OUR CLASS

Welcome to the Reception class page!

We are a very caring and creative class. We have really enjoyed building new friendships and exploring new learning opportunities at school. We love exploring our new learning environment during our child initiated learning.

Easter 

This week we have been learning about the celebration of Easter. 

We learned about the Easter story and discussed how Easter is celebrated. 

We created our own Easter cards to share with our family and to celebrate. 

“Because the rock roll over and he was up on the hill.” 
 

“Because Jesus died.” 
 

“Jesus came back.” 
 

“Jesus died. He came back again.” 
 

“On Easter Sunday Jesus came back alive.” 

Chicks

In Reception, we have been learning about the life cycle of chickens, from egg to chick. 

We have had eggs come to our school and we have looked after them as they have grown into chicks.

We learned that chicks grow inside eggs for three weeks. The eggs stayed in an incubator so that they could stay safe and warm. When the chick is ready, they start pipping. This is when they use their beak to tap the egg to crack, and they hatch from their egg.

We were very gentle when handling the chicks. We held our hands carefully and we were very quiet so that the chicks did not become frightened.

World Book Day

George Street Primary School dressed up as a word for World Book Day. We all thought carefully about what our words meant.

Our words included:

• Intelligent
• Love
• Kind
• Strong
• Brave
• Pattern
• Beautiful 

Reception had year 6 come over to share stories and read a book with us. We also had an author visit our school earlier in the week. He told us a very silly story about a cat being stuck in a tree. We really enjoyed his visit.

Lunar New Year 2023

We have been learning about the celebration of Lunar New Year. 

Lunar New Year was celebrated on the 22nd January 2023. 

We learned that this year is the year of the Rabbit. 

We also explored how people prepare for their celebrations of the Lunar New Year; by cleaning their homes to welcome the new year and by decorating their homes with lanterns. 

We created our own lanterns to decorate the classroom. 

The children used red paper and folded it in half, then cut strips part way through the paper. They stuck the edges together using glue and then attached a handle. The children were able to decorate their lanterns using their choice of paint and sequins.

Art week 

Wb 30.01.23

This week in Reception we have been developing our drawing skills.

We built upon our drawing skills throughout the week, adding more detail and complexity. We started by drawing our hands, then our faces and then focusing upon the features of our faces and adding emotion.

We have also explored a range of artistic effects within our hand control activities, focusing on different artists such as Mondrian, Kandinsky and Matisse.

AUTUMN 2022

Important dates

Thursday 1st September

First day back 

 Monday 24th October to Friday 28th October

 Half-Term holidays

 Monday 31st October

 Inset Day

 Tuesday 1st November

 Return to school

 Friday 2nd December

 Occasional Day

 Tuesday 20th December

 2pm finish for Christmas

Notices

Forest School is every Tuesday afternoon, please bring in a pair of wellie boots for your child to wear. We have school weatherproof overalls that your child can wear when the weather is wet. 

PE is every Friday morning. Your child will need their PE kit consisting of black shorts, their group colour t-shirt and suitable shoes. 

Reading 

Every Friday morning we invite parents / carers into class to read a story with your child. 

The children will also take home a different reading book and library book every Friday. Please make sure that they have their book bags at school so that these can be changed. 

Please read with your child every day and record this in their reading record. 

Reminder

Please name all belongings to help your child when changing for PE and finding home things at the end of the day. 

AUTUMN CURRICULUM NEWSLETTER

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO THIS TERM

This term we are exploring the whole school theme and learning about Africa. 

We have started by learning about the African Savannahs and the wild animals that live in Africa. 

We have been exploring the animals through role play, stories and building up our explorative play during child initiated learning. 

We have been building relationships during our child initiated learning and have been working as a team when using construction and engaging in role play in the home corner. 

We are also very excited about our new climbing frame in the outside area, we have been building our physical strength and development by swinging, climbing and balancing on the frame. 

Maths

In maths we have been exploring and developing our awareness of subitising; being able to recognise an amount without needing to count the objects individually. 

We have played a range of games using dice and playing cards to build our recognition of amounts, and we have used objects such as gems to mimic patterns using dice, and then rearrange the pattern to show that the total is still the same. 

We then moved onto counting using one to one correspondence; touch counting objects individually and counting one object at a time. We were also building our understanding that the last number counted is the total amount of the set. 

Forest School

In reception, we have been investigating and exploring the season of Autumn in Forest School. 

We have noticed that the leaves are falling from the trees and the weather is turning colder. We used the leaves to create leaf pictures using paint.

We have also been using natural resources such as conkers for conker rolling, and using the natural dye in flowers to create flower pictures.

Black History Month 

For Black History Month in History Week, we read the book My Afro: Twin Best Friends by the author  

Tiana-Rose Akoh-Arrey.

Tiana-Rose Akoh-Arrey was an 8 year old girl who wrote her book to inspire other children to feel proud of themselves, and to recognise that we are all unique and special in our own way.

We used mirrors to explore how we are unique and special and we discussed as a group why we feel special.

We then created our own self-portraits using oil pastels to show how we are all unique.