Summer 1
Class 1 and 2 have had another wonderful half term on our topic ‘Creepy Critters! We are very proud of how the children have developed their skills and continue to impress us with their abilities to learn new things and grow in confidence.
This term, the children have enjoyed looking after real ladybirds in the classroom and learning all about the ladybird life cycle. They were amazed by how they transformed so much so that the children took an extra keen interest in the minibeasts outside our classroom and cared for them by making sure they had enough food and not to harm them. The children wrote some fantastic information about Ladybirds, which lead to becoming experts on snails and creating a book about snails. From our lovely minibeast work, the children produced some wonderful artwork using paint and clay to create their own mini beasts. The clay work was very effective and life like!
We have also enjoyed taking part in gardening activities, planting seeds and seedlings, learning what plants need to grow and making sure they are regularly watered. The children have been able to watch how their hard work has contributed to the growth of our beautiful garden and veggies. We look forward to being able to pick the sweet peas and eat the tomatoes and peas next term!
Over the half term we have read a variety of books to the children linked to our topic. The children took part in Talk for Writing to learn key facts about a ladybird. We were incredibly proud of what they found out and remembered! The children then learned new facts about snails and innovated their Talk for Writing facts on ladybirds to snails. We were blown away with their knowledge!
We had a wonderful trip to Shirebrook Nature Reserve to look at minibeasts. The children enjoyed taking part in pond dipping activities, identifying pond creatures and exploring the nature reserve to observe all the flora and fauna growing and living there. They were a pleasure to take and relished the experience of being outside all day!
All PE lessons centred around minibeasts and the children enjoyed imagining that they were minibeasts themselves and thought with care about how they would move their bodies in different ways and to music using the imoves programme.
In class we continue to use our phonics programme called Little Wandle. The children have revisited their digraphs and trigraphs daily from previous half terms and new longer words to segment and chunk in order to learn to read. Children have continued to make progress and can read tricky words with much more confidence and learn a sentence to write independently on their whiteboards remembering capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. In addition to this, children continue to take home a phonics book every week and a library book to share with a grown-up. If children read three or more times each week they receive a stamp in their diary and the more stamps they receive the more book prizes they can choose!
Overall, the children have had another brilliant half term and continue to impress us with their concentration and memory recall of what has been taught over the whole year! We can’t wait to see what children achieve next half term in our final half term of the year!
Spring 2
Reception Class have had a wonderful half term on our topic ‘How can we save the planet?’ We are very proud of how the children have continued to work hard, show resilience and develop their skills.
This half term we have been learning all about how we can look after the planet by reusing and recycling waste materials. The children have been very thoughtful and caring in their ideas on how to look after the world around them. They have collected litter strewn all over the playground and even gone on an organised litter pick in the local area as a way to make them more aware of looking after the environment and thinking about they do with litter.
Over the half term we have read a variety of topic books. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning and retelling the story ‘Someone Swallowed Stanley’ by Sarah Roberts. They thought carefully about the characters thoughts and feelings throughout the story. After this, they went onto learning and writing their own version of ‘Someone Swallowed Stanley.’ We also discussed with the children how we could help save the world by recycling. They came up with some fantastic ideas about putting litter in the correct bin, switching lights off when leaving the room and planting trees.
In PE the children were excited to be superheroes saving the planet! They practiced different balances using the equipment, jumping, rolling and moving in different ways. It was great fun!
In class we continue to use our phonics. The children have practiced a different digraph and trigraph each day and new tricky words including longer words to learn and spell. Children continue to make steady progress and can read words more readily and are also starting to read longer sentences as a class and spell a wider choice of words. In addition to this, children take home a phonics book every week and a library book to share with a grown-up.
In Maths we have looked at continuing to embed the knowledge of numbers to 10. We have continued to develop our understanding of composition of numbers 6-10, learning the bonds. We also enjoyed learning about length and height. We found pretend wiggly worms in our outdoor area and comparing their length and we compared the height of ourselves and our friends.
Everyone has continued to amaze us this half term with their resilience, determination and ability to continue working hard We can’t wait to see what the children achieve in our final term!
Spring 1
Reception Class have had a fantastic half term! We have been so impressed with all of their hard work, especially during phonics sessions. Everyone, has been trying hard and making fantastic progress.
We have been captivated by the delightful story of “Naughty Bus” by Jan Oke and Jerry Oke. Through the Talk for Writing storytelling approach, we have immersed ourselves in the mischievous adventures of the Naughty Bus and have learned to retell the story with enthusiasm. We’ve enjoyed collecting ideas about what silly antics Naughty Bus might get up to next, and have used these create our own unique Naughty Bus stories. We want to say a big thank you to you all for getting involved at home, your support has helped bring the story to life.
During our maths sessions, we have been delving into the fascinating world of numbers. We have been introduced to the numbers 6, 7, and 8, exploring their composition and relationships through hands-on activities and interactive games. Through engaging exercises, we have developed a deeper understanding of number concepts and the ways numbers can be combined and decomposed.
In addition to this, we’ve had the pleasure of exploring the fantastic works of artist James Rizzi. We loved the vibrant colours he uses! Inspired by his style, we’ve used watercolour pencils to create our own fun vehicles, adding intricate details with black pens. The result is a wonderful collaborative piece of artwork.
We had a great trip to Wentworth Woodhouse. A big thank you to all the adults who came along with us. We loved our ride on a vintage bus and enjoyed the delicious hot chocolate and time exploring the gardens. We even saw the deer. Who knew you could fit so much excitement and adventure into a morning.
We can’t wait for next half term, I’m sure it will be full of excitement!
Autumn 2.
Reception Class have continued to impress us in Autumn 2! We have been delighted with how they follow school routines. Everyone is trying so hard with their learning and making fantastic progress!
We started the term with a wonderful week celebrating Diwali. We learnt all about how and why Diwali is celebrated. We created some Diwali pictures, made our own Diya lamps and did some fun dancing.
In addition to this, had an exciting visit from the Gingerbread man. We learnt the Gingerbread Man story through the Talk for Writing approach. We enjoyed bringing the story to life through the use of actions and props. We received a message from the Gingerbread man asking for our help and we came up with some fantastic alternative ways for him to cross the river.
In the next part of the half term, we looked at toys from the past. We investigated some toys from the past and thought about what materials they were made from and how the toys worked. We read stories linked to toys and painted pictures of toys from the past.
We have ended our half term with our lovely Christmas performance. Everyone tried so hard to learn a variety of different songs including actions. We are so very proud of how well they performed the songs to their grown-ups. A wonderful experience for all!
In Maths, we have looked closely at shapes and angles. We enjoyed talking about the properties of shapes and finding angles within shapes and around the classroom. We looked closely at numbers 1-5 and practised our fantastic subitising skills. Everyone has really impressed to impress us, and we can’t wait for next term!
