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Cliftonville Primary and Pre-School is an excellent school the children are happy and thriving. Brilliant school, fabulous staff, great senior leadership team = a happy child! The dedication and hard work from the entire school team is outstanding and clear to see. I think you've all been amazing throughout the years, just want to so say thankyou & we appreciate everything you do for all of us . We love the school and are so impressed with all of the staff who work so hard constantly it is greatly appreciated by the children and parents and carers thank you. Presence of Teachers and caretakers at pick up and drop off really help you feel safe. The well-being of the pupils is outstanding. It is a lovely school with a welcoming feel and a positive atmosphere. Highly visible leadership team. A feeling of pride in the school. Supportive school for both parents and children. As parents we feel really proud that our son comes to such a great school, which we knew was fabulous whether OFSTED told us o

Year R

Welcome to our Year R blog!

 

Each week, we hope to share with you some of the learning that has taken place in our busy Reception classrooms. Maybe you could talk about what the children have been doing at school when you are at home with them?

Friday, 7 February 2025

In Literacy this week we have been retelling the story of ‘Whatever Next’.  We pretended we were going into space and collected the things we needed to take with us.  We then wrote a list of the things we would take.

In maths we have been learning about weight.  We have explored things that are heavier, lighter and the same using balances.  We talked about when we might use scales at home, for weighing ingredients or weighing ourselves.

We had a special visitor this week from Ian who taught us how to cross the road safely.  We have to use our senses and remember to STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN and of course, hold hands with our grown up.

Friday, 31 January 2025

This week we had a visit from The Starman with his planetarium. He brought some special rocks with him, including one from a shooting star. We learned lots about the stars and the different planets and also about what it is like to be in space.

We continued with our scientific investigations and made a volcano, looked at rocks and ice and used torches and magnets. We learned facts about Mars and used marble printing to make pictures.

In Maths we have been learning about repeating patterns and making them in lots of different ways including pegboards, beads, shapes, colouring and natural objects. We looked for the repeating unit and then used this to continue patterns.

Friday, 24 January 2025

In Reception this term each class have been looking at a different science investigation. We are exploring magnets, ice, rocks and light. Every child will have the opportunity to handle and explore the different items that our class is looking at.

This week in Literacy we have been learning all about the moon. We found out some really amazing facts, we have been painting and drawing the moon and writing some words into our books.   We had great fun investigating the surface of the moon, we all had the opportunity to drop various size rocks into the flour to create craters.

In Maths we have been counting in ones to 20 and beyond.  We counted forwards and backwards from various numbers.  We had lots of discussions about one and two digit numbers.

Friday, 17 January 2025

This week in Reception we had some special visitors who came to see us! We have already been brushing our teeth daily in class since term 1 and the local toothbrushing team came in to see how we were getting on and reminding us why it is so important to brush our teeth! We also met Clifford the Dragon and practised brushing our teeth with him.

 

In maths we have continued our learning on shape by exploring 3D shape. We learnt that 3D shapes are solid and we also learnt names such as cylinder, sphere, pyramid, cube, cuboid and cone. We explored some of the features we could see on the shapes and practised building with them!

In literacy and topic we have continued our learning on space by looking at the planet we live on, Earth! We used Google Earth to explore the planet and then zoomed in to our country and to where we live in Margate. We zoomed into our school and were very excited to see it on the map! We then drew a picture of Earth in our books and wrote a fact about it.

In forest school we extended our learning on shape by looking for 2D and 3D shapes and found an oval, a triangle, a cylinder and a pyramid! We also had lots of fun working together to dig holes and look after worms.

Friday, 10 January 2025

The children have all settled back into school routines and have had a lovely week of learning.  We started our new topic called Space Explorers.  We have enjoyed pretending to be astronauts in our role-play space rocket and learnt some interesting space facts!  We look forward to learning more over the coming weeks!

In maths we have been learning about 2D shape.  We have used mathematical vocabulary to describe the shapes and enjoyed playing ‘guess the shape’.  The children took turns to take a shape from the bag and describe it for others to guess.

 

We continued our shape learning in child-initiated time.  Some of us worked together to create a cinema using construction straws.  We showed perseverance and resilience to complete the task!

Perhaps on the way to and from school your child can see if they can spot shapes in the environment.

Wednesday was a very cold day, but this did not stop us having fun in the forest!  We also had a surprise visitor in the forest- a cat!  It was very inquisitive and watched whilst we played and explored!  We also made 2D shapes using natural resources we could find in the forest!

In Literacy we wrote about our holiday.  We are getting very good at using our phonics to write sentences!

Friday, 20 December 2024

This week we have been celebrating.

We had a visit from a Jewish lady who celebrates Hannukah which is another festival of light. She told us about the special Menorah candlestick, the dreidel game and the eight days of presents.

We have been busy making decorations, cards and calendars and having lots of fun.

On Wednesday we made hats to wear for our Christmas lunch and for our class parties. We played some games and Father Christmas came to visit us - he gave us all a present.

On Friday we had some very exciting visitors. Some of Father Christmas’s reindeer came to visit and we went to see them. They were very soft and had big antlers.

Friday, 13 December 2024

This week in Reception we have been performing our Christmas nativity to the school and to our grown ups. Every child has had an important part to play. We have practiced every song and action. Our performances were a great success and every body enjoyed it.

In English we have been reading ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’. We have made stick puppets of the characters in the story.  We wrote and posted our own letters to Santa.

In Maths we have been continuing our work on one more and one less than a number, then used this understanding to make addition and subtraction number sentences. We also had our own Christmas themed number problems based around more and less.

Friday, 6 December 2024

This week in Reception we have enjoyed continuing to learn about the Nativity. We practised writing words and also spoke about writing a sentence including using a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. During busy time we also practised using our phonics sounds to write short words such as ‘cat’ and ‘fan’.

In maths we continued to practise taking one away to find one less. We spent time out in forest school searching for bugs and taking care of them buy building homes for them.

It has been lovely to share some houses that the children have made at home for our learning on The Three Little Pigs; they are so creative and colourful! We have also had lots of fun making paper chains and colouring in baubles to decorates our classrooms.

Friday, 29 November 2024

This week we read the story of the Nativity. We recognised the characters in the story, and it helped us when we were practicing our special show. We made puppets using the characters and retold the story using our theatre. In literacy we used our letter sounds to write nativity words.

In Maths we have been talking about one less. We used counters in the classroom and hoops in our PE lesson. We shouted a number “THREE!” and the children had to stand in the correct number group in the hoop. If there was more than three, the children knew to find a new hoop (looking at one less).

We are looking forward to trying on our nativity costumes next week and practicing on the big stage!

Friday, 22 November 2024

This week we read the story of the Three Little Pigs. We acted it out using masks and small world toys and had fun joining in with the wolf and pigs. We practised spelling words using the letter sounds we have learned in phonics.  In Forest School we worked together to make pig houses from sticks and leaves.

In Maths we have been talking about one more in different ways, using cubes and writing number sentences, as well as looking at number tracks and showing that the number that comes next is one more.

Friday, 15 November 2024

This week in Reception we have been learning all about Fairy Tales. We talked abut how they start and how they finish. We had lots of fun re-enacting different fairy tales, the children used masks and story boards. We had a potions lab where the children used a cauldron to mix their own potions. The children had a printed cauldron and chose a picture to add and used their knowledge of CVC words to write it into their books.

In maths we looked at the language of more, less and the same as.  We used the outside area to build a tower of bricks showing more, less and the same.

In the classroom we used lego to show different amounts.

In forest school the children chose leaves, sticks, logs and snails ! They decided how many they had and which group had more, less or the same amount.

Friday, 8 November 2024

Welcome to term 2!

 

In Reception this week in literacy and topic we enjoyed learning about the Hindu festival Diwali. We listened to the story of Rama and Sita and had lots of fun making our own diva lamps out of clay. We also spoke about fireworks we have seen this past week and the noises they make, using our growing phonics knowledge to build words such as ‘pop’ and ‘fizz’. We spent time learning about the history of Bonfire Night and enjoyed making our own firework pictures through using colouring pencils, chalk, paint and mark-making in the sand!

In maths we continued to build on our subitising skills by saying what we could see and having a try at writing number sentences. We also used a part-whole model to explore two parts of an amount. We also enjoyed practising our counting skills.

Out in forest school we enjoyed using sticks to build a pretend bonfire. We used red, orange and yellow autumn leaves and pretended that this was our fire. We also had lots of fun using logs and other pieces of wood to build a house and worked together well as a team to collect all of the resources we needed.

Friday, 25 October 2024

In Reception this week we have been having fun in Forest School, the children enjoyed finding natural materials to glue onto home made picture frames. We looked at the different colours of the leaves and found yellow and red berries.

We discussed what babies need and how they grow and change , we discussed how they have changed and all the things they can do now that they couldn’t do when they were a baby.

 

In maths this week we have been consolidating our learning so far this term by finding objects and representing them with many different objects.

In literacy we have been talking about our homes and our favourite things in our homes. Children had the chance to become builders they used the outdoor area to build a house.

Friday, 18 October 2024

We have had another fun week of learning!  In literacy we have been learning about people who help us and we looked back at our visits from Margate Fire Service, Margate Police and South East Coast Ambulance. We also spoke about the road crossing patrol and lifeguards and how they keep us safe. For our task we used our growing phonics knowledge to sound out words and put together a simple sentence. We then enjoyed drawing some lovely red fire engines.

In forest school we focused on our topic of helping and explored ways that we can help others, such as helping to carry logs and sticks and sharing wheelbarrows. We also enjoyed using autumn leaves to decorate large cardboard trees and made hedgehogs using some of the other things we have collected.

In maths we looked at how we can make different numbers from other numbers, and had a go at writing our own number sentences.

Friday, 11 October 2024

We have been doing lots of great learning this week!  On Monday we had a visit from the paramedics with the ambulance.  We all went in the ambulance and learnt about the different equipment that the paramedics use.  In class, we tried on the uniform and listened to each other’s heart beats!

On Wednesday we went into the forest school and had lots of fun exploring the natural environment.  We are becoming more independent when climbing and swinging and we love playing in the mud kitchen and making up lots of different recipes!

We have been learning about ‘Where we live’.  We looked at a map of Thanet and photos of Margate and had a try at drawing our own maps.  We also used construction toys to build houses!

We are learning how to look after our teeth and we clean our teeth every day after we have had our lunch!  We are all getting very good at this now!

Friday, 4 October 2024

This week in Reception we have continued our learning on subitising by looking at what we can see in amounts of 9 and 10. We had lots of fun counting and rescuing bears from the water using tweezers and also counted out cakes to give to teddy.

In Literacy we have been looking for signs of Autumn, we explored them using our senses. We thought about what we could see, hear and smell and drew some pictures. We looked at some leaves closely and also did some leaf printing.

 

We had a visit from some more people who help us - Police Officers, they showed us what they wear and we were even allowed to sit inside their Police car. The sirens were really noisy and the flashing lights were really bright.

In forest school we continued our autumn learning by exploring autumn colours and sounds, such as leaves crunching on the ground, and the way sycamore seeds fall to the ground. We enjoyed painting leaves and printing them on paper using red, yellow, orange and brown.

Friday, 27 September 2024

In Reception this week we have been mixing colours using paint.  We investigated how many colours we could make using only red, blue, yellow and white.  We made some rainbows and learnt the song, ‘I can sing a rainbow’.

We have been reading the book ‘The colour Monster’.  We talked about the class Zones of Regulation images that we use at our school. We have been making colour monsters using the 4 colours to help us recognise how we are feeling.

On Tuesday, the crew from Margate fire station came to visit us!  We learnt how important it is to have a smoke alarm in the house and were told to remind our grown ups to get one if we haven’t got one.  We had a look at the protective clothes fire fighters wear, the big metal cutters which are sometimes used in car accidents and the different hoses and ladders that are used.  We all got to go on the fire engine and heard the sirens, which were very loud!  As a treat, we also go to see the water sprayed from the hose!  Thank you Gabby and the Margate fire crew for coming!

On Wednesday we had our first forest school session!  We learnt the forest school rules and tried hard to put our wellies and puddle suits on independently.

Out in the forest we learnt how to use the balance beam, swings and climbing tree safely.  We also looked for signs of autumn.  Some of us chose to collect sticks to build a bonfire!

Friday 20 September 2024

 

This week in Reception we have enjoyed listening and singing along to familiar nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty and Incy Wincy Spider. We enjoyed making our own spiders using painted hands and decorated them with eyes and a mouth. We have also been working on our fine motor skills by completing patterning sheets and we enjoyed drawing shapes in sand as part of our Write Dance development.

In maths we have been learning our ‘Days of the Week’ song and have been speaking about what day it is and how we know. We have also been developing our counting and subitising skills through saying what we can see.   We have been practising writing and ordering numbers.

Friday, 13 September 2024

In reception classes this week we have been having fun learning all about ourselves. The children have been looking carefully in a mirror to paint a portrait of themselves for our class wall.  The children looked at the colours of the paint and we talked about mixing the different colours.

We have been developing our fine motor skills during our Write Dance sessions.  We used ribbons to make large arm movements to music.  We enjoyed it so much, some of us chose to carry on during our child-initiated session.

We have also been enjoying a range of other activities including puzzles, constructing with bricks and exploring our outside area!

Friday 5th July

This week we had a visit from the toothbrush team who came to see how we are getting on with our teeth brushing in school! We practised brushing our teeth and spoke about food and drink that were good and not good for our teeth.

 

In maths this week we have been looking at word problems and using drawings and counters to help us solve them. We have loved listening to pirate stories this term and have made some amazing pirate chests, swords and other crafts at home!

 

In the forest we went on a treasure hunt. We dug for treasure and found some interesting stones and other things. We also pretended we were walking the plank and practised balancing along the tree trunks and swinging on the ship’s ropes!

 

In literacy this week we have been looking at the story’ Pirates Love Underpants’. We designed our own pants and wrote sentences to describe them. We carried on making treasure maps, binoculars and telescopes to use in role play outside where we made large pirate ships together.

Friday 14th June 2024

 

In maths this week we have been using positional language to describe where things are. We made models with the Lego and put the man ‘next to the wall’ or ‘on the wall’. We also read the story of Rosie’s walk and talked about where she went. We drew maps of a route we go on and described them e.g. round the roundabout, through the park, into the house.  

 

In Literacy have been reading Commotion in the Ocean and learning about different creatures that live in the sea. We did some writing about crabs and dolphins and have been making animals out of different craft materials. 

 

Today we spent a lovely morning on the field practicing for our Sports Day next week – we are really looking forward to a fantastic morning. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for sunshine! 

Friday 24th May 2024

 

We have all been to Quex animal park this week. We all had a fabulous time! We were able to see all of the animals and were even allowed to feed the goats, ponies and baby lambs! We were even lucky enough to meet the two pigs! During the morning we were able to learn about the maize that Quex grow each year, we then followed this by planting our own plants to take home. We all had an amazing tractor ride all around the grounds of Quex.  After lunch we had time to play on the bouncy pillows and in the sandpit. Everyone was exhausted! 

 

For literacy and topic this week we have been talking about our school trip to Quex and writing words and sentences about what we did. Our favourite activities were feeding the animals, the tractor ride and the bouncy pillows!

 

In maths we have been recapping our learning for this term. We have practised our number bonds to 5 and 10 and have been looking at finding one less. We also explored using our subitising skills to find numbers within amounts.  

Friday 10th May 2024

 

This week in literacy and topic we have been listening to the story ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. We compared the story to our caterpillars we have in class, which have all now transformed into a chrysalis! We looked at how the caterpillar grew in the story and then changed into a butterfly and wrote simple words and sentences about the story.

 

In maths we have been practising counting out amounts and then adding one more or finding one less. We enjoyed using counting bears and number lines and know that when we add more, our amount gets bigger, but when we have less, our amount gets smaller. Some of us also practised writing a number sentence to show our findings!

 

In child initiated this week we have been finding many different ways to make butterflies! We used coloured pasta and threaded it onto pipe cleaners to make a patterned caterpillar, we used circles to make caterpillars with different length bodies, we used cotton wool balls and coloured water to make a caterpillar with a different kind of body!

 

In the forest this week we have been planting different types of seeds. We know from our work on  growing that plants need soil, water and sunshine to grow, so we planted our seeds in compost. We had to scoop just the right amount into a pot before making a hole for the seed to go in. Some of us planted runner beans and some of us planted peas. We also found many different creatures in the forest this week- probably because it was a bit damp from the rain on Monday!

Monday 26th April 2024

 

In English this week we were talking about the different animals that came to visit us.

We talked about the animals name and what each one looked like and felt like!

We discussed which animal was our favourite and why. We then had lots of ideas to help us write about our favourite animal.  We made different animals out of card and paper.

 

This week in maths we have been learning all about odd and even numbers .

We used our own socks to help us! We also looked at repeating patterns. We used the outside area to create an odd and even game.

 

Out in Forest School we enjoyed using leaves and lolly sticks to make butterflies. We currently have some pet caterpillars in class and we are excited to see them transform into butterflies!

 

On Friday we held a special event called French Day. We came into school wearing the colours of the French flag which are red, white and blue. We enjoyed a French breakfast of croissants, learnt some French words and coloured in our very own French flag. We also used construction blocks to build famous French landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower. We had lots of fun singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in French!

Friday 19th April 2024

 

This week, to introduce or new topic about animals, we had some special visitors in school. The children really enjoyed meeting and learning about the different pets and how to care for them. We met Basil the cat, Blue the dog, Buzz and Jesse the tortoises, Bibbin and America the African land snails, Ace the snake and Storm the rabbit. The children were very brave and touched some of the animals so they could see how they felt.

 

This week we have been learning how to double numbers in maths. We have had lots of fun using different manipulatives to explore doubling. We found that to double a number we just needed to add the same numbers together.

 

In literacy we spoke about the different things we did over the Easter holiday. We then had a go at writing sentences about our 2 weeks off. It was lots of fun to hear what everyone did over the Easter holidays.

Thursday 28th March 2024

 

We have enjoyed getting stuck into Easter crafts this week during child initiated time. We made our Easter cards and also chose to complete some different crafts, including egg painting and making spring chickens! We also enjoyed playing Easter egg games on the interactive whiteboard in the classroom.

 

This week we had a visit from some Chartwell House residents who came to see our practise Easter Bonnet parade in the morning. They also listened to us sing some spring and Easter songs. We especially loved performing Spring Chicken!

 

In forest school this week we took part in an Easter egg hunt. We had to find the different numbered eggs and write down the letter on the bottom of each egg, then use these letters to crack the code! We worked out that the letters spelt out Spring Chicken! We had to look high and low as some of the eggs were very well hidden!

Friday 22nd March 2024

 

This week in maths we recapped our learning on number bonds to 5. We enjoyed using our new five frames and coloured counters and also practised writing number sentences to show the number bonds we had found. We also began to explore subtraction related facts by noticing that, for example, 5 – 1 = 4, which is the inverse of 4 + 1 = 5.

 

In Forest School we looked for signs of Spring and found some blossom. We talked about different habitats and looked at the bird and bug houses. We collected sticks and leaves and made habitats for different animals.

Friday 15th March 2024

 

This week in maths we have been talking about short and long. We have been ordering objects into length by shortest to longest. We had fun with cars sending them down a ramp to see which car would travel on the longest journey.  We made the longest traffic jam with cars and ordered different sizes of string. We even found straws that were longer, shorter and some were the same!

 

It was a very muddy forest school this week after all of the rain we have had! We spent time looking under logs to see what minibeasts we could find. We found some very long worms and a few small spiders. We also enjoyed finding different sticks and compared their lengths. We found some very short sticks and some that were so long!

 

In child initiated-time we kept checking on our seeds to see how much they had grown since we planted them. They were tall enough to take home this week. As we have been reading the story of Handa’s surprise this week, we made animal masks so that we could act out the story.

Friday 8th March 2024

 

This week in forest school we have been making bird feeders.  We used pine cones to fill with lard and then carefully  added bird seed. After the pine cones were filled we had to attach string so that we could hang the bird feeders in the trees. We will be looking to see what bird comes to feed from the new feeders.

In Maths we have been learning about weight. We have talked about the different kinds of scales we might find in our houses, found things that are heavier and lighter than us and used the balances to compare objects. We used the language heavier and lighter and know that if the pan goes down then the object is heavier.

 

We have had lots of fun celebrating World Book Day this week! We enjoyed sharing our special books from home with older children who read them to us. We also shared our books and reading buddies with other children in our class. In literacy and topic we enjoyed talking about different vegetables we eat at home and school, and wrote a sentence about a vegetable we like.

Friday 1st March 2024

 

This week in maths we have been looking at height. We have been looking at the words tall and short. The children had fun sorting different items from shortest to tallest and then tallest to shortest. We used all of our maths skills to count how many objects we could order in height. 

 

In Child Initiated time we have been planting our own cress seeds! Lots of us already knew that plants need sun and water to grow. We sprinkled our seeds on top of some cotton wool, watered them and put them in a sunny place near the window. We have also had a focus on sharing and playing with different children in class and had lots of fun making new friends.

 

We had a lovely time in forest school this week. We looked at pictures of different nests that birds may make for their eggs and spoke about why birds make nests. With our friends, we explored the forest school to search for different size twigs and leaves to make our own nests. We were able to find some real nests at the top of some trees too!

 

This week in our Literacy and Topic work we have been learning about plants. We talked about what we know about them already and what we would like to learn. We talked about how to grow plants and we planted our own cress seeds. We will be watching them excitedly for any signs that they are starting to grow.