Menu
Home Page

St Robert Bellarmine Catholic Primary School

We are God’s work of art

Get In Touch

0151 922 1216

Search Search
Translate Translate

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, Miss Snellgrove and Mrs Wardle 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 8.30am, 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 2024-2025

Dates for your diary

 

Friday 24th January  -  Non-Uniform - Unwanted Gifts

Friday 31st January  -  Inside Out Mental Health Day

Thursday 6th February  -  Trashion Show

Friday 7th February  -  Reception Stay and Share

Tuesday 11th February  -  Safer Internet Day

Thursday 6th March  -  World Book Day

Monday 10th March  -  Pupil Progress Meetings

Friday 14th March  -  Comic Relief Day - Mad Hair

Friday 21st March  -  Non-Uniform - Chocolates

Friday 28th March  -  Reception Mother's Day Assembly

Friday 4th April  -  Easter Bonnets and Raffles and Reception Stay and Share - Finish at 1.30pm

Expressive Art and Design - colour mixing

Using the story of 'The Magic Paintbrush' as our stimulus the children learned about the 3 primary colours and what happened when we mixed them together, they created 3 secondary colours. Using our hands and then our own paintbrushes we watched as the magic unfolded. We are going to use this new knowledge when we create our Frida Kahlo artwork.

Understanding the World - waterproof and not-waterproof

After discussing the words waterproof and not-waterproof we sorted a collection of items into 2 sets. We then went outdoors to test our predictions. We discovered that with some of the items the water stayed on the outside and did not soak through and some of the items the water soaked through. We then re-sorted our sets and finally completed a t-chart to represent our findings.

IMG_8728.MOV

Still image for this video

IMG_8722.MOV

Still image for this video

Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year celebrations.

To help celebrate the Year of the Snake the children have taken part in a variety of activities and challenges. We tried to write the Chinese character for the start of our first name, had a go at making a Chinese lantern, used chopsticks in the home corner and tried to pick up noodles and prawn crackers using tweezers and then chopsticks.

Understanding the World - Winter Punch

The children were encouraged to use their sense of smell to create a punch. Lemons, limes, oranges and cinnamon sticks were all mixed and shaken to create our punch. We used lots of language of capacity and celebrated with a group cheers!

 

PSED - Personal Hygiene

The children demonstrated a growing understanding of the need for personal hygiene. We worked on brushing our teeth and how to keep our bodies and our hair clean.

IMG_8575.MOV

Still image for this video

Understanding the World - Ice

We discussed what ice is and how it is made. We know water is a liquid and to turn it into ice it has to go somewhere very cold. We know that ice is a solid. The children were then asked to predict where they thought the ice would melt the quickest; outside, in the conservatory or by the radiator. They placed their names around the one they chose and then waited and observed as a scientist would. We discovered that heat is needed to melt the ice back into liquid water and so the radiator proved to be the warmest place.

Using this knowledge we then placed all three ice blocks by the radiator and looked to see if 2 spoons of salt, sugar or sand would increase the speed it would melt. Again we predicted by placing our names and again we observed. The ice with the salt melted the quickest.

Finally we looked at our winter weather book and discovered that in icy and wintry conditions the gritters spread salt on the roads to help melt the ice and keep us all safe.

Understanding the World

The children were challenged with the task of creating a new habitat for Stick Man. They were only able to use natural objects, not human-made and the terms of habitat, natural and human-made were emphasised during the activity. The children also had to consider the size that was required, but also how they would build it and why they chose a certain way to create the new habitat. Stick Man and his family certainly look cosy and safe in their new surroundings.

Literacy - Writing

The children have been using Stick Man as a stimulus to use our phonics knowledge as a reason for writing.

We decided to alert everyone to the fact that Stick Man is missing by creating lost posters.

We know how to write the red tricky word I and then we used Fred talk and pinch the sounds to help us hear the sounds in the other words.

We completed our poster with a picture to ensure everyone knows who they are looking for.

 Maths - Estimation Station

The children were encouraged to estimate how many blocks tall they thought Stick Man was. They recorded their estimation in a variety of ways. They then used the blocks to measure his real height again recording their findings. The children were really excited to say if there estimation was correct or nearly correct.

Understanding the World

The children were presented with a number of objects, first we sorted them into 2 sets - made of wood and not made of wood. We then completed a t-chart to accompany this. Next we sorted into 3 groups - wood, metal and plastic. We discovered that some objects had more than 1 material and so these had to go on the outside. Finally we created a Venn diagram with intersections. The children placed the objects in the correct parts of the diagram and were then challenged to find other objects from the setting that could be added. This activity has run and run and daily a new Venn diagram is created that the children have organised completely independently.

Enchanted Forest

Because of the very cold weather the children have been learning just how hard it is for the birds to find food. In our Enchanted Forest session we made apple feeders to help them. We pushed sunflower seeds into the apples, pushed a string through the hole in the middle ( at the bottom there was a cross made from sticks to act as a perch) and then selected a place for them to hang. We hope the little birds enjoy a tasty treat.

Maths - Maths Monsters

This half term we drew our Maths Monsters and the focus was on creating them using the 2D and 3D shapes we have been learning about. We then demonstrated our growing shape knowledge by explaining what we knew about these shapes. Our mathematical language for shape is certainly developing well!

Understanding the World - maps

We created Harris Drive and the children used the available resources to create some of the buildings we have on this road. We made our school, the church and some houses. We now know our school and church is on the road called Harris Drive.

Understanding the World - technology

We have been using the Beebots and have had so much fun learning how to programme them. We know to press X each time to clear the previous instructions and we are learning how to direct Beebot by pressing the arrows and finally making him move by pressing the green GO button.

Christmas Play

The Reception children worked incredibly hard to learn all of the songs and to remember all of their lines to perform our play for the rest of school and for our families. All of the children were amazing and showed just how much they have grown since starting Reception in September.

 

R.E. - The Nativity story

The children have been learning about the events of the Nativity Story, they then accessed the Nativity figures to retell this wonderful story in their own words.

Understanding the World - recycling Christmas decorations.

The children were asked to bring in a pre-loved Christmas decoration to decorate our class tree. Each child helped to make our tree truly wonderful.

Maths - Finding all Possibilities

The children were introduced to the mathematical terms of rows and columns. We then created rows of a certain colour and columns of a certain colour. We were then presented with 2 different coloured smarties and 2 different coloured cake cases. Our challenge was to create as many different cakes as we could. We used our new understanding of rows and columns to help us organise our cakes and discovered that we could actually make 4 different coloured cakes.

Literacy - Rosie's Walk

After sharing the story of Rosie's Walk we created a physical map of all the areas of the farm Rosie visited. Once completed, we added the language from the story using the correct positional language. Finally we used our maps to help us retell the story sequencing the events correctly.

R.E. - celebrating Mass with our parish family

The Reception children made their first visit to Mass. We felt so special and so welcome by Father and the parish family. We listened carefully to Father, sang a song with him and said our prayers.

 

Understanding the World - Baking bread

The children wore the baker's hats that they had made to help bake bread. They used some new vocabulary eg prove and knead and they used words to describe how the mixture and then the dough felt. The best part was each day we ate the bread that had been baked for our snack. It tasted delicious!

 

Literacy - The Little Red Hen

Using this story we looked at each character and thought about their emotions throughout the story. We then selected a number of pages and using a hashtag and no more than 6 words we created our own captions. We considered our word choices really carefully, we hope you agree with the captions we chose.

Maths - Equivalence Towers

We have been creating museums for different numbers within 10. We found different ways of creating the number using the Numicon shapes. The children are increasingly able to say what they have used to create the number.

R.E. - Collective Worship

The children gathered for our Remembrance Day collective worship. We took time to think about the people who help to keep us all safe.

PSED - Friendship

We have been talking about being a good friend - a bucket filler and not being unkind - a bucket dipper. We thought about all the things we could do to fill our class bucket and we tried to make sure we were kind, helpful and thoughtful each day. When sharing our class story of 'The Little Red Hen' we also thought about each character and decided if they were a bucket filler or a bucket dipper.

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.

Literacy - Bonfire Night

We carefully watched and listened to a video fireworks on Bonfire Night. We then thought about the sounds we heard and the words we could use to describe the sounds and what we saw. We created our very own firework poem.

 

Stay and Share

Thank you to all our families who came to support us in our first Stay and Share of the year. We really loved hearing all about their personal physical development achievements and enjoyed how they celebrated each others news.

Awe and wonder

The children visited the Spiritual garden one sunny autumn afternoon; we enjoyed looking at the autumn leaves and sitting quietly in the warm sun. We then gathered to thank God for the beautiful world we live in.

English - Writing

The children have been working so hard during phonics sessions to learn how to form their letters correctly and to write their own name. Look at the fantastic results!

Mathematics - Maths Monsters

After sharing the book '1 Smile, 10 Toes' the children used the knowledge developed this half term to create group monsters. The children concentrated on 2D shapes, patterns and different ways of representing a number using the Numicon. They then demonstrated their developing mathematical vocabulary by describing what they had used.

Enchanted Forest

The children went on a scavenger hunt to find the 6 things on the sheet. We had to use our eyes to look very carefully, we discovered the binoculars helped us to look for Magpies and Seagulls. Great hunting everyone!

Mathematics

The children have been using the Numicon to explore making numbers in different ways. We call them equivalence towers. We then created museums for our number, we had 2 rules - all of the different ways needed to be different and we needed to prove that we had made the correct number by placing the Numicon number shape on top. Finally we told our friends what we had used to create the numbers. Ada said 'I used a 3 and a 3 to make 6.'

Expressive Art and Design

The children have been looking very closely at the shapes and sizes of sunflowers, pumpkins and butternut squashes. We have then created an observational drawing of them on the whiteboards and have then drawn them on artist paper using artist pencils. We needed to use lots of concentration and perseverance to complete our drawings.

English - Poetry

We are learning lots of new poems and we love to share them with our families by performing a poetry recital. Great speaking and listening skills Reception, well done!

IMG_7566.MOV

Still image for this video

IMG_7369.MOV

Still image for this video

Mathematics - Patterns

Reception have been creating patterns this week, both in the indoor and outdoor settings. We are able to tell you what the pattern is, but also we are now learning to tell you what the repeat is in our repeating patterns. We also know that repeat means it happens again and again and again ...

Expressive Art and Design

The children loved accessing the provocations to enjoy superhero role play. Great ideas and story lines and very enthusiastic superheroes with amazing powers!

Understanding the World - Autumn transient art

The children collected many different autumn objects; leaves, conkers, sweet chestnuts, acorns, pine cones and beech nuts. We gathered them altogether on a huge tray and had lots of fun discussing what we could see, their names, what they felt like and their colour. We were then inspired by our book 'Leaf Man' to create some transient art creatures. We made  butterflies, fish and many different faces.

Outdoor play - Water Fun

The children enjoyed playing in the water, lots of measuring and language of capacity involved in filling, emptying and pouring. We also worked on our turn taking and sharing skills and finally we solved the problem of how to make the object move along the gutter.

Understanding the World - Enchanted Forest

The children loved exploring in the Enchanted Forest in their wellies and puddle suits. We did lots of digging to make sure our shoulders are nice and strong for when we come to write, we collected leaves in wheelbarrows and described what they looked like and how they felt, we listened and looked for birds, we heard some singing, but we only saw a white butterfly and a grey squirrel, we worked together to create a den for us to sit in and finally we rolled in the leaves and made leaf angels.

IMG_7508.MOV

Still image for this video

IMG_7512.MOV

Still image for this video

Understanding the World - Past and Present

The children have been learning the terms past, present and future and we now know that the past has already happened, the present is happening right now and the future has not happened yet. Bearing this in mind, we collected some objects from our home corner and our class setting and sorted them into past and present sets. We discovered that some of the present day objects need electricity, but long ago in the past there was no electricity. We think we did a fantastic job sorting all of them into sets.

Grandparent Day

our grandparents and other family members came to visit us in our new setting. We loved showing them around the outdoor and indoor setting and we had such fun being creative with them and then showing them some of the songs we sing and the poetry we have been learning. Thank you for sharing our special morning with us.

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."

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

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.

Top