Cashes Green Primary School and Children's Centre

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Reception

To contact Mrs Atkinson, please email jatkinson@cashesgreen-pri.gloucs.sch.uk

Welcome to our Reception Class page.  Here you will find out what we have been doing each week and what we have planned for the term.  We base our learning around books linked to a theme but also adapt our plans to take into account children's interests and key events and celebrations throughout the year.

Please see below for our termly overviews, weekly news and photographs of our learning.  

Information

• PE will be on a Monday.  Please send your child to school in their outdoor PE kit  every Monday This is dark shorts/jogging bottoms, white t-shirt and school jumper/cardigan. 

• Please send your child with a pair of wellington boots.  We will use these throughout the week so please leave them on our welly rack in the outdoor classroom.  We will be going outside for Muddy Monday every Monday so please ensure they have them available in school.

• Please read with your child at least 3 times a week (more if you can) and practise their phonic cards everyday.  Please send in a book bag, reading books and phonic wallet everyday.  Reading signatures will be counted on a Thursday and certificates given out on a Friday.  

Our Learning!

Term 4

This term we are focussing on Traditional Tales.  Our focus stories will be Mr Wolf's Pancakes, The Gingerbread Man and The Frog Prince.

Week 1 

We have read Mr Wolf's Pancakes this week.  We then wrote shopping lists to help Mr Wolf! We then had great fun making our own pancakes.  We learnt to use a sieve and a whisk.  We then wrote instructions to help other people.  

In Maths, we counted 1p coins and found out how much money Mr Wolf had.  

We looked at maps of the local environment and then used objects in the classroom to create a map of where Mr Wolf lives.  We then carefully drew our own maps.

Week 2 and 3

This fortnight we have focussed our learning around the story of the Gingerbread Man! We have made our own story books and retold the story using lots of phrases from the story.  We have counted Gingerbread Men and compared the heights of different ones. 

We made our own Gingerbread Men biscuits and couldn't believe it when the teacher's biscuits escaped and ran away! We have had gat fun searching for them and looking for clues around school.  We watched a video of them running across the playground and out through the gate! We made missing posters to warn people.  

We received a letter from the Gingerbread Man telling us that he had got to the canal and needed our help.  We designed bridges to help him get across.  

We also have been learning about colour mixing.  We practised mixing blue, yellow and red and seeing what colours we had made.  We then used this knowledge to help us make the colours we needed to paint a picture of the Gingerbread Man walking in some grass.

Term 3

This term we are learning about animals and the Jungle.  We are continuing to think about how to keep ourselves healthy and safe.

Week 1

The children were very excited to find a baby monkey in our classroom on Monday! His name is Max and he's lost his mummy!  We made lost posters to help him.  We have read the story 'Monkey Puzzle' by Julia Donaldson.  We have been thinking about what the jungle might be like and which animals we might find there.  We carefully painted our favourite animal.  We have designed an animal mask and have started the messy job of using papier mache to make the mask.  It's been super slimy and gooey!

Week 3 and 4

Reception have loved continuing to learn about animals and where they live.  In our science learning, we have been learning about different places that animals live.  We have enjoyed exploring the jungle play areas, the Arctic play tray and learning about the animals that live in the desert.  We have finished our papier mache animal masks and think they look amazing!

In Maths, we have been doing lots of adding and playing games to help us learn how to make different numbers.  

We have enjoyed reading Handa's Surprise this week.  We have written new shopping lists for Handa, practised our scissor skills to make her a new basket and then tasted some new exotic fruits.  Most of us liked the pomegranate seeds but were less keen on the passion fruit or avocado!

Finally, this week we went on a brilliant trip to Noah's Ark Zoo.  We saw lots of amazing animals and were lucky to take part in an animal workshop where everyone touched or held a hissing cockroach, Giant African land snail and a corn snake! I was so impressed with how brave everyone was!

Term 2

This term we are starting by celebrating some different festivals and then moving onto to reading Charlie's Superhero Underpants and focussing on superheroes! The term will finish with a focus on Christmas and our nativity play.

Week 1

This week we have celebrated and learnt about several key festivals and celebrations.  We have made firework pictures on the laptops and used glitter and paint to print some super firework pictures.  We then moved on to learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of light.  We have made rangoli patterns using paint and designed mendhi hand patterns.  We also took part in a two minute silence for Remembrance Day and then talked about why we have Remembrance day.  We then printed with potatoes to create some beautiful poppy pictures.

During Muddy Monday (this week on a Friday!!) we went and looked how the trees in the wildlife area had changed and couldn't believe how many different colour leaves were on the floor.  We used the fallen leaves to create super Autumn crowns!

Term 1

This term we are focussing our learning around the theme of 'Bears'.  The children will be learning new routines and starting to learn to read by learning the first letter sounds in their phonics sessions.  Our focus book for this term will be We're going on a bear hunt, before moving on to Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Week 1 and 2

 The children have all settled brilliantly into school life! I am so impressed with how well they are playing together and they are all enjoying joining in with small activities and getting familiar with their new surroundings.  They have shown that they are all budding artists by painting brilliant self portraits.  They have used shapes to make some wonderful pictures and they've practised their listening skills by playing a range of listening games and going on a listening walk around school with their listening ears!

Week 3 and 4

We have enjoyed reading 'We're going on a bear hunt'.  We practised retelling and sequencing the story.  We all loved retelling the story using different prop trays.  We all tried hard to use lots of story language. We also made collage story maps showing the different places in the story.

This week we have focussed on Goldilocks and The Three Bears,  We have continued practising our story telling and sequencing skills.  We have also been mark making by writing sorry letters to the bears.  We tasted different flavours of porridge and decided which was our favourite.  

We took part in our first Muddy Monday session.  Everyone loved visiting the wildlife area and playing some games as well as exploring the mud kitchen, swings and hammock.

Week 5 and 6

The children have had a busy fortnight again! We have been reading Where's my Teddy by Jez Alborough.  We invited our own teddy bears into school for a Teddy Bears' Picnic which was great fun.  We have carefully drawn pictures of our soft toys, we all really concentrated really well.  

This week our class bear Bernard ran away to the woods! We had a fun morning on Tuesday walking all the way up to Randwick Woods to find him! We had great fun climbing trees, making dens and climbing the steep banks.  Back in school, we have been learning about old and new teddy bears and practising our sorting skills to sort bears into old and new.

Week 7 and 8

I can't believe what a busy first term we have had.  The children have learnt so much and have already grown up so much!  They have loved learning their sounds in our phonics sessions and I have been so pleased with how many children are remembering them so confidently.

This week we have had a great time focussing on Halloween.  The children have loved exploring pumpkins, making pretend pumpkin soup, and strengthening their fingers by hammering golf tees into a pumpkin!

This week we also cooked bread twists on the fire during Muddy Monday! We read the story of the Little Red Hen and then made our own dough to cook.