Reception - Last Day of Term

Hello everyone,

A fantastic last day of term today! We had a great trip out to see Dippy the Dinosaur in the County Museum - Every child got to see Dippy and examine some other artefacts that have been found around the Jurassic Coast. 

When we got back to school we had a nice relaxed lunch before we popped over to pre-school to see some new special little babies! The children got to have a little hold of a chick, pictures included. We finished the day with Awards assembly - congratulations to all of those children who won an award today! 

Children should have come home with their dinosaur stick puppets and their dinosaur eggs!  The dinosaur eggs are for you to add to at home however you would like to! Please feel free to send in pictures or the eggs themselves

We hope you enjoy the Easter holidays very much and have a good chance to relax! We look forward to welcoming you all back on 16th April for the Summer term! It's going to be great!

Reception team

Reception - Chocolate Anyone?

Hi all,

Well we had our trip to Tesco's this afternoon. The weather kept at bay and we made our way there to be presented with some of our designs out and ready for us to look at! Tesco's had then chosen 3 winners and they were Isla, Lottie and Olive! so congratulations to these children, who received a prize, but also congratulations to all the reception children! Some great Easter posters. Please keep your eyes peeled as these will be going on to the shopping trolleys in Tesco! 

HOWEVER! That was not all we got up to this afternoon. On our return we had a small Easter egg hunt in the school grounds... So I can only apologise for any especially active children this evening!! We had great fun though!

Tomorrow will have a novel start as we will be needing to be outside the school to get on our coach at 9:05am! Therefore, we will not be in the classroom other than to drop drinks, snacks and bags off. We will have some activities set up outside for you to have a go at. Please ensure you are in school by this time! We will then be off to see a dinosaur, I think? Dippy is he called? We'll find out! 

As tomorrow is also the last day of term we will be sending a few things home: PE kits will be coming home for a wash. Some of the creative projects we've been doing this half-term will also be coming home with one in particular for you to add to over the break! More to follow!

Reception team

Reception - Tesco Trip

Hi all,

A message to say that there was a mistake on the slip that went home yesterday about the trip to Tesco's. We will be leaving after lunch has finished in the afternoon. Not in the morning, as the letter suggests. Thank you to those that have volunteered to walk down with us! 

We will let you all know as early as possible with regards to the weather! Which doesn't look too rosy at the moment. 

WE WILL still be participating in the Jurassic Dress Down Day tomorrow as well! Can't miss out on that! Please ensure children have a coat with them.

Reception team

Reception - Another Busy Monday!

Hello everyone!

Monday seems to be becoming a day that is chock full of stuff happening! Another great start to the morning with the discovery a huge poo outside the school! This caused much excitement and euphoria! Many children were just excited they could talk about poo and it was completely appropriate! After a brief assembly and discussion we came to the conclusion that this must have been Dippy the Dinosaur - whom we will be seeing later on this week (more info will follow regarding this). Tut tut.

This afternoon we were lucky enough to have Neil from a local tennis club in to give us a taster session. The children attacked this with the same attitude as they do everything else and had a great time! We have put some more info in children's book bags this evening about Neil's tennis club if you wish to take this interest further! 

THEN... we have been invited to Tesco's this Wednesday afternoon to see the results of our hard work with the Easter posters that we were invited to crate!  These will be put on the shopping trolleys in Tesco so please keep an eye out. If there is anyone that is available to walk with us, please let us know. We will be leaving at 13.20pm and returning by the end of the school day! 

Phew.

Reception team

Reception - Science Trip

Hi all,

So we had a great time at Thomas Hardye School this morning, learning about all things sciencey! A really fun experience for all the children! We explored how to to get to space, what we might find on a strange planet and then how to get home again! Please ask your children what they enjoyed! I did take some photos but they seem to not be on the camera they were taken on! So, apologies for that!

However, we did have some more fun on the way back...!

Reception team

Reception - Home Learning Trays

Hello everyone! 

Another few new things that we will be introducing this week! 

You may have noticed this morning the trays placed on top of the rack by the pegs...? These are going to be home learning trays and will be changed every week or so to give you something to do at home! Please know that nothing is compulsory! They are simply there if you want to take one. I will always try to make them more appropriate to home and something either active or a bit different! 

Next new thing that we hope you will like is that on a Friday morning, instead of the writing Early Bird activities, we will have a selection of games out instead. Children can come in and choose one of these games to play instead; either with their friends or with you! We expect a transition time where the children will be getting used to the rules of the games etc. Board games are such a great way to develop turn taking, talking and thinking skills.

Finally, please don't forget to use our library area to come in and choose some books with your children. You are welcome to come into the classroom after school to do this if it easier. If anyone is struggling with time to do this please let us know and we can help out!

Reception team

Reception - 'Just another Manic Monday...'

Hello everyone,

Great start to the week this week with a Daily Mile that took place in the snow. A few snowballs may have been thrown!

This afternoon we started our craft project for the next couple of weeks - Dinosaur Eggs! As you can see, it is quite a messy job.  

AND! We have begun using our easel in the classroom. Children choose their own paint and resources and create as they desire. The paintings are collaborative and can be added to throughout the day.

Reception team

Reception - Writing

Hi all,

I must say a massive thank you to all of the support you have given us at school recently with your child's writing. After the trial period, the morning activities will continue. This will give children that 5 minutes practice every day and I'm sure you will agree that there is already a difference made for every child.

I have put some extra examples of what your child's work may look like - it may not be spelt correctly. This is absolutely fine! Thank you to everyone that has restrained themselves from correcting something their child has done! I know this can be very hard!

Finally, A picture to reveal a new member of the class... more to follow!

Reception team

Reception - Dinosaur Learning...

Hello everyone,

A blog about what we're learning and some more new bits and pieces that we will be trialling in the classroom! 

We have begun our learning about Dinosaurs in the lead up to our 'Dippy' trip at the end of the term. Together we shared what we already knew and what we would like to know using the 'I wonder...' lead in. Pictures show what we came up with. We began answering one of these 'I Wonder...' statements today as well: How are fossils made!? Link to the video we looked at HERE!

Please now feel free to keep changing your home reading books whenever you feel this is necessary. It is never a bad thing to read through a book several times. This builds up fluency and children should feel confident to read it independently.

Another new initiative we will be starting is a 'Home Learning Tray' This will, again, be for you to use as you see fit.There will be a selection of different activities put in the tray(s) that cover a range of reading, writing, mathematical and creative skills. This will not be a compulsory thing to do and we do not expect to see what you do - of course, please bring it in if your child wants to! They will be there to take as often as you like. Placement to be confirmed.

Also, you may soon notice a little class mascot coming home with different children. They will come with a little book so you can add what you might get up to over a evening/weekend with either writing or pictures etc. More info will follow shortly. 

As always, we do appreciate your feedback about how you feel things are working and how we can make things better. Please let us know if you have an idea! 

On a side note, some of the writing we are seeing in the classroom is absolutely brilliant! We cannot thank all of you enough for the support you giving us from home. That little bit of practice every day really does help over a period of time. The same is true for reading also.

Reception team

Reception - Library Area

Hello everyone!

We have got our library area up and running with the books that you are free to take and return as you need to. It will be located on the 'grassed' area and you are free to use this area with your children either first thing in the morning, or after school. You may take up to 2 books at a time. I encourage you to take books on a weekly (or more) basis. If you have any questions please come and ask us!

Finally, I have attached a link HERE to a pdf that is a sound mat for you to use at home. You can print this off and use it as you wish! 

Reception team

Reception - Welly Time!

Hi all,

We had a great time yesterday going for our walk in the rain! There was puddle splashing on a biblical scale and we also took part in 'The Big School Cleanup' organised by Mr. Macbean to work towards making sure our school is litter free. Some pictures below! We also hope you enjoyed getting your Mother's Day cards yesterday... A note to say that they were 100% child led with the comments and we hold no liability!!!!! 

These first few are our clean up efforts! Bushes and tress were p obstacle for us.

Then we went to find some puddles to go walking in... this quickly turned in to splashing in the puddles! 

Then we had a go at seeing how many children could fit into various things around the school!

Reception team

Reception - *Group Reading*

Hi all,

Just a reminder that the final parents evening is tomorrow evening - starting straight after school! Also, a quick note to say thank you to everyone for really promoting the independence with the writing activities in the morning. Persevere for 4/5 weeks and you will really see a marked difference! 

On to other things! As you may be aware, we have begun implementing a new scheme for our phonics teaching: Read, Write Inc. This had an initial phase where the phonics was taught but we have now extended this to include a reading element too. This now means that your child will be reading every day in school (with a partner) and will be engaged in text activities for an extended period of time. With this in mind, we will NO LONGER be sending home group reading books on a weekly basis. You may notice that group reading books will start to be taken out of book bags through the rest of this week. Instead of us changing your child's book on a weekly basis we will be covering this reading in our Read, Write Inc time.

In order to ensure you still have a book at home to go through and explore we propose the following: There will be a space in the classroom (yet to be confirmed) where the current series of group reading books will be available for you and your children to take as you please and change as regularly as you see fit. There will be a limit of 2 books per child to ensure coverage and fairness. There may be a short transition time whilst we get all the resources together but we hope by next week at the latest the books will be available. You can choose to do this in the morning when you come in, or at the end of the day the classroom will be open for 20 minutes to give you an opportunity to come in! If anyone has any questions, please let us know! 

Reception team

Reception - Olympic Athlete Visit!

Hello everyone,

Today was the day we got to meet an Olympian! As well as meeting Amy Smith (swimmer) we all had a go at 4 different physical activities: Spotty dogs, Mountain climbers, Press-ups and Star jumps! Needless to say the children were fantastic at all of these and thank you to everyone that had a little practice at home before the day today!

Thank you also for all the sponsorship money that has already come in to school! You have until Next Friday 16th To bring in any sponsorship money that you have raised! Some pictures below!

Reception team

Reception - World Book Day!

Hello everyone,

Thank you to all of you for the fantastic outfits yesterday! Needless to say it was a bit of a strange day with the costumes and the snow! Some pictures below from what the reception class got up to throughout the day! Enjoy the snow, it really is a rare event for this part of the country! We look forward to seeing you all on Monday!

Reception team