Reception Class News

Each Peach Pear Plum

Posted on Friday 17 November 2023 by Reception Team

Nursery Rhyme Week

In literacy, we read the story Each Peach Pear Plum.

It was a very engaging book and the children loved spotting the different characters on each page.

Check out our super writing!

 

We also explored household objects from the past. Asking questions to learn about objects we had never seen before. We were then able to compare these to objects we might have at home.

Home Link

What objects from the past can you spot in the picture?

Compare these objects with the ones in your home.

Odd Socks

On Monday, we all wore our odd socks. This was to celebrate our differences and share the message that we are all different in some way.

Stay and Learn

On Wednesday, we had a wonderful morning exploring maths with our adults.

Thank you to all the adults that were able to join us and join in with lots of maths activities.

It was great to receive your valuable feedback.

Very helpful to know how to help at home.

Wonderful to come to school and get involved in the learning with my child.

Great learning how we can help with their maths.

It was very informative and helpful.

 

Music

This week in music, the children listened and danced to Boogie Wonderland.

After, they were asked…

How did you feel?

Happy!

It feels like a disco.

I was proud.

I felt like I was in the song.

Excited!

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called A Basket of Apples.

Other learning

This week we have explored lots of nursery rhyme themed activities in our classroom.

Dates for your diary

Swimming

Penny Trail – Cancer Research collection

Posted on Friday 17 November 2023 by Mrs Wadsworth

Thank you to everyone who donated to

last week’s penny trail in aid of Cancer Research.

In total, we raised 

£99.32!

An amazing amount made from mainly 1p and 2p coins.

Thank you!

Maths stay and learn- 15.11.23

Posted on Tuesday 14 November 2023 by Reception team

Who’s ready for our second stay and learn session? We are!

Join us at 9am tomorrow morning (going through the school office after drop-off)

You will be watching a short lesson, enjoying some maths activities with your child and finishing with a short presentation by the class teachers.

See you there!

 

 

Festivals of light

Posted on Friday 10 November 2023 by Reception team

Welcome to Autumn 2! This half term, our theme is light and dark.

We’ve covered lots of important events and topics this week…

Bonfire Night

We’ve been learning about why we celebrate Bonfire Night, with an introduction to The Gunpowder Plot.  The children enjoyed sharing their experiences of Bonfire Night and how they celebrated at home or out and about.

In the construction area, we’ve been building replicas of The Houses of Parliament. We explored casting shadows of our models with torches and used colour paddles to make the shadows look like fire!

Diwali

We found out about the Hindu festival of lights, that will be celebrated this weekend- Diwali.

Our focus book was Binny’s Diwali by Thrity Umrigar

We also found out about the festival through sharing non-fiction texts and watching cbeebies- My first festivals

Take a look at some of the activities we explored, when learning about Diwali.

Our word of the week is: festival

Remembrance Day 

We discussed when and why we have Remembrance Day. We learnt about the meaning behind different coloured poppies. Lots of children wore a poppy to school and could speak about its meaning. We made poppies in class and poppy art using small parts outside.

Me and my money week 

For Me and my money week, Reception were introduced to coins by paying for snack at the market stall! Each item cost 1p and the children had to decide whether they needed 1p or 2p. They could also decide to pay for 2 items using a 2p coin or 2x 1p coins. We counted the amount each day to say how many ‘pence’ the market stall had made.

On Friday, we used all of your kind donations (thank you!) to create our charity penny trail. Can you see what we made using the coins?

During philosphy Friday, we asked the children What would you do with your last £1? 

Keep it, otherwise I’d have no money!- Reggie

Take it to charity- Liezah

Get it on an amazing toy- Finlay

Keep my money because I want £20. Then I can buy things for Mummy, Ellie and me!- Albie T

Get a real duck!- Ryan

Maths; identifying and composing 5

In Maths, we’ve been using our fingers to identify 5. We ‘grew our fingers’ using the peas in a pod song-

Five little peas in a pea pod pressed,

One grew, two grew, so did all the rest,

They grew and they grew and they did not stop,

Until one day the pod went pop!

Later in the week, we used 5 frames and 5-die frames to explore the different ways to compose 5.

Phonics

Autumn 2 week 1  has focused on the new digraphs ff, ll, ss and the single letter phoneme j

We’ve also learnt the tricky word; as

Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In as, the ‘s’ is tricky because it makes the /z/ sound.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called A Cup of Tea

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!

Cup of tea

Help at home; World Nursery Rhyme Week

Next week, we’ll be celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week

If your child would like to, we’d love to share a recording of them telling their favourite nursery rhyme in class. Please send your videos to the email address below.

Dates for your diary

Odd Socks Day- 13.11.23 To support anti-bullying week, please send your child to school wearing a pair of odd socks (Monday only)

Maths Stay and Learn – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00 Please join us in the classroom to watch a short maths session and enjoy some maths activities with your child.

Swimming

 

THANK YOU – charity collection coin trail

Posted on Friday 10 November 2023 by Mrs Latham

Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 created this amazing coin trail with all the coins you kindly donated. Counting is still in progress and we’ll let you know how much we raise for Cancer Research when we have finished counting all the coins.

THANK YOU!

 

Living and learning : coin trail

Posted on Wednesday 08 November 2023 by Mrs Latham

We’re going to make a ‘coin trail’ on Friday using 1p and 2p coins. If you can send any into school to help with this, donations will be counted and sent to Cancer Research (our current school charity).

We’re hoping to spell out SCHOLES in coins!

 

Potion Commotion

Posted on Friday 27 October 2023 by Reception team

Potion Commotion

We’ve been reading Potion Commotion by Peter Bently and Sernur Isik.

We’ve been writing our own potion recipes and making potions in the water tray. We even thought of some magic words we could use.

“Potion commotion, make this bubble!”- Rupert

“abracadabra!”- Harry

We’ve enjoyed themed activities, with a focus on developing important skills.

-Exploring autumn colour, texture and scent (cinnamon sticks) in the sensory area. -Tweezing spiders out of a web and hammering golf tees into a pumpkin to strengthen our fine motor skills. -Printing pumpkins, using apples from our garden, to explore an artistic technique. -Tweezing pompoms into cauldrons for fine motor and number recognition.

Maths; number stories

In Maths, we’ve been learning to use number to describe what we see.

We progressed this skill further by telling number stories.

“First there were 2 ghosts in front of the house, then 1 more flew in, now there are 3 ghosts altogether”

Ask your child to tell you the number story below.

In provision, we’ve been representing numbers on ten frames.

Halloween disco and special lunch

Everyone had lots of fun at the Halloween disco last week.

Yesterday, the lunchtime staff treated the children to spooky decorations and a special dessert.

Phonics

Autumn 1 week 8 has been a revision week.

In provision, we’ve been playing ‘tricky word BOO’ to revise the tricky words we know.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Pointy Hat

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!

Pointy Hat

Help at home; light and dark

If you go to any light shows, see any illuminations or go to a firework display over the half term break, we’d love to share your photos in class. We’ll use the pictures to support our topic on light and dark.

Dates for your diary

Maths Stay and Learn – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00 Please join us in the classroom to watch a short maths session and enjoy some maths activities with your child.

Swimming

Have a lovely half-term break. We look forward to welcoming you back to class on Monday 6 November!

Leaf Man

Posted on Friday 20 October 2023 by Reception Team

This week, we have explored all things autumn!

Science

We began by taking an autumn walk around the school field to spot changes in the natural environment.

We collected items to add to our autumn tray in the classroom. We looked closely at the objects and created some observational drawings.

 

Literacy

We read the book Leaf Man and thoroughly enjoyed looking at the different pictures made using leaves.

Art 

Inspired by the book, we made our own leaf pictures. We used a variety of different objects, such as leaves, conkers and sticks.

Maths

Our focus in maths this week has been comparing quantities. We have developed our skills to look carefully and use the language  ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ to describe sets of objects.

We varied the objects ensuring they had different attributes such as, colour or size to draw attention to the number.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Five Little Pumpkins.

Watch us recite the poem here.

 

Dates for your diary

We have changed the timing of some our stay and learn session to incorporate an opportunity for you to meet with your child’s teacher and other parents at a coffee morning.

Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Maths – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00
Phonics Phase 3 – 16.01.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
Fine Motor Control and Writing –06.02.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
World Book Day- 07.03.24 – 8.50- 9.20

Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Week beginning 11.12.23
Week beginning 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24

 

 

 

Henri’s Scissors

Posted on Friday 13 October 2023 by Reception team

Henri’s Scissors

We’ve been reading Henri’s Scissors, by Jeanette Winter

The story is a biographical children’s book, about the artist Henri Matisse. Our word of the week was artist. We had lots of discussions about types of art, introducing new vocabulary such as sculptor/sculpture and collaging.

We’ve been artists ourselves by “painting with scissors”, just like Matisse!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art talk

We’ve been using our language and communication skills to respond to different examples of artwork by Matisse. We’ve been saying what we like/dislike about it and answering questions like: “Why do you think the artist painted this?”, “which is your favourite and why?”

I like the picture because it looks like my mummy’s shirt- Sofia

I can see flowers and lemons. I would choose this one to put on my wall ’cause I really like it- Dawson

I like the rainbow colours- Leila

Maths; counting principles

In Maths, we’ve been using our subitising skills to identify patterns to 4.

We’ve practised spotting changes, to see whether there is more/fewer/the same and identifying the changes we can see.

We’ve also shown different representations of 4, using multilink cubes. This was inspired by our introduction to Numberblock 4!

In provision, we’ve been continuing and creating repeating patterns of 3.

Stay and learn- phonics phase 2

Thank you to the parents/carers who were able to join us on Thursday for our stay and learn activities and coffee morning. We hope you enjoyed a little insight into daily phonics sessions in Reception. If you were unable to attend or would like to revisit the slides shown in the presentation, you can find them here. We look forward to inviting you to more stay and learn sessions throughout the school year.

Phonics

Autumn 1 week 4 has focused on the new phonemes:
h,b,f,l

We’ve also learnt the tricky word; the

Tricky words are words that should be read by sight. We start by identifying which part of the word is ‘tricky’. In the, it’s all tricky! the /th/ is tricky because we don’t yet know that sound and the ‘e’ makes the /ə/sound (“uh”)

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Leaves are falling

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!

Leaves are falling

Help at home; autumn leaves

If you go out on a walk this weekend, we’d really appreciate donations of dry leaves to help us with an art project next week. We will be making a leaf bowl.

Dates for your diary

Halloween disco- 20.10.23-3.15-4.15 Please send a named change of clothes in a bag for the end of the day. Collection from the classroom door.

We have changed the timing of some our stay and learn session to incorporate an opportunity for you to meet with your child’s teacher and other parents at a coffee morning.

Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Maths – 15.11.23 – 09.00 – 10.00
Phonics Phase 3 – 16.01.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
Fine Motor Control and Writing –06.02.24 – 09.00 – 10.00 (with coffee morning)
World Book Day- 07.03.24 – 8.50- 9.20

Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm (Tuesday and Thursday)
Week beginning 11.12.23
Week beginning 25.03.24
Week beginning 08.07.24

Swimming

Due to work being done on the pool, next week’s swimming lessons for Rainbow Class are cancelled. Please still send children to school in their PE kit, as they will take part in a Foot-tech PE session. We will keep you updated of any future changes in each week’s class news post.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Posted on Friday 06 October 2023 by Reception Team

Literacy 

This week, our focus book was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

The children were able to use their knowledge of the story to retell it using pictures and props.

Geography

On Tuesday, we went for a walk in our local area. This involved following a map and looking at different symbols to find landmarks.

Philosophy Friday

Did you know, each Friday morning we take part in Philosophy Friday? In Reception, we use this time to focus on asking questions that encourage the children to think beyond the ‘here and now’. We are starting with some ‘Would you rather…’ questions. This week’s question was would you rather live with chickens in a coop or a dog in a kennel?

Kennel because I love dogs.

With a chicken because I like to eat eggs.

A dog because they are fluffy and cute.

 

 

Maths

This week, we have explored how numbers can be composed of 1s. 

We have will learnt that a ‘whole’ is made up of smaller parts and is, therefore, bigger than its parts.

 

Phonics

Autumn 1 week 4 has focused on the new phonemes:
ck,e,u,r.

Ck is our first diagraph ( two letters that make one sound).

We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; I.

Poetry Picnic

Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Falling Apples. 

Watch Sunshine Class recite the poem here.

 

Other learning

 

Stay and Learn

Our first stay and learn session will be on Thursday 12 October. 
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about phonics and watch your child learning in school. There will also be a coffee morning after the session.