Class Blog for Reception

Spring 1 - Week 4 - We came, we thawed, we conquered.

This week we had fun exploring the question 'What is ice?'. The children had some lovely ideas of where we might find ice, and some had an idea of what ice was. We discussed what ice was made from, and talked about how we could make ice ourselves. We then looked at a cup of water that we had left in the freezer overnight and discussed how it had changed from the day before. The children absolutely loved to feel and look at the ice. They explained that it had frozen, that the water wasn't a liquid any more and that it felt hard to touch. We left the ice in the classroom for the rest of the day to see what happened. The children were delighted to tell us that the ice was melting and getting smaller, and that there was now water in the bowl.

To continue our icy theme, the children used ice cubes which had paint in to do large mark making in the creative area. They also designed and made snowmobiles and had fun in our investigation area with the fake snow and polar bears.

In maths, we explored the number 6 looking at how to write it, where we can find the number 6 around us, how we can make 6 with our part-part-whole model and how this leads into combing numbers (adding).

The children have had an absolutely fantastic time in our outside area this week, where we have been able to put out some new equipment and resources. They have been so respectful and careful with all their new things. They have particularly loved the new water tables, ramps and den making equipment.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Spring 1 - Week 3- Winter is snow much fun!

We have had such a fantastic week learning all about the polar regions, and to top it off on Thursday we had snow! We made the most of this rare occurrence in Cornwall, and got ourselves outside before it thawed!

We have been learning all about who lives in the Artic, what they wear and eat and quite importantly, their homes. The children are becoming real experts. We spent some time also thinking about how Wadebridge compares to living in the polar regions, where the children compared photos of these two places. They recognised that it isn't as snowy here, that we have cars not snowmobiles and they said they don't have a McDonalds in the polar regions!

Maths - We have been learning all about mass and capacity this week. The children were able to recognise when the scale was balanced or, if it wasn't, which side was heavier or lighter. They really enjoyed our last session on capacity where they got to show how accurate they were with their pouring.

Reading - We love hearing the children applying their phonics learning in their reading and writing. They are so proud of how they are doing, as are we.

Reminders - Library is on a Thursday. Please make sure that library books come in on this day. Also, please ensure that if your child needs a school meal that these are ordered in advance via Parent Pay.

We hope you have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Spring 1 – Week 2 – Brrr!

We have embraced the cold this week, wrapping up nice and snuggly warm for any outside plays we have had. The children have loved seeing the frost and ice in our outside areas, and its perfectly timed for more of our Winter themed learning.

This week we have been learning all about the different polar regions, what they are called, where they are and what we might find there. We are getting really good at remembering that polar bears are found in the Artic, and penguins are found in the Antarctic. The children have enjoyed using our small world toys to create polar scenes, making wonderful little homes for the polar bears, They have also been loving painting ice!

In maths we have been learning about the composition of 4 and 5. Using our part-part-whole models, we have been showing how many different ways we can make 4 and 5. We have been doing so well, and the children were really keen to show off their maths skills.

Just a little reminder about the Eden project visit. Payments need to be received by the 22nd January via Parent Pay please. If your child is in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding, please speak to the school office if you would like support with this trip. We are aware that this is an expensive time of year. Therefore, payment will be set up on the system with a reducing balance, meaning you can pay different amounts as and when you can.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best wishes,
The Reception Team

Autumn 2- Week 7- Sparkling Superstars

Wow! This has been a week filled with so much joy. The children have had an absolute ball rehearsing for the Christmas Fair and preparing their decorations and calendars for you all to enjoy. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that attended the Fair. The children were so looking forward to performing for you all. Some may have got a little stage fright, but it is a little scary up on the stage! We are so proud of them all. Also, thank you all so much for your incredible generosity. You have all helped contribute to enhancing the learning environments for the children in the Early Years, and for that we are so thankful. The money is currently being collected together and we will announce the final total next week.

Phonics - We continue to work on letter formation and have started to become more confident in writing some CVC words independently. We have had a few more captions being written in class too. The children love to include some of the tricky words we have learnt so far in these captions.

Maths - We have been looking at shapes with 4 sides this week. We looked at squares and rectangles, noticed what was different about the two shapes, and started to recognise these shapes when they were in different orientations.

Christmas Party - Blimey, we have some great dancers in Reception. Some of us boogied away for a full 45 minutes, whilst the others enjoyed a Christmas film before hunger set in. We had a scrumptious afternoon party buffet. Thank you all for you contributions for this. We carried on enjoying these on Friday too! Yum!!

Reminders - After Christmas, we have a few changes to our timetable. Outdoor learning will be finished. P.E will now move to a Monday morning. Children will continue to need their P.E kits in school each day though still. Library will change to a Thursday so please ensure your child has their library book in their bookbag on this day.

After Christmas:
Monday – P.E
Thursday – Library

A final reminder, on Tuesday we finish early at 1PM.

We hope you have a magical weekend.
Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Autumn 2 - Week 6 - Another week bites the crust.

There has been so much learning going on this week in Reception, all based around the text The Little Red Hen. Our week began with a very special letter arriving in the post from the Little Red Hen. She kindly asked the children to help retell the story to the Nursery children. However, to do this, they would need to learn how to be great storytellers and make the props that they would need to be able to retell the story. They have done such a super job learning the story with actions!

To add to their fun filled week, the children made bread. They had to listen very carefully to the step-by-step instructions of how to make it. The children took it in turns to complete the different steps in the recipe. Using their motor skills, the children poured, tipped, stirred , kneaded and mixed. They did a brilliant job and we enjoyed the tasting session in the afternoon!

On Tuesday we got to enjoy the Santa Fun Run. The children absolutely loved this, despite the rain!

Wednesday saw us all don our Christmas jumpers and enjoy our Christmas lunches. There were a fair few brussel sprouts left over on their plates, but all the children had a fabulous time. The lunch was delicious and the highlight had to be the Haribo and toys on the table. A huge thanks to all of the kitchen staff and helpers for making it great!

On Thursday we got to enjoy the KS1 Nativity performance. The children sat beautifully in the hall and enjoyed every minute of it!

All this week we have learning about the number 5. The children have been practising how to write this. We used this saying to help us 'Draw the hat, the back, and tum, now my number 5 is done.' See if they can show you at home.

Next week you are invited to attend our Christmas Fair on Wednesday 13th December at 2pm in the school hall. If you have a younger child in our Nursery, their songs will be performed in their classrooms at 1:15pm for Little Nursery and 1:30pm for Big Nursery. This will then give you time to visit your Reception child at 2pm. This year, we would like the children to wear anything Christmassy that they would like to. This could be a Christmas item of clothing like a jumper, Christmas party clothes, a piece of tinsel on their clothing, a Christmas headband or a Christmas costume if they already have one – please do not feel the need to buy anything additional. We kindly ask you to bring in their Christmas Fair clothes on Monday 11th December in a named bag. They can then change into them the Wednesday after lunch time. The raffle draw will take place after school at 3:20pm in the school hall.

Have a fabulous weekend.
The Reception Team

Autumn 2 - Week 5- Farmer Duck

Gosh it has certainly turned chilly this week, and it's made us all feel wintry at school. The children are enjoying our new winter themed reading area and can be found snuggling up with a good book in there.

Phonics - This week we have been continuing recapping the phonics learnt so far, focusing on our letter formation, segmenting and blending. We have been writing cvc words, and having a go at writing short captions too. Go Reception! Next week we will be moving on to some new sounds. Exciting!

Maths- This week we have been exploring the number 4. We have been finding this number in our learning environment, counting objects, and seeing how we can make the number 4 in different ways. We counted to 4 in PE before moving the equipment, and enjoyed writing the number 4 in all the learning environments too.

Wider Curriculum - We have enjoying all the different areas of the classrooms this week through the story of Farmer Duck. The children have enjoyed joining in with the reading of this story, retelling it themselves with the masks in the puppet theatre and building homes for the animals in our construction area.

Next week we will have Santa's fun run on Tuesday. The school are raising funds for Children's Hospice South West, a charity very close to our hearts. Please follow the link to sponsor your child if you are able to. https://www.justgiving.com/page/wadebridge-primary-academy?newPage=true

We also have Christmas jumper day on Wednesday next week to coincide with the Christmas lunch.

Thank you for all the returned raffle tickets and prizes so far. We are still looking for donations to the prize list, so please help out in anyway if you can.

Have a great weekend, and see if you can find the number 4 on your adventures.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

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Autumn 2 - Week 4 - Under and Over

Another lovely week of learning this week where the children have enjoyed showing off their own interests and skills.

Phonics - This week we have been recapping our learning so far, with the children really working on their segmenting and blending of cvc words. They are becoming much more confident with this. Having listened to readers this week too, we are just so impressed with how they are doing with their books.

Maths - We have had such a fun time using positional language such as next to, in front of, under and over in our maths this week. The children have enjoyed drawing houses, paths, roads and train tracks and adding places they recognise to their map too such as the park, the bridge and Tesco. They have used little teddies to describe where there teddy is. We also applied this maths knowledge in our PE session.

The children have loved using playdoh this week! We have seen many cake and biscuit creations made. Thankfully no ones looked delicious enough to actually eat!

In our outside learning today the children helped to find twigs to make a fire, and then they made a little warming tea using hot water and herbs picked by our outdoor learning teacher. Some children found it tasty, some didn't like it!

Reminders - PE is on a Thursday. Please ensure your child has a PE kit in school. It remains here all term until its sent home for a freshen up at the end of the term. Outside learning is on a Friday. Please ensure your child has wellies in school to change into. Also please ensure they come in clothes that are fine to get muddy and dirty.

If you are able to donate any gifts, discounts for your business or goody bags for the raffle we would really appreciate this. Please either hand this to a member of staff or to the office. All funds received from the raffle will go towards enhancing the Early Years learning environment.

We hope you have a fabulous weekend.

The Reception Team

Autumn 2 - Week 3 - Oh help! Oh no! It's a gruffalo!

We have had such a fun week with our class story The Gruffalo. The children have discussed the story, the setting and the characters. They have been storytellers and used the picture cards to sequence the story too. In our PE session, we pretended we were all the different creatures in the book, thinking about how the character might move. We then applied our gymnastic skills to be the nut, the log pile house and also a very tall tree. It was so much fun! In our investigation area the children loved making their own gruffalo crumbles using the recipe sheets to plan their crumbles. The had lots of messy fun.

In maths, we have been exploring 2D shapes, in particular circles and triangles. We discussed their sides, and how many sides they had. Then we went on a shape hunt in our class, playground and around the school. It was really easy to find circles, but there were far fewer triangles around! I wonder if you can find any triangles and circles on your adventures this weekend?

In our wild tribe session today, we made bird feeders for the birds using leaves and cereal hoops. We hung them on the trees around our wild tribe base camp. They are such an environmentally friendly idea to help feed the birds at this time of year.

Thank you so much if you attended the parents consultations this week. It was lovely to spend time with you to discuss how your child is getting on at school. They are all making us so incredibly proud with how they have settled and working. Well done Reception children!

Today your child would have come out with some raffle tickets to purchase. Money raised will go towards enhancing the Early Years Learning environment. Also, if you are able to donate any prizes, goodies bags or a discount to a business that you are involved with, we would be incredibly grateful.

We hope you have a great weekend.

See you on Monday for more fun!

The Reception Team

Autumn 2 - Week 2 - We're sparkling bright!

Well the children have loved telling us all about the fireworks they saw at the weekend this week! It sounded like they had lots of fun!

As part of our learning this week, the children have enjoyed learning all about the festival of Diwali. We began the week by learning the story of Rama and Sita. The children were able to discuss the beliefs of others and talk about the importance of light during the festival. Throughout the week, there have been many opportunities to explore the activities within our continuous provision linked to Diwali such as making diva lamps, creating Rangoli patterns and even creating their own mehndi patterns on paper hands. The highlight of the week for most of the children was making a large-scale rangoli pattern on the ground made of colourful chalks. We even managed to make a pattern using natural autumn materials such as pine cones, leaves and twigs. The children were able to share ideas about how they celebrate special times and compared it to Diwali. They were able to find similarities and differences between the celebrations. It had been noticed that many people use fireworks as part of their Diwali celebrations. This sparked (no pun intended!) many conversations about fireworks and Guy Fawkes night. To finish our wonderful week off, we put tea candles in our diva lamps outside and walked through them together!

In maths, the children have been exploring the compositions of 1, 2 and 3. On the Maths table there are lots of ladybirds with different number of spots, where they can talk about how many spots are shown. The children can count and subitise how many spots are on the lady bird and describe how they are shown. They also have opportunities to add spots to a ladybird using play dough, and discuss different compositions. Today, we took our learning outside and used the hoops to represent our part-part whole model where we used smaller hoops to see what numbers can be added together to make bigger numbers.

In phonics, we have been working hard on r,h,b,f, l and ll. The children are really impressing us with their letter formation. Thank you so much for helping the children with this at home.

Wild tribe - Today we enjoyed our session of wild tribe where we learnt the rules of the base-camp, and enjoyed making hedgehog homes out of leaves. A letter will have come home today about Christmas in Reception. Please take time to read this, and if you have any questions please ask.

Have a fabulous weekend!

The Reception Team

Autumn 2 - Week 1 - Pumpkins

This we welcomed the children back after their half term and it was fantastic to see their learning moving forward!

Wider Curriculum- we discovered all about pumpkins. At the start of the week, the children learned how there are many different varieties of pumpkins. The children discussed the differences between them with their shape, colour, size and the outer layer’s texture. We talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin, looking at the different stages a pumpkin goes through. The children will be really keen to sow pumpkin seeds with you next year! In our art area, the children looked closely at the pumpkins provided and were able to draw some lovely pumpkin pictures. In our investigation area, we looked at what was inside the pumpkins. The children were very keen to scoop out lots of seeds!

Maths - we have been focusing on the numbers 1,2, and 3. We have been finding these numbers in the classroom, practising our number formation and also
revisiting our counting skills. The children will be on the look out for the numbers 1, 2 and 3 when out and about this weekend. See if you can find these numbers if you can.

Phonics - we have learnt the tricky words 'the' and 'to'. We now know that these words cannot be sounded out, and that we just have to learn these words. We also learnt the sound 'u' this week.

Outdoor learning - We loved getting up to the field for our outside learning this week. The children took advantage of all the little branches and sticks that had come down in the storm and made lovely leaf wands for the little bugs to live in. A reminder that outdoor learning is on a Friday. Please could you send your child in wearing old clothes that you don't mind getting dirty. Please make sure they come into school wearing their trainers/ shoes (not wellies). The children will change into their wellies when we are going out to outdoor learning and then put their trainers/shoes on after outdoor learning. This is to stop mud being walked through the classrooms. Wellies can be kept in school on our welly rack. Also, if you child is coming in with a puddle suit, could you also send them in with a coat. They can then wear a coat at playtime rather that getting in and out of a puddle suit each time.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team