Reception Class News

Summer 1: Week 3

This week, we’ve been enjoying the story The Bug Collector by Alex Griffiths.

In the book, George visits a wildlife museum and becomes fascinated by bugs. Inspired by his visit, he collects minibeasts from his garden and keeps them in jars—but soon notices they don’t seem very happy.

We had a thoughtful discussions about why:

The jars are closed, so the bugs can’t breathe.
The butterfly doesn’t have space to spread its wings.
They have no food or water.
They are not in the beautiful natural world.
They don’t have any room to move around.

This led us to explore the idea of habitats and why they are so important for living things.
Help at home: Can your child remember which habitats these minibeasts live in?

Thank you for sharing photos of your child’s home learning minibeast hunts—they’ve been a fantastic link to our story discussions!

Provision
Our construction areas have been especially popular this week, with children creating a range of fantastic models. Once they’ve finished building, we encourage them to photograph their creations using an iPad and add the pictures to the design books.

Here’s a selection of some of their amazing models—and their brilliant photography skills too!
Caterpillar Update
Our caterpillars are growing nicely—some of us think they’re getting fatter, just like The Very Hungry Caterpillar! We’re really looking forward to seeing stage 3 of the life cycle happen next.
Maths
This week, the children consolidated their understanding of the composition of 5, using their fingers to explore different ways of making 5 and recognising parts when some were hidden. We linked this to a familiar rhyme about monkeys/kittens jumping down from the bed, helping children visualise numbers decreasing.

We used this stem sentence to explain our thinking:
5 is made of ____ and ____; ____ and ____ make 5.

They also practised subitising (quickly recognising amounts) and explored how numbers 6 to 9 can be made as ‘5 and a bit’, using a range of practical resources and representations.
Help at home: Re-enact the rhyme about monkeys/kittens jumping off the bed using soft toys and a simple ‘bed’ (e.g. a shoebox). Encourage your child to join in and use their fingers to show how many are on and off the bed.

Living and Learning: Staying safe themed week 18 May

Our next whole school themed week, based around Staying Safe, will be taking place from Monday 18 May 2026.  The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations – at home, at school, online and in the environment.

A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education including road safety (Leeds City Council); water safety (Canal and River Trust and RNLI); fire safety (West Yorkshire Fire Service); first aid; safety in our community (PCSOs), martial arts (BMMA) and drug education (d:side). Some of the events require parental permission and these letters have been sent out separately.

There are also some opportunities for parents and carers, from all year groups, to get involved in the week.

Thursday 14 May from 8:30am West Yorkshire Police bike register event

Pupils are invited to bring along their bikes to be registered at this bike security marking event at school. Registering your bike helps police and retailers identify and verify the legitimate owner of bikes that have been stolen or are being resold.

Tuesday 19 May 3pm – 3:30pm d:side drug education drop in information session (playground)

A representative from d:side, a health education provider, will be available to discuss details of your child’s drug education learning in the themed week.

The themed week is a good opportunity to continue to think about healthy, active and safe ways to travel to school.  Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way.

For a chance to win one of three £10 vouchers, we’d love to see their active travel staying safe photos, maybe using a traffic crossing or wearing their bike helmet (send photos to moortownoffice@spherefederation.org). Photos should be sent by 10am on Thursday 21 May and winners will be announced on the same day.

Due to the rising costs of visitors to school, this year, we are requesting a voluntary contribution of £2 per pupil to go towards paying for visitors. This can be made on Arbor. Thank you for your support with this.

Finally, can you help? Does your job involve an aspect of safety?  If you are able to support our Staying Safe themed week by coming into school to speak to the children, please contact me via the office or your child’s class teacher.

We will keep you up to date about events during the week on the class news pages on our website.

Thank you for your support to keep Moortown a happy, healthy and safe school.

Poetry Basket: Under a stone

This week’s poem is called Under a stone.
We’ve been focussing on the words earth (land eg soil, dirt) and firm (a solid surface).

Summer 1: Week 2

On Monday, a very special parcel arrived at school… inside were five tiny and very hungry caterpillars!

The children were full of excitement as I carefully opened the box. We spent time observing the caterpillars closely, noticing their size, movement, and how eager they were to begin feeding.
Over the next few weeks, we’re looking forward to watching them grow and change. The children will have the opportunity to observe each stage of their journey. This links perfectly to our word of the week: metamorphosis—the process some living things go through to become adults.

We can’t wait to share updates as our caterpillars continue their incredible transformation!

DT
In the creative area, we’ve been exploring how to safely use hand drills to make holes in pieces of wood. The children have been learning to handle the tools with care, applying the right amount of pressure and control to create their holes. They showed great concentration and enthusiasm as they developed these new practical skills.
Next week, we’re excited to put these skills into practice by working together to build a class bug hotel for our outdoor area. Thank you to everyone who has collected natural resources to help fill our bug hotel—we really appreciate your support!

Stay & Learn
Thank you to everyone who attended our final Stay & Learn session today.  We hope you found the session helpful and came away with some useful tips and ideas for supporting your child’s fine motor skills. If you were unable to attend, click here to view the slides.

Home learning activity

Living and Learning: I know the importance of sleep.

Yesterday in Living and Learning, we talked about  the importance of sleep. We were so impressed by their thoughtful and mature contributions as they shared their ideas about why sleep helps our bodies and minds. The children talked about feeling more energetic, happy, and ready to learn after a good rest.

Lu – I want to sleep because I want to grow.
Ha – If I don’t sleep enough, I get tired.
Ar – If I can’ sleep, I ask my Dad to hug me.
Ken – Sleep helps your body recover from things.
Ro – Sleep is important because it helps you recharge your brain.
Imo – Sleep gives us more energy.
Ka – Sleep is good for you because it makes you intelligent and good at writing.
Sal – It gives you lots of energy so you can grow.

Help at home: Continue the conversation at home by talking about bedtime routines and why a good night’s sleep is so important.

Summer term after-school clubs

Summer 1: Week 1

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

Roundhay tennis opportunities

This week, we welcome Paul from Roundhay Tennis Club who will be running a taster tennis session for Reception and Year 1 classes, giving children the opportunity to try tennis and inspire them to pick up a racket.

Life on Earth

Spring 2: Week 6

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!