Emmaville Primary School

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Newcastle Reception

Welcome to the Newcastle Reception Class Page.  Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this term.
Week Ending Friday 23rd January 2026
 
Our school is part of a National Programme with the charity, Voice 21.
Voice 21 supports schools in their Oracy journey.
The Importance of Oracy in Early Years:
Oracy, defined as the ability to articulate ideas and engage in effective communication, is crucial for children's development in the early years. It supports their ability to express themselves, build relationships, and make sense of the world around them. Research indicates that strong oracy skills in early childhood can lead to better academic and social outcomes later in life.
 
In Reception, we use age appropriate activities to build Oracy skills such as:
To speak audibly so they can be heard and understood.
To use talk in play to practise new vocabulary.
To join phrases with words such as ‘if’, ‘because’ ‘so’ ‘could’ ‘but’.
To ask questions. To wonder about ideas.
To describe events that have happened to them in detail.
To listen attentively in a pair or small group.
To take turns to speak with a partner independently.
 
Our Oracy activity on Thursday used mouth and ear props to support the children in their effective partner talk. The children were tasked with agreeing or disagreeing with statements about the The Three Little Pigs story, proving their point by using 'because' in the sentence.
Week Ending Friday 16th January 2026
 
This week in maths we have explored capacity - the amount a container can hold.
Using practical resources, we have explored the language of ‘full’, ‘half full’, ‘empty’, ‘nearly full’ and ‘nearly empty’.
We have also used the language of tall, thin, narrow, wide and shallow when comparing containers. We have encouraged the children to make direct comparisons by pouring from one container into another or count how many small pots fills a larger one.
Week Ending Friday 9th January 2026
 
On Friday we re-capped our knowledge of the Zones of Regulation and the different feelings that the four colours can represent.
 
We talked about what each feeling can look like and how it was useful to be able to be able to identify how people around us are feeling.
We played a game whereby the children had to identify how each of the characters were feeling and sort them into the correct colour 'Zone'.
We finished by making our own breathing stars which the children can as one of their own tools if they are ever feeling blue, red or yellow.