Reception – Cygnets - Reception

Welcome to Reception – Cygnets Class

Hello and welcome to Cygnets class.

We are Mrs Green and Miss Ross and the Learning Support Assistants are Mrs Read, Mrs Bell and Miss Gordon.

To start our year, we spend Autumn One familiarising the children with their classroom environment and building friendships.
Our topic for this half term is ‘Jungle Adventures’. The children will take part in lots of circle times where we will discuss topics such as friendships, class rules, turn-taking and families. While the children are getting to know our routines, they will spend time in our classrooms and outdoor areas. We will also explore our school surroundings and will go on walks around both the South Pole and North Pole sites.
The children will be introduced to Level 2 phonics and will be learning sounds, rhymes and actions. We will be working on initial sounds in words, name writing and letter formation. The children will explore a range of books, rhymes and poems based around our topic. In maths, we follow the White Rose maths scheme and the children will be matching , sorting and comparing objects, talking about measure and pattern and will begin to understand the composition of numbers. As part of our ‘Understanding the World’ sessions, the children will learn how to look after their teeth, they will carry out several experiments and will learn how to use different programmes on the iPads and interactive whiteboards. We will also spend time investigating our local area, talking about homes, streets, villages and towns. During our ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ sessions, we will be using paints to create self-portraits and will spend time thinking about different jungle animals. The children will paint their favourite jungle animals – thinking carefully about the colours that they need to use. We will be learning about the Artist Yayoi Kusama and will be using dots to create pictures of Jungle animals!

After half term, our topic will be ‘Up, Up and Away’.
During our circle times, we will be discussing similarities and differences, likes and dislikes, Road safety, firework safety and Christmas. As part of our ‘Understanding the World’ sessions, the children will be learning about different festivals. We will talk about staying safe online and will learn about our school E-Safety rules. We will talk about different animal habitats and how travel has changed over time. The children will be carrying out some freezing and melting experiments and learning how to make predictions. During our ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ sessions, we will be designing and making our own hot air balloons. We will be using different media to create raincloud art and will spend time making Christmas decorations. The children will continue to complete their phonics sessions and will be encouraged to write sounds and simple words and captions. In maths, we will be learning about different 2-D and 3-D shapes and will be consolidating our knowledge of the composition of numbers. We will end the Autumn term with a Christmas production which the children will perform to their grown- ups!