Summer Term 2 - Week 6

Another busy busy week in Reception Class!

In Literacy we have been writing about what we want to get better at in Year 1 and we have also been developing our understanding of speech bubbles. In Phonics we have continued to consolidate our Phase 3 learning through Phase 4 words and we have been practising applying this in sentences (both Reading and writing). In Maths we have been focussing on addition and subtraction number sentences.  We have continued to enjoy our curricular enhancements of French, Gymnastics and Music.
 

On Friday, we had a non-uniform day to celebrate England being in the Euros Final! We loved dressing up in red white and blue! We also did lots of fun activities related to England; making England flags and writing speech bubbles for what we would say to the England team! ☺️🌟 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 

On Thursday Reception Class showcased their learning from their Gymnastics sessions this term with a performance. They loved sharing their learning with their parents! A big thank you to all the parents that made it to watch our Under the Sea routine, ☺️ 🌊 

Summer Term 2 - Week 5

We have had a wonderful week that has included our transition sessions where we have been in Year 1 with our new teachers Miss Bateson and Mrs Fenwick for two days! We had a fantastic couple of days in our new class and it was clear how ready we all our for our step up into our next class! ☺️🌟 We also had our ‘wear it blue’ day on Friday for East Lancashire hospice/NHS Birthday. 
 

In Literacy we have been writing about our new class and what we are most looking forward to learn8ng and exploring next year in Year 1. In Phonics we have continued to consolidate our Phase 3 learning through Phase 4 words and we have been practising applying this in sentences (both Reading and writing). In Maths we have been focussing on positional language.  We have continued to enjoy our curricular enhancements of French, Gymnastics and Music. We have particularly impressed Miss Clayton with our Gymnastics routine practice, ready for our ‘Under the Sea’ performance to our parents next Thursday. ☺️🌟

Summer Term 2 - Week 4

We have had a busy week in Reception Class. During Literacy this week we have been looking at poetry. In particular sensory poems, we listened to and chanted seaside poems and then wrote our own sensory seaside poem. On Wednesday we had our OAL session out in the woods, in the woods we sat to discuss what we could see, feel, hear, taste and smell. In our literacy session the next morning we wrote our own sensory poems about the woods. We enjoyed exploring the woods, climbing and clambering over branches and walking through the stream which was very shallow today! 

In Phonics we have continued to consolidate our Phase 3 learning through Phase 4 words and we have been practising applying this in sentences (both Reading and writing). In Maths we have been focussing on patterns.  We have continued to enjoy our curricular enhancements of French, Gymnastics and Music. 

On Friday, Reception were very excited to have their 'seaside' day in school, linking to their core text this term 'What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside' by Julia Donaldson. We had a fun filled day of seaside activities that ended with parents or careers joining them for a seaside stay and play! We loved sharing our learning with you! ☺️☀️🏖

Summer Term 2 - Week 3

We have had a busy week in Reception Class. During Literacy this week we have been focusing on the characters in our core text; What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside. Our writing opportunities this week have included; writing a list of characters from the text and writing sentences to describe the characters in the text.  In Phonics we have continued to consolidate our Phase 3 learning through Phase 4 words and we have been practising applying this in sentences (both Reading and writing). In Maths we have continued our learning of doubles, as well as sharing equally.  This week our provision has been buzzing with independent writing including; writing books, writing about pictures and our current interests! We have enjoyed our curricular enhancements of French, Gymnastics and Music. 

Summer Term 2 - Week 1

On our first day back we have enjoyed sharing and writing about our half term holiday -  we have also enjoyed learning through play in our newly enhanced indoor and outdoor classroom provision.  This week we have begun our ‘beside the sea’ topic. In Literacy, we have began exploring our core text ‘What the Ladybird heard at the Seaside’.  We have started the topic by writing about our own experiences and knowledge of the seaside, as well as writing about the seaside setting in our core text. In Phonics our Phase 4 learning has continued, this week we have been developing CCCVC and CCCVCC words such as 'springs', we have been writing sentences with these words - we have been particularly focused on letter formation and remembering finger spaces!  During Maths this week we have been focused on sharing and grouping, we have been discussing sharing amounts equally and unequally. 

We had Mr Richards join us who is going to be teaching us Music on a Friday afternoon, this week during our music time the children enjoyed learning silly songs while tapping and patting different parts of our bodies.  The children were really good at finding the beat/tempo  both fast and slow. During our French lesson this week the children have begun learning some French words for things they could take on a picnic.  They listened to a story in French about a mouse who went on a picnic and what he had to eat. The children learnt the French words for bread, cake and cheese. In PE we started with laps around the trail for our daily mile then have practiced passing skills such as rolling and throwing with our peers. 

Summer 1 - Week 6

What a fantastic last week of this half-term! During this busy week we have participated in Sports Day on Monday with help from our wonderful Year 6 buddies!  The children showed excellent perseverance and determination in all the events! On Tuesday, we had our Behaviour Treat where we learnt how to perform circus acts. The children had an amazing time learning how to spin plates, juggling, walking on stilts and twirling ribbons. On Friday we welcomed our Pre-School friends into Reception Class to join us for a Royal tea party! The children made sandwiches, cakes and drinks for their tea party and enjoyed writing labels and menus for the Pre-School children. :) 

As well as all of these exciting enhancements to our curriculum we have continued our Phase 4 phonics learning, we have been writing our own adaptations of the Queens hat story 'The Kings Hat' in Literacy and have begun to explore sharing and grouping within maths. 

The EYFS team are so proud of the progress all the children have made this half term in their learning and development in school. We are very much looking forward to the next and final half term in Reception class and supporting the children in their transition to Year 1.

Summer 1 Week 5

This week, in Phonics we have contiyed our development within Phase 4, reading CVCC and CCVC words.  We have also been recapping our recently learnt tricky words. In Maths we have been exploring 2D shapes, by manipulating and rotating these shapes.

We have had another busy and exciting week focussing on ‘Kings and Queens’! During our topic work this week we have been learning about King Charles the Third. We started by telling our friends what we knew about the king, some of us knew his name and that he was married to Queen Camilla!  We watched a video timeline of King Charles and his life then together we recalled facts we had heard.  We have also had a walk to see the Kings portrait we have on display in school from the coronation. We then listened to the story ‘The Kings hats’ and have designed a new hat for the king! 

On Wednesday we had a wonderful day on our class trip to Hoghton Tower! We enjoyed consolidating our learning of Kings and Queens whilst exploring and touring the different rooms at Hoghton Tower. 

We had a wonderful knighting ceremony where some children were selected to be knighted for things they were proud of being good at. ☺️ The children tell me that they enjoyed; looking in the bedrooms; seeing the amazing doll house collection; and going in the underground tunnels to the servants quarters. All the children were absolutely fantastic and a credit to St.Paul’s. 👏 

We have then enjoyed writing about our favourite parts of our school trip during our literacy on Thursday. 

Summer 1 - Week 4

Reception Class have arrived at school after the bank holiday to find 6 of our chicks had hatched from their eggs and we were able to watch our 7^th chick hatching throughout the day!  The children have absolutely loved watching the hatching egg, caring for the chicks and have loved holding the chicks! The children have written about the chicks after their experiences with them. 

This week, in Phonics we have began our development within Phase 4 which builds on the children's learning from Phase 2 & 3.  We have also been recapping our recently learnt tricky words.  In our literacy sessions we have been applying our phonics knowledge into our writing through the different settings in our core text ‘The Queens Hat’.  In Maths we have been exploring adding and taking away. We have been writing and solving addition and subtraction number sentences.

In French this week we have recapped types of food and drink we might find in a cafe. We have then been practising to ask for these foods in a cafe, politely by saying ‘S’il vous plait’.

In the Provision this week we have seen some amazing independent writing and creativity within the children, here are some of our photos... 

Summer 1 - Week 3 

This week, in Phonics we have been recapping our new phoneme/grapheme's: oi, ow, ear, air, ure and er.  We have also been recapping our recently learnt tricky words.  In our literacy sessions we have been applying our phonics knowledge into our writing. We have been enjoying writing about the characters and settings in our core text ‘The Queens Hat’.  In Maths we have been looking at number bonds to 10 (and up to 20) and writing number sentences to represent these number bonds. 

Our Physical Development session with coach Marcus was all about jumping, with a focus on the long jump. The children enjoyed learning the techniques for jumping. Including bending our knees, leaning forward and swinging our arms.  We have also had a fabulous gymnastics session with Mrs Winward on Thursday morning! At first we did our warm up moves by jumping, running on the spot and stretching. We then practiced our gymnastics moves tuck, pike and straddle. Once we were warmed up we practised our forward rolls which we are getting good at! We all tried extra hard and did really well - as a treat we finished our session by moving and stretching with the scarves to music. ☺️🌟

On Thursday afternoon it was our outdoor learning session we went into the woods to create nature flags. We chose the perfect stick then searched for leaves or other natural resources that we wanted to attach to our flag. We then went to the paddock and explored with our peers. We finished by having our milk and snack out in nature. ☺️🍃

Summer 1 Week 2

During our Literacy learning, we have started to explore our core text - The Queens Hat by Steve Antony.  We have listened and responded to the text, as well as retelling where the Queens Hat had landed in the story and writing speech bubbles for the Queen - we found it very funny reading these out to our partners in a posh 'Queen's' voice.  This week during our writing groups we have been writing character descriptions of the Queen and the Queen's men. 

This week in Phonics we have learnt new sounds: air, ure & er; we have played games alongside our phonics sessions to embed our learning of these sounds and have been engaging in tricky word challenges in provision.  In Maths we have been focused on comparing and ordering and number bonds 10-20, we have explored these objectives in the maths area and during group sessions on the carpet.  During provision we have particularly enjoyed reading in our outdoor area, using the Physical Development equipment outdoors and our Role Play castle where we have been dressing up and princesses and knights. Our curriculum enhancements this week have included our French session, learning breakfast foods in French and our Gymnastics session where we have been practising gymnastic poses and practicing our balancing skills. 

Summer 1 Week 1

Welcome back to another busy term at St Paul’s. As usual, we have some exciting learning opportunities in place for the children over the next 12 weeks, including a class trip to Hoghton tower! This half term our topic is 'Kings and Queens' and our core text focus is 'The Queens Hat'. 

We began our week with an assembly with Mr Dugdale who shared our new ‘Hoddlesden Hero’ initiative! We are now using 'Dojo' a point reward system where we can earn points for working hard, being resilient and being kind to others! We also get different points from the going for gold chart! (for more information on our 'Behaviour rewards' see the 'CHILDREN' tab on the website. :) 

This week during Phonics we have recapped our prior learning and have learnt a new sound: oi & ear.  During Maths we have begun our ‘20 and beyond’ unit and have been exploring numbers from 10 to 20.

In provision, the children are enjoying exploring the newly enhanced role play area, focusing on our theme this term of Kings and Queens. They have all taken care getting ready using the available resources to dress themselves up and have had lots of fun playing tea parties and role playing weddings! We have also explored the small world castle set up in the small world area and have been writing letters to disney princes and princesses in the writing area! 

We have begun our wonderful Gymnastics sessions for Physical Development and continued our Gross motor sessions with the Edstart coaches. 

This week we have had a visit from the oral health team at 'my dentist'. We talked about the importance of teeth brushing and how often we should go to the dentist (every 6 months). We asked some questions about our teeth and shared what we knew about the dentist. We enjoyed playing a games about foods where we had to decide which foods were good or bad for our teeth.

This week we have also had a special deliver of hen eggs!  These are nice and safe in our incubator for us to observe and care for until the chicks hatch - we are super excited! We have been exploring the lifecycles of chickens this week and will continue throughout this half term. 

We ended our week by Hopping, Skipping, and Jumping for East Lancashire Hospice, well done to all of the children for their enthusiasm and determination for the great cause. 

Spring 2 - Week 6

This week, in Phonics our new phoneme/grapheme's are: ur and ow. Our tricky words this week are do and come In Maths we have been continuing to look at numbers 9 and 10, working out number sentences and finding different ways to compose these numbers. In Literary we have been using our story map plans to write our own Jack and the Beanstalk stories. We have also made our Easter cards and enjoyed writing them for our families. 

On Tuesday, we thoroughly enjoyed our Behaviour Treat, which was an inflatable obstacle course! Great fun was had by all of us! 

At the start of the week we had a special worship led by Jess and Eliza in Year 5. They told us all about Holy Week. Then, on Wednesday, we had a special afternoon called Spirituality Afternoon. We started with a worship with Reverend Ben and then we had three different sessions in the afternoon. We learnt more about three of the important events of Holy Week, thinking about Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus washing the disciples' feet on Maundy Thursday and Jesus dying and then coming back to life on Easter Sunday. We made a palm cross, thought about what we could do for people to help them after a hard day (instead of washing their feet!) and wrote a prayer of thanks to God for what Jesus did at Easter.

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter Holidays. 💛💚

Spring 2 - Week 5 

This week, in Phonics we have been recapping our new phoneme/grapheme's: ai, ee, igh oa, oo (long) and oo (short), ar & or.  We have also been recapping our recently learnt tricky words.  In our literacy sessions we have been applying our phonics knowledge into our writing. We have been enjoying telling and writing story maps of our core text Jack and the beanstalk.  In Maths we have been looking at time, exploring numbers 9 and 10, looking into the composition of these numbers and also writing number sentences to make these numbers. 
 

On Friday Afternoon we have had a visit from the author Simon Hunt, who read us one of the stories he has written ‘Delilah Rose the Bogey Princess’. We enjoyed listening and joining in with the silly, snotty story! 

Our curriculum enhancements this week have included our French session, this was our last session this term and the children’s hard work has really paid off! We have learnt lots of new vocabulary during our French sessions, enough to retell the whole story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in French! 

We did some fantastic counting and remembered all the days of the week. We also remembered the fruits that the caterpillar ate, as well as words like: solei ☀️, la lune 🌙, fuille 🌿, chenille 🐛 and papillon 🦋. 

Amazing!

In our physical development session we took part in another circuit to support our gross motor skills. They used lots of strength and balance to complete the different tasks and their team work has been amazing! 

The children have been cheering each other on and helping their friends with the tough challenges, showing lots of perseverance when the task was tricky!

In reception, we just keep going! 💪

Jack and the Beanstalk Story Event 

We warmed up by practicing tapping the rhythm and the beat. Warming our voices and our faces up for singing! We learnt about the musical instruments in the mini orchestra and also discussed the composer of the music. 

Then the story began! We listened to the story being told by the narrator, watched the actors and joined in with the songs about the story. What a wonderful musical afternoon we had, exploring our core text! 

Spring 2 - Week 3 

This week, in Phonics our new phoneme/grapheme's are: oo (as in moon) and oo (as in book). Our tricky words this week are said and when. We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences.  In Maths we have been looking at time, exploring time and playing practical games like how many times can you write your name in one minute. 
 

On Thursday Afternoon we had a wonderful trip to watch a performance of our core text - Jack and the Beanstalk.  We warmed up by practicing tapping the rhythm and the beat. Warming our voices and our faces up for singing! We learnt about the musical instruments in the mini orchestra and also discussed the composer of the music. We then joined in the sing along performance and had a wonderful time! 

On Friday, EYFS have had a wonderful World Book Day, which has included a character catwalk, sharing our wonderful books from home and using our early writing skills to write about the pirates in our whole school focus text - The Pirates Next Door. What an exciting day! 
 

Our curriculum enhancements this week have included our French session, continuing to learn and practise the days of the week in French and In our PE session we enjoyed using a variety of different equipment and apparatus. We used our bodies in a variety of ways and each station required a different skill such as strength, listening and attention and balancing.

Spring 2- Week 2

Another fantastic week in Reception Class!

In Phonics our new learning has been ‘oa’ goat, coat, float and ‘igh’ high, sight, fright. Our tricky word has been ‘like’, it has been great to see the children taking this knowledge into provision, the writing area this week has been a favourite this week, I have seen lots of us producing our own independent writing. In Literacy, we have been using descriptive words about popular characters from our core text ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

In Maths we have been exploring length, using specific vocabulary such as ‘longer than’ and ‘shorter than’. We have been comparing height of people in our classroom as well as different objects.

In P.E, we continued to develop our throwing and catching skills. We also did a circuit using different equipment, focusing on our balance and strength.

We had a fun afternoon looking at the artist Georgia O’Keeffe in Expressive Arts and Design this week. We did a carousel and had a different activity on each table. We practiced our cutting and sticking skills cutting out petals and pollens and constructing a flower. We did some lovely fine art illustrations of flowers, and especially enjoyed mixing watercolour paints to produce some fantastic flower paintings.

Spring 2 Week 1

Welcome back! What a fantastic week it has been.

This term our focus is ‘treasured tales’. Our class core text is Jack and the beanstalk. In Literacy we have enjoyed reading the story and becoming familiar with it. We have wrote setting description’s and also described characters from the book. We done some great writing and illustrations when story mapping our own versions of the story.

In Maths, we have been exploring and comparing length using different objects around our provision. 

This term we are very lucky to have Coach Marcus join us for P.E. We are practicing our ball skills, and working as a team taking part in different games. I had some fantastic feedback from Coach Marcus as to how great we are!

On Thursday, In P.E with Miss Clayton Reception Class all took part in a circuit. We had a demonstration on each station, showing us how to use equipment safely. We all listened extremely well and enjoyed taking part in the different activities. Each activity required a different skill, such as, strength teamwork and listening. We were all very proud of the determination and perseverance shown by everybody.

In French, after learning fruit last half term we are now moving onto different foods. We first recapped our learning from last term. We then listened to the story ‘The hungry caterpillar’, during the book we have discussed and practised saying the different food the caterpillar ate, in French. During this term we are going to be learning and performing this story in French!

Spring 1 - Week 5

We have had a wonderful last week of our short spring term 1! 

In Literacy, we have been innovating our own ‘Lost and found’ stories. On Tuesday we planned our stories using story maps. In our stories we open our front door to find a Arctic or Jungle animal, we then plan how to get the animal back home just like the boy does in the lost and found book! We have loved creating our own adventures and have spent time working really hard to write our own books. 
This week, in Phonics we have been consolidating this weeks sounds. We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences.  In Maths we have been consolidating our learning from this term, looking at the numbers up to 8, working on composing each number, showing more and less than these numbers and creating number sentences. 

On Wednesday, we were very excited to have our parents or guardians in for our Spring Term Stay and Play session, we had lots of fun sharing our learning and our provision activities with our grown ups. 

Spring 1 - Week 4

It has been another busy week of learning in Reception Class! 
 In Literacy, we have been exploring our second core text ‘The Jungle Book’, we have been describing the characters and then the jungle setting.
This week, in Phonics our new phoneme/grapheme's are: th, th (alternative) & ng. Our tricky words this week are you and they. We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences.  In Maths we have been looking at the numbers 6,7 & 8, working on composing each number, showing more and less than these numbers and creating number sentences. 
In provision we have enjoyed exploring the Chinese new year provision enhancement. The children have enjoyed asking lots of questions, comparing the food with food they have at home and looking at the animal representing the year they were born. We also discovered using chopsticks is rather tricky!

We have been continuing to learn our fruits in French! We started to learn some of the French colours of the fruit such as orange, red and yellow! We enjoyed watching a video and playing a game!

On Friday, we have loved celebrating ‘number day’. We have taken part in different maths activities, and spoke all things numbers! Thank you everyone for the wonderful effort on your number outfits. ⭐️👏

Spring 1 - Week 3

It has been another busy week of learning in Reception Class! 
 In Literacy, continuing with our core text ‘Lost and Found’, we have been innovating the story with our wonderful imaginations. We have created a new way for the penguin to get across the ocean - some of us chose rockets, mermaids and helicopters! 
This week, in Phonics our new phoneme/grapheme's are: qu, ch & sh. Our tricky words this week are my and was. We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences.  In Maths we have been looking at the concepts or more and less with numbers up to 5 and have also been exploring capacity and weight.  We have continued our PE sessions with Mr Gavin and have continued our French sessions with Madame Wardle - learning fruit names! In our Expressive Arts and Design session this week we have focused on our drawing skills and using these skills to create observational drawings of penguins. We have also done a science (UTW) experiment to develop our understanding of the ‘melting’ process. 
On Wednesday half the class enjoyed developing their balance skills at at Junction 4 Skatepark and the other half of the class went on a nature hunt during their outdoor learning session on the Paddock.

Spring Term 1 - Week 2 ❄️

What a wonderfully winter week in Reception! ⛄️ We have had lots of time spent on the paddock this week, exploring the Winter season! We have been talking about the snowy weather we have; making snowmen in the soft fresh snow then exploring the crunchy snow and ice as the week has gone on. The children enjoyed talking about the weather and using words to describe the snow. Some of us found sticks to form our letters in the snow. We especially enjoyed making snow men and superman sliding down the hill! 💫 We all have so much fun in the snow. 
 

In Literacy, we have continued exploring the text Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. During our adult led literacy activities we have written character descriptions about the Boy and we have been story sequencing by creating story maps - writing captions about key events in the story.  We have loved exploring our enhanced provision areas, creating snowflakes in the creative area and exploring ice in the malleable area. 
 

This week in Phonics, our new phoneme/grapheme's are: x, y, z & zz. Our tricky words this week are me, be and we. We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences.  In Maths continuing our ‘Alive in 5’ theme, we have been representing numbers 0 to 5 and practising how to form these letters.  In our Expressive Arts and Design session this week we have continued to be focused on learning about warm and cool colours - we have created colour strips using water colours to represent the warm and cool colours. 

In our French session with Madame Wardle we have enjoyed continuing to learn fruit. During this session we practised how to say banana, orange, apple and peach in french! We have been learning a song with actions and played a game to help us remember these!

Spring Term 1 - Week 1

After a wonderful Christmas break, we have started the New Year and Spring term with lots of fun in our EYFS class.  We have loved sharing our news from the holiday as well as talking about our fantastic New Years resolutions, here are some of our resolutions: 

"I want to get better at fastening my coat"

"I am going to learn how to do my new roller skates"

"get better at sleeping in my bed without Mummy and Daddy"

We have spent this week settling back into school, learning our new routines and continuing to build relationships with our peers.  In Literacy, we will be exploring the text Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and The Jungle Book. This week we started reading our story lost and found, we have been describing the setting of the story by writing winter words and have also written character descriptions about the penguin. We have begun to exploring our newly enhanced provision, with an Arctic small world and winter shop in the role play area.  This week, as well as recapping the phase 2 learning from Autumn term, we have also began Phase 3. Our new phoneme/grapheme's are: j, v and w. Our tricky words this week are he and she. We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences.  In Maths we have started our new ‘Alive in 5’ theme, looking at numbers 0 to 5 and different ways we can represent these numbers.  We have continued our PE sessions with Mr Gavin and have continued our French sessions with Madame Wardle. In our Expressive Arts and Design session this week we have focused on learning about warm and cool colours - we painted colour wheels to show the two. On Wednesday afternoons half the class are attending their British Cycling Award sessions at Junction 4 Skatepark and the other half are participating in outdoor learning sessions on the Paddock - this began this week and we all had such wonderful fun developing our Physical skills.

Autumn Term

Autumn Term 2 - Week 7

What a wonderfully busy and festive week we have had in Reception Class! Our short week has included a class party, making Christmas cards, decorating Christmas gifts for home and it finished with a surprise visit from two reindeer brought by Santas elves! 
 

We enjoyed Christmas jumper day and a delicious Christmas dinner! We also enjoyed a visit from a very special visitor! We asked him lots of questions and told him some things from our Christmas list. Father Christmas was beyond impressed with how fantastic we were at sitting and listening ⭐️🎄🎅

Friday 15th December

This afternoon we have been busy exploring ‘Christmas around the world’. 

We each got a passport and travelled around the different themed tables. Our activity tables were; the United Kingdom; Sweden; India; Germany; and Ukraine. 

We were very excited to have Ms. Kershaw, our Chair of Governors, in for the afternoon and loved sharing our own Christmas traditions with her. 

I'm sure Reception children will love to share their learning with you at home. 😊 

Here is little video of our adventures this afternoon…

Autumn Term 2 - Week 6

The children have been working very hard this week, practising for their nativity. Thank you to all who have been practising their lines and songs at home, we are very impressed with your hard work. The children have been trying on their costumes this week and making sure that the nativity is perfect for their performance on Thursday and Friday. 
 

Alongside our wonderful Nativity, we have been busy with our Elf Enterprise products for the Christmas fair. The EYFS children have worked together to design and make; gift tags; Christmas dog treat bags; Reindeer food; and Reindeer chocolate lolly pops. 

We have continued with our curriculum subjects this week around our busy extra curricular activities. During phonics we have been consolidating phase two sounds and practising handwriting, this week our focus has been the following graphemes- h, l, i, m, n. During maths we have been consolidating numbers up to 5, representing numbers and practising our 1:1 correspondence. In PE we have been developing our gross motor skills with Mr Gavin, in particular our throwing and catching. 

Autumn Term 2 - Week 5

Another amazing week in Reception! This week, during Phonics we have been consolidating our last set of Phase 2 sounds: c, k, ck, ss, ff, f, l, ll. This week we have continued consolidating all our learnt tricky words; I, no, go, to, the and into.  We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences too! 
In Literacy we have continued focusing on our core text - The Elves and the Shoemakers. This week we have been sequencing and retelling the story. We have also watched a video of the shoemakers workshop tour and have written a list of items we spotted in his workshop.

In Maths our focus has been on the number 4 and 5. We have practised subitising the numbers, representing the numbers and matching numeral to the correct amount of objects. 

On Wednesday, the children had their second inclusive sports lesson.  After developing skills in the wheelchairs last week the children have had another session which involved control games and throwing & catching in the wheelchairs. We all had another fun and exciting session! 🦼 

We were very excited when arriving at school on Friday 1st December, seeing all the Christmas decorations in our classroom and around school!🎄 To finish the exciting week we attended the Mayors Christmas Concert at Victoria Hall in Bolton, where we enjoyed singing along to Christmas songs and carols! 

Autumn Term 2 - Week 4

It has been another busy week of learning in Reception Class. This week, during Phonics sessions we have learnt some new phoneme/grapheme's: ss, ll. This week we have recapped all our learnt tricky words.  We have all done fantastic writing, practicing these graphemes in words and sentences too! 
In Literacy we have been focusing on our core text - The Elves and the Shoemakers. This week, describing the characters in the story. Take a look below at some of our wonderful drawings and writing about the characters.

In Maths our focus has been shape; learning properties of circles and triangles; recognising these shapes in the environment; and exploring these two shapes by comparing size and properties. In provision we have really enjoyed drawing/stencilling these shapes with our peers to create designs using the different sizes. 
On Wednesday, the children had a chance to join in an inclusive sports lesson.  We talked about the similarities and differences between people and how some people use wheelchairs to move around.  They took turns to sit in a wheelchair and move around the space to music.  The children tried really hard to control their wheelchair using their gross motor skills. 

Autumn Term 2 - Week 3

We began the week celebrating Diwali, we had provision activities such as rangoli patterns in the sensory tray and diya (lamp) making in the play dough area. In our Literacy sessions this week we have continued the focus of Diwali, we have written a shopping list for ingredients to make a chapatti and after making chapatis in our food tech session we have written instructions for how to make chapatis! We enjoyed tasting the chapatis and some of us talked about making these with their families. ☺️ 
This week, in phonics our new learning is: l, f, ff.  We have practised the sounds through lots of wonderful games and we have also applied our phonics learning to our mark making and writing activities. In Maths we have been focussed on the composition of numbers up to 5, using part, part, whole. 

In the indoor and outdoor provision this week we have particularly enjoyed: role playing teachers; collecting autumn leaves using the litter pickers and brushes; cutting, sticking and mark making in the new post office area; painting using the water colours in the creative area; and constructing and exploring the dinosaurs in the construction area. 

We have also been trying really hard during our Christmas Nativity practise! 

Children in Need 2023
On Friday morning we had an assembly delivered by the schools Values Committee to educate us all on why we do Children in Need. 
We then had lots of fun in Reception class getting creative and doing activities for Children in Need. 
Thankyou to everyone for your kind donations and fantastic efforts. ⭐️😊

Autumn Term 2 - Week 2

It has been another busy week for Reception Class. We have been confidently exploring enhancements of provision, which have included creating poppies and role playing in the post office.  
 

We have continued our phonics development, this week focussed on consolidating our phonics knowledge. We have been practising our letter formation, and some of us have been writing words and short captions on the learning table. 

During our French session this week we have bee practising our colours, we did an excellent job remembering the colours that we learnt last week in French and playing games! Madame Wardle was very impressed!
"Red-rouge, White-blanc, Yellow-Jaune, Orange-orange, Green-vert, Purple-Violet, Pink-rose, Blue-bleu"

Reception class have walked up to Hoddlesden War Memorial to pay our respects for Remembrance Day.  

We have talked about the importance of ‘Remembrance Day’ and why we do this every year - to remember the fallen soldiers.  

We made sure to stay safe on our walk up and talked about road safety.

Autumn Term 2 - Week 1

The children have returned to school absolutely brilliantly!
They have shown so much resilience and confidence upon their return to school and in provision.  We have been on an Autumn walk around the local area, around the reservoir and woodland. We spotted many signs of Autumn and talked about road safety, 
 

During phonics we have recapped our previous learning from before the half term and we have also learnt the new GPC’s: h, r, b.  We have been practising writing and reading the sounds we know as well as applying them into CVC words or sentences.  In maths this week we have been busy learning about subitising, one more and one less than a number within our ‘Composition of 1, 2, 3’ focus. 
 

In provision this week we have particularly enjoyed exploring our story shelf around our core text ‘The elves and the shoemaker’, we have been role playing in our shoe shop; and we have been exploring places of significance for people in our community in the construction area.

On Thursday and Friday we have enjoyed focussed on bonfire night; learning how to keep safe; writing firework words; learning a bonfire night poem; creating firework paintings and listening to firework sounds! We hope you all have a fun, wonderful and safe Bonfire Night. 🎆🌟

Autumn Term 1 - Week 7

I can’t believe our last week of our first half term has finished! It has been an absolute pleasure to watch the children learn and grow over the last 7 weeks. They have all been wonderful and have thrived in their new environment.
 

In Phonics our new learning is; ck, e, u. We have been applying our phonics learning to read and write words or sentences! We have sent letter formation packs home with children of all the sounds we have learnt at school. 

In Maths we have been focussed on counting objects and numbers 1, 2 & 3.  In our Literacy sessions this week we have been writing autumn words and sentences- our writing tasks have been focused on hearing initial sounds in words and writing these, some of us have also been writing CVC words and sentences independently! ☺️
 

During our EAD session we have been focussed on the artist Alma Thomas - our classes Black History Month focus. We have been creating paintings in the style of her colourful artwork. 
 

Have a wonderful half term week and we will see you back on Monday 30th October. 🌟

Autumn Term 1 - Week 6

Well, another wonderful week has gone by in Reception class! 
 

In Phonics our new learning is; o, c & k. We have been applying our phonics learning to read and write words or sentences! 

In Maths we have been focussed on recognising and creating repeating patterns.  In our Literacy sessions this week our writing tasks have been focused on hearing initial sounds in words and writing these, some of us have also been writing CVC words and sentences independently! ☺️
 

We have had a fun PE lesson with Mr Gavin, developing our control and balance using beanbags.  In French this week, Madame Wardle recapped the children’s learning of the French Flag.  They learned the name of the flag, ‘Le Tricolore’, and the colours of the flag ‘blue, blanc, rouge’. 
 

On Friday, it was wonderful to see families joining us for our Autumn Term stay and play. The children were so happy to share their environment and learning with their families. - Thank you to everyone who was able to attend. 
 

Next week will be our final week before the October term holiday - we break up on Friday afternoon at our normal time. 

Autumn Term 1 - Week 5

We have had an exciting week in Reception class which has included our Outdoor Adventurous Learning session!  In Phonics we have been consolidating our learning up to this point of the sounds; s, a, t, p, I, n, m, d, g - we have been applying our phonics learning to read and write words or sentences! 

In our Literacy sessions this week we have been busy; writing our weekend news and writing about our Outdoor adventure on Tuesday. These writing tasks have been focused on hearing initial sounds in words and writing these, some of us have also been writing CVC words independently! ☺️
 

We have had a fun PE lesson with Mr Gavin! Mr Gavin put a mat in the middle of the hall, 4 children in the middle were on the ‘island’, the aim of the game is to escape! The music played and the children on the outside moved in lots of different ways around the hoops, when the music stopped everyone had to quickly get into a hoop! Whoever was left went onto the island to do an exercise. It required a lot of skills; moving around the hoop, skipping, jumping, hopping and side stepping. 
 

In French this week, Madame Wardle showed the children the French Flag.  They learned the name of the flag, ‘Le Tricolore’, and the colours of the flag ‘blue, blanc, rouge’. 

Autumn Term 1 - Week 4

We have had another amazing week in Reception! In phonics our new learning has been; m, d & g - we have been applying our phonics learning to read and write words or sentences! 👏🌟 In Maths we have been developing our knowledge of sorting and grouping objects. In Literacy we have been doing some amazing story telling, retelling our core text ‘The three little pigs’. In groups we have used visuals and props to retell the story to develop our communication and language skills. We have also been mark-making and using our early phonic knowledge to draw or write the story sequence.  
 

Reception have enjoyed their outdoor PE lesson. They moved around the hoops making their own patterns and moving in a variety of ways such as jumping, walking, skipping and hopping. The children practiced star jumps and Mr Gavin said with a little bit more practice everyone will be able to do them perfectly!  In our French learning this week, Madame Wardle introduced us to some animals in French and we used our prior learning of French greetings to introduce ourselves to the animals.
 

We have enjoyed lots of activities relating to MacMillan Coffee Morning, the children have enjoyed making cups of tea and coffee, role playing tea parties, cutting and sticking, and making some lovely designs on teapots and cakes to display in the hall for our Macmillan Coffee Afternoon. Thank you very much for your generous donations of cakes and for those who were able to join us for this afternoon! 

Autumn Term 1 - Week 3

We have had a very busy week!  In reception this week we have enjoyed exploring the provision with our peers, in particular; building Lego houses for the three little pigs; role playing house; and searching for mini beasts outdoors.

This week in phonics we have been learning our phase two sounds; i, n & p.  The children have been fabulous in our phonics sessions, doing great listening and following instructions. We have also been practising forming our new graphemes through; mark making in sand; with paint; using the whiteboards and outdoors with chalk. 

It was wonderful to see the children sharing their Reception class provision with their parents during our ‘Meet and Greet’ session on Tuesday.  The children loved showing their parents all the wonderful areas they love to play and learn in at school.

The Reception children who are currently completing the Youth British Cycling Award at Junction 5 Skatepark have had another wonderful session this week.  With the children's confidence on the balance bikes developing they have been given balance and strength development challenges this week such as; pushing with just one leg; manoeuvring around cones; and controlling their bike up and down slopes. The children were fantastic, showing great listening skills and all tried their very best!  
 

On Wednesday had a wonderful time during our African drumming workshop, helping us to develop listening skills, rhythm and different ways of making sound. ☺️

Well done children for another wonderful week! 

Autumn Term 1 - Week 2

We have had a brilliant second week in EYFS class. The children have continued to build relationships with peers and have explored the continuous provision with confidence.  The children have been absolutely fantastic in the big hall at lunchtime and have loved exploring the big playground and apparatus outdoors on the yard.
 

Miss Clayton has been so impressed with the children’s listening and involvement in their carpet and group sessions such as phonics, mark making (pencil control), French and worship.  During phonics this week our new learning has been: s, a & t. During our focussed provision time the children have had lots of opportunities to develop their fine motor skills, practise letter formation and writing their names. In our Reception outdoor area we have been focussed on developing our gross motor skills; creating obstacle courses with the tyres and planks; water painting using big brushes; and building using the large blocks.
 

Our extra learning experiences have included; a visit from the Life Education bus where we learnt about our bodies; our first session with Mr Gavin, our new sports coach on Tuesday; and the first group to visit Junction 4 skatepark for our bike award sessions. Superstars! 🌟

Autumn Term 1 - Week 1

Our First Week! 🌟☺️
 

The children have been absolutely amazing this week.  It has been great to observe the children interacting and becoming more familiar with the environment and each other. We can already see some special friendships forming and their great individual characters shining through.  The children have explored the indoor and outdoor provision wonderfully! They have also been superstars at lunch time where they learned how to get their cutlery, cup and tray independently. As well as provision, the children have accessed their first PE lessons and their first French session with Madame Wardle.
 

Miss Clayton is so proud of all the children for their confidence and resilience this week. Well done to all of Reception! We can't wait to see you all again, on Monday. 🌟👏