Reception's Blog

Stars of the Week: James and Alyssa

Well done to James and Alyssa who this week came up with some great ways to describe Big Ben! Not only were they able to think of the words to describe this famous landmark, they then used their super phonics skills to write them down too!

This week we recapped all the wonderful things we have learnt about London. Here are some of the reasons why Reception love London!

Next week: We are looking forward to singing at the Cathedral with Nursery and Year 1. We will be practising our Nativity in preparation for our performance! In Phonics we will learn our last single letter sound – we will soon know the grapheme and phoneme for every letter of the alphabet!

Stars of the week: Taylie and Annabella

Well done to Taylie and Annabella for making thoughtful contributions in our RE lesson this week. We were thinking about how Christians get ready for Christmas, and beginning to learn about advent. We made our own advent calendar, thinking of daily challenges, such as playing with a new friend or helping someone for each day of advent. Well done girls.

This week we too have been getting ready for Christmas, by working collaboratively with Nursery to get our hall Christmas board ready. Our board links with the carol we are singing at the Cathedral in the Christmas service. We thought about who would be in the scene – Jesus, Mary and Joseph, as well as what kind of animals may have been living in the place where Jesus was born.

Stars of the week: All of Reception!

Well done to all of Reception, who were SUPERSTARS on their first ever trip! All of the children (and our adult helpers!) were great on the trip. Not only were they able to spot lots of famous London Landmarks, they listened carefully to instructions and stayed together to keep everyone safe. Well done all of you! You have made all of your teachers very proud!

We had a wonderful time on Wednesday, taking four different modes of transport around London to see some of the key London landmarks. Fortunately the weather was on our side and the sun shining!
We boarded the 381 bus to Waterloo, with a great view of the Shard. After disembarking at Waterloo, we walked to the South Bank, and took in the amazing view of the London Eye, as well as Big Ben and the House of Parliament beside the Thames.
We headed to Waterloo pier and boarded the Uber Boat (Thames Clipper) towards Greenwich. Also the river we saw amazing sites – the Oxo Tower, St Paul’s Cathedral, The Tate, The Globe, the Walkie Talkie, Southwark Cathedral, The Shard, HMS Belfast, the Mayors office, The Tower of London and Tower Bridge to name a few!
When we reached Greenwich, we were amazed to see the Shard from a different angle – it looked very small! After a sunny lunch by the Thames, neat the Cutty Sark, we jumped on the DLR to Bank. From Bank we took the underground back to Borough. We got back to school, we had tired legs, but it was worth it for a wonderful day!
Below are some photos of our trip!
Next week: Next week is assessment week, so we will be showing all of the wonderful learning that we have done, as well as consolidating our learning in Phonics. We will continue to reflect on our trip, making art showing the shapes of London. Next week we will be handing out the scripts for the Nativity play, so please start practicing lines at home.

Stars of the week: Louie and Amelia

Well done to Louie and Amelia, who have worked so hard in their writing this week! This week we have been writing lists of things we can find in a city. Both Louie and Amelia carefully listened to the sounds that they could hear in words and then recorded one of their phonic sounds! Well done both of you!

This week we read the book ‘In the city’ by Dominika Lipniewska. The book is all about the day in the life of a busy city – just like London! We enjoyed looking at the colourful pages and thinking about, then writing a list of all the different things that we could see.
What can you see in the city?

Next week: In phonics we will learn the sounds ff, ll, ss and j. We are also looking forward to our very first trip on Wednesday! Next week we will share all the pictures with you.

Stars of the week: Tara & Avani

Well Done to Tara and Avani this week for some brilliant work! Tara was able to share all of her experiences of Diwali with her friends which really helped all of our understanding of this special celebration.
Avani did some wonderful writing this week, listening carefully when we were sound-talking words and then writing down every sound she could hear.
Well done both of you!

All of Reception made a fantastic start to Autumn 2, coming back to school and settling straight back into routines.
This week we learnt about Diwali, and how people celebrate Diwali. We read the story ‘Dipal’s Diwali’ and then we made our own Diya lamps.

Next week: In Phonics we will learn our next sounds – h, b, f and l. In Maths we will be learning about more, fewer and the same. Our literacy activity will be linked to our London topic – exploring the kinds of things that you might see in the city. Please ensure children are bringing reading folders every day.

Stars of the week: Ibrahim and Summer

Well done to this weeks stars – Ibrahim and Summer. This week we carefully looked at our reflection in the mirror and painted self-portraits. Ibrahim and Summer were able to talk about the colour of their skin, hair and eyes and then carefully pain their portrait. Well done both of you!

We all painted our own self portrait and they are now proudly hanging in the classroom. Have a look at our portraits in the pictures below!

Miss Godsell, Miss Bowen and Debbie cannot believe that all the children have now completed their first half-term of Reception! We are so proud of you all – you have quickly learnt the classroom expectations and routines, and are making fantastic progress in your learning already! Well done! This week children have taken home reading books. These should be bought to school every day!

Next half term: Our new topic will be ‘Living in London’, looking at where we live and what makes it a special place. We will continue our learning in phonics, applying our knowledge to new words, as well as continuing our learning in Maths. AS part of our ongoing Celebrations topic, in week 1, we will be looking at how Diwali and Bonfire Night are celebrated. Have a lovely half term break!

Stars of the week:Raina and Alexander

Well done to our two superstars this week Raina and Alexander. This week we have been talking about and drawing our families. Both children could talk about the members of their family confidently!
Well done!

This week we made our new display board ‘Reception Road’.

We read the book ‘The Great Big Book of Families’ and thought about our families. We know that families are all very special, but also very different. We made a house using icy lolly sticks and then drew all the people that live in our house.
Here are pictures of our display!

Also this week we attended our very first Collective Worship. We will now be going to Collective Worship everyday, so it is important that children are at school on time (8.45am).

Next week: In Phonics we are learning g, o, c, k and practising our sound-talk and blending skills. In Literacy we will be using our phonics to write shopping lists. We will also be thinking about Autumn and signs of the seasons changing. It will be a busy end to our first half term!!

Stars of the week: Tehya and Ella
Well done to Tehya and Ella who were fantastic pattern spotters and makers this week! They both were able to find patterns around the classroom and then use either their bodies or stamps to make an AB pattern! Well done!

We have been exploring patterns this week in Reception. And we discovered that pattern are EVERYWHERE! We read the book Pitter Pattern and had great fun spotting the patterns on every page. What patterns can you see?

You can even make patterns with your body too – if you want to try, join in and dance to ‘Banana, Banana, Meatball’ – its a song all about patterns.

Here are some pictures of us making patterns in different ways.

Next week: In Phonics we will continue to learn the new phonemes i, n, m & d. In Literacy we are going to be learning all about our bodies and naming body parts. In Maths we are going to be sorting objects and practising our counting. We are also going to be painting some self portraits.

Stars of the week: Henry and Aviva

Well done to Henry and Aviva, who this week did an amazing job writing a packing list for Paddington to visit London! They drew some lovely pictures of the objects and then carefully thought about the sound that the word starts with and wrote it down. Well done you two!

It has been another busy week in Reception, with many more friendships being made, and all the children ‘Going for Gold’ every day! We have also been working on understanding the Cathedral School is a rights respecting school and the actions we can do to respect everyones right to learn and be safe at school. Here is a sneak peek of some of our painting – can you guess what our Class Charter theme might be?

Last week you were able to see pictures of our first day. Here is a closer look at some of our learning areas!

NEXT WEEK: We will start our Phonics learning, looking at the sounds S, A, T & P. We will be practising writing our names using the correct letter shapes, as well as making lots of different patterns in Maths. We will be thinking about all our families and celebrating all their differences.

Stars of the Week:All of Reception!

All of the children in Reception have settled in to school so well! In our bust classroom there is lots of lovely listening, super sharing and great getting along! We have all made new friends and have enjoyed exploring all areas of the class.

Here are some photos of us exploring the indoor and outdoor classrooms!