Croeso i'r Dosbarth Derbyn! 

         Welcome to the Reception Class! 

Autumn Term 2023

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to a new school year, we hope that you have all had a wonderful summer. The children have settled happily into our new routines this week and we are all excited for the year ahead!

Our Reception topic this term is Marvellous Me! We will be thinking about how we grow and change. We will be talking about our bodies, naming the different parts and finding out how we can keep them healthy. We will also investigate what our bodies can do, including our senses and the ways in which we use them. We will be reading lots of exciting stories to help us, including ‘Funnybones’, ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’ and ‘Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?’. Each week in Reception there will be focused tasks, enhanced provision and continuous provision rooted in the six areas of learning: Expressive Arts, Health and Well-being, Humanities, Languages, Literacy and Communication, Mathematics and Numeracy and Science and Technology. The children will be helping to plan and choose our class activities and these will also be linked to our theme, stories and monthly events such as Harvest and Firework Safety.

The Health and Well-being focus for Reception this term will be to consolidate daily routines such as finding our peg to hang up our coats, finding our name for the register, washing our hands before snack and other self-help skills such as putting on shoes and doing up buttons. We will also be considering friendship and will be talking about sharing, and caring for one another. We will explore our emotions and our likes and dislikes.

Individual reading will be on a Monday and Tuesday. In addition to this we will be doing lots of reading activities as a class and in small groups. Children will receive a reading book (initially this may be a picture book to encourage storytelling) and choose a storybook for you to share at home. Children will also receive a reading record, we encourage you to write a comment in the record after you have shared school storybooks with your child, all comments are very useful! Please ensure children bring in their book bags every Monday, they will then be returned to you on a Tuesday. You can send book bags in during the week beginning 11.9.23 but we will return them for the first time on Tuesday 19^th September.

We have hall time on a Monday afternoon and Friday morning. This will be used for a range of physical activities including gym, dance, yoga, parachute games, Busy feet and Sticky kids. Reception children will now change into their PE kits for their sessions; please ensure all items as well as gym bags are clearly named. It is also helpful if children are wearing appropriate clothing that is easy for them to change into/out of. Gym bags will be kept in school and sent home every half term.

Cooking sessions will take place when linked to our activities, we kindly ask for a £2.50 contribution towards the cost of ingredients for this term.

At Pen y fro, we are very lucky to have such extensive outdoor areas, which give our children the space and freedom to play and explore. There will be a choice of outdoor activities so please ensure that your child brings a named coat to school each day.

Forest school will be held on a Wednesday morning (beginning Wednesday 13^th September). Please ensure that your child comes to school dressed appropriately for this (usually this means wellies and waterproofs) as then we can get outside straight after registration which allows the children to have more time outdoors. As the weather can be extremely changeable please assume that we are going out whatever the weather is like first thing as it often improves through the morning. It would be advisable to send gloves, hat and scarf as it gets colder.

Children will also have access to our ‘Meadow’ outdoor area and be taking part in lots of outdoor activities throughout the term. We would really appreciate it if you could leave wellies in school throughout the school week. Children will have access to waterproof suits on days that we do not have forest school.

Please send in water and a healthy fruit/vegetable snack for the children each day. Please ensure that your child can open and close the lid of their water bottle independently as they will be allowed to access their bottle by themselves throughout the day as well as during snack time. Please continue to halve grapes lengthways to avoid them being a choking hazard.

Finally, just a reminder for children to keep their own toys at home as it can lead to upset if toys are lost, broken or if other children want to play with them.

If you have any concerns or would like to know more about the activities, please do not hesitate to come and speak to us at any time or email the school.

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We are looking forward to a busy and fun term!

Many thanks,

Mrs Rees (Class Teacher) and all of the staff in Area 1.