Purple Mash

Dear Parents,

We are thrilled to inform you that your child has access to a fantastic range of online resources on Purple Mash.

Over the year, your child will be introduced to various activities on Purple Mash by their class teacher.

Through this they will learn to independently use the interactive whiteboard.

To explore these enriching materials, simply use your child's login, which you can find stuck inside their reading record. 

There are numerous engaging tasks linked to what we are covering in class. Scroll down to find out what we are learning this week.

Below there is also a parent guide from the Purple Mini Mash team - scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Happy exploring!

The Reception Team

PSED/RSHE Lesson 

In our RSHE/ PSED lesson (6.10.25) we discussed the NSPCC’s PANTS rules.

These are designed to teach pupils how to stay safe from sexual abuse, without giving explicit information or telling scary stories or even using the term “sexual abuse”. We will start the lesson by introducing the children to a character called Pantosaurus.

We  showed them this clip:

NSPCC Pantosaurus (2 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SzbMEVYiyg&t=120s

This is a film featuring NSPCC’s  friendly mascot Pantosaurus.

His catchy song covers the main points of PANTS and  introduce the topic to the children.

In the lesson, children will learn about the ‘PANTS’ acrostic, which stands for:

• Privates are private.
• Always remember your body belongs to you.
• No means no.
• Talk about secrets that upset you.
• Speak up, someone can help.

The lesson is fully age-appropriate.

The Talk PANTS campaign helps teachers and parents of 4-11 year-olds keep their children safe from abuse.

Like the Green Cross Code, it takes a potentially tricky subject and gives teachers and parents the tools to talk about it in an engaging and age-appropriate way.

Cooking & Gardening

We are proud to offer all pupils the opportunity to take part in cooking sessions during the school day. These sessions take place in the School House kitchen and are led by the class teacher.

Fresh ingredients from our school garden are used wherever possible, helping children learn about food, nutrition, and sustainability.

To support this programme, we ask for a voluntary annual contribution of £13.00, which covers the cost of additional ingredients for the full school year (September 2025 – July 2026).

• To contribute, please log into your MCAS account
• The fee can be found in the Clubs section and added to your basket

Your support helps us continue offering this valuable hands-on learning experience. Thank you!

Healthy Snacks

To help keep energy levels up and minds focused, we encourage pupils to bring a healthy snack for break time.

Great options include:

• Fresh fruit or vegetables
• Plain rice cakes or crackers
• A small pot of dried fruit
• Cheese cubes or yoghurt (in a cool pack)

Please do not send sweets, chocolate, crisps, or fizzy drinks. Let’s work together to support healthy habits and happy learning!

Capturing 'Wow moments' at home

We value contributions from parents/carers of moments of achievement that have happened outside of school.   If you observe your child achieving something new or wonderful, then let one of the Reception team know by sending in a photo with a note or just singing their praises.  The wow moments are stuck in your child’s learning journey and support assessments throughout the year.  Feel free to send in as many as you would like, parents/carers usually complete a page of wow moments each half term. 

Reading Books, Key Words, Home Learning and Book Bags

At Fielding, we follow the Read Write Inc programme.

The type of ‘book’ your child receives will depend on their phonics knowledge.

• Some children will focus on learning the sounds of the alphabet.

• Some children will receive a sound blending book to help develop their blending skills.

• Some children will receive a book called ‘My Phonics Book’. A letter will be sent home with information of how this works.

• Some children will receive a reading book.

In addition to this, your child will choose their own picture book.

Your child is not expected to read this book. This book is to be shared with an adult for enjoyment and to help develop a child's comprehension skills.

All books will be changed once a week.

Please make sure your child brings their book bag to school every day.

Help your child to get into this routine.

Inside their book bag please make sure that you always have:

• picture book
• reading book
• reading record

Please look through the reading record, there is lots of useful information inside.

Please sign the reading record every week and write a comment about how your child is progressing with their reading.

Book Bags

Book bags will be going home on Monday 22^nd September.

Your child must bring their book bag to school every day.

Please make sure that you always have the following inside your child’s book bag:

• picture book
• reading book
• reading record

When you collect your child at the end of the day, please check that your child has their book bag with them.

Home Learning

Home Learning is linked to our phonics lessons; It is sent home on a Friday.

Please help your child to do the activity at home.

Please keep the home learning at home, do not send it back to school, it is for you to keep at home.

If you have any further questions, please talk to your class teacher.

English

Handwriting:

w/c: 12.1.26 - l /  i  / t

w/c: 19.1.26 - h/ b /p 

Week commencing: 12.1.26 & 19.1.26

Over the next two weeks we will be reading the story of The Three Little Pigs.

We will start the week by presenting the children with some clues e.g. straw, sticks, bricks, pigs, wolf and ask them to guess the story.

We call this the ‘creative hook’, which we use to introduce the story and engage the children’s interest.

We will read the story, draw parts of the story and add some actions.

All of these elements will help the children to:

• internalise the story
• learn the key events in the story
• be able to sequence the story
• learn some key phrases

This will also support the development of their vocabulary and in turn their writing.

Everything is modelled by the teacher first.

Our method of teaching is:

I do – Teacher models

We do – Teacher and children do together

You do – Children have a go independently

In lessons we will:

• re-read the story
• re-tell the story
• choose sections of the story to write about

In writing sessions each child has a whiteboard and pen so that he/she can have a go at writing.

We use the strategies taught in our phonics lessons to help the children develop their writing skills.

When sounding out we remind the children to use their ‘Freddie Fingers’ to sound out a word.

Freddie is a frog we use in our phonics lessons to help the children to segment and blend.

In lessons we will discuss the vocabulary in the story and check the children’s understanding.

Throughout the week we will develop the children’s comprehension skills and give them opportunities to talk about the story, give their opinion, share their favourite  part of the story and ask questions.

In several of the Early Learning Goals (ELG) there is a mention of being able to discuss a story and incorporating new vocabulary into their own dialogue with their teachers and peers.

ELG: Communication and Language – Listening, Attention & Understanding:

• Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions.
• Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding.
• Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers.

ELG: Communication and Language – Speaking:

• Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary.
• Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate.

ELG: Literacy – Comprehension:

• Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary.
• Anticipate (where appropriate) key events in stories.
• Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, nonfiction, rhymes and poems and during role play.

ELG: Expressive Arts and Design  – Being Imaginative and Expressive

• Invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher.

Towards the end of the week, once the children are really familiar with the story, we will move to the innovation stage.

Here we will ‘innovate the text’, with the children. This means we will change small details in the story.

For example, instead of the three little pigs, the characters could change to the three big crocodiles or the three little unicorns.

Or we could change the materials in the story, so instead of straw, sticks and bricks we could have cotton wool, glass and concrete.

Children will enjoy making substitutes and making the stories their own.

At first we will limit the number of changes they can make and steer the children to changing the characters or materials.

Once the children are more confident, they will naturally make more changes and thereby develop their own story telling skills which can then be transferred when making up their own story.

Supporting your child at home: 

Read a range of fairy tales and traditional tales so children build their knowledge and familiarity with these well-known stories.

Discuss the stories and remember to model answers for your child.

For example:

The characters in the story are    ………

The story setting is  …………

My favourite part of the story is    …….

I would change   …………

Try making substitutes for elements of a story your child knows well.

Remember to start small!

It is important to stick to a story your child likes and knows well.

This will allow them to strengthen and develop new skills.

Next week in English:

We will be reading the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Maths

Week commencing:  19.1.26

This week in maths we will be learning about 'one less'.

Following on from learning about more and less in our comparison lessons, the children will focus on finding 'one less' than a number.

In class we will use practical objects to take one away from sets of objects and see how the amount changes.

We will look at number lines to show children that 'one less' is the same as the number before on the number line, the same as when we are counting backwards.

We will make these concepts explicit to the children so that they are able to predict what 'one less' than a number is.

Some children will be able to do this without the support of a number line and use their knowledge of the number system to say what is 'one less' than a given number.

In class we will be using the story ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browns  to support the concept of 'one less’, as the animals take the fruit from her basket as she goes to visit her friend Akeyo.

We will also use Five Frames, that the children are familiar with, to say what is one less than what is shown on the Five Frame. 

We will be modelling and encouraging the children to say:

 'One less than ........ is ......'

Being able to use this language will develop the children’s mathematical vocabulary.

E.g.  One less than 4 is 3.

Supporting your child at home:

Supporting your child at home:

Make a set with your child, take away one and ask your child to predict how many objects are in the set.

After making their prediction, your child can then check if they are correct by counting the set.

At this point check that your child is counting accurately, as the amount gets bigger, children's one to one counting is not always as secure or consistent. Children also usually find subtracting trickier than addition.

Remind your child to line up the objects, move them from one side to the other as they count. This helps them to be systematic and organised, and therefore less likely to count an object twice.

Roll a dice and ask your child to say what is 'one less' than is shown on the dice or playing card.

Look for numbers around your home, ask your child 'what is one less than ....?'

When you are out an about look for numbers in the environment e.g. bus numbers, door numbers, number plates and ask your child to say what is 'one less' than the number shown.

Your child may need a number line or number square to support them, some children will have worked out that it is simply the number before in the counting sequence.

If your child hasn't grasped this yet, do not worry, work with numbers up to 5 and then 10 until they are more confident.

Next week in maths:

We will be learning about 2D and 3D shapes.

Parent workshops 

Thank you to the parents who were able to attend the curriculum workshops during this term. We have linked the training materials below.