Author: Miss Smallwood
Reception News Autumn 2 Week 5
Wow, another busy and fabulous week in EYFS!
Here is information regarding key learning for next week.
Our focus story will be ‘One Snowy Night’ by Nick Butterworth
Our focus song will be Songs from our Nativity, the link below will take you to a playlist of all the songs.
KEY VOCABULARY
Story – Park Keeper, cosy, miserable, plenty, shivering, promise, fierce, mole
Reception Project – Christmas, Festivals, Christians, Joseph, Mary, God, Jesus, Bethlehem, Angel, Star, Wise man, Egypt, King Herod.
Please share the song and story, along with key vocabulary to introduce your child to their learning. Remember you can find copies of our favourite five stories within our book corner – use as you please during Welcome Time with your child!
SOS STARS
Well done to the SOS winners this week – Jayson, Ruby J, Max and Oscar! We focused on ‘Trying New Things’ and were very impressed with how adventurous you’ve been. Well done to all of the other children too – you have all achieved amazing things, keep it up!
LEARNING JOURNEY SHARING
This week it was yellow group’s turn to take their books home to share with their friends and family over the weekend! Please have a look at the accompanying letter and discuss this with your child. Please ensure your return your child’s book on Monday. Happy sharing!
EYFS’ ‘A NOISY NATIVITY’ 2022
You have officially been invited to our 2022 EYFS nativity performance on Friday 9th November 2022! Please see the invite below for your child’s performance time. We can’t wait! Remember to please bring in your costumes by Monday 5th December. If you are having any issues with this, please speak to a member of the team.
Reception Information Autumn 2 Week 4
Hi everyone,
Here is key information to support your child’s learning next week.
Our focus story will be ‘Stick Man’ by Julia Donaldson
Our focus song will be Songs from our Nativity, the link below will take you to a playlist of all the songs – please get practising!
KEY VOCABULARY
Story – wakes, jog, fetch, freed, twirl, floating, weave, drifts, foam, knight, doze
Please share the song and story, along with key vocabulary to introduce your child to their learning.
BEDTIME STORIES
Don’t forget it is our Bedtime Stories session after school on Monday. If you signed for your child to attend then pick up time is 4.30 please. We will read a selection of stories in front of a warm, cosy fire (on the interactive whiteboard!) and the children can enjoy a cup of hot chocolate with a biscuit if they wish. They can also bring a cuddly toy to snuggle up to.
SOS STARS
Well done to the SOS winners this week – Tommy-Lee, Ren, Poppy and Soglo ! We focused on ‘Working Hard’ and were very impressed with your hard work. Well done to all of the other children too – you have all achieved amazing things, keep it up!
LEARNING JOURNEY SHARING
This week it was green group’s turn to take their books home to share with their friends and family over the weekend! Please have a look at the accompanying letter and discuss this with your child. Please ensure your return your child’s book on Monday. Happy sharing!
EYFS’ ‘A NOISY NATIVITY’ 2022
You have officially been invited to our 2022 EYFS nativity performance on Friday 9th November 2022! Please see the invite below for your child’s performance time. We can’t wait! Remember to please bring in your costumes by Monday 5th December. If you are having any issues with this, please speak to a member of the team.
Please find below our most recent Autumn 2 Curriculum Overview – this will inform you of what we are getting up to over the next few weeks!
Reception Weekly News – Autumn 2 Week 3
Hello all!
Here is key information to support your child’s learning next week.
Our focus story will be ‘Our House’ by Michael Rosen
Our focus song will be ‘I’ve Got a Body’
Key VOcabulary
Story – belong, our, swings, small, twin/s, mend, crashed, plane, plan, noisy, tunnel
Reception Project – Healthy, exercise, move, dance, ball, throw, catch, balance, run, walk, climb
Maths – We are learning to identify and name the 2D shapes circle and triangle
- Same – Repeating – properties
- Sort – Match – accurately
- number – more – less
- shape – sides – corners
- circle – triangle
Please share the song and story, along with key vocabulary to introduce your child to their learning.
Phonics at home! 
As always, please practise reading your phonics book at home as much as you can. In addition to this, we are providing you with a set of QR codes for you to revise speed sounds with your child. Please see the letter that was sent home with your child today. If you have any questions, please come and ask a member of the team.
EYFS’ ‘A Noisy Nativity’ 2022
You have officially been invited to our 2022 EYFS nativity performance on Friday 9th November 2022! Please see the invite below for your child’s performance time. We can’t wait!
The world cup 2022
To celebrate England’s 1st game in the football World Cup 2022, the children are invited to come to school wearing anything sporty on Monday 21st November. Come on England!
Reception News Autumn 2 Week 2
Maths Stay and Learn
Thank you to all parents and carers that were able to attend the maths stay and learn session this week. It was great to be able to give you an insight into how maths is being taught and to give your more strategies to support your child’s mathematical thinking at home.
FOcus Story and Nursery Rhyme
Our focus story will be ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy
A link to the story is below to share with your child. Don’t forget that a copy of the favourite 5 stories are always located within our book corner if you would like to share these with your child during Welcome Time.
Our focus song will be ‘One Finger, One Thumb, Keep Moving’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-one-finger-one-thumb-keep-moving/zbtj47h
World Nursery Rhyme Week
In order to celebrate and take part in World Nursery Rhyme week (WB: 14.11.22), the children within EYFS performed their weekly nursery rhyme to the Year 1 and Year 2 children today! They were so confident and learnt all the vocabulary and actions excellently!
Key Vocabulary
Story – Aeroplane, snore, hedgehog, owl, birds, clock, alarm, drip, snuffle, noisy, exhausted, alarm, pillow, playing
Reception Project – Healthy, exercise, food, drink, fruit, vegetables, clean, sleep, eat, doctor, dentist, care
Maths –
- Same – add – amount
- How many? – numeral – count
- Sort – Match – accurately
LEarning Journey Sharing
This week it was red group’s turn to take their books home to share with their friends and family over the weekend! Please have a look at the accompanying letter and discuss this with your child. Please ensure your return your child’s book by Monday. Happy sharing!
Reception Information Autumn 2 Week 1
Hello all!
Please find below key links to learning that will take place in Reception next week. As always, we appreciate your support and involvement in your child’s learning journey so, where possible, please could you introduce these key concepts and vocabulary before we begin our learning on Monday.
Focus Story – Binny’s Diwali
Focus Song – ‘I Hear Thunder’
Key vocabulary
Reception Project – Seasons, Rain, Wind, Frost, Snow, Sun, Grow, Change, Bud, Leaf, Sapling, Tree, Plant, Seed, Bulb
Maths – Set, Group, Same, Different, Count, Amount, How many? Number names, Sort, Match, more less, compare.
Oral Hygiene with the School Nurse
Today, the children in EYFS had a visit to learn the benefits of good oral hygiene. They shared their ideas part of a group as they learnt about the functions of our teeth, how to brush our teeth and healthy eating.
“Brush our teeth!” – Belle “Sparkly, we clean our tongue!” – Ava
“He is not brushing his teeth! No sugar…no!” – Ashton
“They are dirty look….eating cake!” – Ivy-Mae
“Keeping healthy…drinking milk!” – Tulip
We’d love to hear about how the children are working hard to keep their teeth clean at home!
Maths Stay and Learn
Don’t forget that next week we have a maths stay and learn session for you to come along to. Please see the invite on your child’s class dojo page.
SOS Stars
Well done to the SOS winners this week – Jayson, Ryan, Amelia and Jaden! We focused on ‘improve’ and were very impressed with your hard work. Well done to all of the other children too – you have all achieved amazing things, keep it up!
As always, thank you for your continued support
Reception InformationWeek 7
Hello all!
We have completed the first half term here in Early Years and it has been a busy last week! Thanks to you all for your ongoing support.
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
We have had both our school trip to Attingham Park and our Autumn Stay and Learn this week.
ATTINGHAM PARK
The children in EYFS, their parents, carers and educators visited Attingham Park on Tuesday.
We noticed cows and deer. We searched holes for bears and rabbits and collected evidence in nature of the changing seasons around us.
Children walked and walked, then explored the park areas. Relationships were strengthened as part of this shared experience between children, their families and school.
This trip supported children to develop their ideas and knowledge about their environment and also the effect of the weather on the changing seasons. Children shared their ideas with each other and adults as they explored the environment around them.
AUTUMN STAY AND LEARN
On Thursday, the children in EYFS, their parents and educators took part their Autumn Stay and Learn. We enjoyed making spooky pictures using natural materials, decorating biscuits, carving pumpkins and making tea light holders out of clay.
Good fun was had by all and this further developed relationships between parents, children and their educators.
KEY INFORMATION FOR AUTUMN 2, WEEK 1
Our focus story is ‘Binny’s Diwali’ by Thirty Umrigar.
Here is a link so you can share the story with your child:
Our focus song will be ‘Brush your teeth’
Here’s a link to the song –
During maths this week, we will be focusing on matching and grouping. For our nursery project learning, we will be continuing to explore our forest school area; looking at developing our ecological identities.
Key maths vocabulary: Set, Group, Same, Different, Count, Amount, How many? Number names, Sort, Match.
Well done to our SOS winners this week – Karson and Haleema. We have been focusing on ‘Push yourself’. All the children have shown us they have pushed themselves this week during our project learning sessions. Well done!
HOLIDAY HOORAYS!
Please remember to keep capturing your child’s achievements at home and let us know all about them by writing a Holiday Hoorays slip! As always, we really value your input into the beginning of their school journey here at Woodlands.
Don’t forget to practice writing your names with the name cards we sent out today.
Have a fantastic Half Term!!!!
Reception Information Week 6
As we head into our final week of our 1st half term in Reception, we would like to say well done to all of the children for how well they have settled into school routines at Woodlands.
Key Information for Week 7
Our focus story will be ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson
Here is a link to the story to share with your child
Our focus song will be ‘When You Want to Make A Spell’
Here’s a link to the song –
The concept within our Reception Project work has moved onto the changing seasons and how the weather has begun changing the physical features of our school environment that we looked closely at this week! This links nicely with our upcoming trip to Attingham Park.
Key Vocabulary
Story – Howl, growl, shriek, croak, wand, cauldron, wailed, ginger, plait, bounded, keen, moor, bog, thundering.
Reception Project – Summer, Autumn, seasons, cold, weather, warm, hot, leaf, tree, seed, sapling, crunchy, rustling, branch, stick
Autumn Stay and Learn – Thursday 20th October 2022
Please see the invite to our annual stay and learn. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.
We would usually invite children to wear spooky clothes to school on the day of our autumn stay and learn. However, this year the school photos are on the same day so decided against this! We are instead asking children to bring a spooky hat, mask, cloak etc to wear for the event, which is easily removable for school photographs.
Well done to our SOS Winners this week – we have focused on ‘Imagine’.
Wow Moments!
Please remember to keep capturing your child’s achievements at home and let us know all about them by writing a Wow Moments slip! As always, we really value your input into the beginning of their school journey here at Woodlands.
Reception Information Week 5
Hello all!
Here is key information related to next week’s learning…
Our focus story will be ‘Pumpkin Soup’ by Helen Cooper. Please share the story with
your child via the link below. Don’t forget to go and check if they have a copy in the local library – you may find a similar story too!
Our focus song will be ‘It’s Raining, It’s Pouring’. Here is a link to the song…
Within Reception Project Learning, the children will be focusing more on physical features of our school environment and how they differ to human features. We will be learning that physical features are natural and would be here even if there were no people.
Please share and practice using the new vocabulary listed below with your child, in order for preparation for next week’s learning.
Reception Project Key Vocabulary – Physical feature, Human feature, Trees, Hills, Grass, Flowers, Plants, Weather, Building, Path, Street lamp, School, Park
Focus Story Key Vocabulary – Pumpkin, slices, stirs, scoops, slurp, peaceful, squabble
Well done to our SOS winners this week – Japleen, Marcus C-E, Casper and Ruby V! We focused on ‘Push Yourself’. The children were able to explain how they had worked hard to push themselves when listening and using their magnet eyes! Other children said they were proud of pushing themselves to have great ideas during project learning.
Our attendance bear winners this week were Esemae and Harley H!
Reception Phonics Stay and Learn 
Don’t forget we have invited Reception parents and carers to a phonics stay and learn session next week. Below is a reminder of the timetable for the week.
Phonics Stay and Learn Autumn 1 v1
Thank you to all parents that were able to attend our reading meeting this week. It was great to give you an overview of how we teach our children to read within EYFS at Woodlands. If you were not able to attend, please click on the link below where you will find a brief description about early reading and how to best support your child at home.
RWI Sound Book 
The reception children have taken home a set 1 sounds book today. This is another resource to support your child to further improve their literacy skills at home. Please use this book to help your child to know and remember all of the sounds that they need to know be able to become a fluent reader and writer. This book is for you to keep. We will not be collecting them back in to ‘check’ that they are being used at home. We would suggest using the book to check which sounds your child knows – you can tick these off on the chart at the back. Knowing the sounds that your child can remember means that you can focus on helping them to learn sounds that they do not. We hope that you find this a useful resource to share at home with your child.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Reception Information Week 4
Hello all!
Wow – what a great week in Reception. The children are establishing great themes within all project learning areas – we can’t wait to share more with you within our monthly website post in a few weeks.
Thank you to all parents/carers that were able to attend our Parent Lunches this week. It has been amazing to be able to share with how we serve our children their lunches within our EYFS environment.
Here is the key information for next week.
Our focus story will be ‘Don’t Touch my Hair’ by Sharee Miller. This story links to our focus work around ourselves, our communities, respecting each other’s differences and how we follow our Golden Rules in order to keep each other safe. This is also good in preparation for the whole school focus of Black History Week (WB 3.10).
Here is a link to the story to share with your child. Don’t forget to go and visit the library, if you can, to attempt to find a copy of the story too!
Our focus song next week will be ‘This is the Way we Lay the Bricks’ This links to our focus next week during our Reception project sessions – human features of our school environment. Please share this song over the weekend with your child, via the link below.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-this-is-the-way-we-lay-the-bricks/zvnmd6f
Next week, we will be learning to talk about the human features around school. We will learn that a human feature is an object made or built by humans. Take a look at the photos below – do you notice any human features of our school environment?
Key vocabulary linked to focus story – Permission, styled, wild, free, compliments, curious, lonely.
Key vocabulary linked to Reception Project – Human feature, school, street lamp, path, road, wall, park
Attingham Park School Trip
A letter regarding our trip to Attingham Park has gone out today! Please have a read and if you have any questions regarding this – as always, let us know. We can’t wait to be able to share this educational visit with you again this year.
Attendance Bear
This week we began sending home our Attendance Bear. To reward the children who have attended school all week, each Friday we pick a name (at random) from the bear poster. If a child has been absent from school, their name will move to the house poster. We place all names back onto the bear poster at the beginning of a new week.
Reading Meeting
Don’t forget that we are inviting all reception children’s parents to our reading meeting on Tuesday next week (4.10.22), starting at 3.30. We will share more information on our phonics scheme Read, Write, Inc. and how we explicitly teach the children to read within their reception year. We would love to see as many of you there as possible.
Thank you for your continued support.
