St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Reception

On Wednesday 11^th July, Reception class walked to Amwell Nature Reserve.  We met Mr Braggs who had set up his telescopes for us to see many different birds.  We saw cormorants, black headed gulls and Egyptian geese who looked like super heroes with masks around their eyes.  A Heron sat perfectly still for a long time and we were all able to watch him through the telescopes.  Mr Braggs told us some interesting facts and we now know that cormorants swim under the water to catch their fish.  The geese put their bottoms up in the air to find food among the pond weed.

In Reception we are preparing for our mini beast topic and building a home for mini beasts in our garden.  We used some logs and an old flower pot.  We put some old fruit in the home to attract the mini beasts.  We are going to watch it carefully and identify some mini beasts over the coming week using magnifying glasses.  I wonder if a hedgehog will like to hide in the flower pot!

This week Reception have been learning about capacity.  They are finding out which container holds the most or the least and ordering the containers according to capacity.  They found that the tall thin container held less than the shorter container which was ‘fatter’.

The girls are enjoying making a ‘town’ with the lego.  They showed great diligence, returning to their ‘town’ the next day to continue building and creating their small world creation.

The children are enjoying our new aeroplane’ role play area.  This is to support our Up, Up and away topic.  ‘We are going on holiday to Spain,’ the girls said.  ‘Quick, Emergency, Emergency’, said one.  ‘I’ll get the escape chute out,’ said another.  They then got a piece of fabric to form the emergency exit.

All enjoyed their role play including filling in their passports and holiday destination sheets.

Reception won  the Smartie challenge and were allowed to bring in their scooters for a ‘scooter’ day.  We had great fun racing up and down the playground.  We weaved in and out of cones.  Mrs Levins set us a challenge to balance a cup of water on our scooter whilst scooting.  We thought of different ways to stop the water from spilling whilst we scooted.  Shay said, ‘I had to slow down so the water didn’t spill’.  Romer balanced across the handlebars but found he couldn’t  move so easily.

We also did some ‘scooter art’.  We had to scoot through the paint on a long roll of paper.  We got paint on our wheels and also some on our shoes, but it was great fun and very interesting to see the different marks our scooters made with the paint. 

Once we arrived we were put in the ‘bears’ group and had to roar like bears as we entered the camp.

We made salt dough then moulded it into mini beasts, then we made a raft using twigs, wool and leaves and our leader helped us launch them into the pond.

After lunch we made clay fairy or elf faces on trees in the woods.  Then we went on a journey rope and found lots of  different objects in the forest and tied them to our rope.

At last it was time to go home and we said ‘Goodbye’  to our leader  for the day and got back on the coach to Van Hage’s where our parents collected us.  We had such a fun day being outside in the forest.

In our Spring Term Topic ‘Traditional Tales’ we’ve been learning about many stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and the Gingerbread Man. Did you know the Gingerbread People broke into our classroom? They left it in a real mess; there were crumbs and buttons everywhere! We found footage on our CCTV cameras and had to inform the Police! We made WANTED posters, and designed traps, we tasted gingerbread, we even wrote them a letter and they replied. It turns out they were escaping a fox…they have promised to be good and not break into our classroom again.

We decided to grow our very own Beanstalks just like Jacks. We carefully planted the seeds in plastic cups filled with soil and watered them regularly. We kept a Bean Diary to monitor their growth. We made a castle in the clouds for each cup and stuck them on sticks to see which beanstalk would reach the castle first. The tallest beanstalk grew to 56cm!

 In P.E and music we learnt a traditional Lion Dance. Then, we made our own lion head and tail. We did an amazing dancing and musical performance for our families and showed the rest of the school in our Golden Assembly! At the party we tasted many different foods such as crispy tempura seaweed, a Chinese vegetable curry, spring rolls and rice crackers. Of course…we had to try using chopsticks. It was very tricky!   

We have had wonderful time learning all about Chinese New Year! Did you know it is the year of the Dog? We loved listening to the traditional legend of the Emperor and the animal race, where we discovered how it was decided which animal would have which year.

We decided that we wanted to host our very own Chinese New year Party for our families. So in Computing, we used Purple Mash Software to design our own invitations. We decorated our classroom with customary paper chains and lanterns which we made all by ourselves. We created dragon masks and party hats and chose the food we wanted to serve. We looked at the similarities and differences between our cultures and our celebrations. We did find out that in both our cultures, we love New Year firework displays!

Reception class has been learning about Palm Sunday.  Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey.  The people cheered 'Hosanna!' and laid their cloaks and palm trees down to make way for Jesus.

In Reception we have been looking for signs of Spring.

We found buds on the trees and bulbs growing.  We also saw some blossom!

Back in class we made some daffodils  and symmetrical butterflies.  We have a lovely display in our classroom.

In RE we walked outside and found things around our school that are alive, used to be alive or have never been alive.  We used our ears and our eyes to help us decide whether something is alive or dead.  We made a collection and sorted them in our classroom.  We are going to grow some bulbs which look dead at the moment but our teacher says that if we care for them well, they will begin to grow and come alive again.  We hope so.

This week we have been reading about the Gingerbread Man.  On Tuesday, a very strange thing happened because our classroom was all messed up and our teacher was very upset.  There were oranges on the floor, the chairs had been turned upside down and other mess too.  We found out that it was gingerbread people and we saw them on the video.  Mrs Emmony and Miss Hunt have collected some evidence and are looking into it.

We have also been reading Jack and the Beanstalk and are growing our own beans.  We have to water them every day and they are now beginning to grow.

This week Reception have been busy decorating Christmas Cakes.  First they covered the top with marzipan. Then they covered the marzipan with icing and chose a decoration for the top with silver dust and silver balls.  They hope their families enjoy eating them at Christmas! Yum, yum!

This Week Reception have been very busy.  On Monday they had their dress rehearsal with Year 1, followed by two performances on Tuesday when their parents and grandparents came in and were a very proud audience.  The children performed very well, saying their lines clearly, so that everyone could hear and sang the songs beautifully.

On Wednesday, Reception made Christmas cakes and enjoyed weighing and mixing the ingredients.  Next week they will decorate the mini cakes, ready to take home at the end of term.

Fire Service Visit: 23^rd November 2017

Our Topic this Autumn Term is ‘People who help us’. We have been learning about the emergency services. We were lucky enough to have a visit from the Hertford Fire Service.

The Firefighters came in to talk to our class about fire safety. We learnt that we must have a working smoke detector in our home. The Smoke detector has a really loud beep beep beep! We also learnt that the emergency number to call is 999.  

After the talk we got to see a real fire engine! We learnt all about how they work, and what different tools are used for. We each got to sit in the fire engine and squirt the hose! It was amazing. We think the fire fighters are very brave. The whole class made them a special thank you card to say thank you for visiting us.

We have been busy in Reception this week learning about Guy Fawkes and making some firework pictures using paint and a cardboard tube which our teacher had cut on the end and splayed out like a messy brush.

We went for an Autumn Walk around the school grounds.  We found lots of leaves that were turning colour from green to yellow , orange and red.  We found red berries, which we know we mustn’t touch, some fungi and sweet chestnuts which had fallen from the sweet chestnut tree.  We saw the cheeky squirrel hunting for the sweet chestnuts and taking them away for his lunch!

We are looking forward to our Harvest Festival service in church and are learning a song to sing to the whole school.  It’s called Autumn Leaves.

During RE discussions, we talked about the school's 50th anniversary on this site.  During Child Intiated Learning some children chose to make a party hat.  They then organised a party for their friends.  We are looking forward to our school's anniversary celebrations next week and meeting the Bishop during our special assembly on Tuesday.

This week Reception Class has been making repeating patterns.  They made patterns with various resources for example, interlocking cubes, chain link and painting shape patterns.  On Wednesday they went into the playground and made a pattern.  Can you say what comes next? Later in the week, the class made musical patterns and followed shape patterns to make the music.

Our new Reception children began school and have had great fun this week exploring their new surroundings and finding out all about their new classroom, making new friends and meeting the teachers.

On Thursday morning, they went to church with their families and teachers, where they met the Reverend Anne who welcomed them into the school community and presented each child with a book of bible stories.  Everyone then enjoyed refreshments back in school.

The children have settled in really well and we look forward to an exciting year together as they begin their school journey at St John’s.