Despite the temperature being so cold this week, the children have enjoyed playing in the outside area, where earlier on in the week, they went on an ice hunt, explored the properties and beauty of ice under the magnifying glass and experimented with ways to dissolve it.

As part of the whole school Other Faith Week, Reception class learnt about the Jewish religion and in particular the Shabbat. The Shabbat is the Jewish Day of Rest. It happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. During Shabbat, Jewish people remember the story of creation from the Torah where God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7^th day.

The children also learnt about how Jewish people go on a pilgrimage to The Western Wall in Jerusalem and how, when they get there, they write special messages to God and insert them into this special wall. Inspired by this new learning, the children wrote their own messages to God and built Western Walls from a variety of construction.

The class have built on their maths learning from last week, by finding different ways of grouping 5 into three groups and recording their learning. They were also challenged to work out missing quantities, when part of five was hidden.

In English, Reception’s learning was derived from the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children had fun hot seating the characters from the story and learning The Three Bears Rap. They also made ‘wanted’ posters, character masks, puppets,  furniture for the bears and even wrote apology letters on behalf of Goldilocks.

On Monday, the class received a letter from the Natural History Museum asking the children to look after a precious dinosaur egg. The adults in Reception were dubious and a bit worried, as the last time they looked after an egg, it cracked, the dinosaur inside escaped and this triggered a country wide hunt for it!!!

The children persuaded the adults that it would be fine and that they could take care of it. They wrote back to the museum accepting their request and on Wednesday, it was delivered!

Reception class were so excited!

The children quickly went about writing signs telling people not to touch the egg. They also designed and built display cabinets to keep it protected, as it is so fragile.

The children have also been inspired to make their own dinosaur worlds and have been using the small world dinosaurs to make up stories in them.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

On behalf of all of the Reception staff, I would like to offer a huge thank you for all your good wishes and generosity this Christmas. It is really appreciated!

Thank you also for your wonderful support this term. We really hope that all our families manage to keep the sickness bugs at bay  this holiday and for those children currently sick, that they make a quick recovery, in time for Christmas.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas filled with joy and laughter.

See you in the New Year!

Ms Pemberton

Dear Reception,

I missed you all last week and I’m looking forward to catching up with you this week!

What a beautiful, snowy sight this morning! I hope you have lots of fun playing in it today.

Here are some some activities that you can do at home today:

Begin by listening to the story of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs (Parents, I always tell the children at the end, that the little boy made the snowman again, the next time it snowed!)

You can watch the animated version here:

After watching The Snowman, if it’s possible, go outside with you special adult and build your own snowman/ snowwoman or even a snow animal! Take pictures and upload them to Tapestry if you can. If it’s not possible to go outside, design your own snowman or collect a little snow on a baking tray and build a miniature one inside. Draw a picture of what your snowman looks like.

Discuss the big question-Does a snowman need clothing? Why? Why not?

If you could fly anywhere with your snowman, where would you go? Draw a picture and use your phonics to write some words to describe the place.

Paint your own snowy picture.

Make prints and trails in the snow outside, using different objects such as cars, dinosaurs, twigs, flowerpots, feet.

Have fun making a snow volcano. Click on the link to show you how.

Have fun making paintings in the snow using food colouring.

You will need a spray or squeezy bottle, some food colouring and some water.

Put a few drops of the food colouring in the bottle and fill it up with cold water.

Go outside and have fun painting the snow!

Just to stress, you are not expected to do all of these activities, they are just some ideas for you to choose from.

Have fun!

Ms Pemberton

This week, Reception have been learning about Armistice Day and the significance of the poppy. They have been recalling and sharing their own memories with one another and have enjoyed creating their own poppies from a variety of materials.

Today the children joined the rest of the school in observing two minutes silence at 11am. This was followed by a pilgrimage around the school where the children quietly travelled from from class to class to visit each prayer table.

This week, we finished teaching the first set of phonics (phase 2). For the rest of the term, we will be embedding these sounds during our daily phonics sessions. No new sounds will be sent home until after Christmas. Please continue to practise these sounds at home by getting your child to have a go at writing very simple cvc words such as: cat, man, bell, loss, bed, fan, dip etc and please continue to read daily. It is really important that you correct your child’s pencil grip if they are holding it incorrectly and please insist that they form the letters in the way they have been taught; saying the phrase as they write it will help them.

Thank you for your continued support!

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team