Reception News 2019-2020
It's a Mystery!
This week, the children returned to class to find that an area within our classroom had be cordoned off due to a chair being broken. After some investigations, we established that it must have been Goldilocks and she must be found - after all, damaging school property is breaking one of our golden rules! The children created their own wanted posters, describing Goldilocks in great detail. They also engaged in an array of Goldilocks and The Three Bears activities such as making porridge, exploring various textures and making character masks, engaging in role-play within the Three Bears' Cottage, reading a range of traditional tales and washing dolls/hanging their clothes out to try. Let's hope Goldilocks is found next week, she has some explaining to do! See more photos in our class gallery.
World Book Day done Reception style!
The children have thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Handa's Surprise' this week and learning lots about Kenya in Africa. They wrote their own facts on a poster using full sentences before reading their fact aloud in front of the whole school. We then sang 'Funga Alafia', a welcoming song in Africa alongside playing the African drums. In the afternoon, we shared lots of stories and the children particularly enjoyed it when the children from Year 5 came to share stories with them! See more photos in our class gallery.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
To coincide with our 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' topic, the children in Reception decided that they would like to have some porridge in school. Our fantastic catering team were more than happy to help but there was a problem...they didn't know how to make porridge! Some of the children suggested making a recipe with a list of ingredients, equipment and instructions for the team to use. This was much appreciated and upon delivering their recipes to the kitchen, the ladies were relieved that they could now make porridge for all of the Reception children to enjoy during their outdoor learning time. Problem solved Reception, well done! See more photos in our class gallery.
TOYS TOYS TOYS!
The children in Reception have thoroughly enjoyed our recent 'Toys' topic. They brought their favourite toys into school which led our discussions for the week before the children wrote about their favourite toy using extended sentences! In addition to this, we have incorporated money into the children's learning with our 'Toy Shop' being a particular area of interest for the children. They have been learning how much each coin is worth and even adding coins together to enable them to buy toys from the shop. The children have used their imaginations to plan and create their own 3D toys in the creative area and our 'Investigation Station' led the children to think about which toys would float or sink before sorting them into the correct tubs. A definite highlight has been visiting 'Little Edenville', where the children explored an array of role-play areas within a mini town and unlimited toys which really enabled them to engage with others and use their imaginations to the maximum! See more photos in our class gallery.
xīn nián kuài lè!
Reception have thoroughly enjoyed learning about China this week and in particular, Chinese New Year. In Literacy, our focus was the 'Great Race' story, this led the children to learn about the animals which represented the year in which they were born and then write about them using full sentences! In Mathematics, we used the animals from the story to help us subtract single and double digit numbers before recording the number sentences in our books. Other activities have included; making Chinese decorations such as lanterns, developing our fine manipulative skills with chopsticks and noodles, using our imaginations in the Chinese Restaurant and even trying some Chinese foods! During outdoor learning, the children drew Chinese symbols using sticks and mud, tried a bit of Tai Chi and then enjoyed a fortune cookie alongside some hot chocolate around the campfire, yummy! We finished our learning this week with a mini celebration in class, the children tasted some Chinese foods before enjoying some dragon dancing and choosing a special coin to put in their red envelope to take home for good luck. A very busy yet fun-filled week! See more photos in our class gallery.
Weekly Workouts!
This week we have put our New Year Resolution into action with the incentive of a weekly workout chart. Reception have completed 3 Joe Wicks classroom workouts this week which last for just 5 minutes but have helped them to burn off some energy thus increasing concentration during learning time! Well done Reception, keep it up! See more photos in our class gallery.
Happy New Year from Reception!
The children have created their impressive list of New Year's Resolutions and then had a go at recording their ideas ready to be added to our classroom display. Great work Reception, 2020 is set to be a positive and productive year! See more photos in our class gallery.
Autumn
Continuing with our Autumn topic, we enjoyed the story 'Pumpkin Soup', the children created their own Pumpkin Soup recipe using key words and pictures. Reception then had a go at making their own Pumpkin Soup by chopping up pumpkins, onions, adding water as well as salt and pepper before giving it all a great big stir. Of course the children particularly enjoyed tasting it too (well, most of them!) During our outdoor learning time, the children explored the pumpkins using tools such as secateurs and drills to make their own designs. See more photos in our class gallery.
The following week, we focussed on the story 'Room on the Broom', this led the children to create wanted posters by describing and drawing the witch carefully, the children also made broomsticks, witches using 2D shapes, spiders using playdough and lots of Halloween themed decorations in preparation for our little Friday afternoon celebration. This involved us playing 'apple-bobbing', playing musical monsters and listening to some (non-scary) Halloween stories. The children each took home their own Halloween basket, filled with plenty of treats to say 'Happy Halloween' from Miss Hardy and Miss Bennett!
Stay & Play
Thank you to all of the parents who joined us for Stay and Play this week, the children thoroughly enjoyed it as you can see from the photographs! We started our Autumn topic with an Autumn walk in our forest garden, ticking off all of the objects on our checklist and also gathering lots of materials for us to explore back in class. We focussed on the 'Stick Man' story, this led us to find Stick Man playing on our climbing frame outside. After sharing the story in groups, we decided that Stick Man would be much happier if he was to be reunited with his family, we created our own maps to help lead us to the forest garden where we left stickman happily awaiting the arrival of his Stick Lady Love. Other activities this week included; making hedgehogs with playdough, collaging with our natural found materials, making stickmen and building using large logs and sticks in the construction area. See more photos in our class gallery
Sensory Walk
Reception have been learning all about their senses this week, starting with a sensory walk around our forest garden. The children found lots of things that they could see, hear, touch, taste and smell which they then recorded on their clipboards. Back in the classroom, the children have been accessing a variety of activities to further support their learning of senses including herbs in playdough, flowers in the water tray, forming numbers and letters with sensory bags and a hair salon within the role-play area was a particular favourite! See more photos in our class gallery.
Great Start!
Our Reception children have made a fantastic start to their school life, the children have created their own class charter using our class 'Speaking Stone' and jigsaw pieces for all of our rules to join together and make our puzzle complete. The children have begun to learn about sounds and numbers as well as self-portraits too. A particular favourite has been outdoor learning time, where the children have extended their learning further and enjoyed practical, hands on activities within our forest garden. Well done Reception, a well deserved certificate to everyone for making such a fantastic start to your school year! See more photos in our class gallery.
