Welcome to the Reception Year Group Page!

Week Beginning 18th July

We had a wonderful week jetting around the world for our final week in Reception. We started the week in South Africa, designing African style necklaces. With the heatwave it really felt like we were actually there! On Tuesday we popped to Italy, solving 'how many possibilities?', addition problems to find which possible combinations of pizza topping we could have for different totals. We also finished our trip there visiting the ice cream parlour, which the children loved, especially in the heat. On Wednesday we visited France, and finished our travelling in Australia on Thursday. The children enjoyed learning about the famous landmarks, foods and artists. 

All of the Reception staff would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our children and families for their incredibly kind gifts. We have been completely blown away by your kindness. We have loved teaching your children this year and watching them grow! 

We wish you all a wonderful summer break, see you in September! 

Week Beginning 11th July

Well, yet another busy week in Reception culminating in our Celebration Evening on Friday after school. The maps (completed as part of our Maths learning this week) on display in the hall were all fabulous and unique with the children deciding who the map was for and what features would need to be added. We had a variety displayed from maps of the school, journeys to school, treasure maps and maps of favourite traditional tales. It was lovely to see so many of you and be able to chat about your child's progress this year. We are so proud of all the children this year, having worked so hard and achieved so much. They are very excited about going into Year 1 next year.

Next Week:

Maths - We will be solving addition and subtraction problems using concrete objects and sharing ideas.

Literacy - We will continue to read with the children in groups next week but they will not be bringing their group reading book home for the summer. Instead they will choose a selection of books from our Reading for Pleasure range in the classroom to share over the holidays. We will continue teaching our normal Phonics lessons next week too.

Topic - We will be travelling Around the World next week. From Monday we will be experiencing some of the traditions and famous places in France, Italy, Australia and South Africa. If you have any artefacts you would like to send your child in with to tell the class about that would be lovely.

Thank you for applying sun screen before coming to school and ensuring your child has their water bottle and a hat every day. It is forecast to be extremely hot on Monday and Tuesday, please be reassured we will be following our school policy and the advice from Surrey to keep your children safe at school so may need to limit the amount of time in our outside area next week. I'm sure they will all be looking forward to their fun swim on Wednesday(Puffins) or Thursday(Penguins). 

Only 5 more school mornings before the Summer Holidays!!

Week Beginning 4th July

We have had yet another busy week in Reception. The children have been really showing their problem solving skills in maths! They have taken on the challenge of building and measuring bridges, using lolly sticks and matchsticks to compare their lengths and strength too! Our problem solving skills also encouraged us to apply our addition and subtraction knowledge to solve problems such as who scored the most points when throwing beanbags into numbered hoops, using a number track to help. 

Our children have continued to make us incredibly proud with their reading skills. Every week during group reading we are impressed with their confidence and fluency in reading. 

Next week:

Maths- We will be exploring maps, drawing them to represent journeys in our favourite stories and our walk to school. We will also explore using positional and directional language to direct characters through mazes. 

Phonics- We will continue with reviewing the sounds we have already learnt and use them to read CVCC/CCVC words. 

Topic- We will be continuing learning about space, using information books and creating our own representations of aliens! 

Next week is forecast to be a scorcher! Please ensure that your child comes into school with sun cream applied, a hat and their water bottle. 

We look forward to seeing many of you at the summer fair on Sunday! 

Week Beginning 27th June 2022

Wow! What a brilliant Sports Day. We are so proud of ALL the children for joining in and doing their best. It was lovely to see so many parents, brothers and sisters supporting and joining in too. Thank you for coming.

We have enjoyed finding out about Space this week, using the Index and Contents pages of non-fiction books as well as enjoying funny stories and poems.

Next week

Maths - Solving problems involving length and weight. Thinking carefully about how we can measure accurately using non-standard units.

Literacy - We will be learning about words with long vowel sounds for example growl, speech, broom and storm. We will also be assessing the Phonics learning so far and plugging any gaps.

Enjoy the weekend!

Week Beginning 29th June 2022

We are very proud of our children this week, both classes performed their assembly to their parents/visitors. Well done Puffins and Penguins, you worked so hard to learn your lines, the song and poem! If you came to watch, we hope you enjoyed it. 

This week we have been artists! We have learnt about the famous artist Henri Matisse and created our own mini-beast pictures in his style using our collaging techniques. Take a look in the photo slideshow to see our creations. We have continued learning about mini-beasts, and our children have become really interested in writing! They have been busy using their phonic knowledge to help write sentences. 

Next Week:

Phonics- We will be continuing to review the phonemes we have already learnt and use this to help us to read longer words, remembering to look for digraphs. 

Maths- We will be applying our understanding of number to solve addition and subtraction problems, for example, what possibilities are there to make 12? using the story One is a Snail, 10 is a crab to help us. 

Understanding the World/Topic- We are continuing within our topic 'Our Wonderful World', and beginning to learn about Space. The children will be using information books to find out more and begin to write facts. 

Have a lovely weekend

Week Beginning 13th June 2022

We all went to Nower Wood this week for the children's first school trip. It was a warm day but we spent most of the time under the trees in the shade, playing games and finding out about minibeasts. The children collected (wool) worms to fill up the birds and learnt how important camouflage is in the wild, they mixed potions using magic fairy water that changed colour from green to red and we sat quietly near the pond and just listened. We could hear lots of birds, swishing grass as well as an aeroplane. We learnt that the birds are communicating with each other and mostly shouting at each other to stay away! The children and adults all had a great time at Nower Wood and the staff at the centre all said how well behaved and interested the children were. We are very proud of them all.

Back at school the children have done some amazing writing about their favourite experiences on our trip 

Next Week:

Maths - We will continue learning about odd and even numbers and then move on to using positional language to describe where objects are in relation to each other, such as ……..in front, behind, to the right, to the left, on top of, under…?

Literacy - We will continue to learn CCVC and CCCVC words and the tricky words will be little, says, there, when and what. We will find out more about how non-fiction books are organised (contents page and index) and find the answers to our questions about minibeasts. 

Art - We learned about Henri Matisse and looked at his collage piece 'The Snail'. the children will all create their own minibeast by cutting and tearing coloured paper and building up a collage in the style of Matisse. 

We look forward to showing you some of the work around Minibeasts at our assemblies next week. Penguins on Tuesday morning and Puffins on Thursday morning.

Week Beginning 23rd May

This week we have been busy celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We have found out about her childhood, comparing it to ours and a timeline of her life. The children were fascinated to learnt about the different royal houses she has and that she has owned over 30 corgis during her reign as Queen. We have also been busy making castles for her as well as creating flags and crowns for our celebrations on Friday. Our celebrations were a wonderful way to end the week and celebrate the Queen, the children loved their street party in the playground, having fish and chips for lunch followed by a great performance to our parents to finish the day. 

First week when we return from half term

Phonics- We will be continuing to use our phonic knowledge to decode CVCC words, beginning to recognise them fluently. Please return your child's group reading book on Tuesday, ready for us to start sessions again on Wednesday. 

Maths- We will be learning to share sets of objects fairly between 2 and 3, being able to explore how to do this with odd and even quantities. Towards the end of the week we will apply this understanding to group sets of objects. 

Understanding the World-We will begin our new topic, 'Our Wonderful World', starting to explore minibeasts. 

We hope you have a restful half term break and look forward to seeing you ready and raring to go for our final half term of Reception. 

Week Beginning 16th May

The big news this week has been swimming. The children have really enjoyed swimming in the pool especially when the weather has been so warm and sunny. Miss Turner has been very pleased with their behaviour and it has been wonderful to see all the children gain confidence in such a short time. Thank you to the army of parents and grandparents who have volunteered to help so far - we couldn't run these lessons without your help and I'm sure those of you have already helped have seen just how much the children learn over the 2 sessions a week and more importantly just how much they love it!

Remember to bring a coat for after swimming. Your child should also have a hat in school every day as well as sun cream as we spend a lot of time outside.

Next week

Maths: We will be finding and matching doubles of numbers culminating in a game of dominoes on Friday.

Phonics: We will accelerate our progress in Phonics by including 2 extra lessons each week from now on. Next week we will continue learning to chunk longer words, how the grapheme 's' can make a 'z' sound and how adding 's' and 'es' to the end of words can create plurals.

The Queens Jubilee Celebrations: We look forward to holding our Barnett Wood Street Party in the playground on Friday lunch time and afterwards performing our songs to you on the field before home time. We hope to see you then.

Have a lovely weekend

x

Week beginning 9th May

We started the week with some baking! The children made rice crispy cakes, exploring what happens to the chocolate when it melts. We found that as the chocolate gets warm it turns from a solid to a liquid. 

As part of our 'At the seaside' topic, we have explored the similarities and differences between past and present. The children found it fascinating to find out that in Victorian times, swimming clothes were very different to how they are now and that huts were wheeled into the sea. It has been wonderful to hear the children's different experiences of visiting the seaside for day trips and holidays both here and abroad. 

Next week: 

Maths: We will be continuing to develop our understanding of subtraction, finding the 'then' part of these problems. We will also explore creating new shapes using right-angled triangles and squares. 

Phonics: In Phonics we will be continuing with Phase 4 learning to read: longer words, those ending in -ing and compound words (e.g. farmyard, carpark)

PSED (circle time Jigsaw): We are learning about feeling angry and strategies to help calm ourselves. 

Swimming: The children are very excited to start swimming lessons next week. A couple of reminders:

1. Puffins swim on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, Penguins swim on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons

2. Even if the weather is fine children will still need to bring a coat as they often feel a bit chilly after their swim. 

We're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather. 

Have a great weekend

Week Beginning 2nd May 2022

We have really enjoyed learning about the Muslim celebration of Eid. Celine's Mummy came in to talk about how they celebrate Ramadan and Eid as a family.  They told us how they decorate the house together with crescent moon shapes and how grown ups fast during the day for 30 days until the festival of Eid when they eat lots of delicious foods, dress in their best clothes and give gifts to the children, a bit like at Christmas for Christians. During the celebrations grown ups give to charity and volunteer their time helping others. Celine and her Mummy then gave the teachers some traditional treats to try (which we all enjoyed, thank you) and the children took a delicious treat home with them. We all said Eid Mubarak!

We are really impressed with the children's reading this week in our group reading sessions. All children have enjoyed sharing the books and focussing on a different element of reading each day from decoding to prosody and comprehension. They have taken their book home to share with you over the weekend. Please return the books on Monday and place inside the reading record in the basket by the door for us to check them back in ready for use next week.

Next week

Maths - We will continue our learning in the topic 'First, Then, Now' where we will be using our understanding of First, Then, Now stories, e.g First there were 3 people on the bus, Then 3 more got on and Now there are 6 people on the bus. We will be extending this to an unknown 'Then' or unknown 'First', before moving on to look at subtraction

Phonics - We will continue to follow our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised scheme. Next week reading words with 2 or more digraphs.

Jubilee - We will be learning 2 new songs which we plan to perform to you all at our Queens Jubilee celebrations on 27th May 2022. We hope to see as many of you as possible there.

Enjoy your weekend.

x

Week Beginning 25th April 2022

The children have loved exploring using clay in the malleable area this week. They have been busy making under sea creatures, learning skills such as joining parts, smoothing joins, rolling and moulding. Take a look at the photos below of some of our creations! 

We have been invited by St George's church to contribute towards an art installation for the Jubilee celebrations, so we have been busy painting portraits of the Queen. 

At the beginning of the week we learnt about the celebration of St George's day, listening to the story. We then described the character of the dragon and St George. 

This week has seen the launch of group reading linked to our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds scheme in Phonics. The children have loved reading the books, learning to recognise new vocabulary fluently, adding expression to their reading and being able to answer comprehension questions and proving how they know the answer. A letter with more information has been emailed to you today and we have placed a copy in your child's bookbag. Books have also been sent home today, please return them on Tuesday (usually a Monday) so we can use them for another group. 

Next week:

Phonics- We will be revising double letters and longer words during phonics sessions next week. The children have enjoyed writing a sentence at the end of each week, showing real confidence and success! 

Maths- We will be finishing our learning in the phase '20 and beyond' and begin 'first, then, now'. As part of this we will begin to add on using the vocabulary 'first', 'then', 'now' to explain the story of Mr Gumpy's Outing. e.g. first there were 3 animals, then one more got in the boat, now there are 4 animals'

Literacy- We will be learning to write acrostic poems using seaside vocabulary. 

We hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

Week beginning 19th April 2022

Welcome back to the last term in Reception. We hope you are all well rested and enjoyed the Easter holidays.

This week we began our topic 'At the seaside', talking about what we know and would like to find out more about. We're looking forward to learning more about sea creatures, boats, pollution and people who keep us safe at the seaside - Lifeguards and RNLI. Everyone has been enjoying the warmer weather and exploring the new learning opportunities in the outside area this week. The beach cafe/shop is open selling a selection of delicious ice-creams as well as beach balls, buckets and spades.

On Thursday we had a fire drill. All the children left the building quickly and quietly, we were all very proud of them.  Coincidentally when we got back to the classroom Ethan's Uncle, who is a firefighter came to speak to us about his job. The children listened well and asked interesting questions as well as having the opportunity to try on his helmet. Mrs Gregory got to dress as a firefighter. The uniform was heavy and very warm!

We have continued our Maths learning to order numbers 11-20. We played track games and Bingo and spotted the mischievious actions of Cheeky Kangaroo when he made changes to the number line.

In English the children wrote about their holiday news. All were using their phonic knowledge to spell words and some even wrote 3 or 4 sentences!

We have also welcomed Sophia to Puffins class and everyone has made her feel very welcome.

Next week

Maths - Use multilink cubes to compare capacity of a selection of containers and do tall containers always hold more? We will also review our knowledge of properties of shapes and match them even when rotated. The children will copy models, looking carefully at the position and shape of bricks in the model.

English - The children will build on their phonic understanding and we hope to begin the Reading groups next week. Your child will bring home their reading book at the end of the week to share with you and then return on Monday.

Topic - We will also be learning about the story of St George as it is St George's day on Sunday. We will find out what pollution is and how we can help to reduce pollution in our seas and oceans and we will be painting portraits of the Queen for an art installation at St George's church in celebration of the Queens Platinum Jubilee.

Have a lovely weekend, see you on Monday x

Week Beginning 28th April 

What an exciting final week of the Spring term, from dancing to the police visiting! Tuesday saw the children proudly perform to the rest of the school and parents the dance they have been learning with Mr Rae for the past 5 weeks. Their enthusiasm and love of dancing certainly shone through! For our 'On the move' transport topic, we had a very exciting visit from Mollie's Uncle and his colleague who work for the Police and their Police car . The children loved learning how the lights and siren work on the police car and getting to sit inside! Thank you to Connie's family for also bringing in their old Ford Cortina racing car for the children to see. We were able to make lots of comparisons between old and new cars. The children found it fascinating that winding handles are used to open and close the windows compared to the buttons used in modern cars. 

We have also learnt about the Christian celebration, Easter. Finding out about how others celebrate and creating our own 'Bits and bobs bunnies', taking photos using the learnpads.

In Maths we began to explore numbers beyond 10, recognising the numerals 11-20 and pictorial representations using numicon. 

In Phonics we continued in Phase 3, learning to apply our phonic skills to read longer words, chunking them into smaller parts to read and spell them. 

Next term:

When we return after the Easter break, we will being our new topic 'At the seaside', beginning to share our own experiences of day trips and holidays. 

Phonics- We will begin Phase 4, revisiting phonemes we have already learnt and using these to read words fluently and begin to write simple sentences. 

Maths- We will continue to explore numbers beyond 10, learning to order numerals and count on using a number line. 

Thank you for all of your continued support this term, we wish you all a restful and enjoyable Easter Break. 

Week Beginning 22nd March 2022

The weather has been beautiful this week and lots of learning has been taking place outside. Dance with Mr Rae was on the field and lots of role play emergency services in the outside area. Hopefully you will all have received your Mothers Day cards too.

The highlight of our week has to be when Ruby's Mummy came to talk about being a Police Officer. She told us about some of the jobs she has to do and everyone got to hold her handcuffs and extendable baton and try on her hat. The children had lots of fun arresting us in the playground for doing naughty things and chasing each other in their police cars.

Next week

Maths - Building numbers beyond 10, how they are made up of smaller numbers by subitising 10 and some more. We will be estimating groups of objects and subtracting numbers from 20. 

Phonics - We will be learning to read longer words using the phonics already taught and chunking into smaller words

Topic - The children are very excited to perform the dance they've been working on to you all on Tuesday afternoon. Please check the Parentmail for timings. We will also be learning about 'Stranger Danger', the Christian celebration of Easter and police vehicles.

Happy Mothers Day and enjoy the Easter Egg hunt if you are joining in!

Week beginning 14th March

This week our 'On the move' topic has covered construction vehicles. We have found out about some of the amazing machines that are used to make work easier on building sites. The children have loved having a building site outside this week, mixing their own cement with soil and sand to lay brick walls! 

In Phonics this week we have learnt the phonemes 'ur', 'ow', 'ear' and 'oi' and their graphemes. We have also learnt the tricky words: 'my', 'by' and 'all'. You will have noticed that in your child's red phonics book there is a new format for reviewing our learning in school at home. The words and sentences we have learnt at school are included. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher. 

In Maths this week we have been exploring 3D shapes and their properties with real everyday objects. The shapes we have used in our learning include: cone, cylinder, cube, cuboid, sphere and triangular prism. We have learnt their names and about their faces. The children have explored which shapes will roll, slide and stack, being able to explain how they know. 

A BIG thank you for your Red Nose Day donations, the children have been very excited to come to school dressed in red today!

Next week

 Topic- We are very excited to have our first emergency services visitors in next week, sharing with us about their role in the community and they modes of transport they use to help with their job. 

Maths- In Maths we will be consolidating our learning so far, revisiting 7 and 8 and exploring ways of making 10 to help us with our number bonds. 

Phonics-We will be learning the digraph 'er' and the trigraph 'air' and learning to recognise words with these phonemes fluently. 

Have a great weekend in the sunshine!

Week Beginning 7th March 2022

Everyone is very excited to see the changes with our frogspawn this week. The tadpoles are teeming in the tanks and more and more are emerging each day. We have learned that they like to eat fish food and spinach leaves as well as broccolli so we'll find out which they prefer over the coming weeks as we watch them eat and grow.

In Maths the children have shown excellent understanding of numbers to 10 through counting songs such as 10 green bottles and finding bonds to 10. We've built on our understanding of number by counting the spots on dominoes and deciding if they are more or fewer than our given number, using a number track to help. Lots of good explanations of how they know what they know too!

In Little Wandle Phonics we  learned our sounds this week (oo, oo, ar and or) and found the tricky bits in the 'Tricky Words' before listening and then repeating altogether. Thank you to those parents who came to the Phonics evening on Wednesday to find out all about how we teach our new Phonics Scheme.

Next Week

Maths - exploring properties of 3D shape including whether they can stack, slide or roll and patterns of shape.

Phonics - ur, ow, oi, ear

Topic - We will continue our topic 'On the move' learning about construction vehicles including what jobs they do and how they work.

Week Beginning 28th February 2022

This week Penguins and Puffins have had lots of exciting learning!

Earlier in the week Mr Cooper told us about some frogspawn in the school grounds. Some children went with Mrs Clements and Mrs Gregory to have a look. We have collected some into tanks and have them into the classroom. We are looking forward to seeing how they change over the coming weeks. 

In Maths, the children have been building 9 and 10, learning to recognise representations of these numbers, sorting them and recognising and ordering the numerals. The children loved meeting the cheeky kangaroo on Wednesday who kept changing our number line. Luckily the children used their excellent number knowledge and detective skills to spot the mistakes!

This week also saw the beginning of our new Phonics program, Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. We learnt the sounds: nk, ee, igh and oa. The children have been practising their reading and writing skills using these sounds. 

Thursday was the 25th World Book Day, the children were very excited to share their costumes and favourite bedtime stories with us. Thank you to everyone for you efforts in celebrating this day with us. 

Next week:

Phonics: We will continue to learn our phase 3 sounds (oo (long and short), ar, or. We are revisiting some sounds previously taught. 

Maths: In Maths we are continuing to Build 9 and 10, learning to:

-count back from 10

-compare numbers within 10 (finding a number bigger or smaller than a given number)

-make 10. 

Topic: We will continue with our 'On the move' topic, thinking about Buses, how they have changed over time and where we might go on a bus. We will be reading the story 'Naughty Bus' and describing the character and setting.

Reminder: Next Wednesday evening at 7pm we are running a Phonics workshop in the hall for parents. This is to introduce to you our new phonics scheme and how it will be taught. We look forward to seeing you there!

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week Beginning 21st February 2022

The children have returned after half term excited to see each other and eager to learn through our Topic 'On the move'. The weather is becoming more Spring-like and hopefully we'll see some more sunny days.

In Maths this week we've been comparing length and height using non-standard measures such as paperclips and cubes and then sequenced the days of the week having read 'Jasper's Beanstalk'. The children enjoyed planting seeds to grow their own beanstalk and we look forward to measuring them too.

In Literacy we learned the 'ai' digraph.  We are very impressed with how well the children are segmenting and blending to read using the sounds taught this year. They wrote their news enthusiastically and have engaged in writing lists of 'ai' words and writing words to go with pictures in the Message Centre.

On Wednesday Mr Rae was back to teach dance. Everyone joined in, watching, listening and dancing so well. Their engagement, expression and co-ordination was amazing and Mr Rae remembered all their names by the end of the lesson too! 

We began our new PSHE scheme, Jigsaw. The children took part in the calming time, listening for the chime to stop sounding and introduced themselves to Jenie Cat. We talked about how we can be healthy by getting enough sleep, eating and drinking well and exercising.

Next Week

Maths - Representing 9 and 10

Literacy - We start 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised' introducing the sounds nk, ee, igh and oa.

Topic - What modes of transport on or in water do we know. What would we like to know more about?

Week Beginning 7th February 2022

What a way to finish our 'Amazing Animals' topic this half term! This week we were very lucky to have lots of the children's pet visitors in this week to find out how they are looked after. We had hamsters, dogs, fish, kittens and chickens! A huge thank you to the families who gave up their time and pets to help us with our learning. The children developed an excellent understanding of questioning this week, asking our visitors lots of questions to further their understanding. We are so proud of our children being respectful during these visits, keeping calm to help our animal visitors and listening carefully to their owners. 

In Maths the children have been exploring combining 2 groups using a variety of resources including numicon, the part-whole model and dominoes. We have learnt that we will always have a bigger number when we combine 2 groups. 

First week back after half term:

Phonics- We will continue our learning in Phase 3, learning to recognise the 'ai' phoneme. 

Maths-We will compare and measure length, height and time. 

Topic-We will being our 'On the move' topic, finding out the children's existing knowledge about modes of transport and what they would like to find out. During half term you may like to visit the transport museum in London or Brooklands Museum. 

Have a wonderful half term break, thank you for your continued support. 

The Reception Team 

Week beginning 31st January 2022

This week we have been busy learning the Green Froggy 'ee' sound. The children have played games, written words with 'ee' as well as sentences with 'ee' words.  We are really pleased with how quickly the children are able to recognise the sounds we have learnt since September and the teddy words too. Sometimes it looks like an elaborate dance as we go through the sound grapheme cards and the children make the actions for each sound as they say it with such confidence! 

In Maths we've continued learning about 6, 7 and 8. We have counted counters onto 10 frames by filling up the top row first and then looked at making pairs and showing this on the 10 frames. We also touched on odd and even numbers at the end of the week. 

It was Chinese New Year so we listened to the story and found out how Chinese people celebrate. We added dragon dancing and music as well as noodles in the role play area. We also began our topic on 'Pets' learning about our staff pets. Miss Charlton brought in her rabbits Flopsy and Pepper, who stayed for the week. The children enjoyed feeding them treats and observing them as well as handling them. We hope they come and visit again sometime soon. Mrs Gibbard introduced us to her cockerpoo, Cocoa and we compared Mrs Clements and Mrs Gregory's dogs Hattie(labrador) and Isla(dachshund) with Mrs Proudfoot's Syrian hamster Lily. They all have 4 legs, 2 ears, fur and claws but Lily comes out to play at night and Hattie and Isla sleep at night.

Well done to the achievers who received certificates in Achievers Assembly this week too.

Next week

Topic - We look forward to finding out more about some of the children's own pets.

Maths - combining 2 sets to find out how many altogether.

Phonics - 'ur' grapheme as in fur, burn, turnip. The enormous turnip story.

Enjoy the weekend!

x

Week beginning 24th January

This week in PE we learnt the barrel and straight roll, linked to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The children demonstrated perseverance to master these new skills and have loved applying their knowledge of the story to the three bears cottage role play outside. In phonics we have learnt the 'ow' sound, making our own 'ow' flashcards that came home earlier in the week. In Maths we have continued with capacity and begun to learn the cardinality of 6, 7 and 8, representing these with counters and transferring into a ten frame.

We have also read the story 'Mixed', learning about diversity and equality and explored mixing the primary colours.  

Next week:

Phonics- We will be learning the green froggy 'ee' sound, reading and writing words and sentences with these sounds in them. 

Maths- We will continue to explore the cardinality of 6,7,8 and begin to find pairs. 

Topic- Our Amazing animals topic moves onto 'pets', we will be sharing about some of the staffs pets! 

Have a lovely weekend

Week beginning 17th January 

This week the children have really impressed us with their knowledge and understanding of birds.  We learnt about Golden Eagles, Robins, Puffins and Penguins as well as Kiwi and Parrots.  When we came to write about their chosen bird they remembered lots of facts and wrote enthusiastically about them. On Friday we opened a bird hide on the field where the children took their job of recording the birds spotted very seriously - see photos below... 

In Maths we've been learning what full and empty mean as well as half full, half empty and nearly full, nearly empty.  The children have investigated using cups and containers in both the water and sand trays as well as small pompoms, beads etc in the home corner to compare different amounts. It's good to hear them experimenting with and using the language correctly in their play.

Next week

Phonics - we will be introducing the 'ow' grapheme as in cow and owl

Maths - we will continue capacity, building on making comparisons and introducing non-standard measures through questioning such as 'Which glass holds more?' We will also be building on our knowledge of number and looking at the numbers 6, 7 and 8.

Topic - Next week we will learn about Woodland Creatures including deer, snakes, hedgehogs, badgers and foxes. As the bird spotting was so popular on Friday we promised the children could continue that next week too!

Have a lovely weekend!

x

Week Beginning 10th January 

Happy New Year to you all! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas break, spending time with family and friends. 

This week the children have really impressed us with their understanding of the composition of 4 and 5 in maths. We started the week finding ways 5 can be made, shaking and dropping 5 double sided counters and placing them into a 5 frame. We found that 5 can be made in the following ways: 4 and 1, 3 and 2, 2 and 3, 1 and 4. The children also used their understanding of zero from last weeks learning to find that 5 and 0, 0 and 5 also make 5! Many children have also been busy in the maths area this week, using Numicon to find ways of making 4 and 5 by laying smaller number pieces on top of the 4 and 5 pieces. 

The freezing weather has also caused great excitement outside this week, exploring ice and developing an understanding of how water freezes and then melts. The children found out that when they held it and when the sun came out it started to go slippery because it was getting warmer and melting. 

Next week:

Phonics We will be learning the short 'oo' sound as in 'book', 'look'. We will be learning to read words with this sound as well as writing words and simple sentences. 

Maths We are revisiting capacity and weight, exploring and comparing different objects and containers through sand and water play. We will also be using balance scales to compare which objects are heavy and light. 

Understanding the world The children have loved our 'Amazing animals' topic since returning from the Christmas break. Next week we will be finding out about birds, including those our classes are name after! We will compare their habitats to one another as well as our own local environment. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Thank you for all the lovely cards and generous gifts we received. The children really enjoyed their party on Thursday (courtesy of Mrs Hill) and all the Christmassy fun this week.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2022!

The Reception Team

xxxxx

Week Beginning 6^th December

Wow – what a busy week! We all really enjoyed our first school trip to the shops across the road looking for shapes. The viewfinders allowed us to spot lots of squares and rectangles in all sorts of places. A huge thank you to the parents and Charlie and Ruby's Nanny who kindly offered to help.  We learned about how Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah at this time of year and have begun making Christmas decorations for the festivities next week.

The children have been very busy learning our Christmas song and are excited to perform it to you on Wednesday in the Outside Area. We plan to dress up in our costumes so if you have them at home or even just a named Santa hat please bring them in before Wednesday.

In Phonics we will be learning ‘oo’ and in Maths we will be thinking about sequencing events and measuring time using timers and calendars. We are also looking forward to our Christmas party next week.

Have a lovely weekend.

x

Week beginning 29th November 2021

This week we have started to make our Christmas crafts to decorate the school with. We have used our fine motor skills to weave Christmas trees to hang in the hall with trees Year 1 and 2 have made. They look fantastic! We have also made reindeer using lolly sticks, pipe cleaners, pompoms and googly eyes.

We ended the week with great excitement! A t-Rex appeared on the field, she had come back for her baby we had been looking after! The children were brave enough to stay and watch, luckily no one got eaten! 

Next Week

Phonics- We are beginning to learn some digraph sounds (2 letters that make one sound) and reading and writing words and captions with the sounds in. We are learning the sounds ch, sh, th (hard V sound) and th (soft sound). You may like to play the education city games linked to these sounds at home.

Maths- We will be exploring shapes with 4 sides, finding them in the environment and making comparisons, identifying the similarities and differences.

Understanding the World- We will begin to look at winter celebrations, finding out about the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.  

Week Beginning 22^nd November

Wow – the mystery egg we found in the sand pit hatched! It was a baby dinosaur which we found out to be a tiny T-Rex. A few children have spotted what could be a Mummy dinosaur keeping an eye on it from the bottom of the field. Some children wrote messages which we left on the picnic bench telling her the baby was OK.

Maths - This week the children have been brilliant at telling First, Then, Now stories to show one more.  We used 5 frames with dinosaurs and socks on a washing line! First there were 3, Then I added one more, Now there are 4. Keep practicing over the weekend.

Phonics - everyone enjoyed tasting the jellies with strawberry being the most popular!  It's good to see so many of the children obviously learning their teddy words and sounds at home too.

Next week we will be looking at ‘one less’ in Maths. In Phonics we’ll be playing games, writing and reading our new teddy words, was, will, all, went, from and help and the new sounds y, z, zz and qu. We’ll also be having a think about what might have happened to all the dinosaurs and writing about it in our Writing books. AND it’s also Art/DT week so we will make lots of lovely Christmas decorations to put up in the classroom and hall in time for the Christmas Fair.  It’s a shame we can’t invite helpers in to school again but we will still make the week very special for the children with Christmas music and fun as we make our decorations. We'll be practising the Christmas songs for our performance at the church including the actions for 'When Santa got stuck up the chimney'. 

Have a great weekend!

Week Beginning 15th November

What an egg-citing start to the week we had in Reception! A mystery egg appeared in the sand over night! There was no sign of what had laid it so we came up with a plan to help keep it warm. We learnt the word 'incubate' and decided the best thing to do was to keep it warm in a basket with a cushion and blanket. We also put it on Mrs Gibbard's assembly table to keep it safe! We're still waiting for it to hatch! Some of the ideas of what would hatch out of it included: a unicorn, robin, dinosaur, cheetah, crocodile or a lion! 

Next week

Phonics- We will be starting phase 3, learning the sounds j, w, x and v. We will continue to learnt to read and write words with these sounds in them. To help us remember these sounds we will be doing things such as jelly tasting! yum! 

Maths- We will be learning to find one more than a set of up to 5 objects, using stories and the vocabulary 'first', 'then', 'next'. 

Topic- This will be based on what hatches out of our mystery egg! Watch this space! We will learn to use the internet to find out information with the help of an adult. 

Week Beginning 8th November 2021

It's been so lovely getting back to normal again this week and seeing everyone back in school again. Thank you to all the parents who were able to come to Parents Evening this week. The children have been busy building trains and platforms for the train station in the outside area, trading train tickets for more blocks to make it longer and better. In Maths we have been learning about the properties of circles and triangles. All the children are getting really good at explaining 'how they know' it is a circle or triangle using the vocabulary taught (the number of straight or curved edges and corners). Puffins and Penguins went to their first Achievers Assembly this week with the rest of the school.  Congratulations to those children who were awarded a certificate for their individual achievements. We are so very proud of you all and look forward to seeing who will be sharing their achievements next week.

Next week begins with 'Odd Sock Day' so don't forget to wear your odd socks to school. We will begin our topic on Dinosaurs, finding out what everyone already knows along with what they'd like to know more about. In Maths we will be finding out about numbers to 5, including preparing for a 5th Birthday party. In Phonics we will learn the ff, ll and ss graphemes as well as new teddy words 'to, into, go, no, be, of'.

Enjoy your weekend!

x

Week Beginning 18th October 2021

We are so incredibly proud of our children this week, performing in our Harvest Assembly at St George's Church on Tuesday. They sung their hearts out and were so sensible walking to and from the church. A great big thank you to our parent helpers on Monday for the rehearsal and on Tuesday. We have been busy finding out about signs of autumn, going on an autumn scavenger hunt on the field. The children loved finding all of the different coloured leaves and even spotted some mushrooms growing. In Maths we have been busy gaining a deeper understanding of the numbers 1, 2 and 3, learning to represent them in different ways. In Phonics we have learnt even more sounds ('c', 'k', 'ck' and 'o') and words to help us with our reading and writing. 

Week 1 Autumn 2 learning:

Phonics- In Phonics we will be learning the sounds 'e', 'u' and 'r' and begin to read and write simple captions to match to pictures. e.g. run in the sun. To help support your child's phoneme recognition, they could play Phoneme Pop https://www.ictgames.com/phonicsPop/index.html. Sets 1-4 cover the sounds we have learnt so far including the ones we will learn this week.

Maths- We will be learning to use and follow positional language in a variety of activities, such as a treasure hunt around the field and describing games. The vocabulary we will be using includes: on top, behind, next to, under, in front of. 

Topic- Our first week back will focus on Bonfire night and Diwali as part of our 'Let's celebrate!' topic for the half term. The children will find out about the story behind the Hindu celebration and share their own experiences of fireworks. 

APFS Christmas Cards

Artwork needs to be returned to school when we return after the break. Don't forget to order over half term if you would like to share your child's artwork with friends and family this Christmas. Thank you to everyone who has ordered so far, it is a great fundraising opportunity for our school. 

Have a wonderful half term break. Thank you for your continued support this half term. 

Week Beginning 11th October 2021

This week we've been busy learning about Mermaids and Unicorns.  We've made repeating pattern mermaid tails and read The Singing Mermaid sharing what we know about Mermaids. We learned 4 new sounds and 3 new words and everyone is doing so well at blending sounds to read words now. The Djembe drums outside have given children lots of opportunity to express themselves and to create and copy rhythms with their friends. The creative area outside has been very busy with children building models and making objects like telescopes.  If you have any spare clean small boxes, tubes, cartons or tape please send them in as this is always a popular activity. We are really looking forward to welcoming you all to St Georges Church to celebrate our Harvest Festival next week. The children have been diligently learning the words and actions to our song 'Big, Red Combine Harvester' and are excited to perform it to you at church with the whole school.

Next Week

Literacy (Phonics) We will be learning 4 new sounds, 'o', 'c', 'k' and 'ck' and five words 'he', 'me', 'she', 'we', 'the' through playing games, writing sounds in phoneme frames to blend and practical activities.

Maths We will start to count to 3 and back from 3. The children will be able to link the skill of counting 3 concrete objects to the pictorial representation of 3, and then to the abstract numerals 1, 2 and 3.

Topic We will be looking for signs of Autumn and going on a scavenger hunt to collect leaves, conkers, acorns etc. We will use this as a stimulus for creative activities through the week as well as writing about what we notice.

Christmas Card Project

If you haven't already, don't forget to order your Christmas Cards and gifts online at apfs.org.uk. Then return your child's artwork to school to be sent off for printing by 5th November 2021. We will check bookbags regularly for artwork.

Week Beginning 4th October 2021

We have had a fantastic week in Reception, sharing how our families celebrate birthdays and having our own party in the role play area. We ended the week with our first cooking session of the year in Maths! This week we have been exploring mass and compared the ingredients flour, butter and sugar to the weight of the egg using balance scales. We introduced the vocabulary of 'equal', learning to understand that the scales needed to be balanced before adding the ingredients to the bowl. We took our cakes home to eat, we hope you enjoyed them!

Next week:

Literacy (Phonics)- We will be learning the sounds and actions for m, d, g and the keywords 'and', 'dad', 'am'. We will be continuing to learn to blend simple words made up of 2 or 3 sounds through activities such as 'what's in the box', matching words with pictures. 

Maths- We will be exploring repeating patterns, being able to describe them. The children will experience using a range of resources such as cotton reels, bricks, natural objects to make their own patterns, being encouraged to describe them. For example, red, yellow, red, yellow, red, yellow. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development- In circle time we will be thinking about what kindness looks like and what we can do to be kind to everyone at school. 

Topic- We will be learning about mythical creatures, including mermaids and unicorns. 

Christmas cards

Your child will have an A4 Christmas picture in their bookbags, if you would like to order them as Christmas cards, please follow the instructions on the leaflet. Orders should be completed by 1/11/21 and original artwork returned to school by 5/11/21. 

Week Beginning 27th September 2021

This week we are all feeling a little more Autumnal.  Please remember to bring a jacket every day as we will be learning in the outside area whatever the weather. 

With all the baseline assessments complete we have begun our Phonics teaching this week.  The children have been introduced to the sounds s, a, t, p through games and fun activities.  We have played 'I spy' and found items around the classroom and outside area beginning with each sound. Please practise these sounds at home along with the new words introduced, a, at, as.  The children have been learning to say each sound in order quickly (blending) to make the word and are showing great enthusiasm.  Please remember to bring your reading books in every day. Once you've read together at home on two separate occassions (and signed the reading record each time) put them in the basket by the door to be changed.

Next week we are looking forward to learning more sounds and words as well as writing our weekend news. We can't wait to hear what you've been up to!

Have a good weekend.

x

Week Beginning 20th September 

We have had another brilliant week in Reception this week. The children have enjoyed bringing in items to share with as what they would like to learn about this year. If your child has not yet shared something with us please bring these in asap. 

We have been learning about our families this week and how everyone's family is special through circle times and stories. Some stories we have read include: 'Stella brings the Family', 'Heather has two mummies' and 'The Family Book'. We have also drawn picture of our families- take a look at these displayed in the classroom when you drop off next week. 

We are so proud of how independent your children are since starting school and how well they are remembering our 2 school rules:

1. To be kind to everyone

2. To walk sensibly in the school building

Next week we will be thinking about when we were babies and how we have changed.  

Week Beginning 13^th September

Wow – what a busy week! We have had lunches in the servery and enjoyed playing with and making lots of new friends in the front playground at lunchtime. We visited the Beehive on Thursday and choose our first library books to share at home. On Friday we all wore jeans to school for Jeans for Genes day.

Next week we will be learning about families and how different they all are. We would like to ask you to bring in a photo of your family to talk about.  We will be starting PE next week so don’t forget to bring in PE kits if you haven’t already. Also don't forget to bring in something you would like to learn about this year to share with the class.

Finally thank you to all those who came to the meet the teacher evening. Please see the slides above.

Week Beginning 6th September

We have had a fantastic first week at Barnett Wood in Reception. The children have settled really well and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring our learning environments, both inside and out! 

Next week we would like to invite you to 'Meet the Teacher' on Wednesday 15th September at 7pm in your child's classroom to find out a little more about the year ahead.