St. Philip's Catholic Primary & Nursery School

Reception
In reception we always try to make our learning fun. We don’t like work sheets or endless pieces of boring white paper. We love to learn through play and be outdoors whenever possible.

Take this unexpected time with your child to play board games, read books together, have a picnic in your garden. Paint pictures, make junk models, bake a cake etc etc.

The most important thing is to not stress yourself or your children by trying to home school them.

If you want to ensure you are doing enough to keep your child occupied, developing and learning these are our ideals for every child every day in reception.

• Read at least 1 book. You can listen to audio books and encourage your children look at books independently as well.
• Have lots of conversations. Ask open questions who, what, why, where, when, how? Listen to your children’s ideas like they are the most wonderful thing you have ever heard. Sometimes they are!
• Play! You can be a princess, a flower, a spider, an astronaut or whatever your child wants you to be.
• Practical hands on maths. At home this could be when tidying up eg; how many cups go there? Playing a game, hopscotch, board games, noughts and crosses etc etc
• Art! Paint, draw, make, dance, sing. It doesn’t have to be a ‘thing’ you can make just to enjoy making. Outdoors too! A birds nest of grass or a castle of sticks and stones. Collect some Autumn Treasures to make a picture or display. Make up a song or dance be SILLY!
• Discover. What happens if you leave an ice cube outside? Look for signs of Autumn. Make toast, why has the bread changed colour/why does it feel different? Plant a bulb, what does it need to grow?
• Challenge! You know your child better than anyone. Let them do what they enjoy and still stretch them. If they want to write give them ideas. Can they write their name? Or make marks to represnt numbers. If they love to draw can they draw something different today? Can they count all the tins in the cupboard? How many left if we use 2 tins of beans today?
• Stay active. We do golden mile most days at school. Could you try Cosmic Kids Yoga at home www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga     Or dance, skip, throw and catch a ball or balloon.