Reception
Key Information:
PE will take place on Monday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kit on those days
All children should wear uniform which is clearly named.
Drop-off time is between 8:45am – 8:55 am. Pick-up time is 3:15pm.
Please ensure your child has a spare set of clothes, wellies, book bag and water bottle in school everyday.
Please ensure reading books are read and returned.
What have we been doing in Reception?
March
Here at Winstanley, books, stories and reading are essential to our learning every day, which is why we absolutely love a day which is dedicated to those things. World Book Day was a great success this year. The children particularly loved coming in with their costumes on, talking about their favourite stories and listening to a poem from the Scarecrow from 'The Scarecrow's Wedding'.
This year we wanted to show all the special ladies in our lives just how much they mean to us, so the children planned , prepared and delivered an amazing Mother’s day tea party. Reception children drew special pictures, learned lots of new poems to perform and baked lots of yummy cakes. We hoped you all enjoyed it!
We carried on our baking from Mother’s day, to this time baking something yummy for us all to eat – Pancakes! We learned about Shrove Tuesday and why people used to use up the remaining ingredients ahead of Ash Wednesday.
February
In February, we carried on our learning people who help us and Superheroes. We came into school one day to there was an ‘Evil Pea’ on the loose! It was causing havoc in our classroom by tying up all of the vegetables in our shopping trolley! We read the story ‘Supertato’ to find out about the Evil Pea and how we could catch him. Children were challenged to design and create their own traps and thankfully were successful in catching him!. We’ve had lots of Superhero dress up, mask making and superhero dancing.
This month we have focussed on how we keep ourselves healthy and safe, with a big focus on Oral Hygiene- learning the importance of looking after our teeth. We completed the eggshell experiment to see how sugary drinks effect our teeth. We left one eggshell in coca cola, another in milk, and another in water to see how the sugar would affect the eggshells. We predicted, observed and interpreted our results. It certainly made the children aware of what could happen to our teeth if we made to many unhealthy choices in our diet and if we didn’t take care of our teeth.
The children have amazed us with their Junk Modelling designs and creations for their own Emergency Vehicles – they really looked closely at the detail needed and thought about the shapes they would need and how they could attach the materials together. The children showed great perseverance with the activity!
We also joined in with ‘Internet safety day’. From a very early age we talk to the children about how to stay safe when accessing devices and using the internet. ‘Smartie the Penguin’ explained that we should always ‘ Tell’ someone if something appears on our devices that were unsure of or worries us.
January
This year we joined in with the RSBP Big Garden Bird Watch. We spoke about why birds are important, the different types of birds that visit our local area, and how we can take care of them. The children made bird-hides, bird-feeders and binoculars to help us to spot as many birds as possible.
As Chinese New Year approached we read the story of the Great Race to learn how the Zodiac calendar got its animals names. We learned some of the traditions of Chinese New Year, including cleaning the house to sweep away any bad luck, and how houses are decorated with paper lanterns and scrolls. The Children particularly enjoyed watching the Dragon dances and were amazed to find out that they were moved by people! This led us to work together as a TEAM to make our own dragon and make it dance too!
We started our new topic, by asking ‘Who are the People that help us?’ We focused first on our local community and had special visits from Sharon- our lollipop lady who helps us cross the road, Mr Gregory- a police officer, and Mrs Oates and Echo -her guide dog. We learned that there are lots of people and professions that help to keep us safe.
As we continued our talk about ‘Real Life’ Super heroes, we introduced the children to Sir Captain Tom Moore. We talked about his job as a soldier and his inspiring fundraising for the NHS during the pandemic. We ordered the events from his life, and to try and put his age of 100 years into context for the children using 100 blocks to create a physical time line!
December
In the lead up to Christmas we had a visit from a very cheeky Elf called Elvis! He brought us a wonderful advent calendar of books which the children enjoyed opening each day, but he also got up to lots of mischief in our classroom too!
We have learned about why Christians celebrate Christmas and how Christmas is celebrated around the world.
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a Reception Nativity! After reading the Nativity Story, we busily prepared and practised for what would be the children’s first stage performance. We were so lucky this year that we were able to welcome in our families – The children performed their hearts out and it was a roaring success. We were so proud of each and everyone of them.
November
One of the stories we have read this half term has been ‘The Little Red Hen’ to introduce the celebration of Harvest and to introduce our class value of Teamwork.
Once again the children have amazed us with how quickly they have learned the story and can use a story map to retell it in their own words. We have learned about the process of growing wheat and the traditional role of windmills to grind it into flour. We researched how to make bread and the children were challenged to write a shopping list so we could go shopping for the ingredients and finally we worked as a TEAM to make our own bread – with the children helping to read and follow the instructions and observe the changes to the ingredients at the different stages.
Continuing our topic learning about celebrations we also enjoyed learning about and celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali. We read the story of Rama and Sita which explains the meaning of Diwali. We’ve enjoyed dressing up and dancing to Diwali music, making our own clay diva pots, and designing our own Rangoli and Mehndi patterns. We were also very lucky to have a special visit from Mrs Menon, who told us all about how she celebrates Diwali with her family. She also taught us some traditional dance moves and then treated us some to Diwali traditional sweets. We compared the Diwali celebrations to the traditions of our own celebrations, recognising what was similar and what was different.
October
Wow we have been busy this month!
We were very lucky to have Mountain Monkeys come into school, showing us how to toast marshmallows safely and encouraged us to face our fears on the climbing wall!
We also had our first outing to Kenyon Hall farm! We are passionate about being in touch with the natural environment and getting out into the community, so we visited the farm to help out with the Pumpkin picking! Leading up to the trip, we explored different vegetables, why some grow underground whilst others grow over. Following the visit, we enjoyed painting, planting, tasting, carving, and decorating the pumpkins, and everyone took a pumpkin home to decorate with family in time for Halloween. We used some of the pumpkins and other produce from the farm to prepare and make our own vegetable soup, including peeling, cutting and chopping! It was delicious!
We are lucky to have a lovely woodland walk as part of our outdoor learning environment, so we couldn’t miss ‘Bring a stick to school day’! In literacy we read the story ‘Stick Man’ by Julia Donaldson. In our play, we used sticks for lots of different purposes, including weaving, making dance ribbon sticks, decorating them to look like magic wands, making our own stick men and using sticks as paint brushes!
September
An amazing start to school has been made by all Reception children. We are so proud of how they have all settled in so quickly and are getting used to the new setting and routines. We are looking forward to an exciting Year ahead with you all!
This month we have focussed on Personal, social and Emotional development, reading stories such as ‘The Colour Monster’; exploring and acknowledging our emotions and self -regulation strategies to help children manage their emotions independently. Other texts such as ‘Elmer’ and ‘You be You’ have been enjoyed and to emphasise that it is good to be different and it is good to be unique!
We also took part in our first Maths day, along with the rest of the school. We enjoyed dressing up as something Maths related and enjoyed a Maths fun filled day!
