St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Reception

Our book this week was "Let’s Celebrate" edited by Debjani Chatterjee & Brian D’arcy. We read poems about Harvest, Diwali and Christmas and we wrote about our favourite celebration. We also had a class vote to find out which is our favourite festival or celebration and we discovered Christmas was the most popular. During phonics sessions we practised learning z, qu and ch and tricky words, go, no, to and into. Our maths sessions continued to focus on patterns and how they can be represented with objects (such as pebbles, dinosaurs, pieces of fruit) as symbols using colour and shape to identify a unique symbol for each term of the pattern sequence. The Mastering Number sessions explored the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’. The children investigated their own bodies and familiar toys to begin to understand that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that a whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to construct and deconstruct things with parts, such as jigsaw puzzles, create a crowd picture based on Jesus feeds the 5000 in our Creative Area and buy items in our Celebration Shop. You can help your child at home by checking they know the phonics phonemes, reading with them and talking to them about their learning

Reception have been reading" Let’s Celebrate 5 days of Diwali!" By Ajanta and Vivek. We looked for India on a world map and we wrote facts to explain what we found out about Diwali. We made coconut barfi and tasted some Indian food including poppadum, vegetable samosas, Vegetable Tikka Masala, Pilau Rice, Mango Chutney and Naan bread. Some of us liked all of the food but Mango Chutney was the most popular, closely followed by the Naan bread. This week our phonics lessons focussed on v w x and y. We practised writing these and we also introduced more tricky words, and, has, his and her. Our Mastering Number sessions focussed on comparing quantities using ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’ to describe how many objects there were in each set and we continued learning about patterns during maths sessions by providing a variety of patterns including spiral, wriggly, diagonal examples of repeated patterns and asking the children to describe the patterns and identify the repeated unit using ordinal numbers to explain the position.  During "Learning Through Play" we had the opportunity to create necklaces, belts and bracelets using coloured beads in our maths investigation area, create Indian recipes in our mud kitchen, using herbs and spices and create Diva lamps in our Creative Area. You can help your child at home by checking they know the taught phonemes using your home learning book, reading with them and talking to them about their learning.

This week, Reception started their new topic, Let’s Celebrate. We read "Bonfire Nigh"t by Eliza Berison and wrote about how people might celebrate bonfire night. During phonics sessions we practised learning ff, ll, ss and j. Our maths sessions focussed on comparing patterns. We looked at pictures of patterns and extended them, using again, the same and repeated to help us. Our Mastering Number sessions were about counting. We checked we knew the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether in a set of objects. During "Learning Through Play" we had the opportunity to celebrate birthdays in Home Corner, create Bonfire Night Recipes in the Mud Kitchen and make our own firework models in the Creative Area. You can help your child at home by checking they know the phonics phonemes, reading with them and talking to them about their learning.

Our book this week was" Marvellous Me" by Lisa Bullard. We created a story map and actions to retell the story and we wrote about our special skills that make us marvellous. During phonics lessons we focussed on learning more graphemes, h, b, f and l, including how to write them. For Mastering Number, we enjoyed looking carefully and using the language of comparison to describe sets of objects including ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’. In maths sessions we continued comparing measures. Our "Learning Through Play" gave us time to create jellyfish based on our RE lesson about The Creation Story, dig in our sandpit and look after the dolls in our Baby Clinic.

This week, Reception celebrated Harvest Festival at St John the Baptist church. We drew our favourite fruits and vegetables, and wrote a class prayer to thank God for all the wonderful fruits and vegetables. During Literacy sessions we continued reading "A Handful of Buttons" by Carmen Parets Luque. We used our story map and actions to help us remember the main events and we discussed and wrote about the pets we have, or would like in our families. During phonics lessons we have been learning new graphemes, ck, e, u and r and in our Mastering Number sessions we built on our subitising skills and investigated the shapes made by Numberblock Four. For maths we practised using the language of heavier and lighter to compare mass or weight. We found out bigger things are not always the heaviest. During "Learning Through Play" we enjoyed mixing colours using our handprints to make new colours, playing family roles with the dolls in our Home Corner and dressing up as People Who Help Us.

Reception have been reading "A Handful of Buttons" by Carmen Parets Luque and thinking the special people in our own families.  During phonics lessons, we have been checking we know the phase 2 sounds from previous weeks and learning new graphemes, g, o, c and k. We are all eager to practise our handwriting and we have been segmenting words we want to write such as mum, dad and nan. Our Mastering Number sessions focussed on how numbers can be composed of 1s and, from this, we investigated the composition of 3 and 4. For instance, seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. We continued practising our counting skills in maths by touching and arranging the items we wanted to count. Our "Learning Through Play" provided us with the opportunity to role play using technology such as phones and laptops in our Home Corner, count autumnal objects in our outside maths investigation tray and create photo frames for our family drawings in our creative area.

Reception start their day with some Busy Fingers activates to develop their fine motor skills. This week we enjoyed cutting and sticking pictures of people who help us, colouring pictures of families and building houses with Lego. We also practised writing our name and read with adults during our Early Morning Work. During literacy sessions we continued reading There’s Only One You by Kathryn Heling and we thought about the Very Important People (VIPs) in our lives. We used photographs to help us speak about who our special people are and we drew pictures of them. In our phonics sessions we continued learning our phase 2 GPCs. We wrote the focus letters, i, n, m and d, and we talked about how learning can be difficult but the more we practise the better we will get. We used our counting skills in maths and Mastering Number sessions and we found out that the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether. During Learning Through Play we could perform our favourite rhymes on our outside stage, count groups of ducks and frogs in our water tray and attend our Doctor’s Role Play to check we are all well.

Reception have been finding out about where we live and where our school is. This week we read a book called All Kinds of Homes by Emma Damon and we began learning a new song called, ‘Hello to all the children of the world’. We looked for the United Kingdom on a world map and some of us could name the village or town where we live. We enjoyed painting a picture of our home and talking about what it looks like. We continued learning rhymes and counting songs during our Little Wandle Rhyme Time sessions and we took part in maths counting sessions. We had our church Welcome Service on Wednesday and we all received a special book from Reverend Sarah. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to play with our dolls house, write all about me facts in our message centre and act roles in our school role play.

This week Reception have been reading "There’s Only One You" by Kathryn Heling, and we have been thinking about what makes us special and unique. We thought about how we have changed since we were a baby and we noticed we can do much more now than when we were younger. We also talked about how we are all different and how we like doing some similar things but also some different things. We started our phase 2 phonics sounds this week and practised writing the focus letters, s, a, t and p, using the Little Wandle letter formation phrase to help us. Our maths and Mastering Number lessons focussed on subitising. We practised rolling a dice and saying the number on the dice without counting the dots and saying how many there were in a small group of objects by ‘just seeing’ and knowing straightaway without needing to count.  We also compared groups of objects using the same, more or less to describe how many. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to create our own treasure box to keep our special things in, count cars in our toy garage and wash dolls in our water tray.

Welcome to Reception. This week we started our new topic ‘Ourselves’ by creating a mind map to show what we already know and new information we have discovered. We painted self-portraits and practised writing our names. We read our Scarf PSED book, All About Me and thought about how we are the same and how we are different. We also began our Little Wandle Developing Language, Rhyme Time lessons, which supports children learning language, their awareness of sounds within words and later their reading. For maths this week we have been singing counting rhymes and practising our counting skills. Our Learning Through Play sessions allowed us the opportunity to practise our DIY skills while setting up our Home Corner, thinking about our feelings as we start school, exploring our inside and outside areas and the activities we can complete in each and writing cards in our Message Centre.