Willow - Reception 2025 - 2026

Welcome to Willow class        

We are 25 wonderful, bright and curious children and together we are Willow Class. Mrs Heath is our class teacher and we are very lucky to have support from Mrs Harper, Mrs Molyneux and Mr Blears. 

Throughout the year we will be having endless amounts of fun exploring, investigating and learning through play. Our curriculum is based around seven key areas which consist of  Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language, Literacy, Mathematics, Expressive Arts and Design and Understanding the World. At times, our learing can be messy but we LOVE that because it fosters curiosity and imagination, it develops our language and communication and it enhances our physical development. We ask that children bring in a puddlesuit and wellies that can be left in school so that they can truely immerse themself in the EYFS provision.

Happy New Year!! Ihope that you have all had a wonderful Christmas. The children have come back into school full of excitement and ready to get back into their learning. It has been lovely to hear all about their time off and their fun in the snow.

This half term we will be reading the text 'Little Red' by Bethan Woollvin. The beautiful story retells the story of Little Red Riding Hood but with a twist. The children will be using this text as a stimulus to create instructional writing and simple sentences in a typical traditional tale style. We will be sharing lots of other traditional tales too, investigating different characters and exploring vocabulary commonly used in fairy tales. 

In handwriting, we will be continuing with our big movements, improving our pencil grips and focusing on forming known letter sounds and numbers. In maths we will be learning all about the numbers of 5,6,7 and 8, focusing lots on the composition of number, number formation and subitising. We will also be delving into our history with our 'History of Me' topic. We will be exploring our family trees, learning about what makes us who we are and developing our understanding of the past. To help us showcase our creativity, we will be creating self portraits.  We will also be learning about Valentines Day, Shrove Tuesday and Lunar New Year - important dates in this terms calendar! 

The weather is VERY cold, but we still like to learn outdoors as much as possible. Please ensure that your child has a warm coat, hat, scarf, gloves and wellies in school at all times. 

Please keep referring back to the class website page or classdojo for updates and important announcements.

We love to hear about what Willow Class have been busy doing outside of the classroom. Please share these with us, along with any exciting home experiences or milestones.

Forest School

Forest school will take place every other week starting on Tuesday 5th January. This is a brilliant outdoor learning session that the children look forward to and enjoy - prepare for MUD! Children must come into school in their forest school clothing and bring their wellies/walking boots in a separate bag if they are not already in school.

P.E.

Our P.E. lessons take place every Friday morning. Please ensure that your child has their P.E. kit in school all week.

Helping your child at home

Reading: Please read regularly at home with your child and our school expectation is to read a minimum of 4 times weekly. Allow your child to listen to you read, as well as listening to them. 

Writing: Use lots of opportunities to write; shopping lists, cooking and baking, writing instructions. Any mark making is valuable to children forming letters.

Maths: When out and about look out for numbers on doors, packets, signs and clocks. At home count when you are laying the table, going upstairs and when playing games. Try making patterns using different natural items such as pine cones and leaves.

If at any point throughout the year you have anything you wish to speak to me about please do not hesitate to get in touch via ClassDojo.