Welcome to our Reception Class Page
Friday 17th May 2024
What a busy few weeks we have had in Reception! We have been doing lots of our learning outside now that the weather is warmer, which has been really lovely!
In Maths we have been learning our number bonds to 10 by singing 10 green bottles and writing down the number sentences to match. We have also been exploring positional language and capacity.
In literacy we have been writing instructions (this is when we get to be SUPER bossy!) telling the reader how to plant a seed. This week we wrote our Big Writes all about the Farm and we blew our teachers’ socks off!
We have learnt lots about different life cycles and we are VERY excited because our caterpillars have now turned into butterflies. We will be letting them go next week so that the life cycle can start again.
1 week to go!
Friday 19th April 2024
Happy Friday! We’re back after a well earned Easter break.
We have had a brilliant couple of weeks in Reception. We kicked off our new core text, Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell, with a trip to Cotswold Farm Park! We loved learning about all the different animals on the farm and we were even able to feed/hold/stroke some of them!
In RE we are learning all about Christan Churches and so this week we went to visit St James Chruch. Revered Mark told us lots of information about what Christians do in a Chruch and things that we might see/find.
In Phonics we are learning to add ‘ed’ onto the end of words to make them past tense. We know that sometimes ‘ed’ makes the ‘id’ sound and sometimes it makes the ‘t’ sound, depending on the word. We have also been practicing our reading and writing lots and our teachers are super proud of us.
In Maths we have been learning to half and share into smaller equal groups. Ask us what me know!
The Reception Team
Friday 22nd March 2024
Happy Friday! We cannot believe it is the end of another term- it just seems to be flying!
We have had such a wonderful week in reception; celebrating Easter in lots of different ways. We have made Easter hats, cards and other crafty things. We have made hot cross buns and made chocolate nest cakes when learning about melting and freezing. We have learnt two new scientific words- solid and liquid! AND we have been on a chocolate Easter egg hunt- how lucky are we?!
In between all this fun, we have been checking the children’s progress and once again, we have been absolutely blown away with how well they’re all doing.
Bring on the summer term with lots more fun and learning…but first…have the best Easter holidays!
The EYFS Team
Friday 15th March 2024
We LOVE Science week!
We kicked off the week with lots of science experiments on Monday. We explored what happens when carbonate of soda and white vinegar mix, what happens when fairy liquid touches milk and food colour and lots more!
We also took part in a Science fair on Wednesday, put on for us by the lovely Y5 children. We loved seeing which substances cleaned up some rusty old pennies the best and having a go at rocket launching.
On Friday we had a visit from the Hedgehog Rescue team and we learnt all about Hedgehogs and how we can help to keep them safe in our gardens. Thank you so much for the cat food donations! We even had time to squeeze in some melting and freezing experiments in the afternoon too.
This week we also completed our independent big writes. We had a go at writing our innovated story of The Gruffalo and our teachers were blown away by how much progress we have all made since our last big write.
1 more week to go!
Friday 8th March 2024
Gosh, what a busy few weeks we have had this term! And only 2 weeks left until the Easter Holidays- where is the time going?!
We have had a super fun week as it’s been The Really Wild Reading Festival’ week AND yesterday was World Book Day! Throughout the week, we have been doing lots of reading based activities. We had a fab time on Wednesday at Meadowside Primary School, where we met the author Andy Seed. He shared lots of his books with us and told us about some really interesting and endangered animals!
On Thursday we had a fabulous time at Quedgeley Library, where we had some funny stories read to us, we made book marks and had some time to share a few books together too. A huge thank you to all our parent helpers and a big WELL DONE to our reception children as they had lots of walking to do this week!
Amongst all of this, we have been busy with other learning too. We have made story maps for a story we made up using our imagination last week. Next week we are going to write the story for our Big Write! We have continued with phonics- practising some of the digraphs and trigraphs we have already learnt as well as practising our blending and segmenting skills.
In Maths we have been having lots of fun exploring shape- learning the names of shapes and talking about their properties, how many sides, corners and faces they have. We even made some shape faces which was lots of fun!
As part of our RE learning, we have been looking at new beginnings we might see during the spring, like flowers appearing and animal’s young being born. We have been drawing pictures of daffodils using pastels and making fluffy lamb collages- super cute!
We have another fun filled week in store as next week is Science Week!
Have a wonderful weekend,
The EYFS Team
Friday 9th February 2024
Wow- where has this term gone?! We are officially half way through the academic year! That hasn’t stopped us from being busy bees though.
We have had lots of fun this week finding out about how people from other cultures celebrate Chinese New Year. We had a go at eating noodles with chopsticks (this was quite a challenge!) we made Chinese lanterns and we had a go at writing words and numbers in Chinese AND lots more!
We have been super busy doing our Big Write task where we had to write sentences by ourselves- our teachers are super impressed with us! As well as this we have been doing some phonics recapping and practising our sentences writing and segmenting to spell skills.
This week we’ve had a bit of a DT project on our hands…we had to design our own sandwich to take to the moon…we had some interesting choice of fillings! Using our designs to help, we made our sandwiches and then reflected on our designs and what we liked best about them and what we would change if we designed another.
PE this week involved lots of fun games and more football skills! We are getting really good at working as a team and have improved our dribbling and shooting skills.
We hope you have a wonderful half term and we’ll see you back in one week when we will have lighter mornings- hooray!
The EYFS Team
Friday 2nd February 2024
Happy Friday! The mornings are finally getting lighter and the evenings are too! ????
We have been having a go at writing sentences this week and WOW, we have done SO well. We thought of some describing words to talk about the Aliens in the story Aliens Love Underpants and we then popped them in a sentence and had a go at writing it. We had lots of things to remember including a capital letter at the beginning, finger spaces, segmenting words to find the sounds AND letter formation. How amazing are we?!
We used playdough to create our own Aliens and we used describing words to talk about what they looked like – each Alien was completely unique and we had lots of fun creating them.
We have now finished all of phase 3 phonics so we have been practicing these within our reading and writing.
In maths we have continued to explore addition and our teachers have shown us lots of different resources and techniques we can use to help us with our workings. We can now count on using a number line, we can put the first number in our heads and count on and we can use a range of manipulatives including our fingers!
We even had time to learn all about Astronauts and a very special Astronaut called Tim Peak. Ask us what we can remember!
Have a super weekend – one week to go!
Friday 26th January 2024
Can you believe we are over half way through this term?! Only two more weeks left.
This week we have been doing lots in our Literacy learning. We are learnt the new sounds- ow, ure and er AND we have been using our fabulous phonic knowledge to write describing words for aliens after reading the funny story ‘Aliens Love Underpants’.
In Maths we have focused on the number 9 – making it in lots of different ways. We have also been doing some addition by combining two groups of objects to find the total. And finally in maths, we have been making lots of different patterns using natural objects and just using things we find around the classroom.
Continuing on from last week, we have been using our imagination and team work skills to make giant rockets! We have had fun making these in both our inside classroom and outside.
In RE we have shared two stories from the bible this week – ‘Noah’s Ark’ and ‘Jesus calms the storm’. After sharing these stories as a class, we did lots of different activities to help us remember parts of the stories. We used some of our small world toys to re-tell the story of ‘Noah’s Ark’ and we painted some pictures of our favourite part of the story ‘Jesus calms the storm’.
Lots of fun was had in PE this week where we continued to develop our football skills! More dribbling practice, remembering to stop the football with our foot (not our hands!) AND we even had a go at shooting some goals!
Another fun filled week and just 2 more to go.
Have a wonderful weekend,
The EYFS Team
Friday 19th January 2024
Happy Friday!
We are back in the swing of things in Reception and we have had another busy week filled with lots of fun learning and happy times.
In phonics we have leant the digraphs ‘ow’ and ‘oi’ AND the trigraphs ‘ear’ and ‘air.’ Can you believe we have almost completed phase 3?! We are able to use what we know by applying sounds into our reading and writing. Speaking of writing, we all had a go at writing a list of things we would take with us to the moon this week and our teachers really were BLOWN AWAY by how brilliantly we did. We really smashed it and we are very proud of ourselves.
In maths we have been exploring the number 8 and now we know all things 8. We also looked at the language of addition and were able to write and work out some simple addition number sentences – we really are THAT clever. We also explored AB repeating patterns and we had a go at making our own patterns with the provision using all sorts of different resources.
We loved the frost at the end of the week and could not resist wrapping up warm and going out into the outdoor classroom to explore it. We have been keeping a weather chart this week to record the weather, and we will do the same again in the Spring and Summer so that we can compare these!
Thank you to all the parents who helps us collect lots of junk so that we could create our model rockets this week. We all had so much fun making these; using our imagination and getting creative!
Finally, a big WELL DONE to our class Oracy champions who will be talking about their chosen topics to the rest of the school on Monday.
Have a lovely weekend!
The Reception Team
Friday 12th January 2024
Welcome back to the spring term! It sounds like the children have had a wonderful Christmas- we’ve enjoyed hearing all about their exciting Christmas Days. The children have settled back into school brilliantly this week and have enjoyed a busy week of fun learning.
Thank you for sending your child in with their favourite book for our RE sessions. It has been a joy to share them all with the classes. And thank you also for sending through a picture from the festive period- it has really helped the children talk about what they had been up to in more detail.
Our core text for this term is ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy. We have shared the story as a class and have also been acting it out in small groups using props. To help us remember what happens in the story, we have been ordering illustrations from the book into the correct sequence.
In Maths our number of the week has been 7- we have been exploring this number by making it in lots of different ways.
We have been playing lots of playground games this week to help us understand the importance of rules- why we need them and who makes them. The children had so much fun playing ‘duck, duck, goose!’ and ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’.
In PE we have started football! The children have been practising kicking the ball using the correct part of their foot, as well as dribbling the ball between cones, whilst trying to be aware of the other children around them.
Bring on another week packed full of fun! Have a lovely, restful weekend,
The EYFS Team
Friday 22nd December 2023
MERRY CHRISTMAS RECEPTION! WE MADE IT!
We have had such a fun filled final week in Reception- our Christmas Party, biscuit baking, calendar making and some lovely Christmas crafts which we are taking home today.
We would like to say a huge well done to all our Reception children, for a fantastic first term at school. We are super proud of each and every one of you- not only have you settled into school brilliantly but you have also made such amazing progress.
Have the most magical Christmas and a wonderful New Year and we will look forward to seeing you all in 2024!
The EYFS Team
Friday 15th December 2023
Happy Friday! We are well and truly on the countdown to Christmas now and we are all so very excited!
We have been creating lots of lovely Christmas crafts this week, including hats for our Christmas dinner on Wednesday (yum!), some salt dough tree decorations and Christmas paper chains.
We are continuing to review all of the phase 2/3 sounds we know and we have been practicing applying these within our reading and writing. We completed our very first independent big write this week by writing our letters to Father Christmas – our teachers were SO proud at how well we did!
In RE we had a go at using our scissor skills to create a nativity scene. We then spoke about everything we know about The Nativity story including who the characters are and why they are important.
In music, Mrs Johnston taught us some new Christmas songs and we had a go at using different instruments to create the beat – it was great fun!
The elves have been spoiling us this week and brought each class a Christmas book to read, straight from the North Pole!
1 more week to go!
Friday 1st December 2023
Happy 1st of December- the Christmas Countdown has officially begun!
We were welcomed into school today with our very own class elves- how exciting! They left us a little note and an advent calendar and said to keep an eye out for them having fun around our classes from now until Christmas!
This week has been another busy week with lots of Christmas cheer. We have had our final practise for our Christmas Nativity and we cannot wait to show you all on Monday!
We have been busy making our own story maps of the Christmas Nativity story- drawing pictures from each part of the story and writing a few key words.
In Maths we have continued to find 1 more or less than a given number using things like number lines to help us. We are getting much more confident at this.
We have also been exploring toys from the past and toys we have now. We have been finding out how old toys are different and similar to toys we have now. We did a little toy sorting activity and using our super handwriting, we labelled some of the toys too.
This lovely week has ended with an AMAZING whole school Panto- what a Friday treat! We’re starting to get into the festive groove and are looking forward to more festive fun next week. I wonder what our elves will get up to in our classes over the weekend?!
Have a lovely weekend,
The EYFS Team
24th November 2023
What a wonderful week in Reception!
We have learnt 4 new sounds this week- th, sh, ng and nk. The children are getting fab at using their phonic knowledge to segment to spell three and even four letter words! They have done some brilliant word writing this week- well done Reception.
In Maths we have continued to learn about 1 more and less than a given number. The children have been using their fingers and numbers lines to help them do this. We just need to remember to jump UP the number line for 1 more and DOWN the number line for 1 less- we will have lots of practice next week too.
We are already feeling very festive with all our Nativity practice but we have also been learning about the story of Christmas and why it is important to some people. We had a go at ordering pictures from the story to see if we could remember what happened next.
As always, we had SO much fun with our sports coach on Thursday- practising our throwing and catching skills. We also had a go at bouncing the ball with one hand whilst walking around. We finished off the session with a few ball games and a big drink of water!
Have a lovely weekend,
The EYFS Team
10th November 2023
Happy first week of Autumn 2!
We all had lots of fun over the half term break but we are glad to be back at school to see our friends. We really enjoyed using the Padlet to share what we got up to!
This week we have started to learn phase 3 sounds in phonics. We now know j, v , w and x! In phase 3 we also learn lots of new diagraphs and even some trigraphs (three letters that make one sound!) Our teachers have been reading with us lots and are so impressed with how far we have come along already. We are also now segmenting CVC/CVCC words and writing these independently – wow!
In RE we learnt all about what makes a birthday special. We will be using this to explore why Christians celebrate Christmas and we will also learn all about the Nativity story.
In collective worship we learnt all about why we wear poppies and why the 11th November is such a special day to remember for many people.
In maths we have been exploring more, and we had a go at finding 1 more using lots of different resources!
We have also been practicing out Nativity songs!
See you next week for more fun learning!
20th October 2023
What a brilliant week we have had in Reception!
We have explored the composition of 4 and 5, using different maths resources to support our learning.
In phonics we have learnt the ‘ss’ diagraph as well as reviewing all of the sounds we already know and using these to blend and segment. Our teachers are so proud of how much we have learnt already!
We were super lucky this week because some of the Y5s came to help us experiment with our 5 senses! We completed lots of fun activities including tasting different flavour yoghurts, having a go on an obstacle course without our sight and exploring different textures using a feel bag. It was LOTS of fun!
On Friday we learnt our last learning power (Zooma says let’s get creative) by creating different things out of recycling. We made some fab things and even tidied up beautifully afterwards.
3 days to go!
13th October 2023
WE LOVE LEARNING!
We have all had another fantastic week of learning! We have learnt new sounds in phonics (ck, e, u, r), practiced using our sounds to read and write and learnt all about some new numbers in maths (2 & 3). We even know a really grown up word now… ‘Digraph!’ Ask us what this is because will definitely be able to tell you!
This week has been Harvest Festival and we all had lots of fun exploring what this means. We learnt that our food comes from lots of different places and that harvest means to collect! We also know that during Harvest Festival we collect lots of food and give to those that find it difficult to get this themselves. We had a go at drawing lots of different vegetables, we painted vegetable people by printing AND we practiced our fine motor skills whilst pouring/tipping and using tweezers in a harvest themed tough tray.
Ready for a restful weekend we think!
6th October 2023
WOW what a busy week! The children are really starting to get into the swing of things now- remembering our daily routines, listening ears, super sitting and it has been wonderful to watch lots of new friendships blossom.
This week in phonics we have learnt 4 more sounds- g, o, c and k. We are trying super hard with our blending to read and we’ve even had a try at segmenting to spell in our play this week.
In maths we have been focusing on the numerals 0 and 1. We have been practising our counting- making sure that we’re touching each object as we count. We have then had another practise at matching numbers to the amount we have counted.
In circle time this week we thought about what makes a good friend. We wrote down all our ideas and told some of our friends why we enjoy spending time with them.
We have learnt a new class power! Chase tells us to use our ‘cool concentration’. To practise our concentrating skills, we worked with some friends to build a tower and make it tall but also strong. We have been getting better and better at this class power as we use it a lot in our maths and phonics learning too.
Today RB had THE BEST time in forest school- what a treat for a Friday! We met Sophie our Forest School leader who played lots of games with us, helped us cook marshmallows and we had so much fun playing in the mud kitchen and exploring.
Happy Friday and have a lovely weekend,
The EYFS Team
29th September 2023
Happy Friday! We have had another super week full of fun and learning in Reception.
This week we have been learning the sounds ‘i’, ‘m’, ‘n’ and ‘d’ and we can now use the sounds we know to blend to read CVC words (can you believe we are reading already?!) To help us to do this we know to find the sound buttons in words and use our robot arms.
We went on an Autumn walk around the school grounds on Tuesday and Wednesday and we looked for lots of signs that Autumn is arriving. We made journey sticks by collecting fallen leaves etc. and sticking them on some carboard.
On Thursday we had PE with Lee which was LOTS of fun. He taught us how to hold a rugby ball and we played some games where we had to move in lots of different ways.
In RE we looked at our core text, Owl Babies, and we spoke about how all the characters in the story are special in their own way. Next week we will be exploring what makes us special.
On Friday RA went into Forest School for the first time and it was SO MUCH FUN. We made mud pies, looked for signs of wildlife and our Forest School teacher played some games with us too. Next Friday it will be RB’s turn.
Have a super weekend!
22nd September 2023
WE DID IT! A full week at school! We are again, super proud of all the children and how brilliant they have been this week. We have packed in lots of fun learning, started some new routines and have been wearing big smiles all week.
This week the children have started phonics and we have learnt the sounds- s, a, t and p. We have been practising writing these letters in paint, glitter and sand; making sure we say the little rhyme that helps us remember how to form each letter correctly. We have also been learning how to hold our pencil correctly- our teachers are super impressed!
In maths we have carried on singing our counting songs, as well as practising counting forwards and backwards.
Our focus text for the term is ‘Owl Babies’. We have shared the story together and acted out the story using little owl puppets. We talked about who is in the owl family and how all families are different. We told our friends who is special to us and who is in our family. Then, throughout the week, we have been drawing pictures of our family and people who are special to us.
This week was our first attempt at getting changed for PE and we were brilliant! We had lots of fun in the hall playing games, practising some throwing and catching and making sure we warm up and cool down properly. We have also done a bit of Yoga this week! We introduced one of our class powers ‘have a go’, so we decided to try our best at some Yoga positions. We were fab at having a go at these and there were a few giggles on the way too!
We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
See you all on Monday,
The EYFS Team
15th September 2023
Wow! What a fantastic first week in Reception we have had. We have had so much fun exploring our new classroom, making friends and learning the class and school expectations. Our teachers are SO proud of how well we have settled and we cannot wait for more next week!
This week we learnt where all of our things go in the classroom, we met our PE coach for the first time (Lee) and he played lots of fun games with us. We went for a walk around the school and met lots of the other teachers and we even had time to learn some counting songs.
Have a restful weekend,
The Reception Team
