Praise...

Hi all,

Just a quick message to pass on those children who were praised today in assembly. Overall, we are seeing a massive improvement in the writing department so thank you for any extra input that may be going in at home! 

Samantha, Phillippa, Jacob, Jasmine & Jason - For improved handwriting in school!

Indi-Rose, Emilie & Erin - For creating and drawing their own dragons. We will be writing about these next week.

Reception team

Old Wellington Boots?

We have another plan afoot!  Have you got any old, outgrown or holey wellies at home?  If so we would like to use them for a project in Eco Week.  Please bring in your old wellies to year 2 to be up-cycled!

Used CDS

I am after used CDs which we can paint and stick onto for an Eco school activity. If you have any old CDs you are willing to hand over, please bring them to the school office or find me in Year 2 classroom.

Many thanks!        Mrs Mewett

Can you smell the food?

Hello everyone,

This week we have been continuing to discover and explore Chinese New Year. In literacy we will be exploring the 'Dragon'! We will be having a go at creating our own dragon and writing sentences that tell us about it. These will go to for part of a display that will be going up in the classroom in the near future. In maths this week we are learning about weight. We have already been using vocabulary like heavier/heaviest and lighter/lightest but will be go on to putting objects in weight order. We will begin with putting 3 objects in weight order and move on from there! To help us with this we will be using scales and balances. 

We have also begun the preparation for our 'Chinese Feast' that will take place in the last week of the half-term - a final date will be announced shortly. The likely set up will be that parents/grandparents will be invited into the school from 3.00pm onwards to come and taste some food and see what we've been up to. This week we have been busy cooking sesame toast but we will go on to add chow mein, rice dishes and more! We will be encouraging children to try some of the different foods if they haven't tried them before. 

Finally, in case you haven't seen it already, the list for parents evening has gone up outside the main door. If any of these times aren't possible for you, please come and speak to me and we will arrange another time that is workable. 

Reception team

Praise assembly

Hi all,

Once again we had a praise assembly on Friday to celebrate the learning that has been going on in the week. As always, the whole class work extremely hard and are all worthy of praise in their own way. This weeks children who had a special mention in assembly are below.

Joey, Bella, Daphne, Leo, Caitlin - For their handwriting work.

Sammy & Lily - For their label writing this week. They had to write labels for an animal from the Chinese New Year story.

Indi-Rose & Jasper - after being shown a picture they had to write a sentence about 'What happened next...'.

Alyce - for her swimming certificate she received outside of school.

Reception team

Tricky words

Hello everyone,

This week we have been having a bit of an increased focus on tricky words. Tricky words are words that cannot be sounded out completely but have to be learnt by sight. We are going back over the tricky words previously learnt as well as finishing the current set of tricky words. Below I've put all the words that we have done so far. 

set 1 - I, no, go, to, the, into

set 2 - was, you, all, are, they, me, be, we, he, she, my

There will be further tricky words appearing over the coming months so we will let you know when and what we have covered. 

Reception team

Plastic Bottle Lids

We have a plan for our Eco Week after the half term holidays!  We need your help in collecting as many clean, colourful plastic lids as you can - any type of bottle.  Please bring them along to the year 2 classroom where we will look after them and turn them into something wonderful!!  Many thanks!

Chinese New Year!

Hi all,

Today we began our new topic centered around Chinese New Year! Over the course of this week we will be learning the story behind Chinese New Year and beginning to explore the similarities and differences this celebration has with our own. We watched a dragon dance earlier on today! We will be learning about the animals from the zodiac and finding out which ones we are. We've also begun making a paper plate sheep. The children are given pictures of the different stages for making the sheep and then encouraged to make it on their own with minimal adult help. In maths this week we are returning to a bit of 2D shape as well as beginning to group and sort things in different ways. 

For this topic we will also be tasting and making lots of Chinese food. At the end of the topic we will be having a Feast for you all to come to - more will follow on this. 

Finally, today you will have received a letter from the school nurse. These were placed in book bags or back-packs for you to look over. The check-ups will take place on the 1st February. If you have any questions please come and ask us. 

Reception team

Praise Assembly

Hello everyone,

Most Friday's we have an awards assembly in school with years 1 & 2. During this we praise children who have worked hard in the week or shown a positive attitude towards their learning even if they are not successful. The children who are praised in this assembly will also appear on the blog now as well! 

This week the children that were praised were:

Abel - for his maths work with addition.

Kurtis - also for his maths work.

Bella - for her work with rhyming words together. 

Tilly - also for her work with rhyming words together. 

Well done to all you! 

Reception team 

Jack Frost...

Hello everyone,

We have been continuing our Winter topic this week by looking at the book 'The Tale of Jack Frost'. This was read to the children on Tuesday. On Wednesday there was a mysterious 'frozen hand' found on the grass outside on a particularly frosty morning. After a discussion about where the hand came from and what we should do with it, it was decided that we should leave a message for Jack Frost - other suggestions included use it to 'magic everyone into frogs' and 'put it in the bin'. You may have seen the message outside this morning. Jack got back to us by writing a note, as he only comes out at night to sprinkle his magic over the land. He said thanks for looking after his hand and gave us a clue as to the whereabouts of some other magical treasure he had lost on his trip around Maiden Castle. Alas, we were unable to find the treasure today. Watch this space... The imagination throughout this week has been excellent and very original! 

Reception team

Sounds from last week and this week

Hello everyone,

I realised that I hadn't put the sounds that we had done last week in phonics on the blog. Below are the sounds from last week as well as the ones we'll be doing this week. 

'ow' as in how - Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou.

'er' as in hammer - Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say ererer.

'oi' as in coin - Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy!

'ur' as in fur - Hold knee as if hurt and say ur,ur.

'air' as in hair - Put your hands in the air and swirl them around.

'ear' as in fear - Touch ear and say ear, ear.

After this week we will begin to place all the sounds that we have covered this year into your child's sound pot. Please continue to use these at home to reinforce the sounds. 

Reception team

New parent info wall

Hi all,

Just a quick message to say that we have put up a new Parent information board in the classroom, by the cloakroom area. On here we will put all sorts of information. Things like dates, letters that go out on a Friday, the menu for hot dinners, blogs and Wow! Moments to take home. If there is anything that you think would be useful to have up there please let us know. Of course, you are still very welcome to chat to us about anything you are unsure or concerned about. 

Reception team

Show and tell has changed...

Hello everyone,

As we have begun a new year we are changing how we do show and tell. Up until now you could bring in anything you wanted. From now on everyone will have their own day where they can bring anything they would like to show into school. This can be a toy, or a souvenir from a museum etc. or your favourite book. Alternatively, you can just come in to school and tell a story or a joke. You don't have to bring anything in if you don't want to, it is completely up to you. Children will be told the day before that their day is tomorrow. We will work round everybody in the class. So this does mean from now on, unless it is your day, that you cannot bring toys in to school.

However, you may continue bringing in pieces of writing or works of art you have created at home. As well as these, Wow! Moments are always welcome - thank you for continuing to bring in so many of them! This shift is to highlight to children how learning can continue at home and that just because you are not at school, you cannot learn. We have discussed this as a class as well as the self-satisfaction that can come from challenging yourself to solve a problem - even if it takes you a few attempts.

Obviously, all children learn at different speeds and produce a whole variety of work. We of course recognise and celebrate this.

I hope this makes sense but if you do have any questions, please come and ask.

Reception team

  

Home learning ideas - Winter

Hello everyone,

Below are a few ideas for things to do at home to bring in to school for our topic of Winter. Showing work and bringing things in has changed since last term so please see the further blog explaining the changes. As always, please continue bring in Wow! Moments.

• Write a list of the things you might see in Winter.
• Go for a walk on a cold day and talk about what you can see, hear, smell and feel. 
• Come up with as many different words for cold as you can i.e freezing.
• Design a hat and scarf for a snowman/lady.
• Create an acrostic poem for the word Winter - we are doing these in school this week.
• Find out about polar bears and what they are doing this time of year in the Antarctic.
• Draw, paint or collage a Frozen castle (sorry, it had to be done). 
• Write down a New Years Resolution - we have introduced these at school. 

We look forward to seeing all your lovely work.

Reception team

First week back...

Hello everyone! 

Happy new year to you all. I hope you had a nice break and ate lots of food! We are back to school tomorrow morning to begin the Spring term. We really begin to enhance our focus upon reading, writing and maths this term but will of course make it as relevant and fun as possible. More information about what is going on this term will be given at the parent information session. This is on Monday 11th January in the hall at 9.00am. 

This week our topic is going to be Winter. Although we aren't currently having a 'normal' winter we will look at the kinds of weather that are usually associated with winter and what is continuing to change in the environment around us. We'll be making some winter scenes using different shades of the same colour and exploring mixing colours to make a new colour. In literacy we'll be looking back at what we did over the Christmas holidays and in maths we'll be continuing to recognise numerals to 20 and count up to 100. As well as this we'll be working on one more and one less than a given number - usually up to 10. 

Finally, we do have PE tomorrow so please don't forget to bring in PE kits. You'll be able to chuck them in the red box that is near the door when you come in. 

We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

Reception team