Author: Mrs Wood

Welcome back! We hope you all had a happy and healthy break.

This half-term, our topic is Life on Earth. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be learning about life cycles. The children will closely observe caterpillars to help them understand the four stages of a life cycle. We’re very excited for our tiny caterpillars to arrive!

Help at home: Use the story map sheet to help retell the story.

We’ve been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and using story maps with actions to help retell the story. On Wednesday, the children created their own story maps, with some choosing to change parts of the story using their own ideas.
We’ve also made the most of the warmer weather by planting, going on bug hunts, and enjoying story time outdoors.

We’ve seen some fantastic independent learning during choosing time. The children have been highly engaged with the chilli challenges.
Tennis
Yesterday, we took part in a tennis session with Paul from Roundhay Tennis Club. The children had great fun learning new skills and using tennis rackets.
Reminders

• We will be adding new Phase 4 tricky words to your child’s phonics book. Please ensure your child brings their red phonics book every Thursday.
• As the weather gets warmer, children often remove jumpers and cardigans—please make sure all items are clearly labelled.
• Our final Stay & Learn session will take place next Wednesday at 2:15pm.

Home learning activity

This week in Reception, we have been enjoying our focus story Rabbits Don’t Lay Eggs! The children found the book rather comical and loved the funny ideas in it. We read statements from the story and played a true or false game to check our understanding.

Maths
We explored sorting and classifying! They sorted objects by colour, size, or function and talked about what they noticed. We started with adult-led games like How am I sorting? before the children chose their own ways to sort.

Later in the week, we used our sorting skills with Numberblocks to explore even and odd numbers. The children investigated doubles and used building and gestures to help them see how numbers are made.

Poetry basket
This week’s poem is called A Little Seed.
We’ve been focussing on the words sow (plant by scattering or putting soil in) and shower (a short period of rain).

Summer 1
Next half-term, we’ll be exploring bugs and animals! The children will go on bug hunts, learn about the life cycle of butterflies, and design mini-beast hotels.
In Geography, we’ll find out where our favourite animals come from and compare their habitats to the UK. As artists, we’ll mix colours for camouflage and create animal landscapes for our small world play.

Finally…
I can’t believe we only have one more term together! You’ve all made tremendous progress this half-term, and I’m so proud of everything you’ve achieved. I hope you have a happy, healthy, and restful break with your family and friends. Don’t forget to send some photos of what you get up to! I look forward to seeing you all back at school on Monday 20th April for the summer term!

Visitors
Yesterday, we were very excited about our Teddy Bear Hospital workshop. Their interactive session helped promote healthy living while gently easing any worries about hospitals and doctors. The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in activities, learning basic first aid, and discovering ways to keep themselves healthy.
Literacy
We continued to use the story map to retell Jack and the Beanstalk. We enjoyed using actions and, of course, prosody when retelling.
Click here to watch us.

Art
In art, we used tracing paper and templates of transport-related objects to create our own designs, inspired by Michael Craig-Martin. Here are some of our fantastic pieces of artwork.
Maths
This week, we developed our visualising skills by looking at arrangements of dots and describing what we could “see” in our minds. We practised subitising (recognising amounts without counting), helping us to understand equal groups.

Using practical resources and pictures, we explored dice patterns, finger numbers, and doubling numbers up to 10. We also used mathematical language to describe how objects were arranged, deepening our understanding.
Help at Home: Practise subitising and doubling

• Show your child dice or domino patterns. Ask: “Is this a double or not? How do you know?”
• Encourage your child to use their fingers to show the double.
• Can they make the double using small objects, like buttons, grapes, or toys?

Choosing time
In the early years, independent learning is a special and important part of your child’s day at school. We call this time choosing. During this time, children have the opportunity to follow their interests, explore different activities, and learn in their own way. They can create, make connections, share their ideas, and build confidence as they try new things.

Here’s a little snapshot of some of the wonderful independent learning that has taken place this week.

It’s been another busy and exciting week in Reception, and we’ve made the most of the lovely sunny spring weather.

We’ve been reading the traditional tale Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have really enjoyed getting to know the story, learning new vocabulary, and exploring prosody—especially when performing the Giant’s famous line:
“Fee fi fo fum!”

To help us become confident storytellers, we’ve been using a story map to support us in retelling the story in our own words.
On Tuesday, we planted our very own (magic!) beans. We discussed what plants need in order to grow, including water, sunlight, and care. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be observing our beans closely and recording any changes in our bean diaries.
We’re excited to watch them grow!
Art 
We’ve been learning about  this half-term’s featured artist, Michael Craig-Martin. He’s an artist who likes to draw everyday objects such as cups, chairs and shoes. The children explored how he uses bright colours and clear, bold lines to make his artwork stand out and look fun. We looked at lots of examples of his work and talked about what we could see and what we liked.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be creating our own artwork inspired by Michael Craig-Martin, using tissue paper, tracing paper and black pens.
Learning journey drop ins
Thank you to everyone who has signed up for one of the learning journey drop-in sessions next week. We’re looking forward to welcoming you into the classroom to look through your child’s books and share the fantastic progress they’ve made during their second term at school.

Help at home:

This week, we continued exploring our transport theme by reading The Hundred Decker Bus by Mike Smith. After enjoying the story, we let our imaginations run wild and designed our very own Moortown bus!
Our ideas were fantastic: one deck had a dessert and a brownie bakery, another featured a deep swimming pool, and we even created a calm deck in case you wanted some quiet time.

Click here to see our amazing bus! We look forward to showing you our bus when you attend the next Learning Journey drop-ins.

Maths
This week, we explored ordinality – learning the positions of numbers up to 8. We used key language like “more than,” “less than,” and “equal to” to describe relationships between numbers, focusing on each number’s place in the counting sequence.

Help at Home: Play a game of ‘More or Fewer?’

1. Make a set of number cards from 1 to 8.
2. Gather a collection of small objects (e.g., buttons, toy cars, coins) and arrange them so your child can see them clearly.
3. Turn over a number card.
4. Ask your child: “Do you have more or fewer [objects] than this number?”

This simple game helps children practise comparing quantities and using the language of more than, fewer than, and equal to in a fun, hands-on way!

Home learning challenge

 

 

 

 

 

 Recycled materials needed!
If you have any clean recycled materials at home, please consider sending them in for the children to use in our creative area.

Items that would be great include: cardboard boxes, cereal boxes, kitchen roll tubes, yoghurt pots, egg boxes, and other small packaging materials.
Please ensure all items are clean and safe for children to use.

Reminder

• Learning Journey Drop In’s
  Tuesday 24th & Thursday 26^th March – 3.15pm – 3.45pm

We’ve had a wonderful day we’ve had celebrating World Book Day. Our classroom was full of wonderful book characters. Here’s some photos of the children enjoying the World Book Day challenges.

Thank you to all the parents/carers who came to our stay and learn session this afternoon. It was lovely to see our classroom so busy!

This week, we continued exploring our topic ‘Let Go’ and read the story The Hundred Decker Rocket. The story is about a girl called Ivy who sets off on a mission to space and meets some very messy aliens along the way. When her rocket breaks down, the aliens work together to fix it and each add their own deck.

The children enjoyed using their imaginations to design their own rocket decks and write a sentence about their creation.

Phonics
This week, the children have reviewed air, er and longer words that contain double letters.
Write these words on paper and ask your child to underline the double letters before reading.
hammer    shimmer   cannot   chatter   muffin

Help at home: Tricky words are really tricky! We’ve previously introduced a few fun games you can play at home to practice tricky words. Here’s another you could try.

Tricky word password
Write different tricky words on paper and stick them next to different doors around the house. Each time your child enters or leaves a room they must press and say the tricky word password.
RE
This we’ve been learning about the Hindu festival of Holi, the festival of colours. We explored four special colours and what they represent: yellow for knowledge and learning, blue to represent the gods, red for love, and green for nature and the start of spring. The children had lots of fun celebrating by getting messy and using their hands to create a bright, colourful piece of art.
Maths
This week, the children continued to develop their counting skills and their understanding that counting helps us find out how many there are. They practised the counting sequence and revisited the idea that the last number counted tells the total. The children also worked on counting out a set number of objects from a larger group and explored counting beyond 20, noticing the repeating number patterns. They reinforced the correct order of numbers to 10 and learned that each number is one more than the one before.
Yesterday, the children were challenged to work with a partner to create a staircase pattern using 11 towers of 5, thinking carefully about ‘5 and a bit’ when building their staircase.

We’re very excited to be celebrating World Book Day next Thursday in school!

If your child would like to, they can come to school dressed as their favourite book character or in something book-related. Please don’t feel any pressure to go out and buy a costume.

Throughout the day, we’ll be taking part in a range of challenges inspired by different books. One of our creative activities will be making a milk bottle Elmer. To help with this activity, we would really appreciate it if you could send your child in with an empty milk bottle (rinsed out, please!).

Love of Reading Stay & Learn
At 2:45pm, you are more than welcome to join us for our Love of Reading Stay & Learn session. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to watch one of our daily Poetry Basket sessions and share and enjoy lots of stories with your child.

We look forward to celebrating our love of books together!

Today was a very special day for our Reception class as we went on our very first school trip to This Green Moon! As soon as I opened the Reception gate this morning, the children were buzzing with excitement.

When we arrived at Green Moon, we were warmly greeted by the two leaders, Paul and Matt, as well as the Reception class from St James’, one of our other Federation schools. It was lovely to come together and share the experience.

From the moment we stepped onto the coach to the minute we arrived back at school, the children were exceptional – what a credit they were to our school! Their behaviour, listening skills and enthusiasm were wonderful to see.

We thoroughly enjoyed spending the day outdoors, exploring the natural world around us. The children took part in so many exciting activities: making a fire, creating sculptures using potatoes, designing bracelets with pieces of coloured wool we found in the forest, and even working together to create a giant piece of artwork. It was fantastic to see their creativity and curiosity shining through.

What a fantastic day full of learning, laughter and adventure. Well done, Reception – we’re so proud of you all!

This week, we’ve been learning all about Lunar New Year. Our focus story was The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson. Using our imaginations, we thought about what we would create if we were given our very own magic paintbrush.
On Wednesday, we watched a video about how people prepare for and celebrate Lunar New Year.
Yesterday, we read The Great Race and learned about how the Chinese Zodiac began. We then had a go at putting the animals in the correct order.
Maths
We’ve been exploring pattern. The children have been copying and continuing patterns, as well as creating their own, using patterns like AB, ABB and ABBC with colours, shapes, actions and objects.

We’ve also been spotting errors in patterns and explaining what has gone wrong. This helps children really think about how patterns work, rather than just guessing. A key focus has been talking about the ‘unit of repeat’ – the part of the pattern that keeps repeating (for example, red–blue in an AB pattern).

Help at home: Choose a rule and create a pattern. Take a picture of your pattern and send it to the Reception email address.
Finally, thank you to everyone who attended the parent–teacher meetings this week. It was lovely to talk with you all about your child’s learning and to celebrate their fantastic progress.

As always, I hope you all have a happy and healthy half-term break. Feel free to send me an email to let me know what you get up to. I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 23 February.

Today we’ve been talking about internet safety and how to make smart choices online. Our friend Smartie the Penguin helped us learn what to do if something unexpected pops up on a screen.

While using his tablet, Smartie saw something that didn’t look right. Instead of clicking it, he remembered TAG — Tell A Grown up. Smartie told a trusted adult straight away.
We learned that if we ever see something that’s not meant for us online, we should TAG (Tell A Grown up). Telling a grown-up helps keep us safe and makes sure we can enjoy using technology the smart way — just like Smartie the Penguin!

Here’s a video with advice on how to support children up to age 5 to stay safe online.