Reception
Summer One
This half term our topic is 'What is a Dinosaur?' We have been learning facts about dinosaurs by looking at different non-fiction books.
Over the next few weeks we will:
- Explore a range of non fiction books to learn facts about dinosaurs
- write a book about Mary Anning - Dinosaur Lady
- create dinosaur skeletons using pasta and technology
- explore dinosaurs at The Litten Nature Reserve
Friday 17th March
This week we focused on the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Mummy Bear sent us a letter with her secret porridge recipe and some of our mums came into school to help us make it. We also explored a very different version of the traditional tale - The Ghanaian Goldilocks by Dr. Tamara Pizzoli. What a great story, we were able to look out for the things that were similar and different to the story we already know.
In Maths, we continued to explore number bonds to 10 using a variety of resources (cubes, tens frames, Numicon, fingers and counters)
Friday 10th March
We read The Three Little Pigs this week. We enjoyed lots of time in the construction area; building our own houses. We also explored different materials for house building and wrote a 'Wanted' poster about the wolf.
In Maths, we have been exploring number bonds to 10. We have been using Numicon to help us with making 10 in different ways. We went on a hunt to find a friend who we could make 10 with. Have a look at the photos in our gallery.
Friday 4th March
This week we read Jack and the Beanstalk. We had a great time role playing the tale and planting beans just like Jack did in the story. We can't wait to see them change and grow over the next few weeks.
In Maths we have been exploring length. We gathered lots of different items from around our environment and put them in order from shortest to longest.
Friday 24th February
This half term our BIG QUESTION is What is a Traditional Tale? This is a story that has been told lots and lots of times. People then choose to write them and make their own version.
This week, we read different versions of Little Red Riding Hood. We then wrote words and sentences about the tale, acted parts of the story out and sorted healthy foods to put in Red Riding Hood's basket for Granny.
In Maths, we have been exploring measure. We sorted objects by their length and focused on using the language: short, shorter, shortest and long, longer, longest
Friday 10th February
This half term our BIG QUESTION is What is a Traditional Tale? This is a story that has been told lots and lots of times. People then choose to write them and make their own version.
This week, we read different versions of Little Red Riding Hood. We then wrote words and sentences about the tale, acted parts of the story out and sorted healthy foods to put in Red Riding Hood's basket for Granny.
Friday 3rd February
This week we learnt about firefighters. We learnt about the different things they do to keep people safe and help them. We had invited some firefighters to come and see us, but unfortunately they were called out to an emergency - it is a shame, but we know that is their job. We read "Big Frank's Fire Truck" by Leslie McGuire.
Friday 27th January
This week we have been learning about the police. Our Minion prize bag went missing, so we called the police so that they could help us investigate what had happened. On Wednesday, we had a very special visit from two local community support officers. They told us all about their daily duties and what we need to do if we would like to join the police force. We read "Let's meet a Police Officer" by Gina Bellisario.
Friday 20th January
This week we learnt that paramedics are people who help us. We read "Please Don't Dance ... In My Ambulance" by Barry Bachenheimer. We learnt that Paramedics part of a group called the emergency services, they drive an ambulance and they help people by giving emergency first aid. They can also take people to hospital to A&E. We have an A&E in our classroom and we were acting out the role of a paramedic, we were writing our patients names, writing what what had happened to them and writing what medicine they needed. We are great superheroes.
In Maths we have been learning our number bonds to ten. We have been singing "Ten Green Bottles" in our outdoor learning environment and knocking bottles off of a wall that we built. We have been using this to count how many more we need to make 10.
Phonics: ur, ow, oi, ear
Friday 13th January
This week we have continued to ask the question "Who helps me?" we read “My Mum is a Superhero" by Sarah Griffiths and we discussed what our mums do that makes them a superhero. We also spoke about other superheroes we have in our lives, we spoke about mums, dads, grandparents, siblings, teachers and many more. We know that if we help someone, that makes us a superhero, just like those special people in our lives. We painted pictures of our real life superheroes and spoke about their superpowers for example, tidying up, cooking, being a kind friend, helping me to read. We are so lucky to have so many real life superheroes around us.
In Maths we have been comparing weight and identifying which objects are heavier and which are lighter. We used the balancing scales and estimated our results before we weighed our objects.
Friday 6th January
This week we have started our new topic "Who helps me?" we read "Supertato" by Sue Hendricks and Paul Linnet. What a great superhero, he stopped the Evil Pea from getting up to mischief. We made our own Supertato with real potatoes and different craft materials, have a look at them in our Reception Photo Gallery. We also made some of the other vegetables from the story and used them to help us retell the events that happened. We wondered what would happen if the Evil Pea had not been stopped. In the story, he said "I'm going to turn you in to mashed potato" so we made some mashed potato with evil peas. It was so much fun!
In Maths we practised our counting and used the different vegetables to represent numbers. We are trying hard to subitise (that means recognise amounts of objects without counting them) in different ways - we have been using the vegetables, toys and our fingers to help us with this.
Phonics: we have started our Phase 3 learning and will send out some additional support materials as soon as we can. This week we learnt ai, ee, igh, oa.
Thursday 1st December
This week we have been learning about lots of the different countries in the Caribbean and we had a big focus on Grenada. We read "Down by the River: Afro-Caribbean Rhymes, Games and Songs for Children". We learnt some traditional nursery rhymes and songs, they are so much fun. We enjoyed learning about some of the different landmarks in Grenada, like Fort Frederick and the Diamond Chocolate Factory. We made some traditional cocoa tea with all the spices and it was delicious.
In Maths we have started to look at patterns. We looked at simple repeating patterns for example with our coloured cubes we made a pattern that went like this - red, blue, red, blue, red, blue. As the week went on we started to look at more complicated patterns. We tried 2 colour patterns and we even tried to make some shape patterns.
Thursday 24th November
This week we have been learning about India. We read "Good Night India" by Nitya Khemka and we learnt about lots of different landmarks in India. We looked at the Taj Mahal and the very modern temple in New Dehli called the Lotus Temple. We also thought about a time when we had seen a temple in England. We pass a temple every time we go to the Litten Nature Reserve. We were very excited to learn about some traditional Indian food and we even made some nan bread.
In Maths we learnt about 1 less (fewer). We learnt that we had to take one object away from our group to find out what one less is.
Thursday 17th November
This week we have been learning about Poland. We read "The Wawel Dragon" by Justyna Majewska and we had our first attempts at writing simple sentences to describe the dragon. We looked at some buildings in Poland and we compared them to similar buildings that we learnt about in London. We were very excited to learn about some traditional Polish food, we even made some Polish pancakes - naleśniki.
In Maths we have been learning about 1 more. We know that if we want to find out 1 more, we need to add another resource. We used the makaton sign for 'more' to support our learning.
Thursday 10th November
This week we have lead on from our "Who am I?" topic and we have started to ask the question "Where do I come from?". We started by thinking about where our school is, we learnt the name of our town - Greenford. Then we learnt about our city (London), we read "A Walk in London" by Salvatore Rubbino and we spoke about some of the famous landmarks in London. We enjoyed making some simple maps of our school and of London, we also enjoyed building different landmarks that can be found in London, our favourite building was Big Ben. Then we learnt the name of our country (England), we looked at the English flag and we compared the sizes of our school, town, city and country.
In Maths, we have started to compare quantities. We learnt the key words "greatest" and "fewest" and we used them to compare quantities.
Friday 7th October
This week we have been learning about our senses of sight and touch, we read "Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell: Learning about Your Five Senses" by Pamela Nettleton. We explored our environment discussing the different things we could see, we spoke about their colours and size. We also discussed how different objects felt when we touched them, we used words like 'rough' and 'smooth' to describe the different objects. We had lots of fun making sensory boards to include lots of different textures.
In Maths we have continued to sing our counting songs - they are lots of fun. We have also been using different counting objects to help us to represent the numbers in our songs. We are starting to show more confidence with our counting skills.
Phonics: g, o, c, k
Tricky Words: is
Friday 30th September
This week we have started our "Who am I?" topic. we have started by learning about our senses. This week we read "I Can Hear" by Julie Murray, we learnt about our sense of hearing, we explored loud and quiet sounds and we especially enjoyed experimenting with sound on the music stand outside.
In Maths, we have enjoyed singing counting songs to help us get to know our numbers. We have been counting actions and objects.
Phonics: i, n, m, d
Friday 23rd September
Welcome to Butterflies and Bumblebees. We are all so excited that everyone has started school now, we are settling in well and we are looking forward to everyone staying for full days next week. We have all been making new friends already and we are enjoying exploring our classrooms and the outdoor learning environment.
Mr Gauci, Mrs Thomas, Mrs Rice and Miss Halffman are excited for the year ahead, the children have already started to show so many of their talents, we can't wait to see more!
Phonics: s, a, t, p
Reminders:
- Please bring a spare change of clothes and leave at school (trousers / socks / pants / shoes)
- Do not let your child bring toys/sweets to school
- Label all your child’s belongings clearly
- Register online for free school milk at ‘Cool Milk’.