Supertato continued…
Spring 1 week 4 saw another week of Supertato studies, as we tried to capture the Evil Pea!…
Literacy
We’ve been making Wanted posters to warn everyone who to look out for and describing his features. Lots of children used last week’s word of the week- mischievous, to describe The Evil Pea.
Our new word of the week is: villain. We know that a villain is the bad character, important to a story or plot.
In the reading area, we’ve been digraph/trigraph detectives.
Design and technology
We’ve been designing and then making our own traps to capture that pesky Evil Pea! Take a look…
Art; Observational drawing
We’ve been using charcoal to draw real fruit and vegetables, looking carefully at the details we need to add.
Later in the week, we did some observational drawings of our faces! It’s fantastic to see how our self-portrait art has developed since September.
Shop- using our imaginations and exploring money
Supertato takes place, ‘at night-time, in the supermarket’
We added our own supermarket to the role-play area and is has been a huge hit. Children have loved role playing their own experiences of visiting shops and having a go at paying for items with 1p/2p coins.
Maths; 5 ‘and a bit’
In Maths, we’ve been using the song ‘five little aliens’ to explore one less within 5. We’ve been using Hungarian 5 frames (or ‘die’ frames) to represent and subitise numbers.
Later in the week, we used the aliens and frames to explore ‘5 and a bit’ We started with 6, then 7 aliens and noticed what each are ‘made of’ by subitising what we could see across the frames, for example:
7 is made of 3 and 4
Did you know?…
We’ve recently had some new flooring added to our outdoor area, giving us even more space to use our gross motor skills and play safely together. Check out how much fun we’ve been having…
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on our final sounds of phase 3: air, er
We’ve learnt the tricky words; are, sure, pure
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing tricky word BOO- an updated version of a game we played earlier in the year, to include our newest words.
Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.
This week’s games are from the website: Phonics Bloom
You can play many of the games for free. Try out Tricky Trucks to practise tricky words and Alien Escape to make words. Stick to your child’s current level. If they are confident with all of their sounds, you should use Phase 3.
Please note these are games to be played alongside an adult, who can support and correct any misconceptions where needed.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called A Little House
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Diary Dates
Mon 5 Feb/Wed 7 Feb 2024- Parent Teacher Conferences (pre-booked appointments)
Tues 6 Feb 2024- Fine Motor Control, Stay and Learn Coffee Morning This session is all about Fine Motor Control and Writing. It’s followed by a chance to meet up with other parents/carers and your child’s class teacher.
Supertato!
This week began with a vegetable based mystery!
Who had captured the vegetables and why were they trapped?
It could only be one thing… EVIL PEA.
After reading the story Supertato, we read true and false statements to show our knowledge and understanding of the story.
The children enjoyed creating their own.
Can they tell you which ones are true or false?
Evil Pea drew on broccoli’s face. Libby
Supertato trapped Evil Pea in ice. Austin
Evil Pea wrapped cucumber in toilet paper. Isobel
Supertato nearly got squashed by Evil Pea. Florence
Maths
This week, we explored the composition of five in different ways. Using the song Five Little Speckled Frogs, we were able to develop our understanding of one less as well as explore the number bonds of five.
We played a game by throwing beanbags in a hoop and creating number statements to say how many were in or out of the hoop.
Four in the hoop and one out of the hoop.
4 and 1 make 5
Poetry Picnic
Our sessions this week have been a little different as we learnt and recited a traditional nursery rhyme.
The children used gestures and expression to recite Jack and Jill.
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on the digraphs ur, ow, oi, ear.
We’ve learnt the tricky words; my, by, all.
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.
This week’s game is: Tricky Word Splat
- Write a selection of tricky words on paper/sticky notes.
- Place around the room/floor.
- Say a tricky word for your child to splat. You might jump on the words, splat with a masher or create your own ideas.
Focus Artist: Yayoi Kusama
Over the next two weeks, we will be exploring the art of Yayoi Kusama. This week, we have been colour mixing and drawing different sized dots onto pumpkin pictures.
We visited a special one day only Scholes Art Galley and used sentence stems to talk about our opinions.
I like it because..
I don’t like it because…
I like it because it’s colourful. Kitson
I don’t like it because of the spikes. Sofia
I like it because of the flowers. F
I like the explosion of poppies everywhere. Myla
The children had an opportunity to observe before drawing their favourite piece of art.
Provision
Cancelled swim session
There will be no swimming (for Rainbow Class) on Wednesday 31.01.24.
Ice!
Spring 1 is our Fire and Ice theme, we’ve been using nature to explore freezing and melting- what a perfectly cold week it has been to do so!
Lost and Found
We’ve continued to focus on the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve been linking the story to topic work. We looked at a world map to see how the boy and penguin would travel from where we live (The United Kingdom), to The South Pole in Antarctica. We recalled what we know about the world map from our previous learning:
“The blue bit is the sea”- Isobel
“The coloured bits is land”- Finlay
“I see The South Pole at the bottom”- Norah
We’ve also been comparing our weather to that in the continent of Antarctica. Our word of the week is: climate.
We’ve been writing ‘Missing’ posters, describing the penguin from our story. In provision, we’ve been writing a list of things we might pack to take on an Antarctic adventure.
Penguin observations
We’ve been zoologists this week- observing the livestream ‘penguin-cam’, from San Diego Zoo
We’ve been making notes on how the penguins move and interact with each other. We were even lucky enough to catch feeding time during one livestream!
The children have loved this activity and it has inspired some wonderful child-led learning…
An amazing small world model was carefully created whilst watching the livestream and reading non-fiction books on penguins- “They need rocks here because that’s what they have in there”
The children were keen to find out about different types of penguins and their different sizes. The tallest penguin (Emperor) and shortest penguin (Little Blue) were marked on the height chart in Sunshine room and children compared them with their own height!
Ice painting
We made ice paintings by freezing paint mixed with water and creating art tools with them.
First, we collected them from the freezer
“it’s so cold in the freezer…it has to be in there a long time”- Charlotte
Then, we needed to get them out of the ice cube tray
“Our hands are warm, so we can get the ice out if we hold the ice”- Jake
We noticed the difference in how well the tools painted, as the ice began to melt.
“you have to wait for it to melt a bit, then it paints… it works!”- Heidi
We looked at the weather outside throughout the week and had a discussion about whether we needed to use the freezer. We experimented to see if we could make ice by leaving water trays outside, as the weather has been below freezing. The children were amazed to discover ice canvases we could paint on!
d:side
This week’s Living and Learning statement is: I know that some drugs can be harmful
d:side visited Reception and discussed different ways to keep our minds and bodies healthy:
- identifying and managing emotions- using a puppet with different facial expressions and some ‘real-life’ scenarios to identify feelings. We also played ‘Feelings bingo’
- making healthy food choices- filling a packed lunch box
- the importance of sleep
- keeping our bodies clean- identifying hygiene items such as toothbrushes and saying how and when we use them
- being safe around medicine- looking at a medicine bottle, discussing child caps, where medicine should be stored and who is allowed to give us medicine.
The children shared some great ideas and existing knowledge during the activities.
Phonics Phase 3 Stay and Learn
Thank you to the parents and carers who were able to join us for another Stay and Learn session this week.
We hope you enjoyed watching a lesson, getting to spend time in the classroom and hopefully getting some more ideas and information for the next steps in our phonics journey.
Maths; the staircase pattern
In Maths, we’ve been looking at counting and ordinality- specifically, the ‘one more’ relationship that creates ‘the staircase pattern’.
We were introduced to the concept by the Numberblocks, before moving on to create our own staircase patterns in small groups.
In provision, we’ve been using Frayer models to explore numbers- counting the corresponding amount of cubes/teddies, finding the Numicon and representing it on a tens frame.
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on the digraphs oo, oo, ar, or
We’ve learnt the tricky words; was, you, they
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing roll and read.
Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.
This week’s game is: Tricky Word Bingo
- Enter the list of tricky words you want to focus on into an online ‘picker’ (pickerwheel.com is an easy to use option) or write them down onto strips of paper, to be picked at random.
- Ask your child to choose 4-6 tricky words and write them down (they can copy these from a list), you should do the same and you could even ask a sibling to play along too!
- Pick the tricky words at random or by clicking the wheel- who will be the first to cross off all of their words and shout BINGO?!!
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called I can build a snowman
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Help at home; Superheroes
Next week, our focus story is about a very special veggie superhero (can you guess what it is?)
We would love for your child to draw and write about their favourite superhero. It could be their favourite character or a real-life person who is a superhero to them- perhaps they know someone who helps others in their job, raises money for charity or is generally just super!
Please send them into class to be shown or email photos over to the usual email address:
scholesreception@spherefederation.org
Cancelled swim session
There will be no swimming (for Rainbow Class) on Wednesday 31.01.24.
Lost and Found
We began our learning this week by looking at the story Lost and Found. This will be our focus story for the next two weeks.
In the story, a boy finds a penguin at his door and goes on an adventure to try to find his home, as he thought he was lost.
Just like the boy, we explored and learnt about where penguins live and extended our vocabulary by learning a new word: iceberg.
It’s ice in the water. Violet
A big chunk of ice. Frankie
It’s a big thing of ice that goes under the sea. It can ruin a ship. Kitson
It was wonderful to hear children using this new vocabulary in our small world area.
Let’s make the penguins dive off the iceberg!
This penguin is swimming around the gigantic iceberg.
Using props, we were able to retell the story.
Phonics
We have begun learning our Phase 3 sounds. This week, we have learnt four new digraphs/trigraphs ai,ee,igh,oa.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Let’s Put on Our Mittens.
Click here to listen to Reception recite the poem.
Music
Our song this week was We are Family by Sister Sledge.
This was very popular as lots of children had heard the song before when watching the film Trolls.
The nursery rhyme was Wind the Bobbin Up. As the children knew this one very well, they were able to perform confidently!
Check out our other learning
Dates
Tuesday 16 January 9- 10 Stay and learn
Our Stay and Learn sessions are a chance to find out more about your child’s journey through Reception. You can observe some teaching and learning, and pick up some tips to support your child at home.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
This week, we’ve been learning about the story of the first Christmas- The Nativity. We know that this story is why Christians celebrate Christmas.
We re-told the story with actions. This helped us to remember key people and events.
Christmas around the world
We’ve been exploring the different ways that people celebrate Christmas around the world. We looked at the difference between Santa in the UK and Santa in Australia.
Did you know that when Santa gets to Australia, the reindeer are given a rest whilst the six white boomers (kangaroos) take over pulling Santa’s sleigh?!
We made Chinese paper lanterns for decorations.
We read about the good witch, La Befana, who brings presents to children in Italy.
Ask your child if they remember the story of La Befana and who she helped that were on their way to see the baby Jesus.
We made observational drawings of Poinsettia- a popular Christmas plant here, in Mexico and in India.
We went hunting for the lucky almond (in picture form). In Denmark, it’s a Christmas tradition to hide an almond in rice pudding. The finder has good luck for the year!
On Friday, we drew presents and sweets onto a picture of shoes. In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas leaves gifts in children’s shoes, that the children fill with straw and sugar for his horse.
Our shoes were magic and turned into real treats at party time!
Christmas performance
Wow! How amazing were our performers this week?! Well done to all of the children who have been working so hard and who were so brave up on that big stage. Thank you to the parents and carers who joined us and provided such fabulous costumes. We hope you enjoyed our Christmas production!
A very special visitor
On Wednesday, we received a very special video… Santa had been to visit our school. We were AMAZED that he had managed to hide our presents in the classroom. What a special treat!
Professor Myers and The Candy Cane Experiment
On Thursday, we were visited for the first time by Mrs Myers twin, Professor Myers! Professor Myers is a science expert and often shares amazing experiments with us in Reception. We tested the strength of a candy cane, experimenting with objects of different weights to see how much the candy cane could hold before snapping (the box of rocks was the heaviest!)
A Christmas inflatable wonderland and Christmas dinner
Thank you to Mrs Pennock, who treated us to her inflatable Christmas Wonderland on Thursday!
Afterwards, we enjoyed our yummy Christmas dinner. Thank you to all of the dinner staff (and Miss Hague and Mr Catherall) for cooking and serving our special lunch.
We had so much fun at our Christmas party…
Take a look at our classroom activities this week
A Christmas message from Reception
Reception learning updates and home-learning resources
Today (Wednesday 20 December), your child will be coming home with their second learning update of the school year.
Alongside this, we are sending a phase 2 GPC (grapheme-phoneme correspondence) mat. On this mat, sounds that your child was not secure on in their most recent phonics assessment will be highlighted. If no sounds are highlighted, your child was secure in recognising all of them.
We have also included a phase 2 tricky word mat, to re-read and re-visit at home.
Some children will have additional resources in their pack. This may include flashcards of words to blend, and/or some pattern flashcards for mathematical subitising. This will link to How can you support your child at home? targets on their learning update sheet.
Please let your class teacher know if you have any questions regarding the learning update or resources sent home.
Finally, your child’s pack will include some very special Christmas crafts that they have been working on over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!
The Jolly Christmas Postman
Literacy
This week we enjoyed the story, The Jolly Christmas Postman.
The children loved seeing the different letters, gifts and cards inside each envelope.
Inspired by the book, we wrote our own postcards with special messages. We learned about the journey of a letter from the post box to our front door and can’t wait for our own letters to be delivered!
Maths
We have looked at 2D and 3D shapes. We made shapes with lolly sticks, found shapes in our classroom, and discussed their properties.
In provision, we used shapes to create pictures. The children were able to talk about the different shapes they had used.
Music
Feeling the Christmas spirit, we listen to Michael Bublé – White Christmas.
We moved in time to the music, listened carefully to the lyrics, and the different sounds and instruments.
I can hear a trumpet. Rupert
I heard high voices. Charlotte
I heard some Christmas song. Heidi
I hear people singing. Asha
I can hear a drum and a tambourine. Sofia
It was really interesting. Finlay
Check out our other learning…
Owl Babies
This week we’ve been reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We’ve been following a story map and rehearsing actions to retell the story from the beginning to the end.
Take a look at our story actions!
Music: Charanga
In our Wednesday afternoon music lessons, we follow a scheme called Charanga
The children are introduced to a wide variety of music, including traditional nursery rhymes. Over the past few weeks they have enjoyed Don’t go breaking my heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee , Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind and Fire and Frosty the Snowman by Ella Fitzgerald!
During lessons they move in time to the music, identify what they can hear (voices/instruments), discuss tempo and pitch and make comments about how the music makes them feel.
We love our music lessons!
Charanga music 1 Charanga music 2
Maths; counting, ordinality and cardinality
In Maths, we’ve revisited careful counting. Making sure we say our numbers in the correct sequence (ordinality) and stopping ‘at the stopping number’ (cardinality)
In provision, we’ve been using dice with both standard and irregular dot patterns on. We’ve been subitising the number we roll and then matching it by counting out and placing the correct number of objects onto a tens frame.
Twincle the Elf
Last Friday, a new friend magically appeared in Reception! He needed a name, so the children wrote their suggestions down and popped them into a special stocking. We then did a draw and the winning name was chosen- meet Twincle (named by Ryan)
As you can see, Twincle has been very busy during his first week. Playing instruments, painting masterpieces, reading and hanging up a Christmas banner.
Next week, as their independent writing challenge, the children will be recording more of Twincle’s adventures!
Phonics
Autumn 2 week has focused on words with s /s/ added at the end (hats, sits), words ending s /z/ (his) and with s /z/ added at the end (bags)
We’ve learnt the tricky words; we, me, be
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been spotting and circling focus tricky words.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Wise Old Owl
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Help at home; The Journey of a letter
Next week, we’ll be reading The Jolly Christmas Postman and learning about the journey of a letter when it has been posted.
To help with our discussions, we’d love to share some photos of your child at their local post box.
Send your photos to: scholesreception@spherefederation.org
Diary Dates
Learning Journey Drop In’s Tuesday 12 December and Thursday 14 December- An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them. Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Friday 15 December 3.15-4.15 FOSP Disco
Monday 18 December 1.30pm / Tuesday 19 December 9.45am Early Years Christmas Production
Thursday 21 December Christmas Dinner
Friday 22 December Non-uniform Christmas Party Day
How to Catch a Star
Literacy
This week our focus story was How to Catch a Star.
In the writing area, the challenge was to think, draw and write ways we might catch a star.
We had lots of amazing ideas.
I would go in a helicopter.
I would jump on a kangaroo.
I’d go on a rollercoaster.
Maths
This week, we have built on our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5.
We composed and de-composed numbers by investigating the part, part, whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Mice.
Click here to watch Reception recite this week’s poem
Art
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been inspired by Monet’s series of paintings, Houses of Parliament.
We created our own art work by using blocks to print shapes and make a building silhouette.
Then, we explored using water colours to create the sky. We thought carefully about how different colours can change the feeling of a painting and represent the sky during different weathers or times of the day.
Mine is bright ’cause it’s sunny.
I’m going to make mine look foggy.
I’m using dark blue for a stormy sky.
Help at Home
Spot some signs of winter.
You may choose to take photos, draw pictures or talk about what to find.
Dates
Learning Journey Drop In’s
Tuesday 12 December and Thursday 14 December
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Day and Night
This week in our light and dark topic, we’ve been learning about day and night.
Night Monkey, Day Monkey
We’ve been reading Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson.
The story follows two monkeys who find themselves awake at their opposite times of day. They are very confused by what they see and need help understanding everything! Our word of the week is: nocturnal. We know that nocturnal means “active at night”
We’ve been writing about nocturnal animals and features of day/night.
Science: shadows
We’ve been making further investigations into shadows, by spotting them outside and by using our dark tent. We know that to make a shadow, we need a source of light. When that source of light is blocked, it casts a shadow. We explored using mirrors to reflect lights differently and used colour paddles to change the colour being projected onto the tent wall.
Outside, the sun is light- Albie S
The shadow is made ’cause I put my hand there- Reggie
When the torch is closer to my hand it’s bigger (the shadow) … it’s smaller far away- Dawson
Look- yellow (colour paddle) makes it look like the sun!- Heidi
Maths; part-whole
In Maths, we’ve been looking at the ‘parts’ that make the whole of something. For example, the parts of us that make our whole body. Our head, eyes, legs etc. are the parts, our body is the whole.
This leads on to understanding the composition of number; the parts that can be added together to make a whole number.
The children were introduced to a part-part-whole model and how objects can be used with it, to explore the parts of a number.
PE; Gymnastics
This half term, Friday PE sessions are gymnastics. We are exploring movement and balance, developing fundamental skills and learning how to demonstrate our skills to others.
Living and learning; e-safety
This week’s living and learning statement is: I know how important it is to make careful choices when online
The key message in Reception is to tell a trusted adult when something happens online that feels unsafe or unusual. Also, that internet use should be monitored by an adult. We also spoke about why we should limit screen time, for our health.
We watched and listened to the story of Smartie the Penguin
The story gives examples of different scenarios that could happen online and has a song that runs throughout, that reminds children what to do:
Before you tap and click,
You need to stop and think,
and TELL SOMEONE!
Phonics
Autumn 2 week 3 has focused on the single letter phoneme z and digraphs zz, qu, ch
We’ve learnt the tricky words; go, no, to, into
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing what’s in the box and writing the words to match pictures we find.
In the reading area, we’ve been tricky word detectives. We’ve been finding a ‘tricky word of the day’ in books and taking a picture of them with an iPad.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Shoes
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Help at home; Stars
Next week, we’ll be looking to the skies again! We are learning about the night sky and stars.
We know this is a topic of interest for many children in Reception. If you have any books or resources to share that are linked to this topic, we would love to see them.
Christmas production
We’ve had a few questions about our upcoming Christmas production. The dates of which can be found on the school calendar (homepage).
This week, the children have chosen the part they would like to play. There are some speaking and some non-speaking roles. Children had the option to choose from either of these.
We will shortly be sending home the parts they have chosen, costume suggestions and lines to learn (for those who have them)
Let the festivities begin!!!
