Author: Mrs Wood

Literacy
This week, the children had fun writing their own versions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They came up with some fantastic ideas.

BI – The Very Hungry Bee
CW – The Very Hungry Ant
CW – The Very Hungry Worm
HD – The Very Hungry Spider
BA – The Very Hungry Dragonfly

Next week, we’ll study the artist Alexander Calder and create our own representations of his butterfly work.
BREAKING NEWS!
On Monday, Mr Atkins brought us a box – it was our caterpillars! The children were so excited.  When they arrived, they were amazed at how tiny they were. Throughout the next few weeks, the children will be observing them on a daily basis and writing in their caterpillar diaries. This week, we’ve been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.
Ask your child if they can remember the four stages of the life cycle. 
The minibeast learning continued in the areas…

We went looking for minibeasts in our outdoor area. We talked about what they look like and their habitats.
We painted symmetrical butterflies.

We used natural objects to create minibeasts.
Diary dates
Friday 13 May – School closed: training day
Friday 27 May – Jubilee celebrations in school
Thursday 23 June – Moving from Reception to Year 1 transition meeting. This one is in person – not by Zoom (finally!).
Tuesday 05 July – Sports Day (morning)
Friday 08 July – PTA Summer Fair

Home-Link Challenge

I hope you all have a happy and healthy bank holiday.
See you on Tuesday!

 

I hope you all had a lovely Easter break.
It was lovely to see lots of smiling faces when I opened the classroom door on Tuesday.

Literacy
This week, we’ve been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. To help them remember the order of story, the children made story maps. Next week, we’ll be getting creative with our writing. They’ll have a go at making their own versions. To make our learning more exciting, we’re hoping a special delivery comes next week… watch this space!
Maths
This week, we continued to focus on the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. The children revisited the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether. While consolidating their understanding of the word pattern embedded within most of our number names, they also had fun hearing and practising the key differences in the number names when counting to 100!

A key focus this week, has been to develop their confidence in counting strategies when counting larger number of objects, including things that cannot be moved. On Wednesday, Gary (our counting puppet) found it really difficult to count the children when they were sat on the carpet – he kept forgetting who he counted! The children came up with some super counting strategies!

LW – Sit down when Gary taps you on the head.
PB – Gary could tap us on the head.
MC – We could stand in a circle.
BI – We could stand in a straight line.

The children had a go at using these strategies when collecting/counting their of objects.
PE
The children started learning how to skip. They had lots of fun using the big rope!

Here are some more highlights from this week…
Home-Link Challenge

 

 

As you all know, a mobile farm visited us on Monday. It was an amazing experience for all the children. They got to see a wide range of farm animals. Once we’d been introduced to all of the different animals, we got a chance to take a closer look. We were able to stroke them, brush them and, play fetch with Meg the sheepdog. 

This week, the children had fun completing Easter chilli challenges.

On Wednesday morning, the children were very excited when they saw some Easter treats in their baskets!
 I hope you all have a fantastic half-term and a lovely Easter. Don’t forget to email me some pictures of what you get up to!
I look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 19 April!

It’s been another sunny week! We’ve had lots of fun planting and exploring outside.
Literacy
This week, we continued to look at The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. After recapping the story, we planted our own tiny (sunflower) seeds. After planting the seeds, the children had a go at writing a set of instructions. The children have checked on the pots daily and are eager to water them. Next half-term, the children will watch them grow into beautiful sunflowers – fingers crossed!

On Tuesday, we talked about the life cycle of a plant.
What’s a life cycle?

FH – It goes around and around and starts again and again.
CW – People are a life cycle.
FJ – Frogs have a life cycle.

The children had a go at drawing the life cycle of a sunflower.
PE
The children loved practising their balls skills outside! Next half-term, the children will be practising their skipping skills.

Maths
We’ve been learning about doubles! The children are super quick at showing doubles on their fingers. We used this stem sentence:
_____ is made of _____ and _____ ; double _____ is _____
when explaining double patterns.
Ask your child what we need to do, to double a number!
RE
In RE, we’ve been learning about the Easter story. Yesterday, the children worked together in small groups to sequence the story.

Reminders!
Egg competition – Please bring your decorated eggs on Monday!

Don’t forget to come and watch us sing Hot Cross Buns at our Easter Service next Thursday!

Home-Link Challenge

This week, we’ve made the most of the glorious weather! The children have loved being outside in the fresh air. From making soup in the sandpit to making mud pies in the mud kitchen, we’ve some fantastic imaginative play.

Literacy
On Monday, we started our new focus story, The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. After reading the book, we talked about the events, looked at some key vocabulary and made story maps. Next week, we’ll continue to look at this book, discuss what plants need to grow and plant our own tiny (sunflower) seed.

Music
Maths
This week, we looked at the composition of seven. We used lots of different resources such as Numicon, multilink cubes and beanbags to show our parts.

In the areas this week, we’ve seen lots of children being independent learners and completing the chilli challenges.
Here they are in action…

Making spring gardens in the playdough area.

Playing take away a tower of 8 with a friend.
Reading tricky words on carrots.
Blending words in the ball pool.
Working out the missing whole on the part-whole models.
Home-Link Challenge

Coming up…
Thursday 24 March – PTA cake sale
Monday 28 March – Whole school farm visit
Monday 28 March – Decorate an Easter egg competition
Thursday 30 March – Easter service at St James’ Church
Friday 01 April – Break-up for Easter

Enjoy the spring sunshine this weekend!

 

 

It’s been another busy week in the Reception classroom.
The fantastic learning just keeps coming!

Literacy
This week, we continued to look at The Hundred Decker Bus by Mike Smith. The children were amazing at retelling and remembering the key events. For the writing chilli challenge, they had to design a new deck and write a sentence about their deck. I stuck all of the children’s decks onto a roll of paper and the children came in on Thursday and saw their very own 30 decker bus displayed in their classroom.
Click here to view our bus.

Living and Learning

This week, our living and learning session was all about recognising the importance of personal hygiene including handwashing.
I asked the children, “How do we keep ourselves clean?”

LW – You get a shower and use soap.
BI – You have a bath.
EK – We need to brush our teeth.
OR – We brush our teeth in the morning and at night.
FH – We wash our clothes.

We based yesterday’s session on handwashing. Before doing our experiments, we started by thinking about why and when we wash our hands.

First, we had a go at the germ experiment, We used soap, pepper (germs) and water to see how important it is to wash our hands. The children were amazed when they watched the germs (pepper) move away from the soap on their fingers.
Then, we had a go at the mouldy bread experiment.
The first child was asked to rub their hands on a piece of bread. The second child was asked to wash their hands for 20 seconds and rub their hands on another slice of bread.  Next week, the children will check and observe the bread daily to see if their predictions were right.
Click here to watch us sing our new washing hands song!

Here are some more highlights from this week…

Reading phase 3 words and scanning the QR code to see if they got it right.

Using the tissue paper to make a picture of the tulips.

Planting vegetable seeds.

Reminders!
Please make sure you write in your child’s reading record when you’ve read at home. It is important we see how your child is doing with their reading at home.

Please make sure you return the farm visit slip by Monday 21 March.

 

This half-term’s topic is called ‘Let’s go!’ They will notice and observe the signs and changes of Spring. This week, our focus story is The Hundred Decker Bus by Mike Smith. The children drew their favourite deck and labelled the different parts. Next week, the children will design their own deck. We will also compare life in a city to life in the countryside.

FH – A city is very busy with lots of big buildings like skyscrapers.
BI – Lots of animals live in the countryside.

Over the next few weeks, we will be planting a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds. We will watch them grow and will learn what conditions are needed for them to grow.

Phonics
The children have learnt all of the phase 3 sounds. Over the next couple of weeks, they will learn to blend (read) and segment (spell) longer words for example, lemon, sunset, bedroom and farmyard. To help them read words with more than one syllable, they will be taught how to use the chunking method. For example, sunset = s-u-n /s-e-t.  This method also helps when they are writing longer words.

Maths
This week, we continued to engage with activities that focussed on the purpose of counting – to find out ‘how many’ objects there are. We revisited the concept of cardinality – the idea that the last number in the count tells us how many things there are altogether.  We also looked at the 1 more staircase pattern. This pattern has helped them develop a clear understanding that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number, and 1 less than the following number.
Have a look at what else we have been up to this week.

Outdoor fun!
World Book Day
Home-Link Challenge

 

 

 

We’ve come to the end of a long and windy half-term. Over the past 7 weeks, we’ve laughed, had fun and seen lots of amazing learning!

To give you a flavour of our fantastic last week, I’ve made a video for you to watch at home with your child. I hope you enjoy!

Thank you to all of the parents who attended the parent-teacher meetings. It was lovely to share the children’s wonderful achievements.

Reminders

Training day – Monday 28 February
World Book Day – Thursday 03 March

I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term.

 

 

This week, we’ve been learning about stay safe. We’ve had lots of visitors in Reception.

On Monday, we had a police officer come to talk about how they help us keep safe. They listened carefully and asked lots of super questions. Of course, some of us had to try on the uniform!

We also had some fire officers from Wetherby fire station come to visit us. The children were so excited when they saw the engine! Again, they listened carefully and asked lots of interesting questions.

AM – Is there a toilet on the fire engine?
JD – What do you use that for?
FL – What do you wear?

On Tuesday, Dogs Trust came to teach us how to be safe around dogs. Ask your child if they can remember the six important rules.

On Wednesday, Hand to Mouth, who are a Christian organisation came to visit us. We joined KS1 in the hall for a collective worship. After, we did a cutting and sticking activity called, Our Daily Bread.
On Thursday, we had a road and pedestrian safety visit.
In literacy, our new focus story is Supertato. On Monday morning, the classroom door was covered in evil peas, vegetables were taped to the writing table and we found letter from the Evil Pea. On Thursday, the writing area was covered in evil peas! We found another letter from the Evil Pea and the vegetables were frozen!
They made wanted posters to try and help capture the Evil pea. Some children had a go at drawing story maps.

Reminders!
Parent-teacher meetings – Tuesday 15 & Thursday 17 February
Superhero day – Friday 18 February
Your child can come to school dressed as their favourite superhero.
Training day – Monday 28 February

Home-Link Challenge