Dear Parents of Coots,
As we enter a time of unprecedented school closure, we have been making preparations to help you support your children’s learning as they remain at home for an extended period.
In Coots, so much of our learning is through speaking, listening, playing, exploring and sharing that it is almost impossible to set homework for such young children. We aim to promote independence, and to help our reception children be ready for the excitement, challenges and curriculum of year one.
Having said that, here are some ideas of how to support our EYFS learning at home.
Help your child begin to read and write the sounds they are unsure of, especially those highlighted on the sheet given to you the recent parents meeting. Please remember the cursive style – all Coots can do this! A few minutes spent reading every day will help your children maintain the amazing skills they have developed already this year – never underestimate the value of story time! See how many words your child can independently read on a page, then enjoy the rest of the story together.
Daily Doodle Maths will support their numeracy, and I have attached their log in, just as a reminder. Jack Hartmann on youtube sings the 100 song that we like to sing daily! Please also have a go at saying the days and months in order, as well as talking about what day it is.
A useful website is ictgames. We have played Help the Hedgehog, Forest Phonics, DJ Cow wordsearch (laptop version, as the ipad version is updated and is too hard), Save the Whale, Whack-a-Mole and Blending Bingo. Jusy follow this link https://www.ictgames.com/
Have a go at reading, re-reading, learning a verse, acting out, and illustrating The Owl and the Pussycat poem. We hope to use this once we’re back in school for some fun activities. These links are to animated youtube versions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DK1NExVHh8&safe=active and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZpq-3xqrPs&frags=wn&safe=active
Sound out and write a daily sentence about anything you like. Coots now write the short date (eg 18.3.20) on all their work in school, so please encourage them to keep up this habit.
Twinkl is an amazing resource bank, and is currently offering free access to parents. Please see https://www.twinkl.co.uk/blog/how-to-utilise-twinkl-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown-a-guide-for-parents . It has many cursive handwriting/tracing sheets which support what we are doing in school, as well as a wealth of cutting/sticking/sorting/matching ideas that are perfect for reception children. Please have a browse and follow your child’s interests.
Junior Monopoly is fabulous for maths skills – we are beginning to think about doubles using small numbers, and finding out what makes 10. Any dice games requiring attention, perseverance and turn-taking also teaches valuable life skills, as well as simple adding/subtracting.
During the school closure I will use Tapestry as a regular form of contact, so feel free to post questions on there if you are unsure about any activities you’re having a go at with your child.
Thanks for all your support
Mrs Sims and Miss Stevens
Coots Class is for our Reception children. The class teacher is Mrs Sims, and she is lucky enough to be supported by Miss Stevens and Mrs Sultana.
Dear Parents and Carers,
A very warm welcome to our Reception families. I hope that you have all had an enjoyable summer and are refreshed and ready for the Autumn term. Here’s some useful information for the year ahead.
Book-bags – Please make sure these come to school every day. Book-bags are checked by us daily and any letters that need to go home will be placed inside, so please have a look in them regularly. When your child comes into class each morning, they will get their reading book out and put it in the basket, and then put their book-bag in the labelled box.
Home/School book – Please use this as much as you wish! Use it to share queries, concerns and news. If your child has any worries, is feeling under the weather, has had an unsettled night etc, it is always useful for us to know, so please mention it. Likewise, we will pop notes in from time to time, so please check it daily. There will always be a member of staff on the gate in the morning and in the classroom at the end of the day if you would prefer to speak directly to someone.
Reading – Reading with your child is one of the most important things you can do to help them learn. Our expectation is that they will have the opportunity to read every day at home; this may be the whole book or a few pages. Each time you read with your child, please record it in the home/school book, writing the date, title of book and the pages that were read. Then, just initial it. Books will be changed once they have been read at home or at school twice. We promote ‘reading for pleasure’ in our school. This involves time spent in our library and story-telling. The children will be visiting the school library every Monday afternoon with Mrs Livermore and Mrs Sultana. Our school library is open after school on a Wednesday for you to visit and share a book with your child.
Lunches – Each morning we read out the menu and the children say what they would like for lunch. Please make sure your child knows the choices and you have discussed what they will choose! If you prefer your child not to order a particular choice, please let me know. You may prefer to order lunch using the 'Pupil Asset' app.
Home time – At the end of the day the gates will be opened and you can come round to the outside door of the Coots classroom to collect your child. If your child is being collected by someone else, please let us know in advance, as this helps to avoid any confusion at home time!
PE – Our weekly PE lessons are on a Wednesday, so please make sure your child has their named PE kit and trainers in school.
Handwriting – We introduce pre-cursive handwriting from the beginning of the year. You will hear your child talk about whooshes in and whooshes out. As the year goes on we hope that your child will begin to join their handwriting, in the style known as cursive handwriting. If you need any help with this, please ask.
And finally…
We really hope your child will enjoy a fantastic Reception year. Please ask if you have any questions at all about what is happening in Coots. Thank you for your support and interest.
Mrs Sims
