And that's a wrap! ☺

And there we are....at the end of Reception in the blink of an eye. We are so proud of all our children and all they have achieved this year and as parents you must be proud of them too.  An emotional day today as you reflect on your child's first year of primary school and how much they are growing up.  From quiet little school starters on that first day to confident and bubbly individuals ready for the next stage in their primary school journey. 

We are very grateful for all your continued support this year.  What you do at home to support your children makes so much difference to their future lives - near future but also distant future.  We do know it isn't easy sometimes, especially if you've got a tired child on your hands or one that just doesn't want to today ☺ or just a complete lack of time in a busy family household but we do thank you for keeping on keeping on regardless because we can see the positive difference it makes.

Thank you also for all your very generous gifts and cards and words of thanks, each and every one so much appreciated.  Have a wonderful summer everyone.  Fingers crossed for a return to some sort of normality in September.

The Reception Team

Friday 16th July - No PE kits

As we won't be doing PE this Friday, children are to come to school in their normal school uniform and not in their PE kits.  Please pass this message on to other parents who may not regularly check the blog or noticeboard.  PE kits will need to be washed and brought into school in Year 1 in September, where they will once again be left in school on the children's pegs.

Home learning information

As we are now in the final 3 days of Reception, we will no longer be posting home learning on the blog for anyone self-isolating at home.  Instead, spend the time winding down and doing things that you enjoy.  Don't forget, you can keep going on Fast Phonics / Reading Eggs / Rising Stars / Education City throughout the summer holidays, just to keep your brain ticking over so you are ready for Year 1.  

The Reception Team

Sports Day

The children have enjoyed taking part in our class sports day today. They all joined in with each race, including the bat and bean bag, bean bag pick up and running. All the children behaved brilliantly. They listened carefully for the whistle during their race and they enjoyed supporting their friends throughout. Each child has been awarded with a special Sports Day certificate for taking part. Please see the photos and videos taken below.

Our visit to Smithill's Farm

What a brilliant day we have had today!  We couldn't have been prouder of all our children; they behaved impeccably and we all had such a great time, making end of year memories.  We were so excited to go on the tractor ride, feed the donkeys, go on donkey rides, watch the cows being milked (and a rather unpleasant but very amusing display of cow poo straight afterwards!) and hold and stroke the chicks, goats & bunnies.  We had some very tired children on the way home, falling asleep left, right and centre on the bus home.  A brilliant day had by all. ☺

This week 28th June - 2nd July

How did we get to July already?  Time is completely running away with us; can you believe the children only have 2 weeks left in Reception?  They are really starting to grow in independence more now, showing that they are more ready for the next stage in their primary school journey.  We have continued our focus on minibeasts this week and finished off our clay models.  They look just fabulous - see pictures below.  We have finished off our 'That's Not my Snail' booklets and also our police reports based on What the Ladybird Heard.   In Maths we have been looking at subtraction with numbers up to 10 and we've also been looking at creating shadows with minibeast shapes and drawing round them.

Of course, we have also been talking a lot about our transition taster day to Year 1 on Monday and having a little look at the classroom, where the toilets are, where the children will come into school on that morning etc.  Children will enter school via the side Year 1 doors which can be accessed by the playground as normal.  Those children who take part in the Reception after school outdoor games club will still come to the club after their day in Year 1.  Year 1 staff will bring the children at the end of the day to the Reception classroom; please pick children up at the front of school at 4pm as usual.  It will be their last session.

Tuesday is our trip to the farm.  Remember, we will be opening the doors at 8.35am so that we can get everyone toileted and ready for the bus journey.  Children are to wear their school yellow polo t shirt and school jumper (unless it is very warm) and shorts/tracksuit bottoms and trainers.  At the moment, the weather forecast isn't looking great unfortunately, so please ensure children bring a light, waterproof coat with them.  If they are bringing a packed lunch, this must be completely disposable.  If you have ticked for them to have a school packed lunch, this will be provided on the day.  We will also be taking extra water bottles for the children, so they do not need to bring their own water bottles.  We want to minimise extra things to carry as much as possible as our main priority will be ensuring the children are safe and have a good time.  Please talk to your child prior to the trip about behaviour expectations when we are out of the school environment.  We expect everyone to behave well, and always stay with their group adult.  We have spoken to the children about this at school, but reinforcement of this from parents at home would be much appreciated.

After that, we have only have 7 and a half days left in Reception class.  Thank you for all your support with everything this year.  It's not been the easiest with all the restrictions and lockdown periods, but between us all, we've managed to keep things as normal for the children as possible so that they have enjoyed their time in Reception and made good progress ready for their transition to Year 1.  Have a great weekend everyone. ☺

This week: 14th - 18th June

We have enjoyed starting our topic on minibeasts this week, searching under rocks and logs to see what we could find; and we found lots!  This allowed us to talk about the type of habitat lots of minibeasts, like spiders and woodlice, like as it was very dark and damp under the log.  We even found worms living there!  In our writing, some of us have been creating books called 'That's not my Snail', using different materials and textures to stick on the shell of the snail.  Others have been writing a police report based around the Julia Donaldson book 'What the Ladybird Heard'.  We continue to try and develop independence in writing; many of the children can write and have the phonics knowledge to write independently, but as yet are still quite reliant on adult support and reassurance.  To try and prepare them for Year 1 where more independence will be needed, we will continue to try and work on this, building up the belief that they can. ☺  We are recapping Phase 3 sounds in phonics, in longer words.

We have logged onto Reading Eggs to see how everyone is getting on.  Great to see so many of you accessing this resource and we will be handing out some certificates for those doing well on Fast Phonics shortly.  You may also continue to use the books on Rising Stars if you wish and gain stars.  The next milestone after 30 stars is 50 stars.  If you would prefer, however, you can just read the reading books sent home by us in reading packs.  We do thank you for all your support in reading at home regularly.  It is the one single thing that can make the biggest impact if you do it regularly at home.  More than anything, you can make the most difference to your child's future by reading with them a lot at home.  So we thank you for your support in this.  

In Maths, we have been adding two amounts by counting on, so it is important that children know which number comes next in order to be able to use this method, using practical resources or number lines.

Next week we will do our final key word assessment of the year and we will also be carrying out a writing assessment, to see what the children are able to write independently.  We will have our spelling challenge on Friday, so keep practising those words at home; a little and often approach works well.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Today's excitement!

We were very excited to find what we think might be a newt whilst searching for minibeasts under our logs in our outdoor area.  We have made a little home for him for now before finding him a proper new home in the next few days.  He wasn't what we were expecting to find on our minibeast hunt!

Outdoor games club!

Thank you for all of the responses to the outdoor games club. Unfortunately the club is oversubscribed therefore you will have received a note to say if your child has been offered a place. 

Well Done!

We would like to say a huge well done to James who has now received his certificate for an amazing 50 stars on Rising Stars Reading Planet!  Such excellent home reading, James, we are all proud of you. ☺

24/05/21-28/05/21

This week we have enjoyed lots of sporting activities. It was lovely to see children participating in football day on Wednesday and we have had the opportunity to go on the trim trail and practise our throwing and catching skills. In English we have been writing 'thank you' letters based on the clip 'Caterpillar Shoes' https://www.literacyshed.com/caterpillar-shoes.html and in Maths we have been ordering numbers and amouns to 20. Throughout the week we have also shared this half terms homework, which was fantastic! There was some brilliant photos and videos on Tapestry, aswell as some wonderful work in books! We hope you all have a great break and get some rest after a very busy fun-filled half term . We look forward to welcoming you back in June, where we will begin our new topic about 'Minibeasts'.

Fast Phonics and Reading Eggs

Hello everyone - great to see so many of you already accessing Fast Phonics and Reading Eggs.  If you haven't already done so, please login to Reading eggs (https://readingeggs.co.uk/) on a computer or tablet (it can also be downloaded as an app) and complete the activities regularly on Fast Phonics.  You can also take the placement test on Reading Eggs if you like and complete some of the activities on there.  Both programmes will help to embed phonics and reading skills that the children are developing and will enable them to be more ready for Year 1.

Thank you.

The Reception Team

This week 17th - 21st May

How time is flying by!  One more week left before a week and a half's school holiday and when we return to school, we have just over 5 weeks until the end of Reception.  It has gone so fast.  This week, we have been developing our creative skills, using different tools and materials to make a boat or a bus/van as part of our journey's topic.  The children have all worked hard, designing their vehicle and then choosing and using appropriate materials to make it.  It has involved a lot of thinking. ☺ In Literacy, we have been recapping on the alphabet, joining in singing the alphabet song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6wQQHo8uU), matching up lowercase and uppercase letters and also learning letter names.  The children did very well with this; the only part some weren't as confident with was the letter names.  In maths, we continue to work with numbers from 11-20, ensuring children understanding that we can make these numbers using 10 and another number.  For example, that 13 is made up of 10 and 3.

Some of us this week have also been on the trim trail, which was thoroughly enjoyed.  Other groups will have a turn in the coming weeks, and hopefully spend more time on the trim trail in the second half of the summer term if the weather hopefully improves.

Some children found their spelling challenge particularly challenging this week, so please do try and ensure children learn to spell the words as well as writing them out in their handwriting books.  A quick test of them at home before Wednesday often helps to see what children know or need to work on.  Spellings will continue into Year 1, with a greater number of words to learn, so we do appreciate your support in helping children to learn the spellings that are sent home.  Sometimes we are finding that the children are reversing the letters in the digraphs in the middle of the word.  For example, in 'down', the 'ow' in the middle might be spelt 'wo'.  There is a Phase 3 letter mat in the 'Phase 2 & 3 Phonics' tab at the top of the Reception page if you would like to practise these at home.  We do hope you've managed to get on to Reading Eggs to play the Fast Phonics games.  If you experience any problems with these, please let us know.  We won't be sending out any handwriting or phonics homework home now until after half term as we will be carrying out a phonics assessment next week to see what the children know.

Don't forget about next Wednesday's football day.  There are also a number of children off school at the moment through illness, so do be extra vigilant and ensure children get an early bedtime and lots of rest this weekend.  I think after a long half term, everyone is tired.  Only one more week to go. ☺  As always, thank you for your continued support.

This week - 10/05/21-14/05/21

This week we have been learning about journeys to the coast. We looked at travelling to different coastal resorts, both in the UK and abroad and talked about their similarities and differences. We also looked at how coastal resorts have changed over time. The children had the opportunity to share their own experiences of travelling to the coast aswell. They enjoyed packing a suitcase for a holiday and acting out going camping. We also celebrated the religious festival of Eid.

This Week - 04/05/21- 07/05/21

This week we have enjoyed learning about Space, as part of our transport and journeys topic. We learnt about what life would be like as an astronaut. We made our very own rockets, which we enjoyed flying and we also looked at the moon and discussed what the moon looks like and what it would be like to go there. Children used lots of good vocabulary to describe the moon such as sphere, craters, rocky and orbit. In P.E this week we have been practising our ball rolling and bouncing skills and in Maths we have been practising our number formation, using number stories. Next week we will be looking at journeys to the coast, so if anybody has any photographs of their child enjoying a coastal holiday or day out please feel free to send one in and we will look at them in class. 

This week 26th - 30th April

We have had lots of fun outside this week as we introduced our new Mud Kitchen to the children.  We haven't always used mud, however, sometimes we have used water and other times dried rice or pasta.  We have enjoyed making, preparing and cooking many different meals and baking lots of cakes! We have also been looking at magnetic and non-magnetic items, talking about what different items were made of (wood, plastic, rubber, metal etc) and that metal items were magnetic.  The metal bangle tricked us though, as we thought it would be magnetic when it wasn't, so we talked about there being different types of metals.  In Maths, we have been consolidating 1 more and 1 less.

We continue to go over our phase 3 phonemes in phonics and we are now trying to make sure we can apply these phonemes when we are writing words independently.  We can hear the 'or' phoneme, but can we remember which two letters make up the phoneme and how to write them?  We had our second spelling challenge this week and there are lots of children getting full marks, so thank you for all your support with handwriting and phonics homework.

As we missed a blog post last week, here are some pictures of our learning from this week and last.  Last day tomorrow before a long bank holiday weekend.  Have a lovely one everyone, and let's hope the rain stays off! ☺

This week 12th - 16th April

It has been wonderful to have all our children back in school this week and they have come back with lovely smiles on their faces and ready to learn.  We have started our topic on Journeys and have been so busy playing and learning.  We have been working hard on our phonics and writing as always and have been looking at how we can make 7, 8, 9 and 10 in different ways in Maths.  We have enjoyed our first Zoom celebration assembly with our buddy classes in Year 5 today too.  Our PE day at the moment has changed to a Wednesday and we have now sent home all the PE kits we had in school to keep at home.  Children are now to come to school on the Wednesday already in their PE kits and school jumper.  They will remain in their PE kit for the full day and return home in it.  We have made this change in order to maximise our time with the PE sessions delivered by our sports coaches.  Children will also need to learn their 5 spellings (or single sounds, depending on their phonics group) in this week's handwriting homework for a short spelling challenge next week.  It may be beneficial to practise them in other ways at home after writing them out a couple of times in their handwriting books.  There is a covering letter explaining the changes in your child's handwriting book which will come home tonight. 

Please continue to go over those Phase 3 phonemes (you can find them in the link at the top of the Reception blog page) and key words.  Next week's key words are for, got & not. Here are a few pictures of our learning this week.  Have a great weekend everyone.

This Week 22.03.21 - 26.03.21

It's our last day of the Spring term tomorrow! And we've had an exciting and full on week in Reception.  We have all enjoyed carrying out lots of Easter activities this week, as well as having a go at holding the chicks.  This afternoon, we have also enjoyed taking part in an Easter egg hunt with a little prize at the end.  The children had to work together to read the clues in order to find their eggs and they did very well.  We have also learned about the Easter story and the celebrations and traditions that people enjoy during the Easter period, like egg decorating, egg rolling, making Easter bonnets, writing Easter cards, having a special Easter meal and of course, Easter egg hunts.  This morning, we enjoyed a Zoom presentation where we learned all about the Easter story.  We also enjoyed a short poetry assembly with poet Ian Bland which was lots of fun and we joined in with some rather funny poems and actions to go with them.

In English, we have been writing instructions for planting and growing a sunflower seed.  This involved quite a lot of writing and the children did very well.  Their independence in writing is growing all the time; it's just making sure we know how to spell all those Phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs now and also our key words.  Any practice you could do over the Easter break would be much appreciated as we won't be setting any other homework other than to read your reading books.

On the Wednesday in the first week back, we are having some sports coaches in to do some PE activities with the children, so please ensure PE kits are returned on the first Monday back so we are ready for the PE session on Wednesday.

Thank you for all your support this term.  It's certainly been a different one, what with a lockdown announced straight after Christmas, many weeks of home learning and Zoom sessions and then a closure for a day this week due to the water being off!  But we are here and we have made it ☺ and we'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and restful Easter break.  Here are some pictures of our week below, including some of last week's pictures with the veggies and sneaky Evil Pea...

This Week 15/3/21 - 19/3/21

**Please click on the link to see one of our chicks hatching this week: https://youtu.be/jn_ahU56LVA

There has been lots of excitement in Reception this week!  Hopefully you'll already know all about it! ☺  On Monday morning, we entered a classroom where the Evil Pea had been on the loose, and he had taped some rather shocked vegetables to the walls!  At first, Evil Pea was nowhere to be seen, but the eagle-eyed Receptioners soon spotted him hiding in a corner.  Supertato was also hanging around to save the day.  We then welcomed some little eggs into our classroom and watched them hatch into little chicks - 6 little boys and 3 little girls.  We talked about how they were very tired when they are first born and that it takes them a little while to start moving about and fluff up.  When they were ready, we moved them from the incubator to the brooding box.  The children have really loved watching our chicks.  They have been making pictures for them, so the chicks now have their own little gallery, lovingly made by the children.  Next week, they will get the opportunity to handle a chick before the Easter break.  So, a very exciting week for us all.

We have now given out reading books again, in reading packs.  Please read as often as you can with your children; the ideal being at least 20 minutes each night.  This will make the most impact.  If you can't manage each night, then as often as you possibly can.  I appreciate that we talk about regular reading a lot, but we do see every single day, the positive impact that regular home reading has.  It can make a huge difference to the children's confidence, giving them a real boost and can set them up on a really good path for reading throughout school.  Please write in yellow reading diaries at least 3 times a week when you read with your child so we can see how they are getting on with 1:1 reading at home.  We will continue to set 1-2 books on Rising Stars each week, for extra books for those that want them.  We won't be checking on Rising Stars as much now we are all back in school, so if you know that your child has reached another star milestone (5, then 15, then 30, then 50), please let us know via the email so that we can issue a certificate.

We are continuing to go over our Phase 3 sounds, being able to recognise them but also spell them so we can use them in our independent writing.  Our writing this week has been all about Evil Pea or Supertato and the children have really enjoyed getting into these stories.  We have carried out a Maths assessment this week also, in order to identify anything we might need to revisit in the coming weeks.  Please continue to go through numbers to 10, ensuring your child can recognise all these numbers and put them into the correct order.

A point to note; as we are now all back at school and it is full steam ahead, we won't be checking the Reception email as regularly as we were during the lockdown period.  Of course you may still use this for general enquiries, or about learning, but if it is something more urgent, please either talk to us at drop off in the morning or ring school, because we cannot guarantee that the email will be checked that day.

Next week, we will look at the key words that, this & then.  Some groups have now moved onto Phase 4 in their phonics, where they will be looking at adjacent consonants (e.g. words like start, plain etc, with two consonants next to each other at the beginning or end), another group is consolidating Phase 3 and another group consolidating Phase 2.

Thank you for your continued support.

This Week 08/03/21-12/03/21

We have had a fantastic first week back at school. It has been wonderful to see all of the back together and they have all settled back into school life brilliantly. The children have enjoyed being reunited with their friends and it has been lovely to see them play with their peers. To celebrate Miss Duce's birthday and the re-opening of school we have had a whole school pyjama party today. All of the children looked fantastic in their cosy pyjamas, dressing gowns and onsies. We played party games and did lots of dancing! Please see our photos of the part and the rest of our week below.

Next week we will be recapping all our phonemes covered so far in Phonics and reviewing our Math's topics from the past couple of months. In English we our looking at the story, 'Supertato' and in our topic work we will be learning about the life cycle of chicks. On Monday our own chick eggs will be delivered and we will get the opportunity to watch them hatch throughout the week. Our key words to practise next week are like, do and big. Also, reading books will begin to be sent out again next week.

Hungry Caterpillar Gallery 

Lots of super duper hungry caterpillars in the powerpoint below...well done to everyone for completing these, they look fabulous! ☺

This week 22.02.21 - 26.02.21

We've had a great first week back after the half term this week, with the added bonus of a few sunny days which has been lovely, and has meant we could play out a few times without our coats. ☺  We've enjoyed learning all about the life cycle of a butterfly this week, alongside our work on The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Learning two new trigraphs, air and ure has proved a bit tricky, so we will continue to go over these phonemes until we become more confident with them.  Thank you to everyone for continuing to read regularly with your children on Rising Stars, it really is making a difference.  Only one week now before we can invite everyone back to school, which will be lovely.  Here are a few pictures from this week.

Home reading

Hello everyone - hope you have all enjoyed a well-deserved week off last week.  We are seeing on Rising Stars many of you logging on daily to access your reading books, even those children who are attending school.  This support with home reading will pay dividends as the children will make leaps and bounds in their progress in reading, so thank you.  If you haven't logged in for a while, please do so, so that our children can continue that momentum with their reading until we are able to give out physical reading books at a later stage. 

Thank you,

The Reception Team 

This week 8/2/21-12/2/21

We had a great week in school building up to and celebrating Chinese New Year. We enjoyed some different craft activities, including making Chinese dragons and lanterns. We also enjoyed some Chinese dragon dancing. We had to work as a team to move the dragon's head and body around the hall, whilst listening to music. We also tasted a well known Chinese snack, prawn crackers! They were delicious!

In English we looked at the story Beegu and created our own friends for her. In maths we began learning about the numbers 9 and 10!

It has been a great end to the half term! The children, both at home and at school have adapted and coped with the changes this half term so well. We hope everyone has  a wonderful break... you all deserve it!

New blog system

Good afternoon everyone, it was fabulous to see so many of you on our Zoom sessions this afternoon.  I hope you had as much fun as we did! ☺ To make our blogs easier to navigate, we will now be putting the home learning in links (see above).  If you click on the star that shows the correct week, it will take you to another sub-page with a star to click on for each individual day.  Hopefully this will make things easier, but as always, if you are having trouble navigating where to find things, please just pop us an email and we will help you.

The Reception Team

This week in school - WC 01.02.21

We've had a busy week in school once again, which started with our Pentathlon!  All the children worked really hard to do their best in the pentathlon and enjoyed doing it, though they were a little tired afterwards! ☺  We have had lots of discussion this week about our emotions and what is healthy / not healthy, as well as talking about what makes us happy.  It has been lovely to see the children complete their pictures, too, about what is good about them.  We have done lots of measuring in Maths and found that we are actually very good at it.  We enjoyed searching round the classroom for things to measure and seeing which items were longer and shorter than our own foot. ☺  In phonics, we have continued to practise those phase 3 phonemes and our writing with ow and ur.  We really enjoyed playing our corners game on Thursday with 'ow' words and we found it really helped our reading of these words.  Next week's phonemes will be 'oi' and 'ear'.

The children at home have also continued to work super hard and we thank you for your continued support with learning at home.  We know it isn't easy, especially if you're having to juggle different other things as well as home schooling.  By now the children are all getting ready for a break - only one more week and then they can have some well deserved time off.  Here are some pictures of our week in school.

Thank you to those who attended today's live celebration zoom sessions. It was wonderful to see all your great work! You should all be super proud. Please see the Powerpoint slides above with a selection of good pieces of work from this week!  

This week learning in school

We had a great start to the week, as we were blessed with some snow! All the children had a great time playing in the snow. In English we have been looking at the story 'Owl babies' and writing letters to mummy owl! We also made some beautiful stained glass windows, which are being displayed in classroom.

This week at school

Here are a few pictures of some of our learning at school this week.  The children who are attending school continue to be their shining selves, keeping us all in high spirits and making us smile.  They continue to try hard in their learning, so please keep supporting this at home because even if your child is attending school every day, your support at home with reading and phonics especially makes all the difference and those that regularly read both at home and at school are making mountains of progress.  Support at home really does make a difference.  If your child only attends school on certain days, please endeavour to complete the home learning for the days they are at home and post this to Tapestry.

It was fabulous for the children in school to see their friends at home on the Zoom sessions on Thursday and vice versa.  We have enjoyed making our ice decorations in school too as well as trying hard with our writing, learning the short and long oo phonemes, learning all about numbers 6, 7 and 8 and, of course, learning through play.  Shakers have seemed to be a popular thing to make this week in the workshop.  We love to see the children developing their independence through free choice and play and the shakers were just that, and it soon caught on with other children wanting to make the same.  Next week the new phonemes we will learn are 'ar' & 'or' and we will learn new key words 'dad' and 'had'.

This week in Reception 11th - 15th Jan

Good afternoon everyone!  We have had a great week in reception with the children who are attending school.  They have been bubbly, smiley, working their hardest and it does make the current situation much easier when we can work with such fabulous children and smile along with them.  We have done some fantastic reading and writing this week - the children are making great progress in these areas which is fantastic to see.  Next week, we will be having two live Zoom catch up sessions with our home learners.  Miss Nisbet will lead a winter session for each class on Tuesday afternoon, just with the home learners.  Mrs Parker will lead a 'catch up' ('What I have most enjoyed about this week...') Zoom session for each class on Thursday afternoon, and we will hopefully read a story if we get time.  We are hoping to include the children in school with the Thursday afternoon sessions.  Please look out for your Zoom invitations for these sessions which will be sent hopefully via Tapestry.  If you haven't activated a Tapestry account, please get in touch.  We will use email as an alternative way of inviting to these sessions if, for some reason, you are not able to activate a Tapestry account.

Children who are working from home will obviously need a grown up with them but we will ask that the children be on mute whilst others are talking, so that everyone can take their turn.  It may take a bit of getting used to, so we appreciate your support in helping these sessions run smoothly.  If your child is in school on Thursday, they will hopefully join as a group in school.

Next week, we will be learning the 'oo' phoneme and learning three new key words: they, my & mum.

Thank you to all those learning at home who continue to post regularly to Tapestry or via email.  It is really important for us to see how your children are managing with the learning at home, so please continue to do so.  If you haven't yet posted anything to Tapestry, please do so next week so we can offer praise and encouragement to all our children at home learning.  Here are a few photos from this week.

This week - 4th Jan - 8th Jan

Well, what a week it has been! ☺  From all starting back on Monday to a closure on Tuesday and full steam ahead with home learning!  We've all had to take a bit of time to adjust this week because it has been quite a bit to get our heads around.  But we appreciate all your support and hard work at home.  For those children of key workers who have been in this week, they have all been absolutely fabulous and we couldn't have asked of any more of them.  We enjoyed going outside this week when it began snowing and the children enjoyed playing with the ice that naturally formed in our outdoor area.  We continued to learn our ai and ee sounds, read our key word and learn the Three Little Pigs which we are getting better and better at being able to remember.  We made paper bag houses and compared numbers within 5.  All with a fabulous smile on our faces.  Here are a couple of pictures from the week (Monday too, when more of the children were in).

It's Christmas! ☺

Well, we have made it! ☺  A whole term under our belts already, and as it is the longest one, especially after so much time away from pre-school or nurseries prior to starting school, the children are all ready for a well deserved rest.  We have enjoyed lots of fun and exciting activities in the run up to Christmas and our party day on Tuesday was a particular highlight.  All the children were fabulous and had lots of fun and were more than excited to meet Santa.  

This term all our children have worked so hard and we are proud of each and every one of them.  Thank you for submitting homework this week, it has been lovely to go through and talk about what we have been doing, sharing our homework with the class.  We will give out a new homework sheet in the new year, hopefully on the Friday of the first week.  Handwriting homework will also resume in the new year.  In our first week back, we will be looking at phonemes ai and ee (as in rain or feet) and continuing to reinforce those Phase 3 digraphs ch, sh, th and ng.  Please continue to do a little reading during the holidays, just so the children can keep up the momentum; the children have their school reading books but also quite a few books have been assigned on Rising Stars now so you should hopefully have plenty to choose from.  Key words have been sent home on pink cardboard for you to cut up and use as flashcards to learn in a 'little and often' way, 5 minutes here and there.  Please note also that the biking sessions (this time with pedals) resume in the first week back on Tuesday, so all children will need to bring their helmets in on the first Tuesday back.

Thank you for all your very generous cards and gifts; they are hugely appreciated, and for your support this term. ☺  All that is left to say now is that we wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas and new year, enjoy time together as a family.  We will look forward to listening to the children tell us all about it on their return to school.  Let's hope 2021 brings happier times and some return to normality.

This week 7/12/20

It's been an exciting and busy week in Reception as we have continued to prepare for Christmas. We have made some sparkly Christmas decorations and Christmas cards that we are sure you will all love! We have also begun preparing for the new year by making some colourful rainbow calandars. We enjoyed our Christmas Dinner on Wednesday and the children all looked fabulous and festive in their Christmas jumpers!  

It has been great to see all the completed homework tasks on Tapestry and we look forward to seeing more in the next few days! Please remember that it is to be completed by Monday, so that children can talk about what they have done with their class next week. No more homework or key words will be set until January so please just continue to encourage your child to practise the words and phonemes we have looked at so far as well as reading their reading books.   

Please remember that it is the EYFS Christmas party on Tuesday and children can come in their party clothes. 

This week - 30.11.20 - 04.12.20

December already!  We seem to be heading towards Christmas at breakneck speed.  And the children are already super excited, with tales to tell about Christmas preparations and what their mischievous elves have been up to at home! There are definitely some sneaky elves out there!  But as well as developing our speech and conversational skills, it is also teaching us a lot about turn taking because when the children have something to tell, they have something to tell! ☺  And as we can only listen to one at once, we are having to wait our turn which is a skill in itself at this age.  Please note we have also had a couple of cases of chicken pox within Reception so please be vigilant in checking for spots and keep children at home if they are unwell or develop any symptoms. 

The children have been continuing to progress in our reading and writing skills and we are all super proud of them.  Achieving something new and overcoming hurdles are big, important steps at any age, but particularly in the early years.  The pride and sense of achievement when, for example, a child learns to write their name independently, fasten their coat up or blend to read words is huge.  Keep encouraging these things at home because it really boosts self esteem and confidence which is lovely to see.  We regularly share and celebrate individual achievements at school.  The handwriting homework that came back this week was fabulous.  Children are really developing those fine motor skills and good pencil control which are the first, but very important, steps towards becoming an independent writer.  So thank you for all your support with this at home, as it really makes a difference.  We read over your comments in reading diaries each week and it really gives us a good idea as to how children are progressing in their reading at home.  Thank you. ☺

Don't forget to post pictures and videos of homework on Tapestry.  We can like and comment on posts as you add them.  Let us know if you are still struggling accessing it.  We will also assign two new books this week on Rising Stars so look out for those.  Next week the new phonemes we will learn are 'th' and 'ng'.  Continue to practise 'sh' and 'ch' however as the children sometimes take a while to become secure in their knowledge of these phonemes.  Next week's key words will be: are, her & was.  We will shortly be sending home key word assessments that we carried out in November.  These indicate how many key words your child could read (on sight or blending) at the time we carried out the assessment.  Alongside this we will also be sending home the key words as small flashcards to cut out on card.  The attached letter will explain more so please look out for this in reading packs.

Lastly, we have been writing some letters to Santa this week.  See the pictures below which show a small selection - can you tell what kinds of things we have asked for?  From real dragons, to robot cars, a Jurassic World spinosaurus, a a make up table and LOL dolls, we have quite a list! ☺ Remember, we encourage children to be independent writers and to hear the sounds in the words they are writing so they can write them independently rather than them copying off us.  So some words are spelt as the children have heard them rather than completely correctly at this stage.  Phonetic spelling is just fine in early writing.  ☺  Have a lovely weekend all.

This week 23rd - 27th November

This week we have been learning all about Australia.  We have looked at what the country looks like and compared it with the size of our own country.  We looked at the flag, school uniform, foods that are popular in Australia (including Vegemite and a type of cake called a lamington), houses called Queenslanders made out of wood with verandahs, we listened to the accent courtesy of our teachers which was funny, we learnt about the native Australians who are the Aboriginees and looked at Aboriginal art work, music (the didgeridoo) and dance.  We also looked at Australian animals, and listened to the laughing kookaburra (a native Australian bird).  We have also been working on our reading, writing, maths, phonics and scissor skills this week.  Next week we will learn the sounds sh and ch.  We will look at the key words me, be, you.

Great to see so many now signed up to Rising Stars and Tapestry.  We won't assign any new books to Rising Stars this week.  Please read the ones you have, complete the quiz and move the books into the 'Finished book' section ready for receiving new ones, hopefully by the 7th December.

We are now nearing Christmas, which is an exciting time and you will find some tired children in the coming weeks as they are getting ready for a break.  Persevere ☺ especially if you have a child becoming emotional or reluctant with reading or homework.  Take a break if this is the case and come back to it later or another day.  The support you give at home is really paying dividends in the children's progress in school, so thank you for the regular reading and support with homework.

Africa

On Monday we celebrated Odd Sock day! It was great to see so many children in odd socks to support anti bullying week.

In our topic work we have continued to learn about different countries and cultures around the world and have been learning about Africa. We have looked at different African animals and practised our sorting skills. We have also looked at where and how people live in Africa and compared it to where and how we live. 

Next week we are learning all about the numbers 4 and 5 in Maths. Our new phonics sounds will be y, z, zz and qu and our key words for this week are we, she and me.

Everyone has been assigned a book on Rising Stars so please check your Rising Stars account to access your child's book!

This week 9th - 13th November

We've had another enjoyable week in Reception, this week learning about India and the festival of Diwali as well as learning about Remembrance Day and why we hold our two minutes silence.  The children did really well lining up on the playground and standing quietly for 2 minutes whilst we thought about how brave all the people involved in the wars were, in keeping us safe and protecting us.  It's a difficult concept to explain to children at this age and using child-friendly language is really important.  We have worked hard this week on our Diwali lamps made out of clay that the children will be bringing home.  We really enjoyed doing this activity and it provided lots of talking opportunities.  The children also learnt how to use a computer mouse properly, log the computers on and double click on a programme to open it up.  They then completed a Rangoli pattern on a computer programme, developing their mouse control.  It was also assessment week this week, so we have done a few assessments to see how much progress the children have made since starting in September.  It has been wonderful to see how much progress has been made, particularly in phonics.  Keep practising that pre-cursive formation of letters at home as it really pays off in Year 1 and 2 when children are learning to join their letters; it makes it much easier.  Next week, we will move on to Phase 3 phonemes in our phonics, learning the phonemes j, v, w and x.  The key words will remain the same as we revise the ones we've already looked at so far.

Don't forget handwriting homework comes home on a Friday and is due back in school by the following Wednesday.  Please ensure it is completed in pencil, that children take pride in their work and that the other pages are not written or drawn on.

It is Odd Sock day on Monday, so children can come to school in odd socks so we can celebrate how unique we all are, and how fabulous too! ☺

And finally, please remember to send children to school with plain water in their bottles, rather than flavoured water or juice.  Thank you for your continued support and here are a few pictures of our week! ☺

The Reception Team

This week: 19th - 23rd October

We have had a great week in Reception, continuing with our reading, phonics, writing and number work as well as learning all about the weather, creating artwork using outdoor materials and using instruments to create our own rhythm patterns.  We have also been busy in our continuous provision, building relationships, being imaginative and creative.  Thank you for all your support with reading at home - please continue to listen to your children read each night for around 20 minutes, until they become fluent reading the book and can understand the storyline.  Please continue to write in reading diaries and support learning of sounds and key words at home.  It really does encourage that progress when children are reinforcing at home what they are doing at school.

Next week is half term week, which will allow the children to have a well deserved rest and family time.  We will begin setting some homework after half term so please look out for this.  We will also be starting the TOTS biking lessons during school time but in order to take part, children will need to bring in their own helmet on Tuesday 3rd November when we begin the first sessions.

Have a restful and enjoyable half term everyone.  The sounds we will learn in the first week back are: h, b, f (&ff), l (& ll) so if you'd like to get a head start on these sounds, please feel free. ☺  The key words we will learn are: get, up, can.

Week 12/10/20- 16/10/20

This week we have had a busy week learning about Autumn. We went on an Autumn walk and made observations about our environment. We also painted some Autumn trees mixing red, yellow and orange paints to make the leaves. 

Next week we are comparing numbers 1-3 in Maths, learning the sounds ck, e, u and r in phonics and practising the key words as, his and at. 

This Week - 5th - 9th October

It was great to catch up with many of our parents this week over the phone.  It is lovely to hear that our Reception children are happy and settled and loving school.  We have had another busy week this week in school where we have been learning lots! ☺ From learning the story of the Gingerbread Man to see if we can retell it off by heart, to practising writing our names, learning new phonemes and their letter stories, continuing repeating patterns in Maths and about keeping ourselves healthy, it has been super busy and we might all need a good rest this weekend! ☺ This week, we have learnt the phonemes i, n, m and d and the tricky words no and go.  Next week we will be learning the sounds g, o, c & k and the tricky words into, is & it.  Please practise these at home so children can identify phonemes and tricky words on sight as it really helps them progress with their reading.

We really hope the videos last week helped to explain how to use the booklets that we sent home.  We are starting to see lots of entries in the home reading diaries from reading that is being done at home, regularly, so that is fantastic, thank you for your support.  We have started reading books with words this week, so the more practise the children can do at home blending sounds together, the better, as this will give them more confidence at school.  I will add some letter formation sheets at the end of this blog post also, if any of you would like to print them off and practise letter formation of the ones we have looked at so far.  Remember to use the purple book to help with the letter stories as children are practising.

Important reminders - Reading books - Reading books will be changed on the same day (usually) each week, a different day for different reading groups.  We love that so many of you are reading at home!  However, please ensure that reading books and reading records are put in the reading packs daily, as we won't provide new reading books until last week's books have been returned.  If you have any reading books lying around at home, just pop them in your child's reading pack on Monday and each time you've read, just pop the reading book and yellow diary back in your child's reading pack ready for the next day.  Thank you in advance for your continued support with this.

Important reminders - Water bottles - Please encourage children not to put water bottles in bags, as we try to do the same at school.  Water bottles can easily leak and reading books can get wet and sometimes ruined.  I know some reading books are older anyway, but some are brand new so we are trying our best to keep them in good condition so they last.  Many thanks. ☺

Only two weeks left until half term - this first half term has absolutely flown by.  We do thank all our families for your continued support, it does make a difference.  We will post some pictures of the week on Monday, so please look out for them.  Have a lovely weekend.

Week 28/9/20-2/9/20

We have had a wonderful week learning about our senses. We used all our senses to explore different things, such as crisp tasting. We also talked about our friends and painted pictures of them. We had a special visitor from the Lancashire Evening Post to take our class photographs, so keep a look out for them in the paper! Next week we will be learning about ways to keep healthy. We will also be practising the sounds i, n, m, d and the tricky words no and go. In Maths we will be looking at repeating patterns. Well done to the children who got a certificate this week!

This Week 21/09 - 25/09

We have had another fun week in Reception, learning even more routines! This week, we started up our learning groups.  Children have started guided reading, so you will see a yellow reading diary and wordless reading book in your child's book bag this week.  Please read this book with your child and write in their yellow diary, following on from what we have done at school.  We aim to complete one page in our reading diaries each week.  There is some information in the front of the reading diaries about how to use the diary and also information about the sounds we teach and key words.  Don't forget, also, that the green phonics handbook and purple handwriting handbook that we gave out last week into reading packs are for your reference at home and to practise with your children their sounds and letter formation, so do please take them out of reading packs and keep them somewhere handy at home for quick reference.

We are still getting quite a lot of fruit coming into school for morning break that is not names (apples, oranges, bananas etc).  Please ensure you place any fruit in a named tub or bag so we know who's fruit belongs to who.  Thank you.

We have almost half the year group (just over 30 children) signed up now to Rising Stars Reading Planet, so thank you to those who have responded to last week's emails so promptly and joined.  Please remember to put your child's name in, not your own, because we need to know which child is associated with the account.  For those who haven't yet signed up, please check your inbox and/or junk mail for the Rising Stars Reading Planet email sent out last Friday.  

Next week, we will be learning the sounds s, a, t & p and the key words we will be looking at are: the, to & I.  Please practise these at home to help support your child.

Here are a few pictures of our week.

Settling in ☺

Here are a few pictures of the children enjoying their activities settling in to their new routines.  At the end of our first week, we feel that all our new children are adapting to their new environment well; it is a big change to what some of our children have been used to so they have done really well to remember everything! ☺ They may be tired this weekend after a full week in school as they have been busy.  We have sent home the green phonics book and the purple handwriting book so you can practise at home - handwriting is pre-cursive with each letter beginning on the line and a letter story to help the children with correct formation.  Do encourage correct formation when your child is ready for letter formation because bad habits are more difficult to iron out later on.  We also sent out Book Trust book packs this week for you to enjoy reading together, and keep.  Thank you for all your support so far in helping the children to settle in well.

Don't forget - please name everything! It is easy for things to become mixed up with a class full of 60 children! ☺ Fruit snacks for morning break also need to be in a named pot or bag, even things like apples so we know who's apple belongs to who.  For bananas, you can just write on the skin.