weekly news 26th

This week in Reception we have enjoyed bringing in our favourite books from home and have shared lots with our classes already. The children have been brave, coming to the front of the class to talk about their favourite part of the story and why the like it. The teachers have then read the story to the class. We will continue to share these books next week so your child will still have time to bring one in if they haven’t yet. 

On Monday we played a pirate bingo game in Maths. The children showed us which numbers they could recognise up to 16 and enjoyed picking out pirate treasure from a chest to place over their numbers. 

We have been getting stuck into our Power of Reading story called Grendel: A cautionary Tale about Chocolate. This will be our focus story for the rest of the half term and we will be dipping in and out of it as we read a few pages at a time. So far we have found out that Grendel lives in a cave with his mum and he loves three things: his mum, his dog and chocolate! The children then shared the things they love and lots of children chose to draw pictures of these things on a heart which they then cut out themselves. We discussed what sort of character we think Grendel is when he snatches the chocolate off his mum and runs away to eat it. We recorded ideas on post it notes and are making a working wall of our learning. We have also had chocolate play dough out in our enhanced provision where the children have been creating their own chocolate worlds. 

On Wednesday the children enjoyed their second PE and Music sessions in the morning and in the afternoon, they had great fun using the bikes and scooters outside.  

This week we have also been learning to use our outside areas and lots of children have really enjoyed spending time in the different areas such as the Jurassic world, sand pit, builder’s area and exploring the cars with ramps.  

Please can all children have a rain coat in school every day and could we ask you to name your child’s lunch box on the outside so that the lunch time staff can help the children find their lunch boxes.  

You should have received your child’s login details for Education City and Active Learn. The school code for Active learn is 99kq. 

We will be leaving out green speech bubbles with a question on from time to time. Please can you spare a minute and write a comment on it with your child’s name and place it in the pot provided. 

Lots of the lovely learning we have been doing has been added to tapestry this week. Please take a look to see photos and observations of your child and add a ‘like’ or comment. 

 

weekly news 18th September

This week we have been continuing to teach the children how to use the inside of our learning environment. The children are doing really well with looking after all our equipment and finding out where to tidy it away at the end of each session. The children are enjoying having their own 'special place' where they sit on our class carpets.
The children have been finding out all about each other when we have been reading their 'All about me' books to their class. The children have been sitting at the front of their class on a special chair while it is their turn and telling us about all the things that make them special.
This week many of the children have been having their lunch at school and afterwards playing on our adventure playground. After lunch the children have 'E.R.I.C' time in their class 'everyone reads in class'. The children all choose a book from a basket and sit and carefully look through the book for a few moments. The children are settling really well into all these new routines !
Also this week all the children have been doing a special 'focus' activity which has been to draw a picture of themselves in their school clothes and to try to write their name on their picture. We have been encouraging the children to look really carefully in a mirror to notice the shape of their face and the colour of their eyes and hair and then to choose the correct crayons for their picture. We will be displaying these pictures on your child's special display board around their classroom so do please come and have a look at your child's picture.
We call Wednesdays 'Wonderful Wednesdays' in Reception because the children have a dance and music session in the morning which are always lots of fun !
From Monday 23rd September we would like your child to bring in a favourite book from home to show to their class. Please encourage your child to put their book in the basket/box by their teacher's chair. Each child will have a turn to show their book and to talk to their class about their favourite part of their book and to explain why they like it.
Please can you write your child's name in their book ?
From next Wednesday 25th September during the afternoon, we will be taking the children on the playground to use the school balance bikes and scooters so we would like to invite you to bring in a named helmet and leave it on your child's peg on a Wednesday. Please can you ensure that your child can put their helmet on and that it fits comfortably, we will of course assist the children with fastening/unfastening the clips.
Thank you very much to all the parents who have offered to help out in class.  This is a great help and enables us to put on lots of activities to further enrich the children's learning. Thank you also to all the parents who have helped out at lunch-time. Many of you have commented on the children's excellent behaviour and table manners !
Many of the children seem to be very tired in the afternoons and one or two have even nodded off to sleep ! Unfortunately at school we do not have anywhere for the children to have a nap, so please let us know if you can pick you child up at 11:45am especially at the end of the week if you find they are getting very tired or emotional during these early weeks of school. Thank you

weekly news 17th July

We have been enjoying our Aspirations week so far. We all looked brilliant on Monday dressed up showing what we would like to be when we grow up. Each morning we have been going into assembly and listening to different parents or governors telling us why they chose their particular career. Our visitors have been inspiring us by telling us all about what they do in their jobs and what training they had to do. Hopefully the children have been telling you all about it at home !

Adam and Emily Bidwell’s Mum came into class to tell us all about being a Science teacher. We found out about some of the equipment that she uses with her students and we explored some magnets, looked at a skeleton and a model of the human body. It was a very exciting morning !

It was great to see all the photos of the sunflowers that the children took home. We chose a winner in each class and they should have brought home a certificate and a small prize ! The tallest sunflower has reached an amazing 270cm so far ! Well done Elizabeth !

Thank you to all the parents who have already exported their child’s tapestry journal. Don’t forget to do this before the end of term next Wednesday in order to keep this wonderful record of your child’s learning journey so far.

At the end of this week your child will be bringing home a folder containing their ‘wow’ book and all the story scribes they have done over their reception year. It is so exciting to see the fantastic progress that all the children have made. They have all worked so hard this year and everyone who works with them comment on what well behaved and sensible children they are. It has been a pleasure to teach them this year !

At the end of the day on Friday, the children will also bring home their puddlesuits and P.E. kits and wellies. However, if you would like to take their puddlesuits and wellies before  Friday that would be fine. Please note we will need P.E. kits on Friday afternoon for the ‘Go 4 run’ on the common.

weekly news 10th July

The children seem to have had a really good few days getting to know what it will be like to be in Year 1. The staff in Year 1 have all commented on how well the children have been coming into school and on their fantastic listening skills.
For the last 2 weeks of this academic year we would like the children to come into their classrooms independently and put all their belongings away by themselves. However, if you have an important message to pass onto the staff, please feel free to pop in to tell us.
We will be collecting all of your child's school books in over the next few days and also your child's tricky word tag. We will be putting a copy of the sounds and tricky words that your child was able to read when we last checked them into their book bag for your reference.
At the end of next week we will be sending home a large folder with your child's 'wow' book and the stories that they have written this year. These stories are a wonderful reminder of how hard the children have worked this year and what they have achieved !
We will be sending home a sunflower competition sheet for your child to add a photo of their sunflower with it's measurement if they would like to be entered into our sunflower competition. Apologies about the change from uploading a photo on Tapestry, as this will no longer be possible because the children's accounts are being closed. Thank you to all the parents who have already downloaded their child's journal. If you haven't already downloaded your child's journal, please note that you have until the end of term to keep this wonderful memory of your child' learning journey so far.
Next week is Aspirations week and your child may come to school dressed as what they would like to do when they grow up.

weekly news 4th July

This week we have been learning the story of ‘The Frog Prince’. We took turns to read sentences from the story with our working partner and we put pictures from the story in the correct order.

We have been doing a final assessment of the children’s tricky word and sound knowledge and checking which word bag they are working on. There are 36 word bags in total and these will be continued in Year 1. At the end of next week we will start to collect all the school books and library books out of your child’s book bag so it would really help if you could have a hunt around at home to find any so that we can sort them ready for the end of term. We will also be collecting in your child’s tricky word tag and sending home a copy of their latest assessment so that you can see which sounds and tricky words your child can confidently read and which ones they still need to learn. A copy of this assessment will be passed onto your child’s next teacher so that they can continue with this learning.

In maths we have been thinking about the properties of numbers and finding out whether a certain number is odd or even, finding it on a number line and on a hundred square, showing it in lots of different ways using numicon and practising writing it. We have also been doing some problem-solving involving the 7 dwarfs from the story of ‘Snow white and the 7 dwarfs’. We used our understanding of various numbers to share diamonds and precious gems between the 7 dwarfs, making sure that they all had the same number !

As part of our transition into Year 1, we started a ‘story swap’ in which the teachers all go into a different class to read a story. The teachers who are going to teach in Year 1 came and read a story to our classes. On Friday you will find out whether your child is going to be in Caterpillars or Ladybirds. Next week is transition week and your child will spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in their new class with their new teacher learning all about the exciting things they will be doing in Year 1. The reception staff will be out on home visits during this time.

Please keep a look out for a message about downloading your child’s tapestry journal. You will be able to save, or print out all the wonderful memories of your child’s learning journey so far. Many of the children have had a tapestry account since they were very young in nursery so they full of fantastic snapshots of how your child has developed so far.

weekly news 26th June

This week we heard the story of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ and we were challenged to draw a picture of the sort of prince or princess that we would like to be. We have been enjoying our new fairytale castle role play area and have loved getting dressed up as characters who might live in a palace or castle.

In maths we have been practising ways of counting quickly by counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We sorted peas into groups of 2s, 5s and 10s and looked at number lines and 100 squares to try to recognise the patterns to help us when counting. I wonder whether your child can tell you whether it is quicker to count to 100 in 2s, 5s or 10s ? Can they explain why ?

Our trip to Gressenhall on Tuesday was absolutely fantastic ! Thank-you very much to all the parents who came and helped us !

Despite the unpredictable British weather we had a fun-packed imaginative adventure, in which we were asked by the Curator of Gressenhall Museum whether we could help him to find some very special artefacts which had been stolen by the Wicked Witch. We were all more than happy to help and we went on various quests with Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk ) Cinderella and the Curator in order to discover where the Wicked Witch had hidden the objects. Can your child remember where they found any of the special objects ? Where did they see:

 Cinderella’s glass slipper ?

Grumpy the dwarf’s boot ?

Puss in Boots’ sword ?

The pea from the story of The Princess and the pea ?

The mirror from the Snow White’s stepmother ?

The Troll’s bogey ?

The children enjoyed helping Cinderella to get all her chores done so that she could go to the Prince’s Ball and they had a very bumpy tractor ride around the farm where we saw all the King’s horses and Little Bo Peep’s sheep.

During next week we will be doing a final assessment of the children’s ability to read and blend sounds and tricky words. At the end of the term we will send home a copy of this assessment to inform you of the sounds and tricky words your child can confidently read so that you can keep practising them over the holidays in order that the children do not forget what they have learnt. We will also be passing a copy of your child’s assessment to their year 1 teacher. We will be collecting in your child’s tricky word tag nearer the end of the term.

We would love to hear from any parents who would be prepared to come into school to talk about their jobs in order to give the children an understanding of the very many varied careers that are possible. Please let us know via the office if you can come into school during the week commencing 15^th July. Thank you

weekly news 19th June

    The sun finally shone for us on Friday for our exciting Rocket Morning ! The children and parents enjoyed carrying out all the rocket based activities and had lots of fun. It was great to have a team from Hethersett Academy working with us. We all loved the water rockets and little pop rockets that they helped us set off.

      

The children performed our 'Trolls' dance brilliantly at the Summer Fayre on Friday evening. They all looked so colourful and clearly enjoyed themselves. It was quite a complex routine and we were so proud of how they remembered all the moves and looked so confident in front of such a large audience.

This week we have been doing some activities based on ‘The Bog Baby’ story and the children have had lots of fun making their own dough and then creating their very own Bog Baby to take home. We have been thinking about the sort of habitat that the Bog Baby would be happy in. Hopefully the children will be able to find somewhere suitable at home for their Bog Baby to live. Perhaps you could ask your child whether they can remember the ingredients that we used to make the Bog Baby dough ?

In letters and sounds we have been applying our knowledge of some of the tricky vowel diagraphs for example ‘oo’ and ‘ow’. We have been playing games in which we have to blend the digraphs in the words to read them and trying hard to remember to read the diagraph as one sound. We have also been continuing to learn to read and spell our tricky words as this is so helpful when we do our independent writing.

In maths this week we have been continuing to focus on 3D shapes and consider their properties when we describe and sort them. We have also been comparing and measuring the capacity of containers.

The children have started to draw a picture of themselves in their school uniform, looking closely in a mirror to try to use the correct colours for their eyes and hair and clothes. These drawings will be on the front page of your child’s report which will be sent home later on in the term. We did the same activity back in September when the children had just started school and the children have been comparing their recent drawing with the one they did back in the autumn. They are extremely proud to see how their drawing skills have improved since they have been at school. It must be all the ‘dough disco’ we do !

The newspaper ‘Diss Express’ came to school on Wednesday to take a photo of our classes to put in Friday’s edition. Hopefully these photos will be a lovely reminder of the children’s time in reception.

We are looking forward to another exciting week with our trips next week to Gressenhall on Tuesday and the Norfolk Show on Thursday.