Welcome to Reception.

Important information:

• P.E will be on Monday and Wednesday every week. Please ensure your child has their P.E Kit in school on these days.
• Please can your child bring spare clothes every day as we still learn through messy activities.
• Please tell Kelly or Anne if somebody different is going to be collecting your child from school.
• To help us support your child in becoming independent learners, please can all items of clothing be clearly labeled. 

Thank you for your support. We look forward to working with you to ensure your child has a fantastic time in Reception. 

W/C 12th December

We have had a very busy week with all the festivities going on!

The highlight of our week has to be our Christmas Nativity. The children have made us very proud with all of their hard work and dedication to making the Nativity a show to remember.  We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us with the performance, including staff and parents. The turn out for the Nativity was the best we have ever had, so thank you for your continued support and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Here is the link to see some of the photos. Please click on Reception Nativity 2016 on the gallery homepage. 

 http://www.churchlaneprimary.org.uk/galleries.asp

Did you see the big bus parked in the car park?

We had a very special opportunity to go onto the 'Billy Branston Potato Bus'. We learnt about the journey from the fields to the shops. We even had a go at grading the potatoes before making Potato Wedges with different seasonings. They were very yummy indeed.

Dates for your diary:

Monday 19th December - Whole school trip to watch the Pantomime. Please make sure your child arrives on time to school as we will be leaving at 9.00am.

Tuesday 20th December- Carols around the Tree at 2.00pm. Parents are welcome. School ends.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy Christmas and a super 2017! 

W/C 5th December 

We have had a visit from the Dentist this week. The Dentist came into speak to us about how to look after our teeth. We practiced how to brush our teeth correctly. We learnt about what foods are good and bad for our teeth. Ask your child if they can tell you 2 foods that are good and 2 foods that are not for their teeth.

Christmas is around the corner but it isn't stopping us from our learning. The children have loved the reading challenge this week, particularly the boys. The challenge was to read the secret words using a magnifying glass as they were very very tiny. The children are progressing well with reading and are becoming more and more confident to point to each sound and blend them together. To continue this progression over the Christmas holidays, we will be sending home some Christmas words for you to practice with your child. 

In Literacy we have read the book, 'Stickman'. The children have fully engaged in creating their own 'Stickman' character using sticks and playdough. In our class discussion we imagined that our 'Stickman' was lots of different things- Helicopter, Gymnast, Flipman, Snake. We will continue our work on this book next week. 

Please make sure that if your child needs a costume for our Nativity, it is in school no later than Tuesday. Thank you:)

Dates for your diary-

Wednesday 14th December- Reception Christmas Nativity 2.00pm

Friday 16th December- Xmas Jumper day, Xmas Lunch and Xmas Church service at St.Deny's- 2.00pm. Parents welcome.

Monday 19th December- Robin Hood Pantomime at Boston

Tuesday 20th December- Carols around the Tree 2.00pm

We look forward to seeing you and sharing the Christmas fun together. 

W/C 28th November

Christmas has hit our classroom! We couldn't wait any longer...

You will see our Santa's Grotto in the outdoor area where the children are practicing their wrapping skills and creating their own wish lists. The children are really enjoying writing for a purpose and especially because Santa is going to read the letters!

The children have really impressed us this week with their knowledge on telling the time. In Maths we have been learning about the importance of time, talking about our daily routines and beginning to tell the time using 'o'clock'.  We even went onto learning 'half past'. It would be great if over the Xmas break you could keep working with your child on telling the time. Can he/she tell you when it is 7 o'clock? Can he/she tell you when it is lunch time?

Our work on animals has continued this week. We have learnt about wild animals and their habitats. Did you know a Hippopotamus loves the sun and that they the make their own sun cream to protect them? Ask you child to tell you some more facts about a Hippopotamus and a Cheetah. 

Slips have been sent out about any costumes needed for our Nativity. If your child did not bring one home please speak to Kelly or Anne. Thank you :) 

W/C 21st November

We are in full swing with our rehearsals for our Christmas Nativity. The children are sounding great when singing the songs. Please keep an eye out for a slip to tell you what part in the play your child will be and if they need any costume pieces. If unsure, please ask Kelly or Anne.

We have had a great week, covering science investigations and learning about Pets.

A fantastic Science Investigation:

Following on from Literacy when we read the story 'Percy the Park Keeper- The hedgehogs Balloon' we looked at how we could protect our balloons from the Hedgehogs spikes!

The children had a variety of materials to explore and investigate- tissue paper, cotton wool, fabric and sugar paper. The children chose their materials and carefully covered a balloon.  We then tested our ideas to see which material protected the balloon from popping. At the end of the investigation we agreed that the fabric and sugar paper were the best materials! 

Learning about Pets:

Thank you for the photographs of your very cute pets. We have fully enjoyed sharing them with each other. We have learnt how to look after certain animals. Did you know Hamsters are Nocturnal? They sleep in the day and are awake at night! Some of the children have written about their pets and how they look after them. We will continue to learn about animals next week alongside Christmas festivities ready for the xmas fair on Friday 2nd December. 

W/C 14th November

The children have enjoyed using the Bluebots as part of our ICT. The children were very quick to learn how to make them move from A to B. The children had to programme the Bluebots using forwards, backwards, left and right commands to get to different places on the mats. Some of the children were confident enough to explain to the children who needed some extra support!

Here is a very clever story to share with you...

When we went outside Kelly told the children that they will have to stay off the grass because it was too wet and muddy. The thing that happened next was brilliant.

They used all of the crates to create a very large bridge that then allowed them access the wooden house and kitchen area without going on the grass at all. What a great idea and fantastic team work! 

Thank you for supporting Children in Need- the children looked fantastic in their spotty clothes. Please remember that on Friday 25th November is non-uniform day. Please bring in a chocolate or sweet donation for our famous Christmas fair Chocolate Tombola! 

Thank you :) 

W/C 7th November

Welcome back! With Christmas around the corner we have got a very busy termlet ahead. 

In Maths we will be:

• Developing our understanding of length, using language such as longer and shorter. We will be using non-standard units to measure the length of objects.
• Developing our understanding of height, using language such as shorter and longer. 
• Learning about 3D shapes- name and properties.
• Begin to learn about money and time. Understand 1 minute and the features of a clock face.
• Continue our number work.

In Phonics we will be:

• Recapping our Set 1 sounds
• Begin to read simple CVC words e.g. dog, cat, log
• Begin to write simple words e.g. jam, pat, pen
• To develop an awareness of how to write a short sentence
• To practice letter formation

Our Christmas Nativity will be on Wednesday 14th December at 2.00pm

W/C 10th October

Thank you to all of you that attended Parents Evening. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you on a 

personal level and sharing all your childs 'wow' moments so far this year. We are looking forward 

to the year ahead!

Another hard working week in Reception...

In Literacy we have been looking at the story of 'Room on the Broom.' We have acted it out, 

created our own spells and even had a go at writing some key words from the story. We have 

carved Pumpkins and investigated what is inside. 

We have had lots of fun with our Phonic sounds. We played Twister. We had to spin the dial, throw 

the beanbag on a letter sound. Once identified, we had to tell Kelly an object that begins with that 

sound.

In Maths, we have been practicing our early subtraction and addition skills through a number of 

different activities.

3rd October 2016

We have celebrated Harvest this week. We have developed our understanding of what Harvest is and why it is important to celebrate it. The children thoroughly enjoyed exploring and investigating the Harvest tuff spot. The children used the Tractors to harvest the vegetables ready for us to eat! We hope you enjoyed our Harvest Festival performance. 

Some of the boys have shown an interest in Pokemon this week. To turn this interest into a learning opportunity we hid Pokemon with letter sounds on them.  We worked as a team to find them all. The children then used them to create their name and some children had a go at reading CVC words e.g. dog, cat, log.

This week we will be giving out letter sound packs for you and your child to practice at home. Daily practice at home will really help to support your child with their early reading and writing development.

Try some fun games using the cards:

• Hide them around your house and go on a hunt
• Pretend to be a frog and jump to a letter sound        
• Find objects that begin with a specific letter sound
• Throw a ball to each sound and name them

We look forward to seeing you at Parents Evening on Tuesday 11th October. 

W/C 26th September

Our children never fail to amaze us each week. Everyday they make us smile, laugh and make us feel very lucky to have such a super bunch of children.

One of our 'WOW' moments this week has been our marble run madness. We put out the marble run for the children to work together to construct. It was a pleasure to watch and be part of, as all the children took turns, shared the resources and helped each other when a problem occured. This level of social development is a big achievement for this time of year. We are very proud of the children!

In Maths we have been creating our own repeating patterns using natural resources. The children made their own simple patterns.  We continue to learn our numbers to 10 and beyond.

To enhance our pattern work, we would like to use conkers. If you have a spare five minutes, it would be appreciated if you and your child could go on a conker hunt and bring us any spare! 

We look forward to seeing you at the Harvest Festival on Thursday 6th October. 

 W/C 19th September

We have had a very busy week. All of the children are engaging very well in all of the learning opportunities provided and lots of interests have been covered. 

Following on from a child's interest we explored a 'Sunflower.' The children used the tweezers to take out all of the seeds. Through this investigation we covered so many areas of learning e.g. Maths by counting the seeds and estimating how many seeds we have in our little pots; Science by asking questions and finding out the answers and Physical Development by carefully using the tweezers to pick out each tiny seed! 

One child then told Kelly that she could do a 'Sunflower dance' as she practices this at Ballet. This then lead the whole class to move and grow from a tiny seed into a very tall Sunflower whilst listening to Ballet music. We had lots of fun!

We continue to learn our new letter sounds in Phonics. The letter sound 'b' was very popular with the children. Some of the children chose to find lots of objects that began with this letter sound. Ask your child if they can tell you some objects that begin with different sounds.

In Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes. The children were very good at creating their own 2D shape using lollipop sticks.

Please remember that it is individual school photos on Tuesday 27th September.

W/C 12th September

We have enjoyed celebrating Roald Dahl's 100th Birthday. The children dressed up in some fantastic costumes. To celebrate in Reception class, the children took part in numerous activities linking to the story 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.'

We set up a Chocolate Factory where the children spent long periods of time creating their own chocolates and sweets and wrapped them up to give to their family members. Some of the children even wrote their own labels for the chocolates using their new knowledge of letter sounds!

Did you know that Willy Wonka hid lots of his Golden Tickets around our outdoor area? The children had lots of fun finding them all. The children then received a special golden sticker if they had a go at recognising the letter sound or number that was on it!

In Maths we have been practicing our careful counting to 10 and beyond. The children are very careful when counting, knowing that if they go slowly and touch each one; their counting is more accurate. Have a go at counting with your child at home. Try counting the stairs or how many pairs of socks you have in your draw.

W/C 5th September 

We have had a great week and we have really enjoyed getting to know each child.  The children have been exploring their new environment, making friends and getting to know the adults around them. One of our main focuses this Termlet is to make sure your child is happy and feels safe in the environment. 

Due to the children settling really quickly, we have began our Phonics and Maths group times. The children have shown a positive attitude to their learning already!

During the next 6 weeks we will be learning and developing the following skills:

Maths

• Counting objects to 10 then 20
• Ordering Numbers to 10 in a line
• Naming and describing 2D shapes
• Creating and continuing patterns
• Recognising numbers to 10 
• Begin to find one more or one less from a group of objects

Phonics/Literacy

•  Learn Set 1 sounds (alphabet a-z)
  
• Begin to read simple words e.g. cat, dog
• Recognise and write our own name
• Begin to form some recognisable letters
• Begin to talk about what happened in the book we have read

Once we have introduced all the Set 1 sounds to the children, we will send home a letter sound pack for you to practice with your child.

Please feel free to talk to Kelly or Anne at any time if you want to know how your child is getting on in school :)