Great Dunmow

Reception

Welcome to Ash Tree class!

Our class teacher is Mrs Brace with Mrs Noble and Miss Moodie supporting our learning. 

Welcome to Fir Tree class!

Our class teacher is Miss Mitchell with Mrs Gray, Mrs Dack and Mrs Pearce  supporting our learning. 

Autumn 2022

We wish you all a very warm welcome to the school - and to Ash and Fir Tree Classes. We have been enjoying getting to know the children, who are settling with growing confidence, into their new learning environment. We have a fun and busy half term ahead of us and we will send out an update each term. We are looking forward to all the exciting activities and adventures in store!

Our topic this half term is Our world is a rainbow. In EYFS, we have termly over-arching themes and follow the children’s interests to develop weekly focuses within these.

Reading and Phonics

• We follow the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) phonics programme. This is a Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme which is designed to teach children how to read through the act of decoding and blending. It comprises of daily phonics lessons to teach children the link between the sounds of our language (phonemes) and the written representation of these sounds (graphemes), or the spellings of the sounds contained within the English language.

Writing

• We will listen to a variety of fun and stimulating stories, take part in role play and enjoy practical experiences to stimulate our creative ideas.
• We will be learning to form our letters and concentrate on holding our pencils correctly.
• We will practise writing our names.
• We will write letters in a variety of mediums e.g. sand, chalk and water.

Maths 

• We will match, sort and compare amounts.
• We will compare size, mass and capacity.
• We will explore pattern.
• We will represent, compare and explore composition of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
• We will be exploring circles and triangles.

General Information

The adults in Ash Tree Class are Mrs Brace and Miss Moodie. The adults in Fir Tree Class are Miss Mitchell, Mrs Gray, Mrs Dack and Mrs Pearce. Mrs Noble, Mrs Flynn, Mrs McDavitt and Mrs Fenty may be in class at different times throughout the week. Mrs Casey will teach Cookery.

P.E Days:

• Mondays
• Tuesdays

Reminders:

• Please label clearly all P.E kits, uniform, shoes, coats, bags etc.
• Please encourage your child to be independent in dressing themselves, so that changing for P.E is easier for them.
• Please ensure that your child brings in a bottle of water each day, not
• The school supplies a piece of fruit every day, but please feel free to provide a piece of fruit in a separate named container (not a lunchbox) for your child, if you wish. This will be eaten at morning break. Please ensure any snack or packed lunch is also nut-free, and grapes are cut in two lengthways. Please bear in mind we are a nut free school and have children in EYFS with severe nut allergies.

Support at home

Reading activities:

Daily reading is an important part of the children’s home learning; however, this does not have to mean sitting with your child whilst they read to you.  You could:

• Play Eye Spy
• Play ‘spot the word/letter’ in a favourite book or a newspaper.
• Use letter cards (or written on pieces of paper) to play snap, or pairs.
• Make up interesting stories with each other
• Write a shopping list
• Create silly sentences
• Snuggle up to enjoy a good bedtime story together

Maths activities:

You can play simple maths games with your child to practise key skills e.g.

• Counting stairs as you climb them, fruit or physical activities
• Weighing and comparing weights whilst cooking
• Spotting shapes and numbers in the environment

With thanks,

Mrs Brace and Miss Mitchell