Year R - Owl Class ​​

Welcome to Owl Class

Class Teacher: Mrs Peachey-Smith

Teaching Assistant: Miss Esson,

We also have a wonderful team of support staff who will be working with your children: Miss Oliver, Mrs Woods, Mrs Walsh and Miss Sharp.

 

                                    🍂 Autumn 2 Learning Journey in Reception

Welcome to our exciting Autumn 2 term! This term we’ll be exploring seasonal changes, wonderful stories, early phonics, and early number mastery. Our learning will be playful, hands-on and full of creativity as we build confidence, curiosity and kindness.

                                                         📚 Our Focus Stories

Each week we’ll dive into a different book to inspire our learning:

1. Hello Autumn – exploring the signs of the new season
2. Leaf Man – using nature to spark imagination
3. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – adventure and storytelling
4. Whatever Next! – a journey to space!
5. Eight Nights, Eight Lights – celebrating Hanukkah and learning about different traditions
6. Father Christmas Needs a Wee – festive fun with counting and number!

                                   Phonics – Twinkl Level 2

This term we’re following the Twinkl Phonics Level 2 scheme.
Children will learn new sounds (grapheme, phoneme correspondences) and practise blending sounds to read simple words. We’ll also begin to recognise a few tricky words (words that can’t be sounded out easily, like the and go).

Here’s our sound focus by week:

Week 1: s, a, t, p

Week 2: i, n, m, d

Week 3: g, o, c, k

Week 4: ck, e, u, r

Week 6: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

Revision and tricky words (I, no, go, to, the)

You can support your child by spotting these letters in books, signs, or food packets and practising simple words like sat, pin and dog.

                                            🔢 Mastering Number – NCETM Weeks 5–10

We are following the Mastering Number programme to develop a strong sense of number, pattern, and comparison. Each week builds children’s understanding of counting, order, and how numbers are made up of parts and wholes.

Weekly Focuses: 

Week 1: Comparing groups – “more”, “fewer”, “equal”

Week 2: Counting 1–5 and exploring the ‘five-ness’ of five

Week 3 : Matching and making equal sets

Week 4: Whole and part – exploring how numbers are made

Week 5: Making 5 in different ways (e.g. 2+3, 4+1)

Week 6: Counting beyond 5, linking number and order 

You can help at home by:

• Counting everyday items (stairs, toys, apples)
• Talking about “more than” and “fewer than”
• Playing number games or matching objects to numerals

                                           🤝 Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This term we’re learning to:

• Include others in play and take turns
• Use kind words and actions
• Understand that everyone is different
• Talk about celebrations that are special to us and our families

                                             🎨 Creative and Understanding the World

Children will:

• Recreate roles from stories in play
• Explore autumn materials and sensory play
• Learn about Hanukkah and Christmas traditions
• Talk about siginificant events in their own experience
• Perform songs and rhymes with others

                                                                🧺 Tuff Tray Play

Each week our tuff tray will be themed to our book and learning focus.
For example:

• Autumn leaves and conkers for sorting and comparing
• A muddy “Bear Hunt” tray for storytelling
• Moon sand and foil rocks for “Whatever Next!”
• Hanukkah candles and coins for counting
• Christmas gifts for number matching

                       

Forest School -Monday

 

 Your child will need to come to school in their Forest School kit for these sessions, with their school uniform in their bag to change into. Please provide them with old clothes, water proofs and some wellington boots or snow boots. With the weather changing, please ensure your child has clothes that are warm and waterproof, because the weather is always unpredictable. 

P.E. - Friday

 Please make sure that your child wears their P.E. kit to school Friday mornings. This should include shorts, a t-shirt and plimsolls/trainers. They are able to wear their P.E. kits for the rest of the day.

How you can help at home

• Read with your child at least three times a week. Every week on Friday, your child's books will be changed. Please sign the reading record so that you can let us know how they are getting on with their reading at home and so that we can keep track of what books have been read. 
• Practise the phonic sounds we have been learning in class.
• Talk to them about school routines, such as putting their things in their lockers, lunch times, eating, register and tidying up.
• Use the curriculum newsletter to discuss their current learning and encourage them to incorporate what they have been learning into their everyday routines. 
• Explore their interests through play.

Thank you for your support. If you ever have any concerns or questions then please don't hesitate to contact me. I am at the classroom door before and after school or alternatively, you can email me on ClassDojo.

The Term 1 knowledge organiser below provides information on our learning enquiry for this term. 

Please click here to access extra phonics, reading and spelling resources.

Please click here to access links to other useful home learning resources published online.

If you are unsure of any log in details please contact the teacher through Class Dojo or email office@pilgrims-way.kent.sch.uk