Welcome to our Class Page
Please have a look at what we will be learning about this term: Reception Curriculum Map
13th March 2020
What a quack-tastic week!
We spent the week getting to know our 3 ducklings, taking care of their needs, watching them swim, and then waved them off to their forever home with Mrs Hounsell’s Mummy. It’s lovely to know we’ll see them again!
We wrote sentences this week to describe our ducklings. Lots of us could add more detail using the word “and”.
In maths we have been estimating (ask us at home what this means!). We estimated how many cubes it would take to fill our shoes (Mrs Hounsell said best not to use her smelly ones!). We have also been weighing using pan scales, we used our knowledge of comparison to show which was heaviest and which was lightest.
We hope you enjoyed our WOW assembly on Monday, it is always lovely to show off our talents to you!
Next week is our class trip to Over Farm, we are looking forward to feeding the animals and seeing more of the farm by tractor ride!
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell…
• I’m sure you have noticed there is no new work in your letters and sounds books, this is because phase 4 has no new sounds to learn so just lots and lots of practicing please
• Just a reminder that trip money is due on Monday, there is no permission slip to return.
• After Forest School next week I will send everyone’s wellies home, please can these be cleaned (within reason) so the children can wear them on the coach to Over Farm
6th March 2020
What an egg-citing week!!
We have three baby ducklings to look after. Our ducklings have really taken over our lives and we are all IN LOVE with their little beaks, fluffy wings and webbed feet.
We have learnt so much about ducklings…we won’t spoil our WOW assembly on Monday by spilling all the beans now though!
28th February 2020
You would not believe the start of the week we had! We came in to find our classroom was a MESS, someone had been inside! We needed to look for clues! We wrote a list of all we could see and discovered that it had been farm animals! We think these animals came from our new core text “Farmer Duck”.
Tuesday was a great afternoon. We learnt that it was Shrove Tuesday, we talked about the true meaning of this (yes we get yummy pancakes!) but we learnt the Christian reasons why. We are beginning our own countdown towards Easter.
In Maths we have been looking at sharing. We know that this is making small equal groups. We had a teddy bears picnic and shared food between the guests. We looked at this in relation to a part, whole model.
In PE we began using our bodies to move like animals from the farm.
Next week is Science Week and Mrs Hounsell said something absolutely amazing is going to happen. WE CAN’T WAIT!!!!
14th February 2020
There is never a dull week in our lovely Reception class!
We have been working super hard right up until the end of this half term and now deserve a super big rest!
This week we changed the story of “the colourful planet” to create our own versions. We drew story maps to help us tell it.
In maths we have been thinking more about taking away. We explored and extended our language when taking away in different situations.
We are always really kind in our school but random acts of kindness week gave us an extra way to really show this. We started the week with an (indoor) Forest School session making sure the birds don’t go hungry this week, on Wednesday we performed to our friends at Sanctus and we made and gave each other friendship bracelets. Kindness and Joy really has been in the air!
Mrs Hounsell said our Mummy’s and Daddy’s have met with her for parents evening this week and last but she said not to worry as she could give us all glowing reports!
Have a lovely half term! We can’t wait for more adventures next term!
7th February 2020
And just like that another week in Reception is done!
We started the week with our afternoon in Forest School, lots of lovely mud as usual but this week with the added bonus of a fire and some bread!
This week literacy really stretched our writing skills. We used the story map and the actions to remember what to write. Mrs Hounsell could not believe how well we all wrote the openers to our story “The Colourful Planet”.
This week we began to look at taking away. We have been talking like mathematicians and using words such as “subtraction” – aren’t we amazing?!
We have continued to explore our story “Man on the Moon”. One page really took our interest as we saw Bob hoovering the moon. This lead to us talking about how and why we should look after our planet.
We have all been doing SO well with our reading and phonics this week. Mrs Hounsell can’t wait to see how much we have remembered next week.
31st January 2020
Another week of fun filled learning!
This week we started our first talk for writing. We learnt the story of “The Colourful Planet” by making up actions and drawing a story map. This is the story of a boy Billy and his dog splodge who want to find animals in space. We came up with some funny and memorable actions. Next week we will use this to help us start writing it.
In maths we have been doubling, this is super tricky but we used our learning powers and didn’t give up! We used mirrors to help us see double the amount and used what we already know about adding to help us. We also looked at the properties of our 2D shapes and how this could help us sort them.
We have been reading words using our new digraphs and deciding if they are real words or fake words and we need to throw them in the bin!
And of course lets not forget Forest School, I’m not sure Mrs Hounsell has ever seen some of us so muddy!
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell…
Next week our student teacher Miss Dovaston will begin some teaching. She has already made a wonderful relationship with the class and they are very excited. I will be there to support her when needed.
Please make sure cardigans/jumpers are named, we are struggling to match these to the children at the end of the day.
If you can’t help with Forest School please let me know as I will need to sort out a different adult to replace you.
Thank you to so many of you who are reading 5 times at home, it makes a real difference.
24th January 2020
These weeks are certainly flying by!
The week started with another fun (but slightly chilly!) session of Forest School. We made a super effort to get as muddy as possible whilst learning in the outdoors.
This week our maths focus has been comparison, we have been looking at numbers more than, less than and equal to each other. Mrs Hounsell said we had to really talk like mathematicians, she said we rose to the challenge!
We have been writing simple phonetically sentences this week and continued to use the new sounds we have learnt. This week we focused on the trigraph “igh” and digraphs “oa” “oo” and “oo”. Those last two look the same but we played a game that proved they were very different.
We have continued looking at our core text “whatever next” and have ordered pictures from it thinking about the beginning, middle and end.
Our reading skills are coming along so well. Please read with us at home so that even more of us can be entered into the regular reader draw!
When learning through our play this week we have got our creative juices flowing and used junk modelling to make a whole variety of things!
Have a lovely weekend!
17th January 2020
What another speedy week!
This week we continued looking at our core text “Whatever next” and read the story “The man on the moon”. We looked in detail at the characters…Bob doesn’t believe the aliens are real so we wrote sentences to describe them to help him out.
In maths we have continued to work on our addition skills, this time looking at number sentences and thinking of all the classroom resources which could support us.
Forest School was AMAZING! We did Mrs Hounsell proud and behaved so well! We loved the fresh air and all the mud! We look forward to next week.
In RE we looked at a variety of Bibles. We talked about why this was an important book for Christians and read some of the stories.
We are learning some super tricky digraphs in phonics now so please look through our letters and sounds homework with us ?
10th January 2020
2020 certainly agrees with our Reception class! We have jumped straight back into all our routines and are ready for new learning!
Our new core text is “Whatever next”. We re-told the story using all the resources (including Miss Cunningham’s colander). This story has started us thinking all about space…we’ve built and designed rockets in the imagination station and construction area, written tickets for a trip to space, written lists so we don’t forget all our supplies and started our junk model rockets.
We have started learning our phase 3 digraphs, please help us at home with our new letters and sounds work, we think we have a lot of new things we can teach you!
In maths we have been completing simple additions moving objects in the outdoor area from two hoops into one to see how many altogether.
We all impressed Mrs Hounsell with our reading in phonics this week and she is THRILLED that 5 of us are in the running for the regular reader prize draw!
In RE we looked at our favourite stories and started thinking about our new question “Which stories are special and why?”
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell…
• a few of you have mentioned to me about lost cardigans, please can you ensure everything is named as this makes it easier for me to help you
• A few PE kits have come back after Christmas missing a few items, if you think this is you feel free to pop in and I will get them out for you to check
• Please can you save me all your recycling for our junk modelling next week
Have a lovely weekend!
20th December 2019
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ALL OF RECEPTION!
We can’t believe it’s finally Christmas! It’s been a lovely build up full of elves, glitter, painting, stories, glitter, cards, calendars, songs, more glitter, parties, singing and did we mention glitter?
This week we watched the John Lewis advert The Bear and the Hare and thought about how we could describe Christmas to those who had never experienced it, Mrs Hounsell said she couldn’t believe our lovely ideas and thought you would like to read some….
Christmas is having lots of fun,
Christmas is celebration,Christmas is sharing,
Christmas is looking out for people,
Christmas is spending time with people you love,
Christmas is cuddles,
Christmas is excitement.
Mrs Hounsell certainly has enough Christmas joy to go around but she said we have really kept up with her the last few weeks!
SEE YOU IN 2020 ?
13th December 2019
Didn’t we do well in our WOW assembly? Thank you so much for coming to watch us and we loved having you in our classroom afterwards (Mrs Hounsell said you were all super helpful with our learning journeys so she is very happy too!)
We have been busy bees again this week! Lots of Christmas fun to squeeze in alongside a normal school day….we secretly know that next week will be more fun than EVER.
This week we have been learning our number bonds to 5, we had to use our finger patterns to help before colouring the numicon to match.
Our ISingPop practise is coming along SO well and we can’t wait to show you next week.
The cheeky elves have been helping us learn this week, we used our funky fingers to make snow flakes like theirs, cut out letters to Santa and ordered Christmas items by size.
In RE we have continued talking about the Christmas story and thinking about why it is special to Christians. Mrs Hounsell has been reading to us straight from the bible to give us the full picture. We used different Nativity scenes to tell the story.
Time for one more week before we are all yours Mums and Dads!! ?
6th December 2019
WELL! What an exciting week! Our Elves, Eve and Jingle Bells, have certainly kept us on our toes!
This week we have written letters to Santa Claus. Mrs Hounsell thinks some of us under estimate the size of his sleigh! We used all our sounds to write the items independently and wrote our names in our neatest cursive writing so he knows we are Clearwater children.
We have ordered numbers this week (on Christmas tree’s of course) independently to 10. How impressive!
We began our Christmas crafts this week, we think you’ll be very proud of our calendars.
Mrs Hounsell is super excited for next week! Christmas can well and truly begin.
Don’t forget our WOW assembly and learning journey look on Tuesday. We look forward to sharing our work (and mince pies) with you!
29th November 2019
Well that is November done and dusted!
We have had another lovely week at school full of laughter and learning. We have been working hard to really enforce the sounds we know and have been writing for a purpose around the classroom. Mrs Hounsell said she is glad we don’t write her shopping lists at home with some of the funny things we wanted to buy!
We have been looking at taking away one in maths this week and have experimented with how we would like to record this ourselves.
In RE we have been talking about the true meaning of Christmas. We made up actions to help tell the story. (we MIGHT show you this at our WOW assembly).
We absolutely loved iSingPop again especially the dance moves (our teachers seem to have two left feet!).We have been singing our way through the week. We think Mrs Hounsell is very ready for Christmas!
We have a funny feeling something magical might happen next week…
22nd November 2019
We have been working really hard this week. In phonics we finished learning all our single sounds so now we are going to recap recap recap…practice makes permanent after all! Mrs Hounsell has been making up silly sentences using the sounds we know and we’ve been helping her write them using all our new techniques.
In maths we have looked in detail at number 8. We looked at the part-part-whole model to see all the different ways that 8 can be made up. We are becoming really confident when talking about our learning.
We made some conversation rules this week and have been use them to build on each others ideas when discussing in P4C. Mrs Hounsell asked us silly questions like “would you rather be the size of a giant or a mouse” we had lots of fun hearing each others reasons.
When looking at our core text The Gruffalo we noticed lots of rhyming words and have been practicing them in our reading sessions.
What a busy week! Good job we are super-Recpetioners isn’t it!
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell…
• Lots of the children now have pink level reading books (with words) if you would like any advice on how to support your child with this please come and see me. Similarly if you are unsure on how to proceed with the high frequency and tricky words laminated in your book bags
• As it’s turned chilly we have all been bringing hats and gloves into school. Can you please make sure these are named so they don’t get lost or confused with someone else’s
• Thank you so much for all your effort with the children in the morning, their independence has made a HUGE difference
• Don’t miss our WOW assembly on the 10th, we have something exciting up our sleeves
Have a lovely weekend!
15th November 2019
Well what a wet end to the week! Luckily us Reception children have stayed warm and dry for our usual fun!
This week we have continued to read our core text “The Gruffalo”. We talked about our use of expression and talked in different voices for the characters.
We are now on phase 3 purple sounds! We helped Mrs Hounsell write sentences using the new sounds we learnt (She makes an awful lot of mistakes, it’s a good job we are here to help).
In maths we have looked at the number 7 to mark Billy Bears 7th birthday (looking at him
we think we might be older than that!) we had to make sure he had 7 of everything to set up for his party and use comparative language to correct his mistakes. We also played a game using our maths area resources to add one after rolling a dice.
On Thursday it was World Diabetes Day. We felt really proud to be able to raise some money for research to be done.
We can’t wait for Road Safety Week next week! Beep Beep!
8th November 2019
I think this will definitely go down as the speediest week ever! One blink and it was suddenly Friday!
Mrs Hounsell said we have come back so grown up (and taller!) Lots of us have impressed her by coming in all on our own and following our morning routine without Mum’s or Dad’s help.
This week in the imagination station Donnie and Jacob-Kai wanted to go the shops so they built a car….this gave Mrs Hounsell the idea of us writing shopping lists. We all used our initial sounds to write what we needed to buy from Tesco (other supermarkets are available!)
In maths we have been continuing our number journey and looked at the number 6. Billy bear was super silly and mixed all the numbers up but fear not we sorted him out and got the number line back to how it should be!
Mrs Hounsell has been encouraging us to use the word ‘because’ in our discussions and conversations this week. We looked at pictures and had to decide if we liked them or not and most importantly why. She said we are becoming very confident because-ers.
Alongside all of this we found time for some music too. We thought about high and low pitch and began learning a song.
We haven’t let some chilly weather stop our fun and have dragged Mrs Hounsell outside everyday. (she doesn’t mind really, she always says that out in the fresh air is the best place to be).
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell…
• Thank you so much for all the entries on our Padlet. The children loved looking at each others pictures and asked each other questions about them. There will be another one set up for our Christmas holidays.
• We have now finished phase 2 phonics. This means we will move onto more digraphs in phase 3 but the children will continue to visit what they already know so please don’t worry if you are still working through your green book.
• Have a lovely weekend and don’t blow away!
25th October 2019
WOW we cannot believe it is half term already! Although we are super sleepy and so is Mrs Hounsell! We have been busy bee’s as per usual!
We have learnt 4 more sounds and been reading confidently as a team and on our own.
In maths we have made our own counting rules and have looked at missing number line problems.
We have painted a picture of a tree this week using our different colour mixing techniques.
We worked with Skye and Marshell more this week talking about when we have had a go and when we have known not to give up! We read a story about a little girl who kept falling off her bike.
In RE we finished our topic of being special and made a wonderful collage for Psalm 139.
We have also found lots of time for fun and laughter!
Mrs Hounsell said we should be so proud of ourselves and that she gave us all wonderful reports at parents evening. She said this means we can have a week off!!
18th October 2019
That was another super speedy action packed week in the life of a Clearwater Reception child!
We have continued looking at our story of the Little Red Hen. We read some alternative versions of the story this week and compared different aspects including characters and setting. We experimented further with colour mixing creating different shades of brown to paint the little red hens feathers (can you believe she’s not just red?)
We learnt 4 new sounds this week and a super fancy new word “digraph” – bet you’ll be impressed when we can tell you what that means! We are beginning to segment and blend CVC words together in phonics, soon we will be doing this confidently enough to take a reading book home.
We have continued our number journey looking at 5 in more detail. We have been visualising number lines this week creating them in all sorts of ways including bricks, shells and even shoes.
We have continued to have lots of fun learning and playing around our classroom this week. Mrs Hounsell says our challange next week is to tidy up as quickly as we enthusiastically make a mess (Sorry Mrs Hounsell!!)
A few messages
• Thank you so much to those of you who came to the Phonics session. If you would like any more information, support or ideas please do pop in and see me
• Just a reminder to sign up to parents evening if you haven’t already. It will be lovely to share your little ones progress with you
• As I said before after half term we will be encouraging the children to be more independent in the morning so please try saying goodbye on the playground – they will be fine, I promise!
Have a lovely weekend and I will see you all for one last busy week!
Mrs Hounsell
11th October 2019
How fast are the weeks flying by?
We’ve had another really busy week full of laughter, friendship and learning.
We have learnt another 3 sounds and are starting to put these together to read simple words. Mrs Hounsell is super impressed by the way we are applying ourselves to all new challenges.
In our number work we focused on number 4, we broke it down so we could see all different combinations of colour and shape. We have continually compared the numbers as we have gone along to develop our language.
We have continued to learn the story of the little red hen and are becoming very confident with our actions.
We helped Mrs Hounsell move some areas around in the classroom this week. It’s fun to work together to find out what suits us the best and helps our learning.
We LOVE PE and have worked really hard in both sessions this week – Keiran even told us that we are the best Reception class he works with!
4th October 2019
We can’t believe how quick the weeks are ticking by!
We are achieving so much each week it’s sometimes hard to remember how new we are!
We looked at number 3 in lots of detail this week, exploring dot patterns and creating variations around the room.
We started looking at our core text of The Little Red Hen and re-told the story using props…thankfully Mrs Hounsell saw the funny side of the flour going everywhere!
We are really doing well with our PE and the coaches have again commented on our independence and organisation skills.
We are soaking up our phonics work like a sponge and are even putting two and three sounds together to read words.
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell….
• Thank you for all being such avid readers at home!
• Please keep working with your child on their phonics as this will make a huge difference. I will go into more detail about this during our phonics session on the 18th
• As we build up towards half term I will be encouraging the children to be more independent in the morning, with this in mind I will be supporting them to say goodbye to you all in the playground
27th September 2019
We are really getting to grips with all our new routines in school life. In the morning Mrs Hounsell puts pictures up to show us the order of the day, we have enjoyed talking to each other about what we are doing next (and keeping Mrs Hounsell on her toes if she ever forgets anything!)
We began our phonics journey this week, it is super tricky but we are good at persevering and by Friday we knew 4 sounds, with actions and could say a lot of words that have this sound at the start. Well done us! When you come to our phonics session we can show you the silly things we do to help us remember.
We began our number work this week, exploring the number 0,1,2…this might sound obvious but we discovered that the 2-ness of 2 is a whole new kettle of fish!
We have had lots of time to learn and play together in our classroom this week (even though Mrs Hounsell keeps moving it around to keep us on our toes!) hopefully next week the weather will pick up and we can get outside more!
I can honestly say I cannot believe this is only your second full week! You are all making me so proud and have taken your new responsibilities and challenges in your stride. You all deserve a massive pat on the back (and maybe an extra bowl of ice cream this weekend?) I cannot wait to see what next week has in store for us all.
Thank you all for your hard work in settling your little one and enjoy your weekend together.
Mrs Hounsell
20th September 2019
We have had a lovely week of firsts! Our first lunches at school, first afternoon sessions, first use of our outdoor area and first assemblies (we especially enjoyed Mrs Moss’ Golden Book!)
We have been busy learning around the classroom this week, getting to know each other and our new environment. We have smiled and laughed a lot along the way!
You will have seen my new reading book today! Please can we read together this weekend to show Mrs Hounsell how carefully we hold a book and how imaginative our stories can be?
Next week we will begin our phase 2 phonics, we will bring home a letters and sounds book to practice our new skills with you at home.
Roll on full week number two!
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell…
• we have a couple of unnamed PE kits, if you think these might be yours please pop in and we can match them to you.
• We also have a few unnamed jumpers/cardigans please check your child’s
• Please complete your All About Me book together (these will have been in your child’s book bags earlier this week)
17th September 2019
Well what a lovely week and a bit! I can’t believe we’re already on full days!
Mrs Hounsell and Miss Cunningham are really getting to know us all well and we are enjoying all our new experiences at school (some of us are certainly enjoying lunch the most!)
We have been exploring our classrooms inside and outside whilst completing little jobs with Mrs Hounsell for example drawing our family.
We can’t wait for you to see everything we will be doing!!
Over the next few weeks we will begin looking at our key text “the little red hen” this links nicely to Harvest allowing us to explore our first Christian festival in school.
A few notes from Mrs Hounsell….
• Please can all jumpers be named so we don’t get them mixed up
• Can you please talk to your children and encourage them to be as independent as possible when using the toilet and washing their hands thoroughly
• Thank you for a lovely few weeks and I look forward to getting to know you all better as the year progresses!