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Reception
Welcome to Reception
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
Mrs Liggat, Mrs Oldfield and Mrs Briant would like to welcome you to our class page!
Throughout the year we will be adding lots of information and pictures, so you can share our many wonderful experiences and wow moments.
General Information
School doors open at 8.55am, please do try and be prompt.
Snack money can be paid each week or for the half term at £1.00 per week. Please put the snack money in an envelope in your child's book bag with their name clearly written on the outside. Many thanks!
Please ensure that all items of your child's school uniform (including coats and shoes) have their full names in.
For more detailed information about each curriculum subject please refer to the appropriate tab on the Curriculum page.
Autumn, Spring and Summer Term 2023-2024
Dates for your Diary
Spring Term
Summer 1
Wednesday 17th April: Reception Play in a Day - Pirates
Wednesday 17th April: Mini Marathon - Say No to Knife Crime
Monday 6th May: Bank Holiday
Wednesday 8th May: Reception trip Gillmoss Recycling Discovery Centre
Friday 24th May: EYFS Stay and Share @9am
Friday 24th May: Non-uniform day (Bottles)
Friday 24th May: School finishes for half term at 3.00pm
Summer 2
Monday 3rd June: Return to school
Monday 17th - Friday 28th June: Healthy and Active fortnight
Friday 21st June: Fun Run
Friday 28th June: Sports Day 1pm
Monday 1st July: New Reception Intake Meeting @2pm
Friday 5th July: Non Uniform day (Toys)
Friday 12th July: Summer Fair @1.15pm
Friday 19th July: School finishes for the year @1.30pm
Literacy
Using the story 'Tidy' by Emily Gravett the children have demonstrated a growing understanding of the text and their vocabulary by thinking of a # phrase to accompany the pages.
Literacy and Understanding the World
We have been discovering all about recycling and how we should all try and recycle more to look after the environment. The children loved creating their own recycling centre, complete with conveyor belt to help them sort and classify the plastic, cardboard, paper, aluminium and steel. They also created their own posters to inform all our families about what we can recycle and where we should put these items. We are fabulous at recognising the recycling logo too!
Maths - spatial awareness
The children have been using the Beebots to find the treasure. First they created their own maps and then programmed Beebot using forwards, backwards and to the side to reach the X marks the spot.
Maths
Using the book '1 smile. 10 toes' the children used a wide variety of maths resources to physically create their maths monsters, offering justifications for their decisions and choices. They then used this knowledge to help them create their own drawn image of a monster, again offering justification for choices. Watch out for the individual ones coming next using doubles and halves and odd and even numbers!
Maths
Using the dominoes we have been creating our own add and takeaway number sentences.
Literacy
Our class text this week has been 'The Pirates Nest Door'. We have read it together, acted it out and also listened to it on the ipads using a QR code to access it. Reading and sharing stories is so much fun.
Expressive Art and Design
We created our own skull and cross bones bunting to hang around our pirate ship. We then built our ship working well together. We tried hard to use our new language; port and starboard, hull, keel, mast, sail, porthole and crows nest.
Expressive Art and Design
We worked cooperatively to create our own treasure islands, we discussed what was needed, how we could make them and what we could use. We then used our increasing phonics knowledge to write labels to accompany our maps.
Expressive Art and Design - Play in a Day
reception had a fabulous afternoon with Lily from Altru drama. We learned what drama is and discovered we had to use our voices and our actions. We had great fun singing, adding actions, saying our pirate names, playing games and problem solving.
Maths - Measuring
Linked with our giant stories we had our own giant in class. We decided to estimate how many footsteps tall we thought he was and then recorded our estimates and the actual size. He was 7 footsteps tall! We also helped each other to measure ourselves, placing our names on the class height chart. We were able to compare our height with the height of the giant and used the STEM sentences; I am shorter then the giant and The giant is taller than me. Then after sharing a 'Lifesize' book we decided to estimate how tall we thought a baby giraffe would be. In pairs we each had a baby giraffe picture and placed it on our giant. We placed them all over the giant and were amazed to discover that a baby giraffe is as tall as our giant! Finally, using different measuring equipment we measured different objects in the classroom. We were encouraged to use STEM sentences; e.g. The table is shorter than the ruler.
Understanding the World
To tie in with our theme of growing and our texts with giants and beanstalks we planted bean seeds. We loved the experience of handling the compost and discussing the texture, we used the trowle to fill the plant pots, we used our fingers to create a hole for the seed, we covered the seed with a little more compost, we then watered the seeds using the watering can and finally placed the seeds in a warm place. We are hoping they will now grow. We also placed some seeds in a perspex planter so we can see what is happening above and beneath the compost. If they grow we are hoping to create an organic teepee in our garden for us to sit in.
World Book Day - The Wild by Yuval Zommer
The whole school studied this book, we enjoyed using our emotion frames to show how The Wild was feeling at different points in the story. We also came up with hashtag captions to say what we thought The Wild might be saying. Finally, we all celebrated World Book Day by wearing green, this reflected how if we look after the green spaces we have, we will continue to be able to enjoy them together.
PSED - caring for others
We brought our pet toys into school, we demonstrated empathy for them by caring for them through exercising them, feeding them, grooming them and finally loving them. We know it is important to look after others as well as we are looked after.
Celebrating Mass
The Reception children love to gather for Mass with Father and our Parish Family. Father always opens his arms to welcome us. We listen carefully to the stories from the bible, that is read from the lectern. We enjoy it when Father comes to bless us and to talk to us. We also like to take Father examples of what we have been doing in our R.E. lessons in school.
Trashion Show
The children worked hard at home with their families on this textiles project. The brief was to upcycle something old, to make something new. We enjoyed showing off our creations on the catwalk. Some great strutting and posing!
Expressive art and design
Aftern studying the artist Frida Kahlo as our key role model, we found out there are three primary colours and when you mix them together you make three secondary colours. We explored this through mixing the primary colours using our hands for a very tactile experience. We loved the sensory experience of this and talking about how the paint felt as well as observing what happened and naming the three secondary colours.
Expressive art and design
The children have been learning about primary and secondary colours. We know there are three primary colours; red, yellow and blue and we know that when we mix them we create three secondary colours; purple, orange and green. We had so much fun mixing the primary colours and then recording the secondary colours that we made.
Understanding the World
Each week we visit the Enchanted Forest, here we discover so many things and develop our awe and wonder. This time we were looking for 6 different natural objects to fill our treasure boxes and we were exploring the new pathways and the new areas. We always have an amazing muddy time!
Understanding the World
The Wonderdome cam to visit us in school. We had such fun sitting inside it and learning about space. We learnt about the planets and about the first mission to the moon.
Literacy and Understanding the World
Using the text 'Can I Be Your Dog?' the children brought in their own pets and demonstrated an understanding of how they need to be cared for just like us. We also used our sense of smell just like our pets do to complete a smell test. Most of us preferred the lemon smell, followed by the ginger and then fewer people preferred the onion smell.
Mathematics
The children have been demonstrating their growing understanding of adding and takeaway in enhanced continuous provision and continuous provision. The have been using a variety of different resources; numicon, 10 frames, takeaway covers, counters and +, - and = to help them do this. They have also been saying the number sentences aloud to demonstrate their growth in reasoning.
Understanding the World
The children have been learning the terms natural and human made. We decided to create a new habitat for Stick Man using natural materials that could be found in the forest. We collected our resources and then working cooperatively we created the new habitats. If you look very closely, you may be able to see Stick Man peeping out from his new habitat.
Understanding the World
The children sorted materials into wood and not wood sets. Taking it a step further, we sorted into sets of wood, plastic and metal. We discovered that some objects were made of 2 materials and so we introduced a Venn diagram and intersections. The children worked hard to place all of the objects correctly.
Challenge: Can you find an object made of all 3 materials? Bailey Kelly found the ironing board that is made out of the 3 materials and we knew it needed to be placed in the middle of our Venn diagram. Great work!
Enchanted Forest
Using the magnifying glasses we went hunting for Stick Man in the enchanted forest. We looked high and low and eventually we located him keeping warm in the trees. He was very well camouflaged. We took him into class to look after him before he returned to his family and the family tree.
Literacy - Stick Man
Having read part of the story we discovered that Stick Man was lost. We decided to create posters to let everyone know. The children used the sounds they knew to rehearse the phrase they wanted to write. We used all the skills we are developing in phonics and held the phrase, pinched the sounds on our 'Fred fingers' and finally wrote them.
P.E. - Ball Skills
Reception children have been working on their ball skills; being able to roll and stop the ball using their hands, changing direction and increasingly showing more control.
Maths - Estimation Station
The children were challenged to visualise how many blocks tall Stick Man was. They estimated recording their answer and then measured how tall using the blocks, finally they recorded the actual number.
Dates for Your Diary
Autumn Term
Autumn 1
Friday 15th September: Mass for feast of SRB
Friday 15th September: School Mission Day
Friday 22nd September: Grandparent Day
Wednesday 27th September: Reception Welcome Meeting @2.30pm
Friday 6th October: Macmillan Coffee Morning
Monday 9th October: Online safety meeting for parents (3pm)
Friday 13th October: Non-uniform day (unwanted gifts)
Monday 16th October: Pupil progress meeting
Friday 20th October: Stay and Share - Magic Moment morning
Friday 20th October: Non-uniform day (wearing red or blue to say NO to racism)
Friday 20th October: School closes for half-term (3pm)
Autumn 2
Monday 30th October: Friendship Week
Friday 3rd October: non-uniform day (chocolates)
Friday 17th November: Children in Need (pyjama day)
Friday 1st December: non-uniform day (bottles)
Friday 8th December: Stay and Share - Magic Moment morning
Tuesday 12th December: Nursery and reception Nativity @10am
Friday 15th December: Xmas Fayre (1:15 pm)
Thursday 21st December: Xmas jumper day
Friday 22nd December: Xmas disco
Friday 22nd December: Term finishes @ 1:30pm
* please note: some of these dates may be subject to change
Expressive Art and Design
The elves have been really busy wrapping 3D shapes to put under the Christmas tree. Great work wrapping and sticking, but also fabulous mathematical language; vertices, curved surfaces, straight edges, rolls, does not roll, 3 dimensions and pick it up.
The Twinkly Nativity
The children worked so hard to deliver their Nativity play to their families. So many words to sing and so many words to speak. What a wonderful occasion to share with you all.
Advent
The children have been learning all about advent; we know it is a time to get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we know that we have advent calendars to help us countdown to Christmas and Jesus' birthday and also that we have advent wreaths with 3 purple candles, 1 pink candle and a white candle which reminds us of Jesus and being The Light of the World. We can also tell you so much about the first Christmas.
Imagine That!
The children had a wonderful day at Imagine That! We played and explored, we were actively taking part and finally we were creating and thinking critically.
Expressive Art and Design
The children worked hard to develop their skills of folding and curling to create their own paper sculptures. Lots of perseverance and resilience in evidence, also lots of great language; fold, squeeze, press, backwards and forwards, wrap, curl and tightly.
Enchanted Forest
We have had such fun in the enchanted forest this half term; lots of playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. We have looked and listened, we have identified some plants and trees, we have created natural spider webs and have woven around twigs and created group spider webs. Each session we have used our magic wands to help us enter the enchanted forest and at the end we have shred hot chocolate and a treat while appreciating God's wonderful world.
Literacy
Using the story Rosie's Walk we ordered five main events and then we created story maps to help us retell the story in our own words. We used different resources to create the windmill, haystack, beehives etc and we used lots of positional language when retelling the story. We also created hashtags for each of the five events.
Maths
We made hats for bakers by measuring around each other's heads. We used the language of too big, too small and just right. We then used our hats when we made bread. Finally we ate the bread for snack and decided it was delicious.
R.E.
During our topic of 'Myself' the children have listened to psalms from the bible. They have found out that God says, 'You are precious to me.' They also discovered that God keeps them safe and snug just like our families do at home. The children demonstrated this love by hugging the babies in the home corner. We also gathered together around our focus table to say, 'Please God take care of ....' Finally they looked at a mirror inside a special box and when they saw themselves they said, God says, 'I have called you by your name .. you are precious to me.'
Understanding the World
The children have been looking at some examples of physical and human features of the world. They then decided to work cooperatively together to create a volcano and a city. Lots of lovely discussion about what was needed and how to put them together. The children loved creating the lava for the volcano and using different shapes to create tall and short buildings.
Mathematics
The children have been looking carefully at the colour of their eyes. We used this information to create pictograms and then the children answered the question from Captain Conjecture, 'What can you see?' using a sentence frame. Some lovely full sentence replies were shared. Well done!
Computing
Using the app 'Colourbox' the children have been creating self-portraits. We have been working hard on looking at our features in the mirror and when we had done this, they then had to select the right eye and hair colour and then the thin or thick pens to create their self-portraits.
Grandparent Day
The children enjoyed having their grandparents or other family members visit our setting. They loved showing them around and also enjoyed creating a little keepsake to take home. Thank you all so much for coming, we hope you enjoyed having a look at what we do in Reception.
Understanding the World
The children have been delighted exploring the light box, creating shape patterns and pictures using the translucent counters.
A Little Bit Brave
Our class text was 'A Little Bit Brave', we discovered that Logan the bunny needed to find his brave to help him have exciting adventures, but also to help him to save his best friend Luna.
We introduced the words perseverance - to never give up and resilience - to keep on trying. We decided to create a Reception Resilience potion incorporating all these attributes. We now know that if we are feeling worried or scared we can shake our potion and that will help us to be more resilient and to persevere. We finally added a little sparkle as that is what we all want to do everyday in Reception.
R.E. - Myself
The children have been learning about their first and family names this week. We sang a song and introduced ourselves using our first name, we then read Hairy Maclary and discovered we all have a family name, next we decorated our name card and finally celebrated our names by standing at the front and saying, 'My name is ... I am glad I have a special name."
Collective Worship
Reception gathered together to thank God for his wonderful world. We are learning to be quiet and respectful during these special moments that we share.
Fostering a love of reading
Reception love to share and read stories with the adults in our setting and by oursleves.
Reading Graduates
These children graduated from our Nursery last year, I wonder how many reception children will graduate this year?
New beginnings
The reception children have enjoyed their first weeks settling into their new setting. Many new friendships built, lots of exploring completed, interactions taking place and above all else, lots of fun had by all.
