Joint morning with year 4!

Hello everyone,

This morning we had a joint morning with year 4. All the children were paired up with a year 4 pupil (not their usual buddy) and had a go at doing several different activities based on the book 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy.

• We had a wide selection of boxes for children to turn into anything they wanted too and make a story up. We had some great cards, planes, rockets and boats.
• Children worked with their year 4 partner to create an alien that they found on the moon. Some really creative ideas throughout this. 
• Finally, children had to write a letter from one of the characters in the story. The reception children were very confident with their writing during this! 

See also the year blog: http://pow-year4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/whatever-next.html 

We will be putting up some displays based on the work that has been carried out this week so hopefully you will be able to see some of the fantastic work soon! 

Reception team

Peace at Last Drama Day

Hello everyone,

Thank you very much for your fantastic response to our request for children to come into school with pyjamas, dressing gowns and teddies! We've had a great day in the hall doing lots of drama activities based around the book Peace at Last by Jill Murphy. The children had lots of opportunities to use their teddies to promote discussion and ask questions. The children came up with some fantastic alternative endings to the story too! 
We will be putting up a few pictures from the day for you to see.

Tomorrow all children will be doing some writing based on the story and what they have experienced today. We have also been thinking about time and some of the vocabulary associated with time - later, before, earlier, in a bit, a long time etc. We're going to be moving on to ordering the days of the week later in the week too! 

On Thursday we will be having a joint session with year 4 so we're also looking forward to that. 

Reception team

Writing ideas

Hello everyone,

Welcome back! For the rest of this term we will be increasing our focus on our writing. This will include practicing our letter formation and encouraging children to be more independent with their sounding out and spelling of words. 

Below are some possible ideas for some home learning involving writing. Please bring these in to show us! Later on in the week we will be looking at a story called 'Whatever Next' also by Jill Murphy so some of the ideas relate to this story.

• Tell us about your half-term! If you have done anything fun over the week off we would love to know about it!
• As we are doing 'Peace at Last', see if you can find out about a nocturnal animal. What is it and what does it do at night?
• There are lots of sounds at night - what sounds can you hear at night in your house? Draw pictures and write some labels. 
• If you were to take a picnic to the moon, what would be in it?
• Find out some facts about the moon.

Please adapt these as you feel necessary. Also, please feel free to do any of these over a few days. Children can get tired after a busy day at school.

Reception team

Tomorrow's Drama Day - Urgent

Hi all,

Apologies about the late notice but tomorrow we have a whole day of drama lined up with Simon Stone who is coming in to school to work with each class this week. We will be basing our work on the book 'Peace at Last' by Jill Murphy. 

For this action packed day it would be great if the children could bring into school with them tomorrow: 

• A dressing gown
• A pair of pyjamas
• A teddy bear

You do not have to wear the pyjamas to school but bring them with you as we will be using them throughout the day. Children will return with them tomorrow.

Sorry again for the late notice and thank you for your support.

Reception team

Computer teddy job

Hello everyone,

I hope you have all had a chance to have a good rest over the half-term. From tomorrow morning the computer teddy job will be in the ICT suite just outside the reception classroom. This will give the children a chance to practice logging in to the school system using their username card - these will be on the computers. From there children are welcome to use any software on the computer or go onto the school website.

We look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow! 

Reception team

Response from Neil Griffiths

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all enjoying your half-term holiday. The week before last the children all had a go at creating a piece  of writing based on the book Fatou, Fetch the Water by Neil Griffiths. We sent these pieces of work off to Neil and he has been kind enough to write back to the children. His response was shared with the children yesterday but here it is below! 

Dear children!

What a lovely surprise today when I opened my email to find your lovely 

work!

I have printed them off and they are on my pin board by my desk!

I am so glad you have been enjoying my book about Fatou.

The story is set in The Gambia and this is a country I love and visit every 

year.

I have helped set up and now fund 4 schools there.

I am going to show the children in the schools your work!

They are not as lucky as you are, as they sometimes have to share one pencil 

between 3 children and only get one exercise book a term!

We are about to send out 5,000 books by ship, so soon they will have lots 

more!

Many of the children in the village are called Fatou as it is the most 

popular girl's name and sometimes girls as young as 6 have to pull up heavy 

buckets of water from the wells.

We are very pleased that water pipes are soon coming to the village and they 

will then have outside taps to pour the water from.

Thanks you so much for writing to me and keep on reading!

Best wishes,

Neil

Reception team

DMS Dance Showcase

Hello everyone,

A big well done to all the reception children for their successful participation in the dance showcase up at DMS today. It was great for the children to take part and to see what other schools were up to. We also got to see a dance from a pair of DMS students. Thank you to all the parents that helped us to walk up or who came to watch! 

We will be continuing with our themed week tomorrow, looking into bees in more detail and how they help us produce honey. We've been doing some collages this week and they are looking really good! Lots of independent work from the children. Please have a look at some of them as you come in. 

Reception team

Love your bike/scooter day

Just a quick note. If you are bringing in a bike or scooter tomorrow showing us how much you love it, please bring them to the reception outside area. We will take them through to the special assembly that is taking place tomorrow morning. 

Reception team

Joint morning

Hello all,

Today we began our topic for week: Farm to fork! The whole school is having a focus on different foods this week. Our original food to look at was bread but we are now having a look at honey instead! The children already have some super knowledge about honey and how it is made: Bees! 

This morning we had another joint morning with pre-school where all children participated in several activities: 

• We planted some flowers to attract the bees and give the nectar they need.
• We made honey sandwiches/on toast - of course! 
• Children had a go at making a bee by choosing the correct colours.

Throughout the rest of the week we will be making some honey biscuits, creating a collage and looking at bee-bots and the very beginnings of computer language. Also, On Thursday we will have Mr. Farrington come into the class to help us learn about Indian farming! Plus we have our dance showcase on Wednesday - any helpers still welcome.

Reception team

Another maths problem

Hi all,

Considering the roaring success of the previous maths challenge I've got another one for you to get your teeth stuck in to. Feel free to answer the problem however suits you best. There were so many great ideas last time!

Linda's coat: 

Linda has a lovely blue coat with 3 buttons on it. At playtime Linda wants to put her coat on to go outside and play. She does her coat up from the top button down. How many other ways could Linda do her coat up? 

Good luck with this one...

Reception team

Fatou, Fetch the Water!

Hello everyone,

Fantastic to see so much home learning again today! The children continue to outdo themselves. This week we have started looking at The Gambia. Thanks to the children we had some great facts about the country and throughout the week we will be finding out much more. 

Today we read 'Fatou, Fetch the Water' by Neil Griffiths and the children were told that they would be writing to the author in different ways. Some children will be tasked with adding a new page to the story whilst others will have the opportunity to be a critic and pick up any questions they may have about the story. We had a great start to this today with some very good pages added to the story. All of the written work will be sent to Neil Griffiths and he has agreed to write back! Very exciting. 

Also to fit  in with our Gambia week we'll be trying our hand at tie-dying! All children will get a chance to try the method and have a nice piece of headgear to show for it too! 

Finally, the list for parents evening was put up outside the classroom today. As was the case last time, if anyone is unable to make any of the times please come and chat to us and we can find a way around it. 

Reception team