Welcome to the Butterflies!

Hello and welcome!

*Meet the Butterflies grown-ups*

The grown-ups in the Butterflies class are Miss Barkes and Mrs Rawlins. We love teaching the Butterflies and we are so proud of their achievements!

If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you! 

*Our Christian Value for the term*

Our Christian Value this term is ‘Respect.’

Our value for this term is Respect. Being respectful is one of the key ingredients to being the best person you can be. “Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.”

Respect is also one of our school rules (Ready, Respectful and Safe) and is a value we hold dear in school. The children learn to recognise respect in others, while also showing respect themselves.

“Respect other people's feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them.”  Roy T. Bennett.

They also learn the importance of showing respect to our belongings and to our environment. The children are developing their understanding of how we can respect our beautiful world and what we can further do as a school, as a Plastic Free School.

When it comes to climate change, “be the change you wish to be in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi.

 

*Our Learning for this term*

Autumn Term 1 2025

Hello and welcome to all our new families. We are so happy your child is starting their learning journey with us, and we look forward to sharing many happy memories with them over the year.

During Autumn term 1 will see the children introduced to the rules and routines of our school; from sharing a snack to learning to read. We will be focusing on a range of fantastic texts to develop their vocabulary and communication skills.

This term's focus is around starting school, understanding emotions and what to do with them. We will be looking at our families  and what makes us unique, while creating and exploring in our new environments.

We will finish the term with a celebration of Harvest by inviting you in to see this year's EYFS production of the Little Red Hen.

 

Phonics and Reading 

This term sees your child starting their reading and phonics journey. 

We will start phonics in week 3 of the term. 

By the end of the half term your child will have learnt the tricky words: the, is and I as well as all the following sounds:

All children will start on wordless books and will progress on to decodable books when their teacher feels they are ready. Wordless books are a crucial part of their learning journey aiding discussion, turn taking and understanding of vocabulary. We recommend you watch the following videos to help you support your child at home.

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/#tabnametabBooksComingHome 

 

Maths 

In Reception we use a scheme called Mastering Number which uses the Cbeebies series ‘Numberblocks’ to engage the children with Maths.

During this half term, they will practise the skill of subitising, initially up to three objects (recognising how many there are without having to count them), as well as practising counting objects accurately by placing them in a line and touching each one. They will also learn how small numbers are composed of other numbers, such as 3 being made of 2 and 1.

 

Developing key skills

An important part of school life is keeping our classroom tidy and respecting our toys.

Over the term, we’ll be learning where to put things back where they belong before we move onto another activity.The children will be taught the phrase “Choose it, use it and put it away”.

Listening skills

We’ll be listening to stories and engaging in lots of conversation about the term’s books and topics.

Being active and developing fine motor skills. 

We’ll be developing core strength through climbing, balancing, jumping, running, hopping and more.  All fun things you can do in your garden or local park!  We’ll be developing our fine motor skills through lots of cutting, threading, using pencils and funky finger activities. Why not try some at home too.

Being independent.

We’ll be developing our independence skills through having a go and trying to do small tasks without asking for help straight away. We will be encouraging and praising the children who try to wash hands, open or peel their own fruit, take on and off their coats, shoes and wellies independently.

How can you help at home:

Continue to develop your child’s life skills and independence with simple activities and games. Give lots of praise and positive reinforcement for doing things by themselves such as using a knife and folk or getting their shoes on ready for school.

Autumn Term 2 2025

This term we will continue to learn about autumn and will be talking about how to keep safe during bonfire celebrations. As we edge into the winter months, we will be reading lots of cosy Christmas stories, and will be putting on our very own Christmas play before the end of term.  We will be continuing to develop drawing and writing skills through our Drawing Club activities. Our key books this term are The Leaf Thief, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Stick Man, Owl Babies and The Christmas Story.

Maths

The children are now familiar with Mastering Number, the scheme we use to teach maths in Reception. This scheme uses The CBeebies characters from ‘Numberblocks’ to help young children engage with maths, and begin problem solving with number. This term they will be practising counting, ordinality and cardinality (knowing that the last number tells us ‘how many’, and will be continuing to count accurately using one-to-one correspondence. This term the children will also be learning about comparison, and how to work out whether groups of objects have ‘more’ or ‘fewer’ items. Mastering Number will also be covering the idea of composition: the concept that things are made up of parts to make a whole.  The children will be learning about this by seeing how their own bodies are made of parts, and by using familiar toys and numbers. Please keep a lookout for the Maths Scrapbooks, which are sent home fortnightly, for lots of maths fun!

Phonics and Reading

The children have learnt the following phonemes during the Autumn 1 term:  s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f l. They have been practising letter formation and writing CVC words, and have also learnt the tricky words the, I and is.   This term the children will continue to be introduced to Phase 2 phonemes, which are: ff ll ss j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng nk.  The children will also practise reading and writing words ending in s.  Our tricky words this term are: as and has his her go no to into she he of we me and be. The children will continue to bring a reading book home each week, which will start to have simple words and sentences in, as they begin to blend and segment words.  They will also choose a book from our library to bring home and share with their families. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Our school rules of being Ready, Respectful and Safe are now very familiar, and when involved in activities we ‘choose it, use it and put it away!’ This term we will be learning about the NSPCC character ‘Pantosaurus’, and how his catchy song can help to keep us safe. The children will be learning about keeping safe around bonfires and fireworks, and will have the opportunity to create their own bonfire safety posters. 

We have lots of creative opportunities for the children this term.  We will be exploring paint with different tools such as sticks, to see how these differ from familiar paintbrushes. We will be creating poppy images for Remembrance, using collage materials, paper and fabric. The children will continue to practise mark making techniques as they draw portrait pictures for their own calendar, as we head towards 2026! Our Creation Stations are available every day for the children to explore artistic techniques, and to express themselves using art and craft materials. They use a range of tools for fine motor development; something you may want to encourage at home, too! 

Teaching of Phonics - Pure Sounds