Welcome to Reception

This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Mrs Liggat and Mrs Oldfield would like to welcome you to our class website!

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.

Autumn, Spring and Summer Term 2022-2023

Summer 1

Wednesday 19th April -  Play in a Day - Pirates

Wednesday 26th April - Gillmoss Recycling Centre Trip

Monday 1st May - Bank Holiday

Friday 19th May - MHST Coffee Morning

Friday 26th May - Non-uniform - bottles

                             Stay and Share

                             Break up for half term @3pm

Summer 2

Friday 16th June - Fun Run @1.15pm

Monday 19th - Friday 30th June - Healthy and Active fortnight

Friday 23rd June - Non-uniform - Toys

Friday 30th June  - Sports Day @1pm

Friday 7th July - Summer Fayre

Friday 14th July  - Break up @1.30pm

Spring 1

• Friday 27^th January – Non-uniform day (children bring in unwanted gifts)
• Friday 3^rd February – Inside out mental health day
• Friday 3^rd February – MHST (Mental Health Support Team) from Alder Hey running a family coffee event in school @9am
• Tuesday 8^th February – Safer Internet Day
• Friday 10^th February – Stay and Share
• Friday 10^th February – School closes for half term at 3:00pm

Spring 2

• Monday 20^th February – Return to school
• Thursday 2^nd March – World Book Day
• Friday 10^th March – Non-uniform day (children bring in chocolate)
• Friday 17^th March – Reception class assembly – Mother’s Day
• Friday 17^th March – Comic Relief – Mad Hair Day
• Friday 31^st March – Easter Bonnets
• Friday 31^st March – Stay and Share
• Friday 31^st March – End of term – 1:30pm finish
• Monday 17^th April – Return to school

Autumn 1

• Friday 16^th September: St. Robert Bellarmine’s Feast Day 
• Friday 23rd September: Grandparent Day - grandparents to visit Reception setting with grandchild
• Friday 7th October: World mental health awareness day (wear something yellow - details to follow)
• Friday 14^th October: Non-uniform day (unwanted gifts)
• Tuesday 18^th October: Pupil Progress evening
• Friday 21^st October: Wear red or blue for say no to racism day
• Friday 21^st October: Stay and Share (Parents to come to Reception 9-9.30am -  details to follow)
• Friday 21^st October: School closes for half-term (3pm)

Autumn 2

• Monday 31^st October: school reopens
• Friday 4^th November: Non-uniform day (chocolates)
• Friday 18^th November: Pyjama day (Children in Need)
• Monday 21^st November: DT textiles week
• Friday 25^th November: ‘Trashion’ Show
• Friday 2^nd December: Non-uniform day (bottles)
• Friday 9^th December: Christmas fair
• Tuesday 13th October: Nursery and Reception Christmas Play (am)
• Monday 19^th December: Santa Dash, Christmas Jumper Day
• Wednesday 21^st December: School closes for Christmas (1:30pm)

Understanding the World

Linked with our R.E. topic of growing the children planted seeds and bulbs. They know that seeds/bulbs/plants need warmth and water to help them grow.

Each child planted a bean seed and a pea seed to take home and care for.

We have also planted vegetables and flowers in our growing area. Hopefully with some care we will have lots of different plants poking through the soil very soon.

Maths - measuring

We used the book 'Lifesize Baby Animals' as a stimulus. We looked at the baby giraffe tongue and then decided to work in pairs to estimate how tall we thought a baby giraffe was compared to our giant. The children were very surprised to see actually how tall one is (about 6 feet tall.)

Our home corner had lots of different ways to measure and so we happily spent a week using tape measures, rulers, metre sticks and other non-standard apparatus to measure anything and everything. It was so much fun and there was lots of lovely mathematical language of tall, short, taller, shorter, long, short, longer and shorter.

World book day - 'Can I Be Your Dog?'

The Reception children truly loved this book and we had so much fun carrying out many different activities. Because dogs have a super sense of smell we decided to use our own noses to discover which smell we liked the best. The graph shows what we would like dog bones to smell like! We also used dog emojis to say how Arfy the dog felt at certain points in the story. Our emotional literacy has certainly improved since September - look at the emotion words we know now! We also wrote notes to Arfy just like Mitzy did. We stuck them on our kennel and placed our dogs inside so they knew they were loved and wanted. We also shared different pet books, we brought in our own pet toys and showed a great amount of love when caring for them in our home corner. We washed them, groomed them, fed them and even exercised them. 

Expressive art and design

The children were challenged to create a pair of glasses just like the oculist did in our story of 'Jim and the Giant.'

They had to show lots of perseverance and resilience to manipulate the resources to create the shapes they desired. We also learnt new vocabulary of arms, lenses, frames and bridge. We think we look ready for a fashion show with our creations!

P.E.

The children always enjoy P.E. and have had great fun using the large apparatus. The children have been developing their core strength and their fine and gross motor skills. They have also been working on their balance and coordination so that they can use the equipment safely and carefully. Just look at how their motor competence is improving.

Maths - growing

Linked to our giant stories, the children were challenged to estimate how many footsteps tall they thought the giant would be. They had great fun guessing and even more checking their estimation by using the footprints to find the actual size.

Maths - part, whole.

The children used a trio of numbers to help them to add and takeaway within 10. They are able to identify the whole plate and the part plates. We worked on selecting a whole number, counting out the appropriate number of pegs and then placing them as we wished on the part plates. The children have been working so hard at being able to say the add and takeaway number sentences that go with them. We even used our actions when saying the number sentences. Wow! What a lot we have remembered.

Maths - growing

Using the story Jasper's beanstalk we created our own beanstalks using multi-link and then matching the digit cards. The next week we used the double sided counters and 10 frames to add an extra layer to this activity. The children had to demonstrate a way of making the beanstalk they chose. They then had to be able to say the add number sentence using the appropriate actions. by 

PSED - role play

We had an outbreak of chicken pox in Reception and the next week the babies caught it too. We showed a great understanding of how to care for and look after a sick child. We gave them plenty to drink, made sure their temperature was ok, kept them nice and warm and gave them lots of cuddles. Within the week the babies were feeling much better.

Guided Reading

Using our Read, Write, Inc phonics reading books we worked with our reading partners to read the story. We worked on our story green words, our speedy words and our red words before we had a go at reading the story. Our reading partners help us if we get stuck and we remember to use 'Fred in your head' and 'special friends, Fred talk, read the word.' All of our reading is improving and because we are working so hard our fluency is beginning to improve too!

Maths - continuous provision

The children used our everyday resources to sort and classify. They added the digit cards to their sets and even used the sections of the carpet to help in their organisation. They were then able to discuss what they had done and convinced Captain Conjecture that they were right. Mathematicians at work!

Literacy - Writing

In Reception we are becoming much more independent writers. We try to hold the sentence in our head, say the word, use our Fred fingers to pinch the sounds, use finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. Our letter formation is fantastic too!

Understanding the World - Lunar New Year

The children learnt about Lunar New Year discovering that people all over the world celebrate this special time. We then concentrated on the Chinese New Year and had lots of activities relating to this to complete in our setting. We had to clean the home corner, make lanterns, use chopsticks, order our food, taste prawn crackers, create dragons and make music to perform a dragon dance to. The children had a wonderful time learning about this celebration.

Expressive Art and Design

Our artist study was Frida Kahlo and we found out many different things about her for our homework. We discovered that she liked to paint flowers and so we decided we would be an artist and create flowers in the style of Frida.

Part one was to learn about the 3 primary colours and then discover what happened when we mixed them together. We learnt that they become secondary colours.

Part 2 we watched a video about drawing flowers and we then had a go at drawing our own flowers using real artists pencils.

Part 3 we used our colour mixing knowledge and our drawing knowledge to help us create our very own painted flowers. We are delighted with the journey we went on and with the end products.

Personal, Emotional and Social Development

The home corner was equipped with shampoo, conditioner, towels, flannels, sponges, brushes, combs, hairdryer, toothbrushes and toothpaste for the children to demonstrate what they know about basic hygiene and personal needs. They had a super week washing, brushing and preening!

Understanding the World

The children worked on their predicting, experimenting and investigating skills during this session. We discussed ice; what it is, how it can be made and how it feels. We looked at the 3 identical blocks of ice and talked about the 3 different places we were going to place a block, the conservatory, outside or in-front of the radiator. The children were then challenged to think about the ice melting and had to predict which place they thought would melt the ice quickest.

After placing their name by the ice they had chosen we then had to keep checking to see what was happening. 

Finally we discussed our results and discovered the ice melted quickest by the radiator because as Joel said, 'hot makes ice melt and the radiator is hot.'

Cool Time - choose our own learning

The children love to use the small wooden blocks to build with. The are able to follow plans to copy buildings and are also becoming more able to use their own imaginations to complete more elaborate and complex designs. They always love to talk about what they have used and what it is.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Some of the children were challenged to be able to fasten their coat themselves by the end of January. Here are just a few of our successes. In fact almost everyone in Reception is now able to do this. Great work and super strong fingers.

Understanding the World and Mathematics

The children had such fun learning about human made and natural, we then decided to look at different materials that everyday objects are made from. Initially we sorted objects into 3 different sets placing anything that did not fit on the outside. We were really good at identifying metal, wood and plastic objects. We then looked at some of the objects on the outside and discovered they were made of 2 different materials. We responded to this by introducing the terms Venn diagrams and intersections. We had lots of fun finding and placing some objects in there.

At the end of the explicit  teach session the hoops were left on the mat and when we returned the children had spent a lot of time during continuous provision adding to the hoops and explaining their thought processes. Amazing problem solving and reasoning Reception.

On another day the girls put the hoops out and created their own Venn diagram selecting the items they wanted to use. You are super at making links in your learning.

Expressive Art and Design and Mathematics

The children discovered that Stick Man's home had been blown down in a winter storm and so they were challenged to create a new habitat for him and his family using only natural resources. We had a great discussion about what is natural and what is human made. Every child accepted the challenge and worked and cooperated with their group. There was so much estimating, measuring, counting, checking and proving as well as lots of delicious mathematical language.

Darcey 'I will see if it fits for the roof.'

Lexie ' 'It needs to be bigger to fit them in.'

Mathematics

The children were challenged to create Stick Man and his family using the resources. They were encouraged to think about size and were able to say Stick Man was the tallest, the children were the smallest and Stick Lady Love came in the middle.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Our home corner received some new baby additions. The children enjoyed showing sensitivity to the needs of others by caring for, feeding, dressing and loving our new babies. The children selected names for them and enjoyed keeping them warm and safe. They are definitely much loved additions to our class.

Mathematics

The children completed some maths activities in enhanced continuous provision related to our Stick Man theme. They had to estimate how many wooden blocks tall Stick Man was, recording their estimate and then use the blocks to find the actual number and record this too. Some super estimations, everyone was very close or spot on!

Expressive Art and Design

Using natural resources only we have been creating some transient art. We have created pictures of rabbits, selecting the long sticks for whiskers and the slices for eyes and also we made Stick Men using the sticks for the body, arms and legs. Finally we placed a frame around them so they looked like they were in an art gallery.

Stick Man

The children really enjoyed the work on the story Stick Man. We designed our own posters to help find him and put them up around school. We used words that we could write using our 'Fred fingers' and had a little help with stick. Soon we received a letter from a Seagull telling us he had spotted Stick Man in the courtyard and after investigating we were delighted to report that we had found him and were going to look after him in our setting.

A Bundle of Joy

All of the children worked so hard to learn their lines and the songs and then perform them. I know some were a little stage struck on the day, but they were all truly exceptional during the dress rehearsal.

Dream catchers

The children discovered lots of information about dream catchers; about the feathers and the decorations. They were then challenged to create their own ensuring it was attractive and could be hung up. After lots of work they were all able to thread the wool to make the net, they added the feathers and beads to make it beautiful and completed it by adding a hanger.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The children brought old, pre-loved decorations into school to recycle them for our class tree. They took great care selecting where to place them and making our room look so festive.

Imagine That!

On our school trip we had so much fun exploring, investigating, creating and role playing. We were exhausted when we got back to school!

Trashion Show

The children worked with their families to up-cycle an old garment and make it into something new for our catwalk. Lots of future models on show today!

Rosie's Walk -story maps

After sharing the story 'Rosie's Walk' the children created their own story maps which they then used to re-tell the story in their own words. We also discussed the term 'bird's eye view' when the photo was taken. 

Expressive art and design

More fine motor skills. The children used their nippy fingers to fold a strip of paper backwards and forwards and then stick it to create some paper sculpture. This was really good exercise to strengthen our fingers which helps when we use mark making tools.

Baking bread

The children were not like the characters from the story of 'The Little Red Hen.' When they were asked if they would help they all excitedly said yes! They wore their hats and actively helped Mrs O make the bread. They children were introduced to new vocabulary - dough, knead, prove, raise and tried to use it as they were making the bread. Finally they shared the bread at snack time with the rest of the class and it was delicious.

Measuring - baker hats

The children cooperated to create their own hat ready for baking. They measured around each other's heads, checked that it was the right size - not too big or too small and finally worked with support to add the top and create the hat shape. Look out for the photos of the bread we made!

Friendship potions

We thought of words to describe what a good friend is or does. We then wrote them on slips of paper, placed them in a mixing bowl, mixed them together and et voila! we had created our very own friendship potion.

Autumn investigations

The children accessed the autumn leaves and the magnifying glasses. After a great deal of investigation and discussion they decided to group the leaves into shapes and colour groups.

Friendship fortnight

During these 2 weeks the children spent a great deal of time talking about friends, what makes a good friend and finally who their friends are and why. They then created a 'friendship heart' for their chosen friend and presented them to their person explaining why they had chosen them. Just look at the smiles on their faces.

Threading - fine motor skills - making spider webs

The children worked on their threading skills using their nippy fingers again reinforcing how we use a pencil, paintbrush and other mark making implements. They threaded the wool through the paper plate to create a web for their spider. We will be revisiting this skill when we create our Dream catchers in December.

Stay and Share - Magic Moments

The children loved sharing their Learning Journeys and we enjoyed hearing about all their achievements. Thank you so much for making it such a special celebration.

Hello Yellow

The children came to school wearing something yellow to show their support for Mental Health awareness. We discussed how it is ok to not feel ok and that there are many people who we can talk to if we are feeling sad and in the 'Blue Zone.'

Patterns

We have been looking at picture patterns and repeating patterns. The children are able to create patterns using a variety of resources and they can now create an AB repeating pattern and then say what the repeat is. Well done!

Computing

We used Colourbox on the ipads to create representations of ourselves. We selected the correct colours, size of pencil and used the rubber.

Reception potion

We discussed how we needed to find our brave like Logan the rabbit and Kevin the Koala did in our stories. We also talked about how we must always try to be resilient and persevere and never give up. We created our potions using all of these attributes. 

Numicon staircase

We have been working on creating our Numicon staircase to 5 and then to 10. We know that the staircase always goes across and up and this is how we can prove that our Numicon number shapes are orientated correctly.

Early mark making

We love to access the resources to be creative, we are enjoying drawing and writing our names on our pictures.

Music making

We used our outdoor stage to create a show. We then used the crates to create seats for the audience to enjoy the performance. Lots of budding musicians in Reception this year.

Junk DIY

We use all kinds of everyday junk to create some transient art. We have to think carefully about what we want to create and carefully select the items we think are best suited.

Data Handling

We have used pictograms to display the information about eye colours in our groups in class. The children selected the correct eye colour, placed it on the correct space on the pictogram and were the encouraged to use the pictogram to tell us something. Great use of mathematical languge ... more, less, most, tallest, smallest and of course some numbers.

Numicon staircase

We have working really hard to build our staircases. We have had to make sure they are in the correct order and we did this by checking by counting. We also had to make sure our staircases just went across and along. If any of our Numicon shapes were positioned incorrectly it meant that we came down and we know that it should not happen. Finally we had to make sure that each Numicon piece has its own space; they can never touch. Who knew there were so many things to consider when creating a staircase to 5?

Grandparent Day

Thank you so much to all of our Grandparents and other family members who helped to make this morning such a wonderful occasion. I know the children enjoyed sharing their setting with you and also loved creating their heart with you.

Expressive Art and Design

The children have loved using the stage, the instruments and the whisks as microphones to create shows for their friends. The audience has also worked as a team to create seats to enable them to enjoy the show. 

'Games Friday'

Each Friday is 'Games Friday' in Reception. This is when we can really focus on sharing, turn taking, problem solving and spatial reasoning. Look at how we are moving the draughts and chess pieces to make patterns. We are also working on our number recognition and counting when playing Snakes and Ladders. Finally we worked as a team to solve how to create the different representations of the robots.

Reception potions

After reading the stories 'A Little Bit Brave' and 'Kevin the Koala' the children loved learning the words resilience, perseverance and brave so we decided to create a potion that had all of these ingredients. The children used lots of natural resources and then we decided to add some sparkle because after all, Reception is always full of fun and sparkle. We took them home to keep to remind us that we should always keep going and never give up and that we should always try something new and find our brave.

First days in Reception

The children have been busy exploring the areas in both the inside and outside setting. They have certainly had an enormous amount of fun.