Week 7

  What's in the Witch's Kitchen?

Reception have explored the text and enjoyed finding the rhyming words.  We have been acting out the story "What's in the Witch's Kitchen?" by Nick Sharratt in our role play area and enjoyed making potions.

 Sensory Play

Reception used their senses to investigate and describe the pumpkins.  We talked about what was the same and different.

Pumpkin Hammering

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

Ten Frame

Reception have been developing their number sense through a race to 10 game.  We have been learning to recognise dice patterns and how to fill a ten frame systematically.

Halloween Party

Reception had a spooktacular time at our Halloween party.  The children enjoyed the spooky games which included pass the parcel, corners and pin the tail on the black cat.  I'm sure you'll agree that the children looked frightfully good in their masks and hats.

Week 6

  Room on the Broom

As we creep into the spooky time of the year, Reception listened to the story "Room on the Broom" by Julia Donaldson.  The children used puppets and prompts to act out and recall story events.  We wrote our own spell containing CVC words using the sounds we have been learning in phonics.

Make a Wand Challenge

We hunted for sticks in our forest and decorated them to make magic wands.  Bippity boppity boo! Abracadabra!

Composition of 3 and 4

This week we were introduced to Numberblock Four, one jumped onto Three.  They explored how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, began to investigate the composition of 3 and 4.  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".

Week 5

 "Zoo on the Broom" Zoo Lab Workshop

Rob the wizard came to visit Reception and shared a story about a friendly witch Zog.  She rode on her broomstick through towns, forests and a bog.  The helpful kind witch offers a ride to animal hitchhikers, who we got to meet.  We were introduced to many exciting creatures including a tarantula, snake, giant snail, rat and even a hissing cockroach.  

 The Colour Monster

"The Colour Monster" by Anna Llenas is a lovely book which explores feelings and colours associated with feelings. The children made  their own colour monster and explained why they chose the colour and how it makes them feel.

In the story yellow is happiness, blue is sadness, red is anger, black is fear, green is calm and by the end of the story the monster is pink, he feels loved.

Reception helped the confused colour monster figure out difficult  mixing questions.

 The Button Box

This week we have listened to the story "The Button Box" by Margarette Reid.  In Maths we have been counting, matching and sorting.

 Signs of Autumn Bushcraft, Counting Conkers and Plan to Play

Conkers have been arriving at school a sign of our season Autumn.  In bushcraft we have been looking at signs of the season – leaves changing colour, fruits and seeds.  

The children have been developing their counting skills to identify how many there are in a set.   We counted out a set of conkers from a larger set, remembering the ‘stopping number’ and knowing that this means they have selected the correct number in total.  Reception also developed 1:1 correspondence, by counting numbers at the same time as touching.  

We continued to develop our finger strength and pincer grips through Autumn themed finger challenges.

Week 4

 The Invisible String ​​​​​​

Our book of the week was a lovely story called "The Invisible String" by Patrice Karst, a story about the invisible connection of love.  We created wonderful drawings showing someone we feel connected to by an invisible string.  The activity helped the children to think of all the wonderful connections they have with their friends and family.   

 Subitise

 In Maths, we have been looking 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.

Week 3

Pirates, Portraits and Pens!

 Pirate PE

We continued our Get Set 4 PE lessons.  This week we developed our ability to move safely and stop with control.  We loved playing the game 'all aboard the ship'.  The children had to match actions for climb the rigging, walk the plank, submarine, sharks, all aboard, scrub the deck and Captain's coming.

 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 painted our own portraits while carefully looking at our facial features in a mirror.

The new felt tip pens have during been very popular this week during plan to play.

 Name Train

We have been learning to recognise our name, match the letters and then sequence them.

Week 2

 Queen Elizabeth II

We were saddened to learn about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.  The reception children remembered how Her Majesty had shared a sandwich with Paddington during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.  In memory, we made our own during snack time and listened to the story "Paddington at the Palace" by Michael Bond.

  The Little - Big Hair Assembly - World Afro Day

Reception took part in the Big Hair Assembly by listening to "Daddy Do My Hair: Beth's Twists" by Tola Okoguwu.  The event and story aims to change negative attitudes towards Afro hair.  We worked with a talking partner to think of words to describe Beth's twists and were inspired to try some of the beautiful hairstyles during play.   

Roald Dahl Day

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

@RoaldDahlDay

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.

Week 1

  The First Day

My delightful new Reception class have settled into school life seamlessly!  Here they are enjoying their first week.  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 ...