Nativity............wow!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Weren't they all amaaaaaaaazing!!!!!!!!!!!!

The singing was superb..........we were so proud of you all, well done!!!!!!!

I now feel all christmassy!!!!!!!!

A big thank you to Year 4 for coming to do the readings.

Thank you for all coming and joining us, all dressed up too - super stars!!!! Please can all costumes come back to school tomorrow - thank you!

Tomorrow = hot dinner christmas lunch - yummy!!!!!

Friday = christmas party day.



A special thank you to Asimina and Vasilis who made us all some special Greek christmas treats - delicious!

Sleep well!

Mrs. J and the Fantabulous Reception Team!

Reception rained off rehearsal!

Incase you didn't get to school this afternoon, we put a board outside informing Reception families that we would NOT be going to rehearse in the church tomorrow afternoon. The decision was made ahead of the rain forecast for tomorrow. Therefore, pick up from school is as normal.

We will see you at the church between 4:30 and 4:45.

Please ensure all costumes are back in school Wednesday morning as Year 1 and Year 2 will need them.

Thank you,

Mrs J

Reception - the last week!!!!!

Christmas Technology Day was a huge success and our children confidently scattered themselves around the school to their chosen activities. We were very proud of how independent, polite and confident they were.

Do come along to the last story time this Monday - please arrive between 3-3:10. As I said previously, after christmas we will change story time to Fridays at the same time.

We will let you know tomorrow if alternative arrangements are being made for Tuesday afternoon, depending on the weather.

A reminder that the christmas party is on Friday and the sign up sheet for food contributions is on the whiteboard in our cloakroom.

On Thursday we will have the children's learning journeys available for you to share with your child at drop off and pick up.

If your children have christmas cards they would like to deliver, there is a post box in the school entrance and the year 4 children sort and deliver them.

Year 2 came to play on our new outside equipment last week; Year 3 and 4 are coming to play this week.

See you all tomorrow,

Mrs. J

Reception - news and info!

Father Christmas has requested more helpers this week as his elves seem to be preoccupied misbehaving in various places around the world at the moment. Therefore, he asked our class to create a workshop...............sleighs have been made, reindeer fed, trees decorated, presents wrapped, christmas cards written...........all while wearing elf hats (with elf ears on)!!!!!!!!!!!!

Children have also been writing letters to Santa, wish lists and even some christmas/snow themed poems!

We are looking forward to Friday - you can wear a christmas jumper on this day and bring in a tombola prize. It is Christmas Technology Day where the children will participate in 3 activities during the day in different classrooms. They will then bring home the the crafts they have made. It is also the christmas fayre on Friday, so do come along at the end of the day - it is always full of wonderful gift ideas and is very festive.


Please do come and see me if you have any questions about next Tuesday.

Tomorrow is the last forest school lesson this term so ALL children will be taking part.

On the last day of term we have a christmas party, there is a sign up sheet in the cloakroom for food items that you can select to send in and we then set up a buffet with all the contributions.

We will be changing the library book is class each week on a Wednesday, however if you would like to change them more often, you are welcome to come into the library before or after school with your child to do so and some one can be available to show you through the process.

Year 1 came and enjoyed playing on the new outside equipment in Reception on Friday, we hope to invite each class to come and try it out!

Thank you to all of you who are able to come and share a story with the class at 3pm on a Monday. The last one this term will be next week. After christmas I plan to change the day to a Friday for half a term so that parents who work on a Monday may be able to come on a Friday.

If you are able to arrive as close to 3pm as possible that would be fantastic, if you do not make it until after 3:15 we would politely request that you wait to collect your child at the normal pick up time as, I am sure you will appreciate, it is quite disturbing for the children and also getting ready for the end of the day is a busy time. Many thanks for your support and cooperation on this matter.

Merry Christmas Everyone.............from Mrs. Johnson and her Little Helpers!!!!!!!

Reception - Scrooge, snow and much more.......!

This time of year at The Prince of Wales School is always extra special, we strive to create unique, rich learning experiences as well as opportunities to fully participate in the wider school community life. It was lovely to see so many Reception families at the Buttermarket christmas lantern and carol parade, our community choir sounded wonderful and it was very festive indeed, we hope you enjoyed being part of it.
Ofcourse, yesterday was an extra special surprise bringing a classic story to life for children of all ages. Following the dramatic Dickensian start to the day, we spent the morning mixed up across the school focussed on collaborative writing inspired by A Christmas Carol. This was a huge success and many staff members commented on how fantastic Reception were at participating and using their sounds to help them write!!!!!!!!!

A huge thank you to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Hall who have both lead a demonstration Read Write Inc lesson at the level of their group to show the progression through the programme. I am sure you have appreciated the insight into how your child is being taught and the format of the lessons, also seeing how it links to their home learning. If you didn't get a chance to see the lesson, they are on the school facebook page.

This week winter has definitely hit our classroom where we have been thinking about snow, ice, freezing and melting, polar regions, polar animals, building moving sledges, building igloos, making snowmen both small and LARGE, counting ice cubes, making snow flakes and using the language of time with relation to The Snowman by Raymond Briggs as well as using the story to inspire writing and mark making. Brrrrrrrrrrr! Chilly!


It is truly wonderful to see so much inspired home learning and Wow moments coming in from writing, reading, drawing, model making, cake baking, measuring, story making, counting, recognising numbers around the house and outside...............keep it up! You are all so enthusiastic, curious and inspired to learn.

Thank you for your positivity and continued support,

Mrs. J and the "Shamaaaaazing" Reception Team!!!!!!!!

Reception this week!

A HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE thank you to everyone that was able to come and help out over the week-end. We really appreciated it. We were able to use the climbing frame area and the water wall today and are very much looking forward to the rest being finished!


Tomorrow, as I said in last weeks Read Write Inc demo lesson, I will do the second lesson showing the progression from last week's lesson. There will be a final one next week with a focus on the first red books. 9-9:20 in the school hall.

Please do come along and join us singing at the Poundbury Buttermarket on Friday evening.

Next week, we will begin practising for our christmas performance of the Nativity at the Carol Service. We will also begin to look at the costumes to check that they fit etc!


Finally, there will be a letter coming home this week with some further information regarding how we would like to record your child's learning.

Thank you again for your continued support,

Mrs. Johnson and the Amazing Reception team!

Reception - Enormous Turnip and home learning books!

FYI: those families that are going to see The Enormous Turnip on Saturday, Julia has your tickets and will meet you all outside the Octagon Theatre at 12:30.
Have a fabulous time!!!!!!!

Please can red home learning books come back into school by a Thursday in order for us to add the new sound work - thank you!

Looking forward to next week-end and the start of our outside area project - do come and see the plans which are up in the main corridor - the children looked at them yesterday!

Thanks again,

Mrs. Johnson

Reception: 4 extra notes!

4 extra things....................

1. A plea for more junk modelling items (paper, card or plastic that has been washed out).

2. To clarify re RWInc home learning - if your book mentions "Fred Talk" the children should know what this means, but basically you need to sound out the word so that your child can try to blend the sounds and hear the word. In some books, children may have been asked to sound out the words in their books and then blend them.

3. Story time tomorrow afternoon at 3:10 in the classroom.

4. NEXT Tuesday morning (20th November) from 9 - 9:30 I will be modelling a typical RWInc lesson in the hall for those of you who would like to come along. If you are able to make it, I will use you as the "class". I will get Mr. Spracklen to film it and put it on our website/facebook for those of you who are unable to make it.

See you all tomorrow!

Mrs. Johnson

Reception - Friday 9th November 2018

Well done Reception - your FIRST EVER school assembly! And weren't you ALL amazing!!!!!!
We are all very proud of you! You should be very proud of yourselves! I hope the film will be a special keepsake and cherished memory!


Thank you for all the super effort that went into organising such wonderful costumes as well as red t-shirts! We couldn't do it without your support, so thank you! Great team work between home and school!

Today the children should have their red RWInc home learning book, the work set in there is tailored to reinforce the learning they are doing in there group. Do ask if you have any questions!

This coming week we will be celebrating our differences and learning about different countries and cultures from around the world. Again, if anybody would like to come in and share something with the class or send something via email that would be great. Failing that, talk to your children about their heritage and perhaps they could share it with the class!

Have a wonderful week-end and stay safe in all this horrid weather!

Mrs. Johnson and the simply brilliant Reception Team!

An exciting opportunity for Reception!

An exciting day and an exciting opportunity...........................

Today we celebrated bonfire night with Pre- School by toasting marshmallows around the campfire, eating hot dogs and singing songs!

Tomorrow we have the exciting opportunity of visiting Thomas Hardye School for a science enrichment.

We had a rehearsal today for our assembly on Friday, the children were very confident!

To clarify, children need to come in to school in their super hero outfit and can bring in their red t-shirt to put on afterwards (or incorporate it as part of your outfit!)

Thank you to all those of you who were able to com in to share a story with us this afternoon!

Mrs. Johnson

Reception assembly costumes!

A request: For our class assembly NEXT FRIDAY, please could all children dress up as a super hero of their choice! It could be a costume or create your very own superhero that represents you using items you have at home! You can wear the outfit for the day but make sure you have a warm coat and wear school shoes.

Thank you!

Mrs. Johnson

Reception - Wednesday 31st October.

It was a real joy to see all of the children again on Tuesday and we hope you all had a wonderful week.

Notices:
1. Next Friday is our class assembly at 9:20am in the school hall, you are all welcome to come and watch.
2. Forest Schools = Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore groups will do the next two weeks.
                                Winnie, Owl and Rabbit groups will be for 3 weeks after that, commencing           Wednesday 21st November. Wrap up warm!!!!!!!
3. We will begin Monday story time again from next Monday. Join us at 3:10 to share our end of day story.
4. The week after next, w/c 12/11/18, we will be having a multi cultural themed week. If you speak another language at home or are from another country with a different culture and would like to come in and celebrate it with us by either reading a story in a different language, teaching us a song or game from your culture, do some cooking or organise an activity for the children to do in order to experience and celebrate with you, then please come and see one of the team next week. I know the children would learn a lot and are very curious about the world.

5. If you are still experiencing difficulties accessing tapestry, please send an email to the school office - thank you.

Following recent RWInc assessments, we have grouped the children into smaller groups. The RWInc home learning will begin again from next week and will be specific to your child's current group.

I will aim to write in all the Bear Hunt Books by the end of the week.

Our learning this week has been based around pumpkins, spiders, bats and spells beginning with the book Room on a Broom (please do share this story at home if you have it.) We have been exploring pumpkins in the sensory area, making pumpkins, bats and spiders from playdough, reading in the dark bat cave, mark making in the magical, glittery cauldron using wands, writing spells and so much more..........I can just feel the magic!!!!!!!



Tomorrow is PANTS day (you can wear a silly pair of pants over your clothes in support of the NSPCC campaign if you want to). We will be teaching an age appropriate lesson to discuss the topic. You are welcome to come to one of the NSPCC parent work shops tomorrow (9:00 in pre-school hall or 3:00pm in the main school staff room.)

The communication box will be up and running by the end of this week.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs. Johnson and "The A-Team"

Reception - Thursday 18th Oct.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet with you all this week to share the wonderful start your children have made in Reception.


If you were unable to make it, please do email me to arrange a more convenient time!

Our trip was a huge success. It was a glorious day to  explore the woods...........we even found a real bear asleep in it's den. It had flown all the way from darkest Peru to deliver a special gift which we will be opening tomorrow! We climbed, explored, balanced, made collages, made camp fires and potions in the mud kitchen.

Tomorrow we look forward to seeing the children dressed as bears (if they want to) and to our teddy bears picnic in the afternoon.

See you all tomorrow!

Happy half term - we hope it is restful, relaxing and fun!



Mrs. Johnson and the "Roarsome" Reception Team.

Reception: this week!

Hi Everyone,

Our final week of the first half term...........wow! Super achievement Reception.


We have our trip this Thursday morning - we need between 6 - 8 volunteers to accompany us in order for the trip to take place. If you can help, please let me know. You will need to meet us at the  location's car park for 10am and we are being picked up by the coach at 11:30am.
Do NOT bring a snack on Thursday, we will provide one. The children will need to wear school tops, have a coat depending on the weather - if they wear trainers but we can pop wellies on if it is wet. (We have been to carry out our risk assessment and it wasn't muddy, but who knows what the week will bring!) We will check tomorrow if there are any outstanding trip slips to be handed in.

Our Teddy Bears Picnic is on Friday afternoon from 2:30pm, please return the reply slip so that we know how many people are able to come. Reception can dress as a bear on Friday!


I am very much looking forward to parent consultations this week.

Tomorrow afternoon is the first of our Story sessions that you are welcome to come to at 3pm in our classroom. We look forward to welcoming as many of you as can make it!

Many thanks,

See you all in the morning,

Mrs. Johnson and the Awesome Reception Team!

Reception - learning this week and new ideas!

Thank you to all of you who were able to come to the Harvest Assembly and for all your contributions. The children were fantastic - so confident!!!!!

This week we are continuing our bears topic, based around the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". Please do share it at home if you have a copy.


We have been really impressed at how Reception are coming in in the mornings and going to their group for their early bird task - they have been very settled and ready to learn at carpet time.

The team and I have enjoyed seeing the super sound work that is going on at home and recorded in your red books - if you would like to mix it up a bit, how about going on a walk and collecting some items with those initial letter sounds, or taking some chalk to a park/outside and writing them (take a photo), someone even practised writing them on the shower door glass!!!!!!!!

We hope you are enjoying your Time to Talk home learning.

Don't forget to sign up for the parent consultation evenings next week, and do pop and see me if you are having trouble with times. Equally, please do keep in contact with us, we really value your feed back and ideas - either speak to a member of the team or email me directly.

To finish our bears topic we will be celebrating with a joint teddy bears picnic on the last day of term, Friday 19th October, where you will be invited to come in at 2:30 to join us. A letter will come home shortly. PLEASE COULD THE CHILDREN DRESS UP AS A BEAR FOR THIS DAY (please don't go and buy a costume - something black, brown or white and some face paint/woolly hat and gloves or a mask would be brilliant.) We will also be asking the children to bring in their favourite teddy bear next week too.


New things to introduce: We would like to invite whoever collects their child on a Monday, to come in to class at 3pm to share the class story time - We would like to make this a weekly event but we also realise that some of you are unable to make it - if you can't make it, maybe you could let me know an alternative day or time so that we can occasionally change it to suit everyone.

After half term, I would like to offer some demonstration read write inc sessions which will happen after morning drop off - I will email these sessions during the week.

Thank you for you positivity and continued support!

Reception - reminders and learning!

A few reminders: Thursday = dress like a farmer day (if you want to)
Friday = Harvest assembly 9:15 in the school hall. You will be able to buy the bakes that each class have been busy making. Harvest donations will be greatly received. Friday evening = POWSA Autumn Fest (see the office for tickets)

If you have any evidence to support achieving a stamp in the POW Passport, please bring it in.

The WOWs are coming in thick and fast and are wonderful - well done!

We have also thoroughly enjoyed reading your Time to Talk Home Learning - very imaginative! Equally, we have been so impressed at your RWInc Home Learning - incredible effort and enthusiasm - keep it up!!!!

Today Pre-School joined us for an afternoon of Harvest themed activities - the children were engaged in bread tasting, leaf rubbing, harvesting vegetables, conker rolling, making snails, role playing Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The story we are focussing on this week is Goldilocks if you would like to read it at home too. This builds fluency, familiarity, expression, repetition.

Nursery rhymes we are currently singing are: Old Macdonald had a Farm, Incy Wincy Spider, Little Green Frog, Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, Pat-a-Cake Pat-a-Cake, One, Two, Three Four Five Once I caught a Fish Alive. Try singing these at home.

Our sound today is "f", this is a stretchy sound. Press your top teeth on to your bottom lip and then try to force air out - NO VOICE. The picture that goes with the sound is "flower".

We focussed on the magic number 3 in the Goldilocks story and  worked out there were 6 lots of 3 (bears, bowls, spoons, cups, chairs, blankets) counting to 18 and estimating as we kept adding the next three.

Reception - Fun at the farm!

What glorious weather we had today for our first trip in Reception. We had a fantastic time and learned a lot form Hazel. We had a tour of Maiden castle Farm, learning all about harvesting crops, the combine harvester, wheat, barley as well as learning about the animals and vehicles used on the farm. The children were wonderful and asked and answered many questions. It was a long walk but the children coped fantastically and showed very sensible behaviour and super listening! Well done!


Remember to wear school top and leggings or play trousers tomorrow as the other half of the class will be doing forest school.

Tapestry will be up and running again very soon, I will let you know when it is.

Finally, a big thank you to those parents and grandparents who accompanied us on our trip today, we couldn't do it without you! And another huge thank you to Hazel for teaching us all about harvest on the farm.

See you all tomorrow,

Mrs. Johnson and the Amazing Reception Team!

Reception: Special Delivery, Home Learning, Food and Farming..........

We had a special delivery on Friday.................a police van with lights and sirens came speeding into school and out jumped two special agents, Special Agent Spracklen and Special Agent Bascombe, to deliver the POW Passports!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was super exciting..............we will be keeping the passports in school but if you achieve one of the special milestones, please bring in some evidence and you can get your passport stamped at the Passport Control Desk!


It was also Paddington's 5th birthday on Friday so we had a party, playing games, eating marmalade sandwiches and opening his cards and presents.

A red exercise book came home on Friday. This is for the children to practise writing the sounds we have been learning. If they want to extend it by drawing pictures to match the sounds or stick in pictures that match the sounds, please feel free. They may also like to make words from the sounds learnt so far. I would like the books back in on Thursdays so that we can add the next sounds/words to read. We will continue to send time to talk home but may alternate it so that there is not an overload!!!!!!!

Don't forget the farm trip on Tuesday! NO SNACK required, we will provide snack that day. Old, warm play clothes (clothes that can get messy), wellies, warm coat or all in one. Most wellies are at school, so come in with trainers/school shoes and we will change into wellies before we go. We will be back to school in time for lunch.


Food and farming fortnight.........watch out for all sorts of exciting events, culminating in our morning harvest celebration assembly, afternoon cafe and Autumn Fest in the evening - Friday 5th October!

Reminder/request: donations of conkers, vegetables for chopping/printing/investigating, crockery/tea set all greatly received - thank you!

We hope you are having a wonderful week-end and look forward to seeing you all tomorrow - The Excellent Reception Team!

Reception........sounds, conkers and vegetables!

Sounds that we have been learning this week are:


"i" as in "insect"- short bouncy sound
"n" tongue to the roof of the mouth and make a sound (do not drop the tongue) - the picture and phrase that goes with the sound"down Nobby and over the net".
"p" lips together and push the air through them (no voice) "down the plait and round the pirate's face".
"g" "round her face, down her hair and give her a curl".

Tomorrow is "o" as in orange.

If you have experienced any difficulty with Tapestry, it will be rectified tomorrow.

It was a challenge to get all children to experience forest schools in 1 hour, so we will be taking half a class on alternate weeks until half term - therefore send in the same clothes and we will alternate each week. After half term we will give children a block of weeks before alternating.

If you enjoy a windy walk, then we would very much appreciate lots of conkers for next week.


Further requests: we would really like to replace the plastic plates, cups, tea-pots and cutlery in our home corner with real crockery, tea set, tea-pt and cutlery - if anyone has some old sets that they would like to donate that would be wonderful. Secondly, if anyone has any fruit or vegetables that they would like to donate for vegetable printing, investigating, chopping next week that too would be very much appreciated! Thank you!




There is still time to volunteer  for our farm trip next Tuesday morning!

There has been a lot of excitement this week as it was Paddington's birthday, so we decided to hold him a party tomorrow.............children have been writing invitations, birthday cards and even wrapping him presents as well as making cakes.

There was some fantastic problem solving this afternoon where several children built an obstacle course!

Mrs. Johnson and The Wonderful Reception Team!!!!!!!

Reception Reminders!

A reminder that it is Forest Schools tomorrow, so please wear your school t-shirt and jumper/cardigan with trousers or leggings that can get muddy! Bring named wellies and coat too!

Tomorrow we also have the new to reception echo school photo.

Thank you for some wonderful wows and time to talk home learning, they are super and the children are very proud of them!

Please have a go at adding images or comments to Tapestry to show us achievements at home - I had my first video added today from a family showing some brilliant independent singing and dancing.

I have 3 volunteers so far for our farm visit next Tuesday morning, thank you to those parents........if any other parents or grand parents would like to join us they would be more than welcome!

It has been wonderful to see how many more settled children we have, especially in the morning - well done!

Today we had a visit from the town crier in assembly and also our first whole school fire drill!

Mrs. Johnson and the Reception Team.

A busy first week in Reception.

Our first full week and haven't they done well?

Although there were many tired faces today, we still enjoyed lots of outside learning including music, art and everyone rode the balance bikes today too!

Well done to Otis, Henry C, Rufus, Isaac and Asimina who were praised in assembly today as well as all the children who had reached 10 tokens this week. We have also been amazed by all the WOW moments that have come in, Mr. Spracklen has really enjoyed celebrating them too!

We have displayed all the superb Time to Talks from last week and a new one has come home today. We looked at it in class today in order to spark some thoughts! Have fun!

Yesterday we learnt the sound "d". Teeth nearly together and touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind the top front teeth, then drop the tongue as you make the sound. It is a bouncy sound. The picture to go with the sound is a dinosaur. As we write it we say " round his tummy, up his talk neck and down to his tail."

Today we learnt the sound "t". The mouth shape is the same for "d" but don't drop your tongue and there is no voice, simply force air over the top of the tip of the tongue. The picture to go with the sound is a tower. As we write it we say "down the tower, across the tower."

Our farm trip is the morning of Tuesday 25th September. We will be walking to the farm providing it is not raining, when the trip would be postponed and we would make the decision that morning. If any of you would like to volunteer to join us for the morning that would be wonderful, just let one of the team know next week. Children will need to wear warm, old play clothes that can get dirty (trousers or leggings), wellies and a warm coat. We will take fruit snack from school, so no snack will be need to be sent in that day.

Just to clarify, everyone will participate in forest schools every Wednesday.

Have a lovely week-end and well done Reception, you should be very proud of yourselves!


Mrs. Johnson and The Fantastic Team!

Reception - We found Paddington........phew!

We lost Paddington this morning!!!!!!!! We were very concerned and had many ideas of where he might be..........Mrs. Hall went to look for him and found him in Mr. Spracklen's office.........having a bath!!!!!! Well, he was TRYING to have a bath...............ask the children what happened?

Well done to Asimina, George, Sebastian, Isaac and Marissa who all reached 10 tokens and got to choose from the treasure box.

Yesterday we learned the sound "a", open your mouth wide and say "a" as in "apple". It is a bouncy sound "a, a, a". When we write "a" we start top right and say as we write "round the apple and down the leaf".

Today we learned the sound "s", put you teeth nearly together with your lips apart and put your tongue behind your teeth and say "s". It is a stretchy sound. When we write "s" we start top right and say as we write "slither down the snake".

Tomorrow we will be learning "d".

We will be having forest schools EVERY WEDNESDAY so please could every child COME TO SCHOOL WEARING their school top and jumper/cardigan with "play bottoms" (tracksuit bottoms or leggings) and have a named waterproof coat and wellies in school which we will store under the eaves at the back of our classroom. All in one waterproofs are fine too. We will be outside whatever the weather.

We all did Charanga music today, learning to recognise the pulse and singing.

Some of us used the chrome books to explore the cbeebies website and develop their mouse pad control.

We have been interested in the signs of Autumn, so please do bring in autumnal items and we will display them on the "I wonder" table to be investigated!

Mrs. Johnson and the Fabulous Reception Team!