Our Forest Garden may not be the biggest but we had lots of fun exploring it today and even met a few of the creatures who live there.
Reception team:
Mrs Evans, Mrs Christie, Mrs Murdy and Mrs Kiely.
Useful information:
PE days ~ Wednesday and Friday
Forest School ~ Wednesday afternoon
Children are encouraged to bring a water bottle into school and are welcome to bring a fruit snack for afternoon playtime.
Special request
Please make sure all uniform and PE kits have your child’s name on.
Imaginative Learning Project
Autumn 1 – Do you want to be friends?
Our first project is all about friendship, being kind and working together.
As well as getting to know each other we will be going around school so the children can meet all of the people who are there to help them.
Staff
Mrs Jill Evans
Mrs Christie
Mrs Murdy
Reminders
Forest School is on Wednesday afternoons.
P.E. is on Thursday afternoons.
Wizzy Work (homework) is given on a Wednesday to be returned by the
following Monday.
Reading books should be sent into school on your child’s designated reading day.
Requests
Please make sure your child’s name is on all uniform and PE kit.
Our topics
Autumn 1 ~ Do You Want to Be Friends?
Autumn 2 ~ Are We There Yet?
Spring 1 ~ What Happens When I Fall Asleep?
Spring 2 ~ Who Lives in a Rock Pool?
Summer 1 ~ Are Carrots Orange?
Summer 2 ~Will You Read Me a Story?
Who Lives in a Rock Pool?
We are starting our topic with a visit to the Blue Reef Aquarium for some hands
on experience to find out about the creatures that live in and around the sea
before using a range of resources to find out about the creatures that interest
us most. The topic also lends itself to lots of creative and imaginative play
opportunities developed through stories, poems and of course children’s own
ideas and imagination.
In phonics we will continue to reinforce letter sounds through word building and
blending. The next phase in Letters and Sounds focuses on introducing vowel
digraphs and trigraphs with shared reading sessions to reinforce keywords and
apply decoding skills.
In number time we are hoping to extend children’s confidence in recognising
numbers up to and beyond 20 through counting games, matching activities and
sequencing tasks. Through practical sessions, we will be developing addition and
subtraction strategies including counting on and counting back. Problem solving
activities will be linked to measures including size, weight and capacity.
Opportunities for investigative play and child initiated learning will continue to
be a central part of daily classroom activities.
Thank you for your support.
J. Evans
To ‘launch’ our new topic linked to Space we went to the planetarium at the Centre for Life to meet the naughty monsters and find out all about the planets in our Solar System.
Next we went to the lab for a Space Workshop.
Do you know the planets in our Solar System?
Abi does. This is Earth.
Jupiter? says Ollie.
Neptune!
Finding out more about the planets and sharing ideas.
Planets with rings, planets with swirls. Super ideas guys!
Big planets, little planets.
Sending rockets into Space.
Which rocket goes the highest?
5.4.3.2.1… blast off!
Will it be the yellow one?
Where did it go?
Will it be the green one?
Faster than the speed of ‘camera’.
Look at it go.
Testing gravity?
Earth is the only planet with water.
Quick break~ hope you are making me something nice girls.
Growing cabbages?
Is it a boat, a car or a rocket ship heading to the Moon?
Creating our own constellation star patterns.
Lunch, at last! Thanks mum for our yummy treats.
We had a great day. Special thanks to our parents who came along with us, it wouldn’t be possible without you.
They say smiles are contagious so what better way to celebrate World Smile Day 2017 than share some of our smiles with you.
A big thank you to all our children for the smiles you bring us everyday.
We were all very excited for our Chinese visitors to join us on Tuesday afternoon. We decided to do two of our favourite things, PE on the apparatus, which we all enjoyed.
Followed by some art. We were so impressed with their Delaunay work we have shared some below.
Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas.
This term we begin our Astronomy training, with lots of creative and imaginative play opportunities while we explore Space, the facts and the fiction. As part of our mission we are hoping to travel to the planetarium at the Centre for Life and find out how to send a rocket into Space.
This topic will also give us plenty of reading and writing opportunities, using both fiction and non-fiction texts.
We will be continuing our ‘I Like To Read’ book in school, using stories from the school reading scheme to develop story ideas and also encourage sentence building and independent writing. These books will not be sent home on a regular basis as all children will have their own individual reading book to share at home and Home/ School Reading Record to share positive comments and targets.
In phonics we will review the letter sounds with the emphasis on word building and blending to support reading progress and independent writing.
In Numeracy, we will continue to explore numbers through practical activities as well as some recording of number work to reinforce patterns in number and calculations. In topic based maths we are exploring measures with lots of practical activities which the children can apply in their play.
We have a coach from SAFC Foundation of Light coming in to help us develop our football skills this term so children will need their PE kit and PE shoes on Mondays and Thursdays.
Wizzy Work will continue to be sent home on Wednesday to be returned by the following Monday.
Opportunities for investigative play and child initiated learning will continue to be a central part of daily classroom activities.
Thank you for your support.
J.Evans
Following a successful first few weeks at school we are ready and raring to go, well, until about half past 2 when our eye lids start to feel heavy and our thoughts drift towards home time, tea and snuggles! Undeterred, our first topic is ‘Bears’, developed through familiar stories and rhymes. We will be doing lots of art work to brighten up the classroom and finding out all about bears around the world.
Soon, the children will be starting their first reader, which they will bring home to share. We will be holding parent workshops this term to enable the children to show you how we do it in class. We have been working through the first phase of the phonics program, developing listening skills and exploring rhyme. There are lots of fun activities you can do at home to support your child like sound games and making up silly rhymes.
In Numeracy, the focus is on developing vocabulary through practical activities, including counting rhymes, sorting and matching activities and number recognition games with a little help from our number characters which I hope the children will tell you all about over the next few weeks.
Alongside these activities, the children have lots of opportunity for investigative play and active learning, as well as demonstrating their I.T skills. Most importantly they have time to get to know each other and to gain their confidence with us.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you so much for joining us for our Family Picnic at the park. It was lovely to see you all. Thank you also for all of your support throughout the year, we hope you have a lovely summer holiday.
The garden is full of fascinating things, some with wings that move so fast they buzz, some with eyes on sticks, some that can move with no legs at all and some with armour to protect themselves. The garden at school is full of even more amazing creatures, created by the children themselves and they have their own homes to keep them safe because ‘Bugs need homes too!’ Well done Nature Detectives.
