Welcome to Reception

April 2024

Welcome back everyone. We hope you have all had a wonderful Easter break and are ready for the new and exciting experiences awaiting you this term. 

Please remember that we are always happy to speak to you about your child and their time at school. If there is anything you would like to talk to us about, please tell us and we will arrange a suitable time to do this.

We are really looking forward to the term ahead. We have got lots of exciting activities planned and we know this is going to be another fantastic term with lots of new experiences, including our End-of-Year trip. 

We will be visiting the woodland on a Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Children should come to school wearing tracksuit bottoms or leggings on those days. 

Miss Forster, Mrs Harvey, Mrs Hawkins, Mrs Scott and Miss Jones

Our topic for the Summer Term is:

One Moment In Time

During this topic, the children will learn about the life cycles of: frogs, butterflies and chickens.

We are really excited that we will once again be getting an incubator and ten Living Eggs, these will be arriving on Tuesday, 7th May. This is always an amazing opportunity for the children to learn about life cycles and to be able to look after the baby chicks for a few days.

They will also learn about the life cycles of plants; they will plant seeds and find out what seeds need to grow. We will use the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk' to introduce our learning about plants.

This topic will also be a good opportunity to celebrate the special moments in the lives of the children; we are really looking forward to our End-of-Year trip which will be a wonderful experience. 

We will also be taking part in Sports Day and helping the children to understand the changes they will face as they transition to Year 1. 

We had lots of fun at Maiden Castle when Reception class were invited to take part in the Bear Hunt festival.
First, we took part in some team games where the children had to complete an obstacle course to collect bears. Then, we went outside and followed the Bear Hunt trail, reciting the story along the way. We particularly enjoyed the snow storm! When we came back in, the children were thrilled to find the bear, he wasn’t scary at all!
The session ended with a Bear Hunt dance when we performed different movements to a song of the story. 

The children really enjoy their music sessions with DMS.
This term, they have been learning some counting and action songs, including an old favourite: Knick Knack Paddy Whack 🎶

It was wonderful to see all of the children dressed up in their amazing World Book Day costumes today, well done everyone. 
During the session, the children also enjoyed colouring in book marks and playing Fairytale lotto.

As well as making and eating pancakes, the children also enjoyed dancing to their favourite songs and playing Musical Statues.

The children helped to make Gingerbread Men biscuits.
They described the appearance and texture of the ingredients then we talked about what was happening at the different stages and the changes they could see.

January 2024

Welcome back everyone. The Early Years team would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. 

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas - we look forward to hearing about the children's experiences of Christmas and finding out what Santa brought! 

Please remember that we are always happy to speak to you about your child and their time at school. If there is anything you would like to talk to us about, please tell us and we will arrange a suitable time to do this.

We are really looking forward to the term ahead. We have got lots of exciting activities planned and we know this is going to be another fantastic term with lots of new experiences.

We will be visiting the woodland on a Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Children should come to school wearing tracksuit bottoms or leggings on those days. 

Miss Forster, Mrs Harvey, Mrs Hawkins, Mrs Scott and Miss Jones

Our topic for the Spring Term is:

Dig, Dig, Dig

We will begin this topic by focusing on Winter, when hopefully there will be lots of opportunities for digging in the snow. The children will use their investigative skills to find out where ice melts the quickest and will learn which materials are used to keep us warm.

The children will then become archaeologists as they dig for dinosaur bones and we travel back 200 million years to discover what the prehistoric world was like.

After half term, we'll don eyepatches and bandanas as we board our pirate ship and go digging for treasure in the woodland, following treasure maps drawn by the children and singing pirate songs. 

We will also be learning about Chinese New Year, Spring and Easter.

Reception Class and the school choir were invited to sing at the Baptist Church. We sang our favourite Christmas carols and songs from our Nativity Play. It was a wonderful experience. When we got back to school, we had some yummy treats kindly provided by the church. 

Donaldson Class went for a walk to the post box to post our letter to Santa.
On the way, we talked about the different things we could see and all of the buildings we passed, we drew some of these features on a map of our route and used positional language to describe our route (behind, through, next to, in front of).

We had lots of fun celebrating Children in Need Day. 
We watched a video about a poorly little boy to understand why it is important to support this charity and where our money goes.
The children took part in Joe Wicks’ Five Minute Move, it was great to see everyone joining in with a short work out before lunch. 
We also made spotty head bands,  completed pencil control sheets and coloured in pictures of Pudsey.

We watched a short video about Remembrance Day and helped the children to understand why this is an important occasion.
We looked at the medals worn by soldiers and thought of reasons for earning a medal. The children drew around shapes and cut them out to make their own medals, giving reasons to explain why they had earned a medal, including  ‘Being brave’, ‘Being kind’ and ‘Helping a friend’.

It was great to have a visit from our local School Crossing Patrol officer.
He talked to the children in class about his role and the importance of road safety, before taking small groups onto Renny’s Lane and showing them how to cross the road safely.

The children listened to the first two chapters of ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ and thought of words and phrases to describe Grandma and how they felt about her.

We decided to make our own medicine. The children used their senses to explore the plants in the sensory garden, thinking particularly about their sense of smell and choosing a plant whose scent they liked to share with their friends.

 They then collected various leaves, flowers and seeds in a bucket, added water and stirred the mixture before pouring it into a bottle. We talked about how the mixture smelled of the plants they had used.

Our topic for the Autumn Term is:

A Tale to Tell....

This topic will give the children lots of opportunities to understand more about themselves and their family, leading to discussions about how we grow and change, where we live, our likes and dislikes and how to look after ourselves and stay healthy. We will read and explore a wide variety of books, both non-fiction and fiction, including traditional tales and Julia Donaldson stories.   

We will also be learning about Autumn, Harvest and Christmas. 

September 2023

Welcome back everyone, we hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful summer, and a very special welcome to our new children and their parents and carers. 

Reception Class will also be known as Donaldson Class, after the fabulous author Julia Donaldson, whose amazing stories will be enjoyed in class this term and explored in greater depth with a variety of follow-up activities. 

This year, Miss Forster, Mrs Harvey, Mrs Hawkins, Mrs Scott and Miss Jones will be teaching you, and we are really looking forward to the year ahead; we have lots of new and exciting experiences for you to enjoy, we will be helping you to learn many new things and having lots of fun! 

We know you will all work super hard and shine brightly this year.

We will be visiting the woodland on a Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning. Children should come to school wearing tracksuit bottoms or leggings on those days. 

A homework message will be posted on dojo every Friday, tasks should be completed and reading books returned by the following Wednesday.

If you have any concerns or questions about any aspect of school life, please speak to one of us. We really want to resolve any issues as quickly as possible and can always make time for a quick chat or we can make an appointment to discuss things in more depth.

We look forward to working with you all.

Miss Forster, Mrs Harvey, Mrs Hawkins, Mrs Scott and Miss Jones

Reception September 2022 - July 2023

Autumn Term 2022

Celebrating Success!