Welcome to China class! We are the Reception class and you'll find us busy learning through play every day. We balance whole-class teaching, individual and small group work with lots of planned and free play activities. Watching, playing with and talking to the children about what they're doing and enjoying, helps us plan to grow their learning. We use the online learning journal 'Tapestry' to work with parents too.
The structure of the day changes bit by bit throughout the year to help support the children make good transitions from Nursery to Reception and from Reception into Year 1.
Do look at our blog to find out more about what fun we've been having whilst we are learning!
If you can't see what you're looking for here, you'll find information for new starters on the 'Noticeboard' tab and our curriculum map under 'Information'.
Please see below for our knowledge organisers for each half-term in Reception and the long-term overview of our curriculum.
What does a good writer do in Reception?
We’ve had the best trip to Morrisons this week – thanks to Sharon, their community champion.
The children enjoyed hunting for the colours of the rainbow in the produce section. We found plenty of new and interesting things which the children weren’t sure they knew. Then followed their highlight – a visit to the fish counter! They were delighted to see the octopus and when the fishmongers made the scallops ‘talk’. We loved looking at the patterns on the skin of the mackerel and looking at how the kipper opens up into a flat shape. We certainly have some adventurous eaters in class who clearly love sardines and prawns.
The children were really well behaved and stopped to chat politely to the other customers in the store who asked them questions.
At the end we were given certificates, a pencil and sticker plus a very kind gift of some goodies for our role play area. Best of all is a delicious parcel of fruits for us to taste. We are looking forwards to setting up our little shop in class very soon!
Thanks so much to Miss Laflin and the parent helpers who accompanied us to make it such a fun little expedition. Don’t forget that Morrisons offer children the chance to scan shopping every Saturday between 10am and 4pm.
We have enjoyed World Book Day activities this week, including a West End in Schools dance workshop where we told the story of Pinocchio. The children were excited to dress up on Thursday and chat about their favourite books and characters.
There has been so much rain this week and it has made our outdoor classroom very slippery. We didn’t want to be stuck indoors any more so we got our waterproofs and wellies on and went out to splash in the playground puddles. It was so much fun!
This week we’ve had the best time at Forest Schools with Jules. The children have explored the changes in early Spring and had fun with forest crafts.
Leanne from the RSPCA visited this week to talk about the history of the RSPCA, what they do and how we can take care of different animals. The children enjoyed handling the (cuddly) animals, talking about what they eat and what happens if they are poorly or need to be rescued. We found out dogs’ noses are 400 times better than our own, that cats have different meows which mean different things, and that goldfish remember faces!
Today we held our reading cafe in class. Thanks so much to all the grown-ups and siblings who were able to come along today. It was VERY busy in class and I only just remembered to take a couple of photos. There will be other cafes in class later in the year if you missed this one!
We read the story ‘Snowball’ by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet and talked about rhyme, predicting what word might come next and thinking of silly alternatives to rhyme with ‘down’. We tried to think of silly things which might get stuck in a snowball.
The children had a choice of different Christmas crafts to try – lollipop stick reindeer and Christmas trees, snowy pinecones and spiral tree hangers. It was brilliant fun. I’ve attached a leaflet with more ideas to try at home and suggestions of books you might like.
We also talked about the Little Library. Please do look out for it and use it. You will find it on the playground next to the home time door. These books are for Nursery and Reception children to borrow and return, or keep and replace… As often as you like and as many as you like! There are books for grown-ups, too.
We had a brilliant visit to Wymondham library. The children walked very sensibly and enjoyed the stories read by Hannah the library person. We explored the different books and read lots. Then some children got books out on their library cards before we had more stories and rhymes before getting back for lunch.
Do join the library if you haven’t already – it’s free and children can choose up to 20 books. There are story CDs and graphic novels, too. You can also order books from any Norfolk library, in many different languages.
Well done reception – and a big thank you to our parent helpers Cheryl, Katie, Lauren and Madel for making the experience so special for us.
We have had a fabulous maths week! We have been so busy: we completed an outdoor maths trail to find things in 3s, ordered objects by size, and made triangles with sticks. We looked at art by Kandinsky using circles and triangles which inspired some super collages. We made big triangles from smaller ones, too. The children looked for things featuring three or triangles and took their own photos with ipads. We read the story of Goldilocks then sung ‘When Goldilocks went to the House of the Bears’. After this we made porridge – we chose a variety of toppings such as pear, banana, raisin, cinnamon and honey then practised measuring, chopping, grating and mixing. Maths is fun!
We were so excited for our turn at Forest Schools with Jules Jackdaw! The children explored all of the different areas and looked for autumn changes. They created garlands and necklaces from natural materials and investigated what was in the pond. Some children showed each other how to plant conkers in pots to take home, too. Thanks, Jules – can’t wait until next time!
