Reception 2025 - 2026
Mrs Bradley
Reception Spring term 1
Happy New Year!
We hope that you have had a lovely Christmas and made lots of special memories. Thank you so much for our Christmas presents. We absolutely loved them!
We now look forward to another half-term together and can’t wait to see what the children can achieve after such a fantastic start!
In phonics lessons this half term, we will be introducing “digraphs” –“2 letters one sound” - such as “ai” and “ee”. This half-term, we will be looking at:
ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ear, dd, mm, tt, bb, rr, gg, pp, ff
So far, we have covered:
s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,ck,e,u,r,h,b,f,l,ff,ll,ss,j,v,w,x,y,z,zz,qu,ch,sh,th,ng,nk
(Please check reading diaries for any sounds that may need practising!)
In English inputs, we will continue to use “Drawing Club” to develop our mark making. We will use stories such as “Naughty Bus” by Jan and Jerry Oke to inspire our drawing and writing. This half term, we will be continuing to develop how we form our letters correctly using our Little Wandle rhymes and introducing daily handwriting sessions. We will be using our phonics to help us write captions and simple sentences by identifying sounds and then writing down these sounds using letters,
In Maths lessons, we will be comparing numbers using the terms “more” and “less”, counting backwards from 10, partitioning numbers up to 5, finding 1 more and 1 less than a given number and making patterns.
We will have PE on Tuesdays this half term with Mr Gibbons, Mrs Bradley and Mrs Gardner. Our PE sessions will focus on gymnastics, in particular making shapes and sequences both on the floor and on low level benches. For these gym lessons, which will be in the hall, the children will need to wear their PE kits (red hoodie/jumper, red T-shirt, black leggings or tracksuit bottoms) and change into black pumps or be barefoot. Please could you ensure that all uniform (but particularly jumpers and hoodies) is labelled and checked regularly and be aware that for health and safety reasons, earrings must be removed or covered during PE lessons?
In the afternoons, we will be finding out about where we live and comparing this with London where King Charles III lives. We will also paint portraits and make junk models.
We will be learning about celebrations such as Chinese New Year and how to keep ourselves healthy and safe by looking at how we wash our hands, brush our teeth, cross the road and play online safely.
Mrs Walker will teach the children on Tuesday afternoons during Mrs Bradley’s PPA time. We will talk about our friends and family and what makes us special. We will also develop our understanding of Winter and how water and ice can change.
Thank you for your support with reading at home. The children are so proud of their decodable phonics books that they share with you. As before, listening to stories and talking about them is also fantastic to develop a love of books when snuggling up together at the end of a busy day! Please could you try to read with your child each day whether it be them reading to you with their phonics book or you reading a story to them? Please could we also ask that you sign their reading diaries once you have done so and check that reading diaries are in bookbags every day as well as reading for pleasure books? We will be swapping and sharing reading for pleasure books with Year 6 reading buddies on Mondays.
We look forward to another wonderful half-term working with you!
Kind regards,
Mrs Bradley and my wonderful teaching assistants Mrs Gardner and Mrs Berrisford.
If you have any questions, no matter what they are, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do my best to help in any way we can.
Key Dates:
Monday 5th January: Inset Day
Tuesday 6th January: First day of Spring term
Wednesday 7th January: Wellbeing Wednesday – own clothes day
Wednesday 21st January: Reception Early Reading and Phonics Workshop @ 3.30pm
Friday 6th February: Cyber Sid – online awareness
Friday 13th February: Last day of half term
Monday 23rd February: Inset Day
Tuesday 24th February: Start of Spring 2 half term