Welcome to Reception - Buttercup Class!

Staff in Buttercup Class:

Please contact us with any questions or concerns using our class email.

Our class email is: buttercup@st-nicholas-birchington.kent.sch.uk

Home Learning: Term 4

Our topic/theme is 'Who are you going to call?' Together we will explore and look at a variety of people in the community that help us. Looking into their job roles and what they do to keep us safe.

Continuous Daily Learning Activities:

* 15 minutes daily reading/sharing stories and books. For further reading resources and material please explore:

  https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/ 

* phonic/sound recap of the sounds already taught

* number recognition cards and counting

* playing games/puzzles and turn taking activities

* name recognition and writing

Books to read and explore this week

Explore each book together, discussing the title, front cover and what is happening on each page. Can you predict what is going to happen or how you think the characters are feeling and why? Encourage your child to use their reading finger to point to the words on each page as they sound out and blend to read the words.  Remember to read those tricky words from sight as they can't be sounded out though!

Learning activity ideas to try at home/in the garden

These ideas can be repeated and changed slightly as you progress through the term

• Making sentences- When making a sentence you can simplify it or make it trickier by following these stage:

1) Chop and make the sentence. Pick a tricky word for them to practise and scribe afterwards.

2) Chop and make the sentence. Place lines for each word and get your child to copy the sentence. Read it back.

3) Chop and make the sentence. Hide the sentence. Place lines for each word and get your child to copy the sentence. Read it back.

4) Say the sentence several times in various voices (posh, loud, whisper). Independently scribe sentence. Look at errors at end and try and encourage child to detect errors/omitted sounds.

• Number making- Can you make a number?

1) Place number of objects from around the house on the numeral.

2) Roll a dice and get the number card.

3) Use Lego blocks- what different ways can you make a number?

E.g. to make three- use 2 blue blocks and 1 red block or three red blocks......keep exploring!

4) Spot the mistake- Place an incorrect number of objects to a numeral. Can they spot it and explain why it is wrong?

• Shape hunt

1) Place random post-its around the room with shapes on. Can they match them to the shape?

2) Find objects around the house with those shapes.

3) Guess my shape.... it has three sides....locate the image!

Self Isolation And Distance Home Learning

If the need arises for you and your family to isolate home learning resources are available below for you to explore at home with your child. These resources reflect our current topic/themes and learning focuses.

We are always happy to help, so if you have a question or query how big or small feel free to contact us using our class email:

buttercup@st-nicholas-birchington.kent.sch.uk

Distance Learning Activities

TERM 4

This term our topic is ‘Who are you going to call?’

* Can you make an emergency vehicle using whatever media you desire? Can you add a caption to attach to your model?

* Go for a walk past a fire station/police station/post office. What can you see? Can you take a photograph?

* Find out what happens if you ring 999. What emergency services are there?

* It is really useful to know your home address in an emergency. Do you know where you live? Can you write your address? Maybe find your address on a map.

* Share or read some non-fiction books about emergency services.

Maths learning to explore

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/early-years/building-9-10-week-1/

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/early-years/building-9-10-week-2/

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/early-years/building-9-10-week-3/

Recap all the Phase 2 & 3 sounds

s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss 

j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear air ure er

https://lettersandsounds.org.uk/for-home/reception 

Explore the Phase 3 sounds in order

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvq9bdm 

Sing the tricky words songs and have a go at writing each tricky word

Phase 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMyssfAUx0&list=PLCLKSf1kRDSRP6OCf-lm0wAr2s7Y1LfkO

Phase 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R087lYrRpgY

Cutting Skills Activities

When engaging in cutting skills activities please encourage your child to use our 'thumbs on top' approach.

Useful websites or Apps:

http://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/index.html

Cambug (an app that is good for phonics)

https://readingeggs.co.uk/ (good for phonics and online reading activities/books)

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ (free subscription currently)

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ (lots of games for all subject areas)

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/ (free subscription currently - Early Years Interactive Pack and other resources for all subject areas)

https://www.abcya.com/ (games for all subject areas)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga (great for yoga and mindfulness)

Dates To Remember

What does our curriculum look like?

In Reception we select topics to suit the children’s interests. Through finding out what the children are interested in we can tailor the curriculum accordingly. We follow the EYFS

Statutory Curriculum which you can see below:

Here is an overview of what is expected within the strands, it is a useful tool for understanding the profile:

What will we learn in term 4?

This term we will be thinking about "Who are you going to call?" for different emergencies. Learning that we only call 999 in an emergency and how we respond.  We will explore what all of these emergency services do and what their jobs entail.

Luckily we will have a visit from a police officer with their vehicle. We will look forward to a socially distanced visit from the Police. This will enable us to ask questions and look at all their exciting equipment! 

We will be busy continuing our Letter and Sounds journey, segmenting and blending diagraphs and trigraphs in words.

In maths we will explore numbers to 10 and look at 2d and 3d shapes. 

The weather will bring lots of changes to our garden so we will be busy planting more plants and also looking carefully at the changes occurring. 

What did we learn in term 3?

Our topic was 'Will you read me a story?'

Was the Big Bad Wolf really so bad? How many bowls of porridge did Goldilocks eat? Where will the gingerbread man run to? We have asked lots of story based questions and explored this magical topic all about fairy tales, goodies and baddies! Together we have explored different story characters and their characteristics, exploring the morals that some stories hold and had go at creating our own stories through all the arts and writing. In Maths we recapped numbers 1-5 and explored bigger numbers too. Alongside investigating 2d/3d shapes and the concepts of weight and size. In RE Tessa and Tom continued to share stories from the Bible with us. We continued to develop our gross and fine motor skills in a variety of ways including dough disco, yoga and write dance.

What did we learn in term 2?

Our topic was 'Why do squirrels hide their nuts?'

Why do squirrels hide their nuts? Why do hedgehogs hibernate? This term we explored these questions and more in our topic about the seasonal changes in the natural world during autumn and winter. We looked at seasonal changes in the natural world, hibernation and migration, autumn foods and woodland animals. We continued our Letters and Sounds phonic journey as well as exploring numbers 1-5 in greater depth. We also consolidated our 2d shape knowledge and engaged in some problem solving activities.

What did we learn in term 1?

Our topic was 'Friends'. We got to know each other and made new friends. We shared lots of friendship themed stories. We supported and helped eachother to settle into our new routines and agreed some rules for our learning and playing environments.  We tried hard to recognise our own names and our friends names, had a go at mark making and writing our own names. We began our Letters and Sounds phonic journey, explored numerals 1-5 and what each numeral represents whilst engaging in some problem solving activities. We also observed some seasonal changes and explored our outdoor environment...whatever the weather!!! We have enjoyed exploring and jumping in the rain puddles and creating a class friendship garden.

Are there any trips/events planned?

Wednesday 10th March 2021- Police visit (socially distanced).

How does our classroom look?

How do we reward children in Buttercup Class?

We believe in positive praise and always seek opportunities to reward the children. The children start the day on the “sunflower” and if they do something special they are rewarded by being put onto the “honey pot”. They then receive a sticker and share their achievements with the class.