This week has flown by,

Phonics- This week we have been recapping our phase 3 phonemes, we have been working hard in phonics, even writing our tricky words in the sentences we read. Lots of children are writing and blending CVCC words.

Maths- This week has been all about 3D shapes, Cubes, Cuboids, Cones, Cylinders and Spheres. On Friday the children coloured in their own party hats (cone shape) which had lots of different 3D shapes on them. We have also been looking around the classroom finding these shapes in our everyday lives. What 3D shapes do you have in your home?

Welly Tuesday- This week we went on a beautiful spring walk, what a lovely time of the year! Everybody had a tick list of spring things that we kept an eye out for, such as, daffodils, birds, flower buds and more. We even saw something to add to our list. This was an animal that is white and fluffy and says baa, can you guess what it is? Yes, we saw baby lambs. Reception and I were so excited to see lambs, the farmer had only just brought them into the field. They were ever so tiny, what a fantastic sign to see.

Whole class reading- This week we have been looking at Handa’s surprise, from this we have talked about asking questions, we wrote our own questions to Akeyo.

RE- We have been looking at Easter (Good Friday and Easter Sunday), we learnt that on Easter Sunday Christians commemorate Jesus’ resurrection. We learnt about lots of Easter traditions, we looked closely at flower crosses where Christians decorate a cross with flowers. As a class, we decorated the school cross with flowers ready for Easter Sunday.

What another fantastic week of hard work!

Phonics- In phonics this week we have been recapping over our phase 3 sounds and trying really hard to hear all of the sounds, we have looked at the graphemes sh, ch, th, oa, oo (poo at the zoo) igh and ee while also segmenting and blending CVCC words too.

Maths- This week we have been looking at weight volume and measurement. On Tuesday we had a very exciting maths lesson about capacity, we had to make sure we had the correct amount in each glass for the science experiment to work. We looked at empty, nearly empty, half full, nearly full and full amounts in the glass. All the mixtures reacted and made the potion rise up and over its full capacity and spill out over the top. They loved the awe and wonder. The children also had the chance to weigh items using scales (not snake scales), their challenge was to find things that were 10g heavy, this was harder than they thought. You could try and see if you can do this at home on scales.

Welly Tuesday- In forest school we had lots of fun because it’s nearly spring, I asked the children to make dens and habitats for animals. Lots of children made all sorts of dens for all kinds of creatures, we had snake dens, rabbits’ dens, worm homes and even dinosaur dens. We also were given frogspawn, which we are now looking after in our school pond and we looked at the lifecycle of frogs.

Whole class reading- Throughout this week we have been looking at a book called Dinosaurs in our School, these are disruptive dinosaurs just like the dinosaurs the children made at home. The dinosaurs created chaos in the classroom, painting the tables, throwing books around and making a terrible mess. From this book, all the children have created their own disruptive dinosaur pages. They have been up to all sorts; clogging toilets, breaking toys and gobbling up our bread and spread. I will be sharing the finished results of our published book with the children on Monday. I’m so excited to see their faces! Everyone has worked so incredibly hard to produce their sentences, we have been so impressed.

Well done reception, keep up the good work for next week,

Miss Machin

WOW, blink and the week is over, I can’t believe we have all completed our first week, I am amazed at how the children have come in and settled back into school life all so quickly.

Throughout this week it has been Science week, and what a fun week to start back on.

 Science week- We have looked at volcanos and created our own erupting volcano in class, we later found fizzy dinosaur eggs to start off our topic of Jungle Giants and Deadly Dinosaurs, we also talked about astronauts and space, sending our pop rockets up to space using powdered rocket fuel (fizzy vitamin c tablets) and water, the children did lots of exciting experiments with Miss Walker and Mrs Pugh, blowing up balloons with reactive gasses, colour catching to make a rainbow and to end the week with a bang, we did the coke and mentos rocket.

Phonics- This week, we have recapped all our Phase 3 and Phase 3 tricky words, remember you can always practice your tricky words at home with the very catchy songs.

Maths- This week we have been learning to subtract numbers using our tens frame, we have been looking at worded number problems using dinosaurs and astronauts to help us learn. I was so impressed with their learning by the end of the week we have even started to look at our number bonds to ten with a very catchy song!

Welly Tuesday (not as catchy as Welly Wednesday)- It was a VERY muddy session in forest school (please bring spare socks), the children thoroughly enjoyed their time outside and being able to be back with their friends, lots of children loved playing and jumping in the muddy puddles and lots of children loved digging for worms. In Reception class we had an important email for Alan the Astronaut who was feeling sad, he wanted to see a rainbow from up in space, lots of children used the colourful water left by Alan to make him a pretty rainbow decorating the trees in forest school.

PSHE- This week we have focused lots on well-being, it has been a big change for all of us coming back to school after such a long time away, this week in whole class reading we looked at a book called Worrysarus, this book looks at a dinosaur and his worries and how he learns to cope with them, such a lovely story. We have also played lots of listening games to help improve our listening skills.

Dinosaurs- This week the children had the chance to show off their fantastic homemade dinosaurs, these looked amazing, thank you for all the time you spent making these, they are great but I have a feeling they are naughty dinosaurs, we will have to wait until next week to see what they get up to…

I just want to say a huge thank you for all the hard work you have done over the lockdown.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Miss Machin

Party day was a huge success. The children loved coming to school in their party clothes and enjoyed playing party games with their friends. Thank you to FOTs for providing the yummy snacks and Christmas crackers.

On Wednesday the children were surprised by a visit to Father Christmas at Miss Hill’s stables. It was such a wonderful and magical experience! Thank you to FOTs again for providing refreshments and presents.

Phonics- We have been learning the grapheme er (better, letter) and learning the tricky words ‘her’ and ‘all’.

Maths- We have been continuing our learning on 1 more and 1 less than numbers to 5. Continue to practise this at home.

Thank you for all of your help and support at home with your child’s learning this term. It makes a massive difference. Over the Christmas holiday, keep the reading, tricky word practise and caterpillar words ticking over. Little and often is the key!

However, most importantly make sure you enjoy spending time with each other over Christmas and make the most of a rest!

From January, Miss Machin will be teaching Reception class and I will be predominantly working from home with the exception of Forest school on a Tuesday afternoon. It will no longer be Welly Wednesday! Please ensure your child brings their waterproofs to school in a bag on Tuesdays and remember to send your child in with their wellies on the first day back.

Enjoy your Christmas break!

Literacy- The children have enjoyed role playing in the Christmas Post Office and have been busy writing and posting their letters to Father Christmas.

Maths- We have been learning about 2D shapes this week. The children have been describing the properties of 2D shapes and naming them. We have matched shape presents to shape Santa’s and created shape snowmen. The children have also been sorting shapes according to their properties and developing their positional language (e.g. in between, up, above, below, under, beside, next to) by describing the present in relation to the Christmas tree.

Phonics- This week we have been learning to spell the tricky words I, go, to, the, no, into and learning to read the tricky word they. We have also been learning the phonemes for the graphemes ear (fear, hear), air (hair, stairs) and ure (pure, cure). These are all trigraphs meaning three letters, one sound.

RE- This week we have been discussing how Christians celebrate Christmas and why. We sang a few carols and watched some clips about how Christmas is celebrated in churches. We have also been learning about Christingle and made a class Christingle discussing what the different parts represent.

Welly Wednesday- It was a VERY muddy session down in forest school this week but the children thoroughly enjoyed it and many of them loved jumping and rolling in the muddy puddle! We have been reading the story Stick Man by Julia Donaldson across the week in our whole class reading sessions so a few children made their own stick man in the forest school area.

We enjoyed a Christmas dinner on Wednesday and the pantomime on Friday. We are definitely feeling very Christmassy in Reception class!

We are looking forward to a fun filled week next week. Remember to wear your Christmas jumpers with your uniform on Friday 18th December. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Phonics- We have been learning the phonemes for the graphemes ur, ow and oi and learning to read the tricky word ‘you’. Your child should have received their tricky word Christmas tree and baubles. If you cut out the baubles, your child can practise reading the tricky words on the baubles and then placing it on the tree. If you could practise reading these ‘little and often’ at home it will really help increase your child’s reading fluency.

Literacy- We have been getting ready for Christmas by writing a Christmas checklist including items such as a ‘tree’, ‘sack’, ‘hat’ (Santa’s hat) etc. The children were encouraged to sound out the words carefully and use the alphabet mat to help them with their letter formation. The children have loved role playing in Santa’s workshop this week, wrapping presents and writing gift tags for the parcels.

Maths- This week the children have been finding out 1 more and 1 less than numbers to 5 and proving their answers using a range of maths apparatus such as the ten frames and counters, the part, part, whole diagram and counting objects.

Music- The children listened to Ganesh is Fresh by MC Yogi and closed their eyes. We discussed any emotions, pictures or colours they visualised or felt whilst listening to the song.

Welly Wednesday- We were busy filming for our next nativity video clip. The children enjoyed a Winter’s walk as we were doing so. They were amazed by the incredible views from the top of the hill. We talked about all of the things we could observe!!

Science- On Monday we made a class lava lamp which the children were very excited about. If you would like to make one with your child at home all you need is the following:
-an empty plastic bottle
-oil (vegetable or sun flower)
-food colouring (any colour!)
-alka seltzer tablets
Tip the oil into the bottle, add a few drops of food colouring then add the alka seltzer tablets (2 or 3 depending on how bubbly you’d like it) and then enjoy! Place a torch or light underneath the bottle to create that lava lamp experience.

IT and Computing- We have really enjoyed using the laptops to play an underwater counting game. The children had to count the sea animals and then click on the correct numeral. The children were developing their trackpad skills of moving the mouse and clicking it.

Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday!

Phonics- This week we have been learning the phonemes for the graphemes oo, ar and or. We have also been learning to read the new tricky words my, was.

Literacy- We have really enjoyed reading the nativity story this week and acting out different parts of the story. The children were also labelling baubles with the different colours. The children practised hearing the initial sounds in each word and used an alphabet mat to help them form the letters.

Maths- This week has been all about repeating patterns. The children have been creating patterns in a range of different ways using unifix cubes, numicon, musical instruments and pictures. We practised making AB repeating patterns e.g. blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, yellow, ABB repeating patterns e.g. blue, yellow, yellow, blue, yellow, yellow and even ABBC repeating patterns e.g. blue, yellow, yellow, red, blue, yellow, yellow, red.

PE- The children practised creating different shapes with their partner and were interpreting different animals through the movement of dance.

Welly Wednesday- It was a very wet Welly Wednesday this week! We definitely needed our wellies for our wet walk across the fields. The children were on the hunt for holly. We were looking for those red berries and shiny, spiky green leaves.

Christmas! Yes, we are well and truly in the swing of the festivities now! We have been dressing up as different characters from the nativity, acting out different parts of the story and learning a couple of Christmas songs. We have also started making some Christmas cards. We may send these home a little earlier than usual this year just to make sure they definitely make it home to you! We are really looking forward to all the Christmas fun we have planned over the next few weeks.

Birthday party and cinema afternoon- Friday was full of fun with a birthday party in the morning celebrating those children who have had their birthday in September, October and November. We will be having a monthly birthday party for those children who are turning 5 and may be missing out on having a big birthday party. In the afternoon, it was Cinema afternoon which the children really enjoyed. Thank you to FOTS for our yummy treats and we thoroughly enjoyed watching Peter Rabbit’s The Tale of the Christmas Star.

Enjoy your weekend Reception. See you next week.

Phonics- We have been learning the phonemes for the graphemes ai, ee, igh, oa. Remember a digraph is two letters one sound such as ai and ee and a trigraph is three letters making one sound such as igh (bright, night).

Literacy- The children have been enjoying Owl Babies by Martin Waddell as our whole class text this week. Linked to this text we have been labelling a picture of an owl.

Maths- The children have been practising showing more and less than/fewer using a range of counting objects and counters on a ten frame. We have discussed adding objects to find out more than and taking away objects to find less than or fewer.

PE- This week the children were incorporating shapes into their dance moves and during our ‘Games’ PE session the children were changing direction to avoid others, travelling in different ways (modes of transport) and listening carefully to the rules of each game.

Music- The children were discussing how they felt when listening to Boogie Wonderland by Earth Wind and Fire and discussed what colours/pictures popped into their heads when listening to the song. The children then listened to notes on a glockenspiel and had to decide whether it was a high or low pitch.

Science- We had a whole class discussion about hibernation and carried out an investigation using two hot water bottles, one with a furry cover and one without. These were then placed in a box (cave) and left for a couple of hours. The children predicted which would go cooler and lose heat the fastest. Afterwards we discussed the importance of fur, blubber and wearing hats, scarves and gloves in the Winter.

We also went on a hunt outdoors for some of Percy the park keeper’s animals and have been learning some facts about these animals throughout the week. One of the key words we have been learning is ‘nocturnal’.

The children found a few worms in our outdoor area on Tuesday and were fascinated so on Welly Wednesday we went on a worm hunt in the forest school area and returned to the classroom to learn some facts about worms. Some children decided to then have a go at writing some worm facts.

We have also started learning about the first Christmas when Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. We are already getting excited about the festive season in Reception and have started to learn a song for the first part of our Christmas clips to be posted on Class DoJo. Watch this space!

Enjoy your weekend and we will see you on Monday!

Phonics- We have been learning the phonemes for the following digraphs; ch, sh, th and ng. We have also been learning to read our new tricky words he, she, we.

Literacy- The children have been making up their own stories for me to scribe. They have been having a go at writing any tricky words or initial sounds they may know and then these stories are acted out in front of the class.

Maths- We have been learning what the following vocabulary means; describe, pair, match and set. The children have been sorting objects into different sets and explaining to their peers how they have sorted the objects. For example, according to size or colour.

PE- The children took a trip to the jungle this week. They were sneaking past the tigers, jumping on the lily pond, avoiding snakes and swinging through the trees. They were then interpreting 5 animals through dance; crocodile, snake, elephant, lion and monkey.

Welly Wednesday- This week we have been reading the story ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert. It has the most wonderful illustrations of Autumn leaves creating different animals. The children were then given the opportunity to create their own leaf creatures in the forest school area. They were also very busy collecting worms and building a ‘worm house’, climbing the ‘climbing tree’, getting very muddy and rolling around in the large tunnel. Some children also enjoyed role playing with the fire fighters hoses we have down there.

Diwali- We have really enjoyed watching clips of Hindu children preparing for Diwali and learning about how Diwali is celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs. The children created some very colourful diva lamps to remind themselves of the story about Rama and Sita. We have listened to traditional music played at Diwali celebrations and watched fireworks (virtually!) at a Diwali celebration. The children also created rangoli patterns using coloured pasta and craft materials and drew their own mehndi design on a handprint. Unfortunately we didn’t use real henna!

Remembrance/Armistice Day- We hope you were all able to see our cross that we decorated with poppies. If not, I have posted a picture on Class DoJo. The children have been learning about Remembrance Day and we have discussed why people wear poppies on this occasion. On Wednesday we held a 2 minutes silence to remember those who have died in the wars and to think about our current brave soldiers.

We hope you have a great weekend!

Literacy- I have loved hearing about your half term holiday and the children have enjoyed drawing a picture of their holiday. We have practised writing labels, captions and our name next to our holiday pictures.

Maths- This week we have been learning the words ‘describe’ and ‘the same’. The children have practised describing different objects and groups of objects and talking about what is ‘the same’ and ‘not the same’. These observational skills will really help them when solving number problems and calculations.

Phonics- We have been learning the phonemes for the graphemes y, z and qu and have been learning to read the tricky words he and she.

PE- This week they were engaging in creative dancing incorporating animal movements using different body parts. They were also practising following more difficult instructions whilst moving around the room.

Music- The children were listening to and describing how the music made them feel. They discussed what instruments they could hear and whether it was a man or woman singing. Also the children practised finding the pulse using different techniques and then some chose a rhyme to beat the pulse to.

Percy the Park Keeper topic entry point- we had a special Autumn welly walk on Wednesday to introduce our new topic, Percy the Park Keeper. The children enjoyed a frosty walk including a hot chocolate pit stop! Each child carried an Autumn checklist with them and ticked off when they spotted these signs of Autumn.

Remembrance Day- We have started to learn about Remembrance Day and why people where poppies. Some children have been making poppies using the craft materials. We will continue to learn about Remembrance Day over the next week.

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night- We discussed the story about Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot again the government and King James and then shared ways in which we celebrate bonfire night and why this year we may be celebrating slightly differently due to lockdown. We also watched Fireman Sam’s bonfire safety tips. The children have created some beautiful bonfire and firework paintings and collages. They were so wonderful we decided to create a display of the children’s artwork!

Using part of our enrichment fund, this year we have decided to have a birthday party on the last Friday afternoon of each month so that the children can have a party with their friends at school. Don’t worry, those children with September and October birthdays will be celebrated during November’s party as well. We realise that the children are missing out on parties with their friends at the moment so thought this would be great fun for all!

Next week we will be learning all about Diwali, the festival of light.

Have a super weekend, see you on Monday!