Week 6 – The Jolly Christmas Postman
It has been a busy week in Reception! Our book this week was all about the jolly postman taking special Christmas gifts to everyone. We decided to write our own postcards to send to people we care about.
As part of our creative time we made our own stamps. We thought about why stamps are important and looked at lots of different designs.
We have used our printing skills to make our own pieces of wrapping paper. We used different items to print with including potatoes! We enjoyed counting how many of each shape we had included and also recognising different colours.
On
On Monday we learnt more about Christingles. We discovered what the different parts of the Christingle represent. We made our own Christingles ready for our church service later in the week.
On Wednesday we had our first visit to church. We had a lovely walk looking for signs of Winter on the way. When we arrived at church we had a look at the building and found a special stable in the corner which reminded us of the Christmas Nativity Story. We all felt that it was a very special service.
We hope that you all enjoyed our Christmas Nativity production “It’s a Party” We have loved learning the songs and working with year 1 and 2 to create a super show. Thank you to everyone for all of your help and support.
Things to remember:
On the 12 December everyone is welcome to come into Reception to see what learning we have been doing this term. Learning Journeys and floor books will be out for everyone to have a look through. We hope you can join us from 3:30.
Science Investigators
This week in science, we were learning all about making a fair test. We learnt that for a test to be fair, we needed to only change one thing and everything else stayed the same.
In science, we have been learning about John Dunlop and how he invented the pneumatic tyre. So, we decided to test which ball was the bounciest. We rolled the ball down the ramp and decided the bounciest ball was the ball that bounce back off the wall the furthest. To our surprise, the sponge ball was the bounciest. Have a look at our science experiment below and our recording of it.
A Fantastic Football Experience!
Some pupils in Year 5 and 6 recently took part in the Leeds United football foundation competition, held at John Smeaton Leisure Centre.
Although it was an extremely cold morning, the children had a fantastic time playing against other local schools in a mini competition. There were some extremely talented youngsters on show, including some of our own!
We didn’t manage to win, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating like crazy after scoring two goals!
Thanks to all pupils that participated – you were a pleasure to take, and you represented the school extremely well.
Here’s a picture of the team with the World Cup Trophy (they flew it all the way back from Qatar for us!).
Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
This week the children have started to get into the Christmas spirit. We have been practising really hard with our nativity songs, so we hope you all enjoy it during our production next week! Thank you to parents/carers for providing your child with their costumes they all look amazing.
Here are some photos of what the children have been getting up to this week in Nursery
Decorating the tree
Elf and Elfie arrived
Fine motor skill practice- making paper chains
Reminders
- Parent Teacher meetings- Tuesday 06 December, please attend your allocated time slot promptly
- Christmas Production- Thursday 08 December- 2.15 pm
- Christmas Production- Friday 09 December- 9.30 am
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Ward
Topic review
Thanks to those parents who managed to attend our topic review this afternoon – it was great to share our Digital Art topic with you. Hopefully, we’ll see more parents next time we review our topic after in the new year.
Be sure to keep practising that ever important topic vocabulary – the words tend to be words we don’t use very often in our everyday chatting, so why not try quizzing your child next time you’re in the car on a long journey, on your way to school or chatting at the dinner table each evening!
Week 5 – Owl Babies
We have seen lots of signs of Winter this week in Reception. We were very excited to find ice in our outdoor area and wondered how it got there.
Our focus story this week has been Owl Babies. We have sequenced the story remembering the repeated phrases. We have enjoyed learning more about nocturnal animals and when and where we might see them. We used different drawing pencils to draw them and even used our phonics to try writing their names.
A big thank you to everyone for working hard at home with phonics. The children are working so hard with their segmenting and blending skills. I am sure you will agree we are all fantastic readers! We have been using these skills outside with our phonics balls. Can you read the word and then send it down the tunnel?
We love outdoor learning in Reception. We enjoy exploring all the different activities and creating our own challenges. In our outside construction we decided to create a roller coaster for the cars! We had to think about how the cars would travel through the tubes.
We are very excited to show everyone our Nativity play next week. Thank you to everyone who has brought in costumes and helped us to learn songs and lines. It is going to be amazing!
Christmas events
It’s a busy time of year with so many things happening. Here is a reminder of the Christmas events taking place over the next two weeks:
Wednesday 7th December, 2pm: Christingle Service at St James’ Church
Thursday 8th December, 2.15pm: Early Years and KS1 Christmas play
Friday 9th December, 9.30am: Early Years and KS1 Christmas play
Tuesday 13th December: Christmas dinner
Wednesday 14th December: Early Years and KS1 parties (non-uniform)
Thursday 15th December: Ks2 parties (non-uniform)
During our productions, we will be raising money for our new school charity voted for by the Junior Leadership Team. This year we will be supporting Cancer Research UK.
Author: Bethan Woollvin
Yesterday, in KS1, we were lucky enough to have a special meeting with popular author, Bethan Woollvin! Not only does she write stories for children, she illustrates them, too. She delivered a virtual workshop all about her book ‘Little Red’. Ask your child what happens in the story! We read the book together and were shown how to draw our own Little Red character. We had a fantastic morning and many of us feel inspired to become authors and illustrators.
Digital Artists
Today, the children used photos they had taken previously to create some digital art. Using an app on the iPads, the class enhanced their photos. Some chose to add very vivid colours while others opted for black and white.
What’s that sound? Does sound get louder or quieter the further away it is?
Year 3 investigated sound this week to see whether they could hear the same sound equally well the further away they moved from its source.
Mrs Neal blew her whistle and we moved further away from her down the path!
