Reception Class News

Walking Through The Jungle

Posted on Friday 20 May 2022 by Reception team

This week, we’ve been Walking Through The Jungle with our story, written by Julie Lacome.

We looked closely at repeated parts of the text and used it to frame our own innovated piece of writing. First, we planned our writing; new animals, movements and endings to our story. After this, we created our very own story books. The children came up with some fantastic new vocabulary for movements through the jungle:

“Gliding”-Sofia

“Hopping”- Tristan

“Jumping”- Leo B

“Swimming”- Adriana

At this point in the school year, we’re encouraging children to extend their writing and independently start to plan and edit their work. The children are becoming enthusiastic authors!

Does your child enjoy writing stories at home?

More animal explorations…

In our classroom Curiosity Corner, we’ve continued to compare animal habitats, look at maps showing which parts of the world animals come from, read animal stories and explore animal fur or skin prints.

Our provision areas have been animal-tastic too! Making repeating patterns with animal stamps, using small world animals, building habitats, naming baby animals and more!

Jungle Dancing and Music…

This week’s story book is also a catchy song! We used the song in PE to imitate animal movements. We love expressing ourselves through dance.

Click here to have a jungle dance at home!

We’ve also been using the instruments outside, to create a jungle sound game.

Maths…

In maths, we’ve been creating number tracks. We explained how we’re able to identify which number is next in a sequence. We used our knowledge of number and our subitising skills to identify missing numbers on the number track.

New life…

Over the past few weeks we’ve been closely observing our caterpillars grow, then form their chrysalis. Our butterflies are finally starting to emerge! Next week we’ll release them to start their new life in the wild.

Take a peek at more learning from this week

Home-link challenge…

Next week, we’ll be thinking about human life on Earth. We’ll be learning about our bodies and how we keep them clean, healthy and safe.  The children will also be looking at the ways humans change over time; What were they like as babies? What can they do now that they are 4/5? What might they do in the future?

To help with our learning, please start to have these conversations at home. We’d also like you to send in a baby photo of your child, that can be used in their learning this week. You can send these in person or email them to the Reception email address. Thank you.

Jubilee Celebrations…

We’ll also be celebrating The Queen’s Jubilee next week! We’ll learn about The Royal Family, be making crowns, having our Jubilee Picnic (keeping all fingers and toes crossed for sunshine) and we’ll be having our very own royal dance. We can’t wait to celebrate!

On the Farm

Posted on Friday 13 May 2022 by Reception Team

It has been a fun filled farm themed week!

We have continued our learning on our topic Life on Earth by exploring animals that may live and work on a farm.

We began our week by reading Farmyard Hullabaloo

In Literacy, we worked together to read a page from the story. We used our tricky word knowledge and phonics skills to decode the words.

We wrote our own sentences about different animals.

 

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In maths, we have been exploring 10 frames. We have built on our previous knowledge to make number bonds of 10.

Can your child tell you what number bond is been represented below?

 

In the classroom, we have continued to watch the development of our caterpillars.

Two of them are in the cocoon at the top. Oliver

The caterpillars are in a cocoon. Lucille

The caterpillars are in a cocoon ready to be a butterfly. Raife

 

In art, we have used clay to create minibeasts.

 

Check out our other fun learning inside and outside the classroom.

 

 

 

Home -Link

Write a list of animals that often live on farms. Do you know what their babies are called?

Walk to School Week 16-20 May 2022

Posted on Friday 13 May 2022 by Mrs Latham

Next week is Walk to School Week (or scoot or ride).

We hope you’ll all try to take part in this, even if you can’t walk from home. The Buffers Pub and St Phillip’s Church have agreed for us to use their car parks so everyone has the opportunity to walk part of the way.

Remember to bring your raffle tickets each day you walk to put in your class boxes to be in with a chance of winning a prize!

Let’s get active!

 

Mad About Minibeasts

Posted on Friday 06 May 2022 by Mrs Wilkins

We have all been ‘Mad About Minibeasts‘ this week. This is a fantastic book that has educated us on many of the minibeasts that we can find in our outdoor area.

It has been wonderful to see children turning over stones and tree stumps to find woodlice, worms or centipedes. Children have also been finding spider’s webs and following ants to their nests. We have been trying to build our own minibeast house. Our provision indoors has also reflected our book.

In Literacy we have been looking at rhyme in the book and making up some of our own. We have also written some short acrostic minibeast poems. Please continue to help your child at home by encouraging them to write for a variety of purposes (lists, maps, letters, stories etc). When helping them perhaps point out a letter they may need to practice the correct formation of or enable them to write the correct sound that they can hear in a word. This will really help your child on their journey to achieving the age related expectation for Reception. Remember the following too:

We certainly do enjoy writing and drawing!

In Maths we have been composing 5 in lots of different ways.

Here are some other photographs of our learning this week:

Home Link

This week could your child draw a picture of their favourite minbeast and write a fact about it.

The Bad Tempered Ladybird

Posted on Friday 29 April 2022 by Reception team

This week, we’ve been reading The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle.

We spotted lots of new features the author had used in the book,  when comparing it to another of Eric Carle’s books we have recently read. We used the book to practise our reading skills and came up with alternative words for parts of the story. It sparked a discussion of time (clocks on each page) and size comparison, as the animals (and text) got increasingly larger throughout the story.

Clay sculptures…

We have started a minibeast art project. This week we’ve been creating minibeasts out of clay and collage materials. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be painting our sculptures and creating habitats for them to live in!

Doubles…

This week, our maths saw us return to doubling. We are becoming experts at adding “the same amount” and recalling our doubles number facts! We’ve also been spotting patterns of six, to support our number composition.

Writing…

We are developing independence in our writing, with additional morning challenges. We’re ensuring that our sentences feature capital letters, a full stop and finger spaces. We have special actions to remind us of these.

Skipping…

In PE, along with the rest of our school, we’ve been developing our skipping rope skills. We look forward to seeing how the children progress over the next few weeks.

More photos of our learning this week…

Home link…

Continue your minibeast hunts in the garden, or out on a walk. This week, have a go at writing a list of any that you find, to share with your class. You might want to extend your writing by adding a description to make a sentence, for example:

I see a black ant with six short legs. 

The worm is long and thin.

Don’t forget those sentence features shown in the ‘Writing’ section of this post!

May Bank Holiday…

School will be closed on Monday 2 May 2022, for the early May Bank Holiday. We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday. Enjoy your long weekend together!

Crunching Munching Caterpillar

Posted on Friday 22 April 2022 by Reception Team

It has been lovely to be back at school this week. The children have enjoyed sharing their half term experiences with the class.

In Literacy, we have read the story – Crunching Munching Caterpillar.

The Crunching Munching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain

After reading, the children noticed similarities and differences between this story and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Both caterpillars ate leaves. Max

There are holes in the book or an eaten page. Ella

They are both really hungry. Charlie

They both get into a cocoon. Bea

 

In Science, we have explored the lifecycle of a butterfly. We are looking forward to observing this with our own class caterpillars.

 

We have also created a wormery. By representing their habitat in a box, we have begun to observe how they tunnel through soil.

In Maths, we have been counting to 20 and beyond.

 

We ended our week with an egg rolling competition and a special visitor … singing sensation Egg Sheeran!

Well done to our winners.

 

In our areas, we have gone mini-beast mad! Check out some of our super learning.

      

 

Home Link

This half-term our topic is Life on Earth. For the next few weeks we are exploding mini-beasts.

Become a mini-beast detective! 

You many choose to draw a picture of the mini-beasts you find, record how many mini-beasts you see in your garden or observe how different mini-beast move.

Rabbits don’t lay eggs.

Posted on Friday 01 April 2022 by Mrs Wilkins

We have really enjoyed our Easter themed book: ‘Rabbits don’t lay eggs.’ It does make us laugh! The children’s writing is really progressing. After the holiday we will have a really big push on this too. Prepare to be amazed!

Last week, we were in sun hats and sun cream. This week we’ve been in the snow with our wellies and woolly hats! We just had to go on a Winter walk in the snow before it melted. It was magical!

We also, collected the hail stones and enjoyed hands on learning about them.

A little Easter focus in the classroom.

What else we’ve been up to:

Home-link:

In Maths this week we have been using lots of different measurements. In particular we used the vocabulary: full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty and empty. Perhaps you could find containers and add liquid to match these labels.  Photograph or video your child and send to our email address.

Reminders:

Egg rolling competition. Please send your child to school with a named (and decorated) hard boiled egg on Friday 22 April.

Have a wonderful Easter holiday! School reopens on Tuesday 19 April.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Posted on Friday 25 March 2022 by Mrs Wilkins

Using our story as a focus, we have been drawing story maps, retelling the story and changing what we might find at the top of the beanstalk. Children have shone in their writing this week.

In Maths we have been learning about odd and even numbers. How can you tell if a numicon number is odd? We have also ordered beanstalks by height and measured them.

Our reading sessions have been brilliant this week. Please allow your child to read their e-book to you this weekend.

The weather has been glorious and most welcome this week. As the weather continues to brighten during the coming months, please ensure that you send your child to school with a sunhat and apply a long lasting sunscreen before school each day. Children can bring named sunscreen into school but adults are not permitted to apply it for your child. As always please ensure clothing is named as children will be removing their cardigans and jumpers more frequently.

Spring walk. We enjoyed going onto the school field for the first time this year. We looked for signs of Spring.

They are starting to get more leafs.-Vinnie

Max found a ladybird.-Holly

They’re little furry buds.-Sofia

I didn’t see that yellow flower there before.-Reuben

More photographs of our learning this week:

Reminders:

Thursdays-Library book changing day.

Fridays-Reading record in school day.

Home-Link

Collect sets of odd and even numbers. Photograph them and send them to our usual email address. We really enjoy your home-link photographs!

Bubble and Bear Hunts!

Posted on Friday 18 March 2022 by Reception team

Our brilliant ‘bubble’…

This week has been a little bit different for our children. A few members of our usual teaching team have been absent and we’ve stayed within our Early Years bubble. Here at Scholes, we pride ourselves on being a Happy and healthy place to learn. This week was another example of how resilient and happy our children really are. They have been FAN-TAS-TIC! Here are some ways we’ve been Happy and Healthy this week:

  • Happy to meet some new adults, who have taken great care of us alongside our teachers. We love sharing our learning with visitors and showing them what we can do!
  • Healthy continued discussions around handwashing, hygiene routines and taking extra care.
  • Happy classroom lunchtimes with carpet picnics, music and stories.
  • Healthy continued time spent outside, in our shared garden area and during playtimes.

Learning this week…

This week we’ve been Going on a Bear Hunt! We’ve had a great time re-telling this week’s very popular story.

The glorious sunshine has been very welcome. We’ve been potting and planting in addition to our usual outdoor explorations.

In art, we’ve been creating observational paintings of flowers. We were inspired by the artist Pandora Sellars.

In Maths, we’ve been learning about doubles!

Ask your child what we need to do, to double a number!

Here are some more photos of learning this week.

We’ve also been busy organising and recording a very special class assembly, that you’ll be able to watch next week. We’re keeping some of our learning as a special surprise!

Comic Relief…

Thank you to everyone who joined in with our Comic Relief, Non-Uniform Day today and for your donations to this very important cause.

Reading at home…

You will have received a new reading record today, with a letter about reading at home. If you would like to watch the short video we have made, talking through some of the eBook features and how we use the reading practise books in class, you can scan the QR code on the letter or click here.

Home-link challenge…

We’ve been working hard on our handwriting. This week we’d like you to focus on handwriting with your child at home. Please continue to use the Little Wandle formation sheets/ phrases.

One Hundred Decker Rocket

Posted on Friday 11 March 2022 by Reception Team

This week, we have read a story based on a space adventure and some messy aliens.

The Hundred Decker Rocket by [Mike Smith]

Before reading we made some predictions.

They going to space. Jacob

I think they will fly to space to see if there are aliens. Penny

A rocket with one hundred floors. Stanley

Rocket going up. Prisha

After reading, we designed and made our own deck to make a reception 45 decker rocket.

There were some wonderful ideas such as swimming pools, jacuzzies, reading dens, party rooms and gardens.

The children also enjoyed writing about the story or what they could see in the images from the book.

 

In maths, we have composed seven. We used lots of different resources such as Numicon, multilink and pegs to show our parts.

In the areas this week, we have explored space as well as seeds and growing plants.

 

Notices

We will be sending home new reading records next week which should be sent into school on a Friday in your child’s bookbag.

This is the place where you will be able to check what book your child has read in school and will be on their e-library.

After you have read with your child at home, you can add comments to share with your child’s class teacher.