Reception 31st March 2020

Happy "Tickling Tuesday" (I have officially renamed Tuesday) - You MUST have ATLEAST 1 tickle fight today!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Tickle Story

We hope you are enjoying this week's Reception Learning Buffet!

Ideas to supplement today:

1. If you go for a walk today, how many different 2d or 3d shapes can you see - take a photo of them and then label the sides, faces and corners and name the shape.
2. If you go for a walk today, what numbers can you see?
3. Can you make a colour collage - choose a colour then hunt for as many things that are that colour as possible and stick them down - you could go on a walk to find things too (petals, leaves.........) or, instead of choosing one colour, make a rainbow collage!

4. Make a "happy" card or a picture for a neighbour and post it through their door. You could draw Mr. Happy or Little Miss Sunshine.



Paddingtons-postcards

Have a dance.................... hokey cokey

Stay in touch!

Lots of tickles - Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception Monday 30th March 2020

Good morning to you all,

We hope you have had a wonderful weekend - it was very windy! I tried to take my dog for a walk and nearly blew over (not a good idea with a wobbly ankle!!!!!!) 😂😂😂 My son also had a virtual birthday where he was able to blow candles out of three cakes (3 way family cake/singing Happy Birthday celebration.) He had the best day ever as he chose to stay in his onesie all day, choose what we had for dinner and choose a movie for us all to watch!!!!!!! How was your weekend?

We hope you enjoy our Reception Learning Buffet this week, feel free to dip in and out of it or add to it! See where their interests take them............

This week's wow words are synonyms for "big"............Wow word of the day = colossal

Re maths learning - I have had a few requests for work sheets..........as general good EYFS practice we do not use  work sheets as the children should be learning through experiences and play, using concrete and pictorial resources. Number sentences can be written down for the children to solve, but only with equipment available to support them. (Number sentences = basic addition/subtraction sum.......... 7 + 2 =      9 - 4 = ) Try using Purple Mash to support maths learning and also............

EYFS Topmarks maths

E books

Hello from Mrs. J and Mrs. Smith

Speak soon - stay in contact!

Big hugs from Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception Friday 27th March 2020

It's Friiiiiiiiiiiiday!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you have enjoyed learning about Africa this week? We have a new part of the world to learn about next week!

Yet another, gorgeous day - make time to get outside!

Ideas to supplement the Reception Learning Buffet today:

1. Use a clothes horse to create a den - inside or outside.

2. Have a picninc tea party with your toys.

3.Write a letter to someone in your family and post it.

4. Make a model of a person that you miss and cannot see at the moment - send them a picture!

5. Can you make a mud kitchen in your garden - make a magic potion.

 simple mud kitchen - can you find a corner of your garden they could use? It is so valuable and the children will spend hours playing in it. 

6. Do some baking.

This weekend - watch a movie as a family, play a game together, start reading a family novel all snuggled up in bed together (we read the Twits in class), all help to cook a meal together, play hide and seek.

Enjoy your day, please do call the school or email me if you need to talk to someone - remember we are here for you! Adult happiness is JUST AS IMPORTANT as your child's happiness!

All our love,

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception 26th March 2020

Good Morning All Our Wonderful Families!

In the Johnson house yesterday, we made time to watch a film together in the evening - this NEVER happens mid week as well as a game of pictionary - parents versus children ofcourse (we won!!!!)! I have also been partaking in Year 10 Geography, RS and Design as well as Year 6 Grammar and Maths - what skills I will be adding to my CV!!!!!!!!!! I wonder what my timetable will be today!!!????


We hope you have managed to find some sunshine too through the dark clouds currently shrouding our country!

Ideas to supplement the Reception Learning Buffet Slide:

1. If you own a nerf gun, or indeed a small ball then put your accuracy skills to the test. Stick up RWInc sounds on a wall - adult calls out the sound and child throws/shoots it - then swap, child calls out the sound and adult or sibling throws/shoots it.
2. Can you paint a picture of the African Savanna sunset with a silhoutte of an animal.
3. Chalk letters or numbers on the ground outside.
4. use a wet paintbrush to form letters or numbers on the ground outside.
5. Paint a rainbow on the path/concrete outside the front of your house.
6. Tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood - then can you all dress up as the characters and act it out?

Wow word of the day = chortle

Have fun everyone! Remember to contact us if you need to!

Much love,

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception Wednesday 25th March 2020

Happy Wednesday to you all!

We hope you are all keeping well and enjoying your time together?

Ideas to supplement the Virtual School and the Reception Learning Buffet:

1. If you have a garden, can you help with some weeding today? What birds visit your garden? How many worms can you find.
2. Maybe make a bug hotel to put in your garden.
3. Maybe make a bird feeder.
4. Hide numbers 1-20 round your house - children hunt for them and then order them.
5. Play hide and seek.


Do have a listen to the sound board on the Virtual School Microsite.

Adults, find a moment to breath in fresh air, listen to the birds singing, feel the warmth of the sun on your face and make time to laugh.

As always, stay in contact!

We miss you all!

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception Monday morning 23rd March 2020

Good morning Everyone!

Another beautiful day................all be it a strange one!

Take time to check out the virtual school, where you will find a Reception slide to accompany the blog ideas.

The wow word for the day is - "chuckle"

Try to find an opportunity to do some number work, read a story and practise sounds on a daily basis if you can.

We have completed the Reception Power Maths spring term units, so please use the next two weeks of term to reinforce prior learning. The last two weeks highlighted that the majority of our class need to further deepen their learning about the properties of 2d and 3d shapes using and understanding the language - straight, curved, corners, sides, edges, faces, same length, diferent lengths.

Have a great day and I will blog later with some other ideas ready for tomorrow!

Take care, have fun and enjoy eachother!

Reception - Sunday 22nd March 2020

Happy Mother's Day to all our PoW "shamaaaaaaazing" Mums, Nans and Aunties!

What a glorious day! I hope you have managed to get out in the fresh air and take some time to notice the incredible blue sky and the signs of spring that are starting to show.

How are you all?

Thank you for the emails I have had, I really appreciate them and it most definitely makes me feel that we are standing side by side, hand in hand (virtually ofcourse ) in this together as the incredible community that we are!

So, today: 1. Make eachother laugh
                 2. Play a board game before the day is over
                 3. Snuggle up and read a story as a whole            family.....pets and all!
                 4. Listen to some music and dance like noone is watching!


Don't pressure yourselves.......one of the most important things that you can do with your child, that will have a huge impact on their future education, is talk!!!!!!! Children have an incredible capacity to learn new vocabulary each day. If we can develop this, they will become excellent communicators and writers. For example, something as simple as saying "get your coat" could be used as a vocabulary enriching opportunity......"get your duffle coat.......get your rain mac..........get your anorak...."

I will give you a wow word of the day each day on my blog. You could use a funny image to talk about over the meal table!

Try this one..........

or this one..........


Sending "the love" to you all from Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception Saturday 21st March 2020 - please read and ensure everyone in our class does too please!

Yesterday was undoubtedly the worst day of Mrs. Smith and my career...........it is not a job but a vocation for us and we love all your children dearly.

As all this sinks in and fear can start to take over, we are here for you all! It is now, more than ever, that we need to be positive for the children.

Mrs. Smith and I are going to sprinkle you with our magic Mary Poppins super powers and empower you to nurture and educate your children just as we do in school. You will now see why Mrs. Smith and I are so happy all the time............the answer is..........your children! YOU CAN DO THIS EVERYONE!

It is vital that we turn negatives into positives, even if you think they can't hear you or don't understand.........they can and do! So please try not to discuss the crisis around them and do not have the news on for them to see or hear.........(actually this will be good for our own well being too!)

Once upon a time we were all 4 and 5 years old with the most incredible imaginations, just as your children have. So, it is now time to unleash your inner child - let go and have fun! See your environment through your childs eyes.............what do you have in and around your home that you can use.

I have hundreds of ideas but, rather than swamp you, I will aim to blog something each day that you could choose to try!

So, to start you off................why not make your very own Fred Frog sock puppet to help you with your phonics (maybe, if not Fred, then a different animal of your choice) "your phonic friend!" Have fun dressing up at home.........why not get the whole family dressed up and acting out a story of your choice - be creative with your outfits and face paints!!!!!!!!!! (remember it does not have to be shop bought!) These would be great to show to the virtual school! Make the most of meal times - rather than them being a challenge, think how you could make it a time to look forward to...........get the children to help cook your meal or help make a dessert that they can have after they have eaten their greens, play a game around the table at a meal time: would you rather.......I went to the shops and I bought.............who am I (sticker on the forehead and ask eacthother questions)........tell jokes.........


Finally for today - If you can get hold of a box with a lid, label it with your child's name and leave it with a note in, outside our classroom door and we can fill it with things you may need/request..........glue stick, tissue paper, paper, sand, playdough, board games, puzzles, exchange library books, RWInc books, counters, dice, rulers.............if you need the resources and we have them, then we want to help you!

If you have any questions or further ideas, please email me directly, but as I said I will blog lots of ideas and support!


All our love and virtual hugs Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J

Reception Thursday 19th March 2020

Tomorrow (Friday 20th March 2020)......................

Bring in your favourite teddy or toy to share with your friends tomorrow!


Wear SUPER BRIGHT clothes tomorrow to spread happiness and a smile! In exchange can you bring a food donation that will be used for the food bank? Have you got a joke - if not, can you learn one to tell us tomorrow. If you are at home - send us in your joke or record yourself telling the joke!


Mrs. J and Mrs. Smith

Reception learning Tuesday 17th March - what are we learning this week? Join in at home!

Good evening to you all,


I would just like to take this opportunity to say, yet again, what an absolutely amazing class we have! The children are showing such resilience, maturity and positivity at this very confusing and worrying time for them all. Mrs. Smith and I have been super proud and impressed by the dedication to their learning shown by our classmates that are currently at home...........Jack's singing was heartwarming! I have seen exceptional examples, via email and the virtual school, of Power Maths and RWInc too.

Our home learning, last week, inspired several artisits to paint using watercolours in the style of Claude Monet - George even painted his Grandma's garden while sat looking out of the window! Alek chose to cut out and sew a gingerbread man puppet and retell the story! We were also astounded to hear that Ruby cooked "an Italian dinner of Italian meatballs!" Mia went a step further and cooked a 3 course meal for her mum and dad.........bruschetta, carbonara and tiramisu!!!!!!!!!!!

So, we jumped on a bus, train or car to travel to London during our first week of this topic, then we sailed, flew or took the Eurotunnel to France, Spain and Italy.............yesterday we borded flights bound for Africa! We flew over African Deserts, Pyramids, Mountains, Jungles and the Savannah and travelled to a village to meet Handa and her friend Akeyo as well as Fatou who went to fetch some water................



Handa's Surprise

Fatou Fetch the Water

If you are at home, we don't want you to miss out on our exciting learning journey, so why not choose some things from our "learning buffet" below to inspire your learning...........

Inspired continuous provision: can you make an animal you may find in the Savannah from 2d shapes and name them? Draw an elephant or a giraffe and measure their trunk or long neck using a ruler. Can you make a container out of junk modelling that could carry water - test it out in the bath!? (The key is to design and make one) Use duplo or lego to design and make a house for an elephant, a giraffe, a snake........think about the shape of your houses? Use beads to design and thread an African inspired tribal necklace. Explore weighing items in your home - compare the weights! Create a fruit basket - can you label the fruit? Find some pictures of African animals and write a caption to describe them.
Paint a lion, giraffe or elephant. Can you create an African drumming rhythm?


Djembe drumming

African music for children  Listen - what instruments can you hear? Do you like it? Does it make you want to dance? Or paint/draw a picture?

African lullaby     Karaoke version     Can you try to learn it?

You could explore tie dying some fabric at home and creating a bright item of clothing inspired by cloths and fabrics found in Africa, especially if you have been inspired to sew! Have a look at some pictures of African countries - what is it like there? What is the weather like? What things are the same and what things are different to how you live? Would you like to go there?

Power maths: can you name 2d shapes? How many sides or edges do they have? Are they straight or curved? How many corners do they have? Are all the sides the same length? Can you find examples around your house? What 3d shapes do you know? Look at a 3d shape - what shape faces do they have?


Towards the end of the week and into next week we will be using Cbeebies Tinga Tales to inspire our learning further.

There will be NO forest school this week.

Biiiiiiiiiiggggg elephant hugs from Mrs. Smith and Mrs. J 

Reception Friday 13th March 2020

What a beautiful morning................let's hope for an equally gorgeous weekend!!!!!


The children have been completely captivated by the stories of Pinocchio and The Gingerbread man, this week. The stories have inspired learning in all sorts of different ways from making puppets, sewing, story writing, letter writing, poster making, making masks with veeeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyy long noses which have then been measured...............We have also been painting pictures using water colours, inspired by Monet. We even compared a French version of The Gingerbread man, entitled "Stinky Cheese Man", what elements of the story were the same and what parts were different?

We had a visitor yesterday from the Fire Service who delivered an excellent, age appropriate, workshop about fire safety. Forest School was also a great success, Mrs. Thorpe showed the children a hedgehog house and they then made hedgehogs out of clay and other natural materials.

Lucia's mum came in and taught us a Spanish lesson. We learned vocabulary for ingredients to make a paella.

This morning we carried out a visual experiment to show the effect of soap on germs when we wash our hands.........pour water onto a plate and thoroughly sprinkle it with black pepper, to represent the germs that we can't see. You put your finger in the middle of the peppery water and nothing happens apart from some germs (pepper) stick to your finger. Then dip your finger in a generous dollop of liquid soap and place it back in the peppery water.............watch the power of the soap in front of your very own eyes!!!!!!!!

Home Learning:

Power Maths this week has been further exploration of 3d shape, using vocabulary such as slide, roll, stack, edges, curves, flat, faces, cube, cuboid, sphere, pyramid, cone, cylinder (some children even knew what prisms were!!!!). We have been testing which 3d shapes do these things and discovering why!? You could continue this learning with items that you find in and around the home.

RWInc - as well as reading and sharing your book DAILY, practise the speed sounds, speedy green words and red words in your books.

Can you make a puppet from junk modelling or by sewing? Can you tell the story of Pinocchio or The Gingerbread Man. Write a letter to Pinocchio telling him why it is not good to tell lies. Create a poster telling people to run and keep fit - from The Gingerbread man! Paint a picture of a garden/tree/flower using watercolour just like Monet.

Happy Friday!

Mrs. J, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Burgess, Mrs Briant and Mrs, Cleaver.

Reception Home Learning Friday 6th March 2020

Reception Home Learning Friday 6th March 2020

• RWInc - Please continue to read your RWInc book daily, this is ESSENTIAL to build confidence and fluency with new sounds being taught.

• Power Maths - Unit 11 Week 8 spatial awareness - Key vocabulary = positional and directional language: in front, on, in, next to, behind, beside, under, on top, up, down and across, forward, backward.

• Can you help to cook a French, Spanish or Italian meal at home? Can you paint a picture using the pointillism technique (use cotton buds)? Can you make a model of one of the famous landmarks from one of these countries - Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Sagrada Familia - make it inside or outside? Make a passport, draw a map of one of the countries and label it. From last week, paint a portrait of the Queen or Queen Victoria, a famous London Landmark, write to the Queen asking her a question………….

Reception 04/03/20 - Forest School reminder.........and all our learning so far this week!

On Monday, the children selected their mode of transport to cross the English Channel...............we docked, landed or pulled into the station in France. During the week we crossed borders into Spain and Italy...............our wow words this week have been replaced by French, Spanish and Italian words!

We have learned about famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Sagrada Familia. These have been used to inspire us to construct and to design and make, along with the football stadiums for Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain, both inside and out. We also looked at super cars that are produced in these countries as well as the flags of the countries. Travelling abroad has also inspired us to write postcards, shopping lists for pasta dishes, risotto dishes and paella dishes as well as what we might need to pack in a suitcase to visit one of these countries. Our art this week has been introducing a technique called Pointillism and exploring the technique that Georges Seurat developed. We loved learning the song "Frere Jacques" and will continue to immerse ourselves into classical music composed by Claude Debussy, Frederic Chaupin and Antonio Vivaldi.

Staff have been sharing their favourite books this week and we are very excited to celebrate World Book Day tomorrow! Children that are doing Forest Schools tomorrow are encouraged to come into school wearing their book day costume and bringing their warm Forest School clothes in a bag, which we will change into. A reminder, the groups are: the Polar Bears, the Red Pandas and the Brown Bears. 

We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow in your costumes!

Mrs. J, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Burgess and a huge thank you to Mrs. Briant and Mrs. Cleaver, who have been working in Reception during some afternoons.