Weekly Reception Newsletter 07.01.13

Term: Spring 1 Date 07.01.13
Happy New Year and welcome back! We would also like to say a very special welcome to all the new families joining us this term! 

I hope you all enjoyed the festive celebrations - A big thank you to all the wonderful cards and gifts received, all the staff appreciated them very much. 

This week your child will be taking part in the following activities within the seven areas of development:

Personal, Social and Emotional
Circle time: Discussing Christmas- talking about presents, families and festive celebrations.
Reinforcing class rules and how to treat all our new equipment.


Communication and Language
Sharing our favourite stories.
Listening to children read their reading books. Please ensure books are brought into school every day.

Physical
Playing on the bikes.
Gymnastics– Val Sabin lesson 1 – Balancing. Children need to bring in a clearly labelled kit ASAP, please. (white t-shirt, black shorts and plimsolls)
Developing fine motor skills through tracing activities and manipulating dough.

Literacy
Writing our names, encouraging correct pencil grip.
Daily phonics sessions - reviewing sounds learnt so far and completing phonics assessments.

Maths
Maths assessment – assessing children’s understanding of number.
Maths songs and games.
Practising number formation.

Understanding of the World
Using the computers – designing Happy New Year posters. 

Expressive Arts and Design
Free choice

Homework and messages
Please follow Broadford on Facebook (remember to press the ‘like’ button) and twitter. We update the Early Years blog regularly with photos and information.
You may not be aware that Free School Meals eligible children attract Pupil Premium funding of £600 per child. This additional money is used to improve achievement for that group but it also impacts on all of our children. For instance a chunk of it pays for the free after school clubs that everyone benefits from. Our Governing Body have discussed how we can use this money to directly help eligible families. Support we can offer includes: free school trips, support with uniform and help with residential trips. If you think you may be eligible, please apply now. You don’t actually have to eat the school dinners… you just have to sign up! The more children who sign up, the more money we get the more we can help our children. If you feel you are entitled to free schools meals, please pick up a form from the office. If you need help in completing the form, just ask!
Show and tell will begin this week – Children may bring in one Christmas toy to show over the next few days. Toys must be placed in the box on arrival and will only be shown during show and tell time to avoid any damages and toys getting misplaced.
Homework information will be on next week’s letter.

Ways you can help at home
Website: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-3-games.html is a great website to support our phonics programme.
Please listen to your child read and record it in their reading records. We now have a reward system in place for children reading regularly – This includes certificates, book marks and vouchers.