Reception Week Beginning 13.6.22

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What a busy week it has been!

This week was ‘Healthy Eating Week’, and Reception joined the rest of the school thinking about the big message this year, which was:

Eat well for you and the planet!

The children learnt about the importance of having a healthy diet and lifestyle and how to keep our bodies healthy, by exercising, staying clean and regularly brushing teeth properly. The children learnt about why the body needs protein and made their own healthy protein snack.

Our story focus this week ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, linked the healthy eating focus beautifully with our new topic, ‘The Hidden World in our Garden’. Through this book, the children not only continued to learn about foods that are good for you, but they also about the lifecycle of a butterfly!

The highlight of the week was Reception’s first ever Sports Day. The children were absolutely fantastic, demonstrating their sports skills, listening skills and care and support for one another. Thank you to Josie for starting off each event so confidently!

This afternoon, the children took part in The Blessed Sacrament Procession. As usual, Reception made us all proud with their exemplary behaviour and reverence.

Happy Father’s Day to you all for Sunday; we hope you have lots of fun celebrating together in the sunshine.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Week Beginning 6.6.22

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This week, Reception have been learning about Pentecost and the associated symbols of fire, water and wind. The children were amazed to learn that Pentecost is when we celebrate the church’s birthday!

Over the week, the class planned birthday parties, designed party outfits, made cards, invitations and guest lists and drew beautiful Pentecost pictures. They also created a fire station role play in the outdoor area, painted fire inspired pictures and discussed the benefits and dangers of fire. When focussing on the symbol of wind, Reception had fun making kites from plastic bags and paper airplanes, and enjoyed testing them out to see if they would fly.

Reception have also been very busy practising some of the events taking place on Sports Day, which is on next Tuesday afternoon. Please ensure that your child has a pair of plimsols or trainers in school on Monday and Tuesday, if their current school shoes are not suitable and that they are wearing their summer uniform, which is the yellow polo top with a Pope Paul skort or shorts. Lots of the children wearing tights and track suit bottoms this week have been overheating or complaining that they are uncomfortable. Please also provide your child with a hat, water bottle and apply sun cream before school, if the weather is hot. Thank you!

Today, the children attended mass in the school hall, to celebrate the feast day of our school saint, St Paul VI, which fell during the half term break, on May 29th. As usual, the children were prayerful and respectful and made their teachers proud. This was followed by an ice lolly treat on the sunny field with the rest of the school!

Have a wonderful weekend.

See you all at the carnival on Sunday!

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week Beginning 23.5.22

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Reception started their week with the big question: Who is Queen Elizabeth II?

Everyone in class had heard of The Queen, but most children didn’t know much about her, or why she will be celebrating her Platinum Jubilee next week.

The children spent the week learning about Her Majesty’s life; they particularly enjoyed listening to stories about what she was like when she was their age.

Over the week, Reception made: bunting, flags, crowns, hats, and made replicas of Buckingham Palace. They wrote about The Queen and made London landmarks from junk modelling material.

Today, the children had lots of fun dressed as kings and queens. Thank you parents for providing your child with such fantastic costumes; they looked amazing!

This afternoon, Reception joined the rest of the school outside for a Jubilee celebration. They sang the whole school song, ‘Here’s to the Queen’, danced and had some special celebration cake and juice.

Enjoy your well deserved half term break children!

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 16.5.22

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It’s been another busy week in Reception Class.

This week, the children’s learning has been focused around the themes presented in the book, ‘Oi! Get off our Train’.

This book tells the story of a little boy, who sets off on a round-the-world night train to dreamland, with only his toy dog for company. Before long, all sorts of endangered animals are asking if they can jump up and join them on their journey!

Inspired by this, the children have learnt about how we can help endangered animals and have considered how they themselves can help to build a better world. The children also watched this animation of the letter written by Pope Francis to the whole world, entitled Laudato Si’.

https://cafod.org.uk/Education/Primary-teaching-resources/Laudato-Si-for-children

The children also had lots of fun creating and playing in a train/ tube station role play area outside.

In Maths, the children have been making up addition stories using the language of First, Then, Now. They have also been encouraged to explore addition practically during their Child Initiated Learning time.

Next week, we are looking forward to learning about Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the royal family.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team.

Reception Week Beginning 9.5.22

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Facts about the earth - solar systemThis week, Reception have continued learning and sharing their  knowledge about space. They found out the following facts:

1) One million Earths could fit inside the sun – and the sun is considered an average-size star.

2) For years it was believed that Earth was the only planet in our solar system with liquid water. More recently, NASA revealed its strongest evidence yet that there is intermittent running water on Mars, too!

3) Comets are leftovers from the creation of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago – they consist of sand, ice and carbon dioxide.

4) You wouldn’t be able to walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they have no solid surface!

5) If you could fly a plane to Pluto, the trip would take more than 800 years!

6) Space junk is any human-made object orbiting Earth that no longer serves a useful purpose. Scientists estimate there are about 500,000 pieces of space junk today, including fragments from rockets and satellites, and everyday items like spanners dropped during construction of the International Space Station!

7) An asteroid about the size of a car enters Earth’s atmosphere roughly once a year – but it burns up before it reaches us. Phew!

8) The highest mountain known to man is on an asteroid called Vesta. Measuring a whopping 22km in height, it is three times as tall as Mount Everest!

9) There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. That’s at least a billion trillion!

10) The sunset on Mars appears blue.

Thy enjoyed learning about the different planets in our solar system by listening to this song:

After listening to this song a couple of times, some children made the solar system from rocks and used it along with some rockets for imaginary play.

In English, the children heard the wonderful story  ‘How to Catch a Star’. Everyone discussed and then wrote about how they would catch a star.

In Maths, the children had fun participating in lots of spatial reasoning activities. These activities included matching simple shape arrangements to their friend’s model or picture. The class were amazing at this!

We are looking forward to the sunny, warm weather that is forecast for next week. Please make sure that your child comes to school with their water bottle, a named hat and wearing sun cream.

Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week Beginning 2.5.22

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This week in Reception, the children continued to dig deeper into their new topic ‘Cities and Transport’, by learning about things that travel through the air.

They began the week by listening to the story, ‘Whatever Next?’ by Jill Murphy. This story provoked lots of discussion around big questions such as: What important possessions would you take to the moon? Could humans live on the moon? How does a spacecraft actually get to the moon and how does it get back to Earth?

The children watched a rocket launch, via the Nasa website. This inspired many of the class  to make their own large and small space rockets.

The whole class have shown great interest in the topic of space and so, led by them, we will be continuing this theme next week.

One of the overarching curriculum aims for our Reception class is for every child to learn how to ride a two-wheeled bike independently, and so the children have been working really hard over the past academic year to master this skill.

What previously learnt experiences, knowledge and skills do the children need to achieve the aim?

There are many skills needed to ride a bike.

We believe they are:

  • Clasping strength and grip
  • Knowing how to steer
  • Use and understand directional vocabulary
  • Able to balance- left leg, right leg
  • Developed bilateral co-ordination
  • Developed control of movement
  • Able to push pedals using both feet
  • Able to avoid obstacles
  • Take turns to share the equipment
  • Able to follow instructions and rules
  • Able to self-regulate behaviour
  • Being able to manage risk- being safe and taking risks
  • Select appropriate safety equipment
  • Understanding of road safety for all
  • Effective communication skills
  • Able to deal with disappointment
  • Perseverance and resilience
  • Making links between old and new experiences
  • Confident to ask for help if needed
  • Respect for equipment

We now have 18 children who can confidently ride without support and many others who are on the cusp; these children will definitely be riding by the end of the year!

What a great success!

This morning, Reception took part in the May Procession, to honour Mary. As usual, the children made their teachers proud with their fantastic behaviour and reverence during this special time.

At lunchtime today, the class had a very exciting time, when they joined in with a Bollywood dancing experience.

Finally, this afternoon, Reception and Year 6 decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and met up on the field, where they created their own games and obstacle courses, using the sports equipment.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

 

 

 

 

Reception Week Beginning 18.4.22

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Welcome back!

We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter break. It has been lovely to welcome the children back and hear their news. Well done to the children who made an Easter garden; they were all absolutely beautiful.

This week, the class have been learning about the Resurrection of Jesus. They showed their understanding of the story events through a range of activities such as: building the empty tomb from different materials and using it to retell the story, writing their own versions, drawing pictures about what happened and making masks to show how Mary Magdalene, John, Peter and their friends felt when they discovered that the rock across the tomb had been moved and Jesus was gone.

We have also been focussing lots of our learning around the themes in the book ‘On the Way Home’ by Jill Murphy. This book tells the story about a little girl called Claire who cuts her knee, so she sets off home to tell her mum all about it. On the way home, she meets lots of friends and tells them how the fall happens, describing it differently every time and using her very big imagination.

The class talked about times in the past when they had been hurt. They were reminded that when they hurt themselves, they must always tell an adult, so that they can help them.

The children had lots of fun using their own imagination and creating other ways that Claire might have cut her knee. They also drew maps of their own way home from school, wrote lists about the things they see on their route and even helped to create a hospital role-play area.

On Wednesday, the children walked into the classroom in the morning and discovered an enormous box sitting in the middle of the carpet.

On the side was was a note which simply said, ‘What is in the box?’ This question generated lots of ideas and the children were very keen to write their thoughts down.

The next day, Ms Pemberton decided to open the box. To everyone’s astonishment, they discovered that Mrs Heymoz was in the box!!! She explained that she had been very curious and wanted to know what was inside the box, so she opened the lid, leaned in a little bit too far and fell inside!!!! She had apparently been in there all morning and nobody had heard her! Poor Mrs Heymoz!

This week, we welcomed Alessio into our Reception class. We hope he and his family will be very happy at Pope Paul.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The  Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 28.3.22

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Just like that, another term has flown past!

The children have been very busy finding out where our food comes from this week. Some children were very surprised to find out that meat comes from animals! As you sit down to dinner together, please reinforce this new learning by talking about where the food on their plate comes from.

Continuing on with the story focus- The Little Red Hen, the Reception children decided to create a new bakery role-play area. They made cakes and bread to sell, created appetising posters displaying prices and wrote down shopping lists.

Some children acted out the story after creating their own farm setting, using the large construction, props and small world animals.

The children have been working hard to learn their number bonds to ten this week. Please show your children this episode of Numberblocks on BBCiPlayer; it has a really catchy song they all seem to love.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bn5k6h/numberblocks-series-3-ten-again

Also, if you can, please let them have a go at this game too, in order to embed this new learning. Thank you!

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Press Number Bonds/ Make Ten

Wishing you all a very happy and restful Easter.

Thank you all for your continued support this term.

The Early Years Team

RE Whole-school Home Learning
Every family is invited to make an Easter Garden over the holidays. Please see instructions overleaf and suggestions below.
Easter Gardens should be brought into school on Tuesday 19th April and placed in the Peace Garden.

Many thanks,

Emma Donatantonio
RE Coordinator

 

How to make an Easter Garden.

You need:
* A shallow tray or dish *Garden soil or potting compost *Moss, cut grass or sand *Dried twigs *Sewing thread *Small pot *Flat stone large enough to cover the mouth of the pot *Egg cups (or other small containers) *Small flowers/plants *Gravel/stones/woodchip

To Make:
1. Fill the tray with soil or potting compost.
2. Arrange it to make a hill on one side of the tray.
3. Cover the soil with moss, grass or sand.
4. Make three crosses with dried twigs tied together with sewing thread and place on the hilltop.
5. Press the small pot into the hillside to make a cave like the garden tomb. Place the stone over the mouth of the tomb.
6. Press egg-cups full of water into the soil around the garden and fill with flowers/plant shrub in soil
7. Make a path coming from the tomb with gravel/stones/bits of tile, to show how the disciples ran to the tomb on Easter morning.
8. Early on Easter morning, move back the stone from the tomb, showing that it is empty.

Reception Week Beginning 21.3.22

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Reception have made the most of the gorgeous weather this week and spent lots of extra time learning outside in the warm sunshine!

In maths, the children have been exploring 3D shapes and had fun going on a 3D shape hunt around the school. They have also been very busy exploring, finding and making their own patterns.

On Thursday, the children took part in one of the school’s Lenten fund raising activities- the highly anticipated toy tombola! Every child in Reception went home excitedly with a new toy to play with. Thank you parents for supporting the older children in this event.

In RE today, the class learnt the story of The Last Supper through role-play.

We hope you have a wonderful day on Sunday celebrating Mother’s Day.

Enjoy the sunshine!

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week Beginning 14.3.22

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This week, Reception Class have joined the rest of the school participating in British Science Week.

The children started off with a science challenge set by Mrs Carey- to see if Reception Class can grow the tallest sunflower in the school! She gave the children just 4 seeds to nurture!

The class really want to win the competition, so they discussed the question, ‘What does a plant need to grow?’ Reception were not entirely sure, so they decided to plan an investigation to find out.

To make the test fair, they kept the pot size the same, the depth of the soil that the sunflower seed was planted in the same and the amount of water it received the same too. Then they decided to put it in different locations around the EYFS. One pot was placed outside in full daylight, one in the dark cupboard, one inside the classroom by the sink and one inside the shed. The children will be monitoring the changes and will keep you up-to-date on what they find out!

The children have also been focussing on the story, ‘The Enormous Turnip’. They had lots of fun acting it out, especially when the turnip popped out of the ground and everyone fell over! As well as sunflowers seeds and runner beans, the children have also been very busy planting turnips and carrots in the outside planters. We are hoping to grow our own enormous vegetables!

Reception have been thinking about lots of alternative words for ‘enormous’. They thought of: gigantic, huge, humongous, massive, giant and ginormous. They also thought about the things that they had seen in the past that were enormous.

In RE today, the children learnt about the story of Palm Sunday. They made models of Jerusalem, created palm leaves, and wrote and illustrated pictures about the story. They finished by singing and dancing to the song, ‘Give me Joy in my Heart’.

Triumphal Entry (Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem), by Harry Anderson (62173); GAK 223; GAB 50; Primary manual 7-28; Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:29–38

We hope to see you at the Walk For Ukraine on Sunday.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team