It’s busy, busy, busy in Collingham this week!

A HUGE well done to all the children on their brilliant performances in our Christmas play this week. We are so proud of them for performing in front of such big audiences for three days running. We hope you loved it as much as we did!

As well as being super stars on stage, the children have continued to try hard with their learning this week. In phonics we have focused on three new sounds – th, sh and ch. The children love that 2 letters make 1 sound and have been trying really hard to write words containing these sounds such as chop and ship.

In Maths, we have been comparing the lengths of 3-5 objects, putting them in order from shortest to longest, and describing them using appropriate mathematical vocabulary (shortest, smallest, tallest, medium, largest etc). You could practise this further at home if you wish.

As well as this, we have continued to find out about Christmas traditions from around the world and even did some Christmas themed PE!

Thanks again for our gorgeous hampers – what a lovely treat! 😊

It’s beginning to look at lot like….

Christmas has arrived in Reception today! The children cannot wait to play in all our fantastic new Christmas themed areas on Monday!

We have obviously been extremely busy rehearsing for our Christmas Nativity and starting on Christmas crafts, but have still had plenty of time to fit in lots of important learning.

In phonics, we have learnt lots of new sounds, been practising blending sounds to read words and all children have been writing words in their books this week. We have been really impressed with how hard they are all trying and how much progress they have made.

We have been doing lots of Maths learning over the past couple of weeks: the number 3, circles and triangles and talking about time in terms of the seasons, months, days of the week and ordering their daily routine.

As always, any practise of these phonics and maths skills at home would be beneficial to the children.

Thank you once again for attending our first parent event on Wednesday. The children (and staff!) loved dressing up for our Superhero Day and it was wonderful to see the children enjoying being scientists together, and also to see parents getting involved, some more competitively than others!

Have a lovely, if chilly, weekend!

The Reception Team 😊

We’ve been SUPER busy…!

Wow! Reception have been ‘on fire’ over the past couple of weeks and have settled back into school and our routines well after the holidays.

Last week, we learnt about why we wear poppies using a Reception-appropriate PowerPoint, short cBeebies animation and a beautiful story called Where the Poppies Now Grow.  The children were really interested in learning more about the past and we focused on how much courage the soldiers must have shown. In small groups, the children looked closely at artefacts from World Wars 1 and 2, such as uniform, helmets and carved bullet casings. They were really interested and we especially liked trying on the hat and helmets. They also enjoyed making paper plate poppies.

This week, we started with Odd Socks Day and learning about why we have Anti-Bullying Week. This linked well with our Computing about Online Bullying and the children were able to articulate the importance of kind words and actions, as well as ‘making a noise’ if something bad is happening to them.

They have also been thinking about ways to stay super healthy and absolutely loved making their super smoothies! Yummy! Today, James the dentist, and Emma and Sammy the dental nurses came to visit us for a talk and activities. These real-life superheroes even gave each child a special healthy teeth pack!

In Maths, it’s been all about numbers 2! We have been exploring the many ways that 2 can be represented: the numeral, 2 cubes or 2 of any object, Numberblock 2, Numicon 2, a huge variety of ways using our fingers and so on. We have also been focusing on continuing, creating and describing some more difficult repeating patterns.

We have introduced 2 new sounds this week, l and h, and have continued to practise all the sounds we have learnt so far, with many children now remembering lots of them. Please keep practising at home when you can. Many of the children are also now able to orally blend CVC words such as cat, man, dog and sit. Please practise this skill any time you can, in the car or walking to school, as it will aid them enormously.

On top of all this, the children have done firework poems, learnt about why we celebrate Bonfire Night, music, PE, celebrated and raised lots of money for Children in Need, and of course, some amazing singing in readiness for our Christmas Play!

What a start to the half term! It’s non-stop from here on in!

Have a lovely weekend.

The Reception Team :)