of worship and why these building are special to different people. We will also be learning about Holy Books and hearing some stories from them.

In PE we will be focusing on improving our ball skills, throwing and catching a ball and dribbling a ball with increasing control. We will be beginning to play team games in preparation for our sports day.

In music this term we are exploring the sounds of different instruments and continuing to respond to different styles of music. We will find the pulse of different songs and clap along to different rhythms.  

As always, we have overarching themes of the term but we also adapt our learning based on the children's current interests to keep the children engaged and learning purposeful to them.