Elf Owls Reception
Are Minibeasts like me?
April 2026
Welcome back to Term 5 Elf Owls!
PE: Mondays taught by Mr Pearce
Dear Elf Owl Families,
We hope you all had a wonderful Easter break! We can’t believe we’re in the summer term already! The children have all done so well and made amazing progress. We look forward to sharing their learning with you in the second week of term at our Parents Evenings (Tuesday 21st/ Thursday 23rd April). The office will be sending a Parent Mail with details of how to book shortly.
Date for your diary!
We have booked a trip to Science Oxford on Tuesday 14th July. We will be travelling to and from school by coach and the trip will take place within the school. You can visit https://scienceoxford.com/ for more information. Further details to follow nearer the time.
Topic
The summer term is always a fun and exciting one with lots of opportunities for outdoor learning! Our topic this term is ‘Are minibeasts like me?’ We will be finding out about insects and small creatures, including a bug hunt in our school grounds and learning about animal life cycles. In R.E we will be asking ‘What is a church and who goes there?’ We will be learning about celebrations which take place inside a church, church leaders and churches around the world. In PSHE our focus is ‘Being my best’ and we will be looking at developing a healthy body and mind as well as bouncing back when things go wrong.
Monster Phonics
The first week of term will see us introduce the last of the graphemes for the Reception Year; ear and ure. The remainder of the school year will provide opportunities for the children to consolidate their learning so far and apply their phonic knowledge. They will be practising reading and writing words and sentences containing the letters, digraphs and trigraphs they have learnt so far, as well as continuing to build their sight vocabulary by reading high frequency words. Please see below for each weekly focus.
W.B. 13th April: Trigraphs: ear ure (as in hear and pure) High Frequency Words: day away play children
W.B. 20th April: CVCC words (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant words such as camp and land)
W.B. 27thth April: CCVC words (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant words such as trip and plot)
W.B. 4th May: CVCC and CCVC words High Frequency Words: here your saw
W.B. 11th May: CVCC and CCVC words High Frequency Words: here your saw
W.B. 18th May: CCVCC words (such as stamp and print)
Reading and Book Bags
Thank you for continuing to read with your child at home. Daily practise for up to ten minutes helps the children to consolidate what we learn in phonics. In school, we continue to read with the children both individually and in groups. We also enjoy reading and sharing books during story time. Our aim is to foster a love of reading as well as teaching the skills of decoding and comprehension.
Maths
We will start the term by reading, writing, ordering and becoming more comfortable with numbers to 20 and beyond. Following this, we will move on to addition and subtraction, which will include both practical work and recording of written equations. Next, we will move onto exploring shape and position, before finishing off with a big focus on sharing and grouping.
P.E Day and kit
Mr Pearce will teach Rugby in P.E this term on Mondays (starting Monday 13th April). Please send your child into school wearing their P.E kits each Monday, along with a sun hat and a water bottle.
Outdoor Learning and Kit
In Elf Owls, the children have access to the outside area throughout the teaching day. Please ensure they have the following in school at all times during the summer term:
A sun hat
Sun cream applied each morning (you can also send a labelled bottle of sun cream in, which we will support your child to apply before lunchtime, if you wish)
Water bottle
A set of waterproofs
Wellies
A change of old clothes (in case they get very wet/ muddy or have an accident).
We look forward to a brilliant term of learning ahead! As always, please do come and chat with us if you have any queries or concerns or email the school office and we will get in contact with you ASAP.
With our very best wishes,
The Elf Owl Team
Mrs Ray, Miss Taylor, Mrs Harris, Miss Sansom, Mrs Fairfax and Mrs Stevens
Please find below some useful Maths/ Phonics games websites which you may enjoy exploring with your child at home:
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
You may also wish to download the app White Rose Maths: 1 Minute Maths. This supports our school maths scheme.