Reception Class News

Guess who?

Posted on Monday 22 January 2024 by Mrs Wood

Last Friday, we had another go at drawing our faces. We looked carefully at our facial features. Can you spot your child’s self-portrait?

Spring term after-school clubs

Posted on Sunday 21 January 2024 by Mrs Taylor

*UPDATE*

We do have the following availability for clubs should your child wish to sign up.

Monday
Football Y4-6
Tuesday 
Netball Y3-6
Wednesday 
Drama Y3-5
Dodgeball Y4-6
Thursday 
Basketball KS1 Y1-3
Basketball KS2 Y4-Y6
Reading Reception – Y2

 

The after-school clubs for this term are available for booking. We hope your child/children can get involved with our extra-curricular activities.

Please contact the office if you have any queries about the after-school clubs.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring 1: Week 2

Posted on Friday 19 January 2024 by Mrs Wood

Maths
This week, we continued to engage with counting activities. A key focus this week has been the stable order principle – understanding that the position each number holds in our number sequence does not change. To help us understand the stable order principle, we used cubes, blocks and other resources to make staircase patterns.

When making our staircase patterns, we discovered that each number has a value of 1 more than the previous number.

Help at home: Make a staircase pattern at home. What will you use?

Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called I can build a snowman.

Literacy
This week, we continued to read Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. For our writing challenges, we created missing posters and drew pictures of some of the things we would pack if we went on a journey to the South Pole. We also enjoyed watching the live penguin cam at Edinburgh Zoo.

Help at home: With an adult, use the internet to find out some interesting facts about penguins. If you don’t have access to the internet, you could look at a non-fiction book. Please bring your facts to school!

PE
On Tuesday, we enjoyed our PE session with a Foot-Tech coach. This half-term, we’ll be developing our fundamental movement skills: running, hopping, jumping and skipping.

Here’s a snapshot of some of our winter learning activities this week…
Home-link challenge

 

Children’s Heart Surgery Fund

Posted on Wednesday 17 January 2024 by Mrs Taylor

This week, Lauren from Children’s Heart Surgery Fund came to visit.

Children’s Heart Surgery Fund is our new school charity, voted for by the Junior Leadership Team, and we learnt all about their work and how our donations will support the charity over the next year.

Here are some of our Junior Leaders with Lauren.

 

Spring 1: Week 1

Posted on Friday 12 January 2024 by Mrs Wood

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a fantastic break. Thank you so much for sending in some past Christmas photos. We’ve really enjoyed listening to the children’s memories.
This half-term’s topic is called Fire and Ice. January’s typical frosty weather is a stimulus for our learning. As scientists we’ll investigate ice: making and melting it. We’ll use our senses to describe how the weather has changed and the effects on our environment. Linking to geography, we’ll find out interesting facts about Antarctica and learn about animals which live there and its climate.

Through our focus on fire, we’ll learn about the emergency services. We’ll develop our drama skills by taking on the roles of doctors, paramedics and police officers. Finally, we’ll learn about the Chinese New Year and learn about Chinese traditions.

Literacy
Our focus story for the first two weeks is Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. Before reading the story, we made some predictions.

Arthur – I think they’re going to get lost.
Edie – I think they’re going on holiday.
Jasmine – The umbrella might sink.
Gurjeevan – I think they’re going to get found.
Zara – I think they’re going to fall into the water.

We’ve also been learning about Antarctica! We located England and Antarctica on a map, we watched a clip from Frozen Plant and we also used pictures to identify the differences between the climate in England and Antarctica.

Sam – Leopard seals look a bit like mermaids.
Niam – Penguins swim like dolphins.
Edie – Penguins are really good swimmers.
Harry – It’s looking for food.

Our word of the week was iceberg. We looked at some pictures of icebergs and talked about an iceberg is.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can remember what an iceberg is.

For our writing activity, we looked at a picture from the book and wrote an ‘I can see…’ sentence. We used our phoneme fingers when segmenting the words. We also made sure we checked our writing before showing it to Mrs Wood!
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called Let’s put on our mittens. We hope you enjoy watching it.

Maths
This week, we’ve been using our ‘fast eyes’ to subitise (seeing the quantity without counting) more complex arrangements of dots. We took a picture of the arrangements with our eyes, closed our eyes and then explained what we saw. We used spatial language to describe the arrangements. For example, ‘There are 3 dots on the top and 2 dots on the bottom.’
Help at home: Draw some linear and paired arrangements of 3, 4, 5 and 6. Ask your child to take a picture with their eyes and close them. Can they explain the arrangement with their eyes closed? They could draw it in the air.

Take a look at some of this week’s winter learning…
Reminders

  • PE is every Tuesday.
  • Funky Phonics Phase 3 Stay & Learn – Tuesday 16 January
    9am-9.30am – phase 3 phonics lesson.
    9.30am-10am – phase 3 phonics presentation
    Due to limited space, only one adult per child can attend this session. 

Home-Link Challenge

Living and Learning

Posted on Tuesday 09 January 2024 by Mrs Wood

This week’s living and learning statement is I know what a drug is. Yesterday, we discussed that medicines are drugs to help us feel better. Lots of sensible contributions were made by the children.

Rayaan – Last time I had a cough, my Mama gave me some medicine.
Bryher – Once my brother went to the doctors and he needed to have a special thing in his ear.
Xara-Mae – Last time, when I was ill and had a cough, my Mummy gave me medicine and it was pink.
Gurjeevan – When my sister was poorly, she needed to stay off school.
Edie – I have a cough and my Daddy gave me medicine.
Teddy – The teachers give you medicine at school.
Ayah – My Mummy put my cream in the office to keep it safe at school.

Autumn 2: Week 7

Posted on Friday 22 December 2023 by Mrs Wood

What a busy final week we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of all the Reception children for their FANTASTIC singing. Thank you to everyone who came to watch. We hope you enjoyed!

Literacy 
This week, we’ve been learning about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the story. Click here to watch us.
We also wrote a sentence about a picture from The Christmas Story.
Poetry Picnic
We love learning new poems in Reception! Switch the kettle on, click here and enjoy having a cup of tea – cheers!

Christmas party
This morning, it was PARTY time! We had lots of fun playing party games and showing off our best dance moves. After all that dancing, we enjoyed eating some party food with our friends.

Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy break. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family. Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of the Reception Team!

See you in 2024!

Lights Camel Action

Posted on Monday 18 December 2023 by Mrs Taylor

We are getting excited to perform our Christmas production, Lights Camel Action, this week to three audiences.

Today is our dress rehearsal for the rest of the school followed by two performances to parents, carers and families on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The children have all worked so hard learning lines, songs and dances and we can’t wait to share it with you.

We hope you can join us.

Autumn 2: Week 6

Posted on Friday 15 December 2023 by Mrs Wood

This week, we’ve had lots of fun getting into the Christmas spirit. We’ve been busy doing lots of chilli challenges in the areas of provision.

Santa’s elves enjoyed decorating the role-play area ready for Christmas.

We used our fine motor skills to make Christmas trees in the playdough area.

We used our segmenting skills to write letters to Santa.

We practised our cutting skills when making paper chains at the finger gym table.

We used our subitising skills in the maths area.
Phonics help at home
Your child should have a phase 2 tricky word mat in their bookbags. Please practise reading these at home over the Christmas holidays.

Next half term, we’ll be starting phase 3. In this phase, the children will continue to learn more digraphs (two letters making one sound) and they’ll be introduced to some trigraphs (three letters making one sound).

Don’t forget to attend our Phase 3 phonics stay and learn session on Tuesday 16 January.
This is an opportunity for you watch a phase 3 phonics lesson and see your child’s progress. 

Literacy
We’ve been reading the The Jolly Christmas Postman. We enjoyed looking at all the different things inside the envelopes. This morning, some of the children went to post their postcards. Make sure you look out for them in the post!
Poetry Picnic
Click here to watch this week’s poem.

PE
For our final gymnastic session, we decided to practise our jumping skills.
Next half-term, PE will be on a Tuesday.  Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their PE kit suitable for outdoor PE.

Christmas events happening next week…
Reception, Y1 & Y2 will present their Christmas production, ‘Lights Camel Action’.
There will be two performances:
Tuesday 19 December – 2.15pm – 3.00pm
Wednesday 20 December – 2.15pm – 3.00pm

Friday 22 December – Non-uniform day and Christmas party

Finally…
Thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to the learning journey drop in sessions. We hope you enjoyed looking through your child’s books. We are super proud of the progress the children have made this half-term. Keep up the good learning, Reception!

Autumn 2: Week 5

Posted on Friday 08 December 2023 by Mrs Wood

Phonics
This week, we recapped all of the phase 2 phonemes. We also practiced reading words with ‘s’ at the end.

Help at home: Can your child read the following words?

ships, bags, cats, pots, cups, pins, digs

We’ve learnt all of the phase 2 tricky words. Tricky words can be challenging because we can’t sound them out – we just have to know them by sight.

Help at home: Have fun finding tricky words around your house.
How to play:

  • Write the phase 2 tricky words on pieces on paper.
  • Stick them up around your house.
  • How many can you find? Don’t forget to read them!
  • You could race someone at home.

Poetry Picnic
Each week, we learn a new poem. We recite the poem each day. Click here to watch this week’s poem.

Owl babies
This week, we’ve been reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.
We drew a picture of our favourite part and retold the story using words and actions.
Click on the links below to watch some of us.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

Stamps!
Next week, we’ll be learning all about what happens to our post when reading the story ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’. To enhance your child’s learning experience, we will be writing and then posting a postcard home.

If you would like your child’s postcard to be posted through the Royal Mail please provide a stamp in a named envelope by Thursday 14 December.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
This morning, we got to decorate the school Christmas tree in the hall. We had so much fun!
Reminder!
Don’t forget to attend a learning journey drop in next week! We look forward to sharing your child’s books.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

 

Moortown Primary School, Leeds
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

You can read our full privacy policy, which includes information on the cookies this site uses on our Privacy Policy page