Reception

Reception News 2024-2025

Reception News - Summer 1

This half term we dived deep into the ocean. We discovered lots of facts about sharks and made these into our very own non-fiction fact books. Did you know that the smallest shark is a dwarf lantern shark? The children were so proud of their own fact books that we shared them with Year 2. We also became authors and wrote our very own stories based on ‘Shark in the Park’. We enjoyed acting out scenes from the story by making our own telescopes. We also edited and improve our stories by adding capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We are excellent writers now. We also learnt about the impact of plastic in our oceans and read the stories ‘Someone Swallowed Stanley’ and ‘The Odd Fish’. We came up with lots of different ways we could help the environment, including re-using and recycling plastic. In maths we learnt all about odd and even numbers, creating repeating patterns and learning the teen numbers 11-20. We also had a very exciting trip to the farm to watch all the baby animals and learn more about living on a farm.

Reception News - Spring 2

Last half term we have continued to learn about different traditional tales. We started with the three little pigs, where we had a go at constructing our own houses out of bricks, wood and straw. It was definitely easier to blow down the house of straw so no wonder the big bad wolf could. We used our talk for writing skills to draw and label our own story maps too. Next we had a very special delivery from the little red hen. She had baked us some bread to taste and we enjoyed adding our own toppings. We were inspired by the story to write our very own version of the little red hen, focusing on what the other animals may have said to the little red hen. We also enjoyed learning more about traditional farming methods and the use of windmills compared to the large combine harvesters we see in fields today. Finally we enjoyed celebrating Easter, learning all about the signs of spring and new life, baking Easter treats and learning about all different shapes and sizes of eggs. In maths we have enjoyed learning all about capacity, and when a container is full, empty or half full. We’ve also developed our measuring skills when learning all about length. We’ve also been learning our double facts to 10 and halving numbers to

Reception News - Spring 1

This half term Reception have immersed themselves in traditional tales. We started with the Gingerbread Man, where we enjoyed retelling the story using our story maps and exploring different ways that we could help the Gingerbread Man across the river. Next we were hunting for Goldilocks, as we are sure we found clues that she had been in our classroom as there was porridge everywhere. We worked collaboratively with Year 1 to search for clues in our garden. We enjoyed tasting baby bear’s porridge and even added our own toppings. We then helped Goldilocks make some flapjacks to apologise to baby bear for breaking his chair. As authors we went on to write our own stories based on Goldilocks and we came up with some very exciting ideas. A highlight for us this half term was learning all about the lunar new year, we tried lots of different flavours and foods and then performed an assembly for our grown-ups showcasing what we have learnt. In maths we have been working on addition and learning our number bonds to 10. We even sang a song to remind us. We’ve also been naming 2D and 3D shapes and discussing their properties. We went on a shape hunt around the school to find as many shapes as we could.

Reception News - Autumn 2

We have had a very exciting half term in Reception. The children are really settled into life at school now, and it is lovely to see new friendships developing all the time. The children have blown us away with their phonics knowledge and it has been amazing to see so many children blending and remembering their sounds and high frequency words. The children have focused on key texts this half term including Funnybones, The Gruffalo and Owl Babies. The children’s skills at drawing their own story maps is improving all the time, and so is their writing linked to the topic. We designed a new menu for The Gruffalo including snake sausages and owl cupcakes. The children spent some time learning the story for Funnybones, ready to perform to other year groups. We designed and made our own props to accompany the performance too. We’ve also enjoyed other celebrations including Diwali, Remembrance Day and Bonfire night. The children have been very active in the creative area and we have had some amazing junk modelling this half term with children drawing plans of their design before making it. The stand out moment this half term has to be rehearsing and performing for our Nativity. We couldn’t be more proud of the way children sang the songs so confidently and moved on and off the stage. I think you’ll agree they all shone like the stars that they are.

Reception News - Autumn 1

Reception have had a wonderful first half term settling into school, learning our routines, making friends and showing us all of their fabulous learning. All the children have made a fantastic start in Reception, they have been busy exploring the indoor and outdoor learning environments. Some of the highlights have been observing the children making complex water ways to transport the water, making potions in the outdoor kitchen, taking it in turns when on the bikes, designing and making challenging obstacle courses and putting on a performance on our stage.

Reception have looked at What makes me me? And All kinds of Families. These two texts have supported Reception in learning about how we are all unique and how are families are unique too!

Reception have been enjoying their Talk for Writing sessions and have created their own stories with great enthusiasm and imagination. They have been using the small world resources to create stories and then recording them on their story paths.

We are excited to see the adventures that Reception will go on in the second half of the Autumn term.

12.07.24

Reception have had a great week enjoying the garden. We have continued to be minibeast experts and the children have been working together to build bug hotels. We considered what homes they might like the best and what they may need in their homes. We decided they didn’t need any food as they like to go out and hunt for it themselves.

We also have enjoyed many tea parties this week as the children have become super creative in our mud kitchen. They have been using herbs and spices to concoct the most delicious recipes.

The highlight of our week was without a double our trip to Salcey Forest. We had lots of fun on the coach looking for sheep and cows, and then we met the forest school team based at Salcey. We had the most wonderful day exploring in the woods. There was a hammock and a swing. We were very creative making bracelets and pen holders out of elder. We also had great fun making tree boggarts out of clay and making potions in their mud kitchen. The children particularly enjoyed playing in the muddy puddles. To finish off the experience, the children all enjoyed some hot chocolate and marshmallows around the campfire. It was such a great experience and one we hope the children will remember. Thank you to all our parent volunteers and to all for your support with this trip.

Enjoy the weekend. See you next week.

05.07.24

What a fun filled week Reception have had! On Tuesday all of the children went into Year 1 to explore and meet Mrs Stutchbury, Mrs Weightman and Mrs Sullivan. They all had a great time and it was lovely to see them investigating their new learning environment.

They all came back to Reception and shared their highlights. On Wednesday all the children took part in Sports Day. Despite the wind and rain the children had a great time. They all displayed our school value of resilience, focussing on their races and cheering for each other. Our stay and play session was fantastic, the children enjoyed sharing their writing journeys with their visitors. Reception ended a wonderful Wednesday with a picnic lunch. What a fantastic week! Next week looks like another amazing week for Reception as they venture on their first school trip. We look forward to sharing all our adventures with you next week!

28.6.24

We have had some very exciting visitors in Reception this week. Our very own minibeasts! We have a giant land snail and some stick insects. The children have loved observing them, and have also had the opportunity to hold and touch them if they wanted to. We couldn’t believe how heavy the snail was. We have been writing warning signs about how to look after them, so that visitors to our classroom would know too! We have also been writing instructions for how to make a wormery and have been enjoying making our own this week in the garden. In maths, we have been subtracting within 10 and the children have been practising saying subtraction number sentences. They have been doing a super job telling us ‘first, then, now’ stories. We’ve enjoyed the warmer weather outside where we have been building obstacle courses, making recipes in the mud kitchen and making the most of the sand and water areas. We have also been practising our running skills in preparation for sports day next week. We look forward to seeing parents and carers on Wednesday to cheer us on!

Have a lovely weekend.

14.06.24

This week in Reception we have become authors and penned our very own stories about Superworm. It has been wonderful to see how far the children’s writing skills have developed over the year. They are now confident to check for full stops, finger spaces and capital letters.

In maths we have continued to secure our number bonds knowledge and we have been looking at number bonds for lots of different numbers, and even up to 20!

Outside the children have continued their hunt for minibeasts, and we have been searching for snails and slugs in this damp weather. We observed the patterns on the snail shell and drew some of our very own shell designs.

Junk modelling has continued to be a real hit this week, and we have seen some wonderful creations including a vacuum clearner, a pirate ship and a panda hotel. Do keep bringing in your recycling from home for us to use.

Have a lovely weekend, see you next week.

07.06.24

Welcome back Reception!

We have dived straight into our minibeasts topic, and the children have been enjoying exploring in the garden with the magnifying glasses to see how many creepy crawlies they could spot. We have been especially excited about worms as we have started reading our new story ‘Superworm’. The children have read the story and made their own plans for what Superworm will turn into in their own stories. We look forward to writing them next week with a beginning, middle and an end.

In maths, the children have been learning their number bonds to 10. We even sang a song to help us. Can you perform our song at home for your grown ups?

Finally, we have seen some astounding water play this week. The children created a massive tower with pipes and funnels to explore how the water moves in different ways.

Have a lovely weekend, see you next week!

24.05.24

This week in Reception we have been reading Someone swallowed Stanley and Somebody crunched Colin. These books have helped us understand the importance of recycling plastics and not letting them pollute our oceans. The children have been very interested in how we can use recycled plastic to make new objects. In Somebody crunched Colin we learnt how crisp packets can be made into watering cans!

Thank you to all the families who have sent in their soft plastics; we managed to fill our big rug in the classroom. We are going to send all of the plastic to be recycled.

Have a wonderful half term, please upload any adventures you go on, onto Tapestry.

17.05.24

We have had a lovely time learning outdoors this week. The children have loved using our large wooden blocks to construct obstacle courses. They have set challenges for each other and even made the course run the whole length of the outdoor area.

We’ve also enjoyed dressing up and then making up and performing our own songs on the stage with the musical instruments. 

Over in the mud kitchen, the children have been cutting up and smelling the herbs and continue to enjoy pottering in the shed with the soil and trowels. 

In the water area we have conducted a floating and sinking experiment, and we were shocked to find out that a giant shell will float on its back but it then sunk when we turned it over!

In maths we have been making repeating patterns and using loose parts to create our own. The children have also been very good at spotting the mistakes in the patterns we have made.

This week we have been editing and improving our ‘Shark in the Park’ stories and we have been blown away by how much detail the children have added to their sentences with adjectives, and making sure they have capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Have a lovely weekend, and see you next week.

10.05.24

This week in Reception we have become authors! We have been writing our own Shark in the park books concentrating on making our writing exciting for the reader. We have had a big focus on using adjectives to make our sentences really interesting. 

We had a very interesting challenge this week, we investigated some sea glass. We began our investigations thinking about what it could be. There were some amazing ideas precious gems, glass pebbles, crystals and magic rocks. We talked about how the broken glass had become so smooth and how the sand and the waves had smooothed the edges of the glass so that it was no longer sharp. This made us all think about the pollution in the oceans and led us to talk about the importance of recycling. 

The sun has shone all week for us and we have had a lot of learning time outdoors. There has been shows on our stage, complex water ways being designed, refreshing concoctions in the mud kitchen and children displaying our school values in their play. Well done reception. 

In maths this week we have been looking at odd and even numbers. The children have been learning a song to help them remember. We hope they can teach you the song at home. 

Have a lovely sunny weekend. 

03.05.24

This week in Reception we have been shark detectives and have found out a lot of amazing facts. The children have been demonstrating their writing skills writing sentences about sharks in their own non -fiction books. At the beginning of the week the children looked at a variety of books and sorted them into fiction and non-fiction books. They looked closely at the features of the non-fiction books, the contents page, photographs and diagrams. They then began collecting their shark facts. 

Did you know...

The smallest shark is the dwarf lantern shark and the largest is the whale shark

Sharks can grow new teeth if one falls out

Sharks do not sleep like us

They have no bones

They feel like sand paper.

The children have also been busy cooking this week, Monty shared some of his Nanny's rhubarb with us all and we decided to make it into a crumble. There was a lot of chopping, mixing and getting sticky hands making the crumble topping! Everyone took home a bowl of crumble to eat at home. It smelt delicious when it was cooking.

In Maths we have been looking at finding halves, the children demonstrated that they had a good understanding when finding half of a pizza, a cake, an apple and some sweets. The were very keen to make sure that when cutting these items in half they were accurate. They then transferred their skills in finding half of an amount. Two helpful dinosaurs came to support the children 'Orange and Bluey' They had different amounts of dino treats that they want the children to find half of.

What a busy week we have had with lots of amazing learning. Have a great bank holiday with your families.

26.04.24

This week in Reception we have been reading our story ‘Shark in the Park’. We have written plans ready to write our own story about what else we could see through the telescope in the park. We have also been wondering about real life sharks. We thought of all the questions that we would like to find out about sharks. We are very inquisitive and would like to know if sharks are nocturnal? If they can swim in a storm? We are also wondering how long they are? And how strong they are? We will become shark detectives next week to find out all the answers to our questions. We have been learning about real life sharks too. The whale shark is the biggest and the dwarf lantern shark is the smallest. We were also surprised to learn that sharks grow over 20,000 teeth during their lifetime. Next week we will be writing our new found facts in our very own information books about sharks.

In maths we have been learning how to double. We have been using the mirrors to see the numbers doubled in the reflection.

Have a lovely weekend, and see you on Monday.

19.04.24

Welcome back Reception! It has been so lovely to see you all again after our long break. The children have come back beautifully, slipping straight back into their routines. This week we have been exploring our new story “Shark in the park”. We have been enjoying learning new facts about sharks and noticing the difference between fiction and non-fiction stories. We have also been learning some actions to accompany our story about Timonthy Pope and his telescope. We have also been enjoying our new topic under the sea, and we have been painting a sea background ready to add more detail to next week.

The children have continued to impress us with their phonics and this week we have been learning ‘ng’.

In PSHE we are continuing our topic about being healthy. The children have so many good ideas about how to stay healthy and this week we focused on sleep. We enjoyed telling each other our bedtime routines, and what a clean class we are! So many of us have baths and showers before bedtime.

Have a lovely relaxing weekend, see you next week.

22.03.24

This week in Reception we have been completing an investigation. We have explored runner beans and compared the beans we found inside the runner bean to the bean seeds we plant. The children described how the beans were different. "The seeds from the runner bean are white, soft and slippery." "The bean seed that we are planting is very hard and smooth. It is pink with black sprinkle patterns." The children predicted how many beans seeds they would find in each runner bean; they were very close in saying the right amount. They also ordered the bean seeds that they found in size order. The children also talked about what their seed needs to grow into a healthy seedling.

Nursery and Reception are visiting the care home next week and have planted some sunflowers to take to the residents. We wonder whose sunflowers will be the tallest?

We finished the week making some delicious soup. We used garlic, onion, vegetable stock and butternut squash. The children helped chop all the vegetables and we blended and tasted the soup together. We thought it smelt like vegetables and tasted quite bitter.

15.03.24

This week we have been exploring the story of the Little Red Hen. We have been making sweet treats out of salt dough (which we have mixed and made ourselves, just like the Little Red Hen). We have then been selling them in our bakery which we have set up outside. The children have impressed us by writing their own story maps and three sentence stories based on this story. We have also been practising our cutting skills using knives to slice and chop runner beans and cucumber. We spoke about safety rules when using a knife. In maths we have been learning about subtraction and the children have explored many different ways to take away using cubes and counters. In PSHE we have explored how to keep ourselves healthy. The children have enjoyed doing some exercise to make their heart beat really fast and thinking about all the different ways we can keep fit and healthy. The children had some excellent ideas, including scooting, yoga and hockey.

We finished the week with Red Nose Day and enjoyed exploring the Bluey resources and admiring everyone’s red accessories.

08.03.24

This week in Reception we have been helping the 'Big Bad Wolf' from The Three Little Pigs to make the right choices. We talked about the reasons why we thought the big bad wolf blew down the houses and then thought about how we could help him to make the right choices. Some of us thought that he wanted to be friends with the three little pigs. So, he should use his words to talk to the three little pigs and ask them if they wanted to play.

We have also been designing the three pigs' new houses to protect them from the big bad wolf. There have been some fantastic designs, a castle with no windows or chimney so that the big bag wolf can't look in the windows with his beady eyes or climb down the chimney. There was even a design with a zip wire escape root for the three pigs to use! We had to remember that our designs needed to be stable, sturdy and safe.

We had lots of fun on World Book Day. We have enjoyed sharing our costumes and favourite stories in Reception. We also joined a live zoom with the famous author, Guilherme Karston who wrote 'Are you a monster?' and we then learnt how to draw the monster from the story. We greatly enjoyed the Masked Reader in assembly where we had to guess which teachers were reading a story in disguise.

01.03.24

We have had a lovely week in Reception. We have continued our learning about bears, and have been experimenting in our art area about how to paint the most realistic bear. We decided that using forks in the paint, helped the paint look like fur. We have also continued our work on Goldilocks and the Three Bears and we have been writing our three sentence stories. Our letter formation keeps getting better and better. We have also experienced what it was like to be Goldilocks sneaking into the bears cottage as we have made and tasted our very own porridge! It was delicious! We have written some instructions on how to make porridge so Goldilocks can make her own instead of eating all of baby bear’s porridge.



This week we have also conducted our very own science experiment. As Winter changes to Spring we have been looking at different bulbs. We have two plants in Reception and have been guessing what plant will grow from them. We can’t wait to monitor their growth and see what they are. Stay tuned!

Have a lovely weekend and see you next week.

23.02.24

This week in Reception we have been reading the traditional tale Goldilocks and the three bears. At the beginning of the week the children were set a challenge. Can they find out what type of bears are in the story? We had different photos to look at and recognised a brown bear, a polar bear a black bear and a panda. There was one bear that we had not seen before. We decided to go and ask all the grown ups and classes in school to see if they knew. Mrs Jones was very interested in finding out the name for the bear we didn't know. We had some great ideas honey bears, grizzly bears and black bears.

We found out that the photograph was of a sun bear. We have begun to collect facts about the bears and look forward to sharing them with you. We think that the bears from the Goldilocks story are brown bears. We have also been painting bears and adding texture to their fur by using big paint brushes and forks to make them look furry. We ended the week with a tasting extravaganza. We have been learning about the difference between fruits and vegetables, and how fruits grow from flowers and have seeds, and vegetables grow under the ground. We tasted peas, runner beans, broccoli, lettuce, mango, kiwi, lime, pepper and persimmon. We were so impressed with how many children were willing to have a go and taste some new flavours. Well done Reception.

09.02.24

In Reception this week we have been busy learning about the Lunar New Year which is celebrated around the world. We have learnt that the Lunar New Year is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year. The children have been talking about all the celebrations that are important to them and how there are a lot of similarities. Having special food, receiving and giving presents and having fireworks! We have been learning about how the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year. The year is the year of the dragon and all the children have been captivated by making dragons out of cubes, blocks, gems, and testing their dragon wings outside. The wind did make flying conditions very tricky! The children have been making dragon puppets, writing our numbers in Chinese and learning about the Great Race story. We ended the week on a high, performing our assembly to the whole school and our grown ups. What an amazing job we did remembering all our lines and when it was our turn to speak. We are so proud of Reception. Well done, and enjoy the half term holidays.

02.02.24

This week in Reception we have begun to think about the ingredients we will need to make a gingerbread man. We have written down our ingredients in preparation to write our instructions next week. We have been working very hard with our letter formation too.

In maths we have been learning our numbers bonds to 10. We have been singing the number bond song. Can you remember it to teach your grown ups at home?

We have also been exploring the work by artist Piet Mondrian and creating our very own art work using thick black lines and bold, bright colours.



We have continued to practise our Chinese New Year assembly and have been busy constructing our own dragon ready for the assembly. It is looking very fierce! We have also been making some lanterns using our scissor skills, and paper chains to make the dragon’s tail. Wow, what a busy week.

26.01.24

In Reception this week we have continued with our learning using the story of The Gingerbread man. We all took part in an experiment to see what would happen to the Gingerbread man if he fell into the river. We talked about the gingerbread man being 'solid' and how different liquids can look the same but can feel, smell and be different colours. We have been talking about making predictions before carrying out an experiment, the children thought carefully about what might happen to the Gingerbread men. Some children thought the Gingerbread men would dissolve, melt, sink, float and get very soggy. The children placed Gingerbread men into oil, vinegar, juice and water. They observed the changes throughout the day the Gingerbread men in the juice cracked, became soggy and his head fell off! The children noticed that the Gingerbread men in the vinegar and water got bigger and the one in the oil looked like it had shrunk!

The children left the Gingerbread men in the liquid over night to see if any more changes might happen.

This week all of the children used their story plans to write their three-sentence story about the Gingerbread man. Mrs Jones was so impressed to see the children's writing and listen to them talk about the story structure explaining what happened in the beginning, middle and the end of their story.



We have been practising our lines in preparation for our Chinese New Year assembly, and we have been impressed with how many children knew their lines already, please can you continue to practise at home.

19.01.24

Reception have had another wonderful week; they have been continuing their learning about the Gingerbread man. They have had great fun recreating the story in the small world area, the children built a hill for the little old man and woman's house, a farm and woodland. Gems and pebbles were used to make the river 'shimmer'. We observed brilliant story telling and the children then applied their knowledge of the story language to help them writing speech bubbles for the Gingerbread man.

Outside the children have had great fun transforming the wooden house into a builder's yard. We have seen some wonderful creations, they have made tools out of the construction puzzle pieces, and had lots of fun using the tools.

In Maths the children have been applying their knowledge of addition. They have been using cubes, number lines and addition circles to find the total when two numbers are added together. 

This week we have sent home the children’s individual lines to learn for our Chinese New Year assembly in February. Parents will be invited closer to the date. Enjoy practising the dragon song too.

Have a lovely weekend.

12.01.24

Happy New Year Reception! We have all been impressed with how Reception have returned to school after the Christmas break. Well done everyone! This week we have been looking at the text The Gingerbread man to support our learning. We have been painting Gingerbread men, making puppets, creating wonderful story maps and retelling the story in the small world. The children have labelled the characters on their story maps it has been wonderful to see how they are applying their phonic knowledge to their writing.

In maths we have begun to look at addition, we have learnt the addition symbol and applying our careful accurate counting when combining two groups to find the total. We have been counting different groups of objects to practise our adding skills. We all had a go at the addition challenge drawing pictures of groups of objects, using the addition symbol and finding the total.

We impressed Mrs Jones this week, when she came to see us in phonics. She was blown away with our knowledge on digraphs.



Have a lovely weekend.

15.12.23

We have had a lovely festive time in Reception this week. We have been making and creating like very busy elves. We have made a ‘When Santa got stuck up the chimney’ card, a named snowman and a Christmas tree decoration. All our Christmas goodies will be coming home next week for you all to enjoy.

We have also completed our design work with our bookmarks, and enjoyed sharing these with Year 1 today to evaluate how well our sewing project has turned out. These will also be coming home next week for you to admire our hard work.

In phonics this week we have enjoyed learning our new sounds as they are two letters making one sound (ff, ll, ss, zz). Can you spot them in any books at home?

Next week there will be a Lace Hill talent show, and Reception have been working hard on a Jingle Bell Rock dance to show to the other children in school. Can you practice the moves at home? We are looking forward to performing again next week in assembly for the rest of the school.

Have a magical weekend and see you next week for our last few days of term.



The Reception team.

08.12.23

This week in Reception the children have been the stars of the show performing in their Nativity 'Lights, Camel, Action with Year 1. They all really enjoyed performing to the whole school and to all of their families.

All the staff in Reception and Year 1 are so proud of all the children, well done everyone for singing your hearts out a showing everyone your groovy moves!

Whilst Reception have been busy rehearsing, they have still been eagerly learning all about owls. The children have been finding out very interesting facts and shared them with Mrs Chapman and Mrs Nichols who were really surprised with the facts that the children have learnt and remembered in great detail.

Did you know that an owl has three eye lids? One for blinking, one for sleeping and one for keeping their eyes clean. The children have also learnt about the owls talons and how they different to animals that have claws.

The children have been sewing this week. We have all designed and made our own bookmarks. The children have threaded the needles and created their own running stitch. We have been very impressed with their sewing skills and Mrs Jones even popped in to see our amazing work.

We have also sent home our next sounds we have been learning in phonics.

01.12.23

This week in Reception winter has arrived! We have had great fun exploring the ice and the frost. The children had lots of questions we wanted to find the answer to. "Why is some ice clear and some ice have bubbles in?" " How long does it take for water to freeze outside?" 

We enjoyed using the water colour paints to paint the ice and apply our colour mixing knowledge. We practised our letter formation in the frost and had a go a writing our high frequency words. 

We are using the text Owl babies to support our learning this week. We have been learning about owls and we have found out some wonderful facts. Next week we will be using our phonics to help us write fact sheets about our favourite breed of owls. We look forward to sharing these with you on Tapestry. 

This week we have been learning how to thread a needle and sew a line of running stitch. Over the next few weeks we will be sewing our own bookmarks that we have designed.

Thank you for all the nativity costumes handed in this week, we have been practising on the stage this week and can’t wait for you all to see our hard work.



Have a lovely weekend.

24.11.23

This week in Reception the Gruffalo has been to visit us. He set us a challenge to find out about animals that live in his deep dark wood. We made a very long list of all the animals we knew lived in the woods. We talked about if the animals were nocturnal and how their habitats are different. Some animals living underground and some in trees. As part of the Gruffalo's challenge, he asked us to learn about 5 woodland animals that were not on our list. We learnt about a water vole, a barn owl, a hawk, a pipistrelle bat and a beaver.

In the Gruffalo cafe the children have been very creative in designing a delicious menu. On the menu you can try mouse muffins, badger biscuits, bat pie and spider soup! The children are all applying their phonics knowledge and having a go at writing complex words.

Our Nativity rehearsals are in full swing and we are learning all the actions, dances and words to the songs. We have a lot of groovy movers in Reception!



Have a lovely weekend

The Reception Team

17.11.23

This week in Reception we had the opportunity to perform our current book ‘Funny Bones’ to the nursery. We created skeleton puppets, dark, dark houses and we even made a backdrop for our storytelling. The nursery children loved it, and it was great practice performing to an audience in preparation for our nativity. We have continued rehearsing our nativity this week and we have been learning the actions to our songs. We are feeling so much more confident with the song lyrics.

For Children in Need day the children have loved creating their very own Pudsey bears. They showed excellent cutting skills to cut out all of Pudsey’s body parts out and stick them together using tape or glue.

Something very exciting has happened in Reception this week... the Gruffalo has moved in. He has a Gruffalo house in our outdoor area, and you may even spot some woodland animals hiding out there. Inside the classroom, there is also a Gruffalo café and we hear scrambled snake and owl ice-cream are on the menu! We look forward to exploring ‘The Gruffalo’ story in more detail next week. Have a lovely weekend.

10.11.23

This week in Reception we have been continuing our learning around Funny Bones. The children have been drawing their story maps to help retell the story. In the role play area there has been a busy flow of patients waiting for prescriptions, and x-rays. The children have been looking at real x-rays and naming the different bones. It has been wonderful to see the children editing and improving their skeleton models and drawings from last week. They have learnt about how the different bones in our bodies and their positioning.

Reception have also been learning about the festival Diwali. We talked about all of the celebrations that we take part in and looked at the similarities. We have been reading the book Binny's Diwali learning about how she celebrates with her family. The children have been writing Diwali cards, designing rangoli patterns and looking at Mendhi patterns.

We have also been learning about the importance of Remembrance day and why people wear poppies. The children learnt about the different coloured poppies and what they represent. A purple poppy represents all of the animals that have helped in conflicts. Reception have been making poppies out of cubes, exploring creative materials and making a large poppy mural. These will all be displayed in the classroom. 

On Friday we had a very exciting visitor. A policeman came to speak to us all about being safe during the darker months. We discussed riding our bikes and scooters safely, wearing bright clothes so we can seen and using paths with street lights on.

This week we have also been looking ahead to Christmas and have sent home the children’s parts for our nativity. We have been learning the songs in school and have also sent home the song lyrics so you can begin learning the songs at home too. Happy singing and enjoy the weekend.

03.11.23

This week in Reception our focus text has been Funny Bones by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. The children have been learning the first part of the story and creating story maps to help remember the order of the story. Mrs Jones and Mrs Harper heard the children retell the story and were very impressed with how much they had remembered after only two days. We wonder if the children can retell the story to you at home?

The book is also helping is learn all about our skeleton, the children have been drawing around each other and drawing all of the bones that make up our skeleton. The children all know where their skull, ribs and spine are and the important jobs they do to protect our organs.

The story maps the children have begun to create this week have been amazing, it has been wonderful to see the children labelling their drawings with initial sounds and words, using all of their phonics knowledge.

Reception have also been set a challenge to build some skeletons this week, it has been a very tricky challenge. We have all seen fantastic perseverance and resilience to not give up and to think about how to use our problem-solving skills. Reception have also been given some real bones to explore. They all predicted what part of the skeleton the bones were from. We found the spine very intriguing especially how it helps us move and stand up.

This week we introduced our new Design and Technology project where we will be learning how to thread and weave materials effectively. The children couldn’t wait to get started and practice their threading skills. Is there any threading you could practise at home too?

Have a lovely weekend.

13.10.23

This week in Reception we have been looking at our creative development. We were inspired by our focus text for the week Super Duper You to make ourselves into superhero puppets. We developed our scissors skills, and explored different ways that we can attached different materials together. We found that the PVA glue was the best when attaching fabric to the wooden lolly stick and a glue stick is best for attaching paper together.

Outside we have had conker challenges, the children have created obstacle courses using the guttering and tubes to find out how quickly their conker can roll around the course. We have seen some brilliant problem solving and team work this week.

We have also been practicing our reading and writing. Building words, reading and writing them using our phonic knowledge. Thank you, to all the parents who came to the Phonics Workshop and took part in a phonics lesson!

We were very excited to welcome the Year 6s into our classroom this week for ‘Book Club’ where we buddied up to read ‘Celebrating Difference’ books from our book corner. Thank you Year 6, it was lovely to see how kind and considerate the Year 6s were toward the Reception class. What great role models! Have a lovely weekend.

6.10.23

We have had another fantastic week in Reception full of amazing learning. Our focus text for this week is ‘What makes me a me?’ by Ben Faulks. The children have been talking about their likes and dislikes and how we are similar and different to one another. We have discussed what makes us unique, the children have been painting their self-portraits focussing on naming their facial features and mixing paints to get the right colours to match their, skin, hair and eye colour. We were so proud of how the children took their time and focused on adding detail to their portraits. The children have also begun to create their own ‘What makes me a me?’ books drawing and labelling their favourite places to visit, and their likes and dislikes. It was very interesting how some of us are very similar in our likes and dislikes. The beach is a very popular place to visit and mushrooms are our least favourite vegetable.

Outside the children have been very busy designing and building obstacle courses using the wooden blocks. They demonstrated brilliant team work helping each other and sharing their ideas. We talked about making sure our obstacle course was stable and safe before the children tested it. They also had a challenge when travelling around the obstacle course, they had to sound out and blend the words written on the playground. The children have also been impressing us with their performing skills using the stage. We have watched some amazing music shows, Elton John songs seem to be very popular!

This week we began to discuss Harvest and the children have loved exploring runner beans and marrow in the garden, pulling apart the beans to have a closer look. We have also enjoyed creating conker soup! It has been a real favourite this week. In phonics we have learnt new sounds n,o,p and the children have been practising their blending skills to read the words, map, pin, pan, man and sip. It is lovely to hear the children recognising their sounds. What a busy week we’ve had! See you next week.

29.09.23

This week in Reception we continue to be impressed with how the children have settled into school life. We have been practising our classroom routines and we are incredibly proud of how the children come into school in the morning and complete their morning work, how settled they are in the lunch hall and how quickly they are getting changed ready for P.E. We are so proud of you Reception. In phonics, the children have been learning some new sounds (a,i,m,s,t) and have started blending these sounds to read words. We have been reading the words, mat, sat, sit, it, at and am. Can you try reading these words at home? In maths, the children have been working on their 1:1 correspondence when counting objects, ensuring they count each object carefully so they do not make any mistakes. Around the classroom the children have been working on drawing a map of Buckingham, we have added in some well-known places including their houses and local places of interest like McDonalds. In the creative area we have been mixing the primary colours to see what other colours we can make and we have been using our collage skills to make some very impressive ‘Colour Monsters’. Lastly, we wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has bought in their favourite book from home, we cannot wait to read them all and share them with the children. Have a lovely weekend and see you next week.

22.09.23

What a wonderful few weeks Reception have had! All of the children have amazed us with how they have settled into school life learning about our values, zones of regulation and our routines. They have been exploring our learning environments and making new friends. This week we have been looking at the text The Colour Monster. We have been talking about all the different emotions and feelings we can have and how we can help each other when we are feeling worried, anxious, lonely, sad and upset. The children all have a brilliant tool kit of strategies that they can use to help each other. We have discussed how infectious a smile can be and have been making sure we pass on our smiles to everyone we see. It has been wonderful to see all of the children with their lovely smiles as they come into school in the morning.

The children have been busy helping empty one of the raised beds, there has been a lot of excitement as the children found pebbles, flint, bulbs and a few dinosaur fossils!! The plants and bulbs have been replanted and the fossils investigated with the magnify glasses. It was a fantastic communication and language opportunity for the children to share their knowledge. A huge highlight was finding a very brightly coloured caterpillar, we researched what type of butterfly we thought it might be. Our predictions were wrong the caterpillar we found out would turn into a moth! 

The children have now completed their second week of PE with Mr O, they have been brilliant at getting changed. Mr O said that they have been a brilliant class to teach.

Thank you to all a fantastic parents and carers for their support in helping the children settle into school. 

Have a lovely weekend

The Reception Team