Welcome to Reception Class S at Allerton CE Primary School in Leeds. Here, under the careful guidance of Mrs Shipley, we will blog to the Big Wide World.
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The children have been imitating the story with their chosen actions. We are so proud of them!
They have also made a class book, with simplified sentences and super illustrations….
….and individual zig zag books, which include the characters from the story.
In maths, we have been looking at the composition of six, seven and eight. We read ‘Six Dinner Sid’ by Inga Moore, we gave butterflies seven spots and we gave ladybirds eight spots. We wonder if the children can show you all the different ways we found of making these numbers?
Thank you again for your support with Reading Eggs at home. Here are all of the children, who earned stickers, certificate and postcards this week.
In maths, we have been using the balance scales to validate our predictions about which objects might be heavier, lighter or the same weight. The children discovered that we can check our number bonds by weighing the Numicon shapes.
….who inspired us to write. After talking about the characters and events in the book, the children have been recalling their favourite part of the story We are trying hard to remember our capital letters at the start of sentences, finger spaces and full stops. Please ask the children to show you the actions that we use.
This week, RS won the coveted alarm clock and certificate for being Foundation Stage Timekeeping Champions. In the same week, we were also Attendance Champions. Well done and thank you – please keep it up!
….whose sad face arrived on our board on Monday. This is the bear, who encouraged us to consider why he might be looking sad. This is the bear whose body parts we found and re-attached. When Bear wrote to thank us, he revealed that he had been through a tough time. As you can see, the children were concerned he might want clothes and food. We wrote to Bear to find out what had happened to him and, when he gifted us his book, all was revealed. Please ask the children to tell you what they discovered.
This week we learned how to make a tint by adding white paint to our base colour.
Thank you for your support with Reading Eggs at home. This week, we had a record number of children earning a Reading Eggs sticker. We also handed out the certificates earned during the week and gave postcards to the other top users. Please keep it up as we are seeing the progress when we read with the children in school.
Well done to all of the children, who took part in our Reading Eggs Challenge over the Christmas holidays. You did so well. All participants were rewarded with stickers on Wednesday and, today, we handed out the certificates earned over the Christmas period. Going forwards, certificates will be awarded in our Learner of the Week assemblies. William, Lina, Josiah and Ophelia completed over 16 hours of Reading Eggs between them – WOW! Please keep it up, everyone.
This week, we have been learning how to use the ready mix paints responsibly. We have concentrated on squirting out small amounts of paint into our palettes, practised keeping our brushes clean, explored what happens when we mix colours and, then, we have (sometimes!) cleaned up after ourselves. Here is our gallery….
The children were very excited to discover that our Outdoor Area was white on their return to school on Wednesday. This presented opportunities for us: to notice the beautiful patterns in the ice crystals; to observe what happens when we hold ice in our hands and to consider the impact of the sun being on one part of the Outdoor Area but not another. We also experimented with ice in the classroom, which led to some wonderful discussions around how we might free the jewels and figures trapped inside the blocks of ice. Why not freeze some objects in water at home and talk about what you notice as the ice melts?
It has been a busy final week of 2021 in Reception.
The children put lots of effort into their Christmas cards and it was brilliant to see the progress that they have made with their name writing and letter formation since September.
Father Christmas told us that his elves were struggling for original toy ideas this year and challenged us to send them some inspiration. The children developed some some wonderful creations in our DT workshop, including a car, a boat, a cat pot, an alien, a mummy, and a house.
The children were very excited to receive our Christmas gift of Ludo. Thank you. We can’t wait to play!
Time to reflect
As we came to the end of our first term in Reception, we thought about what we have learnt and what we can do now that we we couldn’t do, or found tricky to do, back in September. The children reflected on their progress in learning sounds, reading, writing words, learning about numbers, getting dressed, sitting still but, what was most lovely, was how they talked about the friends they have made. And, we can see from this photo today how much they have grown in height too!
We hope that you and you your families have a wonderful and healthy Christmas break. Thank you so much for all of your support this term and for the very kind Christmas wishes you have sent in. It is much appreciated.
Well done, RS, for your brilliant efforts in the Reception Nativity performances. I was so proud of you and you should be proud of yourselves. It is a considerable achievement (especially when you are four or five years old!) to stand up in front of 90 grown ups. To remember when to move on and off a stage, sing and act is so impressive. I hope you will enjoy the photos that we took before the performance yesterday.
Thank you to everyone at home, who helped with learning lines and providing costumes. It is much appreciated.
Thank you for bringing the children back to school yesterday for a very special book night with their Y6 buddies. They thought it was very funny to be wearing pyjamas in the classroom and enjoyed hot chocolate and biscuits. Y6 buddies presented the children with books that they had carefully wrapped and labelled and then they shared the stories together. Thank you so much to them and their teaching team for continuing to support and inspire.
Our mischievous mouse puppet left us with a note and a parcel on Wednesday morning. We discovered that it contained a rectangle of card with some shapes drawn on. Mouse invited us to look around the classroom to see if we could find the first piece of an advent jigsaw that he has gifted us. Luca was the first to notice a small parcel on the wall. We considered, as a class, what we noticed about the jigsaw piece. Luca summed it up as, “A small square on a bigger one”. We then needed to match the piece to the shapes on the card. We had a couple of options but Charlotte noticed that the white border “was the edge” so we placed it there. She also spotted that the ‘M’ was the right way up in this position on the card. We are wondering what the picture will be and look forward to discovering another piece each day.
The children have developed their fine motor skills by wrapping lolly sticks in foil and then gluing them together to make triangular tree decorations. We drew upon what we have been learning in maths this week by sticking on a number of stars to the bottom stick and then adding one fewer stars on the left stick and one more on the right. They look beautiful and the children can’t wait to hang them up at home.
Thank you to Miss Archibald, who talked to us about how she celebrates Hanukkah: the Jewish festival of light, which celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the larger Syrian army over 2,000 years ago.. It also celebrates something miraculous, which happened during this time; a menorah (a candle holder with nine branches) remained lit for eight days with just one day’s supply of oil in the Temple of Jerusalem. Therefore, Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah for eight days. This year, the celebrations started on Sunday 28th November. We learned that Jewish children often play a game called dreidel, which is a four-sided spinning top, each side having a Hebrew letter. Families also enjoy food that has been cooked in oil such as latkes and doughnuts. The idea of doughnuts was very appealing to RS.
No Pens Wednesday is dedicated to speaking and understanding language. Speaking and understanding skills are fundamental for everything we do – learning, reading and writing, managing emotions and developing friendships.
Miss Noble read ‘The Colour Monster’ to the children. Here is a link to a reading of the story if you want to watch it at home.
The children tried to display various emotions on their faces. We had a jar for each colour and the children decided how they were feeling in the moment. They then went to find classroom objects in the same colour and started to fill the jars. They discussed which emotions were being experienced by the most children and reflected on why no one was feeling fear. Then the children collaborated to created wonderful Colour Monster collages.
We used pictures to prompt our recital of a gruffalo poem. Please ask the children to recite it for you at home and show you their actions.
Some of the children recalled that ‘The Gruffalo’ is a fiction book; Julia Donaldson used her wonderful imagination when she wrote the story. We then came up with our own statements and the class decided if they were fact or fiction. Please do try this at home!
We chose one of our favourite Story Time books – ‘What!’ – and realised that, when we start the story part way through, it is muddled and does not make sense. By contrast, our new information book about ‘Owls’ does not have to be read from start to finish. The contents page helps us to read the book in any order. The beautiful photography inspired us to make our own owls with moving wings (now that we have learned how to use split pins). The children worked in small groups and drew on each other’s strengths to produce this wonderful parliament of owls.
We can’t wait to have a go at creating our own information books about owls!
Our focus in anti-bullying week has been kindness. We wore odd socks to symbolise that we are all different and we should all be ourselves, accepting one another and celebrating those differences. We loved how Annabel gave her unicorn odd socks.
During the week, we have recorded acts of kindness on our tree. It has been wonderful to see the children holding doors, drawing pictures for each other, ensuring their classmates always had a friend to play with, sharing, helping each other with zips and learning. Thank you RS! I wonder how much our tree will grow.
We started the day by talking about why we were wearing our own clothes – to help children less fortunate than ourselves, who may be hungry, poorly or sad. We sorted and counted the money that we had raised and thought about what it could be used to buy. Thank you for your donations. Then Joe Wicks led our PE session.
Learning to use a hole punch, secure ribbon with tape, thread ribbon through holes, find groups of 1, 2 or 3 objects and then attach them were among the the many skills we developed during our challenge. The children were so proud of their completed pictures.
Our focus this week has been learning about Diwali – the Hindu festival of light. Mrs Ajith very kindly talked to us about how her family celebrate at home. The children then explored our Diwali area, dressing up and using role play to enjoy their own celebrations.
The children listened to, watched and then acted out the story of Rama and Sita. Warrior Prince Rama went to the rescue of Princess Sita after she was captured by the evil King Ravana. As you can see from the pictures, it didn’t end well for Ravana, who was hit by Rama’s arrow. Super drama!
The children will take home the beautiful diva lamps they made from clay as soon as they are dry. I hope they burn brightly at home and bring you good fortune.
We also learnt a Diwali dance. Here is the link if the children want the whole family to have a go!
We have been thinking about the characters in the story and the sequence in which they appear. The children should be very proud of their illustrated and labelled zig-zag books.
We introduced Remembrance Day by watching this moving animation from CBeebies. The children then made poppies to wear.
Wishing you a happy weekend.
Mrs Shipley
