Friday 19th December

What an exciting final week of Autumn Term we had! Obviously, the highlight was our amazing performance of our Nativity through Song. All the children did brilliantly and we are proud of each one of them. Thank you for the family members who came to support the children.

In Literacy this week we wrote our own version of the poem ‘I Am Angry’ by Michael Rosen. We made up silly things we would do if we were angry, like the character from the poem. We have been working hard on using our phonemes in our writing and leaving finger spaces between words. We have also been focusing on improving our letter formation and ensuring we start each letter in the correct place.

In Maths, we have been practising recognising numerals and ordering them on a number line. We were given number cards that were mixed up and had to put them in the correct order. Some of us counted up each time to help and grown-ups supported if the numerals could not be identified.

During RE we designed lovely Christmas cards to take home to our families. Please check book bags for these lovely projects. The children then wrote messages of love to their families inside and signed their names. We have been discussing the fact that Jesus was born for everyone and that is why it is such a special time.

We have also enjoyed using QR codes to access different Christmas activities on the Topmarks website. We have been navigating through games such as spot the difference and repeated patterns.

We hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday and are looking forward to seeing the children refreshed and ready to learn lots more in 2026!

Friday 12th December

What another exciting and busy week it has been!!

During Literacy this week we read the poem ‘I am Angry’ which captures a fit of anger perfectly – with all its passion and silliness!!  We enjoyed thinking about all the things we might say or want to do when we are angry – “storm my toys”; “ stamp my feet”; and “jump up and down.” We then created our own ‘angry’ poems, listing some of the things we would do! Lots of fun!

In Maths we have been exploring positional language, learning and using a range of vocabulary to describe the position of an item in relation to another, including practical games. We have also been learning the vocabulary to sequencing events: first, then, next, after that and finally. The children sequenced a series of pictures for making snowmen and telling the Nativity story in their books, practising the language.

This week in Phonics we did our regular phonics assessments and the children have been showing and celebrating how much more they have learnt this half term. Please note, we collect all the reading and library books in next Wednesday. However, do keep up the reading with your child over the holidays from your own books at home.

On Wednesday we had an action-packed day of Christmas fun. The children enjoyed a disco in the morning and then sat down to a superb festive lunch. The crackers were a great excitement and everyone wore their paper crowns. In the afternoon the children had super Christmas craft activities including designing their own Christmas jumpers on the IPads and making candles.

The Movie night on Thursday was a great success with enthusiastic audiences enjoying their popcorn and sweet snacks during the films. Some of the biggest excitement of the evening though was leaving school in the dark!

Friday 5th December

We have had an exciting week starting Advent in our preparations for Christmas. We have all made Advent promises, thinking about how we could make others feel happy during the festive season. We have also learnt about what the Advent wreath symbolises. We created our own wreaths using an online activity where we could practise lighting the virtual candles.

During Literacy we read the poem ‘Once’ and talked about the character of the Berrible. We created our own images of a Berrible in the way that we imagined the monster. Then we wrote descriptions of our Berrible pictures. We also read through the traditional tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We made comparisons to the Berrible and the Troll and then wrote descriptions of the troll from the story.

In Maths this eek we have been learning about the concept of odd and even numbers. We have engaged in a range of practical activities to understand what these concepts meant and sort out if a number was odd or even. We then filled out missing odd numbers on a number line, practising forming our numbers accurately.

This week in Phonics we have been practising reading words with ‘s’ at the end of them. We learnt that sometimes the s will make a ‘s’ sound and sometimes it will make a ‘z’ sound. We have also done a big focus on all of the tricky words we have learnt all year and are reviewing all of the phonemes we have learnt thus far. We will not learn any new phonemes until Spring Term so please continue practising words which use the sounds taught thus far.

We have also been working hard practising singing our songs for our Nativity Through Song. We are very excited to perform this for families on 17^th December at 2:30. Remember that you must book tickets for this event.

We also enjoyed our festive biscuit day and shopping at Elfridges this week. What a great way to kick start our celebrations.

Friday 28th November

This week in Literacy we worked on the traditional tale of The Three Little Pigs. We enjoyed completing speech bubbles for the different pigs and the wolf. We also sequenced the story and compared different versions of the story. We talked about why they might be different and how traditional tales were often passed to each other by telling them, not reading them, so lots of slightly different versions exist. We completed Wanted posters for the wolf and then read a ‘twisted’ tale where the wolf might not be as bad as he seems.

In maths this week we focussed on shape, particularly squares and rectangles. We undertook a shape hunt looking for these shapes in pictures of familiar objects. We investigated how these shapes could be described and decomposed into other shapes. We used shapes to create festive wrapping paper, printing repeated patterns and talking about the features of shapes: sides, corners and length.

During RE we have reached the birth of Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem and read the Gospel. The children thought about what it might have been like to share the space with the animals and how Mary and Joseph might have felt.  We read the story of Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell and wrote about the Kind Ox who invites different animals into his stable on a cold night to share in the wonder of the birth of Jesus. We wrote about the events of this special night.

In Phonics we have been learning the phonemes: sh, th, ng and nk, the children recognised that these are all digraphs which means: 2 letters, 1 sound. We practise recognising these phonemes in words, then sound talking and blending our words. We have also learnt the tricky words: she, push, he and of this week. We have been playing the tricky word wheel to recognise the words and have been practising spelling simple cvc words as well (consonant, vowel, consonant).

It has been another super week of learning – well done all!

Friday 21st November

This week in Literacy we were focusing on a selection of Michael Rosen poems from the anthology ‘A Great Big Cuddle’.  We found the poem ‘I am Hungry’ very funny and even wrote our own version of the poem where we wrote about something we liked to eat and then something that would not be eaten at all. We found it very entertaining to write and read these. We also made silly rhymes after reading the poem ‘Hello, Goodbye’ changing the first sound in our names to make rhymes that did not make sense.

In maths this week, the children were building on their understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5. Composing and de-composing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. Through practical experience, they consolidated their understanding of a whole being made up of smaller parts. They have begun to recognise that numbers can be made by combining parts in different ways.

During RE we learnt about how Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem by donkey. We discussed what this journey might have been like. We looked at artistic images of Bethlehem and maps of the area. We used blocks and other materials to create the journey to Bethlehem. We wrote prayers to God asking Him to help us with something we find difficult, reflecting on how Mary and Joseph would have found their journey difficult.

In Phonics we have been learning the phonemes: zz, qu and sh. We have reiterated that these are all digraphs, which means: 2 letters, 1 sound. We practise recognising these phonemes in words, then sound talking and blending our words. We have also learnt the tricky words: to, no, go and into this week. We have been using magnets to spell the words and have been practising spelling simple cvc words as well (consonant, vowel, consonant).

Next week we will be having a focus on learning to zip up our coats and get our warmer items on independently. Please make sure your child has a warm coat and gloves and a hat, which are labelled, every day.

Thank you to all of our parents who took time out of their day to attend our Road Safety workshop this week. The children were able to talk about all that they had learnt.

It has been a chilly but lovely week.

Friday 14th November

This week in Literacy we started our investigation of Traditional Tales. We looked at some of the main features of these stories including: magic, talking animals, a happy ending. We started with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We talked about the descriptive language for items in the story: porridge, chairs and beds. We also considered what we would like to eat on our porridge and wrote about the various toppings we would choose. We role-played the bears reactions to finding that Goldilocks had been in their house.

In maths we are discussing the concepts of composition and decomposition of number. This can be done in a range of ways but we have introduced the concept of number bonds to the children this week. This week we considered the ways that the numbers 4 and 5 could be made from two groups, both practically and also deciding if a number was 4/5 or not from subitising patterns. (Subitising is the skill where we see a group of spots or objects and can say how many there are without counting – as on a dice face.)

During RE we took a week out of the Christmas story of Prophecy and Promise to consider how Christians around the world have their own traditions for celebrating Christmas.  The children were learning facts about how Christmas might be celebrated in countries as diverse as Hong Kong to Poland. The children then wrote about what they had learnt.

This week the whole school took part in activities related to Anti-Bullying Week. This year the theme of the week is the Power of Good. We investigated what bullying is and how with kindness and consideration for others we can help to fight it. The children drew pictures of themselves performing kindnesses and explaining what they were doing.

On Tuesday 11^th November the whole school took part in a 2 minute silence for Remembrance Day. In Reception we focused on how we remember people and events that are special to us and how that keeps those times alive in our minds.

A very busy and successful week of learning and exploring in Reception.

Friday 24th October

This week we were learning with the familiar text ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen. This helped introduce us to the poem anthology ‘A Great Big Cuddle’ that we will be focusing on during Literacy this term. We practised performing the poem, talking about how to use our voices and actions to help make it more interesting. We wrote about our favourite part of the story and focussed on the onomatopoeia, or sound words, that Michael Rosen uses in the story.  We also created our own maps of the journey that the family in the text goes through.

 

In maths we are discussing the concepts of composition and decomposition of number. This can be done in a range of ways but we have introduced the concept of number bonds to the children this week. This refers to pairs of number that can be added together to make another number. For example, children learned that to make 2 they can compose 2=0=2; 1+1=2; 0+2=2. We worked on representing numbers in different ways, when given different target numbers. We also emphasized the concept of parts of a whole.

 

During RE we are beginning the branch of Prophecy and Promise. This introduces us to the Christmas Story and we are learning about how Mary was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus. We are even starting to sing some of our special Christmas songs!

 

For PSED we ware talking about how we are all different. We discussed how we look different, how our families are different and how we like different things. We created fun collages to represent our differences.

We had a great first week back after our half term break!

Friday 24th October

This week we finished our work on A Brave Bear. We learnt about the journey that Big and Little Bear undertook to get to the river and cool down. The children made maps to show the different parts of the journey. We imagined how Little Bear had been feeling at different parts of the story: hot and tired, excited, sad, angry, brave and happy. The children used the bear outline to make appropriate faces and label them, trying to use their sounds. We have also be working on talking in full sentences with our Talk and Listen Partners to share our knowledge and ideas.

In Phonics this week, we reviewed all the phonemes that we have been learning this half term. We are trying hard to hear the sounds in words and sound out and blend to read words with familiar sounds. We are getting better at remembering which letters make which sounds. We recorded short words from listening to the sounds. We tried to practise these skills by giving our Literacy maps and faces labels.

In Maths we have been refreshing our knowledge of the 2D shapes, counting the sides and corners (angles). We have also been focusing on how we can compose and de-compose shapes by using other shapes including using 2 squares to make a rectangle, folding a square to make a triangle and making a square or rectangle with 2 triangles. We also recognised repeated patterns of movements and images and continued those patterns.

This week we started our new RE Topic of Prophecy and Promise. We will be learning about the story of the Nativity. We have started by reading the Gospel to understand the story of the Anunciation. The children were amazed to learn of the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. We discussed what the Angel had to say to Mary and how she may have felt during her experience. The children created their own Angel Gabriel and then wrote about what Gabriel said to Mary.

In addition, this week we have had a super workshop with Drama4All on Tuesday. The children had to learn different actions for various characters in the story to recover the lost magical sword. They got very involved in being the cat, the witch and other figures – it was great fun! On Wednesday the children sat beautifully for their school photos.

We would like to congratulate all the Reception children for their fantastic first half term and wish you all a peaceful and fun half term holiday.

Friday 17th October

This week we have been continuing reading and learning with the text ‘A Brave Bear’. We helped the characters find ways to cool themselves down and role played what they would say to each other. We also made predictions about what we thought would happen next in the story. We are working on hearing the sounds in words, and practised writing a sentence using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces between words.

 

In Phonics we focused on the new phonemes of h, b, f, l. We learn to hear the sounds, recognise the grapheme (letter) and read words with familiar sounds. We are getting better at remembering which letters make which sounds. We also started spelling words in our lessons this week. For example, when we hear the word hat we sound talk by saying and counting the sounds h – a – t, then we record the sounds we heard.

 

In maths we were focusing on cardinality, which means understanding that the amount of objects stays the same without have to count it again. We discussed how we have five fingers on our hands and practised counting objects one to one to ensure we are counting accurately. We are using tens frames to support us with our understanding of number.

 

In RE we learnt about the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Stewardship. This refers to how we need to look after the world that God has made. We discussed ways we can demonstrate stewardship by helping the environment and we painted pictures of what our ideas were and also role played the story of Sofia the Sloth.

Friday 3rd October

Another splendid week in Reception!

In Literacy this week we read how the Everywhere Bear was finally reunited with Class 1 after all his adventures. We thought about all the different occupations of the people he came across in the book. The children talked about what job they would like to do when they grow up and why. When the bear got lost again, the children thought of questions they would ask the bear about what he had been doing.

In Maths we were exploring composition of numbers. We practised making numbers out of 1’s, for example, 1+1 is 2. We went on to work on bigger numbers, understanding that numbers can be broken down into smaller parts, starting with 1’s.

In RE this week we have been looking at the beautiful baptism photos that you sent in. The children were learning that when a child is baptised they are invited to join God’s family and church. The children role played a baptism learning about the roles of the priest, the parents and godparents.

In PE this week we continued to practise moving safely and with control, avoiding each other and listening to instructions. We worked in pairs moving together and taking turns.

In addition, this week the children have been enjoying many science activities, including an experiment where they needed to make a prediction about which liquid (vinegar, water, milk or lemon juice) would slow down the browning process on apples. There were also opportunities to explore floating and sinking, reflections, magnets and textures.

Next week is Space Week and we can’t wait to make more discoveries!

Friday 26th September

What a fantastic second full week in Reception. The children are quickly picking up the classroom routines and starting to explore all the areas of learning, both inside and outside. Also, the sun has shone all week!

In Phonics this week, we learnt the phonemes: i, n, m, d. We enjoyed shuffling all the cards for the phonemes we have learnt so far, reading and saying the sounds and then spotting the newest one. We are revising the grapheme and phonemes to date every day and the children are enjoying sounding and blending simple words.

In Literacy we continued to read about the adventures of The Everywhere Bear. This week we used instruments to create soundscapes for the stormy sea that the Bear was rescued from in a net. We also came up with questions we would like to ask the Everywhere Bear at this point in his adventure. We gave ideas for advice to give to the person who found the bear about how she could return him to his owner.

In Maths we concentrated on our counting, making sure that we helped our class puppets to count correctly! We showed him how to move each small object as he counted so he did not get in a muddle. We also counted actions and sounds. The children put this into practise independently and worked on remembering the cardinal number (the number given to count out).

For RE we explored how God created our families as a gift to love and support us. We shared pictures of our families and what we liked to do with them. We drew our families eating, playing and out and about together.

Friday 19th September

We have enjoyed our first full week in Reception, ending with the beautiful weather on Friday. We even got to go onto the field after lunch.

We started our Phonics lessons this week. We learnt the phonemes: s, a, t, p. We practised recognising the graphemes and hearing the phonemes at the beginning of words. We also played blending games which included saying sentences like: Tap your l-e-g. so that we get used to blending sounds together.

In Literacy we started to read about the adventures of The Everywhere Bear. We compared the names in our class to the names of the children in Class 1 and there are even some similarities. Then we talked about how the children feel and how The Everywhere Bear must feel when he goes on adventures and then gets lost by Matt.

For RE we focused on The Creation Story and about how God made each one of us. We celebrated our names and practised writing them. We also played some movement games during our PE lessons this week, where we focused on following instructions.

We all had a fantastic week with lots of routine building and learning going on. Well done!

Friday 12th September

What an amazing week – Well done to all the children in Reception!

The children have been introduced to the morning and afternoon activities, to their Literacy groups, to the lunchtime routine and to the overall schedule of the daily classroom. In addition, everyone had their First Day of School photograph taken and painted their portraits. They are starting to take it in their stride.

The classes are learning to sit in their spaces on the carpet and to listen quietly when they are learning during our teaching sessions. They have learnt all about the Class Rules and why we have them. Each child has agreed that they will do their best to remember the rules to help make a happy and peaceful learning environment.

On Friday we loved bringing in and sharing our favourite teddy or squashie – what a variety of friends we introduced to our friends and adults. The children explained why their toys were so important to them and places that they took their soft friends. This ties in with our Power of Reading text: The Everywhere Bear, by Julia Donaldson. We will be starting to read this book next week in Literacy.

In RE we introduced the Creation Story, reading from the Bible. The children were considering what happened on each day and all the things that God created.

All the Reception children should be very proud of their start to school.