Week 7

Room on the Broom

This week in Reception the children have been listening to the story of "Room on the Broom" by Julia Donaldson.  They ordered the animals and used their phonic knowledge to label the characters the Witch meets in the story.

Maths

In Maths this week we have been comparing groups of objects using the words more and fewer. 

Phonics Workshop

On Thursday we had a lot of fun with our grown ups at our phonics workshop, where we showed them how we learn to link sounds to letters and blend with the help of Fred frog. 

Science Experiment

This week we all became mad scientists and made a reaction using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. The acid in the vinegar broke up the bicarbonate of soda, this created a bubbling reaction where carbon dioxide bubbles bubbled over the top of our cylinders. 

Magical Mud Experiment

Reception made green corn flour slime.  We experimented squeezing the mixture and rolling it into a ball.  The mixture felt different and changed when we stopped rolling it.  The children developed their observational skills by describing how the mixture felt and talked about the changes they could see and feel.

Zoo on the Broom

In Reception this week we had some interesting visitors. Witch Charlotte told us the story of "Zoo on the Broom".  She also brought along the animals from the story into the classroom to show the children.  We were allowed to hold and stroke some of the animals. We had so much fun!

Magic Wands

In class the children designed and created their own magic wands, choosing the colour of the wand and the strips of paper to decorate it. 

Week 6

Our story for the week was "Pumpkin Soup" by Helen Cooper.  Every day the characters, Squirrel, Duck and Cat slice up a pumpkin from their pumpkin patch, stir in some water and salt to make the perfect pumpkin soup… until the day the animals want to swap jobs!  We used our senses and phonic knowledge to describe a pumpkin from Squirrel, Duck and Cat's pumpkin patch.

Investigating Pumpkins

The children loved getting their hands dirty.  They pulled out all the seeds and described what it felt like. The children then used their phonic skills to hear sounds and write describing words.

Pumpkin Hammering

To develop our hand eye co-ordination we hammered golf tees into pumpkins.

Yayoi Kusami

Reception looked at the art work of Yayoi Kusama.  Inspired by her bright colours, sculptures, installations and paintings, we created our own polka dot pumpkin artwork. Here are some photos!

Autumn Leaves

In the Art area the children used a selection of Autumn paint colours and cotton buds to add leaves to a tree.  This is to help develop a pincer grip.  Reception also completed a button challenge, using buttons to fill the spaces on the Autumn pictures. 

 P.E. Superheroes

In P.E. the children enjoyed pretending to be superheroes, moving around, flying crawling and jumping. We then used the parachute to play games using their listening skills, to move around the circle and under the parachute safely. 

Week 5

 Leaf Man and Andy Goldsworthy

Our story of the week is "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert.  We used photos of transient artist Andy Goldsworthy for inspiration.   Reception used Autumn treasures such as leaves, conkers, sticks and acorns to make our own animal, people and patterned designs.

Big Write

Reception then wrote about our 'Leaf People' using the sounds we know to describe our creations.  We have been focussing on sounds at the beginning of words.

 Numberblock 2 and 3

We collected amounts of 2 in the outdoor area and used toys to make groups of 3.  In the classroom we created our own Numberblock 2 and 3 character collages. 

Composition of 2 and 3

Reception explored how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, began to investigate the composition of 2 and 3.  Here we are making our collections of 3 things so that Numberblock Three can see what 3 looks like.  We used the stem sentence "1 and 1 and 1 makes 3".

To the Castle     

In P.E. the children journeyed through the Ogre's forest travelling in different ways and moving safely across each obstacle, keeping a safe distance between each other. The children used their balancing, jumping and rolling skills to navigate a path through the forest to reach the castle. 

Week 4 

The children have enjoyed P.E and their music session this week.  Our story of the week is "Walking Through the Jungle" by Julie Lacome.  This repeating story was great for retelling from start to finish, as we recalled the ‘action words’ used throughout the story: walking, running, leaping, swinging, creeping and wading.

 Big Write

In our writing we made a list of the animals from the story, listening carefully to the initial sounds.  In phonics we have been linking sounds to letters and some children are beginning to use these letters in their writing.

Walking Through the Jungle

We have created snakes from the story using cutting skills and collage to decorate them.

Maths

In Maths we have been singing counting songs, including "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive" and "Five Little Men in a Flying Saucer".  We have then been matching amounts to numbers to 5, both in the classroom and the outdoor area.

Week 3

The children are settling in well to the daily routines within the class, including sharing lots of stories during our daily storytime.  We have also been completing the Reception Baseline Assessments with the children.

Subitise

In Maths, we have continued to look at the numbers 1-3 and learning to 'subitise' - seeing how many there are without counting and recognising 1, 2 and 3 in different positions and patterns.  Here we are sorting cards into 3 and 'not 3' and completing a scavenger hunt finding groups of 1-3.

Big Write

In class this week the children have been using the sounds they have learnt, to spell the words Sam and mad.  They listened to the sounds and wrote the matching letters in their books. 

All of Me

Following on from our portraits last week the children have created a picture of their whole body and created a patterned background using paint and sponges. 

Week 2

Portraits

This week we have been thinking about ourselves and what makes us special.  We shared the gorgeous book "We Are All Different" before discussing and comparing our hair, eye and skin colours.  We used paint sticks to make our own portraits whilst carefully looking at our facial features in a mirror.

Roald Dahl Day

We watched short clips of the Roald Dahl story "The Enormous Crocodile".   Reception played in the muddy river water tray, created wanted posters, completed a giant crocodile jigsaw and practised turn taking whilst playing the game crocodile dentist. 

Week 1

 Our First Day 

My delightful new Reception class have settled into school life seamlessly!  Here they are enjoying their first day.  We have been learning routines and how to use the classroom equipment.  They explored the indoor and outdoor environments, stayed for lunch and have been making new friends.  All of the children have settled in very well and I am looking forward to a fun filled year!  Have a look at some of the things we have been up to ...

In Reception we balance adult led activities and child initiated play.  Through adult led activities we can introduce children to new ideas and provide opportunities for them to develop their skills.  During play children explore their own ideas, learn how to use resources and use imagination and creativity.