Happy Harvest! 😊
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 this 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
Much of our topic learning has been based around Harvest and Autumn. We have found out about farming, Harvest and how it has changed from past to present. The children have loved our focus stories The Little Red Hen and Oliver’s Vegetables, particularly retelling the stories using our small world tuff trays this week. They have been carefully observing the changes that are happening in our natural world in the new season of autumn.
In Maths, the children have been consolidating their learning about subitising, as well as learning about time with a times of the day/ daily routine focus.
In our phonics sessions, as well as learning lots of new sounds, we have been focusing even more on blending and are so proud that many children are now able to blend orally. Any extra practise at home would be much appreciated.
We hope that you all you all have a restful weekend, ready for the final push week before a VERY well-deserved holiday. Their first half term of Reception is nearly complete!
The Reception Team J
Super-busy superheroes! 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 Equality, one child gave the example, “Be kind, treat everybody the same”. These RESPECT Code pupils are now displayed on our Learning Journey wall. We then read the children a story to introduce them to all the ‘superhero’ characteristics (Christian Values) of our school. 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. The have enjoyed hunting for the badges around the classroom this week and sticking them onto 10s frames!
This week, we have introduced the children to our school Vision – We are family, All are welcome, You are loved. WE have talked about what these special words means and the children have listened to our Bible stories that the whole school uses to link with our Vision.
We are family – The Lost (Prodigal) Son
All are welcome – Jesus Welcomes the Children
You are loved – The Good Samaritan
As well as all this, we have been continuing with our Little Wandle phonics and have been learning to say, recognise and write s, a, t, p, I, n, m, d, g, o, c, k. The children are really beginning to settle into the routines of the phonics lessons. Understanding when they need to listen, to ‘copy me’, to ‘sound talk’ and try very hard to blend the sounds into words. They really enjoy the various games that we play to support them in their learning.
This week we have also started Maths and our focus has been on both subitising and sorting – both essential early mathematical skills as we’ll explain during our upcoming Maths information evening. On top of this, they’ve started looking at our school computers in Computing, practised travelling in different ways in PE, made a model of their face form clay 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 GREAT start!
Wow! What an BUSY first full week the children have had in our new Reception Class! As the week has progressed, they have all began to really settle into school life and the many routines and rules that we have. We are proud of them trying hard to come into school independently and trying be grown up when saying goodbye - we appreciate your support with this.
We have been practising at getting ready in the cloakroom quietly and independently. Our lines walking into, out of and through school at all those tricky transition times, are now becoming quiet and calm, and it’s helping everyone to feel settled and ready to learn and play. They have even mastered lining up in register order already!
At lunchtime, the children are lining up well 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, many children are trying hard to sit smartly, listen carefully and stay focused, with many keen to answer questions. We will continue to keep working on this every day and really appreciate your support with this too.
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 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, writing, shapes and so on. They have all enjoyed learning some playdough skills with Mrs Bolton and have helped to create collage Colour Monsters in small groups. Our focus story this week has been The Colour Monster which helps the children to learn about and understand their emotions – please see Tapestry posts for photos and details of these activities. They even helped to create a fresh wormery in our outdoor area and were so excited to put the worms in themselves. You could try asking them to tell you some interesting facts about worms!
It really has been week of new learning for both the children and adults in Reception as we’ve started our new phonics scheme – Little Wandle. The children have loved learning the ‘copy me’ sign and our Ready for Phonics song. Every day we have introduced a new phoneme (sound) and its grapheme (how it is written), using interactive teaching techniques and games. Then today, we practised everything we have learnt through the week, with so many children mastering all 4 GPCs (Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence) s, a, t, p, which is fantastic. We look forward to seeing you at the Little Wandle information meeting on Wednesday evening.
We are very 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 rather 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 😊