Our New School Year

Welcome to Ladybird class

2019 - 2020

Autumn term 2

Welcome back!

We hope you have had a wonderful half term break.

We have a very exciting and busy term ahead of us. To begin this term, we will be reading ‘Pumpkin Soup’ by Helen Cooper. This is an enchanting story with beautiful illustrations and an array of rich vocabulary for the children to explore. We will also be looking at adjectives, thinking about how the different characters in the story are feeling and writing instructions on how to make our own pumpkin soup. We will be experimenting with water colour paints, creating continuous patterns using food prints, investigating the life cycle of a pumpkin as well as much, much more.

We have already had an exciting start to the term and were visited by the Life Education Centre where we learnt about the inside of our bodies and how to stay healthy. We have also been creating our own dazzling rockets in time for Guy Fawkes night.

Whose Footprints are these?

Here come the dinosaurs!

Welcome back everyone, we hope you had a fantastic holiday and are ready for our new topic, 'Whose footprints are these?'. During this topic we will be learning all about the dinosaurs! This term we will also be taking part in balance -ability during our PE lessons, but don't worry- all equipment will be provided by the school. Please keep checking back to keep up to date with what we have been learning about in class.

Mrs De-Bear :)

It's Cold Outside!

Autumn 2

What colours can you see?

Welcome back, I hope you have all had a wonderful half term break. Our Reception Class web page will keep you up to date with the children's learning and share lots of lovely photographs with you.

This term our topic is ‘What colours can you see?’. This is a wonderful topic that will stimulate the children’s curiosity, understanding, knowledge and imagination about Autumn and what colours we can find in both the natural and man-made world.

We have already had a busy week starting phase 3 sounds in phonics, creating firework art and been discussing what changes happen in the world around us during Autumn. The children have been learning the meaning of hibernation and migration and have been sharing some fantastic explanations.

Our value this term is ‘Friendship’, the children have all shared their thoughts about what makes a good friend which we have displayed in our friendship garden in class. We are looking forward to a fun and exciting term on the lead up to Christmas!

Reception Class web page

Autumn term 1

Welcome to our Reception Class web page, where we will keep you up to date with the children's learning and share lots of important information and lovely photographs with you.

We are so proud of how quickly the children have settled into their new learning environment and have been having fun exploring all the new and exciting areas in class. We have also been discussing this terms topic ‘What make us unique?’ We have already been painting self-portraits, learning letter sounds, creating our classroom golden rules and much, much more!

Our value this term is ‘Respect’ and the children have all shared their thoughts about how we can show respect to each other and the classroom environment. We are looking forward to a fun and exciting first term in Reception class!

Welcome back to Summer Term 2

I hope you all had a wonderful half term break. Our topic this term is ‘Let’s Explore!’ This is an exciting topic to stimulate the children’s curiosity, understanding, knowledge and imagination about different mini beasts and their characteristics, where they live and how we can care for them. We will also be exploring the local area and learning how to read and create maps.

The children have already been sharing their thoughts about what they already know as well as what they would like to investigate, create and explore this term.

Reception Class Royal Wedding

In Reception Class we held our own Royal Wedding. We had a wonderful day dressing up, designing wedding cakes, colouring union Jack flags, making a wedding dress and taking part in wedding ceremonies where we got to throw confetti, it was so much fun!

Balanceability

The children are loving their balancability lessons. It has been wonderful watching their confidence grow as they experiment with lifting their feet off the ground.

Beetle Drive fundraising

Year 4 class organised a Beetle drive competition to raise money for the RSPB. They visited us in Reception class and we really enjoyed competing against each other to see who could collect each body part in the shortest time.

Welcome to the Summer Term

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. Our topic this term is ‘Spring Time is Here.’ This is an exciting topic to stimulate children’s curiosity, understanding, knowledge and imagination about how living things grow and develop over time and what changes occur in the World around us.

The children have already been sharing their thoughts about what they already know as well as what they would like to investigate, create and discover about the topic.

'Whose footprint is this?'

Welcome back, our topic this term is ‘Whose footprint is this?’ This is an exciting topic to stimulate children’s curiosity, understanding, knowledge and imagination about the prehistoric world of dinosaurs and their lives.

The children have already been sharing their thoughts about what they already know as well as what they would like to investigate, create and discover about the topic, such as:-

• How big were they? How bog were baby dinosaurs?

• What did they like to eat?

• What do fossils look like?

• Can we create a dinosaur museum in class?

• Can we go on a dinosaur hunt?

   

As well as much, much more so watch this space!

Many thanks for your support.

Mrs Smart

Class Teacher.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, we hope you have had a lovely Christmas break. Thank you for all the thoughtful cards and gifts you gave us at the end of the term. It was very much appreciated. 

The children have already settled back into their daily routine and have enjoyed exploring all the new and exciting areas in class. It has been lovely to hear all about what exciting things the children did over the Christmas break.

Our value this term is ‘Truthfulness’ and we have been discussing the importance of always telling the truth.

As it’s the start of a New Year, the children have also been sharing with the class what they would like to achieve this year. The children thought of some wonderful goals such as; writing numbers to 20, improving their reading and being able to write longer words. It was lovely to see the children put so much thought into their responses.

‘Where Does Snow Go?’

Our topic this term is ‘Where Does Snow Go?’ This is a wonderful topic to stimulate children’s curiosity, understanding, knowledge and imagination about snow and the winter season.

The children have already been sharing their thoughts about what they already know as well as what they would like to investigate, create and discover about the topic.

This is always a key element when planning our activities as it enables the children to contribute their thoughts and ideas into their Learning Journey.

Some suggestions have been:-

• Can we build an igloo?

• What animals live in cold places?

• Can we write winter words?

As well as much, much more so watch this space!

Therefore if you have any unwanted cardboard boxes at home, we would very much appreciate them when building our igloo.

Many thanks for your support.

Mrs Smart

Class Teacher.

Welcome Back to term 2!

I hope you have had a wonderful half term break and that the children feel well rested. This terms topic is 'Why do leaves turn crispy?' This is a wonderful topic which opens up to lots of investigating and exploring opportunities. We will be observing and developing our understanding of how the local environment changes over time and through the seasons. We will also be discovering Autumn treasures, finding and building a safe habitat for ‘Hetty the Hedgehog’ to hibernate in, creating giant Autumn art and much, much more, the opportunities are endless!

We have a very busy and exciting second term ahead of us. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

 Many Thanks Clare Smart.

What a wonderful exciting start to life at Christ Church!

We have all been very impressed by the way in which the children have settled so quickly into life at Christ Church.

Our topic this term is “Why do you love me so much?” We have already been discussing what makes us unique, we have been sharing who is special to us and we have been creating our own family trees.

During this first term we will continue to focus on activities that develop independence, self-confidence and self-esteem. We will also be developing our “Speaking and Listening” skills in class through whole class, group and more focus led activities.

The children have been learning a new letter sound each day, it has been wonderful to watch the enthusiasm from the children. We have been particularly impressed at how they have been developing and applying these skills when reading and writing through both child initiated and adult led activities.

We will be continuing to focus on physical skills and motor skills which will enable the children to control mark making equipment effectively and enable them to approach writing tasks more confidently.

If you have a question or a concern, please do not hesitate to talk to us at the end of the school day.

Many thanks Clare Smart. (Reception class teacher)

Welcome to Reception class

This Autumn term our topic is

Why do you love me so much?

Our new Reception children have been busy exploring their new classroom environment. We have already been painting self-portraits and have begun learning our letter sounds. We have a busy fun filled term ahead of us so watch this space.

Here we are again, after an Eggcellent Easter!

Hello to all,

We hope that you and the children had a restful break over the holidays. Despite it only being a fortnight long, the children have all come back somewhat taller and more grown-up! It's an indication of what we should expect to see during the summer term; this time of year - particularly for Reception children - is when we really see them flourish and show us what they can do. It is for this reason that we are putting every effort in to maximise school time, in order to give the children every opportunity to succeed as possible. With that in mind,  please let us remind you just how beneficial all of your efforts at home are. We understand that the schedule of a parent/guardian is busy and it may not be feasible to sit down for a twenty minute period to read. However, if it's all you can manage, a five minute slot here and there adds up and might make the difference between your child being an emerging reader and being a proficient and (most importantly) confident one. Continuing on this theme, a few of the children have been bringing in writing they have done at home. Please send in any of their efforts; we will take a copy so you can have these first masterpieces back! The children who have brought in writing thus far have been so proud to share it with the class and to have been on the receiving end of A LOT of praise and excitement from us grown ups!

You will receive a paper copy of the summer term class letter and theme map, however please find the electronic copies here for your easy perusal.

As usual, if you have any queries or things you wish to discuss, please come and speak to one of us.

The reception team 

A Warm Welcome Back

Hello all,

We sincerely hope everyone had a restful break. This term we are continuing our topic about animals, but will be focussing a little more on growth. We are also beginning a new phase in our phonics sessions; phase 4. This phase is not about acquiring any new sounds; rather we are solidifying what we have learned and are practising blending these sounds together.

We do a lot of reading in school, but ever encourage all parental efforts at home. Everything you do at home with your children is greatly appreciated and, more importantly, beneficial to their learning. Reading, in particular, is something that really seems to "click" for children at this point (and a little later on) in the term, so please try to make time for it where you can. We are also trying to find little pockets of time to read even more in school, so with a team effort of this home, we should have a class of fantastic readers by summer!

You can find a copy of the Theme Project letter near to this website post, so please refer to it as necessary. As usual, if you have any questions about anything, please come in to speak to us, or pop a note in your child's link book.

Thanks again for all of your help and support,

the Reception team

We like to pretend to be helpful people too!