Reception Week Beginning 17.4.23

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

 

Reception Week Beginning 20.2.23

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This week the children started their new topic for this half term-On the Farm.

In English, the children heard the story of Farmer Duck- a poor duck who had the bad luck to live with a lazy farmer! The class wrote their own story endings during guided writing and enjoyed making animal puppets, constructing farms, making farmyard inspired collages and finding out about different kinds of farms.

This week marked the start of Lent. On Wednesday, the children took part in a special Ash Wednesday service and were prayerful and respectful throughout.

In Maths this week, the children have been exploring the composition of 6, 7 and 8, through lots of practical exploration.

Today, Reception met their learning partners in the hall for a very fun session together. They had the choice of lots of different exciting activities to do and then finished off with a collective dance session!

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 6.2.23

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This week, the children have been focussing on the story ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’.

The story is a simple one, of a poor shoemaker and his wife who suddenly find they are getting help from a mysterious source. They discover their helpers are little elves, whom are working long and hard to finish making shoes. When the man and woman become rich because of the elves, they decide they must give
back to the elves in return.

The children absolutely loved this story and had lots of fun dressing up as elves and making their own shoes in the workshop.

The class explored the many different patterns on the soles of their shoes and even took some shoe rubbings to compare and measure.

One of the children spotted an actual elf running around outside;  the children decided to write letters to the elves, asking them lots of  questions. They placed their letters in the tree and are looking forward to see whether or not they respond over the half term!

The class also designed and made their own shoes, made elf hats and created clothes fit for an elf!

Today, we had our long awaited class assembly, all about love. The children worked so hard to prepare and were absolutely fantastic!

We hope you enjoyed it!

We hope you have a wonderful half term break.

See you soon,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Week Beginning 30.1.23

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This week, Reception have been focussing their learning around the story ‘The Gingerbread Man’, which they absolutely loved! The class particularly enjoyed learning the Gingerbread Man Song. Not only was the song frequently requested throughout the week, but we found that it also really helped the children to remember the order of the story.

On Wednesday, Reception took part in a lovely nature walk over the farmland next to the school. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, perfect for spotting wildlife and signs of new growth. The children were very excited to be outside of the school and exploring somewhere new.

The class have also been very busy preparing for next Friday’s class assembly. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 23.1.23

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Another busy week has flown by in Reception!

The book focus this week was the story of The Three Little Pigs.

The class had lots of fun thinking of different ways to trap the wolf, to make sure that he never bothers anyone again. Ideas ranged from putting him in a rocket and sending him into space, to putting a ring of fire around his house, so that he wouldn’t be able to leave!

Amongst other things, the children built their own strong houses for the pigs to live in safely, they role played the traditional tale and used puppets to retell the story in their own words.

In maths lessons this week, Reception have been exploring and comparing different measures and extending their mathematical language. For example, when learning about capacity, they learnt and applied new vocabulary such as: full, nearly full, empty, nearly empty. The class also had fun practically learning about mass and height.

In the Ten Ten session this week, the class learnt and applied names to different family relationships, and discussed ‘special people’ who they can trust. They also participated in a whole class activity, where together they sorted people in their everyday lives into ‘family’, ‘friend’ and ‘other people I know’ categories.

Dinosaur Egg News!!!

On Wednesday, the class received the dreadful news that the dinosaur egg that they were looking after for Professor Needham at The Natural History Museum, was unbelievably STOLEN!!!!

Luckily, Harvey had seen the thief carrying the egg, from his bedroom window the night before, and he was able to give a brilliant description of him; the police said that the information was extremely helpful! From this, the class were able to make detailed wanted posters and police reports. Some of the children also took fingerprints from anyone entering Reception,( to eliminate them as suspects) and they used their investigative skills to look for clues. The thief is still at large… hopefully the class will have some good news to share next week.

If the weather is kind to us next week, we are hoping to go for a walk on the farmland next to the school on Wednesday. If your child does not yet have wellies in school, please send some in with your child before then. Thank you.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Class Week Beginning 16.1.23

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Despite the temperature being so cold this week, the children have enjoyed playing in the outside area, where earlier on in the week, they went on an ice hunt, explored the properties and beauty of ice under the magnifying glass and experimented with ways to dissolve it.

As part of the whole school Other Faith Week, Reception class learnt about the Jewish religion and in particular the Shabbat. The Shabbat is the Jewish Day of Rest. It happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. During Shabbat, Jewish people remember the story of creation from the Torah where God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day.

The children also learnt about how Jewish people go on a pilgrimage to The Western Wall in Jerusalem and how, when they get there, they write special messages to God and insert them into this special wall. Inspired by this new learning, the children wrote their own messages to God and built Western Walls from a variety of construction.

The class have built on their maths learning from last week, by finding different ways of grouping 5 into three groups and recording their learning. They were also challenged to work out missing quantities, when part of five was hidden.

In English, Reception’s learning was derived from the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children had fun hot seating the characters from the story and learning The Three Bears Rap. They also made ‘wanted’ posters, character masks, puppets,  furniture for the bears and even wrote apology letters on behalf of Goldilocks.

On Monday, the class received a letter from the Natural History Museum asking the children to look after a precious dinosaur egg. The adults in Reception were dubious and a bit worried, as the last time they looked after an egg, it cracked, the dinosaur inside escaped and this triggered a country wide hunt for it!!!

The children persuaded the adults that it would be fine and that they could take care of it. They wrote back to the museum accepting their request and on Wednesday, it was delivered!

 

Reception class were so excited!

The children quickly went about writing signs telling people not to touch the egg. They also designed and built display cabinets to keep it protected, as it is so fragile.

The children have also been inspired to make their own dinosaur worlds and have been using the small world dinosaurs to make up stories in them.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team