…is our Big Question this half term.

Listening is important because it helps us stay safe, learn new things, and be kind to others.

Imagine you’re crossing a road, and someone says, “Stop, there’s a car coming!” If you listen, you don’t get hurt. That keeps your body safe.

When you listen to your teacher or a grown-up, your brain is offered new ideas, such as how to bake a cake, build interesting models or learn fun songs with actions.

And, when you listen to your friends, they feel happy because they feel like you care about them. Listening is like saying, “You matter to me,” without using words.

We have practised listening carefully to a partner and played (even more) listening games (than usual).

We have also enjoyed listening to Ed Sheeran: our musician of the month. It is so interesting to compare our individual rersponses.

Can you show off your listening skills at home too?

….and, with great excitement, we wore our festive jumpers to school.

Thank you to the lunchtime team for our delicious Christmas dinner. Stuffing seemed to be a new culinary experience for many of the children but we agreed that it’s always good to try new things!

Making Christingles

In preparation for our Christingles services on Friday afternoon, the children have been learning about the significance of Christingles. Some Christians believe that the orange represents the world, the raisins on sticks reflect the four seasons and the fruits of creation. Red tape represents the love of God. Jesus, the light of the world, shines through the candle.

We are very grateful for all of the festive messages you have sent in and wish you and your families the most magical of Christmases.

Thank you so much for coming to support us with our wriggling, singing, dancing and retelling of the Christmas story. Standing on stage in front of one hundred people is a huge achievement and we are so proud of how these young children – with beaming smiles – performed. Well done to them all! We are very grateful to Mrs Whittaker and Mrs Cannon for making the fantastic costumes.

The arrival of cheeky elf heralds the start of advent in RS. He sets us a challenge each morning. When Amiah saw how messy the snow was and picked up the phone, we wondered if she was calling elf headquarters to ask them to come and take him back!

Continuing the pattern on the candy cane.

Making paper snowmen friends.

Sorting shapes.

Advent books

Thank you to everyone, who sent in a book for our advent calendar of stories. The children are really enjoying sharing them with their friends. It is not too late to send a book in if you have not done so already. The book will come home as soon as we have read it.

Advent kindness

Each morning, the children suggest an act of kindness to add to our advent calendar. This weekend, you can look forward to the children helping you with the cooking and making you a card as they have pledged to undertake kind acts at home too.

Making snowmen

We have been building the muscles in our fingers by using the scissors and hole punches to create snowman pictures.

We would love to see any photos of how you are preparing for Christmas at home.

How exciting was it to return to school in the dark, wearing your pyjamas?!

The Reception children came together with their Year 6 buddies to enjoy an evening of stories, bookmark making, book cover creating, hot chocolate and biscuits. It has been wonderful to see these nurturing relationships develop since September.

An extra thank you to Azza, who read to RS with so much confidence and expression. What an inspiring role model for the younger members of ACE!

The children, who were unable to join us at Book Night, did not miss out; they enjoyed a buddy visit and their gifted book on Thursday afternoon.

Kevin the Carrot challenged us to find his friends and turn them into soup. We used child-friendly cutting utensils to chop the carrots before boiling them in stock. The soup was blended and we all tried a taste…or a sniff at least! The soup was an absolute hit with Simeon. If the children cook anything at home, we would love to see photos in school.

Circles and Triangles

The children have been learning that triangles are flat shapes with three straight sides and three corners, and that circles are flat shapes, which are perfectly round.

Inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky, the children used oil pastels to create their own mini masterpieces. Look what happens when we smudge the pastels.

Who has been walking on our snow?

We may never know the answer to this question but the children made some super suggestions: “A T-rex?” (Momin). “A bird?” (Areya) Specifically, “A blackbird.” (Arlo). “A chicken?” (Ryan – who is a chicken in our nativity) “An owl?” (Hugo) “A pterodactyl?” (Emilia) “A fox?” (Sophie) “Sonic?” (Ivar).

Snowfall always evokes a child’s sense of wonder!

On Remembrance Day, we thought about what it means to remember. We can recall happy events but it’s also important for us to learn from less happy times. Mrs Thomson encouraged us to think about the people, who protected our freedom in the past. We created hand printed poppy wreaths to lay in the hall and had some valuable thinking time. Above all, we thought about how important kindness and fairness are for maintaining peace.

Odd socks

Indeed, in anti-bullying week, our entire focus has been around choosing kindness. Thank you for sending the children in wearing odd socks on Monday, encouraging us to celebrate our differences. 

We have been talking a lot at school about how to be kind to our friends. We even have a kindness tree in the RBD classroom. In Collective Worship on Wednesday, we considered how we might demonstrate kindness at home. Could the children lay the table? Phone a relative, who might not have spoken to someone today? Draw a picture for someone? Share a toy with a sibling? We have discovered that being kind is infectious: like chickenpox but much nicer!

‘It’s Good to be Me’ workshop

On Thursday, Jenny, a World Friendship Ambassador (from Bigfoot Arts Education), invited RS into a make-believe school. We met Tommy and Sally, two friendly puppet characters, who were sad because they experienced unkindness. Through song, simple role-play, mime and still-image freeze frames, the children practised their own super powers of talking, kindness, calm thinking and bravery to comfort the characters, make friendly choices and learn how to ask for help.

Thank you for your kindness, RS – you really are a lovely bunch!

When we arrived in school in Monday morning, there were BIG footprints in our outdoor area. Who could they belong to? “A dinosaur?” some of us wondered. We followed the footprints into the woods and discovered mouse, fox, owl and snake before…oh help…oh no….a gruffalo!

We shared Julia Donaldson’s ‘The Gruffalo’ in the amphitheatre, joining in with the familiar parts of the story.

Hot chocolate and biscuits were enjoyed by the fire with Mrs Whittaker. We sang our favourite songs as we watched the flames dancing around the burning logs.

Indoors, we have been learning how to use a hole punch and split pins to create our own moving snakes.

We have also been drawing the gruffalo.

Janet welcomed us to Harlow Carr and encouraged us to think about what we notice each season. What happens to the trees? What happens to the weather? How does it affect the clothes that we choose to wear? She introduced us to Terry the Tree and explained that his leaves are falling off because he is deciduous.

Then we went on a hunt for various signs of Autumn: leaves; berries; apples, wellies…what else did we see?

When we entered the greenhouse, our gardening fingers started to wiggle. Everyone filled a small pot with compost and we planted two peas: how long will it take for your pea shoots to come through?

Outside again, we chose and waved our favourite leaf and Janet encouraged us to make leaf shapes with our bodies.

Up popped Susie Squirrel, who asked for our help to collect and hide acorns. She didn’t want the cheeky jays to raid her stash.

The next forest animal to ask for our help was Hedgehog: “A house, where I can hibernate, please?” Leaves, sticks, logs and lots of imagination were used for some creative architecture. Who knew that hedgehogs like to shower?

After our packed lunch in The Lodge, we headed for the Logness Monster playground, where the slide, rope swing and big instruments were a hit.

Well done, children, for your impeccable behaviour and thank you to the family members, who were able to join us.

Learning more about other cultures and religions is always fun in Reception. This week, we have been discovering how and why Diwali is celebrated by Hindu and Sikh families. We discovered that Diwali is the festival of lights and we enjoyed acting out the story of Princess Sita and Warrior King Rama. The children all volunteered for a role in our performance and then we used the photos to create a story map. Can the children tell you what role they played and where they appear in the story?

We bashed and moulded clay to create our own diva lamps like those used to light the path home for Rama and Sita.

We have practised careful colouring of rangoli patterns and created patterns in chalk.

A Diwali dance increased our heart rates as we learnt some very funky moves.

Thank you to Jaskirat’s sister, Manpreet, who shared with us how their family celebrate Diwali. We really enjoyed hearing the story of Guru Hargobind, who adapted his cloak so that all 52 princes could escape. She was kind enough to bring all of the children a Diwali card.

We also thank Mrs Reheel, who came to talk to us about how her family celebrate the festival of lights. As a Sikh, she celebrates Bandi Chhor Divas. She showed us her beautiful new clothes and precious diva lamps. She also encouraged all families to visit the Sikh Temple Gurdwara on Chapeltown Road on Monday 20th October: everyone is welcome.

We are always keen to share in celebrating moments that are culturally important to you at home so please do send in photos that you are happy to share.