Reception
Reception 2022-2023
Week beginning 22nd May
Reception have been enjoying the lovely weather this week by exploring some new games and ideas outside. We have been making dens, having car races using pipes, 'cooking' in the mud kitchen and exploring capacity. In Maths we moved on to learning about 'odd' and 'even' numbers. The children were able to talk about how they know which numbers are odd or even using Numicon and tens frames. I challenged the children to add two odd numbers together and find out if the total will always be odd. The children took on the challenge and made numbers to 100.
In Literacy the children have worked hard to write sentences independently. We also included our new phonics sounds; ch, sh, th and ck in some of the sentences. I encouraged the children to read their sentences back and make changes to their work if needed.
In Wild Space the children have been making dens, climbing and making masks with natural resources. It has been lovely to see the children's confidence grow over this half term. We are now seeing the children organising turn taking on the swings independently and trying new activities such as climbing. We look forward to our Wild Space sessions next half term.
Week beginning 15th May
This week we had a fantastic trip to Sandringham house and gardens. We walked round the gardens, had a coronation workshop, made crowns, walked round the house and even crowned our own King in the class! There was quite a bit of walking, however the children were brilliant! Their behaviour was excellent and we had a lovely day.
Week beginning 8th May
This week we have been learning about sharing in Maths. The children worked hard to share equally into groups. We also revisited some doubling knowledge from last week. Outside the children have set up their own ice-cream shop. It has provided opportunities for the children to practise their turn taking and negotiating skills. We extended the children's play by writing menus or signs. In Wild Space we discovered lots of minibeasts. We discussed why some of them like damp weather and live under logs or in dark places. We thought carefully about how to handle the minibeasts and made sure to put them back where we had found them.
We have been preparing for our school trip on Monday. A polite reminder to arrive on time please, as we will be leaving promptly by 9am. Thank you.
Week beginning 2nd May
We have had a very busy but exciting week in Reception this week! We started by having our weekly wild space session. We explored climbing, balancing and den building. We also made our own magic wands by threading wool and attaching natural objects we had found. On Thursday we had a special visit from some chicks. We revisited learning from last term and talked about the chicken life cycle. The children stroked and handled the chicks gently and were extremely quiet and sensible. We learnt lots of information about the different breeds of chicken and why some of the chicks looked different.
Some of our other learning this week included; making crowns, painting flags, writing invitations, doubling numbers to ten and playing phonics games. In Phonics the children were introduced to the new sounds - ch and wh. We have been reading and writing words and sentences, that include those sounds. On Friday the children made their own sandwiches, fruit kebabs and iced cupcakes. In the afternoon we celebrated the King's Coronation by having a tea party. We wore our crowns, waved flags, listened to some music and enjoyed sharing our food together.
Week beginning 24th April
On Tuesday we had our first wild space session. The children explored the area for the first time, painted with mud, created crowns and searched for minibeasts. The children were all very sensible when using large sticks or climbing and were mindful of others. In phonics we have been reading and writing sentences, including with sh, th, ck and ng. In Maths we have continued to represent and order numbers to 20 in different ways. We have been thinking about how to make the numbers from 10-20 using different amounts. In our topic time, we have been learning about Castles. We discussed Windsor Castle and found out that it had over 1000 rooms! We then made our own castles using junk modelling or construction.
Week beginning 18th April
This week we started our new topic for this half term - Kings and Queens. We began by discussing who is in the Royal Family and where they live. We looked closely at Buckingham Palace, using a virtual online tour. The children asked lots of questions and we discussed what makes the rooms so special and different. In Maths we have moved on to representing numbers to 20. The children learnt about counting on from 10 and representing the amounts in different ways. In phonics we have moved on to blending and segmenting CVCC/CCVCC words.
On Wednesday the life bus came to our school. The children learnt about keeping our bodies healthy and happy. We discussed food, exercise and hygiene. The children's behaviour was amazing! We were so proud of them. We had an exciting end to our week this week. The children have been working hard together, to fill our class marble jar. It was finally full for the second time, after our visit to the life bus on Wednesday. On Friday we celebrated by cooking then decorating cupcakes. Well done Reception!
Week's beginning 20th and 27th March
We have been learning about why and how some people celebrate Easter this week. We read the Easter story and discussed how we might celebrate Easter at home. In Literacy we opened some eggs and talked about the pictures inside. We then listened for the sounds and wrote CVC words, CVCC words or sentences. We also made Easter egg hats and chicks. On Friday we enjoyed an Easter themed morning with a Easter bonnet parade and songs. We had our Easter service in school in the afternoon.
In Maths we have been working on subtraction. We used the story 'Pete and his four groovy buttons' to help us. We took away buttons each time to find out how many were left. To finish our topic of 'Growing and Changing' we read the story of the enormous turnip. The children spent time making masks, ready to retell the story. We acted out the story with props and the children took turns to be the characters or the audience.
Have a lovely Easter Holiday!
Week beginning 13th March
This week we have been writing about the butterfly life cycle in Literacy. We have been trying hard to include finger spaces, full stops and capital letters. We have also been focusing on this in our phonics lessons. We have been planting again this week. The children each planted a sunflower seed. We are going to observe their growth and talk about the changes.
Week beginning 6th March
This week we tasted our cress and had mixed results. We discussed what we thought the cress smelt like and tasted like. We then had a vote on who liked the cress and who didn't. The children were also able to talk about and remember the stages of planting cress. We were really excited by the arrival of a small amount of snow on Friday. We enjoyed spending some time outside making tiny snowmen and snowballs. Outside we also created some maths games. We used our addition skills to combine our scores and find out who the winners of each game were.
In P.E this week we started our new unit - ball skills. We practised moving the balls carefully in different directions and keeping control of them. The children worked really well in pairs, taking turns and practising their new skills together.
We have continued to observe the caterpillars growth this week. We think they are almost ready to cocoon themselves! We will watch them carefully over the coming days.
Reception 6th March
Week beginning 27th February
We have had an exciting week in Reception this week. We started our week by planting cress and discussing how seeds grow. Each day we have watered the cress and discussed the changes we can see. In Literacy we then ordered and wrote instructions to explain how we planted the cress seeds. We are looking forward to tasting our cress on Monday!
We had a special delivery on Thursday. Some caterpillars arrived and we needed to learn how to take care of them. We have began to learn about the butterfly life cycle and will be watching the caterpillars closely over the next two weeks to observe any changes.
In Maths we have started to learn our number bonds to 10. We have been thinking about how to represent ten in different ways. We will be continuing with this next week. In art we have been painting and creating flowers using different media. For World Book Day we enjoyed sharing our favourite stories, making bookmarks, drawing pictures of our favourite characters and making our own books.
Week beginning 20th February
This week we have started our new topic - 'Growing and Changing'. We started by discussing the seasons and the differences between them. We made some different trees in art and all joined in with circle time, where we sorted and organised different pictures, based on their seasons. In Maths this week we have focused on representing the numbers 9 and 10. We also built on our previous learning and ordered numbers 1-10. The children worked in pairs and played games, changing or mixing up some of the numbers, before their friend fixed them and put them back in the correct order. We were impressed with how well the children could talk about why some numbers were in the wrong place and explained how they knew. Outside the children were interested in making potions. We gathered different ingredients including leaves, pine cones, foam, water, mud and sand. The children described what their potions would do and how they worked. The children worked well together to develop their ideas together. We are now extending the activity by encouraging the children to write down their potions, so a friend could follow their instructions next time. In phonics this week we introduced the sounds - 'ck' and 'th'. We have started to write and read words with those sounds and refer to them as - 'two letters but one sound'.
We had our first 'Stay and Read' session this week. Thank you to everyone who came along, it was lovely to see the children sharing and enjoying stories with their parents or carers. We will be organsing our next session soon, please look out for the email and we hope to you there.
Reception 20th February
Week beginning 6th February
This week we have moved on to learning about stars, galaxies and constellations as part of our space topic. We explored our galaxy the 'Milky Way' and created our own artwork. We learnt that each galaxy has billions of stars and planets! We couldn't believe how big space really is!
In Maths we have been learning about addition. We completed simple addition problems using counters, Numicon and on our fingers. We worked hard on speaking in full sentences including "three add three equals six". Some of us challenged ourselves to write the number sentence too.
In phonics we moved on to reading and writing CVCC words. We did find this tricky to begin with as we now need four sounds in the words instead of three. However we will be continuing to work on this over the next half term. In literacy we had discussions about space and the things we have learnt. We then labelled pictures of space with words or simple sentences.
We have been playing different group games this week, to build on our turn taking and communication skills. It has been lovely to see the children independently playing and leading the games. The children have also demonstrated brilliant listening skills during 'show and tell' sessions. Some children have shared medals or achievements from outside of school. Some children have talked about work they are particularly proud of, that they have completed in school. The children asked each other questions and spoke in full sentences.
Have a lovely half term!
Reception 6th Feb
Week beginning 23rd January
This week we have been learning all about Chinese New Year. We explored how people might celebrate Chinese New Year and linked this to our own experiences of celebrations. After watching some videos of dragon dances to celebrate, the children decided they would like to make their own dragon. We took turns to take be part of the head or body and performed a dragon dance to music.
In Literacy we have been writing simple sentences linked to pictures of Chinese New Year. We have also been labelling animals from the story. In maths we have been working with numbers 6,7 and 8. We thought about the different ways we can make the numbers using numicon or counters. We also explored Chinese numerals and wrote them in paint.
Week beginning 16th January
This week we have been learning about astronauts as part of our space topic. We learnt about the international space station, Tim Peake and the equipment astronauts need. We tracked the space station daily and discussed how it orbits the earth. In maths we have been learning about height and length. The children have been comparing and measuring using the language of shortest, shorter, tallest and taller. In Literacy we have been reading real and nonsense words and sorting them.
Week beginning 9th January
Reception have really enjoyed beginning to learn about Space this week. We began by discussing the planet we live on - Earth. We talked about all of the planets in our solar system and where we would find Earth. The children had lots of questions about space including; how hot is it on mars? How many moons does Jupiter have? Why is there no gravity in space? What do astronomers do? We will aim to answer all of these questions as we learn about Space in more detail this term.
In Maths we have been exploring weight. To begin we thought about when we would use scales in our every day lives. We discussed which items were lightest or heaviest and how we knew by looking closely at the balancing scales. We also estimated which items we thought would be heavier or lighter and then tested this out. We found out that larger objects are not always heavier. We then moved on to learning about one more and one less than a given number. The children chose to use numerals, objects or numicon and we checked our answers using a number line. We have encouraged the children to speak in full sentences when answering questions - "one less than nine is eight".
We have enjoyed exploring different media this week in expressive arts and design. Outside we made planets in the sand tray, painted different planets and used collage to design rockets.
In Literacy this week we focused on the story of 'Whatever Next'. We began by reading the story, creating a story map and then acting out the story. We had discussions about what we would take on a journey to the moon and packed our own backpacks. The children worked hard to write words or sentences about the items in their backpack.
Weeks beginning 12th and 19th December
It has been a week full of Christmas learning and celebrations in Reception! The children worked really hard to practise and perform the songs and dances for our nativity. They did an amazing job and have continued to sing the songs this week! To begin this week, we created our Christmas cards and calendars. The children thought carefully about what resources they would like to use and how to create arms, faces and buttons for their snowmen. We have also shared a Christmas lunch together and had a silent disco! We enjoyed dancing and singing to lots of Christmas songs.
Have a lovely Christmas!
Week beginning 5th December
It has been another busy week in Reception. We started by transforming the role play area into a post office. The children have been writing letters and posting parcels. We thought carefully about how to address a letter and what information to include. This week we have been reading the 'Lost and Found' story. We discussed why the penguin felt 'lonely' and what to do if we ever feel this way. We also ordered the story and wrote lists for what to pack on a trip to the South Pole. We tried hard to use the new sounds we have been learning in phonics - z, j, w.
In maths this week we have continued to explore 2D shapes. We went on a shape walk around school and discussed which shape we found more or less of. In the creative area we have been making Christmas tree decorations and painting trees. We have also started making headbands for our Christmas Nativity performance next week, which we are very excited about!
Outside we discovered the water had turned into ice. We discussed why this had happened and experimented with how to melt the ice. We tested this by placing it in the sun, in warm water and in cold water. We have also been busy developing our balancing skills and confidence in trying new things. We created obstacle courses and made signs to explain how fast or slow we should be moving round each part of the course.
Week beginning 28th November
This week we have been busy preparing for our class assembly. The children have enjoyed singing and dancing to the songs and are very excited to be sharing all of their hard work. We have focused on 2D shapes in maths this week. The children were encouraged to make pictures using shapes, describe their properties and talk about the differences between shapes.
Christmas has arrived in the classroom! The children have been decorating the class and hall Christmas trees and have started to start making their own decorations. We are all very excited about our Christmas activities over the next few weeks. In Literacy this week we have been focusing on simple sentences and CVC words including 'Pip is on the map'. We have also been looking for the words - 'to', 'I' and 'the' in our reading books. 
Week beginning 21st November
This week we have been reading 'The Train Ride' story. We created our own train journeys and described what we would see. We had a class discussion and made sure to speak in full sentences. Outside the children have been singing lots of nursery rhymes and songs with the musical instruments. The children took turns brilliantly, swapping musical instruments after each song. The children also created their own games using the hoops and dice. The children explained the rules to the adults and made sure we were following them!
The children have really enjoyed sharing their artwork or models with the rest of the class this week. Each day different children have explained how they made their models and answered questions from their friends. We have focused on what a question is and what types of questions we could ask. It has been lovely to see the children's confidence grow when speaking in front of the class.
Week beginning 14th November
This week we have continued reading the story of 'The Duck in the Truck'. The children have been making story maps and retelling the story, using the language of first, then, next and finally. In maths we have been thinking about the different ways we can make 5. We have used Numicon and counters on a tens frame. We also started writing some number sentences. We have been working hard on speaking in full sentences including "four add one equals five". To support our fine motor skills, we have been cutting shapes to make vehicles and threading beads. Our outdoor area has been turned into a tennis court this week! The children have organised their own games of tennis and enjoyed scoring too.
Week beginning 7th November
This week we have started learning about our new topic 'Transport'. We began by discussing the transport we already know about before finding out more. We thought about how different transport move, including on land, in water, or in the air. We then explored the bullet train in Japan. We looked at where Japan is on a map and found out some facts. The children enjoyed learning that the bullet train travels at 200mph and it has around 1,393 seats. We watched videos of the bullet train travelling and compared it to trains we have in the UK. We worked together to transform our role play area into a train station café. We painted our own trains and designed menus. We also enjoyed using junk modelling to create our own vehicles, making brilliant trains, cars and boats. In maths we have continued to work on securing our knowledge of numbers one to five. We have represented the numbers in different ways and talked about more and less. In literacy we have been reading 'The Duck in the Truck' and began to discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story.
Week Beginning 31st October
This week we have been learning all about bonfire night. We discussed watching fireworks and how to keep safe if going to a fireworks display. We thought of words and sentences to describe the sounds fireworks make. We enjoyed writing some of those words, including 'pop' and 'bang'. We also enjoyed using a variety of media to create our own fireworks shapes and pictures. Glitter was one of our favourites!
October
We have enjoyed reading the story 'The Little Red Hen'. We talked about the main characters and joined in with saying the repeated phrases "not I" and "I will do it all by myself". In small groups we acted out and performed the story for the rest of the class. In literacy we worked hard to hear the initial sounds in words including dog, hen and cat. We also explored what speech bubbles are and why they are used. In Expressive Arts and Design we painted characters from the story, using colour mixing to make the colours we needed. We also made our own puppet theatre using junk modelling and used puppets to retell the story.
We really enjoyed learning all of the harvest songs for our Harvest Festival Service. The children were very excited to sing the songs with the rest of school and attend their first assembly. The children sat beautifully in the assembly and listened to the reasons why we are celebrating the harvest.
We have begun to notice signs of autumn all around us. We went on an autumn walk around our school field and discussed the signs that we could see. We collected lots of autumn objects to bring back to the class and put in our exploration area. We looked closely at the size, the shape and the colours of the objects we collected. We then used them to create patterns and sort into groups for our Maths work.
September
Reception have been fantastic at settling into school and have had lots of fun during our first month at school. We have enjoyed exploring our new classroom, having a go and some of the activities out in provision and making lots of new friends. To begin our first topic 'All About Me', we have started by finding out all about ourselves. We discussed things that are special to us, things we like and things we don't like. We also thought about people in our lives who are special to us, including members of our family and celebrated our differences. We used mirrors and looked closely at our faces, including the colour of our hair and eyes to create self-portraits. We then discussed what was the same and what was different about us and our friends. We also practised writing our names. We are very proud of our self-portraits and have been admiring them in the hall on our display board!
Reception 2021-2022
Week Beginning: 11.07.22
This week we have been exploring ‘folk tales’. We talked about where these stories may come from, and in particular looked at folk tales from Africa and focused on ‘Anansi the Spider’. We listened to the story and talked about what Anansi is like and how his sons helped him. We enjoyed performing the stories in big groups, especially role-playing how each son helped Anansi. We then worked really hard to retell the story in our own words. In Maths this week we have been looking at maps and using these to help us describe a journey. We drew maps for the fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ then our journey to school. We thought carefully about what we would see on the way and which side of the road it was on. In Art we looked at the artist ‘Miro’ and in particular the sculptures he made. We discussed how he used different objects to create his sculptures of people. We then designed and made our own using clay. It was very tricky, but we all persevered and tried really hard. After learning about the season summer, we had lots of fun carrying out a science investigation, to find out which items melt. We enjoyed holding a variety of different things in our hands to see if they would melt or not. We were great at predicting and enjoyed seeing the chocolate, jelly and ice cream melt in our hands!
Week Beginning: 04.07.22
We started off this week with Sports Day on Monday morning. We had lots of fun participating in the different carousel of activities, before taking part in the running, egg and spoon, and sack race. We enjoyed cheering on our friends and having a picnic with our families and friends. Well done to everyone! This week we have been exploring ‘myths’. We discussed how these stories originated from Greece and found where it is on a map. We talked about how myths are imaginary stories that help us make sense of the world around us, and focused on ‘Prometheus’. We listened to the story and confidently talked about who the characters are and what they did in the story. We sequenced the pictures to help us and retold the story through role-play, before retelling the story in our own words. We were brilliant at remembering the key parts and spelling lots of red ‘tricky’ words accurately. In Maths we have explored using the Cuisenaire Rods. We used them to make staircases that got bigger and shorter in length, and investigated different ways we could make the largest Cuisenaire Rod, using the other lengths.
Week Beginning: 27.06.22
This week we have been exploring ‘fables’ and discussed how these stories have a moral or teach us a lesson. We looked a variety of fables, including ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’, ‘The Lion and the Mouse’ and ‘The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse’; and in Literacy looked at ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ in more detail. When role-playing the story, we enjoyed including more movement and actions into retelling the story, in particular when showing the race. We also worked hard to retell the fable in our own words. In Maths this week we have been looking at problem solving. We have used different books as a starting point, including ‘Mr. Gumpy’s Outing’, ‘One is a Snail’ and ‘How many legs?’; before having a go at some problems linked to them. We enjoyed finding out different ways to have amounts of legs in Mr. Gumpy’s boat and feet on the beach. We have also been practising for our assembly, working hard to use our big, loud voices to share with everyone all our fantastic learning this year!
Week Beginning: 20.06.22
This week we have explored a different type of story from the past, we have looked at ‘legends’. We talked about what makes these stories a legend, that they are from a long time ago and have some truth in them, and focused on ‘Saint George and the Dragon’. We wrote about the legend and in provision enjoyed using the powder paints to experiment with colour to paint our own dragons. In Literacy we looked at the story ‘George and the Dragon’ by Chris Wormell, which has a twist on the legend – George is a mouse! We worked hard to retell the story in our own words, trying our best to remember our capital letters, full stops and to use some adjectives to describe the characters. When role-playing the story this week, we were given the choice to role-play the legend with Saint George or the story by Chris Wormell. Our narrators were brilliant telling the story for the characters to follow. In Maths this week we have been looking at odd and even numbers. We started by having a number of children and getting into pairs to see if there was an odd one left over. We then used counters to help us identify if the numbers are odd or even, lining them up in pairs and spotting if there is an odd counter left over. We were also very confident at sorting the Numicon number shapes into odd and even.
Week Beginning: 13.06.22
This week we continued to look at ‘fairy tales’ and explored ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. We talked about the characters and thought of adjectives to describe them in our sentences. We then sequenced pictures from the story and wrote about our favourite part. We enjoyed performing our versions of the story through role-play to our peers, remembering the key vocabulary from the story including, “What big eyes you have!” “All the better to see you with my dear.” We then worked incredibly hard to retell the story in our own words, some of us included the adjective ‘brave’ that we used on Tuesday to describe the woodcutter in our writing! We also enjoyed painting Little Red Riding Hood, mixing colours to create those we needed. In Maths this week we have been learning about sharing. We started by having various amounts of objects and sharing them in between 2, ensuring that they were equal and fair. We then explored having 12 counters and sharing them out between 2,3,4,5 and 6. We discussed whether it was equal, and noticed that sharing 12 between 5 wasn’t fair!
Week Beginning: 06.06.22
We started our new topic this week, ‘Stories from the Past’. We have started by looking at ‘fairy tales’ and in particular ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We thought about who the characters in the story are, what they are like, and began to use adjectives to help us describe them. We really enjoyed taking on the roles of the three pigs, mummy pig and the big bag wolf, and performing the story to our peers. We then retold the story in our own words, trying using our adjectives we thought of earlier in the week and story vocabulary such as ‘I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down’ in our writing. We then enjoyed the challenge of making our own house for the three little pigs. We thought carefully and selected which material we wanted to use; then we tested them to see if they would stay standing by being the wolf and trying to blow them down! In Maths this week, we have been learning about doubles. We have enjoyed lots of practical activities to help us, including finding matching double pairs, matching number shape (Numicon) doubles and then creating doubles on a ladybird and recording them as additions.
Week Beginning: 23.05.22
This week we have been learning about the government to conclude our topic of ‘Kings and Queens’. We linked back to our learning about King John and talked about how, now, the government make decisions. We talked about who the Prime Minister is, their role in government and we looked at the Houses of Parliament. We have impressed everyone with all the knowledge we have learnt about this topic this term, from identifying the Union Jack and Royal Standard flags, talking about the Queen’s coronation and different royal residences. We have also enjoyed lots of Jubilee activities this week, to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee; including creating a portrait of the Queen using different coins, where we talked about the different value each coin holds, and painting and making our own crowns. We didn’t put 444 jewels on ours, even though lots of us wanted to! We have also been busy in Maths this week, learning to subtract. We used coins and gems to help us solve some subtraction problems and described what we had found using ‘first, then and now’ stories.
Week Beginning: 16.05.22
This week we have been learning about King John. We talked about who he was and what he did. We role-played being King John and collecting the people's taxes. We all agreed what he did was not fair and it was right for the barons to get him to sign the Magna Carta. We have also been busy thinking about all our new-found knowledge about Kings and Queens in our writing. We picked what we would like to write about, including HM Queen Elizabeth II, the royal family, coronations, royal residences or the Queen’s guard. We put our writing together in a class information book and impressed everyone with what we have learnt. Outside we enjoyed using the large wooden blocks to make our own castle, role-playing being King John, soldiers, Queen Elizabeth II and her corgi’s; and setting up our castle for a royal banquet!
Week Beginning: 09.05.22
This week we have been learning about castles and palaces. We started by looking at some palaces and houses where the Queen and royal family live or stay at around the United Kingdom. We looked at Buckingham Palace and talked about how there is a post office, doctors surgery and even a swimming pool inside! We enjoyed using junk modelling to create some of the royal residences, including Buckingham Palace, Balmoral and St. James’ Palace, looking carefully at pictures of them to help us, such as making sure Buckingham Palace had a balcony for the Queen and the royal family to stand on. We were then so excited to go on the bus to visit Sandringham House. Even with the rainy weather, we were amazing! We explored the gardens, finding out about some of the trees planted and spotting some fish in the lake. We then participated in a Jubilee workshop, where we picked what we would like for the Queen’s picnic, made our own crowns and had a procession through the museum. We got to look at some of the Queen’s presents she has been given over the years, including a mask from Papa New Guinea, a boomerang, a portrait made from pearls and a puffer fish! We then had a guided tour around Sandringham House, where we learnt lots of new things about the Queen including how she enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles and has 12 Christmas trees! Everyone’s favourite room in the house was the dining room. We also enjoyed drawing our own pictures of Sandringham House, inspired by the artist Lowry.
Week Beginning: 02.05.22
This week we have been learning all about coronations. We talked about what they are and why we have them, before watching some clips of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. We looked at what she wore, King Edward’s chair, Westminster Abbey and the street party celebrations. We linked this to the upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations and enjoyed looking at some pictures of the Queen’s coronation in magazines and books. We then got ready for our class bear’s coronation. She needed a crown, sceptre and orb and throne to sit on. The children used junk modelling imaginatively to make each of these creations. We then had a class street-party to celebrate the coronation. The children worked hard to create their own decorations, including flags, bunting and a collaborative class picture; and had lots of fun! We have also been busy in Maths, exploring ‘first, then, now’ stories to help us with our addition. We solved problems, identifying how many we had ‘first’, ‘then’ how many more and how many we have altogether ‘now’. We also challenged ourselves to find the ‘unknown then’ in some problems, using double-sized counters and ten frames to help.
Week Beginning: 25.04.22
To link to our topic this week we explored the fairytale ‘Cinderella’. We started by thinking about the characters in the story and what they are like and talked about using adjectives to describe them, such as kind, helpful and nice to describe Cinderella and mean, horrible and wicked to describe her step-sisters. We sequenced pictures from the story and discussed what happens in the beginning, middle and end, before retelling the story in our own words, through role-play and in our writing. We focused on remembering finger spaces between our words, and begun to use capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and full stops at the end. We also enjoyed lots of reading and counting activities in provision, including using our phonics skills to ‘fred talk to read the words’ and captions and match them to the pictures.
Week Beginning: 18.04.22
We started our new ‘Kings and Queens’ topic this week. We began by talking about Queen Elizabeth II, who she is and how she became Queen. We then discussed the countries in the commonwealth and looked at the Union Jack flag. We enjoyed collaging and colouring our own, ensuring we got the colours in the right places. We then looked at the Royal Standard flag, and talked about when we might see this at some of the royal residences if the Queen is there at that time. We are excited about our upcoming trip to Sandringham, and enjoyed talking about how the Queen is celebrating her 96th birthday there this week. “We will see this (the Royal Standard flag) at Sandringham today because the Queen is there for her birthday.” We then worked hard to draw and paint our own portraits of the Queen, which look brilliant!
Reception 2021-22: Summer Term
Week Beginning: 28.03.22
To conclude our ‘Growing and Changing’ topic, we have learnt about how humans grow. We sequenced pictures to show how they change over time, from a baby to adult, and either labelled them or wrote a sentence to describe how we grow. We also looked at photographs of ourselves as babies and talked about how we have changed; including “my hair is longer”, “my feet are bigger”, “my brain has grown” and “I used to sleep a lot!” In Literacy, we continued to explore the story ‘The Enormous Turnip’. We focused on the beginning, middle and end of the story and retold it in our own words. On Thursday, as part of our Pride of Elm day, we got to have a go at the climbing wall. Lots of us said we were “nervous” before, however once we saw some of our friends having a go, were very brave and started climbing and even got half way up! We then enjoyed completing lots of ‘Easter’ themed Maths activities, including problem solving with Easter eggs; measuring with the Easter Bunny and finding different ways to make 10 using eggs and chicks.
Week Beginning: 21.03.22
This week as part of our ‘Growing and Changing’ topic, we have enjoyed learning about plants. We started by talking about where crops grow; whether it is underground, on top of the ground or on trees/plants. We then discussed what plants need to grow and what might happen if they do not have water or sunlight. We recapped the different parts of our body, and how they help us; before naming the different parts of a plant and learning about what they do to help the plant. We enjoyed creating our own flowers and labelling the different parts. We also wrote about what they need to grow. At Wild Space this week, we had lots of fun planting our own beans, linking to the story Jack and the Beanstalk, and planting sunflowers, wildflower seeds, bulbs and cress. We are watering them daily and are eager to see them start to grow. In Maths this week, we have been busy learning about 3D shapes, in particular a cone, sphere, cylinder and cuboid. We tested these shapes to see if they would roll down a ramp discussing if they had flat or curved faces, and went on a 3D shape hunt around the classroom and outdoor area. We also enjoyed creating our own patterns using anything we could find in the classroom.
Week Beginning: 14.03.22
We have enjoyed learning more about the lifecycle of chickens this week, linking to our topic ‘Growing and Changing’ and also the theme for Science Week ‘Growth’. We were really excited to start our week by getting to hold the chicks. We talked about what they felt like to touch and also what their feet felt like on our hands. We used our phonics skills to help us write about holding them independently. We then used non-fiction books and our new knowledge to write a page each for our own information booklets about the lifecycle. We have also enjoyed other activities linked to our learning including sequencing pictures and making a lifecycle wheel, drawing, painting and collaging pictures of chicks; identifying if they are going to grow into a hen or a rooster by the colour we used to represent their soft, fluffy feathers. We also practiced our addition skills, finding different ways to make 10 using eggs and chicks and recording these as addition number sentences.
Week Beginning: 07.03.22
In Maths this week we have been developing our addition skills. We enjoyed making our own problems to solve, picking two numbers to combine and using ten frames to help us find the total. We also began to use the part-whole model to combine two groups, using hoops and bean bags outside. Continuing with our topic ‘Growing and Changing’, we have been focusing on animals this week. We started by looking at the names of some animals as babies then as adults; such as foal and horse; piglet and pig; kitten and cat. We then listened to the story ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle and discussed how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. We talked about how the caterpillar completely changes once it sheds its skin and is inside its chrysalis. We used our new knowledge to write about this lifecycle and enjoyed creating our own butterflies; trying hard to make their wings symmetrical. We also had a very special delivery on Tuesday and waited patiently for our new arrivals! We are looking forward to finding out more about the lifecycle of chickens and how to look after them next week.
Week Beginning: 28.02.22
This week we have enjoyed exploring the story ‘Mr. Wolf’s Pancakes’ by Jan Fearnley. We followed the steps Mr. Wolf took in the story; writing a list of ingredients, going to the shop to buy them, measuring them out, cooking them and then choosing which topping we would like for them! We also wrote about the story; including labelling the characters, writing a sentence about our favourite part and writing our own version in a story booklet. We enjoyed other pancake themed activities in provision, including adding amounts for toppings using resources such as counters or cubes to help us find the answer; estimating and counting how many times we could flip the pancake in 30 seconds; and reading words on pancakes. We also had lots of fun on World Book Day; sharing our favourite stories with our friends, writing about who we had dressed up as, and reading with Year 2.
Week Beginning: 21.02.22
We started our new topic ‘Growing and Changing’ this week and began by exploring the seasons. We talked about what we already know and could remember from our previous learning about Autumn. We then discussed the other seasons; what the weather is like and what changes we might see on trees and on the ground. We looked more closely at Spring and what we will see happening over the next month. We also looked at how our local area has changed over time, noticing there are more houses and buildings. In Maths we have been developing our understanding of the numbers 9 and 10. We used the double-sided counters and ten frames to help us find ways to make 9 and then 10. We recorded the different ways we had found as additions, working hard on our number formation. We also sorted pictures depending if they represented 9 or 10 and were confident in ordering numbers 1 to 10.
Week Beginning: 07.02.22
This week, to conclude our topic 'Space', we have enjoyed finding out about space exploration. We started by learning more about the first manned mission to the Moon in 1969. We recapped what we had previously learnt in our workshop, on Space Day, and talked about how Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went to the Moon in Apollo 11 and watched a video of their landing. We then discussed how machines and robots are now sent to explore planets and looked at the ‘Mars Rover: Perseverance’ and the ‘Mars Helicopter: Ingenuity’. We had lots of fun making our own Ingenuity helicopters using marshmallows! We also enjoyed using our new knowledge to write about space exploration, to the Moon and to Mars. In Maths we have continued to develop a deeper understanding of the numbers 6, 7 and 8, by playing a game of pairs, recognising the number on the picture card and identifying if they match. We have also started to develop our addition skills, by combining two groups. We identified how many space objects there were in the picture and used double sided counters on our ten frames to help us identify how many we had altogether. We then wrote what we had found as additions.
Week Beginning: 31.01.22
This week we have been learning about Chinese New Year. We started by linking back to what we had previously learnt in RE about how people celebrate. We found out that the New Year falls with the first new moon, linking to our Space topic, and it is also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival. We talked about how they prepare and celebrate and explored the Zodiac story, finding out this year is the 'Year of the Tiger'. We used our new knowledge and phonics skills to help us with our writing. We enjoyed participating in lots of activities linked to the celebration, in particular making our own dragon puppets. We also enjoyed tasting some of the dishes that they would have in their reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve. In Maths we have continued to explore the number system this week, beginning to look at the numbers 6, 7 and 8 and identifying these numbers in different representations.
Week Beginning: 24.01.22
We have continued to explore our topic, focusing on the stars this week. We talked about what stars are, when we can see them and how they are not little - just very far away. We also discussed how astronomers group stars into galaxies and our galaxy is called the Milky Way. We then looked at constellations and how people look at the stars and tell stories from them. On Wednesday we had so much fun for our Space Day. We enjoyed dressing up and going into the planetarium. We talked about the Earth, the solar system and travelling to space; and impressed everyone with our knowledge and what we already know. The planetarium then went really dark like the night sky, and we could see the different constellations, the moon and Jupiter! In the afternoon we participated in a workshop, where we were on a mission to the moon. We thought about our journey, what we would want to take, what food we would eat and tried some dried apple, just like they would eat at the International Space Station! We sniffed smelling pots to find out what astronauts have said space smells like and enjoyed learning about how craters are formed on the moon’s surface and making our own footprints. We have also been very busy in Maths this week, learning about height and length. We built towers and described their height, if they are taller/shorter; and made our own playdoh snakes to measure using paperclips. We identified which was the longest/shortest and why, talking about if they have more/less paperclips.
Week Beginning: 17.01.22
We have enjoyed continuing to learn more about our topic this week, in particular about the planets in our solar system. We looked at images and talked about how the planets are different – looking at their size, colour and what they are made up of. In Literacy we have begun to explore non-fiction texts, finding out what the features are and spotting these in a range of Space non-fiction texts. We then used what we found in our writing. In Maths we have continued to consolidate our understanding of numbers to 5, and explored how we have a variety of combinations to make a number. We started with combining 2 groups; such as frogs in the pond and on the grass; then extended this to combining 3 groups; such as frogs in the pond, on the grass and on a log. We used a five frame to help us see how many we had altogether. Our favourite part of the week had to be Art. We explored the artist Jackson Pollock and the type of artwork he is famous for, before creating our own Space inspired ‘drip paintings’. We had lots of fun using the lolly sticks to drip the paint onto the paper to create solar systems and planets.
Week Beginning: 10.01.22
This week we have been exploring the story ‘Whatever Next’ by our author of the term Jill Murphy. After listening and beginning to talk about the story last week, we knew the story really well and enjoyed re-telling it in our own words using props in the tuff spot. We also sequenced pictures in the correct order and retold the story in our own words, using Fred Fingers to hear and write the sounds in the words and beginning to use finger spaces between our words in our sentences. We had lots of fun making new helmets for Baby Bear, thinking about which material to use so that he wouldn’t get wet. We loved testing the helmets to find out if they were waterproof or not! We continued to find out more about our topic and focused this week on astronauts. We talked about Mae Jemison and Tim Peake; discussing what they need when they go into Space, what they use and where they work; exploring the International Space Station. We have also been busy continuing to explore the numbers to 5 this week in Maths; we enjoyed finding one less and explored the number 0.
Week Beginning: 03.01.22
This week we started our new PKC topic ‘Space’. We began by looking at where we live, on Earth. We looked at a globe and discussed what we could see; identifying land, water and, linking to our previous topic, the South Pole (Antarctica). We looked at a variety of photos from around Earth, talking about what geographical features we could spot including mountains, rivers, beaches, and recognised some places we had explored in our previous topic. We talked about how we have day and night, demonstrating using our globe facing towards or away from the sun. We then started to think about astronomers, discussing how Galileo and Herschel used telescopes to find out more, including Saturn had rings and what a comet is. We enjoyed writing about our new knowledge and creating our own stain glass window ‘Earth’s’. In Maths we have recapped weight and using the scales to find out which object is heavier or lighter. We also started to explore capacity identifying full, empty, nearly full/empty and half full/empty; and wrote our own labels to show how much liquid was in each bottle. Outside we had lots of fun in the mud kitchen, playing hopscotch jumping to the number rolled on the dice and with the weather turning very cold, finding lots of ice and watching it melt!
Reception 2021-22: Spring Term
16.12.21 - Merry Christmas from Reception
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Week Beginning: 13.12.21
This week we have been very excited about Christmas. We started the week by learning about Christingles before making our own and watching the virtual Christingle service. We have been busy writing lists and letters to Santa, hearing the sounds in the words we wanted to write. We have also been exploring the Nativity story in more detail. We linked our previous RE knowledge to sequencing pictures from the story or creating our own nativity scene in the stable, and labelling or writing about what happened. We have continued to enjoy role-playing in the post-office and participated in other Christmas themed activities in play and learn, including looking through catalogues to create our Christmas wish lists, finding different ways to make 5 using Santa hats and Christmas trees, exploring the story ‘The Snowman’ by Raymond Briggs and singing our Christmas song, ‘Ten Little Elves’.
Week Beginning: 06.12.21
On Monday we had a very special delivery…Santa sent two elves to help us with our learning. They have been very cheeky...every morning we found them playing with our toys! We wrote to Santa to tell him what they were up to. They also set us some challenges to help us with our maths work. We learnt how to use the bucket scales. Then the elves wanted to eat their weight in sweets, and they wanted to know if they would eat more chocolate coins or marshmallows. We enjoyed using the scales and spotting when they were ‘balanced’, then finding the difference in chocolate coins and marshmallows. We also had fun using the scales to identify if objects around the classroom were heavy or light and sorted them accordingly. The elves then set us a measuring challenge, to look at objects around the classroom and identify if they were bigger or smaller than the elf. We recorded what we found, drawing the object and using our phonic knowledge to label them. We also had lots of fun painting the elves and writing cards and Christmas lists in our post-office role-play.
