Dear Parents,
It was lovely to see you all at the meeting this morning. If you couldn’t make it please don’t worry, as you can access the PowerPoint and other materials on Google Classroom.
Once again, thank you for your support,
Ms Pemberton
Despite being a three day week, Reception have fitted a lot of experiences and learning in!
On Tuesday, the class received a letter from The Natural History Museum asking them if they would be prepared to take care of a rare dinosaur egg while they had their new cabinets fitted. Reception were over the moon to be asked and immediately wrote back to accept!
The next day, Mrs Heymoz visited Reception, bringing with her a very special package that had just been delivered by a security guard! It was the dinosaur egg! The class were so excited! They noticed that the package had an unfamiliar word ‘fragile’ written on it. Luckily Joe knew that this meant ‘delicate’ and Noemi also knew that it meant that it was breakable! The children decided to put it on the prayer table for the time being and everyone thought that it was a probably a good idea to write signs, asking people not too touch the egg. Reception then began to plan ways to display the egg while protecting it and will implement these plans early next week!
Today Reception Class joined the rest of the school in their first ever May Procession to honour Mary. The children made their teachers so proud with their reverence and exemplary behaviour.
This afternoon, the class joined their Year 6 reading partners once again, for a special PE session on the field. It really is so wonderful to watch their special relationships slowly develop!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
The Reception Team
This week, Reception class have been learning all about the story of St George and the Dragon.
The children had lots of fun acting out the story using props that they had made. They also enjoyed story building with the small world knights and dragons set, painting and making 3D dragons and thinking of lots of interesting words when writing about them. In English, the children wrote about how they would defeat the dragon. There were so many fantastic ideas such as, building a trap in the ground, making friends with it and catching it and pinning it down onto the ground in a net! The children are all really keen to write, as their confidence in their own ability grows!
In Maths, the children have been learning how to recognise, build and practically partition numbers 11,12 and 13 and they have been trying hard to learn the number that comes before and after it on a number line.
Today Reception got to spend time outdoors with their reading partners. They began by asking each other lots of questions and finished by playing football with each other. It was so wonderful to see the children’s happy, smiling faces!
Wishing you all a wonderful bank holiday weekend,
Ms Pemberton
It has been a very busy and exciting start to the new term!
For the past two weeks, the children have been focussing on farm life and the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. This all began with a letter that Reception received from some local goats in Potters Bar. They claimed to be having problems with an unreasonable troll, who was being particularly mean and not letting them cross their bridge. They asked the children for some urgent help. The class wasted no time at all designing and making new troll proof bridges and thinking of creative ways to cross the river safely. The children have also been very busy writing their own versions of the story, role playing and hot seating the different characters, making puppets, painting pictures, creating clay models, making and playing with masks and writing apology letters from the troll!
In Religion, the class have been learning about some of the Resurrection stories and demonstrating their own understanding through a number of different creative ways.
This week, Reception had a fantastic time getting to know all of the visiting farm animals. Everyone decided unanimously, that they couldn’t possibly choose a favourite, as they were all so cute! Grace and Matilda said that it was the best day of their lives and everyone else agreed! The experience inspired the children to do lots of fabulous drawing and writing about the animals they saw.
Have a wonderful weekend,
The Reception Team
It’s been another exciting week in Reception!
The story focus has been ‘The Enormous Turnip’ and the children have have had lots of fun learning the Enormous Turnip song, acting out the story and writing their own enormous object story.
In Religion, the children learnt about The Last Supper and demonstrated their understanding of the story, through role play. They also learnt about The Eucharist and how the prayers and readings during this part of the mass remind those taking part of that final meal that Jesus shared with his disciples.
Today, the children celebrated Red Nose Day by taking part in a special egg and spoon daily mile, telling jokes to each other and thinking about what makes them laugh. It was decided that Joseph S and Ayrabella told the funniest joke and they were given the opportunity to tell it to the rest of the school in a special live assembly this afternoon!
In the glorious sunshine this afternoon, Reception once again met with Year 6 for an Act of Worship led by Jamie, Ava, Dejon and Emilia. Thank you Year 6!
Thank you for your positive feedback regarding the online reading books. This is of course a temporary measure, but it is comforting to know that we are able to provide an extra layer of protection for our families, in our fight against Covid. It is also wonderful as a teacher to be able to see how much time you are spending with your child reading every day. Thank you parents!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,
Ms Pemberton
It was wonderful to welcome all of the children back to school on Monday. To celebrate being back together again, we had an exciting class disco in the afternoon!
On Tuesday, we took advantage of the glorious weather and went for a walk together on the farmland next to the school. The adults were so impressed with how far they could walk and the fact that there was no complaining whatsoever!
On Wednesday, Reception had a road safety online workshop, where they were taught the importance of using a seat belt when inside a car and how to stop, look, listen and think, when crossing the road with an adult.
On Thursday, we joined the rest of the school in celebrating World Book Day. The children looked fantastic in their costumes and had lots of fun showing them off. They were even treated to a story read by a special visitor- the old woman from the book ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’.
Today, Reception finally got to meet their Year 6 reading partners, in a socially distanced Act of Worship, led by Matthias, Bella, Thomas and Emily. It was a truly special moment.
Parents, please remember to return all reading books from last term. We will continue to use the Collins online reading books for the foreseeable future, until all restrictions have been lifted.
If your child wears a school shoe and not a trainer every day, please supply them with a plimsole that can be left in the classroom for when we do PE outside. Thank you all for bringing in welly boots this week. They have been well used on our muddy daily walks!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,
The Reception Team
What a fantastic week of fun Reception have had this week!
The Christmas dinner and party were definitely the highlights of the week. The photos alone tell the story!
It is hard to believe that the children have completed their first term at Pope Paul School. They have already grown up so much! Thank you all for your generous cards and gifts; we really appreciate them.
Wishing you all a fun and happy Christmas- see you in the new year!
The Reception Team
It’s safe to say, that this has been the most exciting week in Reception so far this year!
On Monday, the children were filmed performing their Nativity play. They were absolutely brilliant- true professionals, who did us all proud! Please see your child’s individual Tapestry account for their individual photograph. The class watched themselves perform on the big screen on Wednesday afternoon, when it went live on the school website; it was very exciting, especially as they had popcorn, just like in the cinema!
The children spent most of the remainder of the week role-playing the Nativity and trying out the different characters, writing about the story, making angel wings and using different materials to build the stable that Jesus was born in.
Today, the class couldn’t believe their eyes when, during the school virtual assembly, Father Christmas walked right behind Mrs Heymoz while she was talking to the children and unbelievably, she didn’t see him! When they told her afterwards, she was in complete shock! When they met Father Christmas later, he explained to them that he had travelled a long way to see them and he had just been looking for a mince pie to eat, because he was hungry.
Yesterday, we received hampers from you all. These have been put into quarantine, so we haven’t opened them just yet, but thank you so much for your generosity. We really do appreciate it!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
The Early Years Team
This week the children have been learning about National Tree Week and Advent. The class started the week off by making their Advent promises and learning about the Advent wreath. They then went for a walk in the school grounds, looking at the features of different trees. This was followed by a technology session with the school iPads, where the children enjoyed exploring the Joy Noodle app and using it to create their own tree pictures.
On Tuesday, the children had a huge surprise; some tree fairies had been inside their classroom and in the outdoor area, leaving a trail of fairy dust behind them! The children then realised that some of the candles from the class Advent wreath were missing! The fairies had borrowed them and had left a note explaining why. They also asked the children lots of questions in the letter. The children immediately set about following the fairy dust trail, looking for the fairies and writing letters back to them. It was so exciting!
The children have also been very busy rehearsing the class Nativity in full costume. They are very excited about the filming taking place on Monday and can’t wait to watch it on Wednesday afternoon!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
The Reception Team
