🌟 Welcome to Reception! 🌟

Our teaching team consists of:

😊 Mrs Jones (RDJ) Reception Team Leader and Mrs Boswell

😀 Mr Cranidge (RCC) and Mrs Adams

😁 Mrs Hall (RNH) and Miss Bridges

Important Information 👍

From September 2021 the Early Years Curriculum was amended. Please click below for a parent guide to these changes.

Home School books 📚 

Please bring your yellow home/school contact book to school every day. This book is to inform the class teacher of any change to collection/drop off routines. It is also used to pass messages or information to your teacher and also to enable the teacher to communicate messages back to parents.

Reading books 📖 

We have now invested in Read Write Inc Book Bag Books for children to read at home. Each book matches the sounds being taught in school during Read Write Inc. Each time a child starts a new Read Write Inc book in school they will bring home the corresponding Book Bag Book. Book changing days will no longer be set to a Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure children bring their reading book to school each day. We recommend the children read a minimum of 3 times a week at home to continue to develop their skills. Please make a note of your child’s reading in their Reading Record.

PE 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️ 

Please send your child to school wearing their PE kit on a Monday. Please ensure all kit is labelled with your child's name.

💧 Water bottle 

Please send your child to school with a bottle of water each day. This is for their use only throughout the day to keep hydrated.

Forest School

We had a fun time at Forest School with our teachers and Mr Miller. We went on a minibeast hunt and we toasted marshmallows on a real campfire! We made a butterfly using natural resources. We found 2 of each item to make our butterflies symmetrical.

We released our butterflies! 🦋 

We have enjoyed watching our butterflies in their net. We have been describing their body and watching them enjoy the flowers and fruit. We knew it was time to let them fly away so they can explore the world and make new friends. We took them outside and waved them goodbye. 

We have butterflies! 🦋 

We have been excitedly watching our cocoons over the last week. This week our beautiful butterflies emerged - they are painted ladies! We watched as they came out of their cocoons and hung on the net to let their wings stretch. It was amazing the see them move and fly around the net. We gave them some fruit and flowers. We spotted them using their long proboscis to suck up the fruit juice! We are going to release them into the big wide world soon so they can fly away. 

Zoo Lab visit 🕷 

As part of our minibeast topic, we had some very exciting visitors! Eleanor from Zoo Lab brought us some animals to see - a tree frog, a tarantula, a giant snail, a cockroach and a corn snake. We learnt lots of interesting facts about the animals. We worked out if they were minibeasts or other animals. We know that minibeasts do not have a skeleton inside their body. We were very brave and got to touch or hold some of the animals! 

Fruit kebabs 🍎 🍐 🍓 🍊 🐛 

We have been designers! We made a fruit kebab using the fruit that The Very Hungry Caterpillar had in the story. We practised our careful cutting and peeling skills. We threaded the fruit on to a skewer. We enjoyed trying the different fruit and talking about the taste and texture. It was delicious! 😋 

Sports Day 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️ 

We have been practising our skills ready for Sports Day. We were excited to compete in the different races in front of our grown ups. We showed our balancing skills in the egg and spoon race and the quoit balance race. We showed our running and hopping skills in the sprint race, shuttle run and sack race. We showed our throwing skills in the bean bag throw. We all tried our best and cheered our friends on. Well done Reception! 🏆 🌟 

Our caterpillars 🐛 

We received a special delivery...the box said to open immediately! Inside we found a letter from The Very Hungry Caterpillar! He had sent us some of his caterpillar friends to look after. Each class has a pot with 5 tiny caterpillars. We have been excited to watch them each day and see how they are changing. We have enjoyed drawing our caterpillars and writing about them.

Minibeasts 🐛 🕷 🦋 

We are learning about minibeasts this term. We have been reading the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar 🐛 and learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly. We have enjoyed retelling the story with our story map and in our small world. We have been on a bug hunt outside. We thought about where the bugs might live and tried to carefully catch some bugs in our jars. We have been identifying and describing the bugs. 

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022

We have enjoyed learning about the Queen and the Platinum Jubilee. We know that she has been our Queen for 70 years! We made lots of decorations for our Jubilee party. We carefully painted the Union Jack flag using finger paint. We used the correct colours of red white and blue. We made crowns and decorated them with jewels. We had fun making bunting and paper chains too. We even learnt to sing the National Anthem and sang it at our party. On our party day we came to school dressed in red, white and blue and enjoyed talking about our outfits. In the afternoon we  had a picnic with our friends and played games together to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. 

Jack and the Beanstalk

We have been reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We have been learning about the different characters from the story and retelling the story in our small world area with our friends. We have enjoyed building a castle for the giant in the construction area. As part of our topic we even planted beans and watched them grow. We gave them water and put them in a sunny place. We drew pictures of our plants and used rulers to measure them. We enjoyed being Artists and painted the characters from the story. In Maths we enjoyed picking a number and counting out the correct amount of gold coins for the giant. In Literacy we sequenced the story to create a story map and wrote sentences about the story and some children  used the story map to write the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, 

Maths Day

We enjoyed taking part in a scavenger hunt outside. We found the clues and solved the maths problems. We were excited to work out the code for the treasure box. Inside it revealed we had won a tasty treat! We also enjoyed measuring and comparing Jack’s beanstalks in our class. 

Plants

We are learning lots about plants! We can name and label the parts of a plant. We know what a plant needs to grow healthily. We have enjoyed drawing flowers using pastels and paint. Our story this term is Jack and the Beanstalk. We work together to tell the story in our small world. The giant is always a favourite character, we like to chant “Fe, fi, fo fum!” We enjoying buying and selling garden items in our Garden Centre. 

Planting

We have planted our very own broad beans! We are excited to watch them grow. We have put our plants near the window because we know they need sunlight. We will water our plants when they need it to help them to grow. We wonder if our beans will grow up to the sky just like in the story Jack and the Beanstalk?! 

Plant hunt 

We started this term by going on a plant hunt around our school grounds. We found lots of trees, bushes and flowers. We enjoyed describing the plants and learning some of the plant names. We worked with a partner to tick off the plants we found on our Plant Hunt sheet.

Happy Easter 🐣 

We enjoyed talking and writing about the things we like at Easter. We made an Easter card and wrote a message inside. We learnt about the Easter story from the bible and put the story in order. We learnt about traditional Easter food and we enjoyed tasting hot cross buns. 

Red Nose Day

We had lots of fun on Red Nose Day! We enjoyed coming to school in our non-uniform or superhero costumes. We learnt a superhero dance together. We designed a superhero mask and a face with a red nose. We tested our skills with our red nose and spoon races and a bean bag throwing challenge.

Science week

We had lots of fun in Science week! We had a visit from Science Boffin Harry. He showed us lots of amazing science experiments. We did lots of activities linked to the theme of ‘growth’. We made big bubbles, a cress head and did a gummy bear investigation.

Our special visitors 

We had some very special visitors as part of our People who help us topic.

The Police showed us their equipment and talked about their job. We enjoyed seeing the police van - the siren was very loud! The firefighters came in their big fire engine. They had lots of equipment to help keep people safe.

World Book Day 

This year World Book Day took place on March 3rd. Many countries around the world celebrate World Book Day  but this year marks the 25th Anniversary of World Book day in the UK, which has been designed to encourage children to develop a love of reading. All the children were able to choose a book to take home and read with their grown up to help celebrate their love of reading. Both staff and children enjoyed dressing up as their favourite character from their favourite book. There were many fantastic costumes and we enjoyed sharing our costumes in an assembly with Nursery and Reception. All of the children had lots of fun talking about their costumes, designing a bookmark, drawing a picture of the character they had dressed up as and designing a front cover of a book. We were also given a challenge to create paintings and decorations for our Reception door in the theme of Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, who was our focused author in Autumn term.  We also shared lots of our favourite stories throughout the day. Happy World Book Day!

People who help us

This term we are learning about all the people in our community who help us. We have been discussing the police, the fire brigade and doctors/nurses. We have been learning about their important jobs and how they help to keep us safe. We have enjoyed acting out the emergency service roles. 

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week we have been having so much fun participating in our school Well Being Day. We explored different ways of how we can grow and how we can help others to grow. We talked about our feelings and what we can do if we are feeling sad or angry. We created a heart with the things that make us happy! 😀

We had lots of fun learning a new skill and we made origami animals. We also got active and went on a senses walk and cheered our friends on when we completed an obstacle course. We also decorated a feather with a pattern which is going to be used to make a special display in our school.

Chinese New Year

This week we have been learning about Chinese New Year which is also known as Lunar New Year. 2022 is the year of the tiger and we learnt how a different animal represents different years in the Chinese zodiac. The celebrations last for 16 days. The first week is celebrated with visits to family and friends following traditions to bring good luck! We learnt that red is a lucky colour!  The second week ends with a lantern festival. We have enjoyed tasting some Chinese food this week and making lanterns and fans. We even worked together to made a dragon head and went to the hall to do a special dragon dance. We learnt how to say “Hello”, “Thank you” and “Happy New Year” in Chinese. We have even learnt to write our names in Chinese and we have written sentences about what we can see during Chinese New Year Celebrations. 

Dragon Dance 

Winter walk

On a cold, frosty day we wrapped up in our warm coats went outside to find signs of Winter. We found frost on the grass and made footprints. It was so cold we could see our breath in the air! We found frosty leaves and berries in the bare trees. The frost melted when we touched it, the frost on the grass made our shoes wet. 

❄️ Winter ❄️ 

Brrrr it is cold outside! We have been exploring the winter season. We have been talking about the weather and looking for signs of winter outside. We have been writing sentences about what we can see in our winter pictures. We have been reading winter books and exploring ice. We have been talking about the clothes we need to wear to keep us warm in winter. 

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas party day 🎅 🌲 

We had lots of fun on party day! We played pass the parcel and musical chairs. We showed our best dance moves at the disco. We even had a visit from Santa! He brought us all a present and some magic reindeer dust.

Christmas 🎄 

The children were very excited to see Christmas had arrived in the reception unit this week. The children have been busy in Santa’s workshop, making candy canes in funky fingers, adding baubles to Christmas trees in the maths area and retelling the Nativity in the small world area. They have spent time talking to their friends about how they celebrate Christmas at home and writing about a Christmas picture in their literacy books. 

Potion making! 🔮🧙‍♀️🧙‍♂️

We received a special delivery from the witch in our story. She sent us some spooky ingredients to make our own potions! We carefully poured the ingredients into our cauldrons and then added the magic powder. We waved our wand and said our magic words and WOW our potions were amazing!! We enjoyed talking about what was happening and explaining what the potion would turn us into!

Room on the Broom 🧙‍♀️ 

We have enjoyed learning the story of Room on the Broom. It is fun acting out the story in our small world and talk for writing. We have been learning how to write the character names and sounding out spooky words. We have created lots of witch and wizard craft! We have had fun with our friends making spooky food in the witch’s kitchen. We have also been talking about what we would put in our own magic potions.

Children in Need 

To celebrate Children in Need we came into school dressed in Pudsey clothes, fancy dress or pyjamas. We had lots of fun showing and talking about our outfits. We took part in a workout with Joe Wicks for Children in Need. Throughout the day we had lots of fun drawing Pudsey, making Pudsey ears, finger painting a spotty eye patch for Pudsey and we even took part in Pudsey addition during maths time. 

Road Safety 

This week we took part in Road Safety Week 2021. We celebrated all of the road safety heroes who are working to make the roads safer for everyone. We learnt lots of different ways to cross the road safely and the types of clothes we should wear to stay safe too. We had lots of fun drawing road safety posters and making stop and go  signs. We enjoyed making traffic lights and we know that red means stop and green means go. We even went outside into the playground  to practise crossing the road using The Green Cross Code! 

Odd Socks Day 

Today we came into school wearing our odd socks to celebrate that we are all different and unique. Odd socks is a national event and it is organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance who works to try and stop bullying. We had lots of fun designing our own odd socks and  talking about how we can be kind all of the time both at school and at home. 

Remembrance Day

On November 11th we learnt about Remembrance Day. It is an important day to remember all of the brave soldiers and the people who sadly died fighting in the war. We wore our poppies and at 11am we took part in a two minute silence to remember the soilders. We looked at different artefacts from the war including a helmet and some medals. We enjoyed painting poppies and drawing poppies. 

Bonfire Night 🔥 

We are excited for bonfire night! We have been looking at pictures and videos of fireworks and describing the colours, shapes and sounds. We talked about our favourite fireworks and created a firework picture using pastels. Fireman Sam helped us to learn how to stay safe around fireworks. We also learnt about the story of Guy Fawkes.

Diwali 🕯🎆

We have been learning about the Hindu Festival of Light. We learnt how to say “Nameste” which is hello in Indian. We found out about the story of Rama and Sita and how people celebrate Diwali. We made diva lamps out of clay and some colourful Rangoli patterns using pastels. We enjoyed learning some Indian dance moves and singing the Diwali song. Happy Diwali!

 National Poetry Day 

The Reception children have learnt this poem called All about me.

RNH

Rainbow Day 🌈 

To celebrate our topic of the Rainbow Fish, we had a special Rainbow day! We came to school in our colourful clothes and talked about our favourite colours. We sang the rainbow song and discussed how a rainbow is formed. We had a colouring mixing challenge from the Rainbow Fish. We mixed colours using finger paint to make new colours, it was lots of fun! We also created our own rainbow using craft materials. We enjoyed learning the Awesome Rainbow dance and dancing together at our Rainbow Disco! 🎶 

Harvest Festival 🍂🌾

We came to school wearing Autumn colours for Harvest Festival. We talked about the food that is grown and how we are thankful for the food that we have. We kindly brought in food donations to give to charity. We enjoyed searching for different colour Autumn leaves outside. 

The Rainbow Fish 🌈 🐟 

We have been reading the story of The Rainbow Fish. We have learnt it is important to share and be kind to others. We have enjoyed retelling the story with our friends. We have been drawing the characters and writing the animal names from the story. We have created lots of under the sea art and craft. 

Settling into Reception 

We have all settled into our new classes and had lots of fun together! We have been making new friends and exploring our indoor and outside areas.

Our new Reception classes 😀