Welcome to the China class blog! We're 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, our curriculum map under 'Information' and home learning information under 'CV-19'.)
What does a good writer do in reception?
We have been lucky enough to have an outdoor storytelling session with Bel, our school’s creative writing teacher. The children spent the whole morning in the forest school area. We listened to her story about Curious the calf. We helped find picture cards for the story so we could tell it with actions and pictures. We explored the whole area – we found out how things look, smell, sound and feel. We made lots of sounds with bodies and sticks. We made a ‘word orchestra’ together where we suggested words first then said them together in groups, which sounded terrific. We wrote a poem together by throwing a ball onto letters and thinking of a word together which begins with it. Bel left us a sunflower seed each and we planted them. Well done China class!
This week we were excited to take the children on their first school trip to the StART studio in Wymondham. The children went over two days, half a class at a time. They walked really sensibly into the town. Sarah met us there and showed us how to make art using dots, inspired by the story ‘The Dot’. We made two pieces of art: one abstract and then a choice of a bee or a sheep. The children also enjoyed having snack in the courtyard and seeing the fledgling starlings! They produced some beautiful pieces for our exhibition in July.
The last couple of weeks in Reception we have been so excited to get to know each other again! We’ve spent lots of time talking about feelings, how to manage them, working out ways of co-operating and sharing together and recapping our class rules.
We’ve had lots of fun for Red Nose Day – making our own and dressing in red. The children were very creative in their approach and some of them won prizes too. We learned how Red Nose day supports children with disabilities and difficult lives in Britain and around the world. The children talked about how important it is to help others with great sensitivity! Well done China class and welcome back!
Two things in the air this week: Snow and love. Both of which have made the children in class very excited!
They all enjoyed the snow at home whilst school was closed and even did their home learning too. We enjoyed seeing their photos on Tapestry.
We have been learning about Valentine’s Day this week. We learned about the origins and found out about Norfolk’s very own legend of Jack Valentine. They received a letter from him telling them he had run out of magic ..and had to make love potions to help. They rose to the challenge with aplomb and ingredients included unicorn tears, lavender drops and a flamingo. The magic worked for the children in class at least who after hearing a knock on the door were surprised by a delivery of love heart sweeties!
Work being enjoyed this week also included making cards with designs inspired by artist Wassily Kandinsky’s concentric circle colour study, writing potion recipes and adding groups of objects in maths.
We would like to thank all the parents of children in school and at home: They have been a brilliant support to the children and to us and are doing a brilliant job. We’ve been so impressed by the progress the children are making and we know that this is really tough for the parents at home to manage.
The ladies in class – Mrs Fletcher, Mrs Philpott and Mrs Waupotitsch – have worked so hard all half term often going above and beyond the call of duty to support the children. Thank you so much!
Have a restful break and we’ll see you on Monday 22nd in one form or another.
This week in China class we’ve been learning all about Chinese New Year at home and in school. In keeping with Chinese tradition we have made a wishing tree. Chinese custom is that people write their wishes then attach them to a piece of fruit on a string, which is then thrown up into a wishing tree. If the wish sticks on the tree it may come true! The children works hard on their writing and the tree looks great. What would you wish for?
We also really enjoyed trying some Chinese foods – noodles, prawn crackers, egg fried rice and dumplings. The children really loved the noodles and prawn crackers and whilst the dumplings weren’t that popular we were really proud of them for trying something new.
We also made dragons, lucky money envelopes and did some dances with our dragons to Chinese music!
Well done to all the children who entered the winter writing competition! Mrs McMullan was impressed with the number of entries.
The winners were …
Amelia and Emily – well done! They will receive a certificate and an Orchard Toys Game.
All the other entrants will be receiving a certificate: Alfie, Ehren, Florence M, Florence R, Henry, Indie-Rose, Mia, Mollie, Reuben.
Children not in school will get their prizes and / or certificates in the post. Well done everyone – super writing!
This week we’ve been using ‘Mog the forgetful cat’ to think about looking after pets – and each other.We’ve talked about – and showed pictures of – our pets and made something for them using modelling materials. We’ve talked about who our special people are, why they are special and how they make us feel. Parents at home have found creative ways of teaching word blending and tricky words. We’ve seen lots of children joining in with physical activities such as yoga. It has been lovely to see children working with older and younger brothers and sisters on their learning too. We are hugely proud of the children working both in school and at home and we’ve kept in touch with each other using Zoom.
Thanks so much to all the adults working so hard to support their children at home!
We have spent two weeks learning about Diwali, the Hindu and Sikh festival of light. We have talked about the things we celebrate with our own families such as Christmas and birthdays. We learned that Diwali is a special time where people decorate their homes and celebrate with their families to remember the story of how Rama and Sita escaped the ten-headed demon, Ravana. The children retold the story with props. We made clay Diya lamps and Rangoli patterns (outdoor floor decorations), as well as Diwali cards with Mendhi patterns (traditional hand decorations). The children loved the story and when Charlotte from ‘West End in schools’ visited us to teach a dance workshop she was impressed with how well the children knew the story. They joined in really well with the dancing!
We also spend a day learning about Remembrance, inspired by the CBeebies animation ‘Poppies’. The children talked about how wartime must have been scary and how it’s important to remember their bravery. We took part in the two minutes’ silence and painted our own poppies.
We are really proud of how the children are learning to speak sensitively about their own and other cultures.
The children have all been keen to tell us about their half term holidays and we’ve seen some lovely photos of the things they’ve been doing. There were some super pieces of writing sent into school which the children completed at home, too.
This week we have been learning about Bonfire night – do you know the story of Guy Fawkes? We talked about being safe around fireworks and drew our own on the big touchscreen, adding words for the firework sounds we hear such as ‘pop’ ‘bang’, ‘fizz’… The children are becoming confident when writing sounds at the beginning of words. We wrote group poems inspired by the things we hear, smell, see, taste and like about Fireworks.
We sang the Steve Grocott ‘Firework song’ https://stevegrocott.bandcamp.com/track/the-firework-song with our own actions. We recorded it for all the parents to see on their child’s Tapestry account.
In maths we have been concentrating on recognising up to three objects without counting them – this is called ‘subitising’. We have practised recognising the numerals and matching them to the quantities – we had a great time hunting the numbers indoors and outside then putting them in the right order!
Next week (9th November) we’ll be learning about Diwali, the Hindu and Sikh festival of light.
WELL DONE CHINA CLASS! We made it! What a half term this had been and I hope you don’t mind me being slightly gushy but we are incredibly proud of our class. They have risen to the challenge of settling in *brilliantly* even after a huge gap since last being in nursery.
As we’ve watched them this week we have noticed how hard they are working to share, be kind, take turns, listen and challenge themselves. There have been lots of big little steps -putting on coats, wellies, doing zips, writing names, riding bikes, eating different fruits for the first time….
Today we had a circle time to talk about their favourite fruit and the listening, concentration and speaking was marvellous. All the children joined in and spoke in full sentences, using the joining word ‘because’ – this took so much confidence, we were amazed at how well they joined in.
The children are beginning to hear, say and write sounds in words for writing. We have written ‘sorry’ cards from Crab to Blob and Brush from ‘Sharing a Shell’. In maths we have used language ‘more’ and ‘fewer’ to compare groups of objects.
Overall – a brilliant start to reception. Thanks to all the parents for your support and for the feedback which supports their learning. Please keep adding to your child’s tapestry accounts and don’t forget the half term writing challenge.
We hope you enjoy your half term break, children and parents alike. Stay safe and well and we will look forwards to seeing you on Monday 2nd November. Have a good rest.
Best wishes – Mrs B and the Reception team
