St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Reception

Reception have been busy trying a variety of sports as part of our Sports Week celebration. Have a look at the photographs to see some of the exciting sports we tried this week. Our class book was Sam Plants a Sunflower by Kate Petty and we discovered how sunflowers grow. We looked at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting and had the opportunity to draw and paint our own. We also planted our bean seeds and sunflowers in our garden and we have been caring for them to help them grown. Our Mastering Number sessions focussed on counting small groups and counting beyond 20. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to make smoothies in our Smoothie Café, investigate the growth of seeds and to take part in water play using pipes to water flowers.

Reception have been reading Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French. We have been thinking about our favourite fruit and vegetable snacks, looking for the seeds and investigating if we can grow them.  During our Mastering Number sessions, we used more than, less than and equal to compare groups. In our maths sessions we used the whole, part, part model to find a missing part. This is the introduction of subtraction.  During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to work in our baby clinic, give the babies a bath in our water tray, and learn how we have grown and developed since we were babies. We also have been watering the plants in our garden area and exploring the parts of a plant as we investigate how seeds grow.

Our book this week was The Bad Seed by Jory John and we have been looking at the seeds we planted this term and discussing how seeds are different and how some grow and some have not grown. During our Mastering Number sessions, the children secured their understanding of the pairs of numbers that make 5, and then used double dice frames to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’. Our maths lessons focussed on combining parts to create a whole, which is the start of calculating – addition.  During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to create nature art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy, dress up as animals and perform Old McDonald had a farm on our outside stage and create shape pictures to find out more about positional language and the properties of shapes.

Reception have been reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and the children have been asking and answering questions relating to our ‘Growing’ topic such as, ‘How do sunflowers grow?’ We planted tiny cress seeds and we have been using magnifying glasses to observe the seeds sprouting. Our Mastering Number lessons focussed on consolidating our understanding of the composition of 5, for example, seeing that 5 can be made of 3 and 2. We deepened our understanding of a ‘whole’ being made up of smaller parts through practical experience, in this case moving frogs from a log to a pool in the nursery rhyme, 5 little speckled frogs. Our maths lessons focussed on exploring the part, part, whole model such as by using dominoes to explore how different parts can give the same whole. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to paint our favourite fruits and vegetables as part of our work on healthy eating, create plants in our playdough station and buy healthy food in our Healthy Eating Cafe.

Our class book this week was One Little Seed by Lesley Sims. We have been exploring how seeds can be dispersed by animals including birds and we found out about the life cycle of sunflowers. We also planted our own sunflowers so we can continue to explore this. During our Mastering Number sessions, we have been counting, ordering and investigating how numbers are one more or one less than the next number and during our maths lessons we used subitising to identify multiple parts within a given whole, such as the whole is 6, one part is four and the other part is two. In Learning Through Play sessions we had the chance to make our own staircase patterns to explore how each number was one more or one less, paint our own sunflowers by mixing shades of yellow and buy flowers and plants in our Garden Centre Role play to decorate Home Corner.

Our topic this term is Our Wonderful World and we are learning about growing. This week our class book was Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and we have been finding out about the life cycle of beans. We started our phase 4 phonics lessons and we also started our group reading sessions. This week in Mastering Number we have been using our perceptual subitising skills (seeing the quantity without counting) in increasingly complex arrangements and during maths lessons we have been identifying parts within a whole. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to play with our farm animals and sort them into groups using our part, part whole maths skills, sketch and paint beanstalks by mixing yellow and blue paint to create shades of green and play board games including Ludo and Snakes and Ladders in our Home Corner.

Reception have been reading The Three Little Pigs. We enjoyed making our own books and role playing the characters in Home Corner. We also had some challenges including testing materials to see if they float or sink and building a house of wooden blocks. During maths lessons we built number lines to 10 and practised counting up and down them. Our Mastering Number lessons focussed on the composition of numbers to 5 and we found out interesting facts such as 3 can be composed of 1 and 2. We continued learning about Easter during our RE lessons and we had a special visit from Reverend Sarah who taught us so much about The Easter Story. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to work in our Builders Role Play Shop and to make recipes in our Mud Kitchen. We also found out how to make playdough in our dough station.

Our book this week was The Gingerbread Man and we have been busy retelling the story and writing about an event from the story. We enjoyed making our own salt dough Gingerbread men and we have been watching how the dough has dried out during the week. During maths we practised using positional and directional language to plan routes and during our Mastering Number lessons we looked at the composition of numbers by finding the whole and parts. We found out about Palm Sunday during our RE lesson and we made our own palm leaves to retell what happened.

TThis week Reception read Jack and the Beanstalk. We enjoyed role playing the characters in our Home Corner and drawing and writing about our favourite part of the story. We even found out about the parts of plants and planted our own beans, which we will watch grow. During maths we practised counting and finding groups that are equal. We also practised adding and subtracting single digit numbers using a tens frame. Our Mastering Number lessons focussed on comparing the number of objects in 2 sets by matching them 1:1 and finding instances when the quantities of objects were equal. We used key vocabulary to help us describe: ‘more than’, ‘fewer than’ and ‘an equal number’ to describe how many objects there were in each set. It was World Book Day on Thursday and we read and shared books with adults and Year 3. During learning through play we had the opportunity to retell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk on our outside stage, design and make flowers in our Creative Area and sell plants and flowers in our Garden Centre Role play.

This week Reception started a new topic called Once Upon a Time. We read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and found out that these stories have been told in different ways because they were told orally. We have enjoyed playing in our home corner, which has been turned into The Three Bears Cottage and we have also been making our own books to retell the story.  During maths we have been counting to find out ‘how many’ objects there are altogether. We have been learning that the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’ things there are altogether in a set of objects and we have been practising moving objects as we count to check our answers. This week we also found out more about the number 5 by singing a new rhyme and linking 5 to the 5 fingers on one hand.

5 little peas in a peapod pressed…

[Hold up 5 wiggling fingers then fold them down into a fist.]

1 grew, 2 grew, then so did all the rest…

[Starting with your thumb, straighten 1 finger at a time in rhythm – pause, and wiggle the 5 fingers again, circling the whole amount with a finger from your other hand.]

They grew and they grew, and they did not stop…

[Place your palms together in front of you and widen them as the peas ‘grow’.]

Until 1 day the pod went pop!

[Clap hands together at ‘pop!’]

During learning through play we had the opportunity to retell the story of Goldilocks and the three bears in our story telling centre, read and share books in our Traditional Tales book shop and make recipes in our Bears playdough kitchen and in our mud kitchen.

Reception’s class book this week was Mr Wolf’s Pancakes. We have been finding out about Shrove Tuesday and we cooked and ate delicious pancakes. On Wednesday we walked to church and enjoyed the Ash Wednesday service. This week was also Valentine’s Day and we enjoyed making Valentine’s gifts and cards. During maths we have been classifying objects by sorting them into two groups. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to celebrate pancake day in our home corner, make playdough pancakes and create maps in our outside area.

This week Reception have been finding out about Chinese New Year. We enjoyed listening to the story and discovering some ways people celebrate. We also practised performing a Chinese New Year song. During maths we have been subitising up to 4 and learning about repeating patterns and the staircase pattern. We found out about Shrove Tuesday during RE and how some Christians do good deeds for Lent. We discovered some Internet safety tips by reading the thinkuknow book about Jessie and Friends and we found out we must ask adults for help if something we see online upsets us. During Learning Through Play we had the opportunity to act parts in the Chinese New Year story, make lanterns and dragons to decorate our Home Corner and write Chinese New Year cards.

Reception have been finding out interesting facts about some explorers through our class book, "Captain Scott" by Emma Fischel. We continued to practise using our segmenting fingers to sound out words we want to write. During Maths we have been comparing objects and explaining how they are similar and different. We have also been learning to use the language of longer, taller and shorter to compare length or height, fatter and thinner to compare thickness when making playdough worms and heavier and lighter to compare mass/weight. During RE, we acted parts in the story of "The Good Samaritan" and found out why some people light candles in Cathedrals and on prayer stations as reflective acts of worship to ask God for what we need. During Learning Through Play, we had the opportunity to compare plate and cup sizes in our Home Corner, write prayers and messages in our Message Centre and design models in our Creative area. We spring cleaned our sand pit and found spiders and worms to rescue.

This week Reception have been reading "The Snowflake - A Water Cycle Story" by Neil Waldman. We have been writing our own Water Cycle story about a snowflake and we have been performing a Snowflakes, Snowflakes rhyme.

During maths we have been practising singing 1,2.3.4.5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive and we met Pingu the Puppet Penguin who has been teaching us counting skills such as placing items one by one onto the carpet and knowing the last number in the count tells us how many there are. We also found out we can count things we can’t see or touch such as drum beats, claps, clicks and stamps.

We listened to the story of The Good Samaritan and thought about how we can be helpful and we took part in Balanceability, where we learn cycling skills.

During Learning Through Play we have had the opportunity to design an obstacle route to the Arctic, take ourselves, or our dolls to the doctor’s surgery or write a postcard about our Polar expeditions.

In the morning we made special party hats to wear for our Christmas Dinner. We enjoyed eating our delicious Christmas Dinner with all the children from Key Stage 1. After playtime we had a surprise visit from Father Christmas. He gave us some presents for our class to share. we had fun playing with the puzzles and marble run when he had gone.

We performed in our first school Nativity Play. We dressed up as stars and sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We helped the Year 1 children to sing all of the other songs too.

We enjoyed the Festive Fun Day that Year 6 organised for us. We got to play all the games they had made. We even won some prizes.

We have been busy decorating the class for Christmas. we enjoyed putting decorations on the tree and making sparkly stars,

Reception were invited to St John the Baptist church for a welcome service with their parents.

Everyone had a lovely welcome from Rev Sarah, we sang a song and listened to Year 6 read some prays.

Rev Sarah met all he children and gave them a book to take home and share.

We have made a great start to Reception and are enjoying exploring the classroom and outside learning area. we are making new friends and getting to know our teachers.