Learning in Reception

In Reception, our learning revolves around play and children will be given the opportunity to explore and investigate learning with independence.  As part of our continuous provision, the children are given set times throughout the day when they can independently choose which areas they would like to learn in: both classrooms, shared area or outdoor learning environment.  Continuous provision enables children to explore recent learning, practice new skills, and follow their own interests in a variety of different hands-on and practical ways.

Each half-term we have a new exciting and child-friendly topic which we link our learning to.  Some examples of these are ‘Lets Pretend’, Once Upon a Time’ and ‘Superheroes’.

Profiles
As your child develops and learns, they will start to use their knowledge and skills in a variety of contexts.  We would like you to contribute to your child’s Profile and working document, by telling us when your child does something that makes you say “Wow!”  This can be anything from using new vocabulary, sharing some new learning or information, holding a pencil correctly, writing, learning how to skip; anything which shows an achievement.

Autumn 1 – Marvellous me

This topic is all about children’s individual interests, themselves and their families. Children will talk about who is in their family and who lives in their house. It also can include links to their home and local area – such as favourite places to go (e.g. the park) and things to do. It can also link to stories with families like the main characters (such as Bear Hunt or Five Minutes' Peace) or stories where the setting is a home (e.g. Goldilocks – if not covered in nursery). It will also draw upon children’s favourite things such as teddy bears as well as characters from books, TV and film.

Autumn 2 – Celebrations

This topic is all about special celebrations, including both religious ones (Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah) and cultural/national ones (Guy Fawkes Night, Remembrance Sunday, Jeans for Genes, Children in Need, Anti-Bullying and Road Safety).

Celebrations are an important part of human life. They are one of the things that make us uniquely human. All peoples and cultures, from every part of the world, take part in and hold celebrations to mark special events and special times in someone’s life.

Spring 1 – Space

This topic is all about space and includes coverage of factual information such as names and features of planets as well as fantasy elements such as Aliens! This topic is a great chance to use non-fiction sources such as books and the internet to find out more information. The suggested planning for this topic starts by including using Google Earth and video PowerPoints to visit a new planet each day – role play flying in the rocket and finding out more information and this links well to creating a fact booklet.

Spring 2 -Traditional Tales

This topic is all about Traditional Tales and focusses on the repetitive pattern of problem, problem, solution.  Children need to begin to know these stories by heart in order to retell them and begin to adapt them. Ideally, each story should be done over two weeks – with the second week used to innovate the story, such as the Runaway Chapati or Pizza! Emersion in the story (such as tasting gingerbread) is key, along with a focus on vocabulary.

Summer 1 – Fantastic creatures

The planning for this topic focusses on fantasy creatures such as Dragons and The Gruffalo! There is scope to cover real animals too – but coverage of habitats of these animals happens in year one.

Children’s interests in this area can also be explored through creatures such as mermaids, monsters and unicorns.

Summer 2 – Superheroes

This topic is full of exciting ideas! Starting off with the book Super Tato, there are lots of opportunities in this topic to write in different formats and for different purposes. It develops children’s understanding of villainy and injustice being defeated by courage (and sometimes superpowers!)