Reception Week Beginning 7.3.22

It’s been another busy week in Reception Class this week!

The children have been focussing on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and have been getting their own beans prepared for germination. Have a look at the beans on the Reception windows; we are looking forward to watching the roots and shoots grow soon. Amongst other things, the children have had fun making their own beanstalks from a variety of construction materials. They also acted out the story, hot seated the characters and discussed and wrote about what they would like to see at the top of their beanstalk. The class agreed that a land made of chocolate would be fantastic!

In maths learning, the children have been learning about the composition of 9 and 10 and learning to put numbers in the correct order.

This week, Reception put on their wellington boots and went for a lovely, muddy walk in the adjacent farmland. The children saw red kites flying above them, found bones and worked out that the crop growing at the moment appears to be rape seed. We are looking forward to having a bright yellow field next to us!

Today, the children took part in a fantastic science workshop, where they learnt about how different types of weather is formed. They also had lots of fun exploring bubbles!

As we have now taught all of the Reception sounds, we will no longer be sending home the daily phonics book. This is to be kept at home for you to regularly practise the sounds with your child. Instead, your child will be bringing home a writing book on their reading day. This book is for your child to practise applying their phonic knowledge, through writing in it as often as possible. More information will be given to you on your child’s reading day about this.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Class Week Beginning 28.2.22

Wow! What an exciting week Reception have had!

This week, Reception have had two full days of whole school celebrations.

On Tuesday, the children celebrated Mardi Gras, by making fabulous masks, learning about how it is celebrated all over the world, eating pancakes, participating in pancake races and joining in with the whole school Mardi Gras dance! The class had so much fun!

On Thursday, the children also enjoyed participating in World Book Day. Thank you for providing your children with such wonderful costumes.

The day started with a whole school celebratory assembly. Here the children were able to see the amazing array of costumes worn by the children across the school. They were then invited onto the stage, where they told the children and staff which book character they had come dressed as. In class, the children made reading crowns and enjoyed doing a story scavenger hunt.

As we are due some sunshine next week, we are aiming to take the children for a walk over the farmland next to the school, as part of our new class focus, ‘On the Farm’. This will most likely be on Tuesday. If you haven’t done so already, can you please supply a pair of wellington boots for your child, as it will be quite muddy over there after the recent rain. Thank you!

*Apologies, we are currently unable to upload photos to this page; I will add them onto your child’s Tapestry account.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

 

Reception Class Week Beginning 21.2.22

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a restful break!

This week, we began our new topic ‘On the Farm’. The children learnt that there are many different types of farming and talked about their own experiences of being on a farm.

Farmer Duck : Waddell, Martin, Oxenbury, Helen: Amazon.co.uk: BooksOur literacy focus was based around the book ‘Farmer Duck’ by Martin Waddell. This book tells the story of a duck who unfortunately lived with a lazy farmer that made him do all of the hard work around the farm. The children had fun hot seating the different characters from the book, joining in with the repeated phrases and retelling the story using props. They also all wrote their own ending to the story!

During Child Initiated Learning, the class had the opportunity to build their own farms from large and small construction, make farm animal masks, puppets, clay sculptures and build tractors.

In our maths learning this week, the children have been exploring measuring, learning about a different aspect every day. During each lesson, the children were set challenges to complete.

Exploring length

Height

 

Time

Days of the Week

Next week, we are looking forward to a very busy week- the Mardi Gras celebration on Tuesday, the Ash Wednesday service and of course World Book Day on Thursday!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Spring Term Week 6

We hope you all enjoyed the class assembly today about St Valentine.

The children have worked so hard over the past week, learning a new song, painting pictures and remembering words and actions; they made us all feel very proud when they performed so brilliantly this morning.

Love has been an ongoing theme in class too and the children have been very busy making love inspired art work and writing Valentines Day cards.

Reception have also been involved in the Internet Safety Week and have had daily sessions focussing on how we can keep ourselves safe online.

Topics covered in Reception were: 

  • What to do if you see something worrying or scary when you are online
  • ‘Think before you click’ on a pop-up or advert
  • What to do if someone tries to talk to you online
  • ‘Don’t believe everything you see or read online!’

This week, we welcomed Prisha and her family to our school community. We hope they will all settle really quickly into their new house and local community.

Wishing you all a restful half term break,

The Reception team

 

Reception Spring Term Week 5

This week, Reception have been thinking about the past and what it means.

To start our week off, we welcomed Mr Heymoz’s mum, Mrs Flach to the class. She spoke to the children about what life was like when she was a little girl and about her journey into adulthood.

Mrs Flach shared some beautiful photos of her mum and dad and her brother and three sisters. The children enjoyed listening to her talk about family holidays at the seaside and her experiences of going to school. Mrs Flach also showed Reception some photos of Mrs Heymoz when she was a little girl, which they found fascinating!

Later on in the week, the class also had the opportunity to look at baby and childhood photos of Ms Pemberton, Ms Steff and Mrs Gymer. They were amazing at matching the baby with the adult and asked some brilliant questions too!

Our story focus this week has been The Gingerbread Man. Amongst other things, the children loved thinking up their own different story ending, where the gingerbread man survives instead of getting eaten!

In RSE, the children have been thinking about the differences between a good friend and a bad friend. Together they thought about all the qualities that make a good friend. The class then made their own ‘good friend recipe’ adding an important quality to the bowl and mixing it in!

Today, we began rehearsals for our class assembly which we will be performing next Friday at 9.15am.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

 

 

Reception Week Beginning 24.1.22

 

In English this week, the children focussed on the story of The Three Little Pig and enjoyed thinking up their own ideas to trick the wolf.

In Maths, the children spent the week practically exploring weight and capacity, making predictions and learning the associated maths vocabulary.

In PE, we are continuing to focus on floor shapes and  balances as part of our gymnastics unit.

In RE, the children made some very special God telescopes and went outside to spot signs of God with them.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 17.1.22

It has been such an exciting week in Reception!

On Monday morning, the class received a letter from the Natural History Museum in London, asking the class if they could look after a rare dinosaur egg, while a new cabinet was being fitted. After much deliberation, the class all agreed, even though they knew that it was a very big responsibility! The children decided to write back to the museum to tell them their decision. They also began to think about the things that they needed to do in preparation. It was agreed that the egg would need to be put into a protective case and lots of the children offered to make one immediately.

On Thursday, the egg arrived by special courier and was handed over to Mrs Heymoz, who brought it into class. The children were very excited and couldn’t wait for Ms Pemberton to open the box. The egg was a very unusual shape; the children wondered what kind of dinosaur it belonged to and so they wrote back to the museum to ask them. We are looking forward to receiving their reply and finding out more information next week.

 

The book focus this week has been the traditional tale ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. Amongst many other things, Reception have enjoyed using puppets and props to retell the story, sequencing the story using special story cards, writing sorry letters to the three bears from Goldilocks and learning the Three Bears Rap.

In RE, the children learnt how God has no beginning and no end, just like a circle. They then explored and made circles using a variety of media.

In Maths, the children have continued their understanding of the composition of numbers up to five, when it is split into two groups, through lots of practical activities. They have also been impressing us daily with their growing subitising skills!

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 10.1.22

This week Reception began their new topic about time. Over the upcoming half term, this new  learning focus will cover aspects of the past, present and the future.

The children learnt about human development, from being a baby to old age during the Ten Ten RSE lesson. They also thought about how days are split into day and night and the daily routines that occur in both. Reception also discussed the big question, ‘Does everyone around the world go to sleep at exactly the same time?’ The adults were very impressed with their answers and the reasoning behind them!

Our book focus this week has been the traditional tale, The Ugly Duckling. As well as writing about how the Ugly Duckling must have felt, the class also made homes for him from a variety of construction material, drew story maps, learnt how to hot seat the characters from the book and participated in a whole class story sequencing!

In Maths, the class have been looking at the composition of the number five. The most popular activity of the week was the beanbag game; they children had lots of fun throwing beanbags into a hoop and noticing the different ways five could be split up/made, based on how many beanbags were inside and outside the hoop. They then recorded their learning independently!

In RE, the children continued to learn about the Epiphany and in particular about the importance of the star. They heard about how shooting stars are formed and watched film clips of them. They then went on to write about what makes them a star!

This week, we welcomed James and his family to our Reception class and Pope Paul Community; we hope that they will be very happy!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Spring Term Week 1

Happy New Year!

We hope that you all had a restful break and a happy Christmas. It has been wonderful to have the children back and to hear all of their news from the past couple of weeks!

Yesterday, the class celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, by participating in a special class act of worship. During this time, the children wore their special crowns and thought about the gifts that they wanted to give to friends and family. Please see the photos below.

We were also delighted to welcome Leo and his family to our Reception class and Pope Paul community this week!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

The Reception Team

Reception Week Beginning 6.12.21

What an exciting week Reception have had!

This week has been mainly focussed around preparing for the class Nativity play. The children performed their dress rehearsal to the whole school on Wednesday; this was filmed and will be available to purchase if you wish.

On Thursday, the  children performed to their families and were absolutely fantastic! Their teachers, families and friends were all very proud of them! In the afternoon, the class were then treated to the wonderful KS1 performance.

Today has been one of complete joy and excitement. Reception met Father Christmas and had their Christmas photo taken in the morning. This was followed by a fabulous party in the afternoon. I am sure we have sent home some very exhausted children tonight!

Thank you so much for your Christmas gifts yesterday; it took us by complete surprise! We really appreciate your generosity.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend,

The Reception Team