Reception
Week Commencing 15th April 2024
This half term, we are developing our knowledge of ‘growing’. We have started this topic off by learning the story ‘The Enormous Turnip’. It has been wonderful to see children taking risks with their writing and seeing them not afraid to make mistakes and try to independently use their phonic knowledge. They have also enjoyed making their own story maps to help retell the story and act it out on the stage.
In Maths, the children have been recalling the number bonds to 10. They have been doing really well with this and have stretched themselves to working out the inverse and number bonds to 20.
Week Commencing 25th March 2024
This week, the children have been deepening their knowledge of maps. They have found out about different types of maps, as well as compared the similarities and differences in maps for the local area. The children were amazed to find out that Quarry Hill Academy has not always been here and it used to be located nearby. They have loved using maps to find out where each other lives and they have started to create their own maps of their journey to school.
In Maths, we have been working on positional language and the children have been brilliant with placing objects ‘next to’, ‘above’, ‘underneath’ and ‘in’ etc.
The children have been interested in dinosaurs this half term, so this week they analysed playdough poo to see if the dinosaur was a carnivore, omnivore or a herbivore. They have played with the dinosaur small world toys, as well as created their own brachiosaurus and dinosaur claws!
It has been another very busy week in Reception!
Enjoy your Easter break!
Week Commencing 18th March 2024
Reception have continued to explore ‘The Gruffalo’ and have made and designed their own Gruffalo books. They have learnt about alliteration too and have given themselves some alliterative names! Since our trip last week, the children have been constantly singing ‘The Gruffalokey’. If you haven’t heard it yet, ask them to sing it to you! It was the highlight of the trip for many of them.
The children have made snakes and Gruffalo headbands to help them retell the story of ‘The Gruffalo’.
In Maths this week, the children have now started working on subtracting and using a number line. They have become very confident with this now!
Week Commencing 11th March 2024
This week, the children have been learning about ‘The Gruffalo’. They have painted the characters, gone on a Gruffalo hunt and made their own Gruffalo crumble, as well as visited the Gruffalo at Thorndon Country Park.
The children recapped how to use objects and a number line to add, as well as finding the missing numbers.
We have had a delivery of new toys for outside and the children have thoroughly enjoyed playing and experimenting with all of it.
Week Commencing 4th March 2024
This week, the children have been innovating the story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ to ‘We’re Going on a Zombie Hunt’ and ‘We’re Going on a Treasure Hunt’. The children have enjoyed creating their own story books based upon the new stories. They have been acting them out and choosing new settings for them, as well as using the onomatopoeia that they learnt about last week.
The children have also enjoyed learning about using the scales to weigh objects and pouring out exact measurements for capacity.
It was also World Book Day and the children took part in lots of book activities, such as reading with the Year 6 children and creating their own bookmarks.
Week Commencing 26th February 2024
A new half term marks the start of a new topic and so we are now looking at ‘Explorers’. The children have been practising reciting the classic story of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, as well as creating maps and binoculars to find their very own bear. They have used the small world toys to act out the story too, as well as using their actions.
The children have been learning how to measure length and height using standard and non-standard units of measuring. They have enjoyed playing the measuring games that we have set up and many of them are now able to use a ruler precisely to measure in centimetres.
This week, the children were also very lucky to get a visit from the world’s tallest basketball player and Britain’s tallest man - Paul Sturgess. They thoroughly enjoyed learning some new ball skills and comparing their heights!
Week Commencing 5th February 2024
This week, we have created our Oyster cards to ride on the train. The children have practised road safety by role playing as a lollipop person and crossing on our zebra crossing on the track. They have been learning about 3D shapes and their properties, as well as writing a character description about superheroes.
Week Commencing 29th January 2024
This week in Reception, we have had a superhero theme. The children have written about superheroes that they know and they have created their own superhero capes.
In Maths, they have been practising doubling numbers and some children have been able to partition into tens and ones to help them mentally double a number.
Week Commencing 22nd January 2024
On Friday we enjoyed our Enrichment day. We dressed up as who we wanted to be when we are older. We had fun investigating our crime scene in the hall. The children identified the evidence and narrowed down their list of suspects using the evidence to pin it on the witch. We were very lucky to have a visit from the firefighters and was very excited when we had a go at using the hose.
Week Commencing 15th January 2024
This week we have learnt about doctors. We have looked at blood in more detail and found out what it is made up of and what each part does. The children have also learnt how to make pictures from different shapes in Maths. We had our culture day too, where the children dressed up in an outfit to represent their culture. During this day, the children learnt about Chinese New Year and France. They learnt how to count in French and how to get there. They built replicas of famous landmarks so they could pretend to travel there to visit. They learnt how to write numbers in Chinese and made Chinese lanterns for new year.
Week Commencing 8th January 2024
During the Spring 1 term, Reception are looking at ‘People That Help Us’. Since coming back from the Christmas holiday, we have learnt about police and firefighters. The children acted out arresting people and putting out fires, as well as writing about what each one does. Within Maths, the children have learnt how to use objects to add and subtract, as well as number lines.
Week Commencing 18th December 2023
The children have been very excited for Christmas. We have had a special visit from the elf this week. The children have loved writing their own Christmas cards and making shape advent calendars.
Week Commencing 11th December 2023
This week we have watched the Edgar the Dragon John Lewis Christmas advert and created party invitations to invite him to our Christmas party. The children have started to make their own Christmas cards and made paperchains to decorate the classrooms. They have created patterns on stockings as part of Maths and have acted out Father Christmas delivering presents. There are a lot of children on the nice this year!
The week ended with Reverend Cathy coming in from the local church to tell the story of Christmas to the children, which they all thoroughly enjoyed taking part in.
Week Commencing 4th December 2023
We have had an eventful week in Reception as we have been preparing for our Christmas performance ready for all of our grown ups to come and watch. We have managed to perform in front of our first ever audience, which was the Year 4 children!
Some of us stayed after school to watch a film this week too. The children enjoyed their popcorn as they watched Stick Man.
The children developed their use of adjectives this week and created wanted posters for the Big Bad Wolf. They also worked hard to remember the number bonds to 10.
Week Commencing 27th November 2023
In reception this week, we started a new and exciting traditional story called ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The children have been fantastic with using adjectives to describe the main characters within the text. Some children are beginning to independently use capital letters and full stops within their sentences too. They have been acting out the story using props and finger puppets, as well as writing it. The children have painted pictures of the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood too. As grandma was feeling poorly in our version, we set up a pharmacy role play area, where the children were writing prescriptions and dispensing pretend medicine. This helped to encourage lots of wonderful language and developed their understanding of the world. They also made her ‘get well soon’ cards. The children were also pouring grandma cups of tea using their tea set to help encourage their fine and gross motor skills. For Maths, the children have been exploring weight and capacity so have been measuring lots of objects in class using cubes and the balance scales. They are now experts at telling us when the scales are balanced and how many cubes things weigh.
Week Commencing 20th November 2023
This week, we have continued with the theme of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children have retold the story, drawn it and written about it. Their story telling continues to improve every week and they make us so proud! They have learnt about adjectives and used them in their writing to describe a forest. The children have also ordered the size of the goats and learnt about measuring height and length.
Week Commencing 13th November 2023
We have had a fun week this week! We had a trip to the library where we met Meg, the librarian, who read us an exciting story. We have started to learn the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and have drawn lots of wonderful pictures, built lots of bridges and written speech bubbles. We have also had our first Parent Consultations – thank you to all those that attended and handed back their feedback forms!
Week Commencing 6th November 2023
This week, we have been looking at adding one more than using the frogs and ponds and acting out the story of The Little Red Hen. Children have also been learning how to milk a cow and shear sheep, as well as write shopping lists to buy the ingredients to make bread. The children have loved baking bread and eating it and they were more helpful than the bull, cat and rat from our story!
Week Commencing 30th October 2023
This half term we are learning some traditional tales. The first one is The Little Red Hen. The children have learnt about story maps and how we use pictures and key words to retell the story. Some of them have been inspired to create their own and have even gone as far as making up their own stories! Well done Reception children!
Week Commencing 16th October 2023
In Reception this week, we have been creating our own potions and labelling body parts. The children have also enjoyed looking at the work of the artist Basquiat. They then chose to replicate parts of some of his pieces.
Week Commencing 9th October 2023
Reception have been pretending to be nurses and doctors. They have taken x-rays, written prescriptions and bandaged each other’s broken bones. They have created their own characters using Mr Potato Head and have loved reading Funnybones in Literacy.
Week Commencing 2nd October 2023
This week, the children have enjoyed building carriages, riding the ponies, making wands, counting to 8 and learning all about rhyming words. Lots of conkers have fallen from our tree and the children have used these to count with, make faces with, ‘cook’ with in the mud kitchen and make a conker run.
Week commencing 25th September 2023!
Reception have enjoyed washing the bikes and cycling through the bike wash. They have also taken their bikes to the garage to repair them and change the tyres.
As autumn is here, the children have gathered lots of conkers and acorns to help them with their counting and adding.
Week commencing 18th September 2023!
The children in reception have been perfecting their hairstyling ability in class. They have shown a keen interest in dying hair and styling it with the curlers and straighteners.
Week commencing 11th September 2023!
This week, we have discovered that we have some fantastic artists in Reception. Their pencil grip is already improving and they are developing an eye for detail.
Week commencing 4th September 2023!
We have loved welcoming the new children into Reception. We are so proud of how well the children have settled. They have enjoyed exploring their new classroom and the outside area. The children have particularly enjoyed playing with the large construction and building houses. We have been busy making potions in the mud kitchen and practising writing some sounds in the sand. A massive well done to all the children for completing their first week in reception!
