Reception Penguins 2022 - 2023

Miss Shipp, Mrs Spence and Miss Ohandjanian would like to welcome you to the Reception webpage. 

Follow us on twitter @eastlandsschool for more updates and photographs of learning. 

For extra stories to share, visit https://sooperbooks.com/ for a wide variety of books! 

June: Reception had a super time learning about the farm, we had a visitor in school talking about what she grows on her farm and the food it can be made into. We had an exciting delivery of eggs in an incubator and watched them hatch into chicks! We continued learning about lifecycles, watching caterpillars transform into butterflies. We ended our learning with a trip to the farm. We had the farm all to ourselves and were able to experience the animals close up! Have a look at our photographs below :) 

The final event in June was our Early Years sports morning, the children were superstars and we are really proud of them all for taking part. It was lovely to see their special grown-ups supporting them too!

May: Wow what a busy month! Our transport topic has been full of exciting visitors, thank you to everyone who has given up their time to enhance the children's learning with these hands on experiences. 

April: In Literacy we have been enjoying the non-fiction text 'Beware of the Crocodile' and the fiction text 'Monkey Puzzle'. Reception have learnt and retained some very interesting facts linked to jungles and rainforests! We continue to practice writing sentences using finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. The children are fantastic at using their phonics knowledge to write the sounds they can hear. In Maths we have been securing our number facts and knowledge of numbers up to 20. We played a very competitive game in pairs to roll a dice and add that amount of cubes onto a number line, the first person to 20 wins! 

On the day before the coronation of King Charles 3rd, we started off with a whole school assembly, learning about the royal family, how to bow and curtsy, and the upcoming coronation events. It was great to mark the occasion and to be part of history. Reception looked marvelous in their smart clothing wearing red, white and blue, we made crowns, decorated biscuits and had a pretend coronation tea party! 

April: We have been developing all areas of learning through our new theme 'Under the sea'. The children were hooked on our key text 'Surprising Sharks' and developed some impressive vocabulary. Reception are continuing to write words and now learning to write phrases and sentences sounding out using their phonics knowledge, finger spaces and full stops. We had a fantastic 'Pirate day' full of fun activities and games to finish our under the sea learning. In RE, Mrs Vikmanis explained the Easter story, and on Friday afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt outside! We loved seeing all the Easter bonnet entries and it was so lovely to hear the children complimenting each others headwear. Have a great break and we are looking forward to Summer term!

March: For our 'Growth' topic we have been developing our understanding of human growth, learning about our life cycle. Thank you parents for sending in the very cute baby photo's, the staff and children had great fun guessing each other! In maths we have been exploring 2D and 3D shapes and doubling and halving. Reception had a wonderful World Book Day and celebrated by dressing up and reading stories. It was great to see some of you in the evening for hot chocolate and biscuits. We have also had a brilliant snow day throwing snowballs and making snowmen. One of the children suggested we make ice sculptures, but Miss Shipp hasn't quite acquired that skill set yet! 

February: Carrying on into February, we have become bird watchers! The children have enthusiastically taken part in RSPB 'The Big Garden Birdwatch' using our new binoculars to check off the birds we could see on our lists. We thought carefully about the birds being able to find food over the winter, and decided it would be good to make feeders to help them. In maths, we have been grouping and sharing using everyday problems. 

Finally, thank you so much for your support during Ofsted week, the children were amazing as always and we continue to be so proud of them. 

January: During our Ukraine fundraiser day we were very fortunate to receive a special visitor to read us a story. Tetiana had the children captivated sharing the bi-lingual book in her language, we even learnt some key phrases and know how to say hello (pryvit) and good afternoon (dobryy den) in Ukranian! This was such a fantastic opportunity to learn about people and culture in our communities. See the newspaper story here and watch the video below. 

January: Welcome back! Our literacy topic was space and we used non-fiction texts to learn all about the planets and solar system. The children applied what they learnt by writing and illustrating their own non-fiction space books, they were so excited to become authors! We also read the story 'Astro Girl' and had thoughtful discussions about whether we'd like to go to space and what we would need to take. It was very exciting to watch videos of rockets launching and the children then used these ideas and phrases in the space station role play.

In maths, we have been looking at adding and taking away practically with numbers up to 10. The children are now very good at using the sentences 'First… Then… Now…' and '__ plus/takeaway __ is equal to __' using concrete objects and number tracks to support them. 

December: We have been busy rehearsing for our Christmas play - Away in a Manger. Lots of exciting events have taken place; our school Christmas Fayre, Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas dinner day, a visit from Santa, baking, and our trip to the Macready Theatre to watch the Gingerbread Man!

Happy Christmas to our Reception families! 

December: Reception were very fortunate to have a visit from Joe from Rugby Library. We listened very carefully as he described what happens in the library and all the exciting events and activities that take place. Joe read us a story and finished by giving us our own little library bags full of information! The children were so pleased and hopefully came home sharing their bags and enthusiasm with you! Here is a link to Rugby Library showcasing the current events they offer.

November: Reception took part in Anti-Bullying Week by wearing their odd socks. We discussed what makes a kind friend and who the children can talk to if they have a problem. We also wore yellow for Children in Need! Some children were very knowledgeable about the reasons for raising money for charity.

November: Who's that trip trapping over my bridge?! Reception children have been highly engaged with our story 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. They have encountered new vocabulary such as 'valley' and 'hooves' and explored lots of learning opportunities linked to the story. Outside, a group of children helped to arrange the large loose parts to make a bridge and retold the story taking it in turns to be the troll underneath (using the positional language from last week!). This was a joy to listen to and support as they also developed other skills too; risk taking, negotiating turns, physical strength and storytelling to name a few! Another group of children were interested in using different materials to creatively recreate the bridge from the story. Some used wooden blocks, other used junk modelling, another group got creative using paint and Lego blocks to print theirs. 

November: We have been learning all about 2D and 3D shapes this week, we have been listening to this shape song to help us to remember the name of 3D shapes. The children also learnt what a face, edge and vertices/vertex is, some tricky new vocabulary! Reception have also been practicing their positional language, telling us where objects are and then also placing objects after listening to instructions (on top, under, in). We described who was around us sitting on the carpet using the words: in front, behind, next to, beside, in between and looked at who was first and last when we line up. 

November: Thank you to the Safe and Active Travel Team who came in to discuss road safety with Reception. We learnt a song to help us remember the six important rules; think, stop, walk, look, listen and hold hands. See if your child can remember them and the actions/signs!

November: Thank you parents and carers for joining us for our first Celebration Assembly! You can click here to view the presentation. We think the children in Reception are AMAZING and we are very proud of them. If you want to read more about the Characteristics of Effective Learning, you can find more information in the Development Matters, page 13 onwards. 

October: Reception children have now been taught all the set 1 single sounds in RWI phonics lessons and have started to blend using Fred Talk. After half term the children will be placed into smaller groups to meet their individual needs depending on their assessments. Please see our phonics webpage for more information including our presentation if you couldn't make the session in person. 

October: In Maths we have been working with numbers up to 6. Reception have been using the rhyme '5 little speckled frogs' to put the numbered frogs in order on the log. They have been introduced to the language of one more and one fewer using practical objects to find the answer. We have also looked at the 'part, part, whole' model for combining groups (addition) and partitioning (subtraction). Have a look at this video for an explanation part whole model.

October: Our Literacy learning focused on the topic of bears. Our key text has been 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', Reception listened carefully to the repeated phrases in the story and even got to make and taste porridge! "Too hot, too cold, just right!" Using the Now Press Play headphones, we were able to listen to the story, act it out, and discuss how each character was feeling. Reception have been learning about different species of bears, from polar bears to spectacled bears! We have used a globe to locate where different bears are commonly found. We celebrated the end of our learning by writing an invitation to our teddies at home to come to our teddy bears picnic at school! To our surprise one morning, we had a letter from Paddington bear with items in a suitcase to help to prepare. The big question was, did the children choose jam or marmalade sandwiches?!

September: In our first Maths Mastery unit we have been exploring repeating patterns, the class worked in partners to explain the pattern on their card. Then, in choosing time, they were encouraged to make their own repeating patterns using objects from around the classroom. We had lots of different patterns of colour, size and shapes! Next, we are looking at the first numbers, counting objects slowly and reliably and recognising numerals. Super Maths Reception!

September: Our first topic is 'All About Me'. We will be learning all about the children's interests, likes & dislikes, cultures and experiences. We will explore our individual identity, families and learning about our school values being part of the Eastlands community. We will also be looking at Penguins (our class name) with our focus key text 'Blue Penguin!

September: Reception staff are so proud of how the children have settled in this week, full days and lunch times next week!

Library day is Friday, your child will come home with a borrowed school library book, please bring it back into school the following Friday so your child can choose a new book. 

Reception PE day is Thursday. Please ensure children have the correct kit in school, PE kits will be sent home at the end of each half term to be washed. 

Please click here for a copy of our June parents information meeting.