Welcome to Reception Class! 

The adults in the room are:

Mrs Metcalfe, Miss Joles, Mrs Causon-Butler, Miss Bastin, Mrs Robinson and Mrs Brown. 

W.B: 22.04.2024

This week we have been busy exploring. We have been on a nature walk, and collected different resources a long the way. We collected, sticks, leaves, flowers and even found some feathers. After we used our imagination and made different things with the items we found. We had stick men, stick ladies, paintbrushes, unicorns and we even made some letters using the items.

Look at our amazing Maths. We have been busy writing number sentences and we have also been using our eyes to subitise. 

We have also had lots of fun exploring the different areas in our outside space.

WB 15.04.2024

We have had a great start to Term 5, the children have been making relationships with their new teacher Mrs Metcalfe. We have been busy learning all about spring and our new story 'Bloom' by Anne Booth. We have also been planting our own seeds, and can not wait to watch them grow.

We have also been exploring our outside area, and using different resources to play noughts and crosses.

This week we have been exploring new words and what they mean. This week our word is layers. Here are some photos of us creating layers.

WB 25.3.24

We have been making Easter nest cakes! 🪺 We stirred our mixture of rice crispies and discussed how the chocolate melts once it is warm. We then used a spoon to scoop into the cake case. 

Our Easter bonnet hats are coming along beautifully for the Thursday parade!

Our Easter cards are coming along beautifully to send home to our families! 🐥 

We are enjoying our outdoor provision and looking out for signs of spring!

In gymnastics this week, Coach April has been teaching us how to improve our balance. This was made harder holding beanbags and introducing a flamingo move. We then attempted a move called ‘arabesque’ - this is where one leg is bent backwards and the torso is leant forwards. 

Our chicks are growing and Miss Bastin is enjoying taking them home daily to nurture them. 🐤 

WB 18.3.24

We have been discussing Easter and writing with purpose to create an Easter card for our families.

We are beginning to learn number bonds to 10. We investigated the numicon pieces and stacked the pegs on top. 

Our learning objective here is to know doubles to 10. We found the number on the dominoes then made the number again on the other side. 

We are developing our fine motor skills. We used our fork to dip in the yellow paint and create a chick shape. We then added goggly eyes and drew some feet! 🐥 

13.3.24

We woke up to 5 chicks all hatched! We used such gentle hands to have a stroke and cuddle with them. We can’t wait to watch them grow!

12.3.24

We are so excited! The eggs are beginning to hatch. We have one arrival and hope by the morning to have a few more! 🐣 

WB 11.3.24

Our writing is coming along superbly! We are working hard at letter formation. This week we have written a sentence and a nocturnal animal list. 🌚 🌙 

We are learning to use a hole punch and thread wool through.

Here are our winners from the decorate a potato competition! 🥔 

6.3.24

We had a special visit from author, John Dougherty. He came and read some of his poetry to us and he sang a song with his guitar from his hit book, ‘There’s a Pig up my nose!” 🐷 

The children were engrossed in his short poems and stories. 

WB 4.3.23

We are learning the life cycle of an egg, and then created our own images or represent by happens in the life cycle. We are getting closer to our eggs hatching!

Look at our chick masks! We cut to size, focusing on our scissor control skills. We made eye slots and measured them over our head with the help of the adult.

We are exploring a ten frame! After discussion, we found items from our maths area and used them to fill the squares in our ten frame, counting in the process. 

1.3.23

Liz from FarmLink came back to check on our eggs to see if they were fertilised! She used a deep shining light to check, and the good news is, they all were!
Not all will potentially hatch to become a chick, but we have our fingers crossed for some new arrivals very soon! 🐥 🐥 🐥 

WB 26.2.23

After finding out what a map is used for, this week we are learning to draw our own maps. We thought of areas in and around our school and proceeded to draw them.  

We were introduced to marbling! We used the fine tooth comb to mix the colours up, and after cutting our egg oval shape out, dipped the special cartridge paper into the gel and water mixture.

Look at our beautiful tissue paper spring display! We scrunched up the tissue in a variety of colours to stick onto the grass. 🌸 

WB 19.2.24

Welcome back after half term. Our new story is ‘The Odd Egg’, by Emily Gravett.

We have had a special delivery! FarmLink have delivered some eggs ready for us to look after and keep in the incubator! After 5 days, they will return to see if they have been fertilised.

Some of them will hopefully hatch into chicks after 21 days. 🐣 

We are drawing from observation. Look at our attempts at sketching the tulips! 🌷 

We are discussing maps! We established maps help us find where we need to go and we can locate buildings on them.

We looked at a map of the area and found our school and Tesco express!

Orion commented, “I can see 6 bus stops!”

We continue to form short sentences using our phonetic skills to help us. We try hard to remember a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop in our writing.

We are learning to give one more than a given number. We used our number fans to assist with our number recognition. 

We were so lucky to receive some delicious snacks off Pappadoms for their community Ramadan celebrations! We tried chicken tikka and samosas! 

WB 5.2.24

We are continuing to use our phonetic skills to form short sentences.

We had a discussion about floating and sinking and then used a variety of items in the bowl of water to see which theories were correct! 

We are understanding the concept of 5. We found different items around the classroom to count and represent 5.

2.2.24

NUMBER DAY for NSPCC was a success! We had incredible costumes and had some number activities, such as colour by number. 

WB 29.1.24

Our new story is ‘Sylvia and Bird’, by Catherine Rayner.

We are continuing with our weekly short sentences, with focus on writing in linear and using our phoneme fist to sound out letters in the word. 

Here we are reading numerals off our number fans! We recapped our numbers on our special formation sheet then challenged each other in the group to find the correct number we called out! 

Our magnificent dragon scales were made with tissue paper and crepe paper. We had a discussion about what scales are and then created our collage. 🟦🟩

Wow! Look at our watercolour dragons! 🐉 

We drew with black pen to make Sylvia’s outline and then remembered to dip our fine brushes in the water prior to finding the colour we wanted. 

26.1.24

Look how creative our feather parrots are! We looked at the detail of the parrot and then added feathers for a realistic effect. 🦜 

We are learning to recognise numerals by joining up numbers in dot-to-dot! 

We have been busy outside making a boat 🚤 with the resources. 

We have been making a map of our classroom! We thought carefully about the areas in the classroom and then attempted to label our map with our phoneme fingers, eg r - u - g = rug.

18.1.24

Wow what a frosty morning! It was -4°! We went on an observational walk with Miss Joles around the school vicinity. Look at us writing our names in the frost, making snow angels and looking at the footprints we made in the grass! 🥶 ❄️ 

Charlie was very intrigued about our orange juicer and requested freshly made orange juice! Mrs Rogers kindly put in an Asda order of lots of juicy oranges! 🍊

The juice was squeezed and each child had an opportunity to test and give their verdict! 

WB 15.1.24

We are practising our number formation. We enjoyed our games of number bingo! This can be played at home with your families!

We are challenging ourselves in the continuous provision indoors to write numbers in the correct order and really focus on our formation. How high can you write up to?

The children have mixed blue and green food colouring to make a sea image. 🌊💙💚

We are learning to use scissors correctly. ✂️ First, we looked at the stormy image in the book and had a discussion about what we know about storms. We used half a paper plate and added blue wool. We then cut out our raindrops with the blue paper and stuck them together to make our rain cloud! 🌧️ 

We have been matching the numicon pieces to the correct numeral on the dice.

Our letter formation is a key focus in Reception Class. We say, clap and model the sounds in a word with our phoneme fist, then proceed to write in our new writing books. ✏️ 

We have been making parrots to make a display. Parrots and other birds feature in our book, ‘Puffin Peter’. 🦜 

We loved our first experience of M & M productions! We watched ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

WB 8.1.24

Happy New Year! 🎊 

The children are settling back in nicely and adapting to our routines again after the Xmas break. Our new book is ‘Puffin Peter’, by Petr Horacek.

Wow, this cold snap in weather has left us with lots of ice on our playground and garden! 🧊 🥶 The children explored the textures and enjoy smashing it up with forks and hammers, as well as initiating play with the small world Antarctica animals. 🐧 🐻‍❄️ 

We have been making our own puffin puppets. We looked at the detail in the images of the puffin and proceeded to draw, cut and stick together our own puppet. 

We are ordering numbers 1-12. We made our own number line and stuck them down. We are becoming good at recognising numerals! 

We had a think about what makes a good friend. After careful consideration and discussion, we told the adult what we liked about a specific friend and then drew a lovely picture of them. 💕 💭 

13.12.23

What a treat! The dinner hall was decorated beautifully for the children to eat their Christmas dinners. We made party hats ready for the festive occasion!

WB 11.12.23

We are learning to make a collage! Here we are tearing and gluing the pieces of materials and sticking them to the star. 

We are finalising the touches to our homemade Christmas cards for our families. We can’t wait for our parents / carers to receive some special star themed goodies at our Christmas song and performance! 🎄 

Wow! Look at our toy list for Santa! What amazing letter formation!

We are recognising numbers to six on the dice and learning to count on. We used a blank number track to play a game with our partners, using the counter to make the corresponding jumps. 🎲 

WB 4.12.23

Look at our array of skills with Coach April in Gymnastics! We are manoeuvring our bodies in a variety of ways. Here we are practising bunny hops, handstands and monkey moves. 

We are enjoying using the building materials and exploring. Look at our creations! 🧱 

We are becoming sight word experts! We played bingo to help us write and recognise the words. 

Here we are making an animal list. We used our phoneme fingers to hear the sounds in the word and then write them, remembering our perfect pencil grip.

In maths, we are learning to understand heavy and light. We used the balances and items to weigh and discussed what happens when the balances tilts to one side. 

Our star mobiles look beautiful! ⭐️ 

Last week we recalled how we made a star with two triangles. 
We needed different sized triangles and once cut, attached them together to make star mobile.

1.12.23 The temperature outside has dropped below freezing! 🥶 We explored our outside environment and discussed how the ice forms! 🧊 

Each year group decorated our huge school Christmas tree for ‘Bring a Bauble’ day! Here we are adding our baubles on to our beautiful tree!

WB 27.11.23

We are learning to recognise sight words and enjoy the pictures in stories. First we discussed what we thought our book could be about. As a collective, we looked through the pictures and thought about what might be happening. We named items as we went along. 📕 

We are discussing celebrations, this being Christmas! We are making handprint antlers which will eventually be on a special card for our families. 🦌 

We made some fantastic handmade Xmas decorations! Our mathematics task was to make a star with the lollipop sticks. Initially, we made a 2D shape (triangle) then made a second one to create our star! We glued them together and sprinkled them with glitter. ✨ 

We are beginning to order 3 items by length. We used the measuring worms to order and looked at language such as ‘longer’ and ‘shorter’.

WB 20.11.23

Our new story is ‘How to catch a star’, by Oliver Jeffers.

We are learning to follow two word instructions. This helps our listening and attention skills. We used the colouring pictures and waited to see what colours we needed to use for them.

We are continuing repeating patterns. This time with the stars, we did an AB pattern. What else can you make an AB pattern with? ⭐️ 💫 ⭐️ 💫 

Look at our clay star! We used the rolling pins to apply pressure and make it flat. We then used a star cutter and printing letters to identify our names.

We are learning to join materials and make a telescope! First, we discussed what a telescope is and what it is used for. We decorated them with stars and then rolled the paper and glued it together. 

WB 13.11.23

We have made puppets of ourselves! We thought about our hair colour and eyes and used our scissors to carefully cut them out. ✂️ 

We are continuing our subitising knowledge by learning to play dominoes. We are becoming skilled at recognising which number corresponds with the spots.

We were introduced to watercolours! We remembered to wake up our paintbrush in the water and wash it again with each colour use.

We are learning to make an AB pattern. This is two colours which make a repeating pattern. With the peg boards and two colours, we proceeded to make an AB pattern with the pegs.

We are continuing to hear, say and write the initial sound in a word. We thought about our posture in the chair and pincer grip of the pencil ready to write. We then labelled the bear!

13.11.23

Wow, we were so lucky to have a real soldier from the British Armed Forces come in and speak to us. We found out he has been in the army for 22 years, visited over 10 countries and has to keep up an extensive health and fitness regime. He has even guarded King Charles! 👑 💂‍♂️ 

10.11.23

Look at our poppy display! We worked our fine motor skills by scrunching up the tissue paper as well as using the scissors. 

WB 6.11.23

We are learning to hear, say and write the initial sound in a word. Our task was to write a list of food for our hungry bear! We focused on our pencil grip to keep our writing neat. ✍️ 

We are becoming sight word experts! We recapped the sight words we have covered so far. Once they were pulled out the bag, we had a go at writing them on our whiteboards. Can you practise your sight words at home? 😃

We discussed what ‘family’ means and made a mind map about what we know. With lolly sticks we glued them together to make to make a house shape. With a pen, we drew members of our family. 

Look at our creations we made after going on an autumn leaf hunt! 🍁 

Here we are rolling the dot dice and using our eyes to subitise! We then found the corresponding number of bears. 

Wow! Look at our phonics king! 👑 What fantastic letter ‘r’ formation and using sounds to make a word! 
No wonder you took a trip to Mrs Sutton’s office and achieved a special sticker for incredible work! 

3.11.23

The children enjoyed a fireworks and bonfire themed afternoon with a range of activities. We tore the tissue paper to make our bonfire and added chalk fireworks! We also cut out a range of 2D shapes to make a rocket. 🎇

1.11.23

The storm was brewing and the hailstones came crashing down on our playground this afternoon! 💨 

The children were so intrigued to hear them bang on the roof and their icy texture! We watched as they melted after!

WB 30.10.23

We went on a bear hunt around the school! The bear had escaped and we investigated clues he had left in the school grounds! 🐻 

We read the story of ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’, by Michael Rosen. We then drew the story with colours and used our skills to retell the story verbally. 

🎲 Wow! We are learning to subitise! We are beginning to recognise the corresponding number to the dots on the dice. 

We are using objects to represent a number. First, we looked at a number line 1-5. Then, we counted out the corresponding number of compare bears and used mathematical language such as ‘more’ and ‘fewer’ to see which was the biggest or smallest pile. 

We are learning to create a collage. After a discussion, we drew our bears and and then covered the surface of the bear with glue.

WB 15.10.23

What a fun filled last week of term! Look at our incredible story maps of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We ordered the story and discussed our pictures afterwards. 

We made our own footprints! We drew around our feet, cut them out and added bear claws! 👣 

We are exploring numicon, finding the value of the pieces and filled the board. We remembered that we can count the holes to establish the number. 

🎵 We enjoyed some mindful colouring to help unwind at the end of term. The children listened to relaxing and soothing music and happily filled in the detail on the image. 

WB 9.10.23

We have had an experience of using charcoal! We looked at a variety of grizzly bears and observed the detail in them before proceeding to draw our own!

We had so much fun on our autumn walks! We considered what changes outside we would see in autumn and also considered smells and what we can see or feel. We spoke of the weather changes and discussed what seasons are. 🍁 

We are being introduced to a 5 frame! We then had a go with chocolate buttons. 

We are becoming experts at using cutlery! So far, we have had delicious treats such as beans on toast and porridge. This week we made a jam sandwich, with focus on spreading the butter and jam carefully and using our knife to cut our the bread into squares! We followed the picture sequence cards and successfully made our sandwiches. Yum! 🥪 

WB 2.10.23

Our new story is ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, by Mike and Carl Gordon. 

We devoured some tasty porridge like Goldilocks did in the story! 🥣

First we discussed oats, then we mixed the milk in and looked at the steam coming off of the porridge. It was ‘too hot’!
We then added the honey to make our delicious bowl of porridge! 🍯 

We made trees for the bears in the forest! First, we mixed blue and yellow together and predicted which colour it might turn into! With our forks, we pushed them into the paint and pushed them onto the paper to create leaves. 🌳 🐻 

We have made some fantastic bear puppets! We focused on our fine motor skills with the scissors and looked at the detail of the bears. ✂️ 

Look at our brilliant letter formation in phonics! We are practising holding our pen in a pincer grip and learning our letter sounds. 

WB 25.9.23

We are having a big focus on fine motor skills! 
We are learning to use our knife and fork correctly. After modelling from the adult, the children spread the butter and then used their cutlery to cut the beans on toast. 🍞 

We were very happy to eat it all up after! Have a practise at home with your family! 🍴

We have been enjoying a playdough roll and squeeze activity to enhance our fine motor skills. This will help our hands become nice and strong ready for writing! ✏️ 🖐️ 

We used the palms of our hands to roll the playdough into sausages, flatten it into pancakes and make a meal with chips and peas! We used our pincers to roll shapes and balls. 
Why not make some playdough at home? What a fun activity! 😃

Have a look at this recipe. ✔️ 

🔺1 cup flour

🔺half a cup of salt 

🔺dash of oil

🔺teaspoon cream of tartar

🔺food colouring of choice or small dash of paint

🔺cup of boiling water 

We are recognising 2D shapes.

After a discussion and naming of the shapes, we cut out the paper carefully using our scissors. ✂️ 

Look at our pig plates! 🐷 

We initially mixed the red and white paint then proceeded to draw around the 2D shapes to make features for our pigs! We cut them out and stuck them down to finish our pig faces. 

WB 18.9.23

Our story this week is ‘Mrs Wishy-Washy’, by Joy Cowley.

We referenced mud from the story and are learning to take turns. Here we are painting our hands and making handprints for our displays! 

We are learning to count using 1:1 correspondence. The children lined up, touched and then counted saying the number names. After eating one, we recounted! 

🫧 Look at our incredible bubble prints! 🫧 

We blew into the straws and onto our hands for a practise. Then we explored mixing of the blue powder paint, fairy liquid and water to create our blue bubbles!