Can we have your help please?!

Hello everyone,

We are busy beginning work on our Christmas show at school. Every year it is tradition for reception to dress up as something and do a little something during the show. This year we would like to dress the children up as Father Christmas'. With this we need your help: if you have a red t-shirt at home could you please bring it into school for us to use. We will stick a father Christmas belt on it for the performance to add to the authenticity. If you don't have a plain red t-shirt, one with a pattern on will be great; we'll just turn it inside out. Additionally, if you could provide a Christmas hat for your child that would be fantastic. I hear there are some available from a well-known discount retailer in town. If we could have these by next Friday (11th) at the latest that would be very helpful.

Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated. 

Reception team

Ho Ho Ho! Christmas is here!

Hi all,

Today we started our latest topic about Christmas! This will take us up to the end of the term and is an incredibly busy time of year for everyone. Over the next three weeks we'll be making Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Calendars, taking part in our first technology day, rehearsing for Christmas performances and having parties and carols! More information will follow on each of the above. Naturally, there will be less time devoted to other subjects like reading, writing and maths. However, we will continue to change your child's reading book every week.

This week we have begun our Christmas topic by having another very successful joint day with Pre-school. We had a bit of a Christmas tree theme with the art jobs that we did. Children will be coming home with one of these at some point in the week and the other will be on display for you to see! Also this week we will be making our Christmas tree decoration - a picture can be seen below. In literacy we will be having a go at making Christmas lists and writing cards and in maths we are having a look at 3D shapes. These include: cube, cuboid, pyramid, cone, cylinder and sphere - so if you happen to see any of these out and about or at home, please point them out to your child!  

Reception team

Sounds being covered this week

Hi all,

The sounds we are covering this week are below. Te reception children are doing really well to take in all of these new sounds, as they are getting tricky. 

'th' - as in thing - stick your tongue out and point at it saying 'ttthhhhhh'.

'ng' - as in strong - hold your arms out and pretend to life a heavy weight saying 'ng, ng, ng'

'ai' - as in rain - cup your hand over your ear and act as if you didn't quite hear something saying 'ai, ai, ai'.

'ee' - as in green - put your hands above your head like donkey's ears saying 'eeyore, eeyore, eeyore'. 

Some of the books coming home from group reading will contain some of these new sounds next week.

Reception team

Sad news!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick message to confirm some sad news. As many of you are already aware, Mrs. Collis will be leaving the Prince of Wales school at the end of this week. She will be sorely missed in the reception team and the school as a whole. She has been at the school for many years and is leaving to embark on a new chapter of her life. We wish her the best of luck with this. From next Monday we will have two new adults in the classroom: Mrs. Emerton and Mrs. Gardner. They will be helping us until the Christmas Holidays. 

Reception team

What's going on this week...

Hello everyone,

This week we are continuing with our Hungry Caterpillar topic! You will notice a new display going up along the back wall of the classroom with all the different things that we have been up to. This will continue to be added to this week. 

In literacy we are going to be learning about information (non-fiction) books and how these are different from story (fiction) books. We are beginning to focus more on cursive writing as the weeks go by. This may look a bit messy to begin with but please persevere as it will get there in the end! We practice writing in phonics, group reading and literacy but any practise at home would be great too. It has been lovely to see all the home learning coming in with writing on so thank you! 

In maths we're leaning about length this week. We will be using non-standard measures; so measuring something using hands, shoes or paper clips. The language of cm and m will be covered, but later on in the year. We'll also be making pom-pom caterpillars which can be seen above. 

Finally, on Tuesday we are having a whole-school 'Switch Off' day. All essential things will be on but lights, computers, printers etc will not be used for the day to encourage children to think about saving energy. 

Reception team

Sounds this week & Phonics Workshop

Hello everyone,

We are starting to cover some of the more tricky sounds now in class. These take a little longer for children to consolidate but lots of practise and seeing the sounds in different contexts and places will help greatly. 
A letter will be coming home this Friday about an upcoming workshop concerning phonics. This will be held in school on Thursday 3rd December after school. Children will be able to access the after school club for free whilst you're at this session. More details will be on the letter but it is an opportunity for you to see what we will be teaching your child in school and how we teach the beginnings of reading. 

Anyway, the sounds we are doing this week are listed below.

'z' & 'zz' - as in buzz - Hold your hands out to the side and flap your hands like a bumble bee saying 'zzzzzzzzzzz'

'qu' - as in quack - make your hands into a beak and place over your mouth saying 'qu, qu, qu'

'sh' - as in shop - put your finger to your lips and say 'ssshhhh'

'ch' - as in chip - move your arms at your side like a train saying 'ch, ch, ch'

Finally, you should have an updated sound pot. If you don't have any new sounds please come and see us and we'll make sure you get all the sounds you need. Please use these to revise the sounds, make words (nonsense too) and play games. 

Reception team

The VERY Hungry Caterpillar

Hello everyone,

Today we started our new topic - surrounding the book by Eric Carle: 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. We read through the story today, which a large number of children already knew. Over this week and next week we'll be doing a number of different activities based on the story. This week we will be retelling the story, using the days of the week and creating some labels to go alongside our fruit paintings being done in school. As well as this we will be creating a large collage caterpillar to go up on display - you may notice the beginning of this in the classroom already. In maths this week we are focusing on matching the correct numeral to a group of objects and counting objects that cannot be moved. Below I've put some possible home learning ideas for you to have a go at. As always, any home learning is fantastic and we love to see anything that is done at home. 

• Research a caterpillar/butterfly life cycle and draw each stage in a big circle.
• Look at symmetry with butterflies, do some painting by painting half a picture and then pressing it down on to the the side. 
• Do some fruit printing. 
• Make a list of all the food the Hungry Caterpillar eats in the story.
• Write down your own list of what you would eat everyday if you could.
• Try eating some of the foods in the story - especially if you haven't before.
• Using pictures of a caterpillar and butterfly, write down some similarities and differences.