Reception

28th March

In Reception we finished our stories and decided what happened to the big bad wolf. We worked hard to build this story and are writing more and more full sentences. In Maths we have been measuring lengths, weight and capacity. We have been completing lots of practical activities to help us to have a go at our new learning. We have been making lots of spring crafts. Our Easter Bonnets are underway and look fabulous. We will be making them into next week too so please bring in anything you want to use at the start of next week so that we can include it.

21st March

In Reception we have been developing our stories by writing the build up to the problem. This is the part where the wolf heads to Grandma’s cottage and we all know what happens next! Following this, the class are going to write about Little Red going to the cottage and spotting the wolf in disguise. In Maths, we have been using non-standard units of measure to measure the height of items in the room. Now we are going to move on to using rulers and tape measures too. In Worship, we have been exploring the Easter story and have learnt more about the events of Easter as we move through the week. We had some big questions and ideas to talk about and enjoyed sharing our thoughts as a class.

14th March

In Reception we have been planning and building our ideas to help us to write the story of Little Red. We have completed the opening and build up to our stories and are now ready to use our own ideas to help Little Red and her Grandma. In Maths, we have been exploring patterns such as leaf-stick-leaf-stick and leaf-stick-stick. This is helping us to identify mistakes in patterns so that we can fix them. Ask us to show you our skills at home. In our Small World areas, we have been using textures and materials to make our own woodland so that Little Red can follow the path and avoid the wolf. As part of our work looking at different houses and homes, we are also continuing to explore family. If you have any photographs that you’d like to share of the children with those they love at home, please send a photo on Class Dojo and we can share it with the class.

Thank you so much to anyone who could donate unused toys from home. It wasn’t at all expected but very much appreciated. I know it can be hard to pass things on that you’ve seen your children use happily over time but they will continue to be used to make other children smile too.

28th February

Reception have settled back into school very quickly and are already looking more and more grown up. We have been exploring our new book, Little Red, as we begin our theme of Traditional Tales. In Maths, we have been building our understanding of number bonds and it’s numbers under 10. We have also been talking about our feelings and have been helping each other decide how we can make any of our worries smaller - please check children’s pockets for mini worry monsters before they end up in the washing machine!

14th February

In Reception we have completed our letters to our superhero friend so that we can become side-kicks too. In Maths we have used tens frames to count and are starting to use those skills to add two groups together. After enjoying Valentine’s disco and Valentine’s wake up and shake up in class, we have been very creative and have used cutting skills and mark making to create heart figures and pictures of our lovely families. Have a great half term Reception, I hope the weather warms up and you all enjoy a lovely week.

24th January

In Reception we have been pushing our skills in writing by ending our stories about the superhero and the side-kick from our class book. In Maths we have been ordering numbers so that we can see which superheroes are the fastest. In RE we have been thinking about special people and the ways that they help us. We had some reflection time and shared our thoughts about those who are and were important to us and said a prayer of thanks for them.

17th January

In Reception we have been writing our own retelling of our class story Juniper Jupiter. We have developed ideas and have used these ideas to write sentences. We are working very hard in phonics lessons to help us to link the sounds that we say to the letters that we write down. In Maths, we have been furthering counting skills by counting on and back within 10. We have used counters to represent numbers and are recognising what the digit and the name for each number looks like. We have been using different musical instruments to develop a steady beat and have been identifying rhythm within a piece of music.

10 January

Happy New Year! Thank you for your cards, gifts and kindness at the close of last year. I hope that you all had a well rested Christmas break and that 2025 brings lovely things your way. Obviously at the moment it has brought coughs, colds and icy weather our way so please look after yourselves and, should you or your family need any help during this time, please remember that we are always here for support and guidance at school if needed.

This week, Reception have been getting ready to begin our new topic of Superheroes. We have been building cities, creating posters to help us to find a side-kick and have been writing our Superhero names. We will be using this time to consider everyday heroes that help us in so many ways and will be exploring how we can show gratitude to them. In Maths, we have been exploring the number 0 and learning that, as the class put it, 'nothing is something'. In Science work, we have been using our skills to explore forces and are understanding how applying force helps us to push or pull items.

22nd November

This week, Reception have completed the ending to their stories about the star after trying to think of new ways to fix the problems that the characters had. In Maths, we have been learning more about 2D shapes and have been discussing the differences between a square and a rectangle. We have been super shape spotters too and have been finding different shapes in the world around us. We have been making the most of the mix of weather that we’ve seen by linking it to our work on weather and the seasons. We have explored how to turn water to ice and how we could reverse it, we have noticed how the frost changes different materials in our outdoor area and we have collected leaves to create collages linked to our shape work in Maths.

8th November

In Reception we have been collecting shiny, glittery and sparkly treasure from around the classroom. This is inspiring us to write super opening sentences to our story and to build up our ideas. In Maths, we have been sequencing our daily routine. This is helping us to better understand day and night and why it is important to know the time of day. In RE, we have been talking a little more about the story of Jesus. This is helping Reception start to understand the Nativity story better as we begin to prepare to tell it to you! You may start to hear Christmas Nativity songs a little earlier than you expected to as we will begin to have a go at learning the songs soon!

18th October

We have completed our writing inspired by The Something and now say what we want to write before sounding it out and linking letters in our writing. In Maths, we have explored weights and have been using resources to balance scales. In PE we have been travelling in different ways around the room. We have been exploring the space around us and adjusting our movements at changing speeds. Well done Reception on conpleting your first half term at school. You have all grown so much already and have made the class your own. I hope you all have a fun week ahead and take a little time to rest.

11th October

In Reception we have furthered our skills in writing as we choose how to bring our stories to an end. We have developed our ideas from past weeks as we finally imagine what was hiding down the hole. In Maths, we used standard and non-standard units of measure to measure how long a piece of string is! We compared heights, lengths and ordered sizes. In Arts lessons, we have been using different media to create marks. We have tried to apply different pressure and to hold the materials differently to create new marks.

4th October

In Reception we have been building our use of the letter sounds that we know by trying our best to write new words. This has helped us to develop our story writing skills where we have been saying (or singing) what we want to write before putting those words on paper. In Maths we have been sequencing events such as stories and daily routines. We are using the language of first, second, third, then and next - have a go at home as you get ready for school.

27th September

It has been a busy week in Reception. We have been beginning to write our own stories by building an opener such as ‘once upon a time’. We are using the sounds that we hear in each word to help us to write our ideas down. We are using the sounds that we know so far to help us with this so please use the links for the sounds to help at home. In Maths, we have been creating patterns and using our skills to spot what makes a pattern using the resources in class. In Science, we have been learning about different types of animals in the world around us.

20th September

What a busy week we have had in Reception. We have found a hole in the school playground that keeps on growing. It has grown larger and deeper through the week. We have been listening to the story The Something to help us to build our ideas about what it could be. This has helped us with our writing too as we write about our ideas of dinosaurs, spiders and unicorns. In Maths, we have been making connections between pairs such as a knife and fork or an egg and an eggcup. This is helping us to find pairs of objects all around the classroom. Well done Reception!

6th September

Reception have enjoyed their transition week and will be starting school full time from Monday. They have been getting to know the classroom and the staff as well as making some new friends too. Well done Reception!

Previous Academic Year

12th July

In Reception this week, the children have been continuing to learn about money. We have been adding coins together in our ‘pretend’ shop and exchanging coins. We have explored how many different ways we can make 10pence using other coins. In Literacy, we wrote the final part of our story, ‘The Storm Whale.’ We remembered all of the other parts in the story and retold the story very well using lots of new vocabulary! We have also spent two mornings in Year 1, meeting our new teacher Mrs. Pullar and getting used to our new classroom environment! We are also busy rehearsing for our little concert next week and are very excited to perform! Today is the ‘Mad Science’ show which is also very exciting and we will be watching the Y6 performance this afternoon. A very busy and interesting week!

5th July

This morning all of the children in Reception and Year 1 went to church. Reverend Mark talked about the inside of the church as we could not go inside and he took us all around the outside of the church. We learned lots of interesting facts and information about St.Paul’s and the local community. The children even dressed up as the vicar and wore lots of different robes! Yesterday, the children performed their African dance for our special Uganda day. They were absolutely amazing! We made flags and bunting and learned about Uganda. We talked about the children in Uganda and why we are raising money to help them. In Maths this week, we have been learning about money. We can now identify coins to the value of 10pence. We have been adding coins and exchanging coins for pennies. We will be continuing to learn more about money next week.

28th June

In Reception this week the children have been working extremely hard on planning and writing the main parts of the story, ‘The Storm Whale.’ We have been learning and using lots of new vocabulary in our writing! In Maths we have been learning about capacity and comparing how much different containers will hold. We also revisited the vocabulary of full, empty, half full, nearly full and nearly empty. We started to learn about Uganda and made flags in preparation for Uganda Day next week. We talked about keeping safe in the sun and created lots of shady areas outside using the material and pegs.

21st June

In Reception this week, we have been continuing to read ‘The Storm Whale’ story. We have been exploring what makes this a good story such as the use of describing words to make the story more exciting and interesting. We wrote about the characters and used describing words in our sentences. In Maths we have been weighing objects using different scales. We explored heavy and light and sorted objects. We then weighed them to investigate which one was the heaviest and the lightest. We also balanced the weight of different objects using non standard measures such as cubes and magnetic shapes. We talked about why weight is important and where scales are used such as the post office to weigh parcels. In Geography we have been learning about desert animals and their habitats and answering some of the questions which the children wanted to explore and find out about the desert. We talked about the church as a special place for Christians and features of the inside of the church. We looked at special places for other religions and faiths such as mosques and created mosaic patterns.

14th June

In reception this week, we have been learning about odd and even numbers and exploring why numbers are odd and even by sharing between 2.m If we had an odd one left over, then it was an odd number! In RE we continued to learn about special places and started to explore how the church is a special place for Christians. We looked at special objects inside the church, such as the altar, font, lectern and pews. In Literacy we learned lots of new vocabulary related to our ‘Storm Whale’ story. We used these words to construct and write sentences such as ‘One night there was a blustery storm which created a deafening din.’ We have also been learning about the desert. Last week we thought about what we like to find out about the desert. In our story, the tiny seed which landed in the desert didn’t grow. We have ben exploring shy the seed wouldn’t grow and looking at the landscape of the desert. We are continuing to find the answers to our questions about the desert such as what type of plants and animals live in the desert and how do they survive? As it is Father’s day on Sunday, we have been thinking about why our dad’s are special and what we like to do with our dads.

7th June

In Maths this week, the children have been learning how to halve amounts by sharing equally between two. We also explored sharing amounts equally between three and four people! We are also using our knowledge of doubles to help us to work out halves. In Literacy, we started a new story, ‘The Storm Whale.’ We wrote a sentence to describe how we would help the whale and also used new vocabulary to express our ideas and write about the story. In Art we are continuing to create sunflowers using lots of different textures and colour mixing techniques. We have been practising for our sports day in PE which we enjoyed today and all of us did a fantastic job! In RE we are beginning to explore Holy places. We talked about places which are special to us and why they are important to us. We will then look at why the church is a Holy and special place for Christians.

24th May

In PE this week the children have been developing their skills in orienteering, map reading and searching for clues. We have also continued to work on our throwing and catching skills using beanbags. In Maths we have continued to explore doubling using dominoes and have been developing our understanding of patterns in the number system. In Literacy, we wrote the final part of our instructions - 'A Helpful Hint' to grow our sunflowers, now that we have taken them home. We are working hard on our handwriting and aiming to write now with a special year 1 pencil! We have been learning about where plants come from and sorting living and non-living things.

17th May

In Reception the children have been working hard on making doubles in Maths. We have been doubling amounts to 10 using a tens frame. In PE we have been working on balancing and throwing and catching bean bags using the under arm through. Our sunflowers are all starting to grow and we have been learning about the life cycle of sunflowers and naming the parts of a plant/flower. We are watering them daily and observing them closely as we monitor how they are changing and growing. We have also been talking about life cycles in our personal and social development and comparing how we grow and change over time to the life cycle of a sunflower. We are finishing our instructions in Literacy and are ready now to write our helpful hints when planting a seed. Another very busy week in reception!

10th May

In reception this week the children planted their sunflower seeds and wrote labels for their pots. In Literacy, we have been learning how to write instructions and wrote the introduction to our instructions and also a list of what we would need to plant a seed. We have been learning about living things in Science and the parts of a plant. The children have been looking after their plants and watching them grow daily! In Maths we have been ordering numerals to 20 and exploring how to make amounts to 20 by adding 10 and 1 more to make 11, 10 and 2 more to make 12 etc… We have also been exploring one more and one less than. In RE we listened to the Parable of The Lost Sheep and talked about how everyone is unique and special to God. We introduced the work of Van Gogh on Art and have started to draw pictures of Sunflowers.

3rd May

In Reception this week, the children have been learning about how to keep our minds healthy as well as our bodies. We talked about activities which make us feel happy. We listened to calming music, went on a nature walk and made friendship bracelets for each other. In Maths we have been counting on and back to add one more/one less to 20. In Literacy we have been writing instructions in preparation for planting our seed and reading the story: 'The Extraordinary Gardener.' In Art we are learning about Van Gogh and how to draw a sunflower through observational drawing. In Geography we are learning about where we live and the famous landmarks in Wigan such as Mesnes Park, Wigan Pier, DW Stadium etc.

19th April

In Reception this week the children all came back after the Easter break with lovely smiles and eager to learn! In Maths this week, we have been learning about Capacity and identifying containers which are empty, nearly empty, half full, nearly full and full. We have had lots of fun in the water and using a variety of different objects to explore filling and emptying as we explore how much different containers will hold. In Literacy we started our new book for this half term which is entitled ‘The Extraordinary Gardener.’ The children enjoyed the story, wrote lists of what they would need too plant a seed and wrote sentences using descriptive words to describe the main character in the story. In PE the children are learning to balance along a line both forwards and backwards as we go on our ‘Train ride’ Adventure and in RE we started to read the parable of ‘The Good Samaritan’ as we begin or unit of work on stories which Jesus told. We are all trying to be good Samaritans in class as we help each other, show kindness and consideration to others. A great first week back!

28th March

In reception this week the children have been taking part in an Easter parade wearing their Easter bonnets. We walked around school and displayed our bonnets which all look amazing! We learned about the Easter story, in particular what happens on Easter Sunday. The children wrote about the story and in construction made the tomb and also sequenced the story. In Maths we completed our measuring activities and measured the heights of the children and ordered them. We also explored which measures to use depending on the size of the object.

22nd March

In class this week, the children have been very busy working on their Easter bonnets ready for the competition next week. We have been learning the Easter story in RE and talking about God’s love. In Maths we have been doing lots of measuring activities using a variety of different objects to measure tall and short objects both inside and outside. We talked about length and height and used the vocabulary of taller/shorter. We also used rulers to measure in class and introduced centimetres as a unit of measure. We used our feet to measure the length of the children and ordered the children by height. We were very excited to find out who the shortest and the tallest was! We have been continuing to read ‘Little Red’ in Literacy which is a version of the story ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ We wrote messages to Little Red to warn her about the wolf and worked on our sentence accuracy using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We celebrated ‘Neurodiversity,’ watched short video clips to explain how different people and children may think and act. We are decorating our ‘Neurodiversity’ umbrella to display in class.

15th March

This week the children have been continuing to create repeating patterns using colours and shapes. In Literacy we are reading Little Red Riding Hood and we have been writing about the story. In RE we have started to learn about the Easter story, in particular what happened on Palm Sunday. We talked about Jesus’ love for us and who we love. We have been working on our balancing skills in PE as we continue on our ‘Pirate Adventure.’ We enjoyed the story of ‘The Magic Paintbrush’ and we will be creating our own magic paintbrush in Art later in the week. We have started our Journeys topic and listened to the story, ‘Rosie’s Walk.’ We have been describing what a journey is and what Rosie saw on her journey in the story. We are also learning how to draw simple maps. Playing games, taking turns and sharing with our friends has been very successful this week too! We started our Easter bonnets for the Easter competition and have been very creative with our designs.

8th March

In Reception this week, the children have been creating and recreating patterns in maths. We explored patterns using colours and shapes. As we are noticing signs of spring and our garden is blooming with springtime flowers, we have been drawing daffodils in art. In Design and Technology we all worked together to build a box model Chinese dragon. The children looked at lots of designs, selected a variety of resources and worked together to build a dragon. We can’t wait to perform the dragon dance! For World Book Day, the children looked absolutely brilliant! We talked about our favourite books and why we enjoyed them. We listened to stories and to a workshop from an author of children’s books in New York. We played ‘Guess the Book’ and the ‘Masked Reader,’ made book marks and took part in lots of activities such as building the settings from our stories in construction and drawing our models. What a busy week we have had already!

1st March

We have had a lovely first week back after the half term holidays. The children started to learn about Chinese New Year before the holidays and have finished drawing the Chinese dragon as this year is the year of the dragon. We have read, ‘Little Red Hiding Hood’ and we exploring other stories which are similar such as ‘Little Red’ and learning lots of new vocabulary! In Maths we have been exploring number bonds to 10 and we are making 10 in lots of different ways. In RE we listened to the story ‘Jonah and the Whale’ and talked about how Jonah would have felt in the story and why Jonah was swallowed up by the whale. We noticed outside that our beautiful flowers are now blooming in the garden, which the children planted back in October. Finally, there are signs of Spring!

16th February

This week we hung our bird feeders outside and looked for places where we thought would attract the most birds. We have been learning more about birds and their nests and continuing with our bird watch. We have been working hard in maths on our number bonds to 4, 5 and 6! In Art to finish our topic on old toys, we drew a teddy bear step by step and our drawings were amazing! We have written the ending of the story, Juniper Jupiter and have been working hard on sentence construction and the presentation of our handwriting. In RE we have been reading stories from the Bible, stories which Jesus heard when he was a boy. We enjoyed the story of the Creation and Noah’s Ark.

9th February

We had a very special visitor in class on Monday. Mr. Cooke who had fixed our gate came into class to talk to the children about his work as a carpenter and showed them some of his work tools. The children had been writing Thank you letters to him last week, so they were very excited when he came to see them. All of the children asked him a question and we had some very interesting questions and found out a lot of information about what he does! In Literacy we have been writing sentences linked to the story, ‘Juniper Jupiter.’ We have been talking and writing about different parts of a story – The Opening, Build up, Problem and Ending. In Maths we have been comparing amounts – which has more and fewer and exploring the size of different objects. We had to count very carefully to discover which set of objects had more because of the size of the objects! When we used bigger objects we thought that there were more, but with careful counting we realised that actually that was not always the case. In History we have been comparing old and new bears and explored how technology has changed over time during Safer Internet day on Tuesday. Our bird feeders are now made and we are going to hang them on the trees outside to attract more Winter birds to come into our garden.

2nd February

In reception this week we have been continuing to explore toys from the past. We played Tiddlywinks and made our own hoopla game which was great fun! In Maths we have been making 6 and 7 using different amounts and we are adding amounts together. We have been writing lots of letters to Mr. Cooke to thank him for fixing our gate and we have invited him to come into class to talk about his work, explain how he fixed the gate and the tools which he used. In Literacy we are learning how to plan and write the ‘Opening’ to our story, ‘Juniper Jupiter,’ which is our class story based on a superhero. We are also making bird feeders to try to encourage more birds to visit our garden and we have been learning about different types of birds.

26th January

In Art we have been drawing snowy pictures using white chalk on black paper, after the snow last week! We have been sorting old and new toys, exploring old toys and talking about how toys have changed over time. We have been wondering what happens to birds in Winter and we have been talking about how birds migrate to warmer countries during Winter. We have been looking for birds using binoculars when we have been outside. We also noticed that our bulbs which we planted in October are starting to grow, so there are signs of Spring! In maths we have been exploring amounts to ten using a tens frame and recognising amounts straight away just by looking at them! We are loving our superhero story, ‘Juniper Jupiter’ in Literacy and the children have been working hard on sentence construction.

22nd December

What a busy final week it has been. The children were absolutely amazing in the Nativity both in school and church. We are so very proud of all of them! They were so brave and utterly brilliant, especially in church as it was the first time they had been! We have seen the arrival of the very cheeky elf in class. He has gone down a treat. All of the children were very excited to see him hanging upside down on the door and have been writing about where he should go next. This has really helped with our understanding of positional language, as we have talked about where the elf is – on top, underneath, above, below, in front of, behind etc…. We have also been making lots of Christmas crafts and of course today has been our Christmas party. We have been playing games this morning and will be continuing this afternoon with pass the parcel and party food! We have been listening to stories such as the Snowman which the children have loved and retelling and sequencing the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth. In Maths we revised number bonds to 5 by making green and red paper chains and counting how many red and green chains make 5. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and cant wait to see all of the children next term. Finally a huge thank you for all of your support throughout the term. It is an absolute privilege to work with your children who make me smile every day!

15th December

The children have been very busy practising the Nativity and we can’t wait to perform for you all next week! We have been working on how to write the ‘Opening’ of a story in Literacy, linked to the story, ‘Star in the jar.’ In Maths we have been using positional language and placing Gerald the Giraffe on top, underneath and next to/beside all sorts of objects in and around school. We have been talking about how the church gets ready for Christmas and learning about Advent. The children were excited to tell me about their Advent calendars and we learned about Advent candles and the Advent wreath in church.

8th December

This week the children have been exploring the Art work of Andy Goldsworthy and creating pictures together using lots of natural resources. In Maths we have been learning about the properties of 2D shapes and comparing shapes – ‘What is the same and what is different about them?’ We looked for shapes in the environment and made shapes using straws, looking carefully at the lengths of the sides. In RE we read the story of the Nativity and the children learned about the birth of Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas. We talked about and drew pictures of our own birthdays. We are working very hard on spelling simple words and writing sentences linked to our class story, ‘Star in the jar.’ We explored where light comes from and how light travels in straight lines/waves and will be exploring what shadows are and how they are made.

1st December

What a cold week this week has been! The children didn’t seem to mind though and were very excited to discover that the water inside the tyres outside had frozen and turned into ice! The children worked together to chip away at the ice and collected pieces of ice in a bucket. We brought the bucket inside to see what would happen next and the children predicted that it would melt. Of course the ice did melt inside the warmth of the classroom and we measured how much water was in the bucket. We ar going to put the bucket outside tonight to see what will happen and make predictions about whether the water will freeze and turn into ice again. In RE this week the children listened to and acted out the story of the ‘Calming of the storm.’ We talked about how Jesus was a good friend to his disciples and the importance of trusting our friends. We made a ‘Christingle’ candle together and talked about how Jesus is the light of the World. We started our topic of Light and dark and explored where light comes from and dark spaces in our classroom.

24th November

In Reception this week the children have been exploring what makes 5 and simple number bonds to 5. We made playdough and rolled 5 balls of playdough then explored sharing the playdough between 2 plates to gain a deeper understanding of the number 5. In RE we have been continuing to talk about our class value, ‘Friendship’ and asking the question, ‘What makes a good friend?’ We listened to the story of Ruth and Naomi in the Bible who were true friends. In Literacy we are reading ‘Star in a jar’ and developing our vocabulary and sentence construction. We created Autumn pictures and talked about what happens in Autumn. We mixed primary colours to create orange and brown leaves.

17th November

In Reception this week the children have thinking about how to be kind, to mark the start of ’30 Days of Kindness.’ We talked about how we can be kind towards others and our friends. The children drew pictures and talked about showing kindness to their friends. We have also been learning about ‘Diwali’ the Hindu festival of light and mixed paints to create firework pictures to celebrate Diwali. In Art the children will continue to mix colours to create Rangoli patterns. In Literacy the children enjoyed the story, ‘Star in the Jar’ and have been working hard learning new vocabulary and writing words and simple sentences.

10th November

The children have been talking about what happens in Autumn and exploring lots of different objects which they have collected. Some of the children brought in pine cones and we have put them in the windowsill to observe what happens to the pines due to changes in the weather. We are enjoying using these objects to create collages and leaf rubbings. In Art we are learning how to mix Primary colours to create lots of different colours. In Maths we have been sequencing daytime, night time, days of the week and simple activities such as hand washing. In RE we have been learning about Remembrance day and talking about why we wear poppies. The children created a poppy shape using their own bodies and using tissue paper. Another busy week working hard in reception and enjoying our challenges!

3rd November

This week the children started our New Topic for this term, Autumn and Celebrations! We have started to look at and talk about the collections of Autumn objects which the children collected over the half term holidays and have been collecting lots of Autumn leaves, pine cones, acorns etc on our Autumn welly walk. In Literacy we have been writing lists of the characters in the story, ‘Room on the Broom’ and making new brooms for the Witch in the story, with seats! In Maths we have been comparing amounts and identifying more and fewer. We are working hard on our letter formation and letter sounds in Read write inc. Well done children for a great first week back to school!

20th October

This week the children learned about one of the British Values ‘Democracy.’ We each voted for the story of the day and counted how many votes each story had received. Th children understood that the story with the most votes was the one that we were going to read. Elmer was the clear winner! We talked about our families and started to look at family photographs. We celebrated diversity and noticed that all families are different. In Maths we counted objects to 5, recognised and ordered numerals to 5 and identified the fives pattern on fives number frames. We finished our shared writing about Harvest when the children picked apples from the trees outside and enjoyed listening to stories about Friendship such as ‘the Rainbow Fish’ and ‘Willy the Wimp.’ In Art, we finished our portraits by adding background to our pictures in the style of Frida Kahlo.

13th October

The children have been creating lots of repeating patterns in Maths this week. They selected different objects and natural resources to create and talk about their patterns. In Literacy, the children have been writing lots of signs and labels and labelling their body parts. We continued to develop our understanding of Friendship which is our class value and the children listened to stories from the Bible about what Jesus liked to do with his friends. We discovered that Jesus had 12 special friends called ‘Disciples’ and that there are also 12 children who are all special friends in Reception! We have talked about what we can do now as children, compared with what we could do in the past when we were babies. We sorted lots of objects into those which we used in the past and present time. We have been sorting our apples by size into small, medium and large. In Art, we colour washed our portraits last week and we are adding background to our pictures in the style of Frida Kahlo, a self portrait artist. In PE, the children have continued to explore different ways of travelling and direction. We are all working hard during phonics, writing letters, forming them correctly and blending sounds to read words.

6th October

This week the children have been celebrating our Harvest festival. We have explored where different foods come from and what Harvest means. We wrote a Harvest prayer together, thanking God for our wonderful Harvest foods and talked about those who are less fortunate. Thank you so much for all of your very kind donations! The children went into the hall for the first Celebration
Assembly with the whole school and sang the Harvest song beautifully! In Literacy this week we have been working hard on learning new letter sounds and how to write them. We have been learning how important labels are and the purpose of writing. We are starting to write our own signs and labels and looking out for signs and labels when we are out and about such as Street signs, Road Signs, Supermarket logos etc… In Maths the children have been continuing to sort and order objects, this week by height and size. We have been exploring our feelings in particular what makes us feel happy, sad or worried. We are all working hard on our challenges throughout the week, well done Reception!

29th September

In Reception this week we have been working extremely hard on forming our letters correctly. We even ‘formed’ the letters outside using our bodies to trace over the shapes. We are learning lots of new sounds and how to blend sounds to read words. In Maths we have been continuing to sort, match and identify the ‘Odd One Out.’ We have especially enjoyed sorting out buttons and have looked very carefully at similarities and differences. In PE we are exploring lots of different ways to travel including rolling and finding our very own space. We talked about International World Peace Day and made Peace doves. We listened to the story, ‘Peace at Last’ and described all of the sounds in the story. Together, we wrote a list of all of the sounds which we could hear on our Listening walk and those which we had heard at home. All of the children wrote a list of the sounds which they could hear. We are working very hard on our early writing.

22nd September

We have had a very busy week in reception this week! The children started to learn their letter sounds in Read, Write Inc, played lots of ‘Fred’ games and have been working extremely hard on forming their letters correctly. In Maths we have been sorting and matching objects and identifying what is the same and what is different. We celebrated ‘International Peace Day’ yesterday and learned that the ‘Dove’ is a symbol of Peace. We are making Doves together, working together, taking turns and sharing. We are all settling into school life brilliantly and making new friends which is amazing as our class value is ‘Friendship!’ We have been drawing self portraits and talking about what makes us special. We are very proud of all of the children, well done reception!

15th September

The children have had a very busy first week full time in reception and we are very proud of all of them. We have been learning our ‘Golden Rules’ with the help of our class puppets, ‘Shaun’ and ‘Shirley.’ The children have been making lots of new friends and learning lots of new names too! We have had our first PE lesson with Mr. Saunders, a class photograph from the Observer, school dinners and lots of new experiences! We have been developing our listening skills both inside and outside and enjoying the story ‘Peace at Last,’ by Jill Murphy.