We’ve had a fantastic and very busy week! The children have been working so hard, and I’m incredibly proud of everything they’ve accomplished.
This week, they’ve been impressing Mrs. Horsley by recalling everything they’ve learned in maths so far. I was blown away by how confidently they could:
✅ Recall double facts
✅ Recognize number bonds to 5
✅ Form numbers correctly from 0 to 10
✅ Create and solve addition number sentences
In writing, we’ve been focusing on building sentences using capital letters and full stops. The children are making great progress, but we’re still finding it a little tricky to remember what each capital letter looks like. If you could practice this at home, it would really help boost their confidence and understanding. This is such a hard skill but one of the most important.
We’ve also been making the most of the lovely sunshine this week! We’ve been donated two brand-new bikes due to logging our activities on using our balance bikes, and the children have absolutely loved spending time outside enjoying them.
In art, we’ve been exploring transient art and collage, linking this beautifully to our chicks and Easter! The children have really enjoyed creating temporary pieces of art and experimenting with different textures and designs.
In Understanding the World, we’ve been learning all about the lifecycle of a chick. We are VERY excited to share that our chicks in class are expected to hatch this week. EEEEKKK — how exciting!
What a fantastic and action-packed week we’ve had! From celebrating victories and exploring new stories to laughing at jokes and enjoying a pantomime, the children have been engaged and full of enthusiasm.
We started the week by celebrating Newcastle United’s incredible victory, and the children were thrilled to share their excitement. It was lovely to see their passion and team spirit shining through.
In Literacy, we’ve finished our journey through What the Ladybird Heard. To wrap up the story, the children created fabulous “Wanted” posters to help the farmer catch Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh after they stole the Fine Prize Cow. Their creativity and imagination were on full display, and they produced some amazing work! In Maths, we’ve been focusing on quickening our subitising skills to 5 and practising number bonds to 5. The children have also been representing the numbers 9 and 10 in a variety of creative ways, which has helped build their confidence with number work.
In Understanding the World, we’ve been learning about how baby animals grow into adult animals and how they often have different names – piglet and pig, calf and cow, chick and chicken. The children were fascinated by these fun facts! We also explored who the police are and how they help us. Unfortunately, our scheduled visit from the local police officers had to be postponed, but we’re looking forward to rescheduling it soon.
Today, we had an amazing time celebrating Red Nose Day and learning about why we raise money for this wonderful cause. One of the highlights of the day was our Joke Show, where Robyn, Theo, and Spencer entertained the whole school with their brilliant jokes! Their confidence while speaking in front of everyone was truly impressive – we are so proud of them. To end the week on a high note, we enjoyed a fantastic pantomime of The Jungle Book. The children were completely captivated by the lively performances and colourful characters, making it the perfect way to finish such a busy and exciting week.
Thank you so much for your continued support and encouragement. It’s been wonderful to see the children so engaged and enthusiastic, and we’re looking forward to another exciting week ahead. If you have any questions or need anything, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
What an amazingly fun day we have had!
I want to start by saying it’s been an absolute pleasure taking the whole of Reception on a school trip today! We had some brilliant comments from the public and from the staff who said “They were the best Reception Class that have ever visited!”.
We did lots of things whilst we were there. Firstly, we started our day with our Gingerbread Man workshop. We made a magical gingerbread man, we made our own story up, we danced to rhymes and we created our own gingerbread men.
Then we stopped for dinner before exploring floor 3,4, 5 and 6.
The children had great fun creating their own puppet shows, dressing up in different costumes and putting on their own performance. We visited Elmers room and the Tiger Who Came to Tea.
The children explored so much that some had a great nap on the bus home!
Week 21
What a super week this week Reception.
The children have loved designing boats for their Design and Technology topic. They thought hard about what would make a good boat and used brilliant labels to explain different parts of their boats.
In Maths this week, we have been learning about halving. We have shared different amounts of items into 2 equal parts. We then started to use part, whole models to show the numbers working out. Children have been working on using stem sentences like “I’ve got 8 and half of 8 is 4”.
In literacy we have been really focusing on letter formation. It is vital that when children are practising their writing we encourage them to form each letter correctly. Correcting children from this young are will really help them progress in later years.
In understanding the world we have taken a trip to Australia and we have been learning about their culture. We decided to create some aboriginal art using dots with fingers and cotton buds.
Week 20
Another fabulous week in Reception.
We have started exploring our new book Lanterns and Firecrackers linked to our Chinese New Year topic. The children have been learning what Chinese people do to prepare for their New Year, we then compared this to how we celebrate our New Years Eve and drew some super pictures watching fireworks, eating special dinners and having a party!
In maths, we have been really focusing on our doubles to 5. The children have been really practising quick recall and also doing some printing to represent the doubles. Some children were so keen they wrote number sentences to show their doubles. Please continue to practise these at home.
In music, we have continued our learning of new vocabulary pitch and tempo! The children are really starting to grasp and listen to the difference.
In design and technology we have been fantastic scientist and we have been investigating which objects and materials float and sink. We are building up our knowledge so we can design and create a boat using the best materials.
During our brain breaks we have been working on hand eye coordination skills, using ladders and jump spots.
Thank you so much to all our secret readers so far! This week we have been super lucky and enjoyed 2 visitors. The children talk about this so much and it’s been wonderful to be introduced to so many new books we haven’t read before.
Week 19
This term is flying by, I can’t believe we are on week 5 next week!
We have had another busy week celebrating all things Chinese New Year. The children loved the Chinese meal on Tuesday and have been enjoying prawn crackers at snack time.
This week in Maths we have been consolidating our knowledge of representing numbers in a variety of ways. I have been blown away with their skills in using number lines, numicon, blocks, tens frames etc.
We have also started looking and playing with 3D shapes. The children have been introduces to Spheres, Cubes, Cuboids and Pyramids. They have loved seeing which 3D shapes they can balance on each and soon realised the Sphere is very hard to use in a tower.
In Literacy, we have completed our unit of work on The Gingerbread Man and we have written our own instructions on how to make Gingerbread. The children are really impressing me with their caption writing and letter formation!
We have also been really focusing on our scissor skills, making sure our thumbs are always at the top and we use our other hand to move the paper so our scissors stay straight.
Please continue reading with your child at home. Any comments to help us understand how they are getting on at home would be great.
Thank you so much for your continued support,
Mrs Horsley and Mrs Hays.
Another busy week in Reception!
This week, we have been focusing on the number 8 in Maths. We explored different ways to represent 8 using a variety of mathematical manipulatives. We also worked on subtraction using a tens frame, making it engaging by connecting our learning to real-life situations through subtraction stories.
In Literacy, we’ve continued our work with The Gingerbread Man. The children have loved playing in the Gingerbread Bakery, making cookies, taking orders, and running a café to serve their friends. This week, we focused on writing captions about who the Gingerbread Man met on his journey in Just Press Play from last week. I was truly impressed with their writing and how much progress they’ve made already this year.
We also worked on writing lists. We looked at a recipe for Gingerbread Men and identified the ingredients, which we then turned into a shopping list. To wrap up the week, we used those ingredients to bake our very own Gingerbread Men!
This week the children have also been learning all about London, inspired by the Gingerbread Man’s exciting visit and his postcard to us. We used our Design and Technology skills to start building London landmarks. The children demonstrated excellent teamwork and problem-solving as they worked together to create their models.
Finally, we had another fantastic secret reader visit our class. The children talk so much about these visits, and it’s a wonderful way to encourage a love of reading.
Week 17 in Reception has been filled with lots of exciting learning!
This week, we started exploring our new text, The Gingerbread Man. We looked at the characters, his journey, and the different people he meets along the way. The children found it interesting to hear different versions of the story and noticed that while the details changed, the Gingerbread Man always ends up getting eaten by the fox.
On Thursday, we had a fantastic time working with Mr. Bailey to act out the story using Now Press Play. The children listened to the story through headphones and turned themselves into the different characters, acting out their actions as the story unfolded.
We also had a great time making our own storybooks. The children ordered pictures from the story and then recorded their voices to retell it. There was some fantastic vocabulary used, and it was wonderful to see their creativity shine.
In Maths, we focused on understanding the number 7. The children represented 7 in different ways and wrote number sentences to create the number. We also explored addition sentences, linking our learning to real-life situations through stories.
Lastly, in Science, we investigated which materials are waterproof and which are not. The children tested these materials in the tuff tray and worked together to agree on which were waterproof and which were not.
What a week of learning and fun!
Week 16 in Reception
Welcome back after what has hopefully been a joyful time over the Christmas period. Myself and the rest of the staff would like to say a huge thank you for all our Christmas cards and gifts. They were greatly appreciated!
The children were super excited to tell all their friends what they did over the holidays. We had a lovely circle time discussing activities and presents. Everyone sounds like they have been very lucky!
In maths this week we have been focusing on the number 6, subitising, working on tens frames and recognising one more and one less.
In literacy we have been working on some basic skills, forming letters correctly and holding sentences to write. Thank you for all the reading you have continued to do over the holiday.
We have also been focusing on following 3 step instructions. The children loved the little challenges we were doing which contained 3 instructions to follow. We will continue to work on this important skill.
Our favourite activity this week that the children enjoyed was getting suited and booted and going on a winter walk around Ellington. The children were very well behaved and they could all spot signs of Winter. If you child does not have wellies and waterproofs in school it would be great if they could have these so that we can get out no matter what the weather.
Reception won this weeks attendance so we had our turn on the attendance monopoly board. We won fruit kebabs and the children demolished these. Yum yum!
Thank you!