Welcome to Nursery and Reception!

Mrs Crook and I have worked together for many years. Our aim is to help children love school. We want to give them the tools to be great learners, great friends and confident to try new things. It is a pleasure to be able to support the youngest learners in the school. This year we welcomed nursery children for the first time. It has been a great half-term and our newest children are settling well into life at Bickerstaffe. 

Home Learning

To begin with the best home learning will be to share books together, they can be any kind of book or story. As they begin to learn the names and sounds of letters they will receive school books to read at home to you. These books will be closely linked to their phonic ability, to provide the best support in their reading journey. 

Later in the year children get a handwriting/mark-making homework. They hand back their homework folders on Tuesdays, they are marked and children collect stickers for each completed piece of homework. Alongside this, children read at home at least 4 times a week, and parents will sign their reading charts. They can work their way through the reading rainbow. We appreciate all your help and support with their learning at home! :)

Spring 2

This half term our topic is Pirates! Have a look at our Book Wamer for our new story The Pirates are Coming! By Johnny Condon

Knowledge Organiser Spring 2

Maths

Maths in Spring 2

Reception

This year we have introduced Mastering Number, alongside White Rose Maths. Children will continue to develop their subitising and counting skills and explore the composition of numbers within and beyond 5. They will begin to identify when two sets are equal or unequal and connect two equal groups to doubles. They will begin to connect quantities to numerals.
Pupils will:
• continue to develop their subitising skills for numbers within and beyond 5, and increasingly connect quantities to numerals
• begin to identify missing parts for numbers within 5
• explore the structure of the numbers 6 and 7 as ‘5 and a bit’ and connect this to finger patterns and the Hungarian number frame
• focus on equal and unequal groups when comparing numbers

Nursery- Spring 2

Phonics- Ditty Sheets

Listening to your child read – Ditty Sheets

Most children in Reception will be bringing home their Ditty reading sheets to share with you!
The information here will help you to support your child in making steady progress with their reading.

In our school, children read the sounds and words from their Ditty along with the story (‘Ditty’)  twice.  Re-reading the same text helps children to become confident readers. Each time they re-read, they build their fluency/speed and comprehension.  They love reading and want to read because they can read all of the words on the Ditty sheet.  We do not send stories home the children cannot read because we always want them to be set up to succeed in their reading. We want to make sure they enjoy reading so that they want to read.  The more they read, the faster progress they will make.

Children bring 3 different Ditty sheets home in their book bag.  These Dittys, although different ‘stories’, contain the same sounds and words your child has built to confidently read.  They love this because they feel confident about reading it and can’t wait to read it to you, their grandparents or even their teddy bear!  Please  avoid saying, “This is too easy for you!” but instead say “I love how well you can read this!”  They are meant to be able to read all of the words as it is at their correct level.

Encourage them to share their enjoyment of the story with you and read it in their storyteller voice – again and again. If they hesitate over a word, remind them to read the word using ‘Special Friends, Fred Talk, read the word’. For example, this means they spot the ‘sh’, ‘ll’, ‘ck’ etc, then Fred Talk and blend to read the word e.g. sh, sh-i-p, ship.

Some words are ‘tricky’ because they contain letters that don’t match the sounds the child has been taught. For example, ‘the’ has ‘e’ making an ‘u’ sound. We teach these common exception words as Red words. In the Ditty sheets, these words are printed in red text. Remind your child not to use Fred Talk to read Red words but instead to stop and think. Tell them the word if needed.

In your child’s book bag, they will bring home:

3 new Dittys (similar to the ones they have read in class) to practise reading what they can already read.
   
So, to recap, what can you do to help at home?

1. Listen to your child read the Read Write Inc. Ditty again and again.
2. Encourage them to use ’Special Friends’, ‘Fred Talk’, ‘read the word’.
3. Practise reading the Speedy Sounds, Green words and any Red Words.
4. Discuss the story and encourage their storyteller voice.

Red Words for Dittys