HOLLYPARKPRIMARY SCHOOL

Reception Class Summer Term Newsletter

April 2013

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you had a restful Easter holiday and enjoyed spending time with your children. It’s finally getting slightly warmer and Spring looks like it’s finally on its way!

Some exciting news about Mrs Elia (if you didn’t know)…she had her baby girl on Sunday 3rd March. Mr and Mrs Elia named her Evangeline. Both Mum and baby are great. Miss Dogacan is covering Mrs Elia and the children are thoroughly enjoying having her in Palm Class.

The children are making good progress in their learning and we know they will continue to do so in the following months.

This is a quick update to what’s going on in Palm Class:

  • We will continue to consolidate the children’s knowledge of phonemes (letter sounds). This supports their developing reading and writing skills.
  • We are continuing to develop the children’s number recognition, addition and subtraction skills, 2D and 3D shape recognition and understanding of weight and capacity.
  • Our book focus is ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and we will base our learning around this. Our class production will also be ‘The Gingerbread Man’...more information to come!

Some polite reminders:

  • Please remember school starts at 8.55am. Our morning Carpet Session starts at 9.00am and if your child is late they miss out on vital learning.
  • We have noticed that it’s very crowded in the cloakroom at the start of the day. We now ask you to say goodbye to your child at the door. Letting them take off their own coat and put their lunch box away promotes independence and there are always members of staff to support your child if needed. In Year One you will have to leave your child in the playground so it is vital that we prepare the children now.
  • Parent consultations continue and all parents should have had at least one consultation since your child started in Reception. You will have another parent consultation soon. We have an open door policy in Palm Class and if you do need to speak to a member of staff about anything we are happy to do so at the end of the day.
  • We do PE on Thursday mornings and most of the children are able to get dressed by themselves. Please encourage your child to do this at home too, as again it promotes independence.
  • As it is getting warmer the children are taking their jumpers off and although we encourage them to put their clothes on their hooks often their jumpers and coats end up on the floor. Please label their clothing clearly so we can give the clothes back to the appropriate child.
  • Blue room has a shop which the children use to learn about money. They may have already talked to you about buying and selling things. Could we ask that when your child is in Blue room please contribute a loaf of bread, a pot of soft butter, a jar of jam or some soft fruit for your child and their friends to make sandwiches tobuy and sell. We also talk about healthy eating, and making sandwiches promotes fine motor skills.
  • Again we ask for a voluntary contribution of £5 for the term. This is very much appreciated as we buy play dough ingredients, corn flour, pasta, shaving foam, bubbles, jelly etc for the children to explore. We really appreciate any contributions that you can make. Alternatively, we would happily receive any donations of corn flour, shaving foam, baby bath, food colours, soap flakes, pasta, rice, lentils and bubble mixture.

We are looking forward to the following months with your children. From past experiences the children make fantastic progress in the weeks following the Easter holidays.

Thanks for your continuing support.

Mrs Walton, Miss Ploutarchou, Mrs Yiannaki, Mrs Casey, Miss Klanga, Miss Mountford and Miss Dogacan.

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I enclose a voluntary contribution of £______towards materials we use in class.