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 Burton 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 2021-2022

Dates for Your Diary

Summer

Wednesday 25th May - Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Garden Party. 

Wednesday 25th May - Break up for half term 3.00pm

Monday 6th June – Return to school after half term

Monday 13th June – Healthy and Active week

Monday 20th June – Healthy and Active week

Friday 1st July - 1pm Infant Sports Day (including Reception)

Friday 8th July – Summer Fayre

Friday 19th July – End of term – 1.30pm finish.

Mother's Day Assembly

The children all worked so hard learning their lines, learning the poem, rehearsing the song and finally performing their assembly. We know you were very proud of them and we were very proud too!

Maths - Jasper's Beanstalk

The children used the story Jasper's Beanstalk as some inspiration for this maths challenge. They children had to order the beanstalks, find the corresponding numicon shape and count out accurately the correct number of glass beads.

Watch out for us using a trio of numbers and the bar model in this challenge next time.

Growing

Our theme on growing has seen us immersing ourselves in a number of stories with beanstalks. We of course have read Jack and the Beanstalk, but the one we have concentrated on is Jim and the Beanstalk. We are also going to read The Incredibly Meanstalk and The Princess and the Giant. The children are loving the texts and it has helped with our understanding of plants and what conditions they need to grow. We have planted our own bean seeds and are waiting patiently to see if they will grow. 

We watched a time lapse video of how a bean grows and were interested to see how the roots develop under the soil before the shoot starts to push its way through the soil. We know we have to wait about 3 or 4 weeks before anything happens that we will see. You never know, perhaps a magic beanstalk will grow!

Trio of Numbers

We have been learning how to add and takeaway. We have learnt the signs and their definitions. Add "joining groups together." Maisie. Take away "taking a smaller number away from a bigger number." Evelyn. Equals "equal value might look different." Maddox.

We have used the Numicon and counters on the 10 frame and have now started to use a trio of numbers to do it. We are working so hard and some of us are trying to write our number sentences too. Watch out for when we introduce the bar model too!

Maths masters here we come.

COOL TIME

The children love their 'choose your own learning' time and today they decided to construct a train track but incorporated the Duplo into it using it for tunnels and buildings that they thought would be alongside the track. "Perhaps it could be a factory," said Brian.

World Book Day

As part of our whole school World Book Day we all brought in a loved but no longer used book that we wanted to recycle with our class friends. We had lots of fun choosing a new book to take home. 

Recycling - Rain forest

As part of our theme on recycling and rain forests, the children were challenged to recycle a sock to make a rain forest creature. They then accessed the class rain forest and used the maps to discuss where they wanted to travel. "Where should we go?" said Daniel.

Key role model - Frida Kahlo

The children completed an artist study on Frida Kahlo as a homework project. They learnt all kinds of different information. They learnt that she painted self-portraits and also liked to paint flowers which she is often seen wearing in her self-portraits. We completed a guided draw on how to draw a flower and then using our knowledge about colour mixing we drew and painted our flowers. Finally we completed our own self-portraits. We can't wait to see how they look when they are finished.

Weather part 3

The children have been learning the terms waterproof and not-waterproof. We had a collection of different materials and predicted by placing them on a t-chart. We then took the materials outside to test. We poured water on them and observed to see if the water stayed on the outside - waterproof or soaked through - not-waterproof. 

Art 

The children have been learning about the 3 primary colours and that they create secondary colours when we mix them together. Look out for us using this knowledge to create art work for our Frida Kahlo artist study.

Literacy

After fully immersing ourselves in our core text, the children have been able to retell the story using lots of story vocabulary to their friends. Great reading and super expression everyone!

P.E. - Gymnastics

The children have been exploring their bodies and how to balance on different body parts to create a variety of shapes. I can see our core strength and balance improving all the time.

Weather - part 2

The next investigation we had was to see if either sand, sugar or salt would make the ice melt quicker when the blocks of ice are all placed by the radiator. Again we predicted and then observed. Finally we used the results to discover that salt makes the ice melt the quickest. We then related that to some information we had learnt from a non-fiction weather text about gritters keeping roads safe for vehicles by using rock salt.

Weather

We discussed what ice is, how it is made and how it melts. As scientists we then predicted where we thought the ice would melt the quickest; by the radiator, outside or in the conservatory. We then observed what happened and finally drew a conclusion from our results. "Ice melts easily in warm places." Brian

Challenge Time

Can you use the natural materials to create a new habitat for Stick Man? Can you discuss what you have used and for what purpose?

Sorting materials

The children were asked to sort the basket of objects into 2 sets. They sorted them into a wood set and a not-wood set. This led us onto a discussion about natural and man-made objects.

Challenge time

Can you create Stick Man, Stick Lady Love and the three children using the duplo? Can you think carefully about size and articulate which model is which? These children were able to make the characters and discuss what each one was and why.

Estimation Station

The children had to estimate how many blocks tall Stick Man is and then record their estimation. Then using the blocks they counted how many blocks were needed and finally recorded the actual number needed to measure Stick Man's height.

Stick Man

Our core text is Stick Man and after sharing the story we decided to create missing posters to help us locate him. The children created their own posters using their increasing phonics knowledge to help them write some words. We then placed them in different places around school. A few days later we received a letter telling us to look for him in the courtyard and when we went he was there. We were so happy to welcome him safely into our class.

Santa Dash

The children looked fabulous in their Christmas jumpers and we had lots of fun completing our dash. 

Expressive Art and Design - Reception Christmas Performance

The children worked so hard to learn the songs for our performance. They loved getting dressed up in their costumes and everyone of them sang their hearts out. Bravo Reception!

Expressive Art and Design - Christmas Craft Day

The children had a wonderful time on craft day creating decorations to put on their own Christmas trees. Lots of effort and concentration was needed as well as increasing dexterity to push the pins in to make the mouth and buttons on the snowman. 

Santa's Grotto

The children took great care to write their letters to Santa, demonstrating their growing phonics skill when writing words. Then what better place to send them to Santa than in our grotto, we were all so excited to have our turn. Fingers crossed that Santa gets to read them!

While we were there we also sang a song and listened to our favourite story 'The First Christmas.'

What a beautiful experience for us all to share together.

R.E. - The Posada

The children were sent home with a Mary and Joseph figure to make. They were then invited to look after these figures by welcoming them into a special place in their homes as is the tradition in Mexico. The children were asked to keep them safe and entertained and as usual our families surpassed all of our expectations. The thought and care shown has been truly phenomenal.

Literacy - Letters to Santa

We wrote out letters to Santa and then the children were super excited to take them to Santa's grotto and post them. The children thought the grotto was quite magical and loved sitting there and gazing around at all the wonderful decorations. We decided it would be nice to sing Jingle Bells whilst we were there and then we listened to 'The First Christmas' story. What a fabulous place to go to remember everything about Christmas and to realise how fortunate we are.

Understanding the World - Geography

The children had great fun learning about our locality. Many of our families took the children for a walk near to school for homework. We then looked at photos of certain buildings and discussed their function. Next we created our own maps of the immediate locality and talked about the names of the roads. Finally, the best part, we used bee bot and learnt how to programme him to visit some of the buildings on the floor map we had created. It was such fun remembering which buttons to press and then estimating how many moves forward we needed. We also learnt to press go and then we watched in delight to see where bee bot ended up!

Maths - 3D shape

We have spent a great deal of time learning about 3D shapes. We have thoroughly explored them and then spent a week selecting a 3D shape, taking it into our class post office and then wrapping it in Christmas wrapping paper. The children then demonstrated their growing vocabulary when describing the shape they had wrapped. They used specific mathematical language such as; roll, not roll, pick it up, faces, vertices, point and curved surface. We will continue to keep all of this knowledge bubbling through our weekly Maths Eyes activity.

Expressive Art and Design - Transient art

The children were challenged to decorate the Christmas trees using a variety of loose parts. We think we have some designers in our class!

Imagine That!

The children had a fantastic time on our school trip to Imagine That! They explored and experienced such a variety of activities. They demonstrated perseverance and problem solving as well as creative and role play skills. We had a fabulous time.

Understanding the World - Geography

After listening to the story Rosie's Walk, the children created their own 3D maps to represent all of the places Rosie visited. We then encouraged the children to draw representations of the places Rosie visited and then write a phrase using the precise story language. We love their story maps!

DT Textiles projects Part 2

The children went onto make the web by threading and then decorate the dream catchers to make them attractive. We also added a hanger so we can hang them at our homes.

The children have learnt so many facts about dream catchers; we know the bad dreams get caught in the web and when the sun comes up they disappear. We also found out that the good dreams glide down the feathers to the person who is sleeping.

DT - Textiles project

The children are underway with their design technology project to create a dream catcher. After reviewing a number of dream catchers we know the best shape to use is a circle.

We also know we need a web to catch the bad dreams, we need feathers for the good dreams to glide down to us when we are sleeping, we need to make sure it looks attractive and we know our dream catcher needs to be able to hung up.

So far we have painted our circle shapes. Look out for photos documenting the next steps!

Independent number writing

As well as learning to count and recognise numbers, some children have been writing numbers independently!

Independent writing

The children are becoming independent writers, they are using their phonics knowledge to help them write short phrases and captions.

Finding All Possibilities

The children were challenged to see how many different cakes they could make using 2 different coloured cakes and 2 different coloured smarties. 

The children created the cakes, checked that they were all different and then we looked at placing them in rows an columns.

We learnt that rows go across and columns go up and down. 

Next week we are going to be looking at recording the cakes we make independently.

Rosie's Walk

After listening to the story of Rosie's Walk the children were challenged to create their own story map. First they needed to sequence the story pictures and then the children worked together to create the pond, the haystack, the mill, the fence, the beehives and finally the hen house. After creating their story map they used it to retell the story in their own words.

Children in Need

The children came dressed up to help us all celebrate Children in Need day. 

Thank you all so very much for your generous donations.

Baking

The children wore their baker hats to help them bake bread with The Little Red Hen (Mrs O).

They learnt some new vocabulary and were encouraged to use it to help this new knowledge to stick.

We learnt about dough, kneading, yeast, proving and changes and that when the dough is baked it changes to bread and it is a change that cannot be changed back.

Remembrance Day

The children created the poppies to be used in our Remembrance Day Collective Worship.

We sat very quietly and showed respect as we listened to the story and remembered the brave soldiers who have fought to keep us all safe.

Threading - Spider webs

The children worked on their fine motor skills to create spider webs by threading the wool through the holes they had punched in the plates. They concentrated very hard as they completed this task independently.

We can't wait to make our Dream Catchers in a few weeks. More threading will be needed then!

Shape

The children used the tessellating shapes to create patterns using the pattern books. They then answered the question about which shape would come next and also what the repeat is. The children are able to access these challenges with a great deal of confidence.

STEM - Little Red Hen

The children were challenged to create a house for The Little Red Hen and her friends. They thought carefully about what they wanted to use. They discussed their ideas working collaboratively, demonstrating a growth in self regulation to create something they were all delighted with.

Fine motor skills

The children were challenged to use different coloured ribbon to thread through a cooling wire. They were then tasked to thread wool through a paper plate that they had punched holes in. Lots of hard work and building strength in small fingers.

Baker's Hats

The children were excited to make their hats ready to bake bread. They had to work together and measure each other's heads. They then needed to mark where they had to cut and then join the ends together, finally adding the crepe paper. The children used the language of too big, too small and just right consistently. We can't wait to wear them when we bake bread.

Large Construction Play

The children were challenged to create a home for The Little Red Hen. They were able to use the resources in the outside setting. They were able to cooperate and communicate effectively. Lots of great sharing of ideas and being a good friend by helping each other too.

Bonfire Night

To celebrate Bonfire Night we had great fun creating our collaborative firework picture. Each child had the opportunity to drizzle and splatter paint and then sprinkle glitter. It was such good fun and even better, it was super messy!

1 more and 1 less

The children used the numicon shapes to create the numicon staircase to 10. They then chose a number and were challenged in enhanced continuous provision to tell an adult or a friend what number was 1 more and 1 less. We discovered that 1 more means the number gets bigger by 1 and 1 less means the number gets smaller by 1.

Friendship

For our whole school theme of friendship we made a friendship heart for our friend, we talked about what qualities made a good friend and we created a potion to help us all become a good friend. 

Role Play

Our role play bakery is proving a huge hit with the children. They have been creating all kinds of mouth watering feasts. They have been using vocabulary associated with baking and are looking forward to when they can help The Little Red Hen to make bread in class.

Equivalence Towers

The children selected a numicon shape and the corresponding numeral card. Their challenge in enhanced provision was to create a museum of other ways of creating that number. They were encouraged to prove they were right by checking and putting their selected numicon shape on top. The children knew that each grouping on their museum needed to be different and also learnt that each one made the same number, they just looked different. 

Patterns

The children have been accessing the environment both inside and outside to find patterns. They then began to make their own patterns; repeating and picture patterns. Finally they have worked so hard to be able to tell an adult and each other what the repeat is in their patterns.

Say No to Racism

Reception came together today to say no to racism and show it the red card by wearing red or blue.

Mental Health Awareness Day

The children all wore yellow to raise awareness of mental health day. The children created their own yellow super heroes and worked together to think of what their super powers could be. We think they did a wonderful job!

Cool time

In Reception we have 'cool time' choose our own learning. We love this as we can access the continuous provision and develop our own play and learning. We have lots of fun, but we also remember that we:-

Choose it, use it and put it away.

Key Role Model - Sports person

Our first key role model is the amazing Emma Raducanu. For homework we had to find out some facts about her and then draw or create something including the information we had discovered. The children know so much about her and we also enjoyed watching her final point in the match to win the US Open.

Elliott - 'She is the British number 1 tennis player.'

Theo - 'She lives in London.'

Ourselves

During our theme of 'Ourselves' the children have been looking very carefully at their features. We decided to create a pictogram showing the eye colour in each group of children. The children worked hard to complete the pictograms and then used the data to explain what they noticed. Some of us then used the resources to create a pictogram about hair colour quite independently.

Counting Stick

The children love to count using our class counting stick.

Brian - 'We count forwards when Mrs Liggat points to the numbers at the top.'

Elliott - 'The number gets bigger when we count forwards.'

Kyron - 'When we point underneath the counting stick we count backwards.'

Olivia - 'The number gets smaller when we count backwards.'

Laycee - '5 is halfway 5!'

We then decided to challenge the children to create their own counting sticks. As you can see they certainly rose to the challenge.

Ipads - Colour Box

The children loved being able to explore the Colour Box app on the ipads. They were able to access the programme and independently create their own pictures. They learnt how to change the colour and thickness of their marks and also to use the rubber to change their pictures. They were then able to talk about what they had drawn.

Oliver - 'I did a rainbow, lots of different colours.'

Transient Art

The children collected natural objects from around the school, they then returned to our setting and set about making their very own creations. The children worked independently or cooperatively discussing what they wanted to use and what they wanted to make. We love all of their ideas.

Mission Statement Display

In Reception we have been using the book 'We're All Works of Art' by Mark Sperring. We have looked at the Cubism aspect of art and produced our display in the style of Pablo Picasso. We enjoyed having our photos taken and then mixing them up with other friends. We then painted portraits of ourselves in the style of Picasso placing our features in some unusual positions on our faces. In the words of Mark Sperring, "We are proud of our uniqueness."