Butterfly and Ladybird Classes

Welcome to Reception

Butterfly and Ladybird are our Reception classes at the Isle of Ely Primary School. From this page you will be able to read about our curriculum each half term and all the work we get up to in and out of the classroom.

The adults that work in Reception are:

Miss Charlotte Clayton           Mrs Alison Butterfield                       Miss Vicky Burrows 

Butterfly class teacher            Learning Support Assistant             Learning Support Assistant 

 

Mrs Georgia Russell            Mrs Anna Geraty                       Mrs Amy Allot

Ladybird class teacher         Learning Support Assistant      Learning Support Assistant

           

Our Curriculum overview

Spring B

Communication and language	The children will build up vocabulary that reflects knowledge and experience e.g., what grows and changes,  what grows and changes, how the four seasons differ, what a plant needs to grow and how animals change as they grow. We will focus on using different tenses to discuss things that are happening now and things that happened in the past; asking relevant questions to find out more information – e.g. when sharing a non-fiction text children can say ‘I wonder why…’ – as well as sharing their opinions and preferences in the context of new knowledge.
Physical Development	In everyday activities, we will focus on the gross motor skills, coordination and balance, throwing and catching skills. The children will secure their pencil grip and develop greater pencil control, as well as learn to use small tools such as pipettes, tweezers, cutlery and scissors effectively. In PE lessons, our unit of learning is ball skills. The children will practice throwing, catching and develop control.
PSED	Children will explore similarities and differences within their class, school and wider communities. We will focus on including everyone and the value of diversity. Children will continue to develop an understanding of their and other’s feeling and consequences of some actions, building their empathy and self-regulation. In our weekly Jigsaw PSHE sessions the children will; Recognise how exercise makes them feel. Recognise how different foods can make them feel. Can explain what they need to do to stay healthy. Can give examples of healthy food. Can explain how they might feel if they don’t get enough sleep. Can explain what to do if a stranger approaches them.
Literacy	The children will access a variety of high quality texts about in line with our topic, as well as following their wider interests. We will memorise abbreviated versions of picture books through Talkthrustories lessons and continue building appreciation of non-fiction books as a source of information on studied topic. Our Talkthrustories texts for this half-term are The extraordinary gardener and Supertato. In Phonics, we will continue to secure all of the Set 1 diagraphs and learn the Set 2 sounds. The children will continue to practise blending sounds orally through Fred games and everyday opportunities and read ‘green words’ at increased speed. We will use segmenting to write words and children will begin writing more complex words independently, using their phonological knowledge.  To build on emergent writing, we will encourage short words or phrases in different writing contexts, e.g. in free flow or in a structured lesson.
Mathematics	This half term the children will spend some time exploring length and height, they will compare and order length and height using the correct vocabulary and using lots of practical resources. The children will then move on to numbers 8, 9 and 10. Understanding the composition of the numbers, 1 more, 1 less, and subitising.
Understanding of the word	This half terms topic is growing and changing. In this unit, the children will explore seasons, growing plants, how animals grow and change, food and farming and how we grow and change. We will carry out experiments to identify what plants need to grow and we will continue to care for them once these factors are identified. We will learn about different foods and the climates they need to grow successfully. The children will look closely at the similarities and differences of animals as babies and adults and will broaden their vocabulary by learning the names of animal young. We will also look at how humans grow and change and talk about the roles and responsibilities they will take on as they get older e.g. secondary school, having a job etc. We will learn about St David’s day, Holi, Mothering Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, Baisakhi and Easter and why it is celebrated.
Expressive Arts and Design	The children will explore the art of T.S. Lowry and draw their own houses and “matchstick” people. They will learn about Vincent Van Gogh and his use of different marks to draw still life to then explore what they can see in the world around them. We will go back to Hundertwasser and look closely at his architectural designs to inspire us to draw imaginary houses. The children will have opportunities to create artwork like these artists as well as continue to explore sound by using different musical instruments and listening to various songs. The children will be introduced to singing games such as call and response. We will finish the term by designing and making Easter bonnets, as well as other seasonal decorations and crafts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowledge Organiser:

Growing and Changing   - Click here to find the Knowledge Organiser.

 

Weekly newsflash

Week Commencing 17th March

Hello everyone! This week in maths, we focused on composition to 10.  The children started the week with understanding one more, moving on to one less, then on to what parts make 10. We continued with 'Supertato' this week as part of our Talk Through Stories approach. The children loved creating wanted posters for Evil Pea, you should see the mischief he has been getting up to!   

Week Commencing 10th March

This week has been packed full of our usual timetabled learning. In maths, we focused on pattern. The children started the week with making AB patterns with their bodies, e.g. stomp, clap, stomp cap. Some of the children tried to make more complicated patterns such as ABC, AABBCC and so on. The children moved on to creating patterns using colours. We read the text 'Pattern Fish' to help us with our learning. We started a new text this week as part of our Talk Through Stories approach. The children loved listening to 'Supertato'. We learnt some favourite phrases and talked about what happens in the story. The children enjoyed adding labels to pictures of Supertato and Evil Pea. Lots of them are using their phonics knowledge to help them with their writing which is amazing to see.  

Week Commencing 3rd March

Good afternoon Ladybird and Butterfly parents, we hope our weekly update finds you well. This week has been packed full of our usual timetabled learning. In maths, the children spent 5 sessions looking at finding 9 and 10, comparing 9 and 10, representing 9 and 10, finishing the week with subitising 9 and 10. The children continued to explore each of these focus points by accessing resources in provision. On Wednesday we had our class disco which was thoroughly enjoyed by all of the children. On Thursday it was World Book Day, the children came into school in some fantastic costumes. We celebrated by making bookmarks and sharing our books. 

Week Commencing 24th February

Hello Ladybird and Butterfly parents, the reception team hope you enjoyed some quality family time over the half term. We were so pleased to welcome all of the children back on Monday morning. This week we began learning about length and height. We also started our new PCK topic 'Growing and Changing'. The children really enjoyed learning about how the seasons change throughout the year, building on their prior learning. 

Week Commencing 10th February

Hi everyone, this week has been all about space exploration.  The children learnt about Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.  We continued this week with  'Max and the tag along moon' by Floyd Cooper. The children pretended to be Max and we quizzed the character. In Maths, we recognised and found doubles to 8 which was quite tricky so the children would benefit from a little practice at home if they would like to. It is half term next week, woohoo! The reception team hope the children have a lovely break. Hopefully they will come back to some nicer weather for the second half of the spring term. 

Week Commencing 3rd February

Hello everyone, this week has been all about the stars, galaxies and constellations. The children have created some beautiful pieces of artwork using chalk and black paper. We began a new story this week 'Max and the tag along moon' by Floyd Cooper. We explored the meaning of some of the vocabulary in the text and enjoyed learning phrases from the story. In Maths, we looked at the composition of 6,7 and 8. The children enjoyed using spotless ladybirds to make these numbers in different ways. 

Week Commencing 27th January 

This week we want to start by saying thank you to all of those parents and carers that were able to make the Reception parent share on Monday. The children love being able to show off what they know and show you what they have been up to in their classrooms. This week we spent some time retelling 'Whatever Next' and created a class story map to help us recall each part of the story. We also took a little break from our space topic to learn about Chinese New Year. From decorating lanterns to learning about The Great Race, the children loved learning about a different culture from their own. 

Week Commencing 20th January 

It has been a fast paced week of learning and playing in Reception. The mystery of Al the alien continues! The children drew and wrote some of the things they would take in their rocket while they travelled to space. The children also began exploring the text 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy. In maths, the children explored capacity using balance scales. 

Week Commencing 13th January 

It has been a fantastic week of learning and playing in Reception. The children discovered an alien called Al had crash landed into our sandpit! This inspired the children to make posters to let the rest of the school know that there is a missing Alien on the loose! Some of the children wanted to let Al know that they are friendly and that they could help him get back to Planet Kloom. 

Week Commencing 6th January 

Happy New Year! 

The children were very happy to be back in their classes with all of their friends on Tuesday. It was lovely to see and hear them all chatting about what they have been up to over the Christmas holidays. 

The children started in their newly assigned phonics groups, keep an eye out for a slip in your child's bag which will explain which group they are in and their focus. In maths, we learn about 0, finding 0-5 and subitising 0-5. During our PKC lessons, we started our new topic, Space! 

Take care and have a great weekend.