The Night Box
This week we have continued to explore light and dark, by learning about animals that are more active at night.
The children loved learning new vocabulary – nocturnal and diurnal.
We have read the story – The Night Box.
These were some of our predications based on the front cover.
I think the boy will go into the box into the realm of night. Stanley
I think the boy will jump in the treasure chest. Leo
In the areas, we have explored nocturnal animals.
In maths we have deepened our knowledge and understanding of the number five.
Check out our other learning too!
Tuesday 30 November- Toys from the past day…
On Tuesday 30 November, Reception Classes will take part in a virtual workshop with Abbey House Museum on Christmas Toys and Games. We will be comparing toys and games from the past, with those we enjoy now.
On this day, children are welcome to bring in a toy from home that does not require any electricity or batteries. Please ensure the toy has your child’s name clearly labelled, so that they can be safely returned at the end of the day.
Thank you.
Fundraising
A massive thank you to everyone who donated to our recent fundraising events – you were all unbelievably generous. We managed to raise £126.25 for our school charity – Leeds Autism Services. This was following our Odd Sock Day at the start of anti-bullying week. Last Friday we raised money for Children in Need and managed to raise £410.30.
Thank you all so much.
Each Peach Pear Plum
Our book ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ has helped us to focus on many different nursery rhymes.
We have had nursery rhyme stations set up throughout our classrooms and it has been brilliant watching and listening to the children’s interactions with the resources. Can you spot the nursery rhymes?
Anti-Bullying Week
‘Odd Socks Monday’ was a great opportunity to think about and discuss the brilliant ways that we are different from each other. We have been thinking about being kind and celebrating the many ways that we can do ‘One Kind Thing’. (The theme for this year’s Anti-Bullying Week). ‘One Kind Thing’ can make the difference to someone’s day, week, year or life!
Children In Need
Today we have learnt about the charity Children In Need. The children were empathetic and had many questions. We spent time making Pudsey Bear necklaces, ears and pictures. Thankyou so much for your donations!
Home-Link
Can you recreate a nursery rhyme with your toys at home? Please send your photographs to our usual email address. We enjoy showing them to all of the children.
Remembrance
Remembrance…
This week we’ve been learning about Remembrance Day. Our focus story was Flo of the Somme by Hilary Robinson and Martin Impey.
The story, which has repeating lines in poetry verse, follows a rescue dog during a WWI. It features child-friendly depictions of events in which animals were needed. For example, Flo finds injured pilots and carries a medical kit, a donkey walks alongside a soldier carrying equipment and a messenger pigeon gets hurt on duty. The children learnt about why we wear both red and purple poppies- purple to remember the animals that served during wars.
The children used their phonics skills to write words or captions about the story.
On 11.11 at 11am we held a two minute silence. The children were asked what they thought about during the silence:
The soliders in the war- Eti
Flo and the animals- Mahli
We’ve been making our own poppies in different ways. Our beautiful poppy wreath is now on display in the classroom.
Light and Dark…
The dark tent has been out in Rainbow room this week. We’ve been exploring shadows using our light frame and models we have made.
Marvellous Maths…
We’ve been revisiting our subitising skills (when you are able to look at a group of objects and know how many there are, without counting) and representing numbers 3 and 4.
Our Magnificent Marching Band!…
In music sessions this week, Reception became marching bands. They used the skills they had learnt over the past few weeks when playing percussion instruments, to put on a magnificent march!
What else have we been up to?…
Home-link challenges…
- Next week, we will be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week 2021 Have fun singing nursery rhymes with your child at home. Ask them what their favourite nursery rhyme is- they may be lucky enough to see it around the classroom next week!
- On Friday 19 November, we will be taking part in Children in Need. Talk to your child about charities and the work Children in Need do. You could visit the Children in Need website. We will of course be doing this in class too but it is lovely for the children to be able to share what they already know with their friends.
Diary Dates…
Monday 15 November- Odd Socks Day 2021
Children can come to school wearing odd socks with their PE kit, in support of Anti-Bullying week.
Friday 19 November – Children in Need Non-Uniform Day (Donations welcome)
Friday 19 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Sunshine Class.
Friday 26 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Rainbow Class. (rescheduled from 12 November)
Tuesday 30 November- Toys from the past day…
On Friday 30 November, Reception Classes will take part in a virtual workshop with Abbey House Museum on Christmas Toys and Games. We will be comparing toys and games from the past, with those we enjoy now.
On this day, children are welcome to bring in a toy from home that does not require any electricity or batteries. Please ensure the toy has your child’s name clearly labelled, so that they can be safely returned at the end of the day.
Thank you.
Happy Diwali! The Festival of Light
We’ve been celebrating Diwali! The Festival of Light was a joyful and perfect start to our topic- Light and Dark.
We listened to stories of children who were celebrating Diwali at home with their families, including one of our friends in Sunshine class!
We made our own Diya lamps and fireworks using playdough…
We worked together to make colourful Rangoli patterns on the floor. We used rice, powder paints and flowers…
We designed and then carefully painted Mehndi patterns. We used brown face paint to represent the henna dye. Mrs Myers was so lucky to have many beautiful designs painted onto her hands!
In PE, we followed a YouTube tutorial for a special Diwali dance. Each movement in the dance represented a decoration or activity that happens during Diwali.
Click here to try the Diwali dance at home!
We noticed that Diwali shares some traditions with other celebrations we know. We made links to our experiences …
My Nanna decorates the house but at Christmas time- William
We light a candle at a birthday party, on the cake- Sophia
We see fireworks on Bonfire Night- Penelope
At the end of the week, we learnt about Bonfire Night and why it is celebrated. We discussed ways to keep safe at bonfire parties and made posters to remind us of some important rules.
Home-Link Challenge…
Will you be celebrating at a Diwali or Bonfire Night event this weekend?
We’d love to see your pictures and hear the children talk about their experience. To support them with this, please help them to focus on their senses in discussions at home. What can they see, hear, smell, feel and taste? Can they remember those safety rules?
This type of discussion supports children to develop their descriptive language. ‘In the moment’ discussions also develop children’s understanding of the world around them, nature and their environment.
Thank you to the parents who have already been sending in lots of fantastic learning from home.
Diary Dates…
Tuesday 9 November- Maths in Early Years (Zoom)
The session will start at 6 pm and last around 20-25 minutes, plus there will be a question and answer session at the end of around 5-10 minutes.
The link to this zoom session will be emailed to all parents and carers after the half term break. If you do not receive a link, please contact the school office before Tuesday 09 November.
Friday 12 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Rainbow Class.
Friday 19 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Sunshine Class.
Autumn, Harvest and Henrí Matisse
There was so much going on in class this week, we thought we’d celebrate even more great learning in Reception! Your second Class News post of the weekend! …
Autumn and Harvest
We’ve been discussing the season of Autumn and learning about the Harvest Festival.
Poppy D- It’s when you get in all the fruit and the vegetables… the farmers.
Max- Crops are chopped up by a machine and the machine is called a combine harvester.
We discussed why collections of food are taken in at churches, schools and community centres.
Lewi- It’s going to hungry people who need it.
We also made some Harvest posters and sang some Harvest songs!
Click here to watch Rainbow Class singing Big, Red, Combine Harvester.
Careful Counting
As well as continuing to learn about the numbers 1,2 and 3, we’ve been helping some toys do careful counting after they made some little mistakes in our Maths lessons!
We made sure we only counted each object once and that the number we identified as how many objects we had altogether, was the same as our stopping number. We said what we were counting after each number, to help us slow down (i.e. “one conker, two conkers, three conkers…”)
We used special tagging ‘wands’ to help us count our objects too.
Henrí Matisse Art Project
This week, Reception explored the art of Henrí Matisse. We focused on his ‘cut out’ artwork in particular. We listened to the story Henrí’s Scissors by Jeanette Winter, to learn about the artist’s life and methods used to create his cut outs.
The children chose their colour, painting a whole page. Next, using a stencil, they drew around the ‘leaf’ shape and cut it out. Together, we created a collaborative piece of art on a large canvas.
We can’t wait for you to see what we have created at our classroom drop-in sessions!
If your child would like to learn more about the artwork of Henrí Matisse, Tate.org.uk have some child-friendly videos and resources you can watch at home. Click here to visit now!
Diary Dates…
Tuesday 9 November- Maths in Early Years (Zoom)
The session will start at 6 pm and last around 20-25 minutes, plus there will be a question and answer session at the end of around 5-10 minutes.
The link to this zoom session will be emailed to all parents and carers after the half term break. If you do not receive a link, please contact the school office before Tuesday 09 November.
Friday 12 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Rainbow Class.
Friday 19 November, 3.30-4.00- Classroom Drop-in, Sunshine Class.
What a Half Term
It has been a fabulous half term in both Sunshine and Rainbow class. We are so proud of how well all the children have settled in and have begun their learning journey in reception.
This week, we have particularly enjoyed: dressing up in costumes, making patterns with pumpkins and scooping seeds out of pumpkins.
In phonics, we have learnt the new sounds – o, c, k, ck. We have been using our new segmenting and blending skills to write words.
In Maths, we have continued to deepen our understanding of the numbers one, two and three. We created our own number stories.
In PE, we enjoyed using the equipment to climb, balance and hang. This is all great for our core strength.
We have loved using dough to strengthen our fingers. Check out our different moves.
pat
ball
squeeze
roll
two finger dancing
Have a lovely half term break!
Autumn days are glorious days.
This week the weather has been very kind to us. Our Autumn walks have seemed rather magical with crystal blue skies and sunshine. The children have been so impressive observing the world around them and making links to their existing knowledge. We saw aeroplanes, tractors, buses, sheep, horses and much more. We collected conkers, sticks, leaves and stones. The children enjoyed using their maps to locate local landmarks. Our learning has been endless and joyful.
Here are a few quotes from the children:
Keep holding hands-Esmé
Stay with the grown-ups -Ella F
Up there is Chippy’s Pond – Bea
That’s to remember the soldiers – Reuben
Three aeroplanes! WOW! – Raife
I live there!- Stanley
In Literacy, we have focused on ‘The Everywhere Bear’ by Julia Donaldson. Each child planned their own story of where the bear could go. Our children have been most kind and taken the bear to the seaside, a castle, the zoo, soft play, a hospital or a park.
In Maths, the children have been working on subitising numbers 0-3. This is where we show children a number of items e.g. 3 conkers and they can instantly tell you that there are 3 (without counting them).
In phonics we have introduced the new phonemes m, d, g and the Tricky Word ‘and‘. Please find the new sound strip in your child’s bookbag and add it to the treasury tag of sounds.
Home-Link
Can you find the Tricky Word ‘and’ in your books, home, shops or out and about? If you do so, please send a photograph to our email address: scholesreception@spherefederation.org Thankyou.
Diary Dates
Monday 18 October- Parent Teacher Meetings.
Wednesday 20 October- Harvest donation collections.
Wednesday 20 October- Parent Teacher Meetings.
Thursday 21 October– School closes for half term
Maps, Maths and more!…
This week in Reception, we’ve continued to think about Where we live and have even been creating our own maps!
In Maths, we’ve been comparing quantities- saying which group of objects has the most and the fewest. We’ve also been comparing capacity and exploring this in the classroom:
In phonics, we have now learnt our first six sounds; s,a,t,p,i,n. We’ve started to read words consisting of these letters, by segmenting (sounding out the individual sounds, called phonemes) and blending (reading the sounds all together)
When we are segmenting words, we put sounds onto our ‘phoneme fingers’, then swoop across them to blend. Here is Mrs Allen-Kelly with an example:
Can your child show you how we use phoneme fingers, when reading the words in their word book?
We used our robot ‘metal mike’ to practice segmenting words. We’ve also started to write some simple words, by segmenting the sounds first.
Here are some more pictures of our busy week, having fun and learning with our friends:
Next week- Local Walk
Next week, the children will explore using maps as we take a short walk in the village. A letter has gone home with your child today. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your class teacher/s. Thank you.
Home-Link Challenge
Following on from our learning in class this week, have a go at comparing capacity in simple ways at home. Here are a few ideas:
Diary Dates…
Wednesday 13 October- School Photographer in School (Individual Photos)
Monday 18 October- Parent Teacher Meetings. Please book an appointment if you have not done so already.
Wednesday 20 October- Harvest donation collections.
Wednesday 20 October- Parent Teacher Meetings.
Christmas cards
We have completed our designs, sent them off and now received our sample cards. If you would like to order anything, send the money into school with the order form or using the Gateway app by FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER. Thank you!
