Our final week in Reception! 

A HUGE Barnett Wood thank you to all of our Hedgehogs, Squirrels and all of their families for being amazing this year! You have been incredibly kind with all of your gifts and messages of thanks.

It has been an absolute pleasure having your children in our classes this year. We've loved every second, watching them grow into kind, respectful, trustworthy, resilient and aspirational learners.  

Have a wonderful Summer break and we look forward to welcoming the children back in September as Owls and Rabbits. 

Week beginning 10th July 2023

We were very busy learning about minibeasts this week and have had great fun creating minibeasts form papier mache. The children were really creative coming up with different ways to solve problems in attaching wings and what to use to make legs and antennae for example. The end result is a wonderful display of minibeasts. We hope you will agree that the finished result was a fabulous display for Celebration Evening. It was lovely seeing so many of you on Friday evening, sharing the children's work ion their classroom and 'checking out' their new teacher and the classroom where they will be in Year 1. We will be sad to see them go but they are all ready for new adventures!

Next week is our last week in Reception.

Phonics - We will review the phonics taught this term, plugging any gaps.

Maths - The children will learn to solve addition problems, exploring different possibilities.

UtW - We will be finding out about other countries and their traditions and customs. We hope to travel to France, Italy, Greece, South Africa, Australia, Japan and then back to Britain in time for the Summer holidays to start.

Week Beginning 3rd July

Reception had a lovely morning out on Monday to Ashtead Common following our last minute change of plans for our trip. Thank you to the Rangers who gave up their time to provide us with a big hunting experience using nets in the long grass to explore the wildlife that likes to live there. The children loved seeing the variety of butterflies and developed an understanding of the butterflies what live in different habitats on the common. We also went on a listening walk, listening out for birds and seeing how many different types we could hear from their different calls. This was followed by a picnic on the field and more minibeast hunting and games on the field. 

This week we have also been busy preparing for Celebration Evening, next Friday. They've been learning the skill of paper mache, layering up paper and glue, as part of our mini-beast learning ready to showcase to you all next week. 

Next week:

Phonics- we will be revisiting the word types and tricky words we have learnt this half term to help us become more confident in reading some of them, before we move on to plugging some gaps in our knowledge the following week. 

Literacy- We will be moving onto the final phase in our Talk for Writing 'We're going on a bear hunt', where we will be creating our very own journey stories based on the story. We will become story tellers, sharing our own planned stories with actions to our friends and the class. 

Maths- In Maths we will be revisiting our understanding of directional language to explore maps. We'll use them to reach different destinations around the school as well as designing our own to direct others. Maybe you could make a map of your route to school, or make a treasure map at home! 

Understanding the World- We will be continuing to learn about minibeasts and their habitats, starting to look at those that live in and around water, such as ponds and lakes. 

Have a lovely weekend, we're looking forward to seeing you at the school fair on Sunday! 

Week beginning 26th June 2023

Congratulations to all the children in Squirrels and Hedgehogs who ran the races and played the games as we all enjoyed our Sports morning on Friday. It was a long morning for them and they were definitely tired and ready for a picnic by the end but we have set some pretty fantastic records for next years Reception to attempt to beat. Thank you to all the parents for coming and supporting your children, especially to those parents who helped by carrying our certificates boards around with us too.  We were very lucky to have Coach Jack and Coach Harvey running the event for us, so a huge thank you to the KIKO team too for all their hard work and preparation not just on the day but in the run up to it too.

Next Week

School Trip: On Monday we will be getting on a coach to go to Nower Wood where we will find out all about Minibeasts. The children are very excited about this and looking forward to sharing their existing knowledge and learning more. Please arrive at school for 8.30 as normal and remember to bring a packed lunch and a water bottle. We will provide the children with a biscuit when we arrive to keep them going until lunch so a good breakfast will also be required. Nower Wood recommend a light long sleeved top and trousers as well as sensible shoes as we will be under cover of trees and near long grass and bushes. Please also check your child afterwards for ticks. Thank you to the parents who have offered to help on the trip. We look forward to sharing the itinerary for the day with you as well as the Risk Assessment prior to leaving.

Maths: We will be learning to solve addition and subtraction problems using a number track and exploring different possibilities.

Phonics: We will be reading longer words by chunking the root word then the suffix -er or -est.

Literacy: We will continue to innovate our 'Bear Hunt' story writing up the ideas we had last week into a sentence or sentences.

Have a brilliant weekend. Keep everything crossed for a dry day on Monday!

x

Week Beginning 19th June

Congratulations to Hedgehogs and Squirrels for fantastic class assemblies this week. Squirrels performed to their parents, sharing their learning in Literacy about the story 'The Sleepy Bumblebee' and all the facts and skills they had developed. Hedgehogs shared their learning about Space during their assembly, including lots of facts about the planets. Thank you to all of the parents who supported their child in learning their lines at home! 

This week we have been finding the answer to 'what is a star?' and exploring different constellations. Many of our stories and music focus has been about aliens, the children have had fantastic ideas about what aliens might look like and how they might move. 

Next week

Phonics- In Phonics next week we will be reading root words with endings including -ing, -ed that can make the 't' and 'id' sound. 

Literacy- We will begin to innovate our story 'We're going on a bear hunt', changing the setting of the story. 

Maths- We will continue to develop our understanding and use of positional language and explore how the position of objects in relation to others can change from different viewpoints. 

Understanding the world- We will be coming back to Earth from outer space to begin our learning about mini-beasts. We will also explore the artwork of famous artist Henri Matisse. 

SWIMMING REMINDER- Please ensure that on swimming days your child DOES NOT have their earrings in. Thank you. 

Have a lovely weekend in the sun! 

Week Beginning 12th June 2023

Our journey through space continues and the children have been excitedly building space vehicles and aliens and drawing what they think space might look like. We all jumped onto a rocket and flew to space to find out about the planets and the sun.

With the wonderful weather we've been making the most of outside, looking after the bees nesting in the planter and observing other tiny creatures passing through.

Next Week:

Squirrels and Hedgehogs are both busy preparing their assemblies and are looking forward to performing to you all next week. 

Reminder: Squirrels, Tuesday at 9.15am and Hedgehogs, Thursday at 9.15am.

Maths: we will be representing even and odd numbers using a ten frame and the pair-wise method where we make sets of two to find out if the number is even or odd.

Literacy: Words ending in 's' making the 's' sound as in 'jumps' and the 'z' sound as in 'frogs', and words ending in 'es' as in 'torches'.

Topic: We will use non-fiction books to find out about stars and the most important star for our planet. We'll also learn to identify some constellations.

Week Beginning 5th June

It was wonderful to welcome the children back into school after the half term break and hear all about their adventures during their week off. 

This week we introduced our new topic 'Our Wonderful World', starting to learn about Space. This has created great excitement amongst the children! They have been applying their imaginative skills to draw pictures of what they think space looks like, taking on the role of an astronaut to go on space missions and had great fun creating a huge spaceship in our outdoor area! We have read one of our spine books, 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy, and discussed if it would really be possible to have a picnic on the moon. Reasons why we couldn't included: "the food would all float up because there is no gravity" and "we would need to wear special space helmets and we wouldn't be able to eat with them on". 

We also began our next story focus in Literacy 'We're going on a bear hunt' where we will concentrate on the settings. We listened to the story and identified the settings and generated adjectives and verbs for each. Then we created our own spine poem. The children did an amazing job! 

Show and tell- This half term we are introducing show and tell. The children can bring in an item of interest which must be linked to our learning to share with their class, talk about and answer any questions the children may have. For the next couple of weeks we will continue to learn about space. 

Next week:

Phonics-We are revising our Phase 2 and 3 sounds and using them to read CCVC, CCCVC, CCV words including: stair, fright, sweet, screech. 

Literacy- We will be continuing to learn our new story 'We're going on a bear hunt', by constructing a story map and putting actions to it. We will share the text and story map on this page so your child can practice at home. 

Maths- We will be continuing to develop our understanding in sharing equally by grouping, using the story 'The doorbell rang' by Pat Hutchins. 

Understanding the world- We will be looking at the planets, discovering the planet we live on and considering which other planets may be somewhere we could live too! We will use non-fiction texts to find out about them. 

Reminder- Please please please label all of your child's items for school. We have found that now the weather is warmer and cardigans and jumpers are not being worn, there are quite a few that are not named, this makes it very tricky to get them to their owner quickly. Thank you. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week Beginning 22nd May 2023

Our first full week in a long time and everyone has been so engaged in their learning.

We were really lucky to have a visit on Tuesday from Leatherhead Fire Station. Thank you to Matt (a friend of Harriet's family) who was able to organise the fire engine and some of his crew to come in to school. The children had an amazing time handling the hose and squirting water across the front playground. They all learnt how Harry protects himself from danger and even had a go at stomping on his boots ... and he didn't feel a thing! Everyone got to climb into the cab and see what it looked like from way up there and as we waved goodbye they flashed the lights and sounded the siren. 

On Thursday morning, it was Squirrels turn to go to Ashtead Library. They had a fantastic time. They also learnt about joining the library and enjoyed listening to and joining in with the story 'Mrs Honey'. A big THANK YOU to all the parents for your help to walk to and from the library.

Swimming lessons are going ... well ... swimmingly. The children are having fun and the swimming teachers are really impressed with their behaviour in the pool and swimming skills already. We'd like to say a HUGE Thank you to all the parents who are able to give up their time to help, we really appreciate it and of course wouldn't be able to do it without you. We understand that it is a little more difficult now with many more parents working and now even having to go back into the office too. Thank you x

Next term our topic will be Space.

Have a lovely half term - hope the sun continues to shine 

Week Beginning 15th May

Hedgehogs and Squirrels have been extremely busy this week. Our biggest highlight has been starting swimming lessons! The sun thankfully shone and all of the children had great fun with our friendly swimming teachers. In amongst all of the excitement of swimming we have also been inventing our own wishing tales in Literacy and learning to take away in Maths. 

On Thursday afternoon Hedgehogs went to Ashtead Library and had a fantastic time. They learnt about joining the library and listened to and joined in with the story 'Mrs Honey'. A big THANK YOU to Hedgehogs parents for your help to walk to and from the library. Next Thursday morning, it's squirrels turn! So far we have one parent helper, please please please let the office know if you can go with them, otherwise we will have to cancel if we are unable to get there safely. 

Congratulations to Ethan in Hedgehogs for winning the reading raffle this week! Don't forget to record reading sessions at home- your child could be the lucky winner! 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be reviewing some of the words we have been finding challenging so far this half term. for example, CCCVCC words, those ending in -ed that can also make the 't' or 'id' sound at the end of words as well as words ending in -est.

Maths- We will be exploring doubling, learning that is it the same as adding to sets of the same number together. 

Understanding the world- We will be finding out about birds that live at the seaside and learning about the creatures often found in rockpools. 

Reminder

Squirrels had no parent helpers this week for swim change! We cannot do it without you, so if you are available either Tuesday of Thursday afternoon and have a DBS check through the school please let us know.

Have a lovely weekend 

Week Beginning 8th May 2023

After another Bank Holiday Monday we have been very busy learning in Hedgehogs and Squirrels this week. We have innovated our 'Sleepy Bumblebee' story and written it out as a class with the new characters responsible for not allowing Mr Bumblebee to sleep. There were chickens clucking, kittens meowing and the Creepers moaning! We're all looking forward to some peace and quiet over the weekend now. Both classes are doing really well in Phonics reading compound words and next week we will be assessing them all again to see how well they use their phonic knowledge to decode unfamiliar words. Please make sure you read the Little Wandle reading books over the weekend at least 3 times (writing in the reading record) and return the books on Monday for the next group to read. In Maths the children are beginning to understand strategies to find the 'Then' in a First, Then, Now story using a 10 frame and double sided counters. First there were 3, Then 4 more got on, Now there are 7! We added the number we know First =3 as red counters then counting from the beginning to the number we know for Now = 7 and placing blue sided counters on the 10 frame to show the extra. Later we tried to find First. When the First part is unknown we start with what we know at the the end of the story (Now) and then work back eg Now there are 7, so show 7 red counters. We know 4 got on so turn over 4 counters (blue). The number of red counters tells us how many were on First. We always check by reading the whole story from the beginning.

We also learned more about seaside holidays in the past and now and lots of the children were able to talk about their experiences.

Next Week:

!!SWIMMING STARTS!! 🏊🏼‍♀️ 😎

Squirrels - Tues/Thurs pm

Hedgehogs - Wed/Fri pm

Please note that unless we have enough parents to support us in changing the children safely and quickly the lessons will not be able to go ahead. Please contact your class rep if you think you may be able to help with any of the sessions above.

Visit to Ashtead Library 📚

Due to timetabling of swimming lessons, Squirrels will be visiting the library on another date tbc. We will let you know when we hear from the library as to availability. Hedgehogs will still be going on Thursday 18th May. (Class Reps could you confirm we have enough helpers please?)

Understanding the World 🌍

Finding out about Brighton and how to stay safe in the sun.

Maths 🔢

Problem solving - taking away using First, Then, Now stories.

Phonics and Literacy 📖

Words ending with 'ing', 'ed', 'est'

Learn to use adjectives to extend our sentences to make our stories even more interesting.

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget school on MONDAY!

x

Week Beginning 1st May 2023

Even though it's only been a 4 day week, we've still managed to have an incredibly busy week! This week has mainly been learning about the celebration of the King's Coronation. We have found out about King Charles III and what will happen during the Coronation this weekend. The children have enjoyed lots of Coronation themed activities including making union jack flags, golden carriages using paper plates and palaces using construction materials. We finished the week on a high coming into school wearing red, white and blue. The children's crowns were magnificent, fit for a King! Thank you parents for you support in making the crowns at home. Even though the weather meant we couldn't have our picnic outside, it was wonderful to have it together in the hall. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be learning to read longer words and compound words e.g. windmill (wind-mill), lunchbox (lunch-box). 

Literacy- We will be innovating our story 'The sleepy bumblebee', changing the characters Mr Bumblebee meets. We'll then write the story as a class using our innovated story map to help. 

Maths- We will be continuing to learnt o add more, using 'first', 'then', 'now' and learning solve the 'then' part of a problem. 

Understanding the World- We're continuing with our seaside topic and learning about what trips to the seaside were like in the past compared to now. You may like to find out from parents and grandparents what it was like when they went to the seaside when they were young. 

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend and Coronation celebrations. 

Week Beginning 24th April 2023

This week we continued our Literacy topic learning the story of 'The Sleepy Bumblebee'. The children came up with some fantastic adjectives to describe the parts of a bee which we used to write Spine Poems. We were very impressed with their writing this week and how the handwriting practice over the holidays is helping them to form their letters correctly, starting in the correct place therefore making their writing neater and easier for them and others to read. Keep up the practice at home as this will really help with their fluency when they move in to Year One. We have learnt about who St George was, as it was St George's day on Sunday and why he has a special day. As part of our Understanding the World we have also talked about global warming and plastic in the oceans. The children were very keen to find out and give suggestions as to how we can look after our creatures and the plants that live in the sea. They were quite surprised to learn that a fish might think a plastic bottle was in fact something to eat and as a result have promised always to take their rubbish home with them and put it in the right bin.

Next Week

We will be finding out about our new King Charles III. Who is he? What does he like doing? what will his Coronation be like? The children will all decorate a special commemorative tea towel to bring home on Friday and we will of course be parading in our fabulous coronation crowns before enjoying our special Coronation picnic lunch (hopefully on the field if it's dry).

Reminder

Please make sure all Little Wandle Reading books are returned in your child's book bag on Tuesday (normally Monday). It is imperative that we have all books returned on the first day of the school week every week as we need to check them all back in and issue them to the next group to be reading them the same morning.

Request

We are lucky enough to be visiting Ashtead Library in the afternoon of Thursday 18th May and would like 5 parents per class to help us to get there and back. We will need adults to walk kerbside and to assist with crossing roads. Squirrels will be leaving at 1.15pm and Hedgehogs will be leaving at 1.45pm. We will then spend half an hour learning about how the library is set out and have time to explore and share a story. Unfortunately we can't accommodate younger siblings as this affects our ratios and therefore the children's safety but if you can arrange alternative care we'd love to have you to help. If you are able to help then please contact your class reps.

Enjoy the lovely weather over the Bank Holiday weekend, I intend to tackle the weeds in the garden!

x

Week Beginning 17th April 2023

It was wonderful to see all of the children come back to school, excited and ready to learn! This week we have introduced our topic for this half term 'At the seaside', the children have shared their own experiences of the seaside. On Thursday we compared Ashtead to Poole, the children loved using Google Earth to observe features on the map, discovering how different it is in Poole to Ashtead. Some of the differences we found were that Poole has: a harbor, an aquarium, a beach, more houses and a bigger hospital.

In Literacy we began our new model text, 'The Sleepy Bumblebee'. On Thursday, a very strange noise was heard in our classes, we had to get our thinking caps on to try and work out what it was making the noise and why. Some ideas included a lion roaring, the gingerbread man sleeping because he was tired from all the running! We have been exploring the nouns in the story and their meaning. We went on to look closely at a bumblebee and label it using nouns. 

Next week:

Phonics: We will be applying our skills to read CVCC words inlcuding: shift, milk, drum and many more!

Literacy: We will be creating a spine poem called 'I am a bee', using nouns and adjectives. We will also learn the story using a story map and actions. 

Maths: We will be developing our spatial reasoning by matching 2D shapes and models, exploring how shapes need to be rotated to fit into spaces. 

Topic: We will be learning about St George's Day and understanding how pollution can affect the environment, including the ocean. We will learn of things we can do to protect the creatures in the environment if we were to go for a day out. 

Easter Home learning- Thank you to those of you who have supported your children in completing the handwriting booklet. These will be collected in on MONDAY, please ensure that it is in your child's bookbag. Thank you. 

Week beginning 27th March 2023

What a great way to end the term and our 'On the Move' topic on Transport. Mr Heels brought his vintage bus in to school for us to compare older transport with new . He told us it's called Guy and we all got to climb aboard. It has a wooden floor and a bell to tell the driver when you are ready to go and when to stop - it's a string that runs along the ceiling to the bell in a box above the driver. Mr Heels gave us a paper ticket that had 'old money' printed on it.

On Tuesday we dazzled everyone with our fantastic dance performance with Mr Rae. All the hard work was worth it and we hope you enjoyed the show.

Next Half Term we will be starting our topic 'At the Seaside'.

Have a wonderful Easter break

X

Week Beginning 20th March 2023

We have come towards the end of our 'On the move' topic this half term with a bang! There have been quite a few highlights from this week, relating to transport. First, on Thursday morning we walked to the footbridge at Ashtead station looking for the signs and features at the station and along the tracks. The bridge gave us a great view point! We watched 2 trains pass and got a wave from the drivers! A big thank you to the parents who kindly gave up some of their time to help us get there and back safely. The excitement continued into Thursday afternoon when Mr Hill brought his electric car in, we found out about how it works and how he uses his phone to open and close the boot! Thank you Mr Hill for your time and letting the children sit in the car. Friday has been very wet, but between the showers we managed to have our 'Wheels parade', the children confidently rode their bikes and scooters around the track. Thank you parents for bringing these into school for this event. 

In Maths this week we have been exploring repeating patterns and making our own. We have been busy spotting which part of the pattern repeats. Our patterns have been ABB patterns, for example: red, yellow, yellow, red, yellow, yellow. 

Next week:

Next week is our final week of the Spring term. It's going to be packed full of lots of learning, here's what we will be up to:

Phonics- We will be reviewing the sounds and words we have been finding a little tricky to remember. 

Maths- We will be exploring patterns within numbers beyond 10, and using this to solve subtraction problems. We will be using the explanation of how many 10's and how many more. For example, 13 is 1 ten and 3 more. We will use ten frames to help us solve these problems. 

Understanding the World- We will be learning about signs of spring and the Christian celebration of Easter. 

Thank you to all of our parents for coming to parents consultations this week, we really enjoyed meeting with you and sharing your children's progress. 

Have a lovely weekend.  

Week Beginning 13th March 2023

Wow - What a busy week we've had in Reception this week. The children have sorted 3D shapes, learnt the rest of The Gingerbread Man story and become boat engineers! And then today it was Red Nose Day, so we all donned our red clothes and had some fun. Mrs Gibbard talked about St Patrick's Day in assembly this afternoon and everyone watched in amazement at the Irish Country Dancing (on the screen...not Mrs Gibbard ).

Next Week

Topic - We plan to visit the railway footbridge to watch some trains go under as we learn all about trains.

Maths - Describe and continue repeating patterns

Literacy - We will be thinking about why the Gingerbread Man ran away and writing about it.

Calling all child engineers! ...Look out for a parentmail about decorating your wheels for a parade in the playground next week too. You could decorate your scooter, bike or even your go-kart. Decorate it in any way you like and bring it in on Friday. We will parade around the front playground in the morning and take lots of photos of the children having fun on their wheels. We look forward to seeing your marvellous machines on Friday.

Week Beginning 6th March 

Hedgehogs and Squirrels have been busy bees again this week, there was great excitement on Wednesday when it snowed! A surprise to us all! Our 'On the Move' topic has focused on Construction site vehicles and those used by the emergency services. The children have painted pictures of their favourite construction vehicle and turned them into moving pictures, developing their DT skills of punching holes and joining using a split pin. They thought carefully about which part of the vehicle moves and where they needed to place the hole and pin to make it work. We started to look at emergency service vehicles too, starting with an ambulance. We learnt how to call 999 and ask for the emergency service we would need. As part of this we also learnt the important life skill of knowing how to put someone into the recovery position. 

In Maths we have been busy learning our number bonds to 10- something we need to know by heart by the end of the year! We have explored using 2 numbers to make 10 with numicon, tens frames and double sided counters. 

Next week:

Phonics-We will be continuing to apply our phonic knowledge to read longer words such as: market, corner, wooden. And begin to read words ending in -ing. 

Literacy- We will continue to internalise our focus story 'The Gingerbread man', learning putting axtions to the middle part of our story using the story map to help. 

Maths- We will be exploring 3D shapes, finding out if they stack, roll or slide, beginning to understand their properties. We will also learn the names for: cube, cuboid, sphere, cone, cylinder and recognise everyday objects that match these shapes. 

Understanding the World- We will learn about water transport, focusing on types of boats. We will make out own using recycled materials. 

Have a lovely weekend!  

Week Beginning 20th February and 27th February 2023.

Last week after a visit from some pesky gingerbread men (we discovered footage of them playing in the classrooms). The children got to work making traps to catch them as well as painting, drawing and writing about them. We managed to capture 2 gingerbread men but unfortunately they escaped their traps and all we found was a trail of breadcrumbs. The children explored lots of different scenarios - they had burrowed underground on the field, where the trail ran dry, to escape the fox, they had been lifted to safety in a hot air balloon or maybe even eaten by the cunning fox.

In Maths we have been exploring 9 and 10. Using a 10 frame the children can quickly spot 9 if there is one space free and 10 if the 10 frame is full. And showing 9 on their fingers they know one finger is down. We have been arranging numerals to 10 to make a number line and spotting when the cheeky teddy has changed one or more of the numerals. We read the story '10 Black Dots' and made our own pictures representing 9 or 10.

We have been finding out about what we already know about transport and looking at similarities between old and new forms of transport. This week we sorted different kinds of vehicles into ones that travel on the land, the sea or in the air. It has been lovely sharing some of the children's own information books at home to support this learning too and this week we learned a lot about flying machines.

It was also Book Week this week. Reading to a friend in another class, sharing our favourite stories, dressing up as our favourite book characters and on Friday taking part in a whole school 'Book Quiz' in mixed age teams was the highlight for many. Some of Hedgehogs and Squirrels were even on the two joint winning teams! We all had a lot of fun. Thank you Mrs Theobald for organising it.

Next Week:

Topic - We will find out about vehicles used by construction workers and the emergency services. If any parents have access to a bulldozer or digger or any of the emergency services vehicles we'd love to hear from you. 

Maths - Exploring ways to make 10. There will be a fairies Star Learner activity in the Maths Area inside.

Literacy - We will build on our learning about Nouns and Adjectives by exploring Verbs next week.

Reminder:

Please remember to record each time your child reads with you in their Reading Record. This can be their Little Wandle Reading book and any books from home/library/reading for pleasure. We expect every child to read for at least 10 minutes 3 times a week at home. Your child receives a raffle ticket for each home reading session to win a prize every Friday in Achievers assembly. We have changed the timings of our group reading sessions to allow the maximum opportunity for your child to read their LW book with you before they need to return the book again on Mondays. They will take their book home on Wednesday next week. You can follow the prompts in the back of the book to support your child in areas that they need to develop e.g prosody and comprehension.

Have a lovely weekend!

x

Week Beginning 6th February 2023

What better way to finish our topic on Amazing Animals than with 'Pet Week'. Thank you to everyone who brought in their pets to show us. Quite a few dogs as well as a hamster and a tortoise too. It's good to hear how you all know how to look after your pets. We have learned what they eat and how often they need to be fed as well as what their favourite treats are. How old they are and when their birthdays are too. We talked about taking our pets to the vet to keep them healthy. We also learnt that Mrs Gregory's dog Isla had to go to the vet a few times for eating things dog's shouldn't have as well as having an operation on her back. It was lovely to see all your pets and hear how knowledgeable you are. They were all so well behaved too.

Next half term our topic will be 'On the Move'. We will learn about lots of different forms of transport from land, sea and the air/ We will look at similarities and differences of transport over time and hopefully have some real life examples to visit us at school.

Have a great half term!

x

Week Beginning 30th January

Reception have had a very exiting penultimate week of our 'Amazing Animals' topic for this half term. This week we have been learning about farm animals. We have found out the names of their young, named the different parts of their bodies and made comparisons and identifying the similarities and differences between them. The children have been exploring the farm through small world and role play, using our Barnett Wood Minimoo in the outside area! On Friday we were incredibly lucky to have Timmy the pony visit us with his owner Sally and Mrs Manders. We found out about how he is looked after and some fascinating facts. Did you know they are counted in hands from their foot to the top of their shoulder? Timmy is about 13 hands. We also found out that he is a herbivore and has flat teeth to grind his food (including hay and grass). What an exciting way to end our farm animal week. 

Thank you to parents for signing in your child's reading record if your child has been reading this week. They have been very excited to add their raffle tickets into the box for the draw in assembly! 

Next week:

Phonics- It will be review week for us as we have reached the end of Spring 1, we will be revisiting the following sounds to help consolidate them as we are finding them tricky to remember: 'ear' 'er' 'oa' 'ai' 'oo' 'oo' (long sound)

Maths- We will be comparing and ordering objects by length and height. We will also explore how to measure them using non-standard units such as bricks and paper clips. At home you might like to explore finding things around the house that are longer or shorter than your favourite toy or to find things that are taller or shorter than you. 

UtW- It is 'pet week' next week, bringing a close to our Amazing animals topic. Thank you to those of you who have signed up to bring your pet in. The children are very excited to meet them and find out how they are cared for. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Week Beginning 23rd January 2023

We have continued to explore our Talk 4 Writing story 'Jack and the Beanstalk' this week. First we described the Giant, thinking of lots of ways to describe how he looks as well as what he is like inside - his feelings and thoughts. The children wrote about this on a giant Giant in their writing books. We then retold the story using our backward 's' plan and decided to change who he meets at the top of the beanstalk. When the children acted this out with their learning partner they had a lot of fun showing what would happen if Jack met a Princess, a dinosaur or even a Superhero. Mostly the story was cut short there as Jack killed them!

Next week our Amazing Animals topic will take us to the farm when we will talk about the children's experience of visiting farms with animals and why do we have farm animals? We will learn about the similarities and differences of different farm animals, name the parts of animals eg hooves, tail etc and why they are suited to living in their particular environment on the farm e.g why do ducks have webbed feet?

Next week

Phonics - We will continue to read our tricky words and short sentences and will introduce chunking to read longer words.

Maths - We will be learning to combine 2 groups to find out how much altogether. As usual we will challenge their thinking to explain how they know the answer by explaining their thinking using the key vocabulary.

Every single child in Reception brought back their Little Wandle Reading book on Monday morning last week. This makes it much easier for us to be able to distribute the books to the classes/groups who will be using them from Tuesday so thank you very much, we really appreciate it.

Week Beginning 16th January

In Reception this week we have been busy learning about celebrating Chinese New Year. The home corner has been turned into a Chinese restaurant and the children have been developing their fine motor skills to eat the food using chopsticks! We have learnt about the story linked to Chinese New Year and the race the 12 animals had to decide who the year should be named after. After learning about how Chinese prepare and celebrate we ate fortune cookies and read our fortunes! 

It has also been freezing this week, giving the children a fantastic opportunity to explore ice, and finding ways to melt it to rescue some of our toys that had been trapped in an ice block!!! They worked together to think about how they could warm it up, deciding to put it in a sunny spot where it was warmer. 

Next week:

Maths- We will be learning about pairs, and using this to explore odd and even numbers. We will also practise putting counters into tens frames in the 'pair wise' way to find out if a number is odd or even. At home you may like to play pairs, pair up socks and see if they all have a pair or not. 

Phonics- We will be learning the final 2 sounds in Phase 3 (er and air) and then practise reading and spelling words with double letter sounds e.g. gg, ff. 

Understanding the world- Our Amazing animals topic will focus on woodland animals, learning about their habitat and when during the day they might be seen. Over the weekend you might like to go for a walk on the common or in other local woodland and see how many animals you spot! 

Thank you to those parents who have read 3 times and recorded this in their child's reading record, please continue to do this and remember to return group reading books on Monday. 

Week Beginning 9th January 2023

We've had a busy first full week at school. The beanstalks that arrived in the classrooms have been a great inspiration for our Literacy work this week, first we discovered a golden book with the story inside but some of it was missing! The children showed their creativity sharing their ideas of what might be at the top of the beanstalk and what might happen next. Their ideas were added to the golden book. We then looked at the front cover of the published story, identifying the title, author/illustrator and clues about the story from the pictures.

UTW - The children have enjoyed sharing their knowledge of Arctic Animals and finding out more about Penguins and Polar Bears in particular. We have used atlases to look at maps of the world and discovered the Arctic is mostly frozen ocean and the Antarctic is frozen land. Next week we will learn about African and Asian animals.

Phonics - This week we have  learnt 5 new digraphs oa, oo (as in moon), oo (as in book), ar and or. This has been quite a challenge so lots of practise recognising these digraphs over the weekend will help to consolidate the learning. The children could find words containing each digraph, practise writing the digraphs or make flashcards with the digraphs on to look at in succession like we do in our Phonics lessons.

Maths - This week has been brought to you by Number 5! The children have used the language of more than, fewer than, same as to compare sets. They also learnt that larger numbers are made up of smaller numbers (to 5) eg 3 and 2 more makes 5.

Next week:

Literacy - We will continue our work on Jack and the Beanstalk

Phonics - We will learn the digraphs ur, ow, oi, ear.

Maths - Comparing mass and capacity as well as looking at the composition of 6, 7 and 8.

UtW - Asian and African animals as well as finding out about Chinese New Year.

Have a fun weekend!

x

Week Beginning 1st January

Happy New Year to you all! It has been wonderful hearing about the children's Christmas celebrations on their return to school this week. The children have returned to school with a positive attitude towards their learning and showed us how ready they are for this half terms challenges. 

We have been extremely busy with our learning this week! In Phonics we started Phase 3, learning more digraphs and our first trigraph! (3 letters that make 1 sound). 

Something extraordinary happened on Wednesday! We came into the classrooms to discover beanstalks had grown over night! It was quite a sight and in Literacy we have been carefully thinking about where it came from and who might live at the top! There were some fantastic imaginative ideas. 

Next week

Phonics- We will continue with Phase 3, learning more digraphs including: oa, oo/oo, ar and recognise these sounds in words as well as begin to spell words containing them.

Maths- We will be comparing sets of objects, recognising if there are more than, less that or the same as. We will also begin to explore the composition of 5 using beanbags and double sided counters. This will help us to understand our number bonds to 5, something we need to know by heart by the end of Reception. 

Understanding the World- This half term our topic is 'Amazing animals', next week we will be exploring those that live in the polar regions. 

Reading- Thank you to those who have been filling out their reading records over the Christmas period, it has been wonderful to see how many books your children have shared. Please remember to record in your child's record every time they read to you at home. Just a simple note alongside the title of the book would be really useful to help us know how much reading they are doing outside of school. Thank you.

NEWSFLASH!

MATHS MASTERY WORKSHOP

On Wednesday evening Mrs Ball our Maths lead will be hosting a Maths Mastery Workshop for all parents to gain an understanding of what 'mastery' is and how we teach it at Barnett Wood. This would be a really valuable opportunity for Reception Parents to attend to learn more. 

Week Beginning 12th December 2022

What a busy week! The highlight of the week has to be our Christmas Performance at St Georges Church. The children looked magnificent in their twinkly costumes sitting so well on stage with all the other children at school. They sang beautifully and showed how well they've been concentrating to learn all the words, even to the songs that we have just heard the rest of the school singing. We noticed some children really stand out and fully expect to be going to see them in the West End in years to come! Thank you to all the parents who were able to help us walk the children safely to church too.

The performance coupled with a smattering of snow (I'm from the North East of Scotland so have different expectations when it snows) really made for an exciting week. Everyone enjoyed playing in the snow on the field and building snowmen although I'm sure all the staff are pleased that we don't get lots of snow more often as getting ready to go out and come back in again was a military mission. There are quite a few unclaimed gloves etc which we will put out at the green doors on the first day back in January.

So we would just like to say a huge thank you for your very generous gifts and cards and we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you all again on Wednesday 4th January 2023!!

Week Beginning 5th December

This week we have been very busy learning about the Christmas Story in our Understanding the World lessons. We have also found out about how and when Christmas is celebrated in Greece as a couple of our children are Greek/ have Greek families. It was fascinating to find out about their special biscuits called melomakarona that are cinnamon biscuits soaked in syrup and topped with walnuts and kourabiedes that are biscuit dough with almonds and topped with lots of icing sugar. We also found out that Father Christmas doesn't visit until New Years Day. 

The children really did us proud on Wednesday afternoon this week when we performed our Christmas songs to pre-school Butterflies. Thank you to pre-school for coming to visit us and singing your Christmas songs too, we really enjoyed it. 

There was great excitement on Friday morning when it started to snow a little bit! The children have been busy finding ice and talking about it being frozen water and ways we could make it melt. 

Next week:

Next week is our final week before the Christmas break, but we still have lots of learning to squeeze in! 

Phonics- We will be continuing to review all of the sounds and words we have learnt this half term.

Maths- We will be learning about shapes with 4 sides, looking at squares and rectangles, being able to find them around school. Maybe you could find some whilst you are out and about or at home. 

Understanding the world: We will be learning about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah and the story behind it. 

Reminder: The children are stars this year in the Christmas performance, please ensure their outfit is in a named bag on their peg on Monday if it is not already in school as we need them for the dress rehearsal. Thank you. 

Have a lovely weekend, we look forward to seeing you are our Christmas performance next week. 

Week Beginning 28th November 2022

We had such a fun day on Wednesday making lots of Christmas crafts and decorating the classroom. The whole school is looking so Christmassy now with our angels hanging in the hall. A huge thank you to all the parents who were able to come in and help the children to complete angels, stained glass windows, salt dough stars to be displayed in St Georges Church and Christmas trees to name but a few. Please enjoy looking at our crazy hair do's on Friday which we wore in return for bringing a toy for the Christmas Fair Toy Tombola. We are all looking forward to the Christmas Fair on Sunday and hope to see many of you there.

Next Week:

Maths - Find one more and one less, using the story of the Gingerbread Man and the nursery rhyme 5 Currant Buns as a starting point.

Literacy - We will be consolidating the learning of the digraphs ch, sh, ng, nk and th. We will also continue our Christmas story creating actions to retell it.

Topic - We will learn about the Christian celebration of Christmas in the UK and find out about Greek celebrations at this time of year.

Don't forget Christmas Jumper Day (just for fun) on Friday and Christmas lunch too. 

Week Beginning 21st November

This week in Reception the children have been developing their story telling skills. We have used 's maps' to draw representations of the characters, events and a key object. As a class we then created actions to help us retell it in the style of Pie Corbett. Take a look at your child's class story on Tapestry. Our story maps are below, the children would love to retell it to you at home! 

After lots of practise we performed it to the other Reception class, the teachers are very proud of the children's story telling and performing skills.   

Next week

Phonics- We have learnt all of the phase 2 sounds so will be reviewing the sounds we have learnt so far to ensure we are really secure with them. We will also be reading plural words. 

Maths- We will be learning about the number 5, exploring ways of making it using smaller numbers. 

Literacy- We will use our 's maps' and make changes to the character, object and setting to create a new story with actions. 

Christmas Art and DT morning

Please please sign up if you are able to help. We will be making lots of Christmas decorations to put up in our classes. It's always an enjoyable event for the children and parents! Thank you to those of you who have already signed up to help. 

Week Beginning 14th November 2022

Something exciting happened this week. The baby dinosaur that hatched out of the egg we found in the sandpit disappeared. Luckily our Reception CCTV caught the moment the Mummy dinosaur arrived in the classroom to collect her baby. The children were very excited about it and have been busy writing about what happened and drawing pictures. We also learnt about Baryonyx, the dinosaur skeleton that was discovered by amateur fossil hunter William Walker in 1983 near Ockley, not far from Ashtead. In Maths we've been describing the position of objects (under, beside, next to, in front of, behind) as well as directional language when we went on a Bear Hunt. We have been really impressed with the children's progress in Phonics, all the extra blending practice is paying off, and this week we have been learning z and the digraphs qu and ch. 

Next Week

Maths - Making 4 and 5 - Does your 4 look the same as mine? Can you arrange your objects on a 5 frame?

UTW - Were all dinosaurs big? What did dinosaurs sound like?

Have a lovely weekend

x

Week Beginning 7th November 

The children in Reception have been so busy again this week! In Maths we have been exploring the composition of numbers 1,2 and 3. The children have explored this using cubes, double sided counters, counters and beanbags. The beanbags were a great success, and it was wonderful to see the children choosing to find out ways we can make 3 and trying to record it on the board. 

We also found out about the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning. There was great excitement when we found fossils in the sandpit this week and chipping away at a dinosaur fossil kit, just like she would have done to discover a tiny bit of dinosaur skeleton. We're hoping to carry on next week and find more! 

Thank you to all of the parents who came to parent consultations this week, it was wonderful to spend time sharing your child's progress. If you have any questions at any point, please don't hesitate to speak to us. 

Reminder about pocket toys- if your child would like to bring a toy to school to use during lunchtime, please ensure it is named, is small enough to fit in their pocket and not precious. If your child has chosen to bring in some collectable cards, they should have no more than 3. Thank you. 

Next week's learning:

Maths- We will be exploring positional language such as over, under, next to, on top, through the use of stories such as Rosie's Walk. 

Phonics- we will begin to learn digraph sounds qu and ch. A digraph is 2 letters that makes 1 sound. 

Understanding the world-We will be comparing what England would have been like when dinosaurs existed and finding out about the Baryonyx that was discovered near Dorking. 

Have a lovely weekend

Week Beginning 31st October 2022

Well done to all the children who are already saying goodbye in the cloakroom and have been coming to the classroom with their friends in the mornings - you are all very grown up! The children are so familiar with morning routines and quickly get ready to learn.

This week we have continued our topic of 1,2,3 it's me! in Maths and have been using the language more, less and fewer to compare two groups of objects. In Phonics we have learnt about ff,ll,ss,j and our revision lesson today showed how well the children are hearing the sounds in words and blending to read. Our tricky words this week have been particularly tough so extra practice over the weekend would be good. Maybe they could be written on a scrap of paper and your child has to read it every time they go into their bedroom.

NEWS FLASH!! We found an egg in our sandpit. It's very big and speckled and it has a small hole in one end. We talked about how we would look after it by wrapping it in something soft and warm (a towel) and protecting it in a bucket. We have been writing notes about the egg and watching it closely.

Next week:

Maths - we will learn about composition of number, that bigger numbers are made up of smaller numbers. We will recognise and describe circle and triangle.

Phonics - next week we will learn v,w,x,y and the formation for each.

Topic - We will continue to learn about dinosaurs. Hopefully the egg that we found this week doesn't hatch over the weekend. Tom was concerned it might make a big mess in the classrooms playing with all the toys!

Week Beginning 17th October

Firstly, we'd like to thank all of our parents for their support during your child's first half term at Barnett Wood. The children have shown they are ready to learn and have transitioned into school life incredibly well. 

This week has been full of exciting events! On Tuesday the school nurse came to visit Reception to teach us about dental hygiene and hand washing. We learnt some very important information such as:

• needing to brush our teeth twice a day to brush away the sugars to stop us getting holes in our teeth. 
• healthy foods and those with more sugar we should have every now and again 
• making sure we visit the dentist at least once a year
• washing our hands to stop the spread of germs

A great big THANK YOU to the parents who were able to help us walk to and from the church for our Harvest Assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday, We are so proud of the children performing to our audience. 

In Maths this week the children have been learning to represent 1,2 and 3 in different ways using numicon, dominoes, counting objects. 

In Phonics we have been reviewing some of the phonemes we have already learnt this half term, securing our recognition of them and developing our blending skills further. 

We have been learning about signs of Autumn, the children have loved finding autumn artefacts such as acorns, leaves and sycamore seeds whilst on an autumn walk around the school grounds. 

First week back after half term:

Maths- We will be continuing to develop our understanding of one more and one less as well as comparing groups of 1,2,3 objects.

Phonics- We will begin Autumn 2 in the Little Wandle, Letters and Sounds programme. Introducing the phoneme j and developing our blending and spelling skills. 

We hope you all have a wonderful and restful half term break! 

The Reception Team

Week Beginning 10th October 2022

What a busy week! Thank you to all the parents who shared their thought on what it was like when they were 4 or 5. It was lovely to reminisce. The children have been busy designing Christmas Cards which will be sent off to the printers and you will be able to order in time for Christmas. More details to follow next week. The designs were chosen by the children and will look amazing when made into professional cards. We have learnt to follow and continue lots of different repeating patterns this week including action patterns, colour patterns and even tongue twister patterns (red lorry, yellow lorry). Today we also managed to 'fix' some patterns that had gone wrong!

Next Week:

Our Harvest festival will be at St Georges church on Wednesday 19th October. We would really appreciate a couple of adults per class to help us to take the children across the roads to the church for our rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon from 1.15pm and on Wednesday first thing after drop off. If you are able to help please speak to the Class Reps and they will let us know who is available to help. You don't need to be able to help on both occasions.

Maths - show the numbers 1-3 in different ways, matching the amounts to the correct numeral and subitising (recognising an amount quickly without having to count each time)

Literacy - We will be assessing the children on the sounds we have learnt so far (s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,ck,e,u,r) and use this to inform our planning. We will also revise some of the sounds that the children have found trickier.

Topic - The Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival of Diwali begins on 24th October so we will be finding out more about the festival and how it is celebrated by families. As Halloween happens over half term we will also spend some time talking about how families celebrate this festival.

This half term has gone so quickly, we can't believe there is only one week left before the half term holiday. We look forward to seeing you at Bake and Taste on Saturday. Have a good weekend.

Week Beginning 3rd October 

We have had another busy week in Reception! The children have continued to be excited to learn new phonemes in phonics and have been busy spotting them in the environment. They have loved using finding the graphemes in the water beads and found objects with the matching initial sound. We started our group reading sessions this week, your child has their reading book in their book bag along with a reading for pleasure book. Group reading books need to be returned on MONDAY. Please read the accompanying letter for more information. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask you child's teacher. 

The children have really enjoyed comparing length, height and size in maths this week. Particularly, the using the story 'A squash and a squeeze' to compare size and finding objects around the classroom that were longer or shorter than their measuring worm! 

Next week

Phonics- We will continue to learn another 4 phonemes and their graphemes and begin to write simple words, by segmenting them to support with spelling. 

Maths-We will be continuing, copying and creating our own simple repeating patterns. For example, red, yellow, red, yellow, red, yellow. 

Understanding the world- We will be finding out about how times have changed since our parents were 4 and 5. Please remember to email in memories of your childhood such as toys, days out, holidays, what school was like if you are able to so we can share them with the children. 

Have a lovely weekend

Week Beginning 26th September 2022

We have had a very busy week learning 4 new phonemes and graphemes and sorting lots of different objects according to colour or categories to describe what they are eg dinosaurs or bears. We all enjoyed finding out what babies do and what they can all do now that is different. Thank you for sending the photos in, isn't it funny how you can really see who is who in most of them? 

Everyone really enjoyed their first lesson with KIKO this week (including the staff). The children are learning to change independently, keeping their clothes and shoes together so they don't loose articles of clothing in the process. The children listened really well to the instructions and had so much fun joining in.

Both classes have been busy making displays for the hall on their chosen favourite book 
(as voted for as a class). We look forward to showing them off to you when you come to Bake and Taste next weekend if not before... watch this space!

Next week:

Phonics - We will be learning the phonemes ck, e, u and r and the how to recognise and form the graphemes

Maths - We will be comparing objects according to size, height and length as well as comparing amounts.

Topic - We will be talking about special celebrations that they may have experienced in their family such as birthdays, weddings and parties.

Week Beginning 19th September

Well done to everyone in Hedgehogs and Squirrels for having such a successful first full week at school. 

We have been very busy learning, developing new friendships and getting to grips with the routine of the school day.

In Phonics we have been learning the phonemes i, n, m, d. Alongside each phoneme we have learnt the formation phrase of the grapheme, practised writing it and started to blend simple words made up of 3 phonemes (sounds)

A big thank you to the parents who gave up their Wednesday evening to attend the Phonics workshop this week. We hope you found it informative. 

A few messages:

• Phonic folders- please ensure these are in your child's bookbag on a Thursday and Friday so we are able to place the updated sheet in it for the learning of the week. Those who did not have it in there today have had the sheet placed loose in bookbags, please add this to your child's folder. 
• Baby photos- Next week in our topic learning we will be thinking about what we were like and could do when we were babies and how we have changed between then and now. Please bring in a named photo for us to use to support our learning. Photos can be emailed to the school office info@barnett-wood.surrey.sch.uk 
• PE kit- Monday afternoon will be our first KIKO multi skills session, please ensure that your child's kit is in school and earrings are removed.

Next week's learning:

Maths-  We will be exploring matching a sorting objects such as socks, buttons and natural objects. 

Phonics- We will be learning another 4 phonemes g, o, c, k

Topic- We will be learning about how we have changed since we were a baby and about the famous artist Frida Kahlo. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

Week beginning 12th September 2022

First full week of school - done! The children have really impressed us with how quickly they have settled in the mornings and are already following school routines. We have been talking about 'our favourite things' and have chosen our favourite colours as well as our top 3 favourite books. Such classics as The Gruffalo and The Tiger who came to tea were firm favourites.

Thank you to all the parents who came to the 'Meet the Teacher' evening, it was lovely to meet you and as we said if you ever have any questions please see us after school or talk to the LSA who will be at the door each morning and they will pass the message on. All the slides can be found on the website. We hope to see you again at The Phonics Workshop on Wednesday 21st September from 7pm where you can gain more information about how we teach Phonics at Barnett Wood Infants.

Thank you to all the parents who offered to help by being Class Reps, hopefully you will be able to share the load and enjoy being part of organising events for the class and the school - honestly it can be quite fun!

A few children have started to bring pocket toys with them to school. We have plenty of playground toys to use in the playground at lunchtime, including the markings on the playground to invent their own games but if they would like to bring in a small toy from home it MUST be named and fit in the palm of their hand. 

Enjoy the weekend and we will see you on Tuesday.

Week Beginning 5th September-Our First week in Reception

We have had a wonderful week, welcoming all of our Hedgehogs and Squirrels into school this week. The children have settled so well and very quickly already! This week we have spent some time getting to know the new routines and our school rules of: Be kind, Be safe, Be ready! 

Please come along to the 'Meet the teacher' evening on Wednesday 14th September at 6pm in your child's classroom, to find out more about Reception!