Our Week in Reception
13/02/25
Dear Parents,
Happy Friday and happy half term!!
This week we looked at the book ‘Room on the Broom’ the children have really enjoyed the provisions set out during the classroom to match this book. On the tuff tray they had the opportunity to make their own potion using coloured rice, test tubes and bowls they also loved wearing their protective goggles. In the water tray the children enjoyed mixing coloured water to make a different potion, the children had great predictions about what colour they would make when mixing 2 different colours.
In RE we looked at solidarity, looking at how we can be helpful in and out of school. We also looked at the qualities of a good friend and thanking God for our good friends, there were some lovely ideas of children describing their friends as thoughtful and friendly. Ruth class also had their class Celebration of the Word, thank you to all the parents and Fr. Jim for coming to watch, we hope you enjoyed it as much as the children did.
In Maths this week we focused on weight, we had items from around the classroom weighing them on the scales identifying what is heavier and lighter.
The children also loved making their Valentine’s day cards for their loved ones.
We hope you have a lovely half term,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman.
07/02/25
Dear Parents,
Happy Friday!!
This week we started looking at comparing Traditional tales and New tales! We focused on the three little pigs as the traditional tales and comparing that to some new tales such as Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, The smartest giant in town and a squash and a squeeze. Throughout the children's continuous provision the children recreated the story of the three little pigs using stick puppets, bricks, straw, and wood. They also created their own book covers drawing the picture and writing the title. Some of the children even chose to write their own books. In our role play area the children have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their own bookshop where they can take on the role of the bookshop owner and customers.
In RE we continued looking at the story of Feeding the 5000 where the children had to order 3 images from the story in order.
In Maths this week we introduced the topic of Measurement looking at longer and shorter and taller and shorter. The children compared different objects around the classroom and compapred the lengths.
In Nature school this week the children created their own paintings using sticks and leaves as their paint brushes and mud and water as the paint.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
31/1/25
Dear Parents,
Happy Friday!!
This week has been a busy week continuing the topic of Chinese New Year! We focused on how Chinese New Year is prepared for. Some of the children’s favourite things were fireworks, new clothes and the dragon dance. We continued looking at the story of The Great Race and the children enjoyed using the tuff tray to put the animals in order from 1st place to 12th. The children continued to enjoy using the role play area playing in their Chinese restaurant, they also got the opportunity to use chop sticks.
In RE we have introduced the Glory Be prayer where we used actions to help us remember the key parts. This prayer is about giving thanks to God, we went around in a circle talking about the things we thank God for, the children had lots of ideas for example they were thankful for their family, pets and their bed! We have also started to look at feeding the 5000, thinking about a time when we know Jesus has helped us.
The children have been very busy making lanterns and paper chain snakes linking in with our topic of Chinese New Year. On Wednesday we made traditional stir fry noodles, the children enjoyed chopping the vegetables and eating the stir fry as their snack. On Thursday we celebrated Chinese New Year with fortune cookies and prawn crackers!
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman.
24/01/25
Hi Parents,
Happy Friday!!!
We have had a very busy week!!! We started looking at the celebration of Chinese New Year. We focused looking at the country of China, looking at far China is to England and how long it would take to get there. We focused on the story of 'The great race' and more importantly looking at the year of Snake. The children learnt all about Snakes, where they live, what they eat, and where they live. They then wrote a fact about a snake in their workbooks. They also created paper snakes. Our role play area has been transformed into a Chinese restaurant where the children have taken the opportunity to be waiters, chefs and customers.
In Math's this week we looked at comparing numbers within 10. We compared groups using more than and fewer than. We used the animals in the great race to compare numbers within 10.
In RE we discussed the story of Jesus welcoming the children. We read the scripture from the bible MK 10:13-16 and discussed how the children would feel if they were blessed by Jesus. During our discussion we had a big picture of Jesus and the children then drew all the children around Jesus.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
17/1/25
Hi Parents,
Happy Friday!
We have had a fun week finishing off our topic about key workers. We started the week with a workshop about people that help us, the children loved joining in with all the activities!
This week in topic we have focused on if we were to choose a key workers job when we grow up, what would choose and why. The children have done a lovely piece of writing and picture show this.
In Maths the children were introduced to 10 frames, they were taught that if they look at objects in the 10 frame and it was full they wouldn’t need to count them as they already know there are 10. We also started to slowly introduce number bonds looking at how many more objects we needed to add to each 10 frame to make 10.
In understanding of the world this week we have looked at what vets do, and how important and helpful they are to our every day life. We also had our small world area set up as a Vets so the children could role play being the vet and help the animals feel better.
Finally in nature school this week, we looked at numbers made out of nature and how we could put the numbers from 1-10 in order starting from the smallest to the biggest.
Please look out for our homework page and any weekly notices we have added to it.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
10/01/25
Hi Parents,
Happy Friday and a Happy New Year!!!!
We have had a busy first week back after the Christmas Holidays. We started our Topic of People who help us, looking at key workers in our environment and who they are and why they are important. This week we discussed the importance of Firefighters, doctors and nurses. The children wrote a sentence about a key worker and why they are important in our community. Next week the children will continue with this topic looking at dentists, vets, teachers and police officers. We have a workshop coming in on Monday to discuss the importance of key workers and how they keep us safe.
In Maths this week we have started looking at numbers to 10 and the composition of each number. The children have also been working on their subitising skills.
In RE we discussed the story of the three wise men, the gifts they brought to Jesus and the story of King heron. The children then re wrote the story in their RE books.
In Nature school this week the children had number flashcards from 1-10 and they used the natural environment to create numbers using the natural resources.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
20/12/24
Hi Parents,
Happy Friday and Happy Christmas!
We have had a busy last week in reception with our nativity dress rehearsal and performance, I hope you enjoyed the show as much as the children did. They did such a good job we are so proud of them.
This week we have had some Christmas Maths where the children focussed on counting the Christmassy objects. They also matched the correct numicon present to the number from number 1-5.
In literacy this week we have focused on making Christmas cards, where the children wrote a lovely message inside.
We have also had lovely Christmas activity packs available for the children where they were able to do colouring by number, number dot-to- dot and draw Christmas elves.
On Thursday the children enjoyed their first class party to celebrate Christmas.
We hope you have a lovely and restful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
13/12/2024
Happy Friday!
This week we have continued looking at the story ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman,’ the children then delivered their letters to the post box. We looked at the change of season from Autumn to Winter. The children then wrote a fact about winter in their topic books and drew a picture to correspond this.
In RE this week, we continued looking at the story of Nativity. The children drew the nativity scene and wrote about the Nativity in their books.
In Maths this week we focused on spatial awareness. The children discussed direction and the space around them.
The children had a great time on their school trip to the local post box!!!!!
We are looking forward to our Nativity performance next week!!!!!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
06/12/2024
Happy Friday!
This week we have focused on the story ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman,’ linking the book with writing letters to Santa. We read the story as a class and looked at the properties of writing a card, what we need to include and what types of events would we write a card for. The children then got the opportunity to write their own cards and letters to Santa. The writing table was also set up with story maps so the children could sequence the story of the Jolly Christmas postman in order.
In RE this week, we looked at the story of Nativity. We focused the journey that Mary and Joseph took from Nazareth to Bethlehem on maps. We also compared the Nativity story to our school Nativity and the different roles the children are playing.
In Maths this week we focused on part part whole within 5. The children had to separate a group of 5 objects into 2 different groups.
The children had a great time on their school trip to the Lyric theatre!!!!!
The children also decorated their class Christmas trees this week!!!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
28/11/2024
Happy Friday!
This week we have focused on the story ‘Owl Babies,’ linking the book with nocturnal animals. We taught the children some interesting facts about nocturnal animals. The children then got the opportunity to write a fact and draw a picture on their favourite nocturnal animal. The writing table was also set up with story maps so the children could sequence the story of the Owl Babies in order.
In RE this week, we introduced the Annunciation. We focused on Angel Gabriel visiting Mary and how special she must have felt. We also spoke about some different feelings Mary might have had during this time, and how it could have been hard for her to say yes as it was such a huge responsibility.
In Art this week we looked at shading nocturnal animals from a lighter shade to darker, we also had ago at painting them and making a collage with tissue paper. We have also been working hard on our Christmas baubles ready to hang up in the hall on Monday!
In Maths this week we focused on taking one away from numbers 1-5. We used objects to help us do this and write a story with them using first, then and now.
In Nature school this week we made mud cupcakes with silicone cupcake holders. We had lots of fun in wellies and using our Nature School area.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
22/11/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!
This week we have continued looking at Handa’s surprise, we have linked eating healthy to the Eat Well Plate. The children had the opportunity to turn the tuff tray into their own Eat Well Plate, we spoke about how important it is that each meal should have food from each section of the Eat Well Plate.
In RE this week, we introduced Hanukkah. We spoke about it being the Jewish festival of light, we had a main focus on the menorah and how many candles we light and when. We spoke about the Maccabee’s and how strong they were for standing up for their self.
In Maths this week we have looked at adding one more in a story, starting with first, then and now. The children enjoyed creating their own ideas of starting with 2 objects, adding one and then counting how many there were in total.
The children have had a fantastic week starting to rehearse their Nativity, they are doing a great job remembering their lines, stage directions and songs.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
Hi Reception,
15/11/2024
Happy Friday!
This week we have started looking at the story Handa’s Surprise, we have linked this story to discussing the importance of healthy eating and making healthy choices. The children looked at the different fruits that Handa delivers to her friend and the children were able to taste each fruit and discuss some adjectives to describe what the fruit tastes, smells and looks like. They then wrote which fruit was their favourite and drew a picture in their books.
In RE we continued looking at celebrations, we further discussed the importance of Remembrance Day and that it can also be called ‘Armistice day’, as a class we made a poppy wreath using the children’s handprints.
In Maths we continued looking at shapes topic by focussing on the properties of 2D shapes, the names of shapes, how many sides and edges of each shapes and identify shapes in the environment.
In Art this week the children enjoyed painting observational pictures of Handa’s fruit basket.
This week in Nature school the children have made mud cupcakes using natural resources.
The children also participate in a Diwali workshop where they learnt more about the story of Rama and Sita and learned some amazing Diwali dance moves!!!! They all had so much fun!!!!!
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
8/11/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!
This week we have looked at remembrance, why we wear a poppy and what we are remembering. We drew a lovely picture in our topics book of a battle field after the war had finished, with a field of poppies. We have also practised looking at a remembrance poem, putting in actions to help us learn it off by heart.
In RE we continued looking at celebrations, the children shared their favourite celebrations and how they celebrate it with their family. The children drew a picture of their chosen favourite celebration and used their initial sounds to help explain what they have drawn.
In Maths we started our shape topic by focussing on 3D shapes, we looked at the different properties the shapes have and what they need to have to be able to roll and what stops them from rolling.
In Art this week the children enjoyed making their own poppies, making fireworks to celebrate Bonfire night and making our own poppy badges.
This week we also introduced Nature school where the children saw the environment we will be using, we came up with some class rules ready to get stuck in next week!
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
25/10/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!
This week we have looked at a poem called 'I see leaves'. The children learned the poem and recited the poem as a class and also individually. The children learned about the rhyming words that are in the poem and what coloured leaves were in the poem.
In RE we have focused on the festival of Diwali, we spoke about symbols such as diya lamps, rangoli patterns, the story of Rama and Sita, fireworks and the significance of Diwali being the festival of light. The children made their own rangoli pattern using coloured rice and glue. They also made their own diya lamp using clay and they then decorated their lamp using paint and glitter.
In Maths we have been looking at grouped items from 1-5, we have been looking at who has the most and who has fewer in each group. We used cubes to help us count the items.
In Art this week the children drew their own observational drawing looking at a vase and flowers as their muse. The children used their observational skills to draw the vase and flowers ensuring they paid attention to detail.
We hope you all have a lovely half term break!!!
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
18/10/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!
This week we have looked at the book 'Pumpkin soup.' In the story it shows the children how to share, but we also used it to help us make pumpkin soup and follow step by step instructions. We also used this recipe to help us create our own recipe of what we need to make a good friend. The children came up with kindness, being thoughtful and sharing. This week was our first week of looking at Autumn, the children enjoyed doing some Autumn based arts and crafts using their finger painting skills to make leaves and put them on trees.
In RE we have focused on Baptism, we spoke about when we are Baptised we are welcomed into God's world and now close with God. We enjoyed looking at everyone's Baptism photos and how special everyone's day was.
In Maths we have been looking at grouped items from 1-5, we have been looking at who has the most and who has fewer in each group. We used cubes to help us count the items.
In PE this week we looked at moving our bodies in different ways, following instruction and moving around the hall in a safe way.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend, See you on Monday
Mrs Knight and Miss Goodman
11/10/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we have looked at the story 'Anna Hibiscus Song'. We focused on 'Black History Month', and discussed the importance of celebrating everyone and ways in which we can do so. We read the story as a whole class and looked at where Anna Hibiscus is from 'Africa' and the people in her family. This then reflects what the children have been doing in their topic/literacy books this week. We discussed the children's family experiences and compared it to Anna Hibiscus' family experiences.
In Maths we focused on numbers 1-5. We looked at identifying groups of items and how many were in each group. To count to 5 using the counting principles they developed in Week 4 and Week 5. They will represent numbers up to 5 in concrete and pictorial ways as well as linking an amount to the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
In RE this week we have looked at ways in which we can look after God's world. We looked at the environment around us and how we can look after it. The children came up with some great responses, 'We can pick up all the rubbish around us', 'we can turn the lights off when we are finished using them', 'we can turn the tap off when we aren't using it.'
In PE the children are having a great time learning new skills such as throwing, balancing, freezing and moving around the room in different ways.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
Miss Goodman & Mrs Knight
04/10/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!
We have had a busy week this week, in phonics we have been learning the new sounds i,n,m,d. We have also started to blend the sounds together to make words.
This week in literacy we have focused on the book 'Who are you?' We have been looking at how ever family is different and there are many different types of families. The children have been drawing their own families and sharing who is in their family even if they don't live in the same house.
In Maths we focused on numbers 1-4. We looked at identifying groups of items and how many were in each group.
We also had our first PE lesson this week, the children loved travelling around the hall in different ways, pretending to be cars!
This week in RE we focused on the first book in the Bible- God's creation, the children drew their favourite day that God created.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Knight and Mrs Goodman
27/09/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we have looked at the story 'The color monster'. We read the story as a whole class and looked at the different emotions there are and different scenarios we may feel these emotions. We also all made the different faces that go along with the emotions. This then reflects what the children have been doing in their topic/literacy books this week. We discussed a time or something that makes them happy and sad and they drew this in their books and wrote the initial sounds to go along with them.
In Maths we focused on numbers 1-3. We looked at identifying groups of items and how many were in each group.
In RE this week we have looked at Our lady of Mount Carmel, 'Mother Mary' and why she is an important part of our school life and everyday life. We also discussed why the children are unique and how God made each one of us special and different. In their books the children drew a picture of themselves and discussed why they are unique.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
Miss Goodman & Mrs Knight
20/9/24
Hi Reception,
Reception have settled in really well, managing to complete their first full week in reception. We have loved watching them make their new friends!
This week we looked at Hello Friend, focusing on the importance of making friends and how exciting it is to go home and come back to school the next day to see all the friends that you have made. We also looked at the book Rainbow Fish, where we spoke about how important it was to share and other qualities that make a good friend.
This week we also have also looked at what the children like and dislike and each child drew a picture and used initial sounds to write their interests. We have also looked at why our classrooms are called 'Ruth class' and 'Joshua class' and why they are important people in the bible.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
Miss Goodman and Mrs Knight :)
28/06/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we have continued looking at the story 'Surprising Sharks'. We read the story as a whole class and looked at the different types of sharks there are and what they eat, their habitats etc. We also looked at how we can protect sharks and why they are important in our eco system. This then reflects what the children have been doing in their topic/literacy books this week. They wrote why they think sharks are important and what we can do in our everyday lives to help protect them.
In our 'Understanding of the world' lesson this week we looked at sinking and floating. We asked the children to hypotehsize their ideas about whether or not certain objects would sink or float. As a class we used objects such as rocks, toy cars, glue sticks etc. and put them in a container of water and watched whether or not the object sank or floated. The children then wrote in their books whether or not they thought a piece of lego would sink or float.
In Maths we focused on similarities and differences in sets of objects found in the classroom. The children sorted objects into two groups based on size, colour and shape. They discovered that groups can be sorted in different ways and into more than two groups.
In RE this week we have looked at the story of 'The Good Samaritan'. We read the bible story and discussed the importance of forgiveness and how we as members of the church and community can be Good Samaritan's. In their books the children drew a picture of 'The Good Samaritan' and wrote what it means to be a 'Good Samaritan', and something that they can do to be a 'Good Samaritan'.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
14/6/24
Hello!
What a wonderful week we have had. We continued learning about Africa through our book 'The Leopard's Drum' and children have loved exploring maps of the world, looking at Africa as a continent, the traditions of Africa and African art with it's beautiful colours and patterns. We made our own African masks by cutting out 2D shapes and using vibrant and bold colours, just like Asroboa wore in the book. In Maths we have been looking at properties of 2D shapes and have incorporated our shape knowledge into African pattern work.
We also wrote our very own African animal fact files in Literacy and children have loved teaching each other the facts about their chosen animal.
To end our African topic, we were very lucky to have a parent come into our school and teach us all about Gambia traditions and culture. We got to explore artefacts, watch a mini video of the landscape and wildlife. We even got to taste traditional African juice and bread! We LOVED IT!
As we approach the end of year, we have started to think about transitioning to Year 1. Today we were very cheeky and explored the Year 1 classrooms whilst Year 1 were out having PE. We had a good look around the classrooms, became familiar with where the toilets were, the lockers and we even sat at the desks!
Have a lovely weekend!
24/05/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we have continued looking at the story 'The Naughty Bus'. We read the story as a whole class and looked at the different places the Naughty Bus goes to throughout the book and all the mischief he gets up to. As a class we then created a story map ordering the events that happen in the story. This then reflects what the children have been doing in their topic/literacy books this week. They drew their own story map of The Naughty Bus and wrote down the events of the story using arrows to show the flow of the story.
In Maths we have continued looking at halving and sharing focusing on halving quantities by sharing into two equal groups. They will make links to the fact that halving is the opposite, or inverse, of doubling
In RE this week we have looked at the importance of the church and how we celebrate Jesus and God in church by going to mass, sing special hymns and what priests do in church. The children have been having discussions and writing in their RE books why church is a very special and important place.
We hope you all have a lovely half term break!!!!
17/05/24
Happy Friday!!!
What a great week we have had. We loved learning about the Naughty Bus' book and the journey it took! We created our very own books, retelling the story, creating a story map of the Naughty bus and retelling the story using the tuff tray and materials to re create the story in real life. As a class we re wrote the story looking at capital letters at the start of a sentence, full stops at the end of a sentence and using expression when we see a exclamation mark. The children have also been really busy with creating the role play area and pretending their on a bus journey taking in turns at being the passengers and the driver.
In math's this week we have been looking at using sharing to find a half. We opened up our half bakery where the children were only allowed to sell items that were half.
In RE this week we looked at Jesus' ascencion and how the holy spirt helps us in our daily lives.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!!!!
10/05/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we have continued looking at the story 'Emma Jane's Aeroplane'. We have been looking at the different cities that she travels to throughout the book and how long it would take for her to get there. We compared the difference between each cities and how that compares to London. We have also looked at postcards what they are, what we need to include in them, and where we can write them from. The children have been busy creating their own postcards and writing a message on them as if they were on a holiday. They continued creating their own story map from 'Emma Jane's Aeroplane', by writing their rememberd events from the story using their drawn story maps from the previous week.
In maths, we have been exploring and representing patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.
In RE this week we have looked at the story of Pentecost which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks. We had discussions about how we can spread important messages that Jesus wanted his disciples to spread to everyone around the world.
A big congratulations to Joshua class for their amazing class liturgy they did such an amazing job!!!!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
03/05/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we started looking at the story 'Emma Jane's Aeroplane'. We read the story as a whole class and looked at the different places and cities she visits throughout the book. As a class we then created a story map ordering the cities and the events that happen in the story. This then reflects what the children have been doing in their topic/literacy books this week. They drew their own story map of Emma Jane's Aeroplace using arrows to show the flow of the story.
In maths we have been looking at numbers to 20 and looking at counting back to 0, identify one more and one less, and compare and represent numbers.
In RE this week we have looked at Mother Mary, as we have entered the month of May and how can we celebrate Mother Mary by going to mass, sing special hymns and lay flowers to bring nature into the church. The children have been having discussions and writing in their RE books why they lover their mummy and how is their mummy like Mother Mary.
A big congratulations to Ruth class for their amazing class liturgy they did such an amazing job!!!!
Reminder: Joshua class have their class liturgy on Friday the 10th of May!!!!
We hope you all have a lovely long weekend!!!!
26.4.24
Hello,
We have continued looking at The Train Ride book, sequenced the story (using time connectives) and re-wrote parts to the story. Using the language pattern of this text and our knowledge of how to write descriptive sentences, we then wrote our own page to add to a class book about a little boat going on a journey. Our class book is AMAZING! The children are really starting to show independence when writing their sentences and developing their own ideas. We are very proud of them!
We looked at counting back, subtraction, from a given number. Although this is a tricky concept, the children loved playing practical games that helped them understand the process of this. Well done Reception!
Earth day was a huge success. The children LOVED having the lights off in school and learning about the small changes we can do to help protect our planet and all God’s creatures. We shared several stories about how we can protect our planet and looked at non-fiction books to support our understanding. The children showed such high levels of interest in this and so we continued to look at Earth Day all week! They loved the hands on sensory earth tuff tray and loved ‘cleaning’ our ‘polluted’ water tray of plastic for the sea creatures.
Reminder: Ruth Class liturgy will be held on Wednesday 1st May at 9am, in the school hall - see you there!
19/4/24
Hello!
For this week only, please see Dojo for home learning, we had trouble uploading this onto the webpage. Thank you.
This week we started our new topic on journeys with reading The Train Ride. As a class we used our creative skills to make a train and tracks and used our phonic skills to write signs to transform our home corner into a train station. In our writing, we have been focusing on sentence work independently, trying our best to use a capital letter at the start of a sentence, a full stop at the end and finger spaces. We are doing great! We also tried to make our sentences more interesting by adding in adjectives to describe pages of the book. We will continue this book through next week and will focus on sequencing and creating a story map of the train’s journey.
In Maths we looked at counting on a number when starting at any number on a number track. Next week we will subtract a given number.
We also had Joshua Class liturgy, they interacted beautifully and were very engaged. Thank you to all that came and got involved with the reflective activity. The children loved it! both classes loved listening to the mystery of Easter Sunday when Jesus rose. They rewrote the story in their RE books and I am so impressed with how well they understood this special time.
On Monday we will mark World Earth Day by turning off all electricity in the school. We have spoken to the children about this and they are aware, but please remind them on Monday morning as the school may seem darker than usual, especially the toilets, corridors etc. I’m sure the children will find this very exciting, but if you feel your child might need a little more reassuring, please let us know.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
22/03/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we continued looking at the story 'Yucky worms'. We looked at their habitat and discussed where would be good places to find worms. We also looked at different minibeasts and their habitats such as ladybugs, spiders, ants, bees, and snails. We have been preparing for our school trip that is happening next week where we will get the chance to look at different minibeasts and their local habitats.
We have also continued learning about repeating patterns in Math's and looking at different types of patterns we can create by using more than two colors and objects.
In RE this week we have continued looking at the Easter story, the children have had some great discussions about what they have learned and how Jesus is a very important part of Easter. We firstly recapped on Palm Sunday and the significance of the palms before learning more about Good Friday. The children made crosses and placed a painted handprint over the cross to symbolize how Jesus died on the cross for us and how he gave his life for us so that we could be forgiven for our sins.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
Thank you!
15/03/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week we looked at the story 'Yucky worms', to explore this further we explored the features of a worm, where they live, what they eat, and what they are good for. We spoke about the different types of worms and looked at how they live in our earth. The children have been able to learn about worm farming and being a wormologist. As a whole class we went worm farming in our outdoor area and safely looked for worms by digging holes and gently looking through the mud to see how many worms we could find and we found so many!!!!!! We added these worms into a large container filled with sand, soil, and food for the worms and over the next week the children will be documenting what they can see and how the worms live in our class worm farm.
Throughout the week the children participated in music lessons where they looked at the keys D and G on a glockenspiel. In ICT we spoke about what an algorithm is and debugged a set of instructions for washing hands. In art we looked at the artist Van Gogh and his famous sunflower painting, the children had the opportunity to mirror his painting by using colored pencils and shading to recreate his sunflower picture.
We have been learning repeating patterns this week and looking at different types of patterns we can create by using more than two colors and objects.
In RE this week we have continued looking at the Easter story, the children have had some great discussions about what they have learned and how Jesus is a very important part of Easter. This week we focused on Palm Sunday and the journey Jesus took as he arrived in Jerusalem, the children made their own palms to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!!!!
Thank you!
08/03/24
Hi Reception,
Happy Friday!!!!!!
This week our story of the week is the 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', to explore this further we have started exploring the lifecycle of a butterfly. We spoke about the different stages in a butterfly's life and looking at the transition from a caterpillar into a butterfly. The children have been able to recreate their own lifecycle and label the different stages. We have received a small container containing some caterpillars and over the next month we will be able to watch them grow, turn into a chrysalis and then into a butterfly the children will be documenting each stage as it happens and feed the butterfly's before releasing them into nature.
To celebrate World Book Day, the children were given the opportunity to create a book cover design of their favourite book, create their own book re telling the story of the hungry caterpillar and read many stories throughout the week. All the children looked terrific and had amazing costumes and came up with really unique words to represent their costume!
We have been learning subtraction using a ten frame and number bonds and children are becoming more and more confident with this. Next week we will be looking at repeating patterns.
In RE this week we have been looking at the Easter story, the children have had some great discussions about what they have learned and how Jesus is a very important part of Easter. We will continue learning more about this leading up to Easter looking more in depth about Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday etc.
The children have been extremely busy making their mother's day cards ready for Sunday. We hope all the Mother's have a lovely and relaxing weekend being spoilt by your loved ones!
Thank you!
1/3/24
We have had a fantastic week continuing on our learning about gardens and growing… and have learnt all about sunflowers this week! We started the week looking at what a plant needs to grow and are carrying out an experiment by taking an element away from potted sunflower seed. We will monitor this over time. We are wondering whether the seed without water, the seed without soil or the seed without sunlight will grow the same as the seed that has everything it needs. As we have been looking after our very own individual sunflower seeds and we have been so excited watching them grow during the week… most of our seeds now have shoots! We are keeping a weekly diary of how our plant grows and changes each week. We also looked at the lifecycle of a sunflower and learn some interesting facts about sunflowers.
During ICT, we learnt the importance of following a set of instructions and spoke about what might happen if one step is missed out… things might get muddled up and go wrong! During our creative learning, we looked closely at spring flowers and their colours. We learnt how to mix primary colours into secondary colours and, using our knowledge of shades, how to then use white to create a shade that best matched our daffodils and tulips. We also loved using mud to practise shading using large scale strokes within the natural paintbrushes we made last week. We realised the more water we added to the mud, the lighter the shade became observational painting were beautiful! We are becoming more and more confident with number bonds to 10 and enjoyed learning the number bond song by Jack Hartmann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9tjBUiXs0.
23rd February
This week we have explored gardens and read Erol’s Garden. We spoke about what a garden is, the role of gardener and what gardens mean to each of us. We planted our on sunflower seeds and will watch them grow. We even wrote a set of instructions on how to plant a seed!
We made our own natural paintbrushes using foliage and sticks. We used our fine motor skills to tie them together using twine. We have been learning about how to create different shades of a colour, and focused on yellow shades when painting daffodils.
We have been learning number bonds to ten using a ten frame and children are becoming more and more confident with this. We will continue this next week.
9th February
Dear Parents,
We started the week learning the importance of oral health and learnt how many teeth we have and how to keep them clean and healthy. We learnt how the dentist helps us with this and what might happen if we don’t brush our teeth properly on a regular basis. We then had great fun learning about the role of a firefighter and police officer and looked closely at how they help us in our community. We hosed down the ’fire’ (paint) on our tuff trays, engaged in role play and small world play and even made 3D firefighters (focusing on what their uniform looks like). On Thursday, we came into school only to discover CCTV had captured an ‘intruder’ that was in disguise (Miss Whittaker). The whole day was spent investigating, looking for fingerprints and clues and writing wanted posters! On Friday we had a lovely morning of Mardi Gras celebrations and the children were busy decorating their masks for our Mount Carmel parade!
For our maths focus this week, the children experimented with heavy and light objects and then compared and ordered them from heaviest to lightest. They took this new knowledge and put it into practise in our home corners and to our mud kitchen when weighing fruit and veg for our imaginative recipes.
When we return from the half term holiday, we will carry out a phonics assessment on every child. At the end of the first week, we will send home any sounds your child may need to work on further. From now until Easter will we review previously taught sounds and continue to practise our blending skills.
We have had such a fantastic half term and it has flown by. We hope you all have a restful half term and look forward to our Spring 2 term!
As it is half term, we will not set any home learning. Please continue to read with your child daily.
Have a lovely half term!
2nd February
Dear Parents/Carers,
This week we have explored the role of doctors and nurses and how they are very important jobs. We started the week thinking of what our dream job might be and listened to how Dr Ranj treats his outpatients. The children loved our role play doctor surgery and were busy discussing symptoms and treatments, writing appointment cards, prescriptions and health checks! We even got a video call from a real life doctor! Dr Verma explained what was in her doctor's bag and how she used her equipment to check her patients.
The children were busy using their fine motor skills at wrapping bandages and peeling/putting on plasters on each other. They also used their scizzor skills to cut and create their very own doctor's bag with all the equipment in. We looked closely at x-rays and matched real life x-ray images to the correct body parts... We also loved reading 'Funny Bones' and working out which bones are connected together. We loved piecing ‘bones’ together to create a skeleton using cotton buds.
In Maths we went outside into our natural environment and collected leaves, sticks and cones to compare the length of the object to our body parts. Some of our feet were longer than two leaves! During creative arts we have learnt and practice how we join junk materials and thick card together and we will continue this next week. When logging onto the computers this half term, we have been practicing how to control a computer mouse (dragging, left click and selecting colours/shapes) and this week we drew our dream job using the Paint programme. We are getting better and better at this skill!
Thank you Ruth Class parents for attending their liturgy, the children performed brilliantly and explained how we unite, just like Jesus, superbly.
Have a lovely weekend!
26th January
Dear Parents/Carers,
This week we have been sharing our favourite books and exploring contemporary tales by Julia Donaldson. The children have really enjoyed exploring the different characters and plots. We looked closely at our own opinions, our thoughts about the characters and what we enjoyed most about a book. The children loved writing their own reviews!
In Maths, we have been using stories to support understanding of part, part, whole. ‘First there were three bears on the rug. Then four more came along. Now there are seven bears sitting on the rug.’ Can your child come up with their own maths story?
Ruth Class will be having their liturgy on Wednesday 31st January at 2:45pm, in Ruth Class. Ruth Class parents, please arrive via the school’s main office. Your child’s lines have been given out today. Please help your child learn their line.
Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Demiray and Mrs M