Welcome to Reception! (2025-26)

Welcome back, everyone! We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter break and had plenty of time to rest and play. We are very excited to begin our new half‑term together and to explore our next topic!

Our New Topic

This half-term, our learning will focus on ‘Animals and Living Things.’ We will be finding out about many different types of animals, including pets, minibeasts, and wild animals from around the world. We will also be learning about life cycles, such as how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly and how a tadpole grows into a frog. We are especially excited to look after our very own caterpillars in class and observe their transformation!

We will also be thinking about other living things in our environment, such as flowers, plants, and trees, and learning what they need to grow.

We look forward to welcoming some special animal visitors into the classroom too—keep an eye out for photos and updates!

Literacy

In Literacy, we will be enjoying a variety of fiction and non‑fiction books linked to our animal theme. The children will continue to practise writing simple sentences using their phonics knowledge, and we will be introducing lots of new vocabulary to help them talk about and describe animals and living things confidently.

In Phonics, we will be revisiting all the sounds we have learnt so far and using them to read and spell longer words and sentences.

How you can support at home:

Share animal-themed books—fiction or factual— and talk about the animals you see.
Play “Which sound can you hear?” by saying a word and asking your child to spot the first, middle, or final sound.
Encourage your child to write shopping lists, labels, or short sentences using phonics.
Practise reading together daily, even just for a few minutes.

Maths

This half‑term, we will be exploring numbers to 10 and beyond 10. The children will learn how to recognise, order, and represent these numbers using resources such as Numicon, ten frames, and Multilink cubes. We will continue practising number bonds to 5 and 10 and developing the children’s confidence with simple addition and subtraction using a range of strategies.

How you can support at home:

Look for numbers in the environment—on doors, buses, clocks—and talk about what comes before and after.
Use household objects (e.g., pasta, buttons) to make groups of numbers beyond 10.
Play simple addition and subtraction games using toys or snacks.
Practise number bonds with quick, fun games such as:
- “Make 5/10”: You hold some fingers up, your child shows the rest.
- “Number Hunt”: Hide numbers around the room for your child to find and order.