Reception Class News

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This week, we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Using story props and sequencing cards, we have been able to retell the story.

In our writing, we have been composing sentences to retell main events of the story.

Maths

This week, we have continued to develop our subitising skills (see the quantity without counting) in complex arrangements.

We have explored creating arrangements of 6.

Phonics

This week, we have continued to learn phase 4 words such as frog, shift, chimp and drum.

We’ve also learnt more phase 4 tricky words; some, come, love and do

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

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 Under a Stone.

Other learning areas

The children have loved creating their own bug houses in the model area as well as building a bug hotel outside for real minibeasts.

The children have been amazed at the rapid growth of the caterpillars. Each day, we have observed how they have changed and recorded what we noticed.

They have got bigger!

One has a white stripe now.

They look spiky.

Reminders and Dates

Friday 5 May – Non-uniform day with everyone invited to dress in red, white and blue to mark the coronation of King Charles.

Friday 19 May – Mini Bug Ball

Please don’t go to the expense of buying anything new – creative adaptations of something you’ve already got will be fantastic.  Outfits need to be suitable for school, safe and warm enough to be worn all day.

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May

Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May

We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.

Summer 1- The fun has begun!

The sun is shining and so are we! We’re excited to be back together for a happy and healthy Summer term.

This half term is called Life on Earth. We’ll be exploring minibeasts, wild animals, farm animals and the human body.

The Bad-Tempered Ladybird

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

There was lots to explore in this story; feelings and appropriate behaviours, clocks/time and the comparative sizes of animals.

Frustrated is our ‘word of the week’. In our writing, we’ve been wondering what went wrong in the ladybird’s week, to make it behave so badly!

Art; clay modelling

We’ve been using clay to make minibeasts. We looked at pictures and photos of minibeasts, before making our models. We had spiky caterpillars, wiggly worms and crawly spiders to name just a few. Clay is great for our fine motor skills. We have to work hard to mold, pull, press and shape.  We’ve also been making ladybirds out of dough.

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been counting beyond ten, to twenty. We’ve been suggesting ways to make counting easier, when we are faced with a lot of objects to count.

You can put them in another pile after you’ve counted them- Grace

You can line them up so it’s easier to count- Alfie

We’ve also been counting things that cannot be moved, or things that cannot be seen (such as sounds/actions)

In provision, we re-visited the doubling ladybirds and recorded our doubles.

Help at home- Challenge your child to count more than ten objects. Can they count the pegs on the washing line? Can they count toys in their toy box? Can they count books on a book shelf? Don’t forget to send in photos of counting at home!

Phonics

Summer 1 week 1 has been an introduction to reading phase 4 words. We’ve also learnt our first phase 4 tricky words; said, so, have, like

Help at home- Please continue to work through the weekly learn at home phonics sheets, throughout the Summer term. We’ll continue to send these home each Friday.

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 Pitter Patter

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

click below to watch us recite this week’s poem!

Pitter Patter

More pictures of our learning this week…

Reminders and Dates

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May

Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May

We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.

FOSP Easter competition

Miss Hague came to our assembly and awarded the prizes to the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 winners of the Easter competition. Well done to everyone who entered.

Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs

In the museum…

It looks really posh in here!

I liked going under the train.

Look at those wheels! They’re gigantic.

The wheels are enormous.

Check out our amazing observational drawings.

The Tiny Seed

The Tiny Seed

This week, we’ve been reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Some of the children recognised the illustrations, knowing that the author also wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The story follows the journey of a tiny seed, tracking its journey through the four seasons. It details the life cycle of a flowering plant. In our writing, we wrote what happened to the seed in each Season.

Our story linked to our discovery area and other non-fiction texts about planting and growing.

Miniscule is our ‘word of the week’. We’ve been learning that miniscule is even smaller than tiny!

Art; Printing

We’ve been using natural objects to print impressions into clay. Next week we’ll be using our clay stamps to print repeating patterns.

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been doubling! Ask your child explain how we find doubles.

When talking about doubles, we use the following sentence structure:

  “4 is made of 2 and 2; Double 2 is 4”

***Home Challenge*** Ask your child to draw out and complete these doubling ladybirds. Can they use the above sentence structure to describe what they have shown?

Phonics

Spring 2 week 5 has been a review of phase 3 sounds. We’ve been reading longer words, words with s in the middle /z/ (like ‘visit’), words ending –s and words with –es at end /z/ (like ‘foxes’)

In the reading areas, we’ve challenged ourselves to be ‘tricky word detectives’ finding tricky words of the day in books and taking a photo of them on the iPad.

Challenge your child to be a tricky word detective at home too! How many different tricky words can they find in one book? Perhaps they could write them in a list.

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 Hungry Birdies.

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

click here to watch us recite this week’s poem!

More pictures of our learning this week…

Class Assembly

Thank you to everyone who came to watch our Reception assembly. The children have been working hard to learn their lines, song and poem. It takes a lot of bravery to stand up in front of so many grown-ups and we are very proud of them all. We hope you enjoyed learning about our school day!

Reminders and Dates

Reception trip to The Railway Museum, York- 30.03.23 Please drop-off and collect your child at the usual times. You should now have replied to say whether your child needs a school packed lunch. Please remember that every child will need a suitable backpack that they are able to carry themselves throughout the day. Thank you.

Egg rolling competition- 31.03.23 We are going to do an egg rolling competition as part of our Easter celebrations next week. Please could your child bring a decorated, hard boiled egg on Friday 31st March. Thank you.

SWIMMING DATES- Summer 1

Rainbow Class- 19 Apr, 3 May, 17 May

Sunshine Class- 26 Apr, 10 May, 24 May

We know that Rainbow class missed a swimming session in Spring 2 due to the pool closure. This should be made up in Summer 2, which is a 7 week term.

Red Nose Day

A huge thank you to everyone that donated money last Friday for Comic Relief. The Junior Leadership Team stood at the gate and shook their buckets and collected any donations. You are such a generous bunch of people and we managed to raise £337.97. Thank you again for your support.

Jack and the Beanstalk

It has been another fun-filled week in reception!

Jack and the Beanstalk

This week, we’ve been reading the traditional story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

We discussed how this story has been retold many times and some versions of the story are different. Just by looking at two front covers, we could spot similarities and differences.

The story I heard had a musical instrument.

They both have Jack on the front.

He has the chicken in that one.

Word of the week

Every week, we look at a new adventurous word. We call this our ‘word of the week’. This week, our word of the week was ‘gigantic’ – linked to the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.  The children have enjoyed using the word during role plays and in their writing.

Can you spot our word in any of the writing below?

Observational drawing

This week, we have focused on drawing daffodils using oil pastels.

Planting a (magic) bean

After listening to the story, the children all agreed that we should plant our own bean.

We then wrote instructions to explain to others how they could plant a bean too!

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been exploring the composition of numbers by investigating the numbers within 7 e.g. seeing that 7 can be made of 5 and 2.

We have also used our magic bean machine to combine two numbers.

Phonics

This week, we have continued to read longer words with the chunking method.

We have also begun to read root words that make up compound words and discussing how the two root words create a new word with a new meaning.

Can your child show you the chunking method to read these words?

fantastic   helmet   zooming   winking

Read these root words, then combine to make a compound word.

roof top   farm yard   car park

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  Spring Wind. 

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

Reminders and Dates

Reception’s Class Assembly- 24.03.23 3pm

You are invited to our class assembly, where we’d love to share our learning with you.

Easter Disco – 3.30 -4.30 24.03.23

The Friends of Scholes have arranged the Easter Disco after school. Parents are not required to attend. The price (£3.50) includes a drink and a bag of sweets. If you would like your child to attend the disco, payment must be made on the Gateway app.

Reception trip to The Railway Museum, York- 30.03.23

Please drop-off and collect your child at the usual times. School can provide a packed lunch but if you’d prefer your child to bring their own, this is also fine. Every child will need a suitable backpack that they are able to carry themselves throughout the day.

Spring 2 Week 3!

Can you believe we’re half way through Spring 2 already?! We’ve got even more great things planned for the rest of the term, so watch this space! Here’s what we’ve been learning this week.

The Hundred Decker Bus

This week, we’ve been reading another ‘Hundred Decker’ story by Mike Smith. The Hundred Decker Bus

In this story, a driver who is bored of his daily routine decides to take himself and his passengers on a long ‘adventure’. As more people get on the bus, more decks need to be built!

Linked to the story, we’ve been comparing cities/towns to the countryside, discussing similarities and differences. Countryside is our ‘word of the week’.

We’ve also been playing ‘eye spy’ in our writing task, looking closely at just one of the decks.

Did you know?…

Each morning before phonics, the children take part in an independent writing challenge. They look at an interesting ‘image of the day’ and simply write anything that they notice. This has really boosted the children’s confidence to ‘have a go’ at writing on their own. Take a look at some of this fantastic independent writing.

Computing

This week, we’ve been using Bee-bots. Bee-bots are an early coding resource. Children have to program the bee using directional and ‘GO’ buttons. They have to pre-plan the algorithm they need to enter, to successfully get the bee to its intended location.

RE/ Living and Learning

We’ve been thinking about how special times are celebrated. Wednesday 8 March was the Hindu festival Holi. Here’s what the children remembered about the festival.

For the celebration, they celebrate colours, Spring, love and new life!- Ted

They got messy with paint!- Mollie B

The temple was very special- Tilly

They eat lunch (at the temple)… it’s really nice and special- Esther

We decorated outlines of people with colourful Holi paint.

As a time to celebrate with friends and family, we linked Holi to our living and learning statement: I recognise that friends and family are important. We spoke about our loved ones in our families and some children chose to draw their family too.

Snow much fun!

Snow always brings much excitement. We’ve enjoyed short bursts of time exploring the snow. On Thursday, we had a snowman building competition to see who could build the tallest snowman in ten minutes. Each team decided on a name for their snowman. We had Timmy, Daisy, Mr. Grinch, Chocolate, Slippery, Stanley and Cupcake ⛄ Well done to team Chocolate, who built the tallest snowman at 73cm!

Maths

In Maths, we’ve been comparing numbers and noticing whether change creates a number that is more or less than another.

In provision, we used the ‘bus stop’ number story to explore subtraction (creating less) and recorded our number stories.

Phonics

Spring 2 week 3 has been a review of phase 3 sounds, reading words with two or more digraphs. We review tricky words daily.

Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try…

Tricky word stick person (a modified version of the ‘hangman’ game)

We often play this game in class. Write the correct number of dashes for your chosen tricky word and let your child make guesses. Encourage your child to use letter names rather than sounds for spelling tricky words. Draw a part of the stick man for each incorrect guess- you can give extra chances by adding a hat, shoes, gloves etc. to the stick person!

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 the traditional nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.

As a traditional nursery rhyme, we spoke to the children about how words might change in different versions of the song- you will see this in our video.

Reminders and Dates

Comic Relief: Red Nose Day- 17.03.23 We will be marking the occasion in school with a non-uniform day and invite you to make a donation. Find out more about Comic Relief:
https://www.comicrelief.com/rednoseday/

Reception’s Class Assembly- 24.03.23 3pm You are invited to our class assembly, where we’d love to share our learning with you.

Reception trip to The Railway Museum, York- 30.03.23 Please drop-off and collect your child at the usual times. School can provide a packed lunch but if you’d prefer your child to bring their own, this is also fine. Every child will need a suitable backpack that they are able to carry themselves throughout the day. More details and a letter will be sent home.

The Hundred Decker Rocket

This week, we have continued to explore our topic ‘Let go’.

We have been reading the book The Hundred Decker Rocket. 

This story is about a girl called Ivy who sets off on a mission to space. On the way, she meets some very messy aliens.  When her rocket breaks down, all the aliens help to fix it and make their own deck.

We decided to create our own class rocket. Everyone enjoyed designing their own deck.

Mine is going to have a swimming pool.

Look! It’s got a ball pit.

I’m going to have a slide on my deck.

Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog (it’s along the play bar) and turn off auto play – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.

Word of the week

Every week, we look at a new adventurous word. We call this our ‘word of the week’. This week our word of the week was ‘expedition’ – linked to the story ‘The Hundred Decker Rocket’. We looked at the definition ‘ A journey with a plan’.

It was like an expedition when I went to London.

I went on an expedition to Lego Land in Denmark.

You might follow signs on an expedition.

Maths

This week,  we have focused on consolidating our number sense by rehearsing the order of the first 10 numbers and understanding that the position that each number holds in our number sequence does not change.  

By doing this, we were able to explore ‘one more’ and ‘one less’.

I know 3 is one more than 2 because 3 comes after 2.

It goes 4, 5 so 4 is one less than 5.

Phonics

This week, the children have reviewed er, air and longer words that contain double letters.

Write these words on paper and ask your child to underline the double letters before reading.

hammer    shimmer   cannot   chatter   muffin

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 Popcorn.

When reading, we focused on the rhythm of the poem and using short, sharp voices.

Science

We had lots of fun exploring magnetic and non-magnetic objects.

We tried scissors and it worked!

Look it’s picking the metal up!

World Book Day

We had such a fabulous day! We started the morning with lots of wonderful stories with our grown-ups. Then, we were visited by children from Year 3,4 and 6. It was lovely to see everyone sharing their favourite books. In our classroom, we engaged in lots of traditional tale themed activities.

Let’s Go!

We’ve sprung into Spring 2 with great excitement for the term ahead! Outside, the sun has been shining and we’ve been noticing the first signs of the new season.

Pancake Day

On Shrove Tuesday, the children made pancakes. They learnt how to follow the steps of a recipe and check a list of ingredients. They followed the kitchen hygiene and safety rules. They had lots of fun mixing the ingredients and of course, tasting their creation!

The Train Ride

This half term is called Let’s Go! We’re starting with a focus on transport. This week, we’ve been reading The Train Ride by June Crebbin.

This story is about things that are seen out of the window, on a train journey. We noticed that the rhythm of the book’s repeated/rhyming lines start fast and repetitive (much like the sound of a train chugging along a track) and then as the train approaches the station, the lines become longer and the pace slows down until the train reaches is destination. Destination is our ‘word of the week’.

We’ve been discussing journeys that we have been on, either on trains or other modes of transport and what destinations we were going to. We’ve been writing about what we might see out of the train window.

Historical links

We looked at pictures of the early steam locomotive- Robert Stephenson’s Rocket. We compared it to the trains we use today.

In the discovery area, we’ve been ordering images of trains from oldest to newest. We’ve also been looking at historical pictures of Scholes Train Station.

 Maths: Comparison

We’ve been comparing groups of objects and toys, saying which has more and which has fewer. We’ve been using our mathematical reasoning to explain why size, colour and other factors do not matter when comparing ‘how many’. Here is an example of a conversation from a maths lesson this week:

The teacher had asked a child to share some toys with them, from a basket. In this instance, both the teacher and child had 4 toys each.

Child 1: Oh, you both have the same…it’s equal!

Teacher: Actually, this toy is my favourite. This toy means so much more to me than any of those others because I really like it, so I think I have more.

Child 2: No, it doesn’t matter about any of that! It doesn’t matter how much you love it or if it’s bigger, it just matters about how many.

Child 3: The quantity!

In the classroom, children have been making 6 using Numicon frames.

Phonics

Spring 2 week 1 has been a review of phase 3 sounds: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, oo, ow, oi, ear, in words and sentences. We review tricky words daily.

Tricky words can be just that-tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.

Roll and Read

You will need a die for this game. You may wish to print the boards or display them on a screen.

• Roll the die
• Count the spots, match to the correct row
• Choose a word to read on the row
• Cover the word when read correctly
• Repeat

Who will be the first to complete a row?

PE

We are excited to continue having both swimming and Foot-Tech on Wednesdays this half term. If it is your child’s swimming week, they may have both swimming and a Foot-tech session that afternoon. Please ensure that they are wearing PE kit, rather than school uniform. This must include suitable PE footwear.

Here is another reminder of the swimming dates:

Rainbow Class- 22 Feb, 8 Mar, 22 Mar

Sunshine Class- 1 Mar, 15 Mar, 29 Mar

These dates are also stuck to your child’s classroom door or window to view whenever needed. 

 We will also continue to have PE on Fridays. This half term we are developing ball skills and counter-balancing in pairs.

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 Pancakes by Christina Rossetti

We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. Can your child tell you the rhyming words in this week’s poem? We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm. Can your child re-tell this week’s poem to you?

Reminders and Messages

Shoe Box:  Please send a named, empty shoe box into school from Monday 27 February. This is for a special creative activity in the classroom.

World Book Day 2023: Relax and Read – Thursday 02 March Please join us in the classroom for an extended drop-off time (8.40-9.20) where you can relax and read books with your child. Throughout the day, we’ll have World Book Day themed activities. We’d also like your child to share their favourite book with their friends. Please send your child into school with their favourite book and please ensure the book is named. As stated on the school calendar, this is not a dressing-up year. Thank you.

 Half-term sponsored maths challenge: Please remember to return your sponsored maths challenge forms by Friday 03 March 2023.