We have had a fantastic first month in Reception! The adults have been busy getting to know the children in the setting, and the children have been catching up with old friends and making new ones too. We have been learning lots of new routines over the last few weeks and the children are picking these up quite well.

We have spent the first few weeks covering the topic ‘All About Me’. Over the summer, the children were encouraged to add 5 special objects to a box to share with the class. The children have all been confident to talk about their special boxes in front of the whole class. We have really enjoyed getting to know more about everyone!

We painted our self-portraits as well. We used this as an opportunity to talk about ourselves, and to find similarities and differences between ourselves and others. We practised writing our names to place beside our pictures on a display. Have a look at it next week and see if you recognise any faces.

A new member of our class arrived just last week. Touky the toucan has flown all of the way from South America to be a part of our class this year. We read the story ‘Two Can Toucan’, which Oliver brought in to share. It tells the story of how toucans got their names. We then decided to learn some facts about toucans, and we made our own toucans in the creative area. You can find these toucans in the book corner. Each week Touky will choose a child to spend the weekend with. He really enjoyed his time with Zara last weekend, and has chosen to spend this weekend with Dylan.

Next week we will begin to teach phonics sounds, and children will receive their first reading book. The books will be changed on a Tuesday and a Friday.  Miss Tarrant and Mrs. Dunne are happy to answer any questions you might have about this.

Over the weekend

• Please can your child bring in some familiar print from the environment. This could be from a food packet, a photograph of the name of a familiar shop or a famous logo. This is to help make a display to support early reading.
• Please can your child bring in one of their favourite books to share in our class. These books will be shared within our story times. This book may stay in school for a couple of weeks as we share each one so please consider this before you send it in. These books will be shared with the whole class so picture books or non-fiction books are ideal. Please avoid long stories, annuals or books which involve games or colouring in pages as we will be sharing them during whole class story times.
• Some children have being going on nature walks with their families and then bringing in what they have found. We would love to make an autumn display. If you happen to go on a walk this weekend and find conkers, cones etc, please bring them in to add to our display.

Thank you for your support

Have a lovely weekend Toucan Class.