This week we have been learning about the traditional tale of ‘The Gingerbread Man’. The children acted out the story, baked their own delicious gingerbread men and wrote all about them. We especially enjoyed baking, decorating and of course eating our own gingerbread men!

In maths this week we have been looking at counting one, two or three more or less than any given number. The children wrote down subtraction and addition sums on whiteboards and used number lines and objects to help them.

We have transformed one of our role play areas in to a garden centre! It is open and ready for business. The children helped to get it ready by making flowers and plants using tissue paper, pinecones and drawing.

To celebrate the 90^th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the children in Reception were learning all about who the Queen is and what she does for our country. They already knew lots of information about the Queen and the Royal family. We spent the whole morning making crowns and flags, creating birthday cards for the Queen as well as attending a special assembly all about the Queen. As you can see, the children loved celebrating this special birthday.

The children have enjoyed the independence of walking down to the classroom with an adult this week as part of their transition. We would like to thank you for your continued support.

We hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂

It has been wonderful to have the children back after the holidays. We hope you all had a brilliant holiday.

This week we have been reading the story ‘The Three Billy Goat’s Gruff’. We created our own wanted poster for the mean and nasty troll and retold part of the story in our writing books. We also acted out the story using the bridge in the climbing frame garden.

In maths we have been learning how to count in 10’s. The children have been singing songs, playing games and counting different objects in groups of 10. The links below will take you to the song and the game we played.

Duck shoot: counting in 10’s game:

http://www.ictgames.com/newduckshoot10s.html

We have been really lucky to get some new toys this week. Ava-Rose very kindly brought in some of her Peppa Pig toys, which the children have really enjoyed playing with. Mrs Williams has also very kindly brought in some scooters, which the children have been using on our pretend road.

As part of our transition in to Year 1, we have had the chance to go in to the big playground this week. The children wore Hi-Vis jackets so they could be spotted easily and the reception gardens were empty most days! The children have really enjoyed playing with their older siblings or friends.

Just a quick reminder that as of Monday 18th your child will be collected from the school gate by a member of the Reception team and we will walk your child to the classroom. This is another step of transition for Year 1, so that they feel confident to walk to class independently.

You may have noticed that your child has come home with two books; a Read Write Inc book and a book band book. This will continue as they move in to Year 1. The Book band book should be of a similar level to the Read Write Inc books. If there are any sounds that your child is not be familiar with in the book band books, they may need your support with this. If you have any questions please ask.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

See you next week!

🙂

This week

Following on from last week, this week we have been reading the story ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’.

In this story the giant is kind and gives Jim a giant golden coin. For our big write this week, we thought about what we would spend a giant golden coin on if the giant gave us one. The children had some wonderful ideas, from a giant chocolate ice cream to a real cow so that they could have milk when ever they wanted!! We were able to get some brilliant writing this week.

The second half of the week focused on the Easter Story and why we celebrate Easter. They learned all about the celebration of Jesus and also the importance of the Easter egg.

The final day of term has been a really exciting one. This morning the children made some Easter egg baskets and then we had to follow the clues for an Easter egg hunt.

Just before lunch we also had an Easter Bonnet parade of all the wonderful bonnets that have been made. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the winner of the Easter Bonnet competition will come from our class!!! Here are the fabulous Bonnets entered into the competition;

Important information

Please see the April/May newsletter attached below with some important transition information about next term. A paper copy has been put in your child’s book bag.

April%20Half%20term%20newsletter

Activities over the Easter holidays

Over the Easter holidays, there are several activities that you can be doing with your child. Here are some suggestions:

• Read at least 3 times a week,
• Continue to practice blending and segmenting words,
• Encourage your child to tell you some Helicopter stories,
• Practice their cutting skills,
• Practicing ordering numbers from 0 – 20,
• Practice letter and number formation,
• Encourage your child to write as much as possible,
• Perhaps make a diary of key events over the Easter holidays,
• Practice getting dressed independently.

Next Term

As the weather is set to change and become warmer, please ensure that your child is bringing a labelled water bottle to school daily. They must also continue to bring in their book bags daily. Also please check all of your child’s clothing to ensure that it is clearly labelled as some of the names are becoming more difficult to read.

We hope you all have a fantastic Easter break and we look forward to seeing you all next term.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Jones, Mrs Coston and Mrs Williams

🙂

It has been lovely to have the children back and to do lot’s of great learning. The school has been far too quiet without them!

This week we have been learning about the traditional tale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. The children wrote what they would like to find at the top of their beanstalk and also wrote a wanted poster for the giant.

We have planted lots of vegetables in our vegetable patch including carrots, cabbage and courgette! The children enjoyed planting and sowing the seeds and have been checking everyday to see if there has been any changes. We also created a scarecrow to scare away the birds while we’re not in school!

In maths this week we have been learning all about 3D shapes. The children have been learning the names and properties for each shape and have been looking for 3D shapes in the environment.

To help raise money for sports relief we took part in the school skipathon, played dodgeball, baked some delicious raisin cookies and took part in dancing and singing to the sport relief song.

As the weather is starting to get warmer can we ask that you make sure that your child brings in a clearly labelled water bottle. Can you also ensure that your child brings in their book bag daily so that we are able to read with them.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Reception team

We have had yet another exciting and busy week!

We have been reading the story Oliver’s Vegetables this week. We started by trying different fruits and vegetables and talking about our favourites and why. The kiwi fruit was a firm favourite with most of the children.

We have also been preparing our vegetable patch outside with the help of Mrs Miles. We welcome all parent helpers, so please let us know if you would like to come and help.

From the taste testing experience, the children completed some guided writing and wrote some fantastic sentences.

In maths this week we have been focusing on weighing and started looking at data. On Monday the children created a pictogram to show Willow’s favourite fruit. The children weighed different objects, making predictions, discussing size and investigating how we can make things balanced. We also made some cookies  using the weighing scales!

Thank you for all of those who attended our last helicopter session. We hope you found the training useful and enjoyed the sessions. For those of you who couldn’t make it and would like to find out more about helicopter stories please feel free to come and speak to us so we can tell you all about it! Here are some photos of the children’s brilliant helicopter stories.

On Thursday it was World book day. The children looked fantastic as their favourite book characters and we had a lovely day dressing up. We also had a story time in the afternoon where the children shared some of their favourite stories with children from other year groups.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Reception team

This week we have had yet another busy week!

We have been doing lots of fun activities based on the story ‘Bog Baby’. We started by making our own bog babies using blue salt dough and craft materials. We then wrote about our Bog babies describing what they look like and why they are special.

This week we also went on a Bog baby hunt to the pond next to the field. The children followed the foot prints and magic dust to find the bog babies home! The children then gathered natural materials to make a home for their own bog baby. We also learnt about the different living things you may find in a pond habitat and either drew a pond scene or a bog baby on the ipads, using the app 2paint.

In maths this week we have been learning about finding one more or two more than a given number. The children created number lines, used money and other objects to help them work out these addition problems.

Our ASPIRE core values focus for this half term is independence. We had a circle time talking about what this means and the children shared their experiences of when they did something all by themselves. Every time we see the children doing something independently for the first time we add a pebble to our core values jar. We hope to have a party and dress up day as a reward at the end of term once it is full (more details to follow). If you see your child doing something independently for the first time please let us know so we can add a pebble to the jar!

This week we were also very excited to witness some chicks hatching! We got the chance to hold and stoke the chicks. They are very cute and fluffy!

We hope you all have a lovely weekend ready for another exciting week of learning!

Reception team

As you may know Willow class have been taking part in Helicopter stories. The first of the parent workshops was last week. The final workshop is on the 2nd of March and will be a practical session that will show you how the concept of helicopter stories can be used at home with you and your child.

This will be starting at 9:00am in the big hall.

We hope that you can all make it!

Reception team

This week we have had another busy week.

This week we have been learning all about number bonds to 10. The children have been using their fingers to help them work out their number bonds. Outside in the garden they were also using the large Lego blocks to help them work out their number bonds.

We have learnt this week that number bonds are fun! We have been singing this song to help us remember them.

Also this week to celebrate pancake day we have made and eaten pancakes. Here are some of the children enjoying their pancakes.

This week you will notice that there are not any labels with the sounds the children have been learning in their reading records. Unfortunately the label printer is out of action. However the children have been learning the following sounds:

Mrs Costons group: ay, ee, igh, ow, oo(zoo), oo (look), ar. Tricky word: are

Mrs Jones group: nk, ng, x, qu, ch. Tricky words: my, me, said, the

Mrs Williams group: m, a, s, d, t, p, i, n, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e. And also hearing and recognising the initial sounds in words.

Activities you can practice over half term.

– Cutting skills using scissors.

– Blending and segmenting cvc words, and beginning to blend words in their heads.

– Writing cvc words.

– Recognising and ordering numbers up to 20.

– Practicing numbers bonds to 10.

– Reading the phonics books at home.

– Beginning to know one more and one less than a given number.

– Practicing the formation of numbers and letters.

– Getting dressed and undressed independently.

– Zipping up coats independently.

– Beginning to learn how to tie shoe laces.

This week has been another busy week.

Our focus has been on the Chinese New Year story, where the children learnt all about the animals in the race. If you want to read this story at home here is a link to the story that we have been using in class.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/ChineseNewYear/ZodiacStory.aspx

Here are some of the classroom activities that we have been doing this week based around the story of Chinese New Year;

Making lanterns

Making ribbons for a chinese ribbon dance.

Writing about our favourite character from the story.

Having races just like the animals in the story.

using chopsticks to pick up big and small items.

Here are some pictures from our week.

Within maths we have been learning all about repeating patterns and symmetry. We have been making some of our own repeating patterns.

As you probably know, Friday is our favourite day of the week in school, because we get to do PE! Yay! The children are becoming much quicker at dressing themselves independently.

Here are some pictures of us practcing our climbing and balancing skills in PE.

Also this week we have had another helicopter stories session. The children are becoming really confident at telling storys and acting them out. Here are some action shots of one story beign told.

What a busy and fun filled week!!

Mrs Jones and Mrs Coston

This week in Reception we have been reading the story, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. It is a story all about a naughty boy called Max who goes on an adventure and meets some wild things.

We have had a go at making some ‘wild things’ of our very own using clay and other reasources. What do you think to them?

On Monday we also did some writing where we pretended to be the dog in the story and we wrote about our feelings. As you can see, our writing is really coming along.