VALENTINE'S DAY, FRIENDSHIP AND DINOSUARS

We hope you liked the cards we made for Valentine's day! 

We talked about our families, who we love and why.

We also made beautiful heart decorations for our classroom.

And decorated a friendship tree in assembly with special leaves. We wrote who our friends are and why they are good friends.

In our Friday assembly we hung all of our leaves on the friendship tree.

Later the friendship tree was taken outside into the playground so everybody could see the freindship messages.

Lots of children in our class are interested in dinosaurs and we have been reading lots of books and sharing information about the extinct creatures. Children have been playing nicely together and sharing the dinosaur resources.

We talked about dinosaur habitats, what the dinsoaurs ate and how they became extinct.

We also had a special delivery of dinosaur eggs, inside of which were tiny skeletons that we had to put together and identify which dinosaurs the skeletons came from.

Children have also been enjoying reading independently, often sharing books with their friends in the reading corner.

AN EXCITING START TO THE NEW YEAR

We have been so busy in Reception since New Year that I have only just had time to update our blog!!

Most importantly we have been busy enjoying the snow!!
Getting lots of fresh air and exercise, moving safely with equipment and with each other and finding out about gravity and speed all through very practical experiences!

We have read lots of stories and had a go at acting them out. We paticularly enjoyesd Lost and Found, Iris and Isaac and Goldilocks and the three bears.


We also enjoyed the traditional Russian Tale Golden Hooves told by a sand artist.

 After the story we had the opportunity to make our own sand art.

We have also started working in pairs, which is not as easy as you might think! We have to listen to each other, think about what the other person has said and respond, take turns using resources and decide as a team how we are going to complete our projects!

We have used the stories we read in class as a starting point for writing our own stories. As well as our imaginations we used our drawing skills and growing knowledge of phonics to create some fantastic books! Miss Pauline was very impressed with our work when she popped in to see us!

FESTIVE FUN AND FATHER CHRISTMAS

Miss Lucie and the children were so excited when Father Christmas came to visit!

We had been busy all week making lots of Christmas Decorations. And baking gingerbread cookies!

We would like to thank you all for the lovely Christmas presents and say have a good rest over the holiday and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

from the Reception Team

A Busy December

What a busy month!!

Here are a few of the things that we have been busy doing in Reception.


PHONICS
We have learned lots of new sounds-

i n m d g o c k

When we were learning about the Christmas Story, we spotted lots of letters that we know!

And new words


at is in it and

So now we can start to read simple captiosn like

cat and dog

a sock on a pig

and we can use our phonic knowledge to write the sounds that we hear in words!


We were very busy rehearsing for the CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Miss Lucie even bought in her precious essential oils so that we could smell Frankincense and Myrrh which were two of the gifts give nto Jesus by the Kings.

And we've been thoroughly enjoying the first of the snow!!

 We also found out a little bit about Hannukah which is also celebrated in December. Mark borught in his Grandma's Menorah to show everybody. We passed it around the circle very carefully.

STEPPING INTO LETTERS, SOUNDS, WORDS AND BOOKS

We have started with Phase 2 phonics where we are learning the letters and sounds in English.
This week we have learned

 s/a/t/p

We have also been learning the names of the main characters in the Oxford Reading Tree series.

Each week I will send home the sounds and words we have learned as well as a reading book.
You may be surprised to see that the first books we send are wordless!
That is because our first step into reading is to teach the children the following skills:

• handle a book carefully
• find the front cover and turn the pages carefully
• look at the pages from left to right
• pay close attention to illustrations
• talk about the characters and story
• make connections between stories and their own experiences
• offer suggestions as to what might happen next
• empathise with characters/ talk about how they might be feeling
• learn the names of the main characters CHARACTERS

Once the children are beginning to master these skills and are beginning to recognise the character names, we will start sending home books with words!

When your child brings a book home, it will come in a plastic wallet with a reading record card. 

Parents MUST sign and comment to confirm that the child has read the book at home. Children WILL NOT be isued with new books unless the reading record has been signed and the book has been returned.

New books will be sent home on Friday and should be returned on Tuesday at the latest.

Please watch Miss Lucie's videos for more information!

HOMEWORK FOLDER

READING AT HOME

AUTUMN AND HARVEST FESTIVAL

HAPPY HARVEST!

We have notcied that the weather has turned colder and that the leaves are turning different colours and are falling from the trees.

We have been out and collected leaves and used them to make decorations.

We tried rolling conkers in paint to explore what happens when we mix colours.

We thoroughly enjoyed eating the carrots that we planted in the Summer and harvested in the Autumn.

We also looked at how different materials mix together like starch and water and slime and leaves- we made a fantastic swamp for our dinosaurs to splash about in.

We also had a wonderful Harvest Festival Celebration! The children looked fantastic in their costumes and Autumn colours and the amount of food we collected to help those in need was brilliant!

THE GOLDEN RULES

This week we have been focusing on THE GOLDEN RULES.
These are:

1. Always listen to an adult the first time.
2. Move around the school safely and carefully.
3. Use words and actions that help and don't hurt.
4. Respect other people and their property.

In our class we are trying to stop and listen when we hear the bell and we are trying to listen on the carpet when an adult is talking.
We are trying to remember that when we are in school we walk and talk, we don't run and shout!
We are trying not to call each other names and to use words like 'please', 'thank you' and 'can I have I turn?'
We are trying to help at tidy up time and look after the toys and resources in our classroom.

We have also been talking about our feelings and we have learned a song about the Mood Monsters


Mood Monster Song