Reception

Spring 1 2026

Our topic this half term is 'Zoo Animals'

🎉 Welcome back and Happy New Year! 🎉
We hope you all had a lovely and restful break ❄️✨ and are feeling ready for the exciting term ahead.

As we return to school after the holidays, we’ll be helping the children settle back into routines 🔁, rebuild confidence 💛, and feel happy and comfortable being back in the classroom 🏫. Our focus will be on making sure everyone feels secure, settled, and ready to learn 📚😊.

Our new topic this half term is Zoo Animals 🦁🐘. The children will be learning all about wild animals, including the different animals you might find at a zoo and the wide variety of zoos found across our country 🌍 and around the world. We’ll explore how animals can be grouped into categories such as mammals, fish 🐟, amphibians 🐸, reptiles 🦎, insects 🐞, and birds 🐦. During our topic, we’ll also be learning about why animals live in zoos and where they can be found in the wild 🌿. The children will enjoy getting creative by designing and building their own zoos 🧱🎨 for the animals in our classroom.

In English ✏️📖, our key text will be Silly Doggy. The children will be creating their own story maps 🗺️ and actions 🤸 to help them retell the story of Lily and the very large dog she discovers in her garden 🐕🌸.

In Maths 🔢, we will continue developing our understanding of numbers to 5, including zero. The children will learn about one more and one less ➕➖, using simple stories to support problem-solving 🧠. Later in the term, we will move on to numbers up to 10 and explore pairs and doubles 👯‍♂️✨.

We will also be learning about the New Year 🎆, setting goals 🎯, and developing resilience by learning not to give up 💪. In addition, we’ll be celebrating Chinese New Year 2026 🧧🎊, welcoming the Year of the Horse 🐎.

🏃‍♀️ PE will take place on Thursdays. Please ensure that all items of uniform are clearly labelled 🏷️. Items can sometimes go missing, and labels help us return them to the correct child quickly 👕🧦.

To support your child at home 🏡, we encourage you to read with them as often as possible—just a few minutes each day makes a big difference 📚💫. Phonics videos will be shared via Class Dojo 💻, which your child can watch at home. Each video lasts around seven minutes ⏱️ and follows the same format as our phonics lessons in school.

This term, we will begin sending homework home ✉️. These will be short, simple tasks designed to support your child’s learning. We kindly ask that you help your child complete their homework and return it to school 🖍️📄. More information will be shared nearer the time.

Thank you for your continued support 🤝. If you have any questions, please feel free to message us on Class Dojo 💬 or speak to us after school 😊.

Kind regards,
Mrs Weilding and Mrs Brown 👩‍🏫👩‍🏫

Reception Knowledge Organisers

Phonics

Phonics is the foundation for children beginning their reading journey. In Reception we follow the scheme created by Read Write Inc. Through Read Write Inc children can build on letter formation while learning to read.

I will post links below for each of the letter sounds for the new school year. These links do expire after a few weeks, so if you need further access, please message me on Class Dojo!