Reception have had another wonderful week in their new class and it’s fair to say that the children are now very settled and confident in their new learning environment!

This week, Reception have been thinking about themselves and how they are all special and unique. As part of this focus, the children all painted a picture of themselves which have been proudly displayed in the Reception classroom. We have some very talented artists in our class it seems!

Reception class took advantage of the beautiful weather at the beginning of the week and really enjoyed playing with the sports equipment and exploring the space on the school field. We are so blessed to have such wonderful school grounds to take advantage of!

Some of the children have also taken part in some gardening this week. Every class in the school has a school flower bed that they have responsibility for. Sadly, the Reception bed is looking a little sorry for itself at the moment. Over the past few weeks, the children from other classes have been bringing in bulbs and bedding plants from home and brightening up their flower beds and we wondered if our children could do the same? Any donation however small would be gratefully received! Thank you!

Today, alongside the rest of the school, the class took part in a special mass to celebrate the start of the new school year and welcome them into the Pope Paul School community. The children were all absolutely fantastic, demonstrating incredible focus and reverence. All the adults in the school were very proud of them!

This afternoon, a very special occasion took place- the children met their Year 6 reading partners. This is a very important tradition at Pope Paul School dating back years and is an important part of the settling in process. The relationship formed and nurtured with their partner during their Reception year is very special and one your child will never forget! Please see the Year 6 blog for photographs.

Thank you to the families who have already sent in a family photo(s). If you haven’t yet, please can you send it in by Tuesday morning, as we will be using them in our RE lesson. Thank you!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

 

 

Reception have spent most of their last full week learning outdoors in their beautiful garden area. The children are so blessed to have this wonderful space to explore and learn in all year round and on hot days like today, the natural canopies offer lots of much needed shade.

Today, the children experienced sitting in the hall for the very first time, when they watched their Year 6 partners perform their end of year show ‘High School Musical’. What a wonderful treat! The class thought that the Year 6 children were absolutely fantastic! It was hard to believe that it was Reception’s first time sitting as an audience; they were respectful, sat beautifully the whole time and focussed on the play from start to end!

This afternoon, the class met up with their reading partners and shared books. The children will be meeting up one last time on Monday afternoon, where they will exchange the cards and gifts that they have made in class.

Thank you so much for your overwhelming generosity. It has been a rollercoaster of a year but made all the easier by your parental support which has been so very much appreciated!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend in the sunshine,

The Reception Team

 

We started the week on Monday by saying goodbye to our beautiful butterflies…

Following on from the children’s interest in snails last week, Reception decided to spend the week learning more about them. The class did lots of research and found out lots of new facts.

We found out:

• Most snails live from 2 to 5 years, but in captivity, some have exceeded 10 or 15 years of age.
• The mucus of the garden snail is used to treat wrinkles, spots, and scars on the skin.
• Snails do not change shells when they grow up. Instead, the shell grows along with them.
• The size of the shell of a snail reflects its age.
• Snails can see but can’t hear.
• Snails are nocturnal.

The children have continued to develop Snail World- today we counted over 25 snails living happily on there!

In English, the class have enjoyed listening to the story of The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. The children all thought and wrote about where they would like to go, if they were on the tail of a humpback whale!

In Maths, the children have been exploring and representing patterns with numbers up to ten and thinking about how quantities can be distributed equally. Reception class had fun relating this to the story Mr Gumpy’s Outing; a story about a man named Mr Gumpy who went out in his boat on the river and all the animals he met wanted to come too. Due to the unequal distribution of people and animals, the story ends disastrously with everyone falling in the river!!

Reception class re-enacted the story and worked out what Mr Gumpy should have done to avoid the boat tipping over. The teachers were very impressed by their problem solving and how they all worked together. Following this, the children were challenged to make their own boat from tin foil and then see how many marbles it could carry without sinking. The children had lots of fun doing this activity and many went on to make more boats from different materials and test these too!

On Wednesday Reception have their very first Sports Day. Please ensure that they are wearing trainers or plimsols, have a water bottle, hat and are wearing sun cream.  Please note, the children just need to come in their usual Reception uniform and will be given a coloured team band when competing.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

This week has absolutely flown by; a little bit like the main character in our focus story, The Bad-Tempered Ladybird!

This story centres on a bad-tempered ladybird who picks fights with every animal that it meets, but who eventually learns the importance of friends. In English, the class  found out lots of alternative words to ‘bad-tempered’ and came up with a long list: cranky, moody, miserable, cross, angry, mad, fed up, stroppy, moany. They also thought about what makes them feel bad-tempered and what helps to make them feel happy again.

It has been so wonderful to spend the days outside in the Reception garden. The children have had lots of fun finding ways to keep themselves cool too! They have also been keeping a close eye on the caterpillars, who since last week have all spun themselves a chrysalis and are very busy changing into butterflies! The caterpillars/butterflies have also all been given names and the children can’t wait to see them emerge next week.

In RE, the children have been learning about the story of The Good Samaritan. To bring the story to life, they acted it out in small groups, before sharing their drama skills with the rest of the class.

In Maths, Reception have been learning how to double numbers and have participated in lots of practical activities. They also made watches and clocks inspired by the clock in the The Bad-Tempered Ladybird book.

Well done children, for the wonderful European flags you made last weekend. They look beautiful displayed around the classroom.

Next week, we will be learning about worms and other creatures that live under the ground. If possible, could you please provide your child with a spare transparent container, for them to make a mini wormery. Also, if you have some old tan tights that you no longer need, please send these in too.

Thank you!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ 

Romans:15:13

This week, Reception became closer to God, by taking part in Spirituality Week, along with the rest of the school. The week’s activities had the overarching theme of ‘God of Hope’. 

On Monday, the children made ‘Butterflies of Hope’ for their Year 6 prayer partners. These were exchanged later on in the week, when they spent some time sharing them with each other in the peace garden.

The children also created some art work symbolising ‘hope‘, for our church community; these will be given to Father Shaun to share.

On Thursday, the children were given the opportunity to reflect on ‘The God of Hope’ by participating in the prayer stations, set up and led by our wonderful Year 6. The class absolutely loved the experience!

This week, Reception also had an exciting problem to solve. Some large empty eggs had been found on the field by Mrs Lennox, yesterday morning! The children were invited to write down where they thought the eggs had come from and predict what had been inside! Maybe you saw them outside the Year One classroom today at home time. What do you think?

The school is completing 30 days of wildness, so we can appreciate the nature around us.

Each day in June the children will complete a different activity. If possible, please try to do the first six activities in the half term and bring a photo of one of the activities to school.

1st June – Feel the wild between your toes – squelch your toes in sand, grass or mud.

2nd June – Look up at the clouds – What shapes can you see?

3rd June – Find a creepy crawly, be gentle and observe the way it moves.

4th June – Thread a daisy chain

5th June – Make a nature table, collect wild treasures like feathers, fossils or bones.

6th June – Have lunch in the wild.

Have a wonderful, sunny week!

The Reception Team