Reception Week Beginning 26.5.23

Pentecost and the Holy Spirit - Jen Norton Art StudioThis week, Reception have been learning about Pentecost- when Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of the Church, which was over 2,000 years ago! In class the children have been focussing on the related themes of birthdays, air, fire and water.

Reception learnt about fire safety and the role of the fire service in an emergency situation. They also had fun in the firestation role-play area that they helped to create.

The class created kites and planes and made up dances with ribbons, to explore air and wind. They also made birthday cards, invitations and party lists.

On Wednesday after school, many of our Reception families stayed for the international Pentecost celebration. It was so wonderful to see so many of you there!

Yesterday, the class joined the rest of the school in the May Procession in honour of Our Lady. The children did so well following the other classes and laying down their flowers.

Today, the children celebrated the feast of St Paul VI, with a special mass, followed by ice lollies in the sunshine. It was a lovely way to end another half term!

Wishing you all a very happy half term break,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Week Beginning 15.5.23

This week, Reception have joined the rest of the school in participating in Spirituality Week. The focus for this week has been Walking with Jesus.

On Monday, the class wrote prayers for the children in Year 5 and gave them to them in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, the children took part in a beautiful, prayerful activity called Praying in Colour. We have never seen the Reception children so quiet and reflective!

On Wednesday, the class went on a walk around the field. They were encouraged to be silent and ‘notice’ God’s creation all around them. The children were asked: What can you hear? What can you smell? What can you see? The class finished with some time in the peace garden, where they were delighted to find that a pair of blue tits had built their nest in one of the bird boxes. They were amazed to see how frequently they brought back food for their young!

On Thursday, Reception took part in the wonderful prayer stations led by Year 5.

On Friday, the class took part in a guided meditation sessions, focussed on meeting Jesus. The children were so impressive doing this and one child even fell asleep!

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Pentecost Celebration next week!

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Week Beginning 8.5.23

Following the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday, the children were keen to talk about the different ways they had celebrated, and share what they had learnt or observed during the televised ceremony.  Reception continued their learning about the coronation throughout the week, making collages, carriages, castles and congratulation cards. In English, they enjoyed discussing and writing about what they would do if they were a king or queen for the day!

In their maths learning this week, Reception have been developing their spatial reasoning skills by exploring and representing patterns, making simple shape arrangements and creating exact replicas of 2D and 3D pictures and models made by their partner. They also had fun making and playing with tangrams!

International Pentecost Celebration

We hope you will be able to join us after school on Wednesday 24th May 3pm-5pm, for a very special international Pentecost celebration. Please see the newsletter for more information.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

 

 

Reception Week Beginning 1.5.23

Despite it being a very short week, Reception have managed to pack a lot of learning in!

Inspired by the week’s story focus ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy, the children decided to make a new spaceship role play area. They worked hard to make their spaceship shiny and made signs to help the astronauts keeps safe when in flight. They had lots of fun playing inside it, once it was finished!

The children also made planet mobiles to create a more authentic space feel and wrote lists of things they needed to take with them into space. They enjoyed using the space rocket small world play too.

As part of our learning about King Charles III’s coronation, the children drew their own portraits of him and learnt that Queen Elizabeth II was Charles III’s mother. They also learnt that he was the eldest child, so the law determines that he is the next king. They learnt about the ceremony itself and how the king will travel to and from his coronation tomorrow. The children were very excited to share their home learning and plan a coronation party!

  

Today, the children made their own St Edward’s royal crowns and celebrated the coronation by decorating and eating coronation biscuits with their Year 6 reading partner. They then had a very exciting time in the big playground with the rest of the school, enjoying an ice lolly and waving their union jack flags.

Enjoy the extended bank holiday weekend and if you are celebrating the coronation of King Charles III, have a fabulous time!

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 24.4.23

Reception have had lots of fun learning about St George and the Dragon this week. Some of the children had been to a St George’s Day parade or other celebration on Sunday and were able to articulate what they knew already about him.

The class enjoyed acting out the story, making props and creating their own dragons from a variety of media. They also had fun thinking and writing about how they would get rid of a dragon from the village.

Thank you to all the parents who were able to pop along to the drop-in reading session on Tuesday. We look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday.

Finally, thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes this morning; it was a wonderful way to start the day!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

Ms Pemberton and the Reception Team

Please see the newsletter for some optional whole school home learning.

Reception Week Beginning 17.4.23

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It was lovely to see the children on Monday morning, full of excitement and telling us lots of lovely stories about their two week break.

We began the week by introducing the children to our new RE topic- From Easter to Pentecost. The children heard the story of the Resurrection of Jesus and then demonstrated their understanding of the story by creating their own representations of the empty tomb.

In English, the book focus has been ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. The story focuses on a young boy named Max who, after dressing in his wolf costume, wreaks such havoc through his household that he is sent to bed without his supper. Max’s bedroom undergoes a mysterious transformation into a jungle environment, and he winds up sailing to an island inhabited by monsters, simply called the Wild Things.

The class had so much fun pretending to be Wild Things and going on a wild rumpus. They also made costumes to wear, created and wrote about their own monsters and made models of things that travel on and under the sea.

In maths learning this week, the children have been representing numbers to 20 in different ways, matching amounts to the correct numerals and building numbers to 20 and beyond.

We would like to invite all Reception parents/carers to come and join us for a weekly drop-in reading session, starting next week. This will take place every Tuesday at 2.45pm. Please enter the school through the main entrance next to the office. Please note, you do not need to commit to coming every week and your child will not be on their own if you or someone from your family cannot make it.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 27.3.23

Following on from last week’s learning derived from the story- The Little Red Hen, Reception have been learning about the life cycle of a hen and about other animals that lay eggs.

On Wednesday, Ms Pemberton happened to find a large, white egg in the soil next to the mud kitchen outside; she carefully brought it into the classroom and the children immediately set to work, using their investigative skills to find out which animal it belonged to.

The class had some very clever ideas based on what they had learnt already in class and it was decided that it most probably belonged to an ostrich, due to it’s size and colour! If you happen to spot a baby ostrich over the Easter holiday, please ring the rspb asap!

Thank you for your continued support this term.

Wishing you all a blessed and peaceful Easter,

The Reception Team

Reception 24.3.23

It has been a very busy past couple of weeks for Reception.

During Science Week, they had lots of exciting visits throughout the week. Thank you in particular to Luca’s mum, who taught the children about microbiology!

The children have been very busy in their maths learning, exploring the composition of 9 and 10. In English, the class have been doing lots of reading and writing based on the The Enormous Turnip and The Little Red Hen.

On Monday, the class are going to go for a walk with their Year 6 reading partners on the field next to the school. Please ensure that your child has wellington boots in school, or else a change of footwear. Thank you.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 6.3.23

This week, Reception have been learning about how plants grow and what they need to be healthy and strong. The children planted some bulbs with the help of Mrs Moccia and listened to lots of different stories about beanstalks- Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs, Shhhh! by Sally Grindley, Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and of course lots of different versions of Jack and the Beanstalk.

The children’s favourite by far was the story Shhhhh! This award winning story completely captured Reception’s imagination and they had lots of fun imagining what would happen if the giant climbed out of the book and entered Pope Paul!!

In RE, Reception have been learning about Palm Sunday. They listened to the story read from the class bible, looked at paintings and then watched film clips to enrich their understanding of the story. Reception also used their phonics to write about the story, acted it out as a class, using props they had made and retold the story through the use of small world and building bricks.

To mark the start of Science Week, Reception class participated in a fun, interactive workshop, where they got to make their own sweets!! They then joined the rest of the school for a thrilling rocket launch!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Week Beginning 27.2.23

It’s been another wonderful week of learning in Reception.

The children have continued to focus on their new theme- On the Farm, through learning about Fairtrade farming, as part of Fairtrade Fortnight.

Using the core FAIRTRADE Mark - Fairtrade Foundation

The following video really helped the children to understand why Fairtrade is so important.

After watching the video, the children had lots of fun taking part in a banana hunt outside!

The most exciting day of the week however was World Book Day on Thursday!

Thank you so much for supporting this special celebration. The children loved wearing their pyjamas and book character costumes to school!

Thank you also for sending in books for The Great Book Swap event and for attending Reception’s special drop-in reading session at the end of the day. All these things helped to make the day more magical for the children!

During Ten Ten RSE learning, the children have been thinking about what makes a good friend and not a good friend. They also learnt about role models in their lives and how they can learn from them. Together, the children came up with a recipe for a friend and mixed all the character traits together to produce an ideal good friend.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team