Welcome to our Class Page
Friday 14th July
We can’t quite believe that we are coming up to the end of the year in Reception, we’ve had such an incredible year and the learning has continued to blow us away!
This week we have been doing some amazing things in Literacy! Last week, we created our story mountains for our own imaginative stories. This week we used our story mountains as a plan for our big writes. The children were challenged with writing a section of their story, and could choose to write about the beginning, middle or end of their stories. We modelled to the children how we can start our writing using a super sentence starter such as One day, Once upon a time or One dark night. The children were very excited to write their stories and we were absolutely bowled over with what they wrote. Many of the children are now much more consistent in using capital letters at the start, finger spaces and full stops. Their phonics is simply fantastic and ideas, inspired by the stories they have read were simply wonderful!
In maths this week we have been recapping on all things number such as counting on or back from any given number, creating addition and subtraction number sentences and making number bond pairs. Many of the children have been excited to count up in 2s 5s and 10s too, we’ve been playing maths games on the board, practicing our turn taking and writing numbers on big paper, sharing with our friends.
As you know this week was supposed to be beep beep day, however due to the rain, this simply wasn’t possible. We are hoping to do it next Wednesday and are praying for sun.
Next week will be our final week in Reception. This will be a great time for the children to play with their friends, prepare for the year ahead and have lots of party games, making wonderful memories together. As I write this blog, the children are having their move up morning in year one and when we went passed to check on them, they all looked so happy, ready and grown up with their new teachers in their new class. They will all be incredible next year!
Friday 7th July
We’ve had another action-packed week in Reception this week including a local walk!
On Monday we walked to St James church to find out more about what Christian churches are like. Together we walked to the church, which is close to our school. Once we arrived we were greeted by Reverend Mark, who showed us around the church and told us all about its history and purpose. He showed us parts of the church including the pews, aisle, bells, font and alter. We then had the opportunity to explore the church ourselves. We really enjoyed looking at the bible, peering inside the font and looking at the different areas of the church. We listened to a story from the bible and sang a song too. Reverend Mark was really impressed with all of our RE knowledge.
When we got back from the church, we looked at photographs from our visit and painted pictures of the church on the outside. Lots of the children were able to include the church’s spire and cross. They enjoyed using the water colour paints to create stained glass windows too.
In Literacy this week we have been using our core text ‘Kaya’s Heart Song’ to think about the structure of stories. As a class, we used a story mountain template to map out the start of the story. The children helped to explain what happens at different points of the story and suggested pictures and words we could use to illustrate this. They then all had a go at producing their own story mountains for Kaya’s Heart Song, using their knowledge and understanding of the story’s beginning, middle and end. Towards the end of the week, we started thinking about ideas for our own stories, which we will plan and map out together.
In maths this week our focus has been on counting in different ways. Many of us are now confident in counting up to 20 and are aware of some patterns within numbers to. This week we used songs to practice counting in 2s, 5s and 0s. We also practiced counting backwards or from a number other than 1. We’ve also been using number lines and 100 squares to look at the patterns we can make when we count up in 2s, 5s or 10s, which has been really interesting!
Next week marks our final 2 weeks in Reception, so we will be doing lots more learning about what it might be like in Year One, thinking of questions we would like to ask and reflecting on what we’ve enjoyed the most this year.
Friday 30th June
We’ve had an action packed week in Reception this week as it has been Enrichment week at school! The focus this week has been environment and so we have been looking at features of our environments and comparing them to others in Africa. Here’s what we’ve been up to.
Monday:
On Monday we spoke about the different types of birds we find in England, we read facts about birds such as owls, robins and bluetits and discussed what they eat and how they live. The children were introduced to vocabulary such as nocturnal, herbivore and carnivore. Such great learning! We then each made our own bird feeder for our forest school area. The children helped to mix seeds, cereals, fruit peel and dried fruits to make a heart bird mixture. They then made their own bird feeder, which we will hang in the forest area later in the week.
Tuesday:
On Tuesday we had 2 special treats…. A special water play morning, where we had lots of fun splashing and squirting each other. We even had a very slippery slip and slide, which was so much fun! In the afternoon we had a special movie and snack afternoon. Together we watched Ice Age and the children all had popcorn and ice cream as a special summer treat from the teachers.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday we started the day continuing our learning about Africa. The children then had the chance to try some African foods including a flat bread and pastry. They were all very brave and had a try, which made us so proud. We are getting brilliant now at giving our opinions and understand that everyone is different. We read the story Handa’s surprise and then had a go at making our own fruit skewers using tropical fruits from the story such as banana, melon, mango and kiwi fruit.
Thursday:
We have all been so excited for sports day and have found chunks of time throughout the week to practice races such as the obstacle race and the egg and spoon race. Many of the children have shown real resilience and a can-do attitude in all of their sports, which has been fantastic to see! As well as our amazing races on sports day we had some other fantastic activities lined up including a visit from some Dinosaur experts, a yoga session and a basket ball game. The children were even treated to an ice pop to cool down after all of the events.
Friday:
On Friday, we set the children of on a special mathematical hunt. Working in pairs, the children had to search for hidden number sentences that were dotted around all over the outdoor area. They had to solve each number sentence and then write down the answer. At the end of the hunt, the children had to convert their numbers into letters to spell out a word. This was a real challenge and really fun too, the children were able to show us their super math skills and run all over the field at the same time. We also got the chance to hang our bird feeders out in the outdoor area. We were so proud of them and can’t wait to see what birds come to feed on them.
Friday 23rd June
This week in Reception we have been learning lots about different countries! In literacy we found out that our story ‘Kaya’s Heart Song’ is set in Malaysia. Together we looked at where Malaysia is on a map, it is really far away from the UK! We looked at what the weather is like there as well as other elements including people, houses, religion, animals and food. We then looked at another story, which is set in a different country. Our story was called ‘Anna Hibiscus Song.’ The children understood that this book is set in Africa and together we looked at what Africa is like. Many of the children were then able to work together to explain the similarities and differences between the stories and had some excellent ideas.
Our maths focus this week has been practicing our addition and subtraction number sentences, taking care to look out for which symbol has been used + or – ? The children are now very able to select the resources they need, count in their heads, or on their fingers to solve the problems. We spoke about how when we subtract numbers they get smaller and when we add numbers together they get bigger. We’ve also been focusing on trying to make sure our numbers are the correct way around, using a number line to help us.
In RE this term we are exploring Christian churches and what we find inside them. This week we looked at lots of pictures of different Christian churches and spoke about what people do in them. Many of the children were able to explain that Christian people use churches to: pray, get married, have christenings, listen to bible stories and celebrate festivals such as Easter or Christmas. Lots of the children were excited to share their knowledge and recall when they have been to a church for different reasons. The children are fantastic now at explaining that not all people go to church and some people of different religions, have different buildings they use for similar events.
We are gearing up for Sports day next week, with the children squeezing in lots of practice at running, jumping, throwing and catching. They are all very excited for the event and we are sure you will be very proud of them all.
Next week is enrichment week and so we will be exploring lots of new and exciting things with a focus of ‘The environment’ at the heart of everything we do.
Friday 16th June
This week in Reception has been a hot one! Please remember that children can bring in hats, sun glasses and apply their own sun cream with adult supervision. We will be encouraging children to drink as much water as possible and remind them to stay in the shade when possible.
In Reception this week we have been learning all about instructions. After making our rain shakers last week and thinking about how instructions show us what to do, this week we all made our own jam sandwiches and then created instructions for how to do this process. The children really, really enjoyed making their sandwiches and enjoyed eating them even more. They were so fantastic at following the simple steps and could give their opinion at the end as to whether they enjoyed their sandwich or not. The very next day, we modelled to the children how we can write instructions using sentence starters such as first, then, next, after that and finally. They all tried very hard at sounding out words such as sandwiches, spread and butter and were rather proud of their writing when they finished.
In maths this week we have been consolidating our addition and subtraction skills. Many of the children are now rather confident at solving addition and subtraction number sentences and lots of them are able to write their own. For some of us we need to keep practicing our number formation and make sure we look carefully at the symbols so we know whether we need to add or take away. We’ve also been looking at counting beyond 20 and finding the missing numbers. Some children are able to use their number knowledge to say which number is missing beyond 20, which is a fantastic skill.
In oracy this week we have been discussing how we keep safe at school and outside of school. The children are great at understanding how we keep safe and why and many children could explain who they can go to if they have a problem or a worry. We have also been talking about keeping safe online and what to do if something pops up, which they know isn’t suitable for their age. Many of the children know that they must tell an adult immediately and not simply close the laptop or not tell an adult. Such great ideas for keeping safe!
It’s been wonderful to be outside this week and we have been using our outdoor classroom as much as possible. The children love exploring the different areas including our sand and water areas, construction zone, reading garden, active area and maths and writing sheds. Lots of the children are able to play nicely with their friends, taking turns and sharing ideas. We’ve had some wonderful role play and construction ideas going on outside and love it when children make links with their learning in the classroom to the outdoor possibilities too.
We’ve also been busy making fathers day cards this week, ready for the big day on Sunday. All of the children were very eager to make their cards and write their messages. We hope all of the daddies and grandpas have a relaxing day with their loved ones.
Friday 9th June
Welcome back, we hope you had a restful half-term break and enjoyed helping your child to grow their cress. Thank you for sending in your photos, we always love to see the learning you get up to at home.
The children were delighted to return to school on Monday and looked very happy to be back in their uniforms and playing with their friends.
This week in maths we are focusing on our number skills. We have been doing lots of practice linked to doubling and halving, skills the children have been taught throughout the year and are now becoming much more confident in. Together we have been problem-solving using doubling and halving. The children have been working with their learning partners to read the questions and then work out the answer, using their fingers, objects or number knowledge. Many of the children are able to now say what half of a number is such as 6, 8 or 10 and can say which number can be made by doubling a number such as 3, 5 or 10. We’ve also been looking at the number bonds to 10 and representing these in different ways. We’ve been learning rhymes to remember what pairs of numbers are ‘friends’ and make the number 10. I wonder if your child can tell you some?
In literacy this week, we’ve started our new core text ‘Kaya’s Heart Song’ By Diwan Tharan Sanders. This is a story set in the jungles of Malaysia and follows the journey of a little girl called Kaya, who is searching for her heart song. Together we read the story and spoke about where the story might be set and what a heart song might be. Together we then made our own musical instruments (A rain shaker) to make music similar to the sounds we heard in the story. The children helped to make their shakers using cardboard tubes, coloured paper and grains for shaking. They loved shaking their shakers and can’t wait to bring them home.
In phonics, we are continuing to practice our phase 4 sounds reading and writing words containing multiple sounds and having a go at reading and writing sentences which contain many of our harder-to-read and spell words such as: the, go, was and no.
In RE this term we will be focusing on Christian Churches and the features of these special places. This week we thought about our own special places and shared with our friends what we considered to be our special place and why. The children had some fantastic ideas from special holidays, to their bedrooms, restaurants and family homes. We then had a go at drawing our special places and adding a sentence to explain why they are so special to us. Later in the term we will be visiting our local church and finding out more about what is inside them and why.
As always we listen to the children to read each day with their reading books, through whole class stories and through reading activities in Phonics. We are really impressed with the children’s progress and look forward to rewarding our regular reader of the week each Friday.
Friday 26th May
In Reception this week we have been using all of our knowledge and story language that we have learnt from reading and performing Farmer Duck to create our own story writing. The children each selected a picture they liked the most from the story and then had a go at writing a sentence using their story ideas. We had lots of lovely sentences using phrases such as ‘How goes the work?!’ and ‘ The poor duck was sleepy and weepy and tired!.’ The children used their phonics to sound out their words and are getting better and better at remembering writing skills such as finger spaces, full stops and capital letters.
In maths this week we’ve been solving word problems linked to addition and subtraction. As a class we’ve been reading problems such as: Sam has three apples and eats 1, how many does he have left? The children have then had to use their number knowledge to solve the problem and write the number sentence, what a challenge! We’ve been using our cool concentration and having a really good go!
Our in-class caterpillars recently transformed into butterflies and this week we took them out into the forest school to be released into nature. Many of the children are now brilliant at describing the lifecycle of a butterfly and have really enjoyed monitoring the changes over time at school this term. We have also been doing some planting this week as we’ve been looking at the lifecycle of a seed. The children all had the opportunity to plant their own cress seeds, which they will get to bring home and monitor over the holiday.
In RE this week, we’ve been finishing of our topic about the creation story. In groups, the children worked together to create a painting, drawing or collage of a day from the creation story, they look fantastic and will go on our RE display for all to see!
We hope that you have a wonderful half term break.
Please can we ask for trainers to be brought in for PE next term as we will be doing athletics on the field and they will be better than plimsoles. A reminder also that if you have a spare toilet/kitchen roll, please send them in on the first day back.
Thanks
The Reception Team!
Friday 12th May
Wow, what an action-packed week we’ve had this week, as again we’ve had to squeeze everything into a 4 day week because of the bank holiday. The children were very excited to return to school on Tuesday with stories about their Coronation weekend. It sounds like lots of you had a lot of fun and enjoyed time with family and lots of lovely food.
In phonics this week we have been continuing to practice reading and writing phase 4 words and sentences. These are often words that contain 4 letter sounds such as plug, flag and sniff. The children have been wonderful at really listening out for the sounds within their words for segmenting and blending. In literacy, we introduced the children to non-fiction texts and together we looked at the features of this kind of book. Many of the children understand that a non-fiction book contains information and is not a story. We noticed that often the front cover contains photographs rather than a drawing or illustration too. Next week we will continue to learn about information texts and will be writing our own about farm animals.
In maths this week the children were introduced to the concept of ‘estimation’ which we explained is when we make a really good guess about something linked to numbers, for example, how many sweets in the jar? How many steps to the pirate ship? Or how many star jumps can you do in 30 seconds? Together we had a go at estimating different items and the children showed good understanding of the need to make a sensible guess and not a silly one.
In RE this week we’ve continued to learn about the bible story of creation. Together we have been learning what Christian’s believe God created over 7 days. As a class we have been creating actions for the different days of creation to help us remember the order.
Throughout the rest of the week we have been busy practicing our Wow assembly, which we will be performing for you next Tuesday (15th May) at 9:20am. Almost all of the children now know their lines and are getting better at knowing what to say and do. We can’t wait to show you next week. In addition, we’ve been very interested in the developments with our caterpillars this week as they have now begun to create their chrysalis’ and will soon become butterflies. In class we’ve been continuing to learn about life cycles and this week with a partner we drew our own life cycle of a butterfly.
Next week is Walk to School Week and each day we will be tallying up the number of children who have made it to school on foot (and scooter or bike!). At the end of the week we will hopefully all know a little more about the benefits of walking and the impact it has on both our bodies and the environment. Have a lovely weekend!
Friday 5th May
We’ve had a jam-packed week of learning in Reception this week due to the bank holiday. The children are also really excited about this weekend and the Coronation as we’ve been learning lots about the King and the upcoming celebrations.
We’ve had a real focus on maths this week, looking specifically at measure. Together we thought about what measure is, when we use it and what we might measure. We introduced the children to mathematical language such as: weight, capacity, length and height and looked at the different tools we can use to measure such as weighing scales, jugs, meter sticks and rulers. Throughout the week, the children have then had lots of opportunities to explore measure in both the indoor and outdoor classrooms. Drawing around each other in chalk then measuring their silhouettes, pouring water to fill the different sized containers and flying paper aeroplanes to see what distance they could achieve, we’ve had so much fun with measure.
In Phonics we have begun phase 4. This means that the children are learning new, more difficult to read and spell words such as when, what and there. We are also using all of our existing phase 2 and 3 knowledge to read and write words and sentences.
Our caterpillars are growing by the day and the children have been excited to see them in their habitat. We’ve heard some wonderful observations being made and we are all really looking forward to seeing the caterpillars cocoon themselves in their chrysalises very soon.
In RE we have been looking at ‘The Creation Story.’ And talking about why it is special to Christians. The children now have a good understanding about Christian beliefs and the Bible. Together we read the creation story and created a map of what was created over the seven days. Some of the children noticed that God didn’t create things such as cars, houses or clothes in the creation story, which was very interesting indeed!
We’ve been busy preparing for our WOW assembly, which will take place in a couple of weeks. The children have been doing a fab job of learning our new songs and actions, as well as listening beautifully during our rehearsals, we can’t wait to perform for all of the grown ups.
We hope that you have a wonderful Coronation bank holiday. If you get up to anything fun and regal, do send us a photo on Dojo so we can share it with the class next week. As we have sent lines home to practice for the assembly, there will be no homework this week, we just ask for you to practice your line/s with your child if they have one.
Friday 28th April
Happy Friday everybody!
This week we went on our very first school trip to Cotswold Farm Park. We had a fantastic time finding out about all the different farm animals and feeding them. Some of the goats were SUPER cheeky and they tried to nibble our coats! This made is all laugh lots and lots. We now know that a baby goat is called a kid (this made us laugh too!) and a baby cow is called a calf. We also learnt about animals that lay eggs and animals that don’t, and met a giant rabbit called Gloria who was SUPER soft and fluffy. Out teachers were so proud of us for behaving so well and representing our school superbly.
In literacy we had a go at writing some sentences about our school trip… our letter formation, sentence structure and use of phonics was so brilliant we blew our teachers socks off!
In maths we have been consolidating our knowledge of teen numbers and number bonds to 5. We are little maths wizards!
We have also been exploring more life cycles and we had a go at re-creating the life cycle of a frog. We have been keeping an eye on our caterpillars all week and they are starting to get big now! We can’t wait to see how big they are when we come back to school on Tuesday after the bank holiday weekend.
In RE we have been exploring The Creation Story and we spoke about lots of different aspects of our planet Earth that bring us joy.
Have a fantastic long weekend, all! ?
Friday 21st April
We hope that you all had a wonderful break. The children came back to school this week with the biggest smiles, so excited to see their friends and teachers again.
Our key text this half term is ‘Farmer Duck’ By Martin Waddell. This week we introduced the book to the children. It is a great story as there are lots of repeated phrases for the children to join in with. This book links perfectly with our special trip to the farm, which is happening next week. As a class, we thought about the different things we might see at a farm. The children helped us to create a mind map of all of the different things we might see such as animals, people and machinery. The children were then set the challenge of writing their own farm list. Using their phonics, they each wrote their own farmyard list. They wrote words such as pig, chick, goat and barn. What superstars.
In maths this week, we have been focusing on teen numbers. Together we have been practicing counting to 20 and backwards and recognising what teen numbers look like. Lots of the children understand that a 1 must go before the other number in order to be a teen number such as 13, 15 or 18. We have been using the Numicon to see how a teen number is made up of a 10 and another smaller number. The children have been fantastic at making links between what they already know and this newly learnt knowledge.
As part of our Understanding the World learning, this week we introduced the children to life cycles. We looked at the different life cycles of living things such as humans, frogs and butterflies. Many of the children were very interested in this and asked lots of curious questions. We then showed the children that in Reception, we have our very own living caterpillars, which we are going to watch grow over the next few weeks. We all took turns in holding the special pot containing the five-wriggling baby caterpillars and we cannot wait to see them grow and form their cocoon.
We have so much to look forward to next week with our special trip and all of the lovely learning that will bring. Please remember, if you haven’t already, to send in the children’s PE kits and wellies. PE is every Thursday and both classes will have forest school later in this half term.
Friday 31st March
Wow, what an Egg-cellent week we’ve had in Reception to mark the end of Spring term.
We started the week with a BANG as we had 2 incredible music performances from a real sting quartet- they were amazing and an iRock concert, in which the children from years 1-5 performed some incredible musical numbers!
To start of our Egg-citing Easter week, we followed a recipe to make some hot cross buns. In groups we worked as a team to follow the steps, add the ingredients and make the buns. They smelt amazing and the children really enjoyed making them. Perhaps you could do some Easter baking at home in the holidays too?
This week we went on an Easter hunt around our school, which the children were very egg-cited about. The children had to work with their learning partner to find all of the Easter themed objects on their list and tick them off as they went. At the end they all enjoyed a special Easter chocolate treat for all of their hard work.
We have enjoyed making our Easter cards, which feature repeating patterns on the Easter egg designs, to show a skill we have been working on in maths. We’ve also really enjoyed being extra creative this week as we’ve been busy creating Easter crafts, using a range of skills learnt this term such as mixing colours, looking at light and shade and using different textures to create art.
What an action packed week! We really hope that the children enjoy their Easter break and that you have a wonderful time together as a family. Perhaps if you visit the church over the holiday o the Tesco store, you will se our 2 amazing Easter collages that we made his term too and are very proud of.
We look forward to welcoming them back in Summer 1, when hopefully the sun is out and our learning can be outdoors a lot more.
Friday 24th March
The sun is finally beginning to peep through the clouds and rain, and we are loving it – Spring is finally on its way!
This week we have been learning about the Easter story so we now know why Easter is such a special time for Christians.
In Literacy we have used our characters that we created last week to innovate the story of The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson using story maps. We came up with some brilliantly imaginative changes and some of us even made up a whole new story!
In Maths we have been learning to recognise whether a number sentence is asking us to add or subtract, and we used lots of different resources to help us to work out the answers. Some of us were even able to do this in our head… how amazing are we!?
We have also been continuing our colour topic by looking at how we can create different shades of colour by adding white or black, and we spoke about how colour can represent mood. We have been busy making something very special for our grown ups for Easter too… not long to go now!
Friday 17th March
This week at school, it has been Science week and we have been very lucky to join in with many of the activities and talks throughout the week. We have had a lots of visitors too, including scientists and engineers from Sea Bins, Severn Trent and Dyson. As a class we experimented with making our own phones using yoghurt pots and string. It was very funny, but it worked! We were so surprised. They year 5 children also created a science fair for us, we all got the chance to experiment with things such as floating and sinking and changing colour.
We have been delving deeper into the story of the Gruffalo in Literacy this week. At the start of the week we created a class map of the deep dark wood, to help us with remembering the order of the story and the journey that the mouse goes on. Later in the week, using the Gruffalo as inspiration, the children were tasked with creating their own storybook character, which like the Gruffalo is a little bit scary and menacing. The children had lots of fun drawing and labelling their creatures, using features such as long tails, crocodile teeth, eagle wings and dinosaur scales to help make their characters come alive.
In Maths we have continued to explore subtraction, using a range of resources to help us. Many of the children are now able to solve a simple ‘take away’ number sentence using their fingers or physical counters/cubes to help them find the answer. Together we have been looking at using number lines to count back and finding out why you cant take 4 away from 2.
This week in RE we looked at the story of the last supper. Together we watched an animation of the last supper, in which Jesus shares a meal with his disciples. We then acted out this story all together, sharing a feast of brioche bread and wine (blackcurrant juice). The children showed excellent understanding of what Jesus was saying and why. We spoke about Judas not being kind to Jesus and the fact that he would betray him. We had so much fun being the disciples and the children really enjoyed having a real supper to share together.
Such an actioned-packed week, we wonder what we will be doing next week?
Friday 10th March
We’ve had another Fantastic week in Reception, we started the week off looking at our key text ‘The Gruffalo’. The children helped to identify the rhyming words within the story and together we made some ‘silly soup’ by mixing all of the rhyming pairs together. Keeping with the rhyming theme, we have been exploring a wide range of nursery rhymes and rhyming stories this week. The children have had so much fun singing classic songs such as: ‘12345, once I caught a fish alive’, ‘Ten fat sausages sizzling in the pan,’ and ‘Miss Polly had a dolly’.
In maths this week, our focus has been on subtraction. The children have been introduced to the symbol and the language of subtractions, such as take away. In groups we had lots of fun playing a bowling game and a parachute game to find out how many we had taken away and how many we had left. Many of the children recognised that when you take away, your number gets smaller.
In RE this week we looked at the special day that is one week before Easter, known as Palm Sunday. The children had lots of fun making their own palm leaves to wave and singing the song ‘Hosana.’ We’ve also been working very hard to create a special Easter collage which will be displayed at the St James’ Church, look out for more info on that soon!
In phonics we are currently reviewing the digraphs (2 letters 1 sound) and trigraphs (3 letters) that we learnt in phase 3. Many of the children can recognise these sounds, so we are now practicing recognising these sounds within words and sentences for both reading and writing.
We have had such a brilliant week, full of wonderful ideas, opinions and knowledge and can’t wait for next week, for even more lovely learning!
Have a lovely weekend.
Friday 3rd March
We’re back and we couldn’t be happier! We loved seeing each other on Tuesday after the half term break. As you can imagine, we had LOTS to catch up on, discussing all of our half term antics.
When we arrived in school on Tuesday morning we all noticed the classroom looking a little different. There were cones set up around a mess that had been left all over the floor! Our teachers told us that someone or something had been living in the classroom over the half term break. We had to put our detective hats on and write down some clues of all of the things we could see to try and figure out who it was. There was an owl, some scratch marks, a log house… it was THE GRUFFALO! Our teachers then told us that our core text for this half term is The Gruffalo and that maybe the Gruffalo had been in the classroom to drop off some of his books for us.
We have also begun our new topic for RE this week. We were introduced to Easter by exploring how we celebrate it. We spoke about new life, Easter eggs and the Easter bunny, hot cross buns and Easter bonnets!
Thursday was World Book Day so we went off timetable and had lots of fun completing lots of different World Book Day activities. We went on a character hunt around the school, read some of our favourite stories in makeshift dens and we even had a go at writing our own class stories… YES! We were authors and illustrates of the day.
We had a fantastic gymnastics PE session with Jo from Montague. We can’t wait for more next week!
Friday 17th February
Half term has arrived! We have all worked so hard during Spring 1 and have absolutely WOWED our teachers.
This week our teachers have held parents evenings with our grown-ups and they were both very pleased to be able to sing our praises. We all work so hard and always try our best – it does not unnoticed.
We used our story map from our core text (Whatever Next by Jill Murphy) to help us to write some sentences. All of our writing was FANTASTIC and a real showcase of how much we have learnt since starting Reception. Our teachers are VERY proud.
We have now finished learning all of our Phase 3 sounds. How clever are we!? Next half term we will consolidate these sounds and continue to apply them within our reading and writing.
In Maths we have been continuing to explore halving. We know what halving is when you start with one whole and split it into two smaller equal parts. We then had a go at sharing equally between two. We recognised that that not all numbers can be shared equally between two and our teachers told us that these are called odd numbers. We also went into forest school and had a go at creating patterns, number sentences and amounts using natural resources.
We are all very excited to have a week off but cannot wait to get back to school on 28th Feb.
Notes to parents:
Monday 27th Feb. is an inset day so children will return to school on Tuesday 28th Feb.
Some children have mentioned that their wellies are feeling a little snug. If you would like your child to bring theirs home to check then please just let us know.
P.E uniforms have been sent home to be washed over the half term break.
Happy half term all ?!
Friday 10th February
We are SUPER STARS and we know it! We have all completed some fantastic learning this week and our teachers are SO proud of each and every one of us.
We began the week by learning all about being safe on the internet for safer internet day. We discussed how we can stay safe by talking to a familiar grown up if something has gone wrong or we are unsure.
In Literacy we completed a talk for writing story map for our core text ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy. Next week we will use this story map to help us to complete some writing to re-tell the story.
In Maths we have now learnt all about the number 10! We can now double numbers to 5 and we also know how to half 1 whole by splitting it into two smaller equal parts. Ask us to show you at home!
In phonics we have learn the sounds ‘ow’, ‘oi’, ‘ear’ and ‘air’ (yes we are on to the very tricky trigraphs now!) and we were able to apply these sounds within our reading and writing.
We have also been talking lots about how to be kind and we had a go at some team building activities in our outdoor classroom. This was SO much fun and we all worked together very well – we make a great team community!
On Friday we had a go at working together to program the Bee-Botts to move in a certain direction. We had a great time with this and, again, showed some great team work skills.
Happy Friday! One more week to go! ?
Friday 3rd February
We have had another action packed week of fun, friendships and learning! We’ve been looking at the story ‘Aliens love underpants’ as we continue our learning about space travel. We challenged the children to write a sentence about the aliens, using their fantastic phonics. Now that we know lots of sounds- including ai, ee, igh and oa, we can write lots more words. We read some Pant-tastic sentences and were really impressed with the children, including their harder to read and spell words such as: they, me and we.
In maths this week, we’ve been continuing to look at repeating patterns. Many of us are now confident in physically making patterns using two colours in an ABABABABAB array. So this week the children had a go at making more complex patterns such as: AABAABAABAAB or ABCABCABC. They did a super job of making their own patterns using all sorts of maths resources in the classrooms. We’ve also been exploring the number 9 this week, to gain a secure understanding of what makes the number 9 so special. Did you know that 9 is 1 more than 8 and 1 less than 10? And if you add 5 and 4 together it makes 9?
In phonics we have learnt the sounds: ar, or, ur, oo (for spoon) and oo (for book) we’ve been practicing to read and write words with these sounds in and are getting better and better at using our sound buttons to help us.
We were lucky enough to have DOUBLE PE this week! As we had our normal PE session on Thursday, but an extra special cricket class on Friday. Today we learnt how to bat the ball using a cricket bat and also practiced retrieving the ball and bringing it back. It was so much fun!!
Friday 27th January
gong-sshee faa-tseye! (This means Happy New Year in Chinese)
We began the week celebrating Chinese New Year which was lots of fun because we were able to explore a different culture in a different part of the world! We looked on google Earth to see where China is in comparison to our school, and we cooked and tasted some Chinese food in celebration. Lots of us thought the rice noodles were VERY yummy. We also created some Chinese New Year lanterns, looked at how Chinese people celebrate new year and also had a go at counting to 5 in Chinese!
In literacy this week we have been having a go at using describing words to describe the aliens in the story Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman. We did an AMAZING job at coming up with lots of words, such as sneaky, cheeky and speedy! Next week we will be having a go at using a describing word within our writing.
In phonics we have learnt the vowel sounds ‘ai’, ‘ee’, ‘igh’ and ‘oa’. We learnt that a trigraph is 3 letters put together that make one single sound – how clever are we?!
This week we also continued our ‘looking after our planet’ topic and we recognised that we can help by reducing, reusing and recycling our waste.
We can’t wait for more fun learning every week!
Friday 20th January
Brrrrrr! It’s freezing outside but that hasn’t stopped us from completing more fantastic learning this week. In keeping with our core text ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy, we began the week by designing and creating some very imaginative rockets out of junk modelling. We all had a GREAT time doing this and we were able to think very carefully about the items we were going to use. We also used our phonics knowledge to write lists of things we would like to take with us to the moon. We all worked SO hard on this and came up with some brilliant ideas of what we would like to take.
In Phonics we have been continuing to learn phase 3 sounds – how clever are we! Our teachers were so proud of how we were able to apply these new sounds within our reading and writing.
We have been learning a VERY grown up concept in R.E. We have been exploring three different religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) and we have had a look at the different sacred texts that each religion has. We recognised that some stories within these different sacred texts are the same and some are different. We read the story of Noah’s Ark which is in both the Torah and the Bible, and we had a go at retelling this story using lots of different resources. It was so much fun!
In Maths we have been exploring the number 8, and we looked at lots of different ways of showing 8. We have also been continuing to practice adding by putting two numbers together to create a larger total.
We also read the story ‘Someone Swallowed Stanley’ by Sarah Roberts and we had a discussion about how litter effects our planet and animals. Next week we will be exploring how we can help to prevent this and keep our planet clean and tidy.
We have had so much fun this week and we are definitely ready for a restful weekend!
Friday 13th January
This week in Reception we have had another wonderful week of learning.
Our week started off very exciting as we have now moved on to phase 3 in phonics. This means that we are now beginning to learn more complex sounds that contain two different letters such as qu for queen, and ch for chimp. The children have been fantastic at saying their new sounds and doing the actions, we’ve been having a go at reading and writing words with these sounds in and even reading sentences.
Our core text this half term is ‘Whatever Next’ By Jill Murphy – we read the story last week and this week it was time to make it come alive by acting it out in small groups. The children had great fun dressing up in a space helmet and boots like Baby bear and using a grumpy voice just like Mummy bear. We also had some fantastic swooshy owls too. We were blown away by the language that the children used- many of them remembered key phrases from the book such as ‘Can I go to the moon Mummy?’ and ‘You went to the moon in a rocket? Whatever Next!’ Later in the week, we had a think about where we might fly if we had a rocket, the children had some incredibly imaginative ideas.
In Maths this week, we’ve been looking at the symbol for addition, using objects we looked at what big numbers we could make when we add two groups of objects together such as 2+1= 3 5+1=6. We have also been looking at the numbers 6 and 7, using objects such as Numicon and blocks to make them and using our problem solving skills to find solutions.
This week in RE, the children all brought in something that was really special to them, we had a wide range of lovely things brought in, including soft toys, blankets, toys and photographs. We were really impressed with how well the children were able to speak about WHY their items were so special to them.
We’ve been getting creative this week too, working in our colour groups to create representations of the seasons. The children had some fantastic ideas with paint and collage bits and bobs, they worked very collaboratively too, we can’t wait to put them on display.
Don’t forget that next week we will be making rockets out of the junk you send in, so please do send in any unwanted boxes, tubes and bottles early next week.
Thank you- The Reception Team.
Friday 16th December
Snow is falling all around us AND WE LOVE IT! We had THE BEST day playing in the snow all together on Monday. We made snow angels, a snow man (called Dasher) and some of us had a go at rolling down the slope. It was pretty chilly but we wrapped up and wore our all-in-one suites and wellies to keep us warm.
Wednesday was our Christmas party day and it was amazing! We made paper chains, played pass the parcel, played stick the nose on the snowman and joined in with lots of dancing games. We had our Christmas dinner at lunch time which was SUPER YUMMY and then we spent the afternoon relaxing with hot chocolate, snacks and Paddington the movie. What a brilliant day.
In maths we continued to explore comparison using more than, less than, and equal to. We had a go at exploring this by working in pairs and our teachers said we all worked together really well.
We have continued to consolidate our knowledge of phase 2 in phonics, ready to begin phase 3 in the new year! (How clever are we?!)
We can’t believe we have finished our first ever full term of school already! We have learnt so much in a short space of time, have made lots of new friends and we are now fully immersed into school life – our teachers are SO SO proud of us.
We wish you all the best Christmas and a very happy New Year!
See you all very soon ?
Friday 9th December
We had SO MUCH FUN performing our Nativity to our parents and grown ups this week. We really hope you all enjoyed the show – weren’t we brilliant!?
In keeping with the Christmas theme, we have been creating lots of secret items this week and we can not wait to share them with you closers to Christmas!
In maths we have looked at find more/greater than and fewer/less than, and we have been using the symbols < and > to show our understating of this. We know that the ‘crocodile symbol’ eats (faces) the bigger number.
We have spoken a lot about friendships this week. We read a couple of stories and discussed what it means to be a good friend. We also explored a few different scenarios where we had to explain how we could be a good friend by doing things differently.
On Friday we were invited to the Library to join AGE UK and sing some Christmas songs. We all had a super time and it made us feel really festive!
We are all SO excited for Christmas now – the countdown is on!
Note to grown-ups:
Next Wednesday 14th is our Christmas party day. We invite the Reception children to come in to school in their PJs on this day and we will play lots of party games as well as watch a short Christmas film all together whilst cosying up with hot chocolate and movie snacks (provided by us). It is also Christmas dinner day so I’m sure all the children will have a brilliantly festive day.
On Friday 16th we break up for the Christmas break 1 hour earlier, so pick up time will be 1:45pm.
Friday 2nd December
Wow! What a crazy busy week we have had in Reception. It is getting much colder now (brrrrrrr) and we are on the countdown to Christmas… WE ARE SO EXCITED!
In Phonics we have been consolidating phase 2 sounds and using these to write and read CVC, CCVC and CVCC words.
We completed our very first Big Write in Literacy with week! We all had a go at independently writing a list of what we would like for Christmas and we did SUCH a great job, our teachers were so proud of us.
In Maths we have been exploring fewer and we used lots of language (and manipulatives) to explore this, including less, decreasing, smaller and least.
In RE we have been continuing to re-tell the story of the Nativity, using Nativity sets and props to help us.
Talking of Nativity – we had our very first dress rehearsal this week and we were AMAZING, we all looked very cute even if we do say so ourselves! We can’t wait for your all to watch us next Monday.
We had a visitor fly into our classroom on his paper aeroplane on 1st December by express delivery from the North Pole. We were all so excited to see an elf in the classroom! He is going to be keeping an eye on us until Christmas to make sure we are being good (which we always are of course!)
2 weeks to go!!
Friday 25th November
Well there has been a lot of rain this week in Gloucester, but we’ve still managed to find a couple of clear mornings and afternoons, so that the children can explore their learning outside.
Unlike us adults, the children certainly don’t feel the cold and love nothing more than being outside with their friends. We are very lucky to have such a fantastic outside space in EYFS and the children really enjoy going outside to do big movements and use their big voices. When we are outside we get to see the children really using their problem solving skills in the water area. There are lots of opportunities to use water in different ways using the different pipes and containers. It’s so lovely to see the children working together as a team to work out how to join two pipes together or how to stop a leak. Elsewhere in the garden, there is a lot of construction going on and we see lots of imaginative play too. The children really enjoy creating models, houses, shelters and assault courses, using all of the different materials we have available. Even more impressive is the language that we hear outside, as the children really need to use their communication skills in order to play with their friends.
So much learning happens outside! Let’s hope there is less rain next week!
Friday 18th November
What a week we’ve had in reception this week! We were delighted to be a part of ‘The really wild reading festival’, where we got to meet Gloucester based author and illustrator, Hannah Shaw. Hannah read us the story ‘The disgusting sandwich,’ a story all about a badger trying to get to a sandwich which gets covered in mud, sand and even slugs! This week at school we’ve been learning about what authors and illustrators do. Following on from our visit, we had a think about what we might put in a really disgusting sandwich. The children had some fantastically awful ideas such as worms, rotten apples and old stinky cheese! Together we went into our forest school armed with a plate and some bread and got stuck in creating our own deliciously horrid sandwiches. The children enjoyed smearing their bread with mud, grass, sand and stones for that extra crunch! We dipped them in pond water, covered them in pigeon feathers and even stamped on them in our wellies. Inspired by our sandwiches, in class we all had a go at writing a list to show what was on our sandwiches. The children used their phonics to sound out words on their lists such as m-u-d and w-or-m-s. What fantastic learning!
Throughout the week we’ve been practicing our subitising (recognising numbers immediately- like when we roll a dice) and continuing to use number lines and objects to find more and less.
We’ve been practicing our songs for the nativity and exploring who is the most important person within the Nativity story and why.
We are continuing to learn about toys old and new and using our speaking skills to give our ideas and opinions within a group.
Have a look at our photos this week and see just how much fun we’ve had.
Friday 11th November
It’s getting colder and we are loving it… not too long to wait until Santa comes now! We have been continuing to explore the seasons this week, and we recognised that Autumn is almost over and soon it will be Winter (that’s when it gets really cold and we celebrate Christmas!)
In phonics this week we have learnt the graphemes j’, ‘v’, ‘w’ and ‘x’. We came up with loads of words that use these sounds and we had a go at writing some of them. Our independent segmenting is really coming along!
In Maths we have been learning the number 5 and the composition of 5. We also looked at the value of numbers and used words such as larger/most and fewer/least to explain this. We learnt a REALLY grown up words this week too… ‘Subitise!’ We know that subitising means we do not count a number but instead we look and ‘think quick’, using our knowledge of number compositions. Our teachers were amazed at how well and quickly we picked this up.
We have also been practicing our letter formations on white boards and we are doing really well with this.
In literacy our teachers introduced us to our new core text ‘Lost in the Toy Museum’ by David Lucas. Our teachers have turned the home corner into a toy shop using lots of old and new toys for us to explore…we are really enjoying role-playing shop keepers using real money!
For our subject topic this week we have been exploring what a time line is and we spoke about things we are responsible for now that we could not do when we were a baby. We looked at pictures of ourselves as babies (we were all so cute!) and we used this as a starting point for discussion.
On Friday we learnt all about Remembrance day and we created some brilliant stain glass window art work to help us to remember what we had learnt. Please do check this out when you drop us off to school on Monday!
Have a brilliant weekend!
Reminder to parents:
On Tuesday 15th we will be walking to Meadowside Primary School for the Really Wild Reading Festival. Please make sure to drop your child off at school at 8:45am on this day. Thank you!
Friday 4th November
We’re back! We hope everyone had a FANTASTIC and restful Half-Term break. We are glad to be back to school to see our friends and can’t wait for all the exciting learning we will be doing this term.
Our teachers were blown away by us in phonics this week. We remembered all our sounds despite having a week off, we have been doing some brilliant blending to read CVC/CVCC words AND we have been having a go at segmenting words to write them independently. How clever are we?! We learnt the sounds ‘h’, ‘b’, ‘f’, ‘ff’, ‘l’, and ‘ll’ this week too. Ask us what a digraph is because we’d love to tell you!
In maths we have learnt all about the number 4. We explored the different combinations of numbers that make up 4 using a Part, Part, Whole model and Numicon.
We have been having a go at independently writing within our play this week, by picking objects and writing down their initial sounds. Some of us even managed to write down whole words, like hut and cat. WOW!
This term in RE we will be exploring the Nativity story, why/how Christians celebrate Christmas and why it is such a special time. We kicked things off by having a birthday party in the home corner (which our teachers kindly set up for us) and it was SO MUCH FUN! We talked about how birthdays are a special time, how we cannot choose when we have our birthday and what we do to celebrate.
On Friday we had a great time immersing ourselves in all things Bonfire Night. When we went into the classroom in the morning, we were met by lots of exciting activities around the classroom, including junk-model rocket making, fireworks in glitter and firework words to have a go at writing. We also learnt all about Guy Forks and why people celebrate Bonfire Night.
What a fun, albeit very busy, first week back!
Thursday 20th October
We can’t believe we’ve made it to half term!
This week reception were lucky enough to have some visitors from year 5. They were very excited to welcome them into their classes and in return year 5 looked very excited to join in with their play. As part of our ‘Understanding the World’ topic, we introduced the children to the five senses. The year 5 children helped to explain what each sense was and the reception children created their own actions to show senses such as touch, taste and sight.
Miss Adamson and Miss O’Beirne set up 6 different stations, which the children rotated around in their groups, with their year 5 helpers. They all had a go at everything including a yoghurt tasting activity, guess the smell, what’s in the bag? And even a blindfolded obstacle course. We were really impressed with the children’s attitude to their learning and we saw a lot of cool concentration and persistence throughout. The reception children were great at using all of their senses and could describe which body part they were using.
Year 5 did an incredible job of supporting the children throughout the activities, showing lots of responsibility and kindness. We hope year 5 will come back and visit soon, as we are sure there will be so many more opportunities to learn together.
Friday 14th October
Friday already!? We have been so engrossed in our learning this week, we can’t believe another weekend is upon us!
In RE we have continued to discuss being special and where we belong. We spoke about how we are all special within our class community and we all drew a picture of ourselves on a puzzle piece before fitting all the pieces together.
In Phonics we have learnt the sounds ‘e’, ‘u’, ‘r’ AND our first digraph ‘ck’ (how grown up are we!) We know that a digraph is two letters stuck together that make 1 sound. We also know that when we are using our sound buttons to support blending, we put a line under a digraph to represent the one sound. We are continuing to use our phonics knowledge to find initial sounds, blend to read words AND we are beginning to segment spoken words to find their sounds – our teachers nearly fell off their seats when we showed the what we can do this week!
In Maths we have been exploring the ‘two-ness’ of 2 and the ‘three-ness’ of 3. We know that 1 and another 1 is 2 and we used socks and shoes to make pairs. We also now that 3 is made up of 2 and 1 more, or three 1’s!
We have been continuing to learn about the seasons and we spoke about why Olaf (the snowman from Frozen) wouldn’t feel very well in Summer. We have also been exploring teeth hygiene and discussed how we can keep our teeth clean and healthy.
Our teachers have told us that next week is parents evening and we CAN’T WAIT for you to hear how amazing we are all doing at school.
1 week to go until we can all have a restful week off! ?
Friday 7th October
It’s getting colder out! We all popped on our warm coats this week and went on a walk around the school grounds to spot signs of Autumn. We noticed that some of the leaves on the trees are changing colour and we collected some to make an Autumnal collage. It was lots of fun!
We have been working REALLY hard in phonics and our teachers are SO proud of us! This week we have learnt the new sounds g, o, c and k and we have been using all the sounds we now know to practice blending to read CVC words! We have also learnt some more ‘harder to read and spell’ words. We know that we cannot use our robot arms to blend these words so we have to ‘look and learn’ instead.
In maths we have been exploring Zero and One. We explored the value of these numbers and had a go at forming the numerals. We can talk about how Zero means nothing, how One is one more than Zero AND we can show One in lots of different ways! Ask us to show off what we know at home.
We learnt our third Learning Power this week! Rubble tells us to ‘Keep on improving’ so we all had a go at drawing a picture of ourselves and then we went back and made them even better by adding things like hair, fingers and clothing. We are little artists in the making!
On Friday we immersed ourselves in all things Harvest Festival and it was SO MUCH FUN. Our teachers taught us all about what Harvest Festival is and why we celebrate Harvest. There were lots of fun activities set up in our classroom to support us in our learning too!
What a brilliant and busy week we have had. Time for a restful weekend – 2 weeks to go! ?
Friday 30th September
What a week we’ve had this week in Reception! Now that we’ve been at school full time for almost two weeks, we’re getting better and better at our day routines and are much more familiar with our surroundings, friends and adults – our teachers are SO proud of us!
In phonics this week we’ve learnt another four sounds: i, n, m and d. We have been fantastic at remembering the sounds from last week, doing the actions with the new sounds and having a go at forming the letters. Now that we know 8 letters, we can begin to sound out words such as sat, sit, mat and pan (how clever are we?!). Ask us to have a go at this at home!
In R.E this week we’ve been exploring the meaning of ‘Special.’ We read stories in which the characters all had something special. Within our circle time, we spoke about what special means and took turns to speak about the things that are special to us. We were fantastic at sharing our ideas and did some super listening with our friends.
This week was the very first time we joined the rest of the school in Collective Worship. The children sat so beautifully listening to the story of ‘David and Goliath’ performed by the Open the book group.
On Thursday we all showed off our great big cheesy smiles for our school photos. We all looked very smart in our uniforms and can’t wait for our families to see the outcome!
RA went into forest school on Friday afternoon and it was SO much fun! It will be RB’s turn next Friday afternoon.
We can’t wait for another fun filled week next week!
A note to parents:
The Maths café will run on Monday afternoon (3rd October) and will be of a similar format to the Phonics session last week. If you are interested to see how the teaching of maths progresses in Reception year then please do pop along.
Please make sure every item of clothing that comes into school is labelled with your child’s name, we already have a couple of un-named unclaimed jumpers.
Please ensure book bags and reading books/reading diaries come back into school every day as we will try and read with every child at least once throughout the week.
We ask children to please carry their water bottles into school, rather than putting them in their book bags, as if they leak in the bag, everything inside the bag gets wet. Thank you!
Friday 23rd September
We have had a wonderful week in reception this week. Last week we were in up until lunchtime. But this week we have been in full time, so got to stay for lunch and the afternoon, meaning even more fun with our friends.
Each day we get 3 different lunch choices and we have been SO impressed with the children, making a choice and remembering it for the register. All of the children have had a good try with their foods and have particularly enjoyed choosing a pudding at the end!
In Phonics this week we have learnt 4 new letters S,A,T and P and know what sounds they make- Can your child show you? We went on a hunt in the outdoor classroom for the hidden letters and practiced forming our letters with chalk on the playground. Lots of children have been able to suggest words that begin with ‘p’ today like p-p- pirate, p-p-park and, p-p-penguin! Fantastic!
We’ve been enjoying counting though songs such as 5 little monkeys, 5 currant buns and 5 little speckled frogs and the children have enjoyed doing the actions and being the ones in the class songs with the puppets.
We have really enjoyed exploring the different areas of provision such as the number area, reflection area and reading garden. We have lots and lots of children who love to build and dress up and have had a lot of excited children during choosing times.
Our favourite part of the week though must be P.E! the children absolutely loved meeting the P.E coach and having a go at basketball. So much so I think they want P.E every day!
Can’t wait for even more lovely learning next week!
Miss O’Beirne and Miss Adamson
Friday 16th September
Week one done – we are so proud of you reception! The children have had SO much fun exploring their classroom. They have been cooks, builders, Policemen AND little artists and it is only the first week! We are really looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday for another fun-filled week!
