Reception
Welcome to St Peter's Reception class page.
My name is Mrs Beaumont and I am the Reception class teacher for this academic year. Our teaching assistant is Mrs Sinton who is a vital part of our team.
You can see below our end of year expectations for your children, the early learning goals which we will be striving to achieve and also the curriculum overview for each half term.
If you have any questions or wish to discuss any matter at any time, please come into school and see us. We have added below some more information for parents about EYFS and a link to a parent guidance booklet, which we hope may be of some use.
Reading - Please see the front of your child’s reading record for their book change day. Please read every night with your child and practise the tricky words and phonics sounds that we will add to their reading record regularly.
Children will also take home a book of their choice to read for pleasure at home, as well as a book that they are able to read themselves, with phonetically decidable words linking to the current sounds being taught in phonics.
PE - PE will be on Wednesdays. The class is split into two groups, so they will change into their PE kits every second Wednesday to do PE with Mr Lord. Children also have daily access to our outdoor area, with structured provision in place to ensure children receive a great amount of physical education time.
If you ever have any questions or queries, please pop into school to see Mrs Beaumont.
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Beaumont and Mrs Sinton
Parent Planners
AUTUMN TERM
Settling in, Making Friends and Learning
We have been settling into Reception. learning new rules and routines. We have been having lots of fun learning how to use the new continuous provision areas. Take a look at some of our settling in photos below.
Forest School
We have been learning all about the different seasons, focussing closely on Autumn this half term. We have certainly made the most of our wonderful school forest! We went on a hunt to find different signs of Autumn. We observed the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees. We were very excited to find and learn about a range of mushrooms, berries and even ‘Leaf Man’ from our class text by Lois Ehlert!
Floating and Sinking
We have been learning lots of new scientific skills. We have learnt all about floating, sinking and density. We made predictions about whether items might float or sink in water and why. Some of us were surprised to see that it isn’t always the biggest item that sinks! This led us onto a discussion about density. As part of our learning about Autumn, we played apple bobbing. We talked about why we thought the apples were floating. We had lots of fun and even enjoyed eating the apples at the end!
Happy Diwali!
We have been learning about other cultures and celebrations. This week, we learnt all about the Hindu celebration of light: Diwali. We used plasticine and decorative items to make brightly coloured Diwali lamps. We are really proud of our work!
Autumn Leaf Rubbing
We enjoyed Learning about the Leaf Man so much that we have all been collecting leaves on our lunch break. Miss Lightfoot saw how excited we all still were so decided to add an extra continuous provision area...and we loved it! We used wax crayons turned on their side to create the leaf pattern. We talked about texture, making sure we used the ‘bumpy side’ of the leaves. We enjoyed talking about the Seasons and why Autumn leaves are so beautifully colourful. Take a look at some of our wonderful creative work below.
Forest School Fireworks!
We put on our wellies again this week and headed out for forest school. We have been learning all about Guy Fawkes and what he tried to do. We talked about how fireworks are explosions in the sky. We looked at some firework pictures and then made some firework pictures of our own, using natural materials such as brightly coloured leaves.
In November, We Remember
We have been learning about war and the brave soldiers who died for us. We did a whole class meditation, made a window remembrance display with finger painted poppies and wrote prayers for people of our choice. In the continuous provision areas, we used our creative skills to paint poppies and make them out of play dough.
Melting and Freezing
We have really enjoyed being scientists this week! We read the story “Supertato” by Sue Hendra. When we got into school the next day, we found that ‘evil pea’ had frozen some poor carrots! We found them trapped in ice with a sign that said “help!”
We talked about what happens to ice when it gets warmer and we made predictions about what the quickest way to melt the ice and free the poor carrots might be. We had some fantastic discussions about freezing and melting experiences in our own lives too. We were VERY excited when we finally melted the ice and freed the carrots!
(Some of us are still outside with magnifying glasses, searching for Evil Pea “because he is small so we need a magnifying glass to help us see him.”)
Technology, Computing and Coding
We have been using bee-bots to start learning simple coding in computing / technology. We talked about why we need to charge the bee-bots and how we have brains but we need to tell the robots what to do by typing in the correct sequence of instructions. After Miss Lightfoot had modelled it to the whole class, we all had a go independently during continuous provision time. We enjoyed counting the squares and trying to get the bee-bots to move to different shops on the map!
Learning With Our Buddies
We have been getting to know our buddies a bit better this week. Our Y6 buddies have been helping us to learn about the Nativity. Talking to them about our Nativity performance has really helped to develop our CLL skills. Our Year 6 buddies even sat with us 1-1 and helped us to write about the Nativity to show our understanding. We enjoyed a book with our buddy and also practised some blending, with their help. After that, we spent some time playing with our buddies, who were just as excited as us to help us on the trim trail and show us how to play football as a team!
The Nativity
This week, EYFS performed the traditional Nativity to the whole school and also to parents and carers. They worked so hard and enjoyed learning lots of dances, songs and lines. Dressing up was fun too! We are incredibly proud of them. Take a look at some of our photos below.
SPRING TERM 2020
Reading for Pleasure
Every week, we bring in our favourite books from home so that our teachers can read them to us. We also choose books from our class library to take home and enjoy with our families as a bedtime story.
In class we have combined reading with computing, by using a CD player to choose audio books and listen to them in a quiet area. This has proved to be a very popular area of our continuous provision as we love stories!
Winter
We have continued our learning about the different seasons by focusing on Winter.
Forest School / Science KUW - We took to the outdoors again to go on a hunt for signs of winter. We talked about how the trees have changed since Autumn, with deciduous trees losing their leaves. We spotted some evergreen trees and many of us noticed that these are “like Christmas trees.”
EAD/PD - This week, our creative challenge in the continuous provision areas was to choose and use materials correctly to cut and stick to make a penguin. We have been learning all about the Arctic and it’s animals. We have also been using brushes and our fingers to create winter paintings. We mixed in white paint to observe how it makes the colour lighter.
Music
We have been learning all about rhythm, rhyme and clapping / moving to a beat. In the video below, we are learning a rhyming song. We used some simple percussion instruments, following the beat very skilfully!
Watch as we sing “1, 2, 3, clap-clap.” Here, we are learning a beat that will eventually enable us to understand notes such as crotchets and quavers when we learn about notation as we move up through the school!
Happy Chinese New Year!
We have been learning all about Chinese New Year this week. We have immersed ourselves in our learning through shop role play, math games, small word play, fine motor activities and creative tasks. We used atlases to find China on the map and look at famous landmarks such as the Great Wall of China. We have really enjoyed using masks and finger puppets to retell the story of Chinese New Year! Another favourite moment has been learning a dragon dance as a team and using percussion instruments to enhance our performance even more!
Physical Skills - Gymnastics!
We have really enjoyed learning lots of new skills in gymnastics so far this half term. We have been working as a team, negotiating space, balancing, climbing and jumping and landing. Take a look at some photos of our achievements so far!
Parents Phonics Meeting
THANK YOU so much to all the parents that came to our phonics meeting this morning. We really hope that we helped you with supporting your child with phonics at home.
We have included photos of the resources we had on display this morning for you to see. On the right hand side of this page is a list of apps that would be beneficial for you to download and try at home - we know from the meeting this morning some of you have already done this !
Thank you once again for your time and continued support
Mrs Beaumont and Miss Barrett
Useful Links
Phonics / Reading
Listen to and Enjoy Stories at Home!
Maths
Hit The Button Number Bonds to Ten
Computing
Coding for Young Children - https://www.j2e.com/j2code/
History / Geography / Music / French and lots of others!
