What an exciting past two weeks Reception have had!

Last Monday, Reception Class received a letter from Professor John Pemberton from the Natural History Museum in London. He wanted to know if the class could take care of one of the museum’s very precious and rare dinosaur eggs, while they had a new display cabinet made.

The children immediately wrote back to find out more information such as- How big is the egg?

What type of dinosaur is inside?

How exactly do you keep a dinosaur egg safe?

Professor Pemberton wrote back and assured them that they would be fine and so the class agreed!

On Wednesday Pope Paul took delivery of the precious egg. The children decided to keep it in the protective box on the prayer table, as they felt that it was probably the safest place, while they designed and made a safe display area for it.

The children did lots of research about dinosaurs and discovered that like crocodiles, dinosaurs lay their eggs in nests under the ground. Some of the class decided to make their own nests.

The children also enjoyed digging for fossils and pretending to be archaeologists in their very own Pope Paul History Museum.

After the weekend, Reception class were shocked and bewildered to find out on Monday morning that unbelievably, the dinosaur had hatched from the egg and was nowhere to be seen!

The children immediately told Mrs Heymoz, who alerted the police and surrounding schools straight away. The children then went about the urgent business of setting traps, making CCTV cameras, looking for clues and creating warning signs and posters to alert everybody about the danger.

By the next day, there had been several sightings of a little purple dinosaur with massive teeth! The class began to write down evidence reports as they came in.

After several days of trying everything  to catch the dinosaur, Mrs Theo had to make a nervous phone call to the museum and explain what had happened to their precious egg. She was invited to go down into London this afternoon, to meet with Professor Pemberton, to give more details and to help the scientists and emergency services decide a plan of action to get the dinosaur back over the weekend!

Watch this space….

This week was Computing Week. Reception started the week by participating in an action packed eSafety workshop. The children learnt about the importance of not sharing personal information to strangers and how to stay safe online.

Later on in the week, Reception used some very exciting apps on the iPads to bring their pictures to life. The children couldn’t believe their eyes when their birds started walking around the page!

The children have also been very busy using technology to record their favourite activities and places in school.

It’s been wonderful to be able to get outside without any disruption from the weather this week. The children have really enjoyed performing stories, songs and shows on the new stage area, as well as using the PE equipment to make up their own games and using the mud kitchen.

What a busy week! On Tuesday we participated in ‘Safer Internet Day’ with the rest of the school. The children thought about ways that they can be kind to others, both offline and online. They listened to a story called ‘The Three Monsters’, where the monsters were sad because someone had said very unkind things about their picture online. They also learnt about different emojis and how they can be used in a positive way. The class then shared their own pictures with each other and had others comment on them, by saying something positive.

To celebrate ‘Other Faiths Week’, Reception visited St John’s Methodist Church on Thursday. There we met the church warden Peter, who showed us around and taught us about different parts of his faith.

Today, Reception finally performed their class assembly to their families and to the rest of the school. It was all about the theme ‘Love’ and the story of St Valentine. We were all very proud of their fantastic performance!

Well done children!

Wishing you all a very happy and safe break,

The Reception Team

Despite a week of terrible weather at times, Reception have still managed to have plenty of outdoor learning time. We have been focussing on the traditional tale ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and have turned our outdoor role play area into a building site for the pigs. This story has proven to be so popular this week, that we have decided to take it over to next week too!

The children had fun working in pairs or groups, to create their own den that didn’t fall down. During this time there was lots of idea sharing and we witnessed lots of lovely team work.

Inside, the children used Polydrons or straws to make new homes for the Three Little Pigs.

In RE, we really enjoyed listening to the children talk about their special objects from home. It was so lovely hearing them explain how their object demonstrated the love they had for a family member. Thank you for helping your child with this home learning.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team