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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.  

• Share a Story books will be changed on a Friday.

• Please send Phonics Folders into school everyday.  A new sheet will be put in the folder as each new sound is taught (normally 3-4 per week)

• Yellow Word books are checked and updated on a Tuesday.  Please make sure your child has their yellow word book in their book bag please.

Our Learning!

Term 4

This term our learning will focus around traditional tales.  Our focus texts will be Mr Wolf's Pancakes, The Gingerbread Man and The Frog Prince.  We will continue to learn the Chapter 3 digraphs, as well as recognising tricky words by sight.

Week 6 and 7

The children have loved looking at the artist Monet.  The children have created their own tissue paper ponds, including some beautiful waterlillies and frogs and fish.  They have worked hard on their writing this week, by writing sentences about the Frog Prince story.  In Maths, they have been learning to work out and recall doubles up to 5+5.  They are getting great at remembering these number facts.

The children have enjoyed making Easter nest today.  They melted the chocolate and described how it had changed as it melted.  They then made super baskets to carry them home in.  Lots of the children worked at home with their families to create amazing Easter bonnets.  They looked amazing! Well done to everyone that took part.

I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by! Keep practising your reading and phonics over the holidays but also make sure you have lots of fun! 

Week 4 and 5

The Reception children absolutely loved performing to their parents and visitors in our Sharing Assembly! Everyone spoke into the microphone and enjoyed acting out our stories of Mr Wolf's Pancakes and The Gingerbread Man.  We loved showing our art work and singing and dancing.  Great work everyone - we are so proud of you all!  Thank you to everyone who came and supported our Reception children.

We have now started our next key text - The Frog Prince.  We visited the pond and carefully did some pond dipping.  We found frog spawn and lots and lots of small tadpoles.  We will be going back next week to see if they've grown.

In maths, we have been looking at making patterns.  We have copied and extended patterns using two, three and four repeating aspects.

Week 2 and 3

What a busy fortnight we have had! We looks at maps of where Mr Wolf lived and then recreated a map using blocks and objects.  We then drew maps to show where Mr Wolf and his 'friends' lived.   We also helped Mr Wolf to count the money in his money box.

Our focus book has now moved onto the Gingerbread Man.  We have enjoyed retelling the story and acting out with puppets.  We then cooked our own Gingerbread Men! We carefully mixed the ingredients and using a rolling pin to roll out the dough.  We then decorated them with icing pens and ate them before they could run away! Unfortunately Mrs Atkinson and Miss Long's Gingerbread Men did escape and ran away! We searched for them and made posters to tell people what had happened.  So far they haven't been found....

During Muddy Monday, we had a camp fire and toasted some marshmallows.  We carefully counted to twenty and described how our marshmallow had changed as it was cooking.  

Finally this week, we have read Mix it Up by Herve Tullet.  We then explored mixing different coloured paint using our hands.  Mrs Atkinson then set the challenge of painting a picture of the gingerbread man walking on some grass but with only blue, yellow and red paint!  We had to mix our own paint to make the green and orange that we needed.  We had a great time and got very messy! 

Week 1

Our term has started with the text Mr Wolf's pancakes.  The children have enjoyed reading the story and writing shopping lists for Mr Wolf.  Then they all enjoyed following a recipe and making their own pancakes!

Term 3

This term our learning will focus around animals.  We will start to learn the Chapter 3 digraphs and continue to focus on blending these sounds together to read simple words.  Our first text will be Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson

Week 4 and 5

The children had a brilliant trip to Noah's Ark Zoo Farm.  All of the children were brave and either held or touched a hissing cockroach, a corn snake, a Giant African Land snail and a leopard tortoise.  They got very close to the elephants, lion and rhinos, as well as having lots of fun on the slides and play equipment! 

After readnig Handa's Surprise, the children tasted a range of exotic fruit.  Some they really liked and some were a bit too sour for them! They then carefully used pastels to draw a fruit basket and then practised their chopping skills by making some mini fruit kebabs.

The children have been learning how some people celebrate Lunar New Year.  They have cooked a Chinese style stir fry after chopping and grating carrots, peppers and mushrooms.  They used chopsticks to eat.  

Week 2 and 3

The children have loved designing their jungle mask. They then learnt how to use papier mache to create their mask.  Some of the children loved the gooeyness!  Once they were dry, the children have started to follow their designs to paint and decorate their masks.  Hopefully finished photos next week!  

Everyone is enjoying learning the new chapter 3 phonic sounds.  All of the children are working so hard to blend sounds together and are trying hard to remember the tricky words.

During Muddy Monday, they went outside and read 'Stickman'. They then found lots of sticks and turned them into paintbrushes! They had great fun creating paint by mixing mud and water and then working as a group to create some super muddy paintings!

Week 1

Welcome back to school! The children had an exciting start to the term when we found a little baby monkey called Max in our classroom.  He had lost his mummy.  The children are looking after him until we can send him safely home.  The children have loved sharing the story Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson.  They have made puppets and retold the story, remembering lots of repeating phrases from the story.  In maths, the children have been developing their understanding of capacity and comparing mass.  The children have been looking at lots of information texts about animals that live in the jungle and finding out how they move.  They have painted their favourite jungle animal and started to design their own jungle animal mask.

Term 2

This term our learning will focus around superheroes! We will continue learning our chapter 2 phonemes and really focus on blending these sounds together to read simple words.  Our first text will be Charlie's Superhero Underpants

Week 1

 We have had a wonderful first week back learning about different celebrations.  The children were very keen to talk about their experiences of Halloween.  We explored pumpkins and made exploding potions.  We then moved on to learning about the festival Diwali.  We created rangoli patterns using paint and on the iPads.  We also learnt about the life of a little boy in India.  We compared what things were similar to our life and what things are different.  Finally we talked about all of the beautiful fireworks we had seen this week.  We had great fun printing firework pictures and making pictures on the iPads.

Week 2 and 3

Superhero Training School has been in full force! After receiving message from Super Ben, the children have been busy learning how to be superheroes! They have designed and made their own superhero capes.  They read Charlie's Superhero Underpants and have painted new pants for him.  The children performed their first Sharing Assembly.  Everyone was amazing! Every child joined in, spoke in the microphone and looked super happy! We are very proud of them!  To say a big well done for all their superhero learning, we had a Superhero Day! The children completed a set of challenges and at the end of the day Super Ben awarded them all with certificates to show they were now fully qualified superheroes!

The children designed and made their own superhero capes! They were super proud of the finished capes!

Christmas!

The children were amazing in their first Cashes Green Nativity! They all joined in with the singing and actions and looks fantastic in their costumes. They loved performing to the audience and we couldn't be prouder of them!  They've also had great fun making Christmas hats, Christmas cards, calendars and tree decorations.  

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 had a very busy fortnight! We started by reading 'We're going on a Bear Hunt'.  We re-enacted the story in story trays and then created collage maps to help us retell the story.  We loved acting out the story.

We then moved on to another bear story - Goldilocks and the three bears! We learnt how to sort and enjoyed playing games like odd one out and guess my rule.  We sorted items by size for the three bears, sorted monsters and sorted natural items by our own criteria.  We made and tasted different flavours of porridge.  Unsurprisingly baby bears chocolate flavour was the most popular!  

We have loved taking part in our first Drawing club sessions! We have created drawing of the characters, the setting, a map and we have written a letter to say sorry to the bears!

Week 5 and 6

Reception invited their own teddy bears to a teddy bears picnic! Everyone practised writing their name and then wrote an invitation to their soft toy.  The soft toys came to school and had a sleepover with Bernard Bear and Old Bear.  The children were very surprised the following morning to find they had all moved, were reading books and had eaten all of Mrs Atkinson's chocolate!  Everyone had great fun sharing cakes with the bears in the sunshine.

Reception have also started their Muddy Monday sessions.  They have loved exploring the wildlife area, observing the pond and challenging themselves to walk along the tightrope!

This week Reception have focussed on a different story set in the woods.  Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.  The children have made puppets to retell the story and acted out the story using costumes and props.  They have practised their cutting skills to cut out and make an owl.

After seeing a rainbow during Muddy Monday, the children used paint and sponges to explore printing.  They made some beautiful rainbows!

Week 7

 We finished our first term at school with a wonderful trip to Randwick Woods.  Bernard Bear went missing and the children set off to rescue him.  We had a super morning exploring the woods, climbing trees and searching for clues to help us find him!