Nearly there…! 😊

Firstly, we have to say the most ENORMOUS well done to all the children in Reception for their amazing performance of Big, red combine harvester at the Harvest festivals last week. We appreciate that it must feel incredibly daunting for them faced with a hall packed full of grown-ups watching them, but WOW, did they impress us! There were so many big smiles and some absolutely fantastic singing. We really are SO proud of you all Reception! J

Last week, we had as big focus on Diversity as October is Black History month. The children literally wowed us with their compassion and understanding of the difficulties significant people in history had to go through, with many able to talk confidently about the actions of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks. We talked a lot about how all these people had to show courage in their fight for justice, constantly referring to our school RESPECT Code.

This week, the children have been continuing to think about Diversity through our stories and have been enjoying creative activities such as pastel pictures of people they love and sculpting clay faces – we can’t wait for you to see these when they’re finished!

In Maths, the children have been consolidating their learning about subitising, as well as continuing and creating repeating patterns. They could practise repeating patterns at home using natural objects, toys, Lego etc! In our phonics sessions, we have been focusing on ensuring the children can recognise and write all the sounds we have learnt so far. We’ve continued to use the iPads in Computing and had a fun PE session today – Super worm Circuits!

We hope the storm passes and that you all you all have a restful weekend, ready for one last week before a VERY well-deserved holiday. Their first half term of Reception is nearly done!

The Reception Team J

Busy, busy, busy! J

Well, what a busy couple of weeks we have had in Reception! We know some of the children will be starting to get a little tired now (as they realise that they have to come to school EVERY day!), but once they get into the classroom with their friends and all our fantastic equipment, they settle quickly and have so much fun!

Last week, our main focus was learning about our school RESPECT Code. Firstly, the children learnt about what the letters in RESPECT stand for and what these words mean – Resilience, Equality, Service, Positivity, Empathy, Choices, Togetherness. The children then worked in groups to paint a large drawing of a school pupil in their uniform, and talked about what one of the words means. For example, for Choices, one child said that means “Make good choices. Help other people and be kind” These RESPECT Code pupils will be hung up in the classroom – you’ll probably bump into one when you come to visit us in school later in the term! We then read the children a story to introduce them to all the ‘superhero’ characteristics (Christian Values) of our RESPECT Code. For example, we used The Smartest Giant in Town to learn about Generosity, The Lion inside for Courage and The Hare and the Tortoise for Perseverance. We have been trying hard ever since to remember all these tricky words, what they mean and match them to the symbols (or superhero badges!). The children seem to absolutely love listening to all our stories, all of which we have re-read, and many have been trying really hard to put their hands up and answer questions about them.

This week, our main focus has been learning about what the word ‘harvest’ means (gathering food), naming vegetables and beginning to understand how different foods are harvested.

We used the story of The Little Red Hen to find out about growing wheat from seeds, how it then needs to be picked, that the little red hen took it to a mill to grind it into flour before she could bake it into bread. The children then talked about how the hen had to do a lot of the work by hand (wing!), but that nowadays, we use machinery such as combine harvesters to make the job quicker and easier. Following this, the children ordered pictures of the story and had to retell it to an adult using the correct language such as wheat, mill and “Not I”, which all the animals say to the hen when she asks them for help. Many children enjoyed playing with the characters and settings from the story that we set up in a Tuff tray – retelling the story with their friends, using their imagination well.

Our second focus story for the week was Oliver’s Vegetables, which helped the children to recognise and name more vegetables, as well as practise the days of the week. As part of our Expressive Arts and Design curriculum, the children explored printing using paint and a variety of vegetables. They had to create a repeating pattern, such as carrot, beetroot, carrot, beetroot. This will feed into our Maths learning about pattern in a couple of weeks.

As well as all this, we have been continuing with our phonics and have been learning to say, recognise and write m, a, s, d, t, p, I, n, g and o. In Maths, our focus has been on both subitising and sorting – both essential early mathematical skills as we’ll explain at next week’s Maths information evening. The children had a visit from Reverend Carolyn to begin learning about her role in church and within our school, have tried hard to listen and focus throughout all our Collective and Class Worships and even won the class award for the most house points this week – Elizabeth the Bear!  On top of this, they’ve started using the school iPads in Computing, learnt how to do relay races in PE and of course has lots of fun playing in both the classroom and our outdoor area… …it’s no surprise they’re feeling tired!

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Reception Team J

What a FABULOUS start!

Wow! Wow! Wow! What an absolutely AMAZING first week the children have had in our brand new Reception Class! We cannot believe how well they have all settled in! We are so incredibly proud of how well they have been coming in sensibly and on their own, trying really hard to be grown up when saying goodbye.

We have been practising at getting ready in the cloakroom silently and independently and the children have learnt how to do this so quickly it’s simply phenomenal! Our lines walking into, out of and through school, our whole cloakroom area at all those tricky transition times, is so calm and quiet, it’s helping everyone to feel settled and ready to learn and play. They have even nearly mastered lining up in register order already!

At lunchtime, the children are lining up well, using good manners and taking their lunch to the table independently. Many seem to love school dinners already!

Whilst listening to stories and when learning on the carpet, the children are trying hard to sit smartly, listen carefully and stay focused, with lots of them sensibly putting up their hands to answer questions.

We have also been really impressed by their play. Many children have been making new friends or strengthening existing friendships, playing together, talking, sharing and helping each other. It has been a joy to observe so much wonderfully creative and imaginary play around many areas of our provision – this really is one of the foundations for so much learning they will do in the future.

As well as all this, the children have been doing lots of special ‘jobs’ with the adults in Reception – showing us what they already know about sounds, numbers, shapes and so on. They have all enjoyed learning some playdough skills with Mrs Bolton and have helped to create collage Colour Monsters with Mrs Wilson. Our focus story this week has been The Colour Monster which helps the children to learn about and understand their emotions – please see Tapestry post for photos and details of these activities.

We are so incredibly excited about our new class and can’t wait for all the learning, play and fun in the year ahead! We imagine the children are going to be pretty tired after their first full week in school and having already learnt SO much!

Wishing you all a relaxing and happy weekend.

The Reception Team 😊