Reception – Page 27 – Pope Paul Primary

Week 14 Reception

December 15, 2017/4 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

What a fun packed week!

On Tuesday, we returned to a very snowy school. We decided to have some hands-on fun, exploring what happened when we mixed dry powder paint with the snow, squirting food colouring onto the snow and using cutters to make ice shapes. We also watched what happened when salt was added to ice, and we couldn’t believe the loud, cracking noises that came from it!

Also on Tuesday, we watched the KS1 Nativity- we thought it was brilliant!

Yesterday, we had our delicious Christmas dinner. This was followed by the Pope Paul’s Got Talent show. We were very proud of the two dance groups from Reception, who performed with so much confidence!

This afternoon, Reception thoroughly enjoyed the pantomime. The children were all very engaged and had lots of fun singing along and interacting with the performers.

Have a great weekend,

The Reception Team

Week 13 Reception

December 9, 2017/8 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

The children did us proud on Wednesday when they performed their class Nativity. Every child was fully engaged and sang their heart out, despite the fact that they had a very big audience.

Thank you so much for coming to watch!

*Pictures taken during dress rehearsal.

Later on that morning, the school welcomed Bishop John Wilson. He had come to mark the end of our 50 year celebrations, with a whole school act of worship. Afterwards in class, the Reception children sang a couple of the songs from their Nativity play to him; he thought they were wonderful.

Next week, we are looking forward to the KS1 performance, Christmas jumper and dinner day, Pope Paul’s Got Talent and the Christmas pantomime at the Wyllyotts Theatre.

Enjoy your weekend,

The Reception Team

Week 12

December 3, 2017/1 Comment/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

As part of National Tree Week, we set Reception the challenge of finding five different shaped leaves within the school grounds. The children then had to match their leaves to those on the identity cards, in order to find out the names of the trees that they had come from.

In PE with Mr Dugan, we have been working on creating and holding balances. This week, the children were asked to try and create a group balance. This was very tricky but lots of fun!

We have also been practising very hard for our performance on Wednesday and are looking forward to seeing you all there!

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week 11

November 26, 2017/4 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

This week Reception have joined the rest of the school in focussing on the story Traction Man by Mini Grey. The story is based around the heroic adventures of Traction Man, an action figure who thinks he is a superhero.

Throughout the week, the children helped to create our own ‘Superheroes Headquarters’. They set up lots of systems so that the class superheroes could be dispatched to an emergency situation within seconds! This included: taking the initial emergency telephone call, recording the information, pressing the emergency red button, sounding the alarm and communicating the essential information to the superheroes.

Many of the children made vital superhero equipment to aid rescue missions and others thought about what they would be like if they were a superhero and had special powers!

On Thursday we received some shocking news from Traction Man himself, in the form of a letter. He told us that he needed some help from the class superheroes. The Evil Pillows (Baddies in the story) had stolen our marbles and were coming back to take all of the class cars!

The children had to act fast! They drew plans showing how they were going to trap The Evil Pillows, made magic potions, looked for clues, made the traps and built hide outs, to lay in wait for the cushioned thieves.

We finished off the week with a visit to the art gallery. We enjoyed looking at the whole school’s art work and finding our own!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week 10

November 18, 2017/1 Comment/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

This week, Reception have been participating in National Anti-Bullying Week.

The theme this year was ‘All Different, All Equal’ and the class have spent a lot of time celebrating what makes us unique.

We used the book ‘The Rainbow Fish to the Rescue’ to explore different types of bullying. In the story, a little striped fish is left out because he looks different to the other fish. This was a great way to start talking about what bullying is, in a way the children could understand and relate to.

This is what some of the children said about bullying…

“A person who keeps biting you all the time is being a bully. That is not good. I will never, ever be a bully. No way.”

“A bully person always says to another person, ‘I’m going to fight you!’ and they just keep on fighting everyone all the time.”

“A bully will leave you out and not share.”

“A bully is a mean person. They fight people all the time. They make people sad all the time. I don’t like bullies.”

“A bully goes around pushing kids all the time. It is a really bad thing.”

“Bullying is things like always biting or hurting the same boy all the time. It is very unkind.”

“If someone is hurting you at school, you need to tell the teacher.”

“Bullies make people sad. They make children cry. It is not kind.”

“Sometimes bullies call you bad names. You are not allowed to do that. You need to tell your mummy or you should tell your teacher.”

Mrs Theo was on a first aid course for two days this week, and so Reception Class had our Modern Foreign Languages leader, Mrs Moccia. She took the opportunity to speak some French with the class, alongside the French student visiting our class this week!

Next week, we will be focussing our learning around the book, Traction Man by Mini Grey, as well as rehearsing for our fast approaching class nativity.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team.

Reception Class Week 9

November 12, 2017/5 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

This week, Reception have been learning about why we have Remembrance Sunday and the significance of the red poppy. In particular, we have been thinking about bravery and talking about the times that we have been brave, even though we have felt very scared.

We also had some very exciting visitors who have to be brave every single day- fire officers!

Some of the fire officers from our local station came to show us around their fire engine. They showed us how they use their life saving equipment in an emergency situation and spoke to us about how they keep themselves safe in a fire. The fire officers also stressed the importance of working together as part of a team. The children asked lots of interesting questions and listened very well to what was being said.

To finish off, we all had a go at turning on the fire hose and knocking over the cone with the water!

Next week, we will be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week, focussing on one rhyme each day, and we will be joining the rest of the school in Anti Bullying Week.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,

The Reception Team

Week 8 Reception Class

November 4, 2017/3 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

This week we began our new topic, ‘Festivals and Celebrations’, with a focus on Diwali.

We learnt how about how Hindu families celebrate Diwali, the festival of light, by going to pray at the temple, lighting special diva lamps, coming together to eat special food and setting off fireworks in the evening. We listened to the story of Rama and Sita and watched film clips about how Hindu families prepare for Diwali

We also learnt about rangoli patterns and had fun creating our own from a wide range of materials.

We made diva lamps from clay.

During circle time, we talked about keeping safe around fireworks and bonfires. We even wrote some safety posters.

Some of the children decided to make a bonfire, complete with a seating area, from the large construction materials outside.

Other children made fireworks from junk modelling or created pictures using a computer programme.

Finally, we have made a start on getting the flower beds ready for Spring by exploring and then planting bulbs.

Next week we will be learning about Remembrance Sunday.

Have a great weekend,

The Reception Team

One World Week

October 20, 2017/9 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

What an exciting week of learning we have had!

Reception have enjoyed learning all about Italy during the school’s ‘One World Week’.

We made individual pizzas and some delicious lemonade. We used clay to make the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We created gondolas on a large and small scale and built replicas of the city of Venice with the large construction materials outside. The children also designed menus for an Italian restaurant and created beautiful artwork using dried pasta!

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Learning Celebration Morning today. The children were so excited to share their learning with you.

Wishing you all a well deserved half term break,

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week 6

October 14, 2017/4 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

This week in RE, we have been learning about how God created our wonderful world. The children listened exceptionally well and were able to recall the creation story in great detail afterwards. We then drew pictures and made models of creatures from clay, to display on our prayer table.

On Monday morning, we suddenly abandoned the classroom, as something very distracting and very exciting was happening in the field next to us! The farmer was finally harvesting his crops. This was a fantastic real life learning opportunity for the children, and we were able to use the experience to make learning links with the celebration of Harvest Festival.

On Thursday, Mrs Theo, Mrs Heymoz, Hanna, Emily, Panayiotis and Vincent all went to the church to visit the Little Lambs Group. We wanted to tell the parents and the children all about Pope Paul School, and to invite them to come and visit us. We also managed to have some fun while we were there!

On Wednesday, we had our first session with Mr Dugan from Dame Alice Owen School. Despite the fact that we had to stay indoors due to bad weather, we still managed to have lots of fun practising our throwing, catching and jumping skills.

Don’t forget, next Friday you are all invited to the Harvest Festival assembly. This will be followed by our Learning Celebration Morning, where you will get the chance to see some of the children’s fantastic learning on display in class. Looking forward to seeing you there!

The Reception Team

Week 5 Reception

October 6, 2017/7 Comments/in Reception /by Margaret Joyce

This week we have been thinking about when we were babies. We have spent a lot of time talking about the things that we could or couldn’t do when we were so small and comparing it with the things we can do now. The children have really enjoyed sharing their baby photos with each other.

On Tuesday, we were joined by baby Rocco, brother of Matteo in Year 1, and his mummy. The children were told all about how Rocco’s family keep him safe and happy. The Reception children had lots of interesting questions. We were amazed by how much they remembered about him the next day! Eraldo’s mummy has recently had a baby, and so Eraldo taught us all how to hold a baby properly, explaining how important it is to support the baby’s head.

This week we took our PE lesson outside and had a go at some team games. They children were brilliant at listening to instructions and turn taking! Next Wednesday, we are looking forward to PE with Mr Dugan, the PE teacher from Dame Alice Owen School.