Starfish Bunny Run

Starfish loved their bunny run this morning...fingers crossed we've raised lots of money for activity week! Well done Starfish!

Jack and the Beanstalk 

We read the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and had fun acting out the story. We wrote a speech bubble for the giant and sequenced pictures of the story on our own paper beanstalks. Last week was science week and we learnt all about what plants need to grow. We have started an experiment to see whether beans will grown faster in a plastic bag or in a pot with soil. The children made some beautiful watercolour observational paintings of daffodils in Art. 

In maths we have been practising our number bonds using objects, Numicon and ten frames. The children are really getting to grips with simple addition by counting how many altogether. We have started to write some of our own number sentences too. In PE we have started to learn a new dance which we are all very excited about! 

This week and next we are sharing the story 'Whatever Next' and learning all about the moon. We will be sharing some non-fiction books about space. In Maths we are looking at patterns and making repeating patterns. 

Seahorses Bunny Run

Seahorses ran their little tails off for the Easter PTFA bunny run. Great running Seahorses! 

Hooray for pancake day! 

This week the children found out about Shrove Tuesday and why we often make and eat pancakes on that day.  They also surveyed each other to find out which was their favourite pancake topping, and wrote instructions on How to Make a Pancake. The highlight of the week though had to be actually making the pancakes, adding the topping, and eating them! Yummy!

Having had a little peek in the classrooms over the half term break, some teachers have spotted some very neatly made shoes which seem to have been left for us ... I wonder how they got there? Hopefully all will be revealed next week! 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The Reception children were shocked to find that someone had been in their classroom and left it very messy! They used their investigative skills to find out that it was Goldilocks. The children searched high and low (and in every cupboard!) but we couldn't find her anywhere. We made wanted posters so that the rest of the school would know what she looked like and the children used some fantastic describing words. 

In Maths we have been learning to add by combining two groups of objects and counting how many there are altogether.  We have also been learning about Chinese New Years and how different people celebrate. The children made chinese lanterns, painted chinese numbers and enjoyed role playing in the restaurant. Please take a look at some of their lovely work in the pictures below. 

Next week we are looking forward to making pancakes and learning all about Shrove Tuesday.

I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow your House Down

The last two weeks we have focussed on the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' and the children have really enjoyed getting into the character of the Big Bad Wolf. We started by acting out the story and sequencing pictures of the main events. We then experimented with 3 houses outside in the garden to see which material would be best to build a house. The teachers really enjoyed being the Big Bad Wolf and blowing down the houses made of straw and sticks BUT they couldn't blow down the house of bricks! The children wrote a sentence about what they had found out using their sounds. 

We have also been learning all about winter and enjoyed a beautiful (but rather chilly) walk to the local woods. We looked for signs of winter and talked about how the woods have changed since we visited in Autumn. In art we then painted some super winter pictures. Thank you to those parents who were able to come and walk with us. 

In Maths we have been learning number bonds to 5 using numicon to help us. We have looked at how we can add 2 numbers together to make a whole; we call this the part-part-whole model. The children really started to grasp the concept by using objects and numicon to help them physically make 5. 

In PE we are learning to travel in different ways - skipping, hopping, jumping, running. We talk lots about why we exercise and what changes we notice in our bodies when we start to warm up. 

Next week we will be reading the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. We will be making story maps and labelling these. We are also going to be learning all about our families and each child will get a chance to show their family picture. We like to celebrate the fact that we are all different and show respect to others. This leads us nicely onto learning about Chinese New Year. In Maths we will be finding 1 more and 1 less than an amount and will introduce the concept of odd and even numbers to 10. 

Reception News 

Reception Walk to St Mary's Church

It was a great experience for our children to visit St Mary's Church during the festive season. Many thanks to Emma Hearn who welcomed us all and talked about the Christmas Story. The children enjoyed singing some of the songs they have been learning for the Nativity next week in such a special place.

Thank you to all the wonderful parent helpers who came with us. 

It's Getting Cold Out There!

The weather may have turned colder but that just gave us more opportunities to try new activities outside.  Look at all the ice we managed to find!! Some of us brought ice inside to see what would happen. Can you guess? 

"Not I!" said the lazy animals (and all the children in Reception) when the Little Red Hen asked "Who will help me?" when we shared the story of the Little Red Hen. But then we read another story where the Little Red Hen made Pizza and we were more than keen to help with that! We also tried really hard to re-tell the story and to write instructions to help us make our pizzas. 

We thought more about the number 5 in maths and practiced splitting the whole of 5 into two smaller parts. We also enjoyed weighing different pairs of objects on the balance scales to see which was heavier and which was lighter. We got quite good at predicting accurately and using the right language too.  

We have learnt most of the songs for our Nativity now and have even tried performing it in the Hall.  With a few more rehearsals over the next week or so, and some finishing touches to our costumes, our teachers are sure we will put on a show our adults will really enjoy watching.

Fantastic Few Weeks!

Reception have had a great time over the last few weeks! They have been packed with lots of exciting activities such as a Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime, making pumpkin soup, and learning about Diwali. When making pumpkin soup, the children loved chopping up all the vegetables and then watching their delicious soup cook. Everyone got to have a taste of the soup and most children LOVED IT!

We have been learning about different celebrations and spent a lot of time looking at how people celebrate Diwali. The children have enjoyed making their own Rangoli patterns and using clay to make Diva Lamps. 

Next week we will be looking at the story 'The Little Red Hen' and in Maths we will be  weighing and learning the concept 'heavier' and 'lighter'. 

The Busy Little Squirrel

We have had a wonderful couple of weeks learning about 'The Busy Little Squirrel'. We have enjoyed the story, acted it out, retold the story and even used our phonics to write the characters names (or their initial sounds).

We have also been learning about Autumn and how some animals will be preparing for hibernation. We received a letter from Sammy Squirrel which told us about his search for food. After hearing this the children worked together to make some squirrel muffins which we took to the woods. We worked together to make a map to show Sammy where to find his muffins.

In Maths, we have been learning about shapes and enjoyed going on a shape hunt. What shapes can you spot when you are out and about over the half term holiday?

The Very Helpful Hedgehog

This week we have been looking at the story 'The Very Helpful Hedgehog'. The children have been amazing at retelling the story and starting to write the initial sounds in words from the book. We have been learning about the seasons this week and specifically looking at Autumn. The children talked about what changes we see in Autumn and how the animals prepare themselves for the Autumn season.

In Maths, we have been looking at 'more' and 'less'. The children enjoyed playing a game seeing who could grab the most counters with one hand. We also introduced 5 frames which we will continue to look at  next week. 

The children have also had great fun painting their self-portraits this week. They tried so hard to use the right colours for their features and were all very proud of their finished products!

The Enormous Turnip

We read the story of 'The Enormous Turnip' and then acted it out with our friends. We thought of our own characters who could have helped us to pull out the turnip. In Maths we have been finding different ways of making the number 3. We have also been learning about harvest and enjoyed our first assembly where we sang 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow'. Thank you for all of your generous food donations. 

Our first week at school

What a busy and exciting week we have had in Reception. The teachers have loved getting to know all of our new little Jellyfish, Seahorses, Starfish and Sea Lions. We have played lots of 'getting to know you' games and have enjoyed making new friends. The children have started to learn some of the routines of the school day - who knew having your own tray and peg could be so exciting! 

Next week we look forward to having the children in full-time. We will be playing lots of speaking and listening games on the carpet and will be drawing the people who live in our house. In Maths we will be learning all about the numbers 1,2 and 3. Don't forget to send in a PE kit if you haven't already as we hope to get changed for our first PE lesson. Seahorses and Jellyfish have PE on a Thursday and Sea Lions and Starfish have PE on a Friday. 

What a super start Reception, well done! 

Reception News Summer 2023

If you go down to the woods today...

What a brilliant end to the year we've had in Reception. This week we have enjoyed making our own sandwiches, decorating a biscuit and eating them at our teddy bear's picnic. We all sat on the field together to eat with our cuddly toys but were rudely interrupted by a heavy downpour. We didn't let the rain ruin our fun though and zoomed inside to have a teddy bear disco instead!

We were also lucky enough to have a visit from two African Land Snails to tie in with our Snail Trail story. Some children were brave enough to hold the snails and described them as "cold", "wet" and "slimy"...this didn't put them off though; we've now got lots of children asking for their own pet snails!

For our writing this week, the children were challenged to write about their favourite moment in Reception and wow...it certainly ,made us realise what an absolutely fantastic and fun filled year we have had. The children wrote about the theatre trip, the Snow White pantomime, the trip to Salcy Forest, the many walks to the woods, Activity Week, making gingerbread men, making soup and the list goes on. We have loved every second and can't believe the year is over already. As we say our goodbyes today may we also take this opportunity to thank you for all your support this year. Your children have been a pleasure to work with and we wish them all the luck in the world as they continue their school journey into Year 1. 

Have a great summer

from

The Reception Team

Activity Week!

Wow! What a super Activity Week we had!

Over the course of the week we took part in an athletics workshop, learnt some ballet moves in our dance workshop, played a variety of musical instruments in our music workshop, helped to create a whole school art piece in a felting workshop and made characters and story settings with lego as part of our 'Brickies' workshop. We also got to play some cricket and learnt some new team games.

In our classrooms, we had a science investigation to find the best biscuit to dunk, used a hammer and nails for a DT project and played lots of turn taking board games.

Finally, we finished off our week with our Sports Day. The children took part in lots of sporting activities, collecting lots of points for their coloured house and then we finished off with our running and skipping races.

It was a super week had by all!

Summer Term is here!

Much of our recent learning has been focused on Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. As well as looking at the structure and vocabulary of the book we have extended our learning to lifecycles, other minibeasts, and symmetry in nature and maths. We even went on a minibeast hunt to discover some of the tiny creatures which live all around us.

As we enter summer the weather these last two weeks has really helped us with our thoughts on seasonal changes and ways we can stay safe in the sun. Changes are also afoot with our class 'pets' as we watched them from tiny hungry caterpillars to much larger ones, and then chrysalises. We are eagerly waiting to see what happens next.

In maths, as well as finding out about doubles, we have been investigating what happens when we halve an amount (it turns out not all amounts can be halved equally)! The detail shown in our painted self-portraits really reflects our growing skills and ability as artists, and a lot of us got painted ourselves when we took part in the colour-run to help raise money for our fun-packed activity week. 

Great start to the Summer Term!

Reception have had a great couple of weeks back. We have been learning about the artist Jackson Pollock and making our own artwork in a similar style. In Maths we have been making numbers to 20 and beyond using numicon and 10 frames. In Literacy we read the story 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' and we had to think of our own adjectives to describe the troll. We had a great time walking to a local bridge where we looked for trolls and acted out the story. We hope your children have told you all about it as they were all so excited!

Next week we will be learning about the King's Coronation. In Maths we will be looking at shapes and spatial awareness. In Music we will be learning the King's Coronation song 'Our King' which can be found on YouTube if you would like to practise and sing along at home!