What a wonderful day!!

Ahhh Reception Families,

I am sure we can all agreed what an amazing few days it has been for our wonderful children, I was blown away by their wonderful performance at the Carol Service on Wednesday evening. Their confidence shone through!

Today we had a special surprise visit from Father Christmas himself, did the children tell you he arrived on a motorbike?

 I'm sure you can agree the children were simply amazing this afternoon singing and telling our Christmas Story which the children have named 'Round the Back.'

When I look back on how far every single child has come since September I am blown away, they are all such wonderful people and I am deeply proud of them all. They really are the business!

Admittedly, we are now all tired, tomorrow we will have a Christmas Party tomorrow afternoon and we will be decorating biscuits and hopefully making some crowns if time allows! 

Remember children can wear festive clothing (but please remember to dress warmly) and we ask that all children come with a wrapped up lunch (where possible.)

Mrs Howell is retiring tomorrow after many years service to the school, I would like to thank her for all her help and support this term, we are looking forward to seeing her soon after she's put her feet up for a while. 

I would also like to thank my team for their caring, unwavering dedication to ensuring that all children have a fantastic experience each and every day, I couldn't do it without them!

Next term we will be welcoming Mrs Johnson to the Reception Team as our Senior TA, we are looking forward to Mrs Johnson coming to play!

I would like to express my gratitude for all the support you have given us this term as we bed in new routines and new ideas, the team and I truly appreciate how you support the children in their learning, trips and experiences at school you are all members of the #Ateam

I hope you have a restful festive holiday period as we mark it in our individual ways.

I will update the blog just before the beginning of term with all the relevant bits for the new year, I can't wait to continue our journey together in the Spring Term.

But for now,

May your days be merry and bright! 💫💫💫💫💫

Ms Evans, Mrs Cleaver, Mrs Briant, Mrs Howell, Mrs Thompson and Mrs Brooker xxx

Marching towards the end of term... All the important bits!

 Hi Reception Families!

Here we go three more days!

Here is some important festive updates!

Carol service:

Children have brought home their costumes today, the Carol Service as at 5:00 at St Mary's Church please can children arrive in their costumes at 4:45, if you are not attending please let us know tomorrow morning!

Class Singing:

We will be performing our Christmas songs and a special story at 3:00 in Thursday afternoon in the school hall, everyone is welcome to join us!

Christmas Party day:

We will have our Christmas party on Friday children can wear clothes from home. ( Party wear encouraged as long as it is practical and warm)

Activities for the rest of the week:

Wednesday:

Treehouse Panto am

Christmas lunch

Whole school singing Cheriton House

Thursday:

Special Visitor at 2:00

Singing for family 3:00

Friday:

Christmas party day 

We are in the middle of a wonderful week, the children are having a great time and we can't wait to share all our fabulous Christmas themed activities with you at the end of the week!

Ms Evans

I'm Stickman, I'm Stickman, I'm Stickman that's me

 Hi Reception Families,

It's been a wonderful week in Reception.

This week we have been focussing on the Julia Donaldson classic Stickman, we have spoken about the seasons and made our own stick people. We've practiced our counting by using sticks.

We also practiced our story sequencing skills and added to the stickman story.

We really enjoyed watching Mog's Christmas Calamity in Drawing Club. Here's the link if you'd like to watch it Mog's Christmas Calamity

I was so impressed by the children's singing yesterday for the YMCA Coffee Club, we can't wait to share our singing with you next week!

In preparation for next week, children might like to practice this song.

It was on a Starry Night

Turning our Focus to next week:

We are almost there! Our timetable will be different next week as we head towards the end of term.

On Monday we will be watching the dress rehearsals for the KS1 and KS2 shows

On Wednesday we will be watching Treehouse Panto in the morning, Christmas Dinner at lunch time and we are involved in a special whole school singing at Cheriton House Care Home in the afternoon. 

At 5:00 we have our whole school Carol Service, Reception have a starring role and we would welcome as many children from Reception to attend this lovely event.

Thursday we have our singing to parents at 3:00 in the hall, the children have worked extremely hard learning songs and a special story, we really home you can come to this small performance. 

Friday   We have our Christmas Party, please note there are no hot dinners this day and parents are requested to wrap a pack lunch for children!

Although this is a busy week, it will be full of joy, craft and lots of snuggles in Carpet Kingdom, we will make sure that children have some quiet time throughout the day.

Families should have received children's latest assessment data, if you have any queries or anything you would like to discuss please do get in touch. j.evans@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk

PE this week

 Hi all,

sorry for the delay in confirming arrangements for PE this week, we will be having a session with Mr Treble on Wednesday afternoon, children should come dressed for PE on Wednesday. The session will be outside so if children would like to come wear trainers instead of school shoes they can!

Many Thanks

Ms Evans

DT Stem week, elf day and more!

 Hello Reception Families,

What a week! What a week!

This week we have been part of a whole school DT STEM week, the children have been AMAZING! We have planned and made our own figures. The skill, determination and focus from the children this week has been outstanding, I've been blown away!

I am deliberately not including lots of photos as I know the children have decided to give them to family members and I don't wish to spoil the surprise, but be assured you will be as amazed and as proud as I am!

We have also started using our new whole school handwriting programme Letter Join. The children have really enjoyed this and it will be a focus moving into the new year.

In maths we have been recapping changes within 5

We've also had a wonderful time starting our Christmas crafts, which will grown (and grow) in number over the next few weeks (We Can't Wait!!)

Turning our focus to next week, it promises to be another busy one!

Drawing Club: Mog's Christmas Calamity

Understanding the World: Stickman, The Christmas Story

Maths: Space (positional language not the planets!)

On Thursday 8th December we will be visiting Coffee Club at the YMCA to sing them some Christmas songs with our buddies from Year 4. We would welcome volunteers to accompany us on this trip. We will be leaving school at 9:45 and will be back in time for lunch at 12:00, if you would like to accompany us please get in touch j.evans@princesofwales.dorset.sch.uk

On the 15th December at 3:00pm we would like to invite you all to hear our lovely Christmas singing and have a story with us in the hall. 

Here is a reminder of other events coming up:

9th December Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Technology Day (whole school event)

14th December Christmas Dinner day. Book now at - https://my.localfoodlinks.org.uk 

14th December Whole-School Christmas Carol Service 5-6pm at St. Mary’s Church, Edward Rd, Dorchester. DT1 2HJ. Pre-School and Reception children will act out The Nativity Story and Year Four children will act as Narrators/Readers.

Friday 16th December - Christmas Party Day No hot dinners. Children to bring in wrapped up Christmas-themed packed lunches. (I'm even going to ask my mum to do me one!)

Thank you for all the support this week, the children have coped wonderfully with all our festive cheer!

Have a wonderful weekend, see you Monday

Ms Evans and the Reception Team

Important Dates!

 Hi all,

I just wanted to write to tell you about some upcoming events that Reception have over the next few weeks.

On Thursday 8th December we will be visiting Coffee Club at the YMCA to sing them some Christmas songs with our buddies from Year 4. We would welcome volunteers to accompany us on this trip. We will be leaving school at 9:45 and will be back in time for lunch at 12:00, if you would like to accompany us please get in touch j.evans@princesofwales.dorset.sch.uk

On the 15th December at 3:00pm we would like to invite you all to hear our lovely Christmas singing and have a story with us in the hall. 

Here is a reminder of other events coming up:

2nd December Poundbury Lights switch-on. 6:00pm start at Boos Toy Shop in Crown Square, Poundbury - DT1 3EN.

9th December Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Technology Day (whole school event)

14th December Christmas Dinner day. Book now at - https://my.localfoodlinks.org.uk 

14th December Whole-School Christmas Carol Service 5-6pm at St. Mary’s Church, Edward Rd, Dorchester. DT1 2HJ. Pre-School and Reception children will act out The Nativity Story and Year Four children will act as Narrators/Readers.

Friday 16th December - Christmas Party Day No hot dinners. Children to bring in wrapped up Christmas-themed packed lunches. (I'm even going to ask my mum to do me one!)

It's going to be a busy end of term but I can't wait to spend the next two weeks enjoying it all with our amazing Reception children!

Ms Evans

Bear hunts, teddy bears and polar bears!

 We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one, we're not scared!!!

What a week it has been. In drawing club we have been focussing on Going on a bear hunt, the children utterly enjoyed this, so much so I have included the video of Micheal Rosen reading the story, in case you would like to watch it with them over the weekend. We're Going on a bear hunt

In Understanding the World we have been learning about how teddy bears have changed over time, we had some very special visitors. 

Timothy bear is 80 years old and sad bear is over 64 years old! We noticed that their stuffing was hard, and made from wood and straw and we compared them to other teddy bears, including Mrs Bear who has travelled the world of course Paddington Bear!

The children really enjoyed exploring these teddies and they were very respectful and caring towards such old toys.

We've also been learning about bears from around the world, we learnt that Polar bears live in The Arctic and black bears live in Canada and America! We also learnt about what they eat, and that some bears have very long sleeps which are called hibernation! Did you know Pandas eat for 12 hours a day?  

We made junk model bears, enjoyed playing with the playdough and loved playing in the bear's cave.

We also really enjoyed making paper airplanes this week!

In PE we experienced some Bear Hunt Yoga.

We all really enjoyed our trip to Maiden Castle Farm on Thursday (see separate blog post for details)

Today we had a teddy bears picnic during Nature Rangers and we went on a bear hunt!!

This was the last session in our current block of Nature Explorers, we will return to Nature Explorers in the summer term, however we will continue to visit the forest school regularly on an adhoc basis throughout the year!

Turning our focus to next week:

There is lots of things going on next week, lots of super exciting things!

Firstly it is our whole school DT STEM week, all children will be involved in the planning and making of an individual project, we are really looking forward to this, however our routines will be slightly different to accommodate all the exciting activities. 

On Tuesday morning we are going to The Corn Exchange to watch the Naughty Fox, please remember that we are meeting children at the Corn Exchange at 9:00, we will be getting a coach back to school after the performance. 

On Wednesday we will be having PE with Mr Treble in the afternoon, children Should attend in their PE kits, please make sure they are dressed warmly. We will also have the opportunity to have a basketball session session with Coach Luca on Friday afternoon.Friday is Dress like and Elf day, I feel that children will be able to complete the session in their chosen clothes as long as their movement isn't restricted.

The school will be decorated for Christmas theme from next week!

As ever, please do get in touch if I can help with anything.

Ms Evans and the reception team!