Autumn term

Term 1b Week 6

It has been a really busy week in Reception and we finished it off with a trip to White House Farm where we played in the soft play, wrote letters to Santa, met Santa, got reindeer food, went on a tractor ride, held mice and guinea pigs, stroked an ENORMOUS rabbit, fed some goats and donkeys and acted out a nativity story! What a fun packed day.

Term 1b Week 3

We thought about our sense of smell this week, nice things to smell like fresh cut grass and cakes in the oven and less nice things to smell too. We went into our quiet room and smelled a few different containers and herbs and tried our best to describe what they smelled like, then picked our favourite.

The School Nurse came to see us this week to talk about the importance of washing our hands properly. We talked about when we should wash our hands: after using the toilet, after touching a pet, after we sneeze into them, before we eat, if they feel sticky or dirty. Then about how to wash our hands: put water on first, add soap, rub our palms together, rub in between our fingers on top and underneath, rub the tips of our fingers and thumb on our palm, then rub our thumbs and our wrists, rinse and use one or two paper towels to dry. There was lots to remember so we all had a practise as she told us.

Term 1b Week 2

This week we have been thinking about our sense of hearing, listening for sounds in our environment, playing sound quizzes, making string telephones and musical instruments.

We continued to think about shape and size with cutting and ordering jobs, a shape walk around our school and arranging the pattern blocks into different shapes.

Mr Pickup has been working us hard in our music sessions to help us learn the songs for our nativity play.

Term 1b Week 1

In Reception we have been thinking about our senses, in particular this week our sight, we talked about fireworks night and Diwali the Hindu festival of light then we wrote 'I can see' sentences. The dark den was up in the class and we investigated the light and glow in the dark toys, talking about what we could see.

We have also been thinking about shapes - we focused on square, rectangle, triangle, circle and tried to describe them using mathematical terms: corner, side, long, short, the same, different. We enjoyed watching and singing along to some YouTube kids songs about shape one of them had lots of different shapes ending with 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 sided shapes!

Shape sorting task

Term 1a Week 8

Using Size Words

Reception have been working hard to think about size and use size words accurately, this week during our nature walk they were challenged to find three items and describe them using the size words we have been learning.

Week 7 Term 1a

We have been using Numicon this week to match numeral and quantity, some of the children even managed to make teen numbers using Numicon and order numbers to 20!

Harvest!

Reception worked very hard to join in with all the words and actions of their song in our Harvest Festival performance and to sit and concentrate whilst the other classes shared their harvest work with us.

At the end of last week and the beginning of this one we used our collected items to make temporary art works and then photograph them.

Week 6 Term 1a

Reception investigated our outdoor environment this week, we put on our wellies and set off across the school grounds to collect natural objects for our Andy Goldsworthy inspired art. The children were very good at finding unusual leaves and huge sticks, we talk about the changes that happen in the autumn and saw a large branch which had been blown down by the wind. When we had collected lots of things the children went on the Trim trail to support their gross motor development to strengthen muscles that will help them to sit, stand, grip, run and balance well and improve their coordination for large and small scale movements.

Searching for interesting items

On the trim trail

The hall was busy this week during our PE slot so we took a big bag of balls to the playground and practised our ball skills. Catching (holding our hands out at about tummy level ready to catch the ball) and throwing (gently throwing the ball to the open hands of our partner), kicking (with control, not too far) and stopping the ball with our feet (by putting one foot on top of it). Reception had some time to practise skills and then some time to do their own thing they worked hard to include everyone and enjoyed making up their own games too.

Week 5 Term 1a

Reception are getting really good at telling the 'Dear Zoo' story and adding in their own animals. Here are two examples, with Miss Luke and Miss Morgan helping out.

Dear Zoo

Remembering the repeated refrains from our story.

Dear Zoo - a different version

Using the story structure to tell our own story.

Week 4 Term 1a

It's been a really busy week, we have been learning to tell the Dear Zoo story by Rod Campbell, joining in with repeated refrains, using toys to help us remember all of the animals and drawing story maps. Next week we will think about what other animals we might get sent or other places we could write to to ask for things. Miss Luke has been working with the children to decorate the initial letters of their name for a big display. Miss Morgan has been counting and recognising numerals with the children using Numicon and our outdoor number line. We also had our first 'Come and See' morning and over 20 grown-ups joined us in the reception class over the course of the morning.

Dear Zoo

Decorating initial letters

Numicon numeral matching

Come and See

Week 3 Term 1a

This week we have been practising our counting and numeral recognition counting pieces of pizza onto plates. We played a whole class game and then did group work to stick pizza slices into their books. We have also been learning the S, A, T sounds and learning to blend them to read words.

Week 2 Term 1a

This week we won the attendance award for Key Stage 1! That means that nearly everybody in our class came to school every day, getting us to 99% attendance. Well done Reception.

We made mini pizzas this week, thinking carefully about the sequence of the process so that we could order some pictures the next day, the children worked hard to talk about and write instructions for pizza making. They also really enjoyed eating them.

Week 1 Term 1a

Reception have had a busy first week settling in, getting to know each other, exploring our resources and areas, learning to share and becoming more independent.