Reception
Welcome to Reception!
Phonics and Early Reading
Week Ending 04/10/2024
This week we have been learning about the different kinds of weather we have and our experiences of being out and about in different kinds of weather. We enjoyed creating umbrella pictures. In maths we have been using the balance scales to explore heavy and light and have been weighing objects to see which is heavy and which is light. We have talked about Rosh Hashanah and sampled apples dipped in honey. In Phonics we have been learning the sounds g, o , c, and k. We enjoy seeing our Year 6 Buddies on Fridays and drew a picture to share with them.
Week Ending 27/09/2024
This week we have introduced 'zones of regulation' to the children. We have learnt how to identify which zone we are in and the things we can do to help us get into the green zone. We read ' How to fill your bucket up' and thought about what we could do to be a good friend to others. Reception have been fantastic at following instructions and working with concentration in P.E. We had lots of fun using the parachute!
Week Ending 20/09/2024
This week we have been learning all about our school, in particular the people who work here and the children who learn here. We enjoyed our walk around the school meeting people and exploring spaces. The children have been brilliant at completing a full school day; an afternoon highlight was visiting our woodland area with our Year 6 buddies! We had a wonderful time collecting bits and pieces from the woodland floor to make owl ice-cream!
In Phonics we have been learning about the sounds s,a,t,p. The children have been fantastic at writing the sounds on their whiteboards- Great work Reception!
Week Ending 13/09/2024
Well done Reception for settling so well into school- you have been fantastic! This week we have been learning about the stories that are associated with our group names so we have enjoyed reading Elmer, The Hungry Caterpillar, Kipper, Rainbow Fish and The Gruffalo. We have been impressed with the children’s listening skills and how they are able to retell the stories they have heard. Reception have been very motivated to complete the challenges we have set them relating to each story- keep up the good work Reception! The children have enjoyed staying for lunch; we have been impressed with how independent they have been with making their meal choices and eating their lunch.
Blogs 2023-24
Week Ending 19/07/2024
This week we have been thinking about what we would like to be when we grow up. We read the book ‘When I grow up’ and then talked and wrote about what we would like to be. We have also enjoyed reading ‘what the ladybird heard on holiday’ and wrote a list of all the things we need to take on holiday. Our highlight of the week was seeing many of you at celebration afternoon and being able to show you all the wonderful work done by the children. They have worked so hard this year and we are so proud of each and everyone of them!
Week Ending 12/07/2024
This week we have been reading 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' and 'The Train Journey'. We have enjoyed finding out how lighthouses and trains work. We have been busy making lighthouses, writing items to go in a picnic basket and writing what we can see on a train journey. In Maths we read ‘Mr Gumpy’s outing’ and created our own number stories involving the boat and the animals. We created some super number sentences to go with our story. A highlight of the week was visiting our new teacher and new classroom! Well done for all your hard work this week Reception.
Week Ending 05/07/2024
We have been enjoying pirate stories and learning about maps and boats this week! Our pirate story was called ' The pirates next door'. We drew and labelled pirates and had fun making our own pirate accessories! We also read the story 'Come away from the water Shirley' and thought about the adventures we could have on the beach. We looked at the different types of boat and then some of us designed and made our own boat- we had fun testing them in our water tray! In Maths we have been learning about subtraction and have created number sentences and stories about taking away.
Week Ending 27/06/2024
This week we have been learning about life in the ocean. Our books of the week have been 'Tiddler' by Julia Donaldson and 'Surprising Sharks' by Nicola Davies. The children used their phonics very effectively to write sorry letters from Tiddler explaining about why he was late to school. The children have been interested to learn lots of facts about sharks and fish. They have been labelling the parts of a fish and a shark and writing down information about these creatures. The highlight of the week was Sports Day- Reception did so brilliantly on their first sports day! They were enthusiastic to take part and showed good sportsmanship-Well done Reception, we are so proud of you!
Week Ending 21/06/2024
'Sharing a shell’ and ‘One is a snail, two is crab’ have been our books of the week as this week we have been learning all about rockpools and the creatures that live in them, particularly starfish and crabs. The children have been fascinated by the new facts they have been learning and have shared these enthusiastically throughout their learning through play.
‘A Japanese Spider crab is the largest crab’Erin.
‘The pea crab is the smallest’ Leila.
A Japanese spider crab can live for 100 years’ Alex.
‘Crabs have 10 legs’ Otto
We also enjoyed reading ‘Pattern Fish’ By Trudy Harris and had fun creating our own patterns.
Week Ending 14/06/2024
This week we have introduced the children to our topic 'on the Beach'. We read 'Clem and Crab' and 'who's hiding at the seaside?'. We wrote our own clues about these characters based on what we had read. We talked about how animals have to stay in their own habitats to stay healthy. In Maths we have continued to look at doubling and have also moved onto sharing. We have been using our phonics skills to write sentences about what we can see at the seaside. As part of the 30 days wild challenge set up by the wildlife trust - we have been appreciating our trees by giving them a hug!
Week Ending 07/06/2024
The highlight of this week has been our visit to the Zoo! The children had an amazing time and we were so proud of each and everyone of them. They were very interested in all that we saw and were very motivated to find out more about the animals. Well done Reception! Here are some of their thoughts of our visit...
‘I liked the dinosaurs’ Otto
‘We liked the lions’ Erin and Olivia J
‘I liked when we saw the penguins hiding in their holes’ Megan
‘I liked the Meerkat tunnels’ Leila
‘I liked the carnivorous dinosaurs!’ Gabriel
‘We liked everything!!’ George & Alex
Week Ending 24/5/2024
We have been learning all about Dinosaurs this week! We enjoyed reading “Harry and the bucketful of Dinosaurs’ and ‘if I had a dinosaur”. Reception were very interested to learn new facts about dinosaurs and were confident to share their own knowledge with the class.
In Maths we have been learning about shapes. We have been looking at using shapes to create pictures and talked about how rotating shapes can help us to complete our pictures. We have also looked at composing new shapes by putting two or more shapes together, for example two triangles can make a square.
Week Ending 17/5/2024
This week the King of Story Land requested that we give him some stories! So we have been busy creating and making our own characters. We wrote a list of the good and bad characters that we knew and then wrote character descriptions; we also drew the homes that they lived in and wrote some stories. We made a fairytale map to show where everybody lives. One of our favourite learning experiences this week was designing and making our own spoon characters! We used our characters and worked together to act out a story to the class. Our adults were impressed with our confidence and the story telling language we used.
Well done for working hard Reception!
Week Ending 09/05/2024
This week we have been reading the story of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ and the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’. We really enjoyed our Huff and Puff investigation which involved investigating whether or not objects were air resistant. The children demonstrated fantastic turn taking when playing the 'three pigs game' and giant snakes and ladders. They worked together to build new houses for the three little pigs and made fantastic bridges for the Billy goats to cross over the river. Great work Reception!
Week Ending 26/04/2024
This week our book of the week has been 'Charlie Cook's favourite book'. We have done lots of work about the places in the book and linked some of our work to St George’s day - the children really enjoyed making their own dragons! We looked at features of a treasure map and carefully counted treasure. We also learn about different types of birds and did observational drawings and made nests. Today the children had a wonderful time at the Radlett Centre watching 'Charlie Cook's Favourite book', their behaviour was super and they were fantastic walkers - well done Reception! Here is what some of them said about the performance:
' I liked the cake!' Darcie
'I liked the ghost!' Ollie, Ralph and Olivia L
'I liked when the crocodile ate the books!' Lottie
Week Ending 19/04/2024
This week we have started our theme ‘tell me a story’. The children have been sharing their knowledge of fairy tales by explaining about the different characters and what happens in the story. The children painted or drew, and then labelled some super character pictures.
The class role play area has been turned into a castle and the children have been performing stories in it. They have really impressed us with their imaginative language and perseverance when having a go at writing parts or all of a story.
In Maths we have been deepening our understanding of numbers beyond 10 and having been using equipment to make the teen numbers such as unifix or base 10. In Phonics we have been learning to read longer words and enjoyed doing a tricky word hunt. Reception have worked really hard this week- well done!
Week Ending 22/03/2024
We have been continuing our topic 'growing'. At the start of the week we thoroughly enjoyed acting out the story of 'the enormous topic'. Next we read 'What the ladybird heard' and we were very good at using our phonics to independently write down what the animals say in the story. In Maths we have been learning to name and recognise pyramids, cones, spheres, cubes and cuboids. The highlight of our week was visiting the school pond- we were delighted to see a frog looking at us from the water! We are going to be observing tadpoles next week. Our caterpillars are now in cocoons so we are hoping to see some butterflies soon!
Week Ending 15/03/2024
This week, as part of our topic 'ready,steady grow' we have been reading 'Jasper's Beanstalk', 'The Tiny Seed', 'Oliver's vegetables and fruit salad'. The children have been amazing at writing parts of the story, lists for Oliver and also writing about their favourite fruits. They were very excited to plant their own bean seed and are waiting patiently for it to grow. To find out more about the conditions needed to grow seeds we have setup a seed investigation and will monitor it to see which seed grows the best. Our caterpillars are also growing very big so we are looking forward to seeing what is going to happen next...
Week Ending 08/03/2024
This week our book of the week has been, 'the Girl and the Dinosaur'. We wrote about what our wishes would be and we had fun exploring fossils and finding out how they were created. Everybody looked wonderful on 'World Book Day' and were very enthusiastic to share their favourite books and take part in the activities. A highlight this week was performing in our class assembly- we are so proud of how hard the children worked and how confident they were. Well done Reception!
Week Ending 01/03/2024
This week we have been learning about Minibeasts! We went on a mini beast hunt in our wild area and found slugs, snails, woodlice and spider webs. We made our own snails - inspired by Henri Matisse. Our books this week have been ‘Superworm’ and ‘the hungry caterpillar”- we have linked these stories to our measuring topic in maths and have been measuring and comparing lengths. In Phonics we are practising identifying digraphs and trigraphs in words.
Week Ending 16/02/2024
This week we have continued to think about our own well being - We thought about the things that made us proud and positive – we wrote these down and drew pictures. On Shrove Tuesday we enjoyed reading Mr Wolf’s pancakes and especially tasting pancakes! We used our phonics to successfully write pancake recipes. On Wednesday we had fun learning about Valentine's day and thought about the people who were special to us. We worked hard consolidating our Phonics learning by using the books ‘Duck in the truck’ and ‘Shark in the Park’. In Maths we have been learning all about doubles. Well done for working so hard this half term Reception!
Week Ending 26/01/2024
Our books of the week have been 'the tiger who came to tea' and 'rumble in the jungle'. The children have been very interested in learning about all the different animal in the rainforest and have amazed us with all the facts they have remembered and confidently shared with us. The children wrote about their favourite part of the stories and created art work based on tigers. This afternoon we enjoyed having Year 1 come in and read their fantastic reports on tigers to us. In Phonics we have been learning the digraphs 'ur', 'ow', 'oi' and the trigraph 'ear'. In Maths we have been learning about 1 more, 1 less and ordering numbers.
Week Ending 19/01/2024
We have enjoyed finding out more about animals this week! We have been classifying and sorting animals into groups (mammals, reptiles and birds) and have also learnt what the words 'carnivore' and 'herbivore' mean. We have looked closely at the features of animals and created our own observational drawings. In Phonics we have been learning the digraphs 'oo', 'oo', 'ar' and 'or'. In Maths we have been subitising numbers 1-5 and have been sorting numbers into ‘5’ and ‘not 5’. Great work Reception!
Week Ending 12/01/2024
Our topic this term is 'Amazing Animals'. This week we have been focusing on pets. We enjoyed reading 'the Perfect Pet' and 'the Great Pet Sale' and wrote about pets using our knowledge of phonics to help us. We have loved using our new whiteboard especially when playing the pet game! The digraphs and trigraphs we have been learning in Phonics this week are 'ai, ee, igh and oa'.
In PSHE we have been learning about Perseverance. The children were provided with a range of challenges such as building a house of cards, building cup towers, placing dominoes on a train track and building towers from bricks. They did not give up when things got difficult! Well done Reception!
Week Ending 15/12/2023
This week we have been continuing to learn all about winter. We have identified birds that we may see and made some feeders for them as we know it can be hard for them to find food in winter. 'The Snowman' was one of our books of the week; the children used their acting skills to recreate the story in the hall by pretending to be the characters from the story. In Phonics we have been using our knowledge of sounds to write words and used this knowledge to help us write in our Christmas card. Well done for working hard Reception!
Week Ending 07/12/2023
The highlight of this week was performing our Nativity! The children sang and acted beautifully- thank you for coming to watch them and all your support. On Wednesday the children enjoyed watching the ‘Chicken Shed’ performance of ‘The Toymaker’s child’ and talked enthusiastically about what they had seen. Their behaviour was exemplary and they were a credit to the school. This week we have also talked about the story of Hanukkah and how it is celebrated.
Week Ending 01/12/2023
This week we have been learning about Space! We started off by investigating what our Earth looks like from Space then we journeyed to the moon and finally we have been looking at planets. We enjoyed designing space suits for astronauts and completing our ‘moon experiment’ with cornflour and marbles. In Maths we have been learning about ‘more’ and ‘less’.
In Phonics we have been looking at words that end in 's'. Next week we will be learning all about the season 'winter'. Great work Reception!
Week Ending 24/11/2023
We have been learning all about nocturnal animals this week. We read 'Owl Babies' and thought about their homes and our homes. We realised that mummy owl special to the owl babies so we thought about and wrote about special people in our lives and we wrote about the characters in the story. We learnt about owls and other animals that were nocturnal or diurnal. The children enjoyed creating their own owl baby paintings. In Maths we have been learning about positional language: through, under, over and around. We used positional words to create an obstacle course outside. In Phonics we have learnt the digraphs sh, th, ng, and nk. Next week we will be learning about space. Great work Reception!
Week Ending 17/11/2023
This week in Reception we have been celebrating 'World Nursery Rhyme week'. The children have been wonderfully enthusiastic singers and musicians; they have thoroughly enjoyed the work based around the following rhymes: Hickory Dickory Dock, Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, Jack and Jill, row, row, row your boat, and the wheels on the bus. A highlight this week has been making dream catchers- we used these when we were singing lullabies to try and get our role play babies to sleep.
In Phonics we have been learning the phoneme 'z' and the digraphs 'qu' and 'ch'.
For Anti-bullying week we talked about being kind and how to be a good friend. We used our handprints to create a heart of kindness. Well done Reception!
Next week we will be learning about nocturnal animals.
Week Ending 10/11/2023
This week the children have enjoyed reading the story of 'Rama and Sita' and learning about Diwali. They wrote labels to go with pictures of the story, made playdough divas, made Rangoli patterns using loose parts and made puppets. The children were able to retell parts of the story and some of them even acted out the story. Today we also learnt about why we wear poppies and painted our own poppies. In Maths we have looked at circles and triangles and we how we identify them. For example, we say, 'this is a circle, I know this is a circle because it is round. This is a triangle, I know it is a triangle because it has 3 straight sides and 3 corners'. In Phonics we have learnt the sounds ‘v’w’x and y’.
Week Ending 3/11/2023
This week we have been reading ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy and ‘Night monkey, Day monkey’ by Julia Donaldson. We enjoyed acting out both stories and using the big construction to make our own rocket. We even enjoyed a picnic on the moon!
Our adults have been really impressed with how we have been using our sounds to help us write words- we have written words to describe what we saw in the story and also to describe the sounds fireworks make.
In Maths we have been looking at and naming shapes - we created some super rocket pictures using shapes. In Phonics we have been learning the digraphs ‘ff’, ‘ll’ and ‘ss’, we also learnt the sound ‘j’. Well done for working hard Reception!
Week Ending 13/10/2023
This week we have been learning about people who help us in our community. We were very excited to have a visit by the Police and enjoyed looking at their car and hearing about all the work they do. We also welcomed the Fireman and their fire engine to school. We were amazed at all the equipment they had and listened very carefully when they explained what it was all for. Thank you to the Police and the Firemen for coming to visit us!
In phonics this week we have been learning about h,b,f, and l. A copy of our phonics presentation can be found at the top of our class page.
Week Ending 06/10/2023
We have had a wonderful week reading Autumn stories. We read 'Pumpkin Soup' and then enjoyed creating and writing about our own 'silly soup'; we also looked at capacity and filled up containers using the language of capacity 'half full', 'nearly full' 'full' and 'empty'. We also enjoyed reading 'leafman', we used lots of good describing words when looking at leaves and then had fun making our own 'leafman'. Miss Reilly introduced us to our new art wall where we can display our work - we are looking forward to filling it up! In phonics we have been learning ck, e, u and r. Well done Reception!
Week Ending 29/09/2023
This week we have introduced 'zones of regulation' to the children. We have learnt how to identify which zone we are in and the things we can do to help us get into the green zone. We read ' How to fill your bucket up' and thought about what we could do to be a good friend to others. In Maths we learnt about identifying when something is a match. We had great fun designing a pair of socks after reading the story Simon's Sock!
Week Ending 22/09/2023
This week a highlight of the week has been learning about Rosh Hashanah. We listened very carefully to Miss Reilly explain all about it and then we enjoyed tasting apples dipped in honey.
The children have also been learning all about our school in particular the people who work here and the children who learn here.
In Phonics we have been learning about the sounds i,n,m,d. The children have been fantastic at writing the sounds on their whiteboards- Great work Reception!
Week Ending 15/09/2023
We have had another wonderful week in Reception. The children have enjoyed staying for lunch; we have been impressed with how independent they have been with making their meal choices and eating their lunch- good work Reception!
The children have been brilliant at completing a full school day; an afternoon highlight was visiting our woodland area. We were fascinated with the bugs and conkers that we found! Well done Reception for being so enthusiastic in your learning.
Week Ending 08/09/2023
Welcome to Newberries Year R! We have been so impressed by how well you have settled into school. This week we have been getting to know each other and our classroom. The children have enjoyed using the resources in our learning environment and have participated enthusiastically in our 'getting to know you' games. Well done Reception!
Blogs 2022-23
Week Ending 14/07/2023
This week we have been reading 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' and 'The Train Journey'. We have enjoyed finding out how lighthouses and trains work. We have been busy writing items to go in a picnic basket, what we can see on a train journey, labelling a train and writing tickets! We loved seeing you on Celebration Afternoon and sharing our work with you. A highlight of the week was visiting our new teacher and new classroom! Well done for all your hard work this week Reception.
Week Ending 07/07/2023
We have been enjoying pirate stories and learning about maps and boats this week! Our pirate story was called ' The pirates next door'. We drew and labelled pirates. We learnt what a compass was and had fun making our own and also making star constellations - we learnt that these were what helped sailors to find their way when at sea.
We also read the story 'Come away from the water Shirley' and thought about the adventures we could have on the beach. We looked at the different types of boat and then designed and made our own boat- we had fun testing them in our water tray! In Maths we have been learning about subtraction and have created number sentences and stories about taking away.
Week Ending 30/06/2023
This week we have been learning about life in the ocean. Our books of the week have been 'Hooray for fish' by Lucy Cousins and 'Surprising Sharks' by Nicola Davies. The children have been interested to learn lots of facts about sharks and fish. They have been labelling the parts of a fish and a shark and writing down information about these creatures. In maths we have been looking at number bonds and used the maths equipment to investigate bonds to 10, we put our number sentences on fish to feed the hungry shark. Reception did so brilliantly on their first sports day! They were enthusiastic to take part and showed good sportsmanship-Well done Reception, we are so proud of you!
Week Ending 23/06/2023
Our focus this week has been learning about rockpools. We have enjoyed learning facts about some of the creatures that can be found in these environments. We found out about what happens if a starfish loses its arm and we found out that the largest crab is a Japanese Spider crab and it can grow up to 4metres long! A highlight of the week was participating in the drumming workshop. Our books of the week have been 'sharing a shell' and 'one is snail, 10 is a crab'. We linked these to our maths this week and the children were able to create number stories and sentences using fantastic maths reasoning - well done Reception! We also enjoyed learning outside and created some pictures using natural materials.
Week Ending 16/06/2023
This week we have introduced the children to our topic 'on the Beach'. We read 'Clem and Crab' and 'who's hiding at the seaside?'. We wrote our own clues about these characters based on what we had read. The children created observational drawings and also look at the rubbish found on the beach and how this impacts the environment. We talked about how animals have to stay in their own habitats to stay healthy. In Maths we have continued to look at doubling and have also moved onto sharing. We have been using our phonics skills to write sentences about what we can see at the seaside. We have also enjoyed completing water investigations too!
Week Ending 09/06/2023
The highlight of this week has been our visit to the Zoo! The children had a wonderful time and we were so proud of each and everyone of them for being so attentive and interested in what we saw, for being caring and kind and for their excellent behaviour- Well done Reception! Here are some of their thoughts of our visit…
‘I liked the penguins’ Mia
‘I liked the tigers and the penguins’ Chloe
‘I liked the meerkats’ Tate
‘I liked the dinosaurs’ Olivia
‘I liked having lunch!’ Zack
‘I Liked the penguins because they eat fish and I like fish!’ Clara B
‘I liked the dinosaurs squirting water!’ Blake
‘I liked the king of the dinosaurs!’ Luca
'I liked everything'! Clara C
Week Ending 26/05/2023
This week we have been reading the story of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ and the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’. We really enjoyed our Huff and Puff investigation which involved investigating whether or not objects were air resistant.
We worked together to build new houses for the three little pigs and bridges for the Billy goats to cross over the river.
In Maths we read ‘Mr Gumpy’s outing’ and created our own number stories involving the boat and the animals. We created some super number sentences to go with our story.
Today we said goodbye to our butterflies and tadpoles; the children have really enjoyed watching them develop, they wrote them goodbye cards and waved to the butterflies as they flew away.
Week Ending 19/05/2023
In Reception this week the children have continued their learning about Fairy tales with a focus on Goldilocks and The Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood. The children started the week by reading Goldilocks and The Three Bears and Who’s Been Eating My Porridge? and then made their own porridge after reading and writing instructions. This was a yummy way to end the day. We then read Little Red Riding Hood and some children wrote wanted posters to help Little Red Riding Hood keep the Fairy tale land characters safe, and some decided to help The Big Bad Wolf design some new disguises. We ended the week as authors as lots of us chose to write the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The children have been working hard on their phonics and you can find further information on the words they have been learning to read and write in the red Phonics book. In Maths the children have been continuing to deepen their knowledge and understanding of teen numbers and have been thinking about the composition of teen numbers for example “ten and two makes twelve” and thinking about the ordering these using the terms; first, next, then.
Well done Reception 🙂
Week Ending 12/05/2023
Reception had a wonderful week learning all about the coronation! We started off by reading ‘What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday’. This introduced us to London. We spoke about our experiences of London and looked at London landmarks. We made maps and models of the landmarks. Reception then learnt about King Charles and painted some super portraits of him. They enjoyed dressing up on Friday and were enthusiastic to share the rules they would make if they were on the throne! Other highlights included making flags, bunting, a carriage for the king and planting flowers. Great job Reception!
Week Ending 28/04/2023
This week the children have been introduced to our caterpillars and tadpoles and are very excited to watch them grow! We have also looked at the festival of Eid and learnt how our friends celebrate Eid. We were motivated when learning about St George and were enthusiastic to start our new topic 'once upon a time'. We talked about Earth day and thought of ways to help protect our earth. Today we enjoyed meeting the athlete Adrian Patrick and were very good at participating in a work-out with him!
Week Ending 21/04/2023
The children have had a great start back to school following the spring break! This week we have been learning about minibeasts. The children enjoyed exploring the grounds as part of a minibeast hunt and learnt about the features of different minibeasts. Our books this week have been: 'Sammy Spider's first Passover', 'Tadpoles Promise', 'Superworm', ' The Bumblebear' and 'the bad tempered ladybird'. As part of their learning about Passover, Reception also looked at the Seder plate and enjoyed sampling Matzahs. In Phonics we have started learning Phase 4 and in Maths we have been looking at the composition of numbers beyond 10.
Week Ending 31/03/2023
This week we have been learning about the season Spring and also Easter traditions. We have talked about Holy week and today we learnt about the Hindu festival of Holi . We learnt that Holi is known as the 'festival of spring' or the 'festival of colours'. Miss D showed us some Easter eggs that are used to decorate homes in Romania; we loved looking at the pretty patterns that had been painted onto the eggs. Great work this term Reception-well done! We hope you all have wonderful spring break!
Week Ending 24/03/2023
Well done for a great performance in our assembly today Reception! We are all so proud of you. The children have been singing the songs all week and enjoying learning related to 'what the ladybird heard'. They have been using their phonics brilliantly to create wanted posters, maps and to write about their favourite part of the story. In Maths we have really enjoyed learning about patterns and have created lots of patterns using pegs, chalk, natural materials and Lego. In Phonics we have been learning to write longer and compound words. Keep up the good work Reception!
Week Ending 17/03/2023
In Reception we have been continuing our topic of 'growing' and have linked it to Science Week. We set up an experiment with four seeds - one was in a bag with no light, one was in bag with soil but no water, one was in a bag with cotton wool and water and the final seed was in a bag with soil and water. All the bags were taped to the window. The children have been so excited to see what happened to these seeds so please ask them! We have also been investigating wheels and cars and working out which cars go fastest and why this might be. In Maths we have been adding seeds together and measuring the distance our cars went. In Phonics we have been looking at words with two or more digraphs. Fantastic work Reception- well done!
Week Ending 10/03/2023
This week we had lots of fun learning more about dinosaurs! We loved taking part in the 'dinosaur dig' workshop. We met some dinosaurs- a baby triceratops, a baby velociraptor and a baby t-rex. The children experienced being palaeontologists and completed their own dinosaur dig where they found dinosaur teeth, claws and bones. They used these clues to work out if the dinosaurs were herbivores or carnivores. We also explored fossils that belonged to other animals and plants that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.
Week Ending 03/03/2023
As part of 'World Book Day' one of our books this week was 'Charlie Cook's Favourite Book' by Julia Donaldson. We confidently spoke in front of the class to tell them our favourite book and on 'World Book Day' we confidently showed and explained our costumes to our friends. We have also enjoyed reading 'The Barnabus Project' and thought carefully about what our pet would be. In Maths we were fantastic at counting the treasure in the the treasure box and wrote some wonderful number sentences on our boards. In Phonics we are practising identifying digraphs and trigraphs in words. We have enjoyed all our learning on World Book Day- a highlight was creating characters out of spoons and then using these to make up our own stories!
Week Ending 24/02/2023
This week have introduced our dinosaur topic! The children have enjoyed learning about all the different dinosaurs and about the role of paleontologists. A highlight of the week was discovering how volcanoes worked. The children remembered all the parts of a volcano and were very enthusiastic when watching the volcano experiment! In Phonics we have been practising reading words and sounds learnt so far- the children enjoyed playing phonics pancakes.
Week Ending 10/02/2023
This week we have been learning about e-safety and enjoyed listening to Smartie the penguin telling us all about how to stay safe when we are using a computer or a tablet. Our books of the week have been 'The Ugly Five' and 'The Koala who could'. We talked about all the things we could do now and shared the things we are good at-which included hulu-hooping, making 22 links in a paper chain and domino maths! In Phonics we have been learning how to read longer words and in Maths we have been learning about 6 and 7. After half term we will be learning about dinosaurs. We hope you have a wonderful half term!
Week Ending 03/02/2023
Our book of the week has been 'the tiger who came to tea' which we linked to our work on endangered animals. The children wrote about their favourite part of the story and created art work based on tigers. In P.E we have enjoyed learning some new games. In Maths the children have been investigating heavier and lighter objects; we have been really impressed at their explanations when comparing objects. In Phonics we have been learning about 'air' and 'er' and words with double letters e.g. rabbit.
Week Ending 27/01/2023
This week the children have been very interested in our learning about Lunar New Year. They listened carefully to the story of the Great Race and then acted it out. We found out where China is on the map and worked together to create the Great Wall of China. A highlight of the week was trying noodles! The children have also enjoyed making lanterns, dragons and writing about dragons. In Phonics we have been learning the digraphs 'ur', 'ow', 'oi' and the trigraph 'ear'. In Maths we have been learning about ordering numbers. Next week we will be learning about 'Animal Tales'.
Week Ending 20/01/2023
We have enjoyed finding out more about animals this week! We have learnt what the words 'carnivore' and 'herbivore' mean and sorted animals out into these categories. We have looked closely at the features of animals and created our own observational drawings. In Phonics we have been learning the digraphs 'oo', 'oo', 'ar' and 'or'. In Maths we have learnt about 'equal' and 'not equal'. Next week we will be learning about Lunar New Year.
Week Ending 13/01/2023
Our topic this term is 'Amazing Animals'. This week we have been focusing on pets. We enjoyed reading 'the Perfect Pet' and 'the Great Pet Sale' and wrote about pets using our knowledge of phonics to help us. In Maths we chose pets from the shop and worked out how much money we needed to pay for them; we carefully recorded what we had done on our whiteboards. The digraphs and trigraphs we have been learning in Phonics this week are 'ai, ee, igh and oa'. Next week we will be learning about animals that have scales, fur and feathers.
Week Ending 16/12/2022
This week we have been continuing to learn all about winter. We have identified birds that we may see and made some feeders for them as we know it can be hard for them to find food in winter. Reception created some wonderful penguin pictures and enjoyed creating a winter bird card for their families. 'The Snowman' was one of our books of the week; the children used their acting skills to recreate the story in the hall by pretending to be the characters from the story. We also enjoyed our visit to the pantomime on Tuesday!
Week Ending 09/12/2022
The highlight of this week was performing our Nativity! The children sang and acted beautifully- thank you for coming to watch them and all your support.
We have been learning all about 'winter' this week. We started off by reading 'the Gruffalos child' and created our own observational drawings of what we may see in winter. We enjoyed going on a frosty walk and used some fantastic vocabulary to discuss what we could see 'spiky frost' and 'glittering ice' were some of the words we were using. In Phonics we have been consolidating the sounds we have learnt so far; we are so proud of how much we have learnt during our first term at Newberries- Well done Reception!
Week Ending 02/12/2022
This week we have been learning about Space! We started off by investigating what our Earth looks like from Space then we journeyed to the moon and finally we have been looking at planets. We enjoyed listening to 'Jupiter' by Holst and talked about how the music made us feel. The children have been amazing when learning all about our value of the month 'perseverance'. We set them a variety of challenges and they kept going when it was tricky and were wonderful at encouraging each other, 'don't give up!' was what we heard them telling their friends! In Phonics we have been looking at words that end in 's'. Next week we will be learning all about the season 'winter'. Great work Reception!
Week Ending 25/11/2022
We have been learning all about nocturnal animals this week. We read 'Owl Babies' and thought about their homes and our homes. We learnt about owls and other animals that were nocturnal or diurnal.
The children enjoyed creating their own owl baby paintings. In Maths we have been learning about positional language: through, under, over and around. We used positional words to create an obstacle course outside. In Phonics we have learnt the digraphs sh, th, ng, and nk. Next week we will be learning about space. Great work Reception!
Week Ending 18/11/2022
This week in Reception we have been celebrating 'World Nursery Rhyme week'. The children have been wonderfully enthusiastic singers and musicians; they have thoroughly enjoyed the work based around the following rhymes: 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive, The big ship sails on the Ally-Ally-O, five little speckled frogs, B.I.N.G.O the dog and twinkle twinkle little star.
In Phonics we have been learning the phoneme 'z' and the digraphs 'qu' and 'ch'.
For Anti-bullying week we talked about being kind and how to be a good friend. We used our handprints to create a heart of kindness. Well done Reception!
Next week we will be learning about nocturnal animals.
Week Ending 11/11/2022
This week in Reception we have been learning about night time. We have talked about people who work at night, our bedtime routine and the importance of brushing our teeth. For World Science Day we soaked eggs (representing our teeth) into different liquids and then talked about what had happened to the eggs. The children made some thoughtful observations and used scientific vocabulary ('predict' and 'observe'). We also completed the STEM cup challenge which was to build a tall tower using only 20 cups. In phonics we learnt to read and write w,x,y,z and are using our segmenting and blending to read lots of words. Next week is world nursery rhyme week so we will be basing our learning around nursery rhymes.
Today we learnt about Remembrance day and why we wear poppies. We created our own poppy pictures and were able to explain about Remembrance day.
Week Ending 04/11/2022
The children have settled back into school really well following half term. This week we have enjoyed reading 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy. We made a list of all the things baby bear could take to the moon. We participated enthusiastically in our PE lesson and have been learning a variety of positions including 'pencil' and 'star'. In Phonics we have learnt the digraphs 'll' 'ss' 'ff' and the sound 'j'. We have also been learning about the story of Guy Fawkes and created our own poem and pictures. Next week we will be continuing to learn about night time. Well done Reception!
Week Ending 21/10/2022
This week we have been learning about Divali. We learnt all about how Divali is the festival of light and we found out how it is celebrated; we also had fun making Rangoli patterns and Diva lamps. We have continued to enjoy exploring Autumn and a highlight of this week was investigating pumpkins and what they look like inside. We finished the week by reading 'Room on the Broom' and used our knowledge of sounds to create ingredients for the witch so that she could have a new 'truly magnificent broom'.
We hope you all have a wonderful half term and look forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday 1st November.
Week Ending 14/10/2022
Autumn has been our focus this week. We enjoyed sharing our treasures that we had collected over the weekend and used some fantastic describing words. In Maths we had fun investigating capacity and making 'silly soup'. We have also enjoyed reading stories relating to Autumn and created some fantastic pictures. Well done for working hard Reception!
Week Ending 7/10/2022
This week we have been learning about people who help us. We really enjoyed having a visit from the police and paramedics! Reception have also been working really hard on their phonics this week and are recognising lots of sounds and words - Great work Reception!
Blogs 2021-22
Week Ending 15/7/2022
This week we have been learning about people who help us. We read ‘Snail and the Whale’ and ‘Zog and the Flying Doctors’. We enjoyed finding out about all the roles within the rescue services.
We have done much of our learning outside this week enjoying the shade of the oak tree and the meadow! We have been sharing story books and helping each other to find tricky words; digraphs and trigraphs. We have either read the story books or told a story from the pictures. We have worked with our talk partners to gather pieces of nature to create our own pictures. We worked carefully and shared our work confidently with the class. We also used nature to make 3 sets of repeating patterns with our talk partner.
In phonics we have been reviewing words with long vowel sounds and practising reading and writing all the digraphs and trigraphs we have been learning about this year.
In Maths we have been playing ‘mystery number’ and have been giving our friends clues so that they could guess our number. We have also been practising our adding and subtracting skills and played games with dice and skittles to practise counting.
Great work Reception!
Week Ending 8/7/2022
The highlight of the week has been sports day! The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in all the races. They were determined, perseverant and displayed great sportsmanship - well done Reception!
In PSHE we have been reflecting on our time in Reception and written about what we are looking forward to in Year 1.
In Phonics we have been reviewing words with long vowel sounds in them and revising digraphs.
Our books of the week have been ‘The Pirates Next door’ and ‘Come away from the Water, Shirley’. We have enjoyed finding out more about pirates, creating our own compasses and maps and also designing our own boats. We have written about the adventures we might have if we were on the beach for a day.
In Maths we have been creating subtraction number stories and also investigating different ways of making the same number.
Great work Reception!
Week Ending 1/7/2022
This week we have been learning about life in the ocean. We have been finding out more about fish and sharks and have been labelling diagrams using the new vocabulary that we have learnt. We have also been continuing to write facts about the sea life we have been exploring.
In PSHE we have been looking at how we have changed since we were babies. We have enjoyed looking at our own photos and sharing these with the class and talking about what we can do now compared to what we could do when we were younger.
In phonics we have been reviewing words with long vowel sounds and practising reading and writing all the digraphs and trigraphs we have been learning about this year.
In Maths we have been acting out and recording our own number stories based on the story ‘Mr Gumpy’s boat’. We had to choose a number and then create the boat crew with the same amount of legs. So for example if we chose the number 8 we could then choose a duck, a cow, and a person because their legs added together would make 8. We challenged ourselves to find lots of different ways of creating the same number.
Great work Reception!
Week Ending 24/6/2022
‘Sharing a shell’ and ‘One is a snail, two is crab’ have been our books of the week as this week we have been learning all about rockpools and the creatures that live in them, particularly starfish and crabs.
The children have been fascinated by the new facts they have been learning and have shared these enthusiastically throughout their learning through play.
‘Crabs communicate by drumming their claws’ Nia.
‘A pea crab is 2cm long’ Eddie.
‘Starfish have legs that grow back’ Joe
‘A crab has a hard shell’ Asterix .
A Japanese Spider crab can grow up to 4m long’ William.
‘Once a crab has grown out of its shell, it gets in order with other crabs and they swap shells’. Lilly
‘Starfish move around using their suckers’ Millie.
We have been writing facts, drawing pictures and making models to represent the creatures we have been learning about.
In PSHE we have been learning all about healthy eating and really enjoyed making a fruit salad! The children apples, banana, apple juice and pineapple. Everyone said their fruity salad was delicious!
In PE we have been practising for sports day and have been perfecting our long jump and egg and spoon skills.
In Maths we have been remembering how to count in 2s and 10s and have used this information to add numbers. In our story ‘One is a Snail, two is a crab’ we have been counting how many legs we can see on the seashore and then creating our own number stories.
Well done for working hard this week Reception; we are impressed with how much you have remembered!