EYFS Development Matters Note Sheets: Reception
Communication and Language
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• Understand how to listen carefully and why listening is important.
• Learn new vocabulary.
• Use new vocabulary through the day.
• Ask questions to find out more and to check they understand what has been
said to them.
• Articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed sentences.
• Connect one idea or action to another using a range of connectives.
• Describe events in some detail.
• Use talk to help work out problems and organise thinking and activities, and to
explain how things work and why they might happen.
• Develop social phrases.
• Engage in story times.
• Listen to and talk about stories to build familiarity and understanding.
• Retell the story, once they have developed a deep familiarity with the text, some as
exact repetition and some in their own words.
• Use new vocabulary in different contexts.
• Listen carefully to rhymes and songs, paying attention to how they sound.
• Learn rhymes, poems and songs.
• Engage in non-fiction books.
• Listen to and talk about selected non-fiction to develop a deep familiarity with
new knowledge and vocabulary.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• See themselves as a valuable individual.
• Build constructive and respectful relationships.
• Express their feelings and consider the feelings of others.
• Show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge.
• Identify and moderate their own feelings socially and emotionally.
• Think about the perspectives of others.
• Manage their own needs.
- personal hygiene
• Know and talk about the different factors that support their overall health and
wellbeing;
- regular physical activity - sensible amounts of ‘screen time’
- healthy eating - having a good sleep routine
- toothbrushing - being a safe pedestrian
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EYFS Development Matters Note Sheets: Reception
Physical Development
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• Revise and refine the fundamental movement skills they have already acquired:
- rolling
- crawling
- walking
- jumping
- running
- hopping
- skipping
- climbing
• Progress towards a more fluent style of moving, with developing control
and grace.
• Develop the overall body strength, co-ordination, balance and agility needed to
engage successfully with future physical education sessions and other physical
disciplines including dance, gymnastics, sport and swimming.
• Develop their small motor skills so that they can use a range of tools competently,
safely and confidently. Suggested tools: pencils for drawing and writing,
paintbrushes, scissors, knives, forks and spoons.
• Use their core muscle strength to achieve a good posture when sitting at a table
or sitting on the floor.
• Combine different movements with ease and fluency.
• Confidently and safely use a range of large and small apparatus indoors and
outside, alone and in a group.
• Develop overall body-strength, balance, co-ordination and agility.
• Further develop and refine a range of ball skills including: throwing, catching,
kicking, passing, batting, and aiming.
• Develop confidence, competence, precision and accuracy when engaging in
activities that involve a ball.
• Develop the foundations of a handwriting style which is fast, accurate and
efficient.
• Further develop the skills they need to manage the school day successfully:
- lining up and queuing
- mealtimes
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EYFS Development Matters Note Sheets: Reception
Literacy
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• Read individual letters by saying the sounds for them.
• Blend sounds into words, so that they can read short words made up of known
letter-sound correspondences.
• Read some letter groups that each represent one sound and say sounds for them.
• Read a few common exception words matched to the school’s phonic
programme.
• Read simple phrases and sentences made up of words with known letter–sound
correspondences and, where necessary, a few exception words.
• Re-read these books to build up their confidence in word reading, their fluency and
their understanding and enjoyment.
• Form lower-case and capital letters correctly.
• Spell words by identifying the sounds and then writing the sound with letter/s.
• Write short sentences with words with known letter-sound correspondences
using a capital letter and full stop.
• Re-read what they have written to check that it makes sense.
Mathematics
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• Count objects, actions and sounds.
• Subitise.
• Link the number symbol (numeral) with its cardinal number value.
• Count beyond ten.
• Compare numbers.
• Understand the ‘one more than/one less than’ relationship between
consecutive numbers.
• Explore the composition of numbers to 10.
• Automatically recall number bonds for numbers 0–5 and some to 10.
• Select, rotate and manipulate shapes to develop spatial reasoning skills.
• Compose and decompose shapes so that children recognise a shape can have
other shapes within it, just as numbers can.
• Continue, copy and create repeating patterns.
• Compare length, weight and capacity.
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EYFS Development Matters Note Sheets: Reception
Understanding the World
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• Talk about members of their immediate family and community.
• Name and describe people who are familiar to them.
• Comment on images of familiar situations in the past.
• Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past.
• Draw information from a simple map.
• Understand that some places are special to members of their community.
• Recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in
different ways.
• Recognise some similarities and differences between life in this country and life
in other countries.
• Explore the natural world around them.
• Describe what they see, hear and feel whilst outside.
• Recognise some environments that are different to the one in which they live.
• Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.
Expressive Arts and Design
Children in reception will be learning to: Notes:
• Explore, use and refine a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas
and feelings.
• Return to and build on their previous learning, refining ideas and developing their
ability to represent them.
• Create collaboratively, sharing ideas, resources and skills.
• Listen attentively, move to and talk about music, expressing their feelings and
responses.
• Watch and talk about dance and performance art, expressing their feelings and
responses.
• Sing in a group or on their own, increasingly matching the pitch and following
the melody.
• Develop storylines in their pretend play.
• Explore and engage in music making and dance, performing solo or in groups.
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