Author: Mrs Wood

This week, our Living and Learning statement is I recognise emotions in myself and others. Yesterday, we had fun looking in the mirror and acting out different emotions with our friends. We thought about what happens to our face when we experience different emotions. 

What happens when you do an angry face?

Rowan – Your teeth go sideways.
Rayaan – It looks like a monster.
Jasmine – I know it’s angry because she’s got eyes down and straight lips.

What happens when you do a worried face?

Zara – Your bottom lip comes out.
Teddy – Sometimes your lips can go together.

We also thought about what we can do if we see someone looking sad.

Zara – Ask if they are okay.
Teddy – If someone’s looking upset, you could say sorry.
Bryher – You could ask them to play with you.

Help at home: Talk to your child about their emotions . You could play a game of Guess my emotion by acting them out together.

This week, we’ve been learning all about the Lunar New Year. Our focus story was The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson. We used our imaginations to think about what we would paint if we were given a magic paintbrush.

Teddy – I would paint a Ferrari.
Gurjeevan – I would paint a Lamborghini.
Bryher – I would paint a princess.
Gurshaan – I would paint rainbow water.
Ivy – I would paint a unicorn.

On Wednesday, we watched a video about how people prepare and celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Ayah – They clean and decorate their house.
Edie – They cook nice food.

Yesterday, we read The Great Race and learnt about how the Chinese Zodiac started. We had a go at putting the animals in order.

Help at home: Can you remember to order of the Zodiac animals? You could draw a picture or write them in a list.
Here are some of this week’s chilli challenges in action…

Finally, thank you to all who attended the parent-teacher meetings this week. It was lovely to talk about the children’s learning and their fantastic progress.

As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Don’t forget to KEEP READING and send me an email of what you get up to. I look forward to seeing you all again on  Monday 19 February.

 

 

This week, we’ve been super busy being superheroes! We tried using our super speed, super strength and super writing skills to capture the Evil Pea. We made wanted posters and thought of sentences to describe the Evil Pea.

He has a red cape.
He is round.
He is green.
He has a black mask.

We’ve witnessed many determined superheroes trying to solve crimes and capture the Evil Pea. From finding and writing clues to building traps and recording messages on the iPads in the construction area, we’ve seen some fantastic team work!

Yesterday, we thought about what superpower we would have if we were superheroes.
This morning, two PCSOs visited us. They talked about their role and how they help people in our local community. We had lots of fun trying on police costumes and going in the police car.
Maths
In maths, we continued to develop our understanding of composition. We used the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern) to explore making 5. We used the ‘5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer’ song to help us remember the pairs of numbers that make 5. On Wednesday, we noticed there wasn’t enough space for 6 aliens on the die frame. Therefore, we used a double dice frame to explore numbers 6 and 7 that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’. 

Help at home: Number bonds to 5 game

• Put 5 small things into a bag.
• Ask your adult to take some things out of the bag.
• Then, you take the rest of the things out of the bag.
•  How many things does your adult have? How many do you have?
• How many altogether?

Phonics
This week, we learnt our final phase 3 graphemes (air, er) and tricky words (are, pure, sure)
Next half-term, we’ll revisit all of the phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs. We’ll also be reading words with:
– double letters (h-a-mm-er)
– two or more digraphs (ch-a-tt–er)
– ending in –ing (l-oo-k/i-ng)
– s /z/ in the middle (visit  sounds like v-i-z-i-t)
– s /s/ /z/ at the end (c-oo-k-s)
– es at the end (t-or-ch-es)

Help at home: Play tricky word SPLAT

• Write a selection of tricky words on paper/sticky notes.
• Place around the room or on the floor.
• Say a tricky word for your child to jump or splat the words.
  

Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was an eight-line poem called A Little House.

Reminders

• Parent-teacher meetings – Tuesday 06 & Thursday 08 February
  I look forward to chatting to you all in person next week.
• Fiddly Fingers stay & learn session followed by a presentation and coffee morning – Monday 05 February 9am-10am

Last week, our Living and Learning statement was ‘I know that some drugs can be harmful’. On Friday, Dave from d:side came to talk to us about how we can care for our bodies. The children impressed him with their amazing answers!

Strawberries are healthy.
You should brush your teeth in the morning and before bed.
Yoghurts have milk in. Milk is good for your teeth and bones.
You can have chocolate as a treat.

Last Friday, we had another go at drawing our faces. We looked carefully at our facial features. Can you spot your child’s self-portrait?

Maths
This week, we continued to engage with counting activities. A key focus this week has been the stable order principle – understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. To help us understand the stable order principle, we used cubes, blocks and other resources to make staircase patterns.

When making our staircase patterns, we discovered that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number.

Help at home: Make a staircase pattern at home. What will you use?

Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called I can build a snowman.

Literacy
This week, we continued to read Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. For our writing challenges, we created missing posters and drew pictures of some of the things we would pack if we went on a journey to the South Pole. We also enjoyed watching the live penguin cam at Edinburgh Zoo.

Help at home: With an adult, use the internet to find out some interesting facts about penguins. If you don’t have access to the internet, you could look at a non-fiction book. Please bring your facts to school!

PE
On Tuesday, we enjoyed our PE session with a Foot-Tech coach. This half-term, we’ll be developing our fundamental movement skills: running, hopping, jumping and skipping.

Here’s a snapshot of some of our winter learning activities this week…
Home-link challenge

 

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a fantastic break. Thank you so much for sending in some past Christmas photos. We’ve really enjoyed listening to the children’s memories.
This half-term’s topic is called Fire and Ice. January’s typical frosty weather is a stimulus for our learning. As scientists we’ll investigate ice: making and melting it. We’ll use our senses to describe how the weather has changed and the effects on our environment. Linking to geography, we’ll find out interesting facts about Antarctica and learn about animals which live there and its climate.

Through our focus on fire, we’ll learn about the emergency services. We’ll develop our drama skills by taking on the roles of doctors, paramedics and police officers. Finally, we’ll learn about the Chinese New Year and learn about Chinese traditions.

Literacy
Our focus story for the first two weeks is Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. Before reading the story, we made some predictions.

Arthur – I think they’re going to get lost.
Edie – I think they’re going on holiday.
Jasmine – The umbrella might sink.
Gurjeevan – I think they’re going to get found.
Zara – I think they’re going to fall into the water.

We’ve also been learning about Antarctica! We located England and Antarctica on a map, we watched a clip from Frozen Plant and we also used pictures to identify the differences between the climate in England and Antarctica.

Sam – Leopard seals look a bit like mermaids.
Niam – Penguins swim like dolphins.
Edie – Penguins are really good swimmers.
Harry – It’s looking for food.

Our word of the week was iceberg. We looked at some pictures of icebergs and talked about an iceberg is.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can remember what an iceberg is.

For our writing activity, we looked at a picture from the book and wrote an ‘I can see…’ sentence. We used our phoneme fingers when segmenting the words. We also made sure we checked our writing before showing it to Mrs Wood!
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called Let’s put on our mittens. We hope you enjoy watching it.

Maths
This week, we’ve been using our ‘fast eyes’ to subitise (seeing the quantity without counting) more complex arrangements of dots. We took a picture of the arrangements with our eyes, closed our eyes and then explained what we saw. We used spatial language to describe the arrangements. For example, ‘There are 3 dots on the top and 2 dots on the bottom.’
Help at home: Draw some linear and paired arrangements of 3, 4, 5 and 6. Ask your child to take a picture with their eyes and close them. Can they explain the arrangement with their eyes closed? They could draw it in the air.

Take a look at some of this week’s winter learning…
Reminders

• PE is every Tuesday.
• Funky Phonics Phase 3 Stay & Learn – Tuesday 16 January
  9am-9.30am – phase 3 phonics lesson.
  9.30am-10am – phase 3 phonics presentation
  Due to limited space, only one adult per child can attend this session. 

Home-Link Challenge

This week’s living and learning statement is I know what a drug is. Yesterday, we discussed that medicines are drugs to help us feel better. Lots of sensible contributions were made by the children.

Rayaan – Last time I had a cough, my Mama gave me some medicine.
Bryher – Once my brother went to the doctors and he needed to have a special thing in his ear.
Xara-Mae – Last time, when I was ill and had a cough, my Mummy gave me medicine and it was pink.
Gurjeevan – When my sister was poorly, she needed to stay off school.
Edie – I have a cough and my Daddy gave me medicine.
Teddy – The teachers give you medicine at school.
Ayah – My Mummy put my cream in the office to keep it safe at school.

What a busy final week we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of all the Reception children for their FANTASTIC singing. Thank you to everyone who came to watch. We hope you enjoyed!

Literacy 
This week, we’ve been learning about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the story. Click here to watch us.
We also wrote a sentence about a picture from The Christmas Story.
Poetry Picnic
We love learning new poems in Reception! Switch the kettle on, click here and enjoy having a cup of tea – cheers!

Christmas party
This morning, it was PARTY time! We had lots of fun playing party games and showing off our best dance moves. After all that dancing, we enjoyed eating some party food with our friends.

Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy break. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family. Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of the Reception Team!

See you in 2024!

This week, we’ve had lots of fun getting into the Christmas spirit. We’ve been busy doing lots of chilli challenges in the areas of provision.

Santa’s elves enjoyed decorating the role-play area ready for Christmas.

We used our fine motor skills to make Christmas trees in the playdough area.

We used our segmenting skills to write letters to Santa.

We practised our cutting skills when making paper chains at the finger gym table.

We used our subitising skills in the maths area.
Phonics help at home
Your child should have a phase 2 tricky word mat in their bookbags. Please practise reading these at home over the Christmas holidays.

Next half term, we’ll be starting phase 3. In this phase, the children will continue to learn more digraphs (two letters making one sound) and they’ll be introduced to some trigraphs (three letters making one sound).

Don’t forget to attend our Phase 3 phonics stay and learn session on Tuesday 16 January.
This is an opportunity for you watch a phase 3 phonics lesson and see your child’s progress. 

Literacy
We’ve been reading the The Jolly Christmas Postman. We enjoyed looking at all the different things inside the envelopes. This morning, some of the children went to post their postcards. Make sure you look out for them in the post!
Poetry Picnic
Click here to watch this week’s poem.

PE
For our final gymnastic session, we decided to practise our jumping skills.
Next half-term, PE will be on a Tuesday.  Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their PE kit suitable for outdoor PE.

Christmas events happening next week…
Reception, Y1 & Y2 will present their Christmas production, ‘Lights Camel Action’.
There will be two performances:
Tuesday 19 December – 2.15pm – 3.00pm
Wednesday 20 December – 2.15pm – 3.00pm

Friday 22 December – Non-uniform day and Christmas party

Finally…
Thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to the learning journey drop in sessions. We hope you enjoyed looking through your child’s books. We are super proud of the progress the children have made this half-term. Keep up the good learning, Reception!