Welcome to the Blue and Red class page!

2023-24

Earth Day - w/b 22.04.24

Earth day is an important day to us here in Reception, as we want to learn how to best look after our planet. We have been learning about the importance of recycling and what happens to our rubbish if we don’t. Today, a friend from Year 5 came down to show us how to make beautiful tulips from paper! We luckily had coloured paper we were recycling to use which worked well with what we were trying to make. It was a challenging activity but we were very proud of our work!

Understanding of the World - w/b 22.04.24

This week in Reception we found minibeasts in our garden. We found four snails in our water area and decided to make a home for them. We enjoyed watching the snails come out of their shells and move around. We thought about what they might like to eat and collected some leaves for them. We also used playdough to make spiders like in our story ‘Aaaarrgghh Spider!’

Writing - w/b 15.04.24

It is our first week back in Reception and we have been very busy! To share our holidays with our friends, we decided to draw pictures and write about what we got up to. We also have begun reading an interesting new book in English this week called ‘Argh, spider!’. We have been challenging ourselves to write sentences about the story so far using our sounds.

Easter - w/b 25.03.24

As Easter weekend approaches, we have been learning about it. We have been learning why Easter is special to some people and how they might celebrate it. We have enjoyed many Easter themed activities this week such as making cards, painting bunnies, making numicon pictures and more! We had a fantastic week.

Number - w/b 18.03.24

This week in Reception we’ve been looking at numbers in our different areas. We counted giant numicons outside in the garden, counted the steps taken to reach the top of the wobbly bridge and used our giant abacus to make 10 in different ways.

Understanding the World - w/b 11.03.24

This week in reception was a very eventful week. On Monday we received some eggs! We were curious to see what would hatch from them. On Wednesday our eggs began to hatch to reveal chicks! We were very excited about our new arrivals and began learning about the lifecycle of a chicken. Elsewhere in reception we have been getting creative making collage plants, paper plate snakes and role playing the Gruffalo.

Physical Development - w/b 04.03.24

Physical development is a very important part of our daily routine in Reception. We do this in lots of different ways such as using playdough to strengthen  our hand muscles. We also have lots of opportunities to work on our gross motor skills in the garden as we can, hop, throw and climb.

Reading - w/b 26.02.24

We love reading in Reception and this term we are reading lots of fantasy books as well as some non-fiction too! We enjoy reading together with our friends as well as independently. We like to see the sounds we recognise in books but we love to look at the pictures to see what the books might be about!

Understanding the World - w/b 19.02.24

It’s our first week back to Reception after a restful half term and we are excited to get back to learning! This week, as the spring season approaches, we began to learn about plants. We thought about what plants need to grow and be healthy as well as learning about the different parts of a plant. We also thought about how some of our food comes from plants too, and we will be trying to grow our own vegetables!

Religious Education - w/b 05.02.24

This week in Reception we have been learning about Guru Nanak and why he is special to Sikhs. We explored different artefacts around Sikhism and talked about what we could see. It was also Guru Nanak’s birthday not too long ago, so we decided to celebrate it this week. We made our own shaving foam cakes and special birthday cards. We had a great time being Exploraptors and learning about a different religion.

Number and Numerical Patterns - w/b 29.01.24

This week has been filled with enjoyable and educational activities! We explored  various maths activities that were both exciting and challenging. Our main focus was on the number 9, and we had a delightful time creating paper pizzas and paper plate fruit cakes with 9 toppings. Additionally, we explored the concepts of one more and one less. We further challenged ourselves by writing matching maths stories. This week we have also started to learn about people from different religions. It's been an enriching week, and we're excited to continue providing stimulating learning experiences for our Reception classes.

Pre-writing Skills - w/b 22.01.24

This week in Reception, the focus was on exploring a variety of fine motor skills. An interesting activity involved using tongs to save numicons from a simulated fire, followed by a challenge to represent the same numbers on a ten frame using counters. The children also had a blast creating handprint fire engines, finding particular joy in dipping their hands into the cold paint. They also engaged in crafting playdough firefighters, which they made collaboratively with their teachers. The playdough activity incorporated different skills such as rolling, pinching, and squeezing. Overall, it was a highly enjoyable week, and the children are eagerly looking forward to the upcoming activities in the next week.

Reading - w/b 15.01.24

In Reception this week, we've been thoroughly enjoying our exploration of various books. Together, we've engaged in both class readings and shared moments with friends. We've taken the time to discuss the intriguing details found on the front covers of the books, challenging ourselves to make predictions about what the stories might entail. Our focus has extended to exploring the characters and key events within the narratives. The enthusiasm for reading in Reception is great, and we eagerly anticipate delving into many more books in the future.

Communication and Language - w/b 08.01.24

Our first full week back has been an exciting one. We have begun learning about the different people who help us in our communities. This week we learnt about police officers! We enjoyed using our language and communication when role playing as officers and criminals in our police station and creating disguises for our pictures. We also incorporated some of our maths learning into our police play by making the number 6 in different ways using officers and criminals.

Christmas - w/b 11.12.23

In Reception this week, we have begun celebrating Christmas! We have been making decorations to put up in our area such as baubles and paper chains. Last week we visited St Michaels and All Angels church and learnt lots of exciting facts about churches and we also heard the nativity story. We were inspired by our trip, so this week we completed lots of activities related to it! We made churches using recycled materials, we created our own stained glass windows with colourful tissue paper and we even recreated a scene from the nativity story using recycled materials.

Understanding the World - w/b 04.12.23

This week in Reception we were Exploraptors! We explored ice by holding, observing and smashing it with little hammers to try and rescue our colourful penguin friends from inside. We also explored natural objects we found in the garden, such as autumn leaves, and painted and printed them onto paper, noticing the different patterns on each leaf. The children also had a challenge of making a boat that floats to help the little colourful penguins safely cross the ocean. We had great fun exploring this week.

Being Exploraptors - w/b 27.11.23

In Reception, we have had a very exciting and fun-packed week. We have had the opportunity to be Exploraptors and explore different activities such as building an igloo for the Blue Penguin in the outside construction area, creating 2D shapes using lolly sticks, to name but a few. Not to mention, Reception is now fully in the Christmas mood as we have begun to make paper chains and decorate snowflakes for our classrooms. We're looking forward to the week ahead!

The Blue Penguin - w/b 20.11.23

This week in Reception, we have been exploring different activities related to the book we have been reading called ‘The Blue Penguin’. We got creative and made penguin masks using felt. This activity supported our fine motor skills and was very enjoyable. We were also being 'Ideatops' and used our imagination to create a friend for the lonely penguin! We painted the friend and put it up for display. Some of us even drew penguins and used cotton wool for the body of our penguin. We can’t wait to continue reading our story to see what might happen next and explore many more exciting activities.

Oracy - w/b 13.11.23

In Reception, we love to talk all day long! Talking is a very important part of our development, so we all talk a lot. This week we used our Oracy skills whilst role playing with our friends, making our little characters talk to each other and thinking about what might happen next. We also talked to each other about how we might make a Pudsey Bear mask, and what we might use to decorate his bandage. In the garden, we communicated with each other and worked together to build a new home for Blue Penguin, the main character in a book we are reading in English. We discussed which materials would be best to use and how we should build the new home.

Celebrations - w/b 06.11.23

This week in Reception, we have been thinking about what makes us special and what is special to us. We noticed we all look different, so outside we made towers using large blocks and crates to see how tall we are, compared to our friends. We also have been learning about a special celebration called Diwali. We learnt that Diwali is known as the festival of lights, so we made our own lanterns and rangoli patterns to celebrate. We understand that we might not all celebrate the same special days, but we enjoy learning about them.

Halloween - w/b 30.10.23

We celebrated Halloween this week in Reception. We enjoyed mark making on pumpkins using paint and markers as well as making a witchy mud worm pie. We hunted for spiders in the garden to place on a spooky spider web and found our outdoor house had been taken over by spiders! We also incorporated maths with our Halloween fun this week by making numicon monsters and counting legs on our playdough spiders.

PHSCE - w/b 16.10.23

In Reception this week we have been talking about our feelings. Each morning we show our friends how we are feeling by placing our faces on an emotion. We know it is important to share how we feel as we can learn techniques on how to feel better, if we are not feeling great. We have come up with a few strategies to use when we feel upset or angry. We have found that counting to ten helps as well as taking a break with a drink of water. We can also help our friends when we notice they feel sad too by asking them to join us in play as well as telling an adult.

Black History Month - w/b 09.10.23

This week we continued to celebrate Black History Month. We made steam trains inspired by Elijah McCoy, created our family tree inspired by the story ‘So Much’  and recreated scenes from the story ‘Handa's Surprise’. We also looked at the wonderful necklaces made by the Samburu tribe. We made our own necklaces using paper plates and paint.

Science - w/b 02.10.23

In Reception this week we have been exploring the natural world around us. We have noticed the leaves on the trees change colour and fall down as it is now  Autumn. We have been feeling the leaves and describing how it feels and what we can see. We are also learning about Mae Jemison this week, the first black female astronaut and have been making rockets to shoot up into space.

Reading - w/b 25.09.23

We love reading in Reception! This week we enjoyed reading outside as well as in. We have been reading comfortably on bean bags, sharing books and stories with our friends and telling each other what we can see on the page. In our reading room, we have been exploring the different books available and spending some time reading them peacefully and quietly.

Mathematics - w/b 18.09.23

This Week in Reception we have been exploring the number 2! We have been exploring different ways we can make 2 using various manipulatives including cubes and numicon. We used different objects around the classroom and made groups of 2. It has been great fun and we were also being ‘Challenge-Rexes’ while doing so.

Mark Making - w/b 11.09.23

This week in Reception, we have been doing a lot of writing and mark making! We have begun practising to write our names each morning as well as practising how to correctly form our sounds. We make sure to hold our writing tools correctly using a pincer grip. It’s tricky but we are being ‘Tryatopses’ and trying our very best.

Welcome Back! w/b 04.09.23

We had a fantastic and fun filled first week in Reception! We enjoyed exploring our new areas, seeing our friends and making many new friends across both Red and Blue class. We were very lucky to be welcomed with great weather, so we enjoyed much of our time in the garden. We braved the wobbly bridge and slid down the fireman's pole. We enjoyed building obstacle courses to challenge our friends to balance on and make sand castles in the sand area. We cannot wait to see what the rest of this year has in store for us.

Welcome to the Blue and Red class page!

2022-23

13/07/2023- Developing Our Outdoor Learning

It’s nearly our last week in Reception! We are going to start year 1 soon and we have been talking about our feelings about this big change. We have continued to use our feeling cards to help us identify how we feel as well as circle times to talk about what can make us feel better. We have also been developing our garden area in Reception, so far we have grown cress and onions! It has been great to see our plants grow and understand how the weather can affect their growth.

5/07/2023- Pirates in Reception!

We have had yet another busy and creative week in Reception. We found golden coins in our sand that pirates had left behind! We decided to be Pretendesaurs and act as pirates ourselves. We made our own eye patches and swords using paper, tape and glue. Elsewhere in Reception, we enjoyed drawing pictures using different mediums as well as practising our fine motor skills to make beautiful bracelets with small beads.

27/06/2023 Creative Art

We love art and being creative in Reception. This week we enjoyed painting buses, making a home for Fred the Frog and using shapes to make pictures. We enjoyed using various resources to make our creations such as tissue paper, lolly sticks and colourful paper. We also worked together and helped each other when we needed it. Our creativity doesn’t just remain inside the classroom either, we love being creative outside too!

21/06/2023- Mathematics

In Reception we focus on one number a week, this week we are learning all about number 18! We are learning about what 18 looks like in different ways and all the different ways we can make it. We like to challenge ourselves and write the calculations to match! We are always counting in Reception, whether it’s how many rocks it takes to fill up a bucket or how many steps it takes to go up the wobbly bridge. We are learning how to confidently count to 20 and beyond.

15/06/2023- Mohammad and the Cat

This week in Reception, we have begun learning about the Islamic story of Mohammad and the cat. This story is about treating others, including animals, with kindness and respect just as we would our friends. After we heard the story, we used pictures and a storyboard to retell the story to our friends. We were also able to explore some books and artefacts related to Islam with our friends.

07/06/2023- Reading

It’s our first week back after the half term and we have missed reading all the funny and great books in Reception. Since we have been back we have enjoyed reading in all the different areas both with our friends and independently. We have been using our phonetic knowledge to help us read the words as well as looking at the pictures in books to interpret what is happening in the story. We look forward to reading and listening to stories together each day.

24/05/2023- Minibeasts

This week in Reception we have been using our creative skills to make minibeast masks! We used different materials to make our masks and decorated them to look like our favourite minibeasts. We made butterfly, bumblebee and ladybird masks.

16/05/2023- Developing Our Communication Skills

In Reception this week, we are trying to be good listeners and talkers. We make sure to look at our friends when they are speaking as well as taking turns to talk and have a conversation. We practise this during carpet sessions while we are learning and whilst we play. We have also been talking about our feelings. Each morning and afternoon we place our faces on an emotion card, which lets the adults and our friends know how we are feeling. We then talk about how we feel and what is making us feel this way. From there, we decided on actions we can take to help ourselves feel better.

10/05/2023- King Charles III

We have been learning about the King’s coronation and why it was a special event. On Friday we had a party with food and lots of fun party games. To celebrate in Reception this week, we made crowns, painted portraits of King Charles and built our own castles. We had great fun celebrating this special day with all our friends.

04.05.2023- Preparing for the Coronation

We enjoyed some sunnier weather this week and had a great time playing outside. We enjoyed climbing up the wobbly bridge and down the pole. We had fun playing in the water area, watching the water travel down the different pipes. We also began preparing for the King's coronation next week by making our own crowns and building our own castles.

26.04.2023- Climate Week

This week in Reception we had a great time using recycled materials to make different things for Climate Week. We made musical instruments using scrap paper and plastic bottles to make colour fish. We learnt what recycling means and what happens if we don’t recycle and where our rubbish ends up. To visualise this, we cleaned out a mini ocean in our garden using nets to clear out rubbish.

20/04/2023- Welcome Back!

Our first week back in Reception was a very busy one. We have started reading a new book called ‘Arghhh Spider!’ Which has inspired lots of different writing opportunities for us. We began by drawing spiders and using our sounds to label the different parts of the spider. We also managed to find another minibeast in our garden, a snail! We built a home for the snail, provided food for it and drew pictures of what we could see. We challenged ourselves to write a sentence about them too using our sounds.

29/03/2023- Easter!

We have been learning about Easter this week and why it is a special celebration for some people. We carried out many fun Easter activities such as making egg glasses, creating Easter cards and solving Easter puzzles. We incorporated our maths learning in this also and designed Easter eggs with shape patterns. Outside, we had our own version of an Easter egg hunt, instead of hunting eggs we looked for Numicon bunnies and chicks. A great end to this term!

22/03/2023- Shapes and Patterns

This week in Reception we have begun learning about shapes and patterns. We have been partaking in problem solving activities such as arranging shapes to make squares and rectangles and using shapes to design and build a home for the Gruffalo. As we have also been learning about oral hygiene and our teeth, we’ve been using play dough to make and add teeth into mouths that do not have any. We counted how many teeth we could add before thinking about what one more or one less might be.

15/03/2023- Creative Creations

In Reception this week we have been getting very creative. We have been learning about plants previously and the different parts of a plant, this week we are making our own plant pictures in the style of a collage. We are also using our imagination to make jet packs using recycled materials such as bottles and cardboard boxes. We are using our problem solving skills to try and fix parts of our creations we are unhappy with, thinking carefully about how to make our work even better.

07/03/2023- Making Origami Foxes

In Reception we have been challenging ourselves to make origami foxes, inspired by the fox from our story ‘The Gruffalo’. We carefully followed instructions, folding our paper carefully to make a fox. We also challenged ourselves outside to make a home for the Gruffalo using large construction. We thought about what his home might look like and worked together to carry crates and blocks safely.

1/03/2023- Locusts in Reception!

We have had some interesting visitors this week in Reception, locusts! We have been Exploraptors and have been observing and exploring the different body parts of the locusts and how they move around. We decided to draw what we could see and use our sounds to label our drawings. We also learnt how to look after the locusts and what they might eat. 

22/02/2023- Science

We have had a busy first week back. As we are approaching spring, we began thinking about plants and what they need to grow and survive. We found out they need water, air and sunlight. We decided to test this out and planted some seeds of our own! We planted cress and observed how the plants grew each day from a tiny seed. We noticed the different parts of the plants too and talked to our friends about what we could see each day. 

07/02/2023- Our Feelings

We have been focusing on our feelings this week in Reception and how to be a good friend. We have been using our feeling charts every morning as we come into school and again after lunch. We talk about how we are feeling and what has made us feel this way. We also enjoy doing calming activities too, such as painting and using putty. As well as talking about our feelings we have been thinking about how our friends feel also. We make sure we are kind to our friends and help them if they are feeling upset or worried. 

31/01/2023- Chinese New Year

We have been celebrating Chinese New Year this week. We learnt about why Chinese New Year is a special celebration to some people and how they celebrate this. We made our own Chinese dragon puppets using card and lolly sticks as well as beautiful fans. We’ve also been busy learning all about number 9 this week. We have made number 9 pizzas, counting out the toppings on our pizza and writing number stories to match.

24/01/2023- Pre-Writing Skills

This week we have been enjoying writing in Reception. To strengthen the muscles in our hands we have been partaking in lots of different fine motor and gross motor activities.Inside, we have been using playdough to make firefighters as we have been learning all about them in English. We have also been creating and painting our own fire engines by cutting and sticking different materials. Outside, we have been using the large construction toys to make huge pirate ships! We worked together lifting the different sized wooden blocks and crates to make our ship.

19/01/2023- Reading

We have been reading about vets this week in literacy, learning all about what they do! This has inspired us to be Pretendasaurs and role play as vets ourselves. We also enjoyed reading in our cosy reading room with our friends. We tried our best to read the words on the page and enjoyed explaining what we could see in the pictures.

12/01/2023- We love to talk!

This week in Reception we talked a lot! We spoke about big ships and decided to draw our own giant ships, whilst explaining all the details we are adding to them. We also took our new fascination outside and tried to make a ship using large construction. We invited all our friends to sail in our ship, deciding it was best to go to a beach far away from the rain. We also enjoyed talking about the natural resources we have in our area. We used natural objects to create pictures and spoke about what we could see and feel. We had a great week!

7/12/2022- Exploration and Curiosity in Reception

This week in Reception we have been exploring how balls can travel in different ways. We talked about how we can make them move faster and slower. Look at us exploring the balls...

30.11.2022- Pirates!

This week in Reception we have been role playing as pirates and creating props for our play. We rolled up paper to make telescopes to spot evil pirates approaching our ship as well as a huge pirate ship! Inside we practised our cutting skills by trying to make snowflakes. It was a little bit tricky but we tried our best. We also enjoyed drawing maps of our journeys to school, we thought about how we travel to school and the things we see along the way.

24/11/2022- Paint Printing

We had another great week in Reception. We were very lucky to have a visit to Manor Park Library and have a look at all the fantastic books available. At school, we decided to make a new home for Blue Penguin, the main character from our story in literacy. We used recyclable materials to create a cosy and creative home for our penguin friend. We also enjoyed making our own number blocks! We used cubes to create a number block before covering it in paint and stamping the cubes onto a piece of paper.

16/11/2022- Speaking and Listening

Speaking is a huge part of our daily lives in Reception and this week we talked a lot about penguins! We are reading ‘Blue Penguin’ in literacy and took part in many fun penguin related activities. We made craft penguins and were able to explain what we are doing, as well as navigate our way through the Arctic using positional language. We have also worked together to create a home for Blue Penguin in the garden and have begun role playing the story so far.

10/11/2022- The Blue Penguin

We had a great week in Reception. We enjoyed reading our new book in Literacy. It is called the Blue Penguin. We are exploring different feelings through reading this book. The Blue Penguin felt very happy when he made a new friend! We have helped the Blue Penguin and his penguin friends to move around the icebergs and to travel safely over obstacles in their way. Here we are exploring positional language and playing on a huge map. 

1/11/2022- Halloween

We had a great first week back in Reception. We enjoyed lots of different Halloween related activities such as making playdough spiders, stamping spooky paint ghosts and even decorating pumpkins! We were also very lucky to receive some pumpkins from space as Mae Jemison surprised us with some from her most recent travels.

20/10/2022- Black History Week

This week we have celebrated Black History and diversity in Reception. We learnt all about Mae Jemison, the first African American female astronaut to orbit the Earth! To celebrate Mae Jemison, we made playdough astronauts, created giant rockets using boxes and role played as astronauts ourselves! We also painted portraits of Mae Jemison and made number 6 rockets. We had a great week!

12/10/2022- Diwali

We have been learning all about Diwali. We used toys to learn the story of Rama and Sita and why Diwali is such an important celebration. To celebrate Diwali we have made Diva lamps using clay and plain and colourful paper lanterns. We used salt and chalk to trace out and draw beautiful patterns and fireworks. We loved learning about Diwali.

4/10/2022- Science

This week in Reception we have been learning about the different parts of our bodies. We cut out pictures of our faces and placed them on a large sheet of paper. Then we used a pencil to draw our bodies from our heads. After that, we used paint to add some colour to our bodies. We thought about the important jobs our bodies do and how we use our bodies when we move and play. We have also been exploring different materials and how they feel. We used a range of materials to make our own collages which we very much enjoyed.

28/09/2022- Reading

This week, we have been exploring a range of different books in Reception! We have been thinking about how to handle and take care of our books. We were very excited about our Reading tent and could not wait to go inside to read an exciting book. We also changed our books and carefully picked the perfect book to read at home! We also have other texts around in our classrooms that we can read and explore such as the Lego books that can help us build different structures.

22/09/2022- Number

This week, we have been learning all about number 2 in Reception! We have been thinking about all the different ways we can make 2. We used different resources, toys and even our fingers to make 2 in many different ways. We also saw what 2 looks like on a 10 frame this week, and noticed no matter which 2 boxes we coloured in, 8 boxes always remained empty! It has been an exciting week in Maths this week, we cannot wait to see which number we will be learning about next week.

14/09/2022- Making Self Portraits Using Natural Resources

We had an adventurous week in Reception! We enjoyed exploring our new classrooms and had great fun to explore all the new activities. We loved using the natural objects to create portraits of ourselves. We were so excited to create the pictures!

07/09/2022- Our First Week in Reception!

We have had a fantastic first week in Reception! We have enjoyed exploring our new area, making new friends and having fun. The outside area has been particularly popular, the children have been challenging themselves to climb up the wobbly bridge and slide down the pole! We have also been enjoying partaking in many different activities inside too, such as painting, making cube structures and drawing some of our favourite things. We can’t wait to show you all what we get up to next week!