Smoothie making on a bicycle with AiP (our lunch providers). The chef talked about why fruit is good for us and showed us some more unusual fruits such as papaya. We really enjoyed tasting the smoothie at the end of the session.

Tardebigge Trek. What a wonderful Summer's walk we enjoyed along the canal on Monday. Thank you to those parents/grandparents who were able to join us. It was a lovely afternoon in which we were given opportunity to appreciate our beautiful environment and be thankful for the wonderful views. 

Sports Day

I was so impressed with the effort of all of the Reception children! Each child took part in team games in the morning and the sack race, egg and spoon race and a running race in the afternoon. 

Well done to Bredon who won this year's Sports Day!

Forest School. The children really enjoyed building dens in our Forest School area with Mr Bennett. In the afternoon, they engaged in a range of different sport activities led by the children from Ridgeway school. 

Smoothie Making. We were inspired by the smoothie making earlier on in the week and so were very excited to make our own 'Summer Fruits' smoothie. The children chopped up the fruits and we used a blender to mix the ingredients together. 

Fun Run. We LOVED the fun run obstacle course in Reception. The children even raced against their friends to run through the inflatable course.

Horse Riding. The children were given the opportunity to ride a pony, engage in tack cleaning, find out some horse facts and comb Tony the pony. 

Jump Rope. For many of the children, this was the first time Reception had a go at skipping! Adam was a patient and fun instructor. He inspired us with his amazing jump rope skills.

Have a restful weekend Reception after a very busy activity week!

Literacy- We had a fantastic day at All Things Wild on Monday (see previous post for information and photographs). The children then wrote a recount of the day. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about dinosaurs as well as observe many different animals.

Maths- We have been creating 2D shape dinosaurs which the children have then been describing and identifying the shapes.

Phonics- We have been learning to spell the tricky words have, said, so and like as well as revising the graphemes ew, oe, au and learning the new grapheme ey.

PE- We have been practising for Sports Day this week with the children perfecting their sack race and egg and spoon skills.

Science- Caterpillar update: we now have cocoons!! The children very excited about the final transformation!

Have a brilliant weekend Reception! We have a very busy week next week so get some rest.

Useful information for ‘Activity Week’:
- Children are to come to school wearing PE sportwear. PE kits have been sent home this week.
- On Thursday afterschool there will be an opportunity for your children to have another go on the inflatable fun run on the field. We will be running this as a school fundraiser activity and therefore asking for a small payment per go (bring your change!)
- On Friday the children will be given the opportunity to buy a skipping rope after their Jump rope session. Details of cost will be on the newsletter.

Timetable for the week:
- Monday: Tardebigge Trek in the PM. Parents/carers are invited to join us at 1.15pm.
- Tuesday: Sports Day. The children have already pre-ordered a sandwich at school. In the morning the children will be engaging in group activities. There will be a picnic lunch on the field at 11.30 and the track events will be in the afternoon. Children to wear a t-shirt of their house colour.
- Bredon- blue
- Clent- green
- Lickey- yellow
- Malvern- red
Parents/grandparents are welcome to join us for part/all of the day.
- Wednesday: Forest School session (bring waterproofs!)
- Thursday: Inflatable fun run on the field
- Friday: Horse riding and Jump rope session

If you have any queries regarding Activity week then please just ask!

We have had a super day visiting All Things Wild. The children took part in a fossil finding session in which we handled dinosaur fossils and bones and talked about herbivores and carnivores.

We also engaged in a Dino Explore session in the Dino Barn in which we discussed different model dinosaurs and learnt loads of new dinosaur facts!

The children loved their ride on the Dino train and visiting the different animals. We saw some incredible animals such as zebras, kangaroos, camels, macaws, meerkats and beavers. The children were able to walk through the enclosure with the goats and stroke them. This was very popular! 

Literacy- We have continued reading The Dragon Machine and this week the children have designed and labelled their own dragon machine.

Maths- The children have been showing teen numbers in a range of different ways such as using Numicon, Base 10, cubes, objects and ten frames. We discussed teen numbers having one ten. E.g. 14 has one ten and four ones.

Phonics- This week we revised the following digraphs; wh, ph, oy, ir, ue, aw. We also revised reading and writing the Phase 4 tricky words.

RE- The children went on a hunt around the outdoor environment looking for fascinating and interesting things in nature. We discussed that many religions believe the world is special because God created it, that God is Creator.

Science- We have caterpillars in school! The children have been keeping a caterpillar life cycle. We are excited to observe the caterpillars form their chrysalis’. We have been learning about the caterpillar life cycle.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the theatre production of the Jungle Book on Tuesday. What a treat!

Have a brilliant weekend! See you on Monday for our school trip to All Things Wild. Remember to wear forest school clothes and bring a disposable packed lunch.

Literacy- We read the next part of the story ‘The Dragon Machine’ in which George finds a map of the place where dragons live. The children then drew their own dragon island maps and labelled the different features. For example, we had the Valley of Doom and the scary cave. Next week the children will be designing and labelling their own dragon machine.

Maths- The children were sent a letter from Finley Fish asking for their help. He is going on holiday but his owner cannot take his big tank because it is too heavy. He therefore needed to find a container that is not too heavy but that holds lots of water so that Finley Fish can go on holiday too! The children investigated a range of containers to find out which held the most water.

Phonics- This week we have been revising the graphemes ay, ou, ie, ea. We have also been practising reading and writing the Phase 4 tricky words.

PE- Due to the weather, our PE session took place in the community hall. We practised jumping the hurdles and playing the game ‘rob the nest’ in preparation for Sports Day which is not too far away now! Your child should have come home with a slip telling you which House they are in for Sports Day. If you have not yet received this then please let me know.

Science- Due to the strong winds on Tuesday, the children engaged in an indoors session with Mr Bennett. It was good timing as we had just had the caterpillars delivered to school. The children created butterflies using the playdough and paint and created caterpillars using craft materials. Mr Bennett shared the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the children drew pictures of the food the caterpillar ate on each day. We have discussing what is going to happen next to our caterpillars and the children have been making some very detailed observations of the caterpillars throughout the week using magnifying glasses.

Have a super weekend Reception! Hope it’s not too wet!

Literacy- To begin our new topic ‘Dragons and Dinosaurs’ we have started to read the story ‘The Dragon Machine’. The children have been spotting dragons around the classroom but these dragons ‘cannot’ be seen by the adults! Therefore, the children have had to describe and write about the dragons they have observed in the classroom.

Maths- We have been recapping how much each of the coins are worth; 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20, 50p, £1, £2. The children have also been practising adding 3 or 4 coins together in a purse using counters to help them realise how much each coin is worth. I have sent home a maths home learning activity this week to help your child develop their teen number recognition and counting on in 1s and 2s. We hope you enjoy this game at home!

Phonics- This week the children have revised the grapheme au ( haunted, August) and split digraphs a_e (cake, snake), u_e (flute, huge), i_e (bike, kite). We have also been practising reading and spelling the Phase 4 tricky words.

RE- Thank you to those of you who sent in some Christening items. The children really enjoyed sharing these during our RE session on Thursday. We were learning about one of the ways many Christians welcome their child into the world. The children visited the font in St Bartholomew’s church and we talked about the ceremony and what might be said and done.

PE- We have been developing our kicking skills this week by practising kicking to a partner, aiming for a goal and dribbling through the cones.

The children have also really enjoyed painting dragons to be displayed on our new topic display!

Thank you to all of those parents who joined us for our Pyjamarama morning on Friday to help raise the profile of bedtime stories.

Have a brilliant weekend Reception!

Literacy- We have been finishing off our Reception to the Rescue topic by writing our Supertato stories and creating our supertatoes using potatoes and craft materials. These look fantastic!

Maths- Mrs Barnett has been working with groups of children to represent teen numbers using the Base 10. E.g. 14 is one ten and 4 ones, 16 is one ten and 6 ones etc.

Phonics- We have introduced split digraphs this week e.g. a_e in cake, bake, e_e in athlete, i_e in kite, bike, o_e in smoke, coke and u_e in cute, flume. We explain to the children that the digraph has been split by another letter and pretend that the two letters are now holding hands. The children will be using the terminology split digraph.

RE- This week the children have been learning about how Muslims welcome babies into the world. We discussed Shahada and the aqiqah ceremony. The children then thought about what they would whisper into a baby’s ear to welcome them into the world.

PE- We have been continuing developing our throwing skills particularly throwing with increasing accuracy. After half term we will begin developing our kicking skills and will then practise for Sports Day!

Have a wonderful half term holiday Reception! Continue to read little and often but also have a well-deserved rest. The final half term in Reception is always a very but also a very fun one!

Phonics- We have been learning to spell the tricky words so, said, have as well as read them. We have also been revising the graphemes we have recently been taught. Next week the children will be introduced to split digraphs e.g. cake, bike, smoke, rude, athlete etc.

Literacy- The children have been working with me to write their ‘Supertato Veggies Assemble’ stories. This is the sequel to Supertato which we previously read. The children have yet again thoroughly enjoyed this story and their story writing has really impressed me! So many of the children are now using their sounds when writing. They were also encouraged to use finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.

Maths- This week the children have been making teen numbers using the giant ten frames with Miss Smith. She has sent home a follow up activity for the children to complete at home. Remember, every teen number has one ten and … ones (note: we do not call them units, they are ‘ones’ instead). We have also been continuing our work on subtraction and have been solving subtraction number problems, calculations and using a number line to count back on.

PE- This week we have been focussing on developing the accuracy of our throwing so the children practised throwing a range of different balls at different stations. The children practised scoring baskets with a basket ball, throwing beanbags into hoops and cones and throwing dodgeballs into nets and at targets attached to the wall. We practised our over arm and under arm throwing.

RE- We are continuing our unit on ‘Where do we belong?’ and this week read the story of Jesus welcoming the children to him, despite the disciples trying to send away the children. The children were able to represent this story in a variety of ways and we discussed how Christians believe they are ‘a child of God’ and are very special to God. Next week we will be learning about how any Muslims welcome a baby into the world through the aqiqah ceremony and Shahadah.

IT and Computing- We have been discussing the purpose and use of technology around the home and sorting objects into those that use technology and those that do not.

Have a fantastic weekend and see you on Monday!

Literacy- The children have really enjoyed reading the next Supertato story, ‘Supertato, Veggies Assemble!’ Miss. Smith has been working with groups of children to create story mountains using pictures from the story to map out what happens in the beginning, middle and end. They have also been practising retelling the story so that they are confident when writing the story next week.

Maths- We have been subtracting using number bonds, subtracting by crossing out and subtracting by counting back on a number line. The children have been predicting their answers before solving a calculation. For example, if it is a subtraction calculation we know the answer will be smaller. We have also been comparing different quantities and talking about the difference between these.

Phonics- This week the children have been learning to read HFW and practising reading and writing words with adjacent consonants.

PE- The children developed their target throwing during a team game in which the children had to pass the ball to each member of their team before attempting to throw the ball into the nets or hoop. Next week we will continue to develop our accuracy when throwing by engaging in some target activities.

IT and Computing- We are continuing to develop our ability to program algorithms for the BeeBot (the robot and on the laptops) as well as debugging algorithms to ensure they are correct.

Have a super weekend Reception! See you on Monday.

Welcome back Reception! We hope you had a fun-filled and relaxed break. We are excited to be in the Summer term at school as we get to look forward to Sports Day, Activity week and getting to know our Year 1 teacher and teaching assistant. However, we also cannot believe it is our final term already!

Phonics- This week the children have been revising the following graphemes; ue ay, ou, ie, ea, ew, oe. We have also been reading and writing the Phase 2, 3 and 4 tricky words.

Literacy- It has been so lovely to hear about the children’s Easter holiday. The children have been writing about all of the exciting activities they got up to during their 2 weeks. We were practising segmenting and blending the sounds in all of the words, using finger spaces between words and using capital letters and full stops.

Maths- The children were given a more/less maths number problem and asked to prove their answer. They were asked which superhero had more apples and had to use the appropriate maths resources to show why. We have also been solving Maths problems in our Number Time sessions this week as well as show number bonds 0-10 using unifix cubes and the part, part, whole diagram.

IT and Computing- Creating algorithms for a BeeBot, using the robot and an online resource, got the children very enthusiastic in our IT and Computing session this week. The children had to first listen to a set of instructions given by their partner. E.g. ‘Move to the ‘J’ and then the ‘A’. They then had to create an algorithm so that the BeeBot would move in the correct direction. If the children made a mistake, they then had to work together to debug their algorithm to get it working successfully!
RE- Thank you for sending in the stars explaining why your child is special. These were so lovely to share with the children in our RE session. We also discussed occasions when we have felt special and then talked about the Christian beliefs about how people are special to God. This introduced our new unit on ‘Where do we belong?
I have been away with Year 4 on the Condover Residential trip from Wednesday to Friday but look forward to being back with Reception next week.

Have a brilliant bank holiday weekend Reception!