Supertato continued
Literacy
We continued to read Supertato. We created wanted posters to try and help capture the Evil Pea. We thought of sentences to describe the Evil Pea.
He is green.
He is round.
He has a red cape.
He wears a black mask.
He is tiny.
Once again, the Evil Pea has been up to mischief! We’ve been super building traps in the construction area. The children came up with some fantastic ideas! 
Some of the children drew a picture of their traps.
Maths
We’ve been learning about weight. We used balance scales to compare the weight of different objects.
Art
We looked at some of Yayoi Kusama’s famous dot paintings. Yayoi is a Japanese artist who is sometimes called ‘the princess of polka dots’. Although she makes lots of different types of art – they have one thing in common, DOTS! In the creative area, we had fun creating our own dot paintings using cotton buds and bubble wrap.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s was called Mrs Bluebird. The children particularly liked being Mr Bee!
Outdoor learning
The wind didn’t stop us from having fun outside.
Early writing
A short presentation by Mrs Payne, one of our Sphere Federation Reception teachers has been emailed to you this week. The presentation explains how writing develops over the Reception year and has some ideas of things that you can try at home to support your child’s learning. If you have any questions about the presentation, please ask.
Reminders
- Parent-teacher meetings – Monday 06 & Tuesday 07 February
I look forward to chatting to you all in person next week. - A new e-book is assigned every Thursday. Please make sure your child reads this daily at home.
- Library books must be returned every Friday.
Finally, thank you to all of the parents and carers who came to the fiddly fingers stay & learn session today. It was lovely to see so many of you! We hope you all enjoyed it.
Living and Learning
This week, our Living and Learning was ‘I know how to seek help’. We talked about different scenarios and how/who we would ask for help.
AP – I would ask a teacher.
MB – I would ask my Mummy and Daddy.
SSK – I would ask the police.
TH – I would ask my neighbour.
FlM – I would ask someone who works there who is wearing a hi-vis jacket or wearing uniform.
DD – I would ring 999.
Super Reception!
Supertato took over our classroom this week! The children have loved reading this story. On Tuesday, the children noticed the veggies taped to a table with pictures of the Evil Pea all over the writing area. Just when we were about to start reading the book, we found a letter from the Evil Pea.
On Wednesday, the Evil Pea had been up to his mischievous tricks again! The veggies were trapped in a shopping basket hanging on a door!
All week the children our new role play area has been very busy with determined superheroes trying to solve the crimes and capture the Evil Pea!
Super writing!
Every morning, the children have a morning activity to do before phonics. We’ve been super impressed with their amazing sentences this week.
Maths
In maths, the children continued to develop their understanding of composition, or the numbers within numbers. We used the Hungarian number pattern (die pattern) to explore ways to represent numbers. By using this die pattern, it is helping the children understand the ‘5-ness’ of 5.
We started by sing the ‘5 Little Aliens in a Flying Saucer’ song to help us see remember the pairs of numbers that make 5. When another alien joined the gang, they quickly realised there was no space! FlM said, “We need to build another spaceship.” Therefore, we used a double dice frame to begin to explore 6 and 7 as numbers that are composed of ‘5 and a bit’.
Music
This week, the children learnt all about robots and made their own robot to use next week in music.
AT – They might be used to help people.
TH – They do what you say.
JQ – You can control it.
FiM – A robot could help you with your shopping.
MB – I would put a button on to move it.
SL – I would put hands on my robot so it can do the cleaning.
SS – I might use a remote control.
AS – I would put legs on my robot.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem was an eight-line poem called A Little House. We highlighted lots of digraphs, trigraphs and tricky words when reading the poem.
Reminders
- Fiddly Fingers Stay & Learn – Friday 03 February 8.50am-9.30am
No need to sign up just come and join in with some fun finger gym activities. Due to limited space, only one adult per child can attend this session. - Parent-Teacher meetings – Monday 06 & Tuesday 07 February
- Class assembly – Wednesday 22 February – 2.40pm – 3.00pm
Reading
As you all know we love to read at Moortown Primary School. Starting from today, Year 5 will be reading with Reception every Friday. It was lovely to see and hear all the children engaged in a story.
Music & Living and Learning
Every Monday afternoon, the children have lots of fun exploring music with Miss Gaunt. Last week, they continued learning about the pulse through movement. They listened carefully to the song When the cold wind blows and responded appropriately by using coordinated movements with the parachute.
They crouched down small like hibernating hedgehogs.
They wriggled the parachute like they were shivering.
They warmed their hands by the fire.
Last week, our Living and Learning was ‘I can asses my own risks’. We looked at different activities and placed them on a ‘risk ladder’. We talked about high and low risks.
Lunar New Year
This week, we’ve been learning all about the Lunar New Year.
On Monday, they had lots of fun moving in different ways to create a dragon parade. Click here to watch it at home.
In literacy, we found out that the Lunar New Year is traditionally celebrated in Asian countries. We used a globe to locate some of these countries.
On Wednesday, we watched a video about special traditions and thought about the differences between the Lunar New Year and the New Year celebrations held on 31st December.
AP – It goes on for 15 days.
AM – They do a dragon dance.
EC – They have a big parade.
LN – They eat Chinese food.
SSK – They make lanterns.
FM – They have a lantern festival.
AT – We clean our house.
We had a go at making our own Chinese lanterns and dragons.
We also read the story about how the Chinese Zodiac started. We looked at the Zodiac wheel to find out which animal we are.
Our focus story was The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson. We closed our eyes and imagined what we would paint if someone gave us a magic paintbrush.
EZ – I would paint a tree because I want some gold coins.
SBL – I would paint a cat because I like cats.
SB – I would paint a rainbow.
FM – I would paint a heart.#
One of this week’s chilli challenges was to have a go at writing Chinese numerals- we found some of them really tricky!
Week 2: The Secrets of Winter
Literacy
Our focus story was The Secrets of Winter by Carron Brown and Georgina Tee. We had a lots of fun shining a torch onto the pages to find the hidden winter surprises.
On Wednesday, we talked about the difference between non-fiction and fiction books and why they are both important. We then sorted a selection of non-fiction and fiction books into two groups.
We’ve also learnt lots of interesting facts about penguins! We watched various videos, talked about the life cycle and had a go at writing our favourite facts. Ask your child if they can remember one fact about penguins.
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.
Poetry Picnic
This week’s poem is a short poem called I can build a snowman. We used our imaginations and pretended to build snowmen.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the challenges this week…
Reminders
- Please make sure you write in your child’s reading record when you’ve read at home. It is important we see how your child is doing with their reading at home.
- Don’t forget our Phase 3 Funky Phonics Stay & Learn session! Thank you to everyone who has returned their slip. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday and Tuesday.
- E-books are assigned every Thursday. Please make sure your child reads this daily at home.
Home-Link Challenge
Welcome back!
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a fantastic break. It was lovely to see lots of happy smiling faces on Tuesday morning. This week, we’ve enjoyed sharing our wonderful Christmas memories and being back with our friends.
Literacy
Our focus story was Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. Throughout the week, we’ve learnt lots of interesting facts about Antarctica. We located it on a map, talked about the equator and found out what animals live there.
Our word of the week was iceberg. Ask your child if they can remember what an iceberg is.
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 used our phonics skills when labelling our pictures.
Yesterday, we worked together to sequence the story and talked about some of the key events.
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.
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called Let’s put on our mittens. We hope you enjoy watching it.
Take a look at some of this week’s winter challenges…
Reminders
- PE is every Monday and Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school wearing the correct clothes. If you are unsure and need a reminder, please see our uniform policy.
- Funky Phonics Stay & Learn – Monday 16 & Tuesday 17 January
A letter will be sent out next week. Due to limited space, only one adult per child can attend this session.
Home-Link Challenge
Christmas week
What a busy week we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of all the Reception children for their FANTASTIC singing and dancing. Thank you to everyone who came to watch Wriggly Nativity. We hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed learning the songs.
Literacy
This week, we’ve been learning about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the story. Click here to us in action.
On Wednesday, we played a true or false game. Read the statements to your child. Can they remember which ones are true?
We also wrote a sentence about a picture from The Christmas Story.
Poetry Picnic
We love learning new poems in Reception! This week, has got to be one of our favourites. Before watching this week’s poem, put the kettle on and make 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 sat down and enjoyed eating some party food with our friends.
PE
Next half-term, PE will be on Monday and Friday. Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their PE kit. If you child has their ears pierced, earrings must be removed before school.
Finally, thank you for your generosity. 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!
Wriggly Nativity and party dates
As we begin the final week of the autumn term, here are some reminders of events happening this week.
Reception, Y1 & Y2 will present their Christmas production, ‘A Wriggly Nativity’.
There will be two performances:
Tuesday 13 December – 2.15pm – 3.00pm
Wednesday 14 December – 2.15pm – 3.00pm
Please specify which day you would like to attend via school gateway under the payments section.
16 December
Non-uniform day
Reception, Y1 & Y2 Christmas party