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, 22 May 2026

This week has been full of excitement, exploration, and hands‑on learning as the children enjoyed a wonderful trip to Quex Farm and continued their growing project back at school.

The children loved getting up close to a range of farm animals. They observed how each animal looked, moved, and sounded, building their understanding of the natural world. We talked about animal care, habitats, and what different animals need to stay healthy. We all had the opportunity to feed each animal.

One of the highlights was the tractor ride around the farm. The children were thrilled to feel the bumps of the track and see the fields from a new perspective. This sparked lots of conversation about vehicles, farming, and how food is grown.

We all got the chance to plant our own sunflower seed to take care of and watch it grow.

In Maths we have been looking at sharing different amounts and using manipulatives to count to twenty.

Dane Court Drama students came into school this week. We were able to see the production they had created about space. The children really enjoyed the show.

Friday, 15 May 2026

This week in Reception, we have been exploring the image from Take One Picture at the National Gallery. The picture features Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. We have been carefully studying the painting and enjoying lots of wonderful discussions about what the children could see. I wonder if the children can tell you the two hidden images in the painting?

As a class, we collaboratively created a collage inspired by the artwork. The children enjoyed ripping, cutting and tearing paper to make both geometric and organic shapes, which they then overlapped to recreate their own version of the image.

Our story this week has been The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr. The children loved retelling the story of the tiger and how he ate all the food! In Drawing Club, we also created our own fantastic tiger pictures.

To further develop our maths knowledge, the children have been using a range of manipulatives to embed number bonds to 10. They are becoming more confident in recalling these number facts and are building important skills ready for Year 1.

As a year group we have seen lots of amazing writing taking place during our literacy and handwriting sessions. The children are taking great care when forming their letters and are working hard to structure their writing using finger spaces.

As the weather brightens up, many of the children have been enjoying more time in our outdoor area. They have been exploring the raw materials, creating number sentences and making yummy dinners for the tiger who came to tea!

Friday, 8 May 2026

This week we have been learning more about life cycles. We have looked at how frogspawn hatch as tadpoles, then grow legs to become froglets and eventually absorb their tails and grow bigger into adult frogs. We have read lots of stories such as ‘Tadpole’s Promise’ as well as non-fiction books to find out more about this exciting process.

If you have seen any tadpoles on your adventures please share photographs on Evidence Me, we would love to see!

Our class caterpillars are growing bigger every day. We have drawn pictures to show our predictions about what will happen next.

Another one of our challenges this week was to practise throwing and catching. The children had lots of fun challenging one another, throwing beanbags into hoops or playing ‘Piggy in the Middle’ with big bouncy balls.

Friday, 1 May 2026

This week we read the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We talked about the life-cycle of a butterfly and made our own representations. On Thursday some caterpillars arrived for us to keep in our classrooms and we will be watching them go through the stages of the life - cycle until they eventually turn into butterflies. At the moment they are tiny - smaller than a grain of rice.

We also had a visit from Reverend Cutler who showed us what he wears and told us about some of the things that Christian people do in a church.

In forest school we continued to look at how Spring has changed the outside areas and made symmetrical butterflies from leaves. We found this Cinnabar Moth outside too.

Friday, 24 April 2026

We had a wonderful time celebrating our very special Pet Day! The children were so excited to share stories about their pets. We talked about how to care for animals, what they eat and why it’s important to be gentle and kind.  We were lucky enough to visit each classroom to meet and touch different animals -  two kittens , two guinea pigs, a tortoise and a dog.  The children really enjoyed the opportunity.

In Literacy, the children worked hard on their Easter news. We all had the opportunity to talk about what we did during the Easter holidays, from egg hunts to spending time with family.  We encouraged the children to form simple sentences, to begin to hear and write the sounds in words independently. It was lovely to see their confidence growing as they shared their ideas.

In Maths, we have been learning all about subtraction within 5. Using practical resources like counters, toys, and even our fingers, the children explored subtraction in number stories and songs to help them understand how numbers get smaller when we take them away.

Thursday, 2 April 2026

A Week of Busy Bunnies!

What a fantastic week we’ve had in the Early Years! Our children have been busy bunnies getting creative, exploring new learning and celebrating Easter together.

Egg-citing Creations

This week, the children were given the challenge of transforming a simple egg into their own imaginative creation through drawing and writing. We were amazed by the wonderful ideas they came up with—from elephants to butterflies and everything in between! 

Beautiful Easter Cards

Alongside our egg creations, the children also designed and made their own Easter cards. They carefully selected the crafts materials to make each card unique. The care and effort they put into them was wonderful to watch.

Maths Magic – Number Bonds to Ten

To keep our maths skills growing, we focused on number bonds to ten. The children explored these using a range of manipulatives, ten-frames and practical activities. They are growing in confidence—well done, everyone!

Friday, 27 March 2026

This week we have continued to learn about plants. We have been reading books and stories about fruit like Handa’s Surprise and Oliver’s Fruit Salad, and thinking about where fruit grows. We have been sorting fruits and vegetables into groups.

We also used watercolours to mix the colours we wanted and we painted pictures of different fruits that we like to eat.

The sunflower seeds we planted a couple of weeks ago have continued to grow, some of them are really tall now! We have to remember to water them and to leave them in the sunlight so they continue to grow.

We have turned our role play area into a café and have enjoyed making menus, drawing pictures and sounding out the words.

This week we have enjoyed the sunnier weather and we played fun games on the playground, practising our throwing and catching skills together.

Friday, 20 March 2026

This week we have continued to learn about plants. We read the book Oliver’s Vegetables and then learned that some grow above the ground and others below it. We also looked at some potatoes which had started to root which normally happens under the ground.

Some of the sunflowers seeds we planted last week have started to grow – while some have not. We will keep watching them to see what happens.

We have been playing in our flower shop, taking orders, writing labels and making up bunches to sell.

We practised making equal groups of objects on these flower petals which we learned to do last week.

This week we have started having our lunch in the classroom with our adults. We are enjoying sitting round the tables with our friends and are practising eating with our special dinosaur knives and forks.   

On Friday it was Red Nose Day and we had fun wearing our own clothes to school.

Friday, 13 March 2026

This week in Early Years classrooms we continued exploring our Springtime topic, enjoying lots of hands-on learning and working together as a team.

In English we read ‘Sam Plants a Sunflower’, we talked about plants and how they grow.  The children worked together to make a large sunflower, discussing its different parts such as the petals, stem ,leaves and seeds. This helped develop our vocabulary and understanding of how plants grow. Each child had the opportunity to plant their own sunflower seed. We talked about what plants need to grow – soil, water, sunlight and care. The children carefully planted their seeds and are now responsible for watering and looking after their sunflowers. Over the next few weeks we will observe how they grow and record the changes we notice. The children were very enthusiastic and loved getting their hands a little muddy!

In maths we have been learning about sharing amounts equally. Through practical activities the children practised sharing objects such as counters, cubes and pretend food between friends. We talked about what it means to share fairly and how we can check that everyone has the same amount.  The children enjoyed working together to divide items into groups and were beginning to notice when amounts were equal and not equal.

Friday, 6 March 2026

This week we have continued our learning on plants and growing by looking at the seasons now it is springtime! We spoke about signs of spring, such as warmer weather, buds and flowers beginning to grow and hearing more birds chirping. We spent time walking around the school and looking at flowers that are growing. We had lots of fun using crafting materials and paint to create floral pictures.

In maths we are now looking at what the word equal means and have been beginning to look at sharing amounts equally. We also enjoyed practising our doubles learning from last week by taking on a doubles challenge.

We had an exciting little school trip on Monday where we left the school gates and learnt about road safety with our Road Crossing Patrol Officer Miss Kerr. We spoke about how to cross the road safely and how she keeps us safe.

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day by wearing hats into school from our favourite stories. We also had a ‘hunt the hat’ game in the playground and we had a visit from some lovely children in Year 4 who read stories with us!

Friday, 27 February 2026

Hurrah! The sun has come out just in time for our ‘Watch Me Grow!’ topic to begin. This week we have been learning about how seeds grow. We planted cress seeds on cotton wool, carefully adding a little water and placing them in a sunny spot. We can’t wait to see what happens next!

We have learned a song to help us remember the parts of a plant and have already enjoyed stories about growing plants and springtime.

In maths, we have been learning about ‘doubling’. We used ladybirds to help us with this- placing a given amount on one wing then ‘doubling’ it on the other wing and counting the total.

Friday, 13 February 2026

This week we finished off our Space topic by learning about life on the international space station and looked at how astronauts eat, sleep and wash. It looked good fun because everything was floating around as there is no gravity in space. Our challenge was to design our own spacesuit.

Our maths challenge this week was to make a repeating pattern from different resources. We have also been finding pairs of numbers that make 10.

Come and Read will be back to a Tuesday at 2.45 in Term 4.

Friday, 6 February 2026

What a busy and exciting week we have had in the EYFS! The children have been fully immersed in learning through play , investigation and imagination, with a special focus on space, science and mathematics.

Our week began with a burst  of excitement as the children became astronauts on a space mission. Using role play, they imagined landing on different planets, exploring new environments and talking about what they might see, hear and feel in space. This supported their communication and language skills, encouraged teamwork and helped build confidence as they shared ideas with their friends.

The children loved stepping into the role of scientists and carrying out hands on investigations.

Rocks- We compared different rocks, comparing their size, colour and texture. The children used descriptive language and made simple observations about similarities and differences.

Ice- Through exploring ice the children noticed how it felt, how it changed over time and what happened when it began to melt!

We had fun making penguins, we took them outside to float and move on the water. We used straws to blow them across the water.

In Maths, our focus was on repeating patterns. The children explored patterns using colour, shapes and numbers.

They practised continuing and creating their own patterns, developing their logical thinking and early maths skills.  Some children even spotted patterns in their environment and daily routines.

Friday, 30 January 2026

We have had another busy week in year R! We are continuing our Space topic this term by learning facts about our neighbouring planet Mars, using fact file websites and non-fiction books. We found out that the planet looks red because there is rust in the soil, and Mars also has the largest volcano in the solar system, called Olympus Mons! Mars has two moons called Phobos and Deimos and they are both a funny shape! We spent time looking at space explorations to Mars where they sent different robots, and were challenged to make our own Mars Rovers using construction and recycling materials.

We also continued to practise forming letters and writing short words, captions and sentences.

We are continuing our learning on 3D shape this week through another challenge where we sorted the shapes into those with curves and those that have straight edges. We also had lots of fun using the shapes to build – the pyramids and cuboids made very good towers! This week we have also been practising counting to 20 and beyond and exploring number patterns.

We have had lots of fun exploring science by having a different box in class each week. One week will be looking at how ice melts, another week will be looking at and describing rocks, the next will be using torches to make shadows and finally exploring how magnets work! We have really enjoyed using our scientist skills and exploring!

This week Yellow and Green class had a visit from the Healthy Habits team who spoke to us about keeping healthy by drinking lots of water, eating fruit and vegetables and by moving our bodies more. We played games including ‘pass the strawberry’ and also made our own healthy plates and got a certificate at the end. The Healthy Habits team also treated us to a special goodie bag which includes a healthy habits tracker, a pencil case with some fun jobs to do and a cute fruit squishy toy! Red and Blue classes will be having theirs next week.

Friday, 23 January 2026

This week we have been reading the story ‘Whatever Next’. We used props to act out the story and were challenged to write a list of things we would take on an adventure to the moon. 

We have been making our own rockets out of 2D shapes. Take a look at some of our creations, they’re fantastic!

We have also been experimenting with making craters by dropping rocks into a tray of sand/flour. We learned that there are many craters on the moon, but no water or trees! We have talked about the different phases of the moon, and we know that the moon ‘orbits’ the Earth. The children have been asking very interesting questions such as: Why is it sometimes different shapes? Why does it glow? What is inside the moon? We have been finding question marks at the end of sentences we have been reading together as well as trying to write them.

We have also been learning the names of 3D shapes and thinking about where we would see them in our houses and around where we live. We have been exploring and finding out which shapes can roll and which shapes only have flat faces. We know that the earth and the moon are both spheres!

Friday, 16 January 2026

In Reception this week we have had a busy week continuing our learning about space. One of our challenges this week has been to make Earth from different types of craft material. We used tissue paper, paint and playdough and even made our pumpkin into an Earth with an equator and polar ice caps.

We have continued to explore space in our home corner space station and we built a rocket with things we found around the classroom. Another challenge we had was to pretend to be an astronaut and go on a space mission.

Our final challenge was to share a space book with a friend. We learned that a fiction book is a story and a non-fiction/fact book tells us facts.

Ian came in to talk to us about road safety with Pip the thinking bear. He told us that we need to:

Stop, Look, Listen, Think and Hold Hands to make sure we cross the road safely.

Friday, 9 January 2026

In Reception this week we have been talking about our Christmas holiday. We talked about the people we saw and the places we went. We spoke about the special  gifts we received.

The children drew pictures, made a collage and did some writing about the holiday.

We started to look at the topic of ‘Space’, we had a fun visit from the ‘Wonder Dome’ the children really enjoyed finding out facts about planets and everything to do with space.

We made models of rockets and spaceships.

We enjoyed the very cold weather , we looked at frozen water and what happened if we added small amounts of warm water.

In maths we have been looking at sequencing numbers from 0 to 10 , we have been representing numbers in different fun ways.

Friday, 19 December 2025

We have finally made it to the end of a very long and busy second term in Reception! This week we have had lots of fun making Christmas crafts, wrapping presents and writing Christmas cards to each other. We had a fantastic time at our Christmas party on Wednesday and some of us won prizes for best dancing and for winning party games. Afterwards we tucked into some party food and we also really enjoyed our special Christmas lunches!

On Thursday we had a visit from Helene who spoke to us about Hanukkah and how Jewish people celebrate this festival, also known as the Festival of Light. We learnt about the Menorah candle and that Jewish people light a candle for each day of Hanukkah, lasting for 8 days. We found out that Jewish people celebrate by playing a dreidel game, give each other gifts and they also eat fried food such as doughnuts.

A huge well done to all the children for working so hard this term – you have all made so much progress since starting school only four months ago in September! We wish you all a very happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you again in 2026!

Friday, 12 December 2025

In Reception this week we have been very busy performing our Nativity to different audiences. We learnt so many songs as well as remembering where to stand, what to say and all of the actions for each song!

We have been making lots of Christmas related crafts including Christmas cards and decorations for our classrooms. We have been using construction sets to make stables to act out the story of the first Christmas. We have also written letters to Father Christmas writing down sounds we can hear in the words.

We also had a very exciting trip to Santa’s grotto where we saw Father Christmas and got a special gift. We were so lucky!

Friday, 5 December 2025

In Reception this week we have been very busy practising our Nativity a lot, to get ready for our performances next week. We have also been trying on costumes but we can’t show you any pictures as it is a surprise. So, these are a just a few of the other things we have been doing this week.

We have now started cleaning our teeth after lunch and have learned a song about how to do it properly. We have been listening to traditional tales and acting out the stories eg The Magic Porridge Pot. We have been playing outside in the kitchen area, making cakes and pies from the wet sand. We have also been making our own models like this plane.

Next week we will be showing you our Nativity and doing more Christmassy activities as we get even more excited about Christmas.

Friday, 28 November 2025

In Reception classes this week we have been looking at the Christmas Nativity Story. We talked about the characters from the story. We discussed some of the characters and questions we could ask them.

We have been ‘Hot seating’ using a child as a character with the rest of the class asking them questions about what they have been told or have to do. We have been practicing our own roles for the ‘Nativity’ we are performing to our parents.

In Maths we have been learning about big and small and short and tall.  We have had a lot of sorting activities inside the classroom and in the outdoor area.

Friday, 21 November 2025

This week in literacy we have continued our learning on fairytales by reading Little Red Riding Hood. We had lots of fun retelling and acting out the story using costumes, props, wooden characters and puppets. We have also been listening to and talking about lots of other fairytales during reading time.

In maths our focus has been one less, and we enjoyed lining up our toys, counting out how many we had and then practised taking one away using the language ‘one less’. We also used other maths resources, such as number tracks, counters and counting bears.

We are very much feeling at home now in our classes and during afternoon play we are making good use of different areas of the classroom. We are continuing to develop our independence in getting out resources and activities and tidying them away once we have finished.

Friday, 14 November 2025

This week it was Children in need. We learned about why we collect money for charity. We played Pudsey related games such as pin the bandana on Budesy, made Pudesy masks and played with our cuddly toys that came to school to be friends with Pudsey.

We have also been learning about the story of The Three Little Pigs. We have built different houses for the pigs to live in inside and outside and we have acted out the story with props. In the forest school we continued to act out the story, remembering vocabulary we have learnt.

Forest school was very wet and muddy this week, the leaves feel much heavier when they are wet! We counted leaves and found one more to add to our sets as this was our maths focus this week too.

Friday, 7 November 2025

This week it was Bonfire Night. We learned about Guy Fawkes and talked about Firework Safety. We made a big picture of fireworks by printing and then we glued on lots of glitter. We used different collage materials to make bonfire pictures with chalk fireworks and talked about the colours, sounds and smells we observed.

In Maths we were looking at more, less and the same and using those words to describe different groups.

Forest School is very Autumnal now, the ground is covered with leaves and we looked at their different colours and shapes.

Friday, 31 October 2025

In Reception this week we have been learning about Diwali , we heard the story of Rama and Sita and found out about Diwa lamps and made our own out of clay.

In English we made our own potion !  We had to decide what we would put into our potion and then try to find the letters to make the words.

In maths we have been looking at the composition of 5, we found many ways to make 5 using 5 frames, building blocks, lego and teddies.

We have been using all of the outdoor areas to build and create various structures to support our learning.

Friday, 17 October 2025

Our lovely Reception children have finished their first term of school and have continued to settle in well. This week in maths we explored the composition of numbers and used our subitising skills to say what we could see. We enjoyed using lots of different resources such as duplo, counting bears, pine cones, conkers, beads and stamps.

In literacy we have been looking at maps and learning about where we live. We spoke about where our school is in Cliftonville and looked at some other nearby towns and places. We also spoke about our homes and enjoyed making colourful houses using lolly sticks and card. We filled the homes with drawings of who we live with, and spent lots of time talking about our own homes and families, along with also listening to others.

A huge thank you to Dave and Darcey from BM Ambulance Service for coming to visit us this week and bringing their ambulance for us to explore. We all had the chance to sit in the driver’s seat and pretend to drive the ambulance! Afterwards we went into the back of the ambulance and learned about the equipment in there, and what paramedics do. At the end of the visit Dave and Darcey showed us the sirens and blue flashing lights. We had lots of fun back in class playing with toy emergency vehicles and also pretended to be doctors and paramedics!

Friday, 10 October 2025

It has been another busy week in Reception this week. We have been learning about different people who help us, including emergency service people, vets, teachers and dentists. We have been pretending to be different workers, dressing up and using small world toys to make stories.

In maths we have been continuing our work on subitising. We have also been finding many different ways of making a total of 5, using smaller amounts and combining them by adding them together.

In forest school we had fun finding different ways to balance on the logs and travel along, under and over things. We found so many leaves that are falling from the trees now it is Autumn and we measured them, comparing them to find the biggest and smallest.

Friday, 3 October 2025

This week we had a visit from some Police Officers. They showed us their uniform and we tried some on. They let us sit in their car and we saw the flashing lights and heard the sirens. We learned that Police Officers Keep Us Safe.

We have been learning about signs of Autumn and looking at how the leaves change colour and the seeds fall off the trees. We looked at conkers, chestnuts, pine cones and sycamore seeds. Have a look for signs on your way to school. We made hedgehogs from clay and practised mixing autumn colours to do leaf prints.

We also had a visit from a dental hygienist with her pet dragon who showed us how to look after our teeth. The things which we need to do are on the screen in the picture.

Friday, 26 September 2025

In Reception this week we have been reading the story ‘Colour Monster’. We have talked about our feelings and how they impact our day.  We have been experimenting and mixing colours to create our own colour monster.

In maths we have been continuing our work on subitising. We have been counting numbers up to 5.

In forest school we had fun finding insects and worms under logs, we enjoyed moving leaves using wheelbarrows.  We have been using the balance beam to increase our balance and climbing skills.

Friday, 19 September 2025

We are all continuing to settle in well in our classes and have enjoyed lots of new learning this week! In maths we explored subitising using counters and looked at small amounts, speaking about what we see and how we see it. For three counters, some of us saw this as three, some as a two and a one and some as a one, a one and a one. We then moved on to look at 4 counters, and how we see this.

In literacy we have enjoyed singing nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, Incy Wincy Spider, Miss Polly has a Dolly and 1,2,3,4,5 Once I Saw A Fish Alive. We spoke about words that rhyme, acted out some of the nursery rhymes and also completed some crafts.

In our classes, we have been getting to know each other and becoming more familiar with daily routines. We have been exploring different areas of the playground such as using the bikes, building equipment and large hoops. We’ve also been eating some tasty school lunches! We were excited to go out to forest school again and have also enjoyed taking part in P.E. lessons.

Friday, 12 September 2025

Welcome to our weekly blog.  Each week you will be able to see all the exciting things we have been getting up to in school!

We have had a wonderful start to school and have had so much fun and already learnt so much!

We have started our daily phonics lessons and are doing a great job at learning our sounds.  So far we have learnt s,a,t,p,i,n and have begun to blend these sounds to read words.

In maths we have been learning to subitise.  This is being able to recognise how many objects there are without counting.  For example, knowing that there are 2 spots on the dice without needing to count them.

Our topic this term is ‘Marvellous Me’.  We have been talking about ourselves, what makes us special and how we are all different.  We have painted some wonderful self-portraits, practised writing our name and used some loose parts to make faces!

On Friday we had our first session in the forest area.  We learnt some very important rules for how to keep safe in the forest and how to look after all the living things.  We were then able to explore; climbing trees, balancing on the beam, swinging

Friday, 18 July 2025

Wow, we have been so busy this week creating some masterpieces with many different materials.

On Monday we had an incredible art day. We made boats, mermaids and sea creatures out of junk modelling materials and explored different ways to join  things together, for example with glue or masking tape. We used clay to create sea creatures and we decorated them with different materials such as sequins, gems and beads. Some of us made the rainbow fish as we recently read this book in literacy. We painted under the water scenes using water colours.

In the afternoon we created a giant art attack on the field using so many different things- jumpers, cardboard boxes, cones, hoops, tablecloths- anything we could find! The end results were incredible!

We have also been writing about under water worlds in literacy as well as pirate related activities! We even made ourselves into pirates!

It has been such a busy term that it has flown by and we can’t quite believe the end of Reception is here already. We hope you have enjoyed sharing our learning and we wish you a happy Summer holiday.

Friday, 11 July 2025

Well, another busy week of learning! In Literacy, the book we have been focusing on this week is The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson, about a mermaid lured away to the circus but luckily escapes back to the sea again with help from her friends. We have been busy with mermaid craft and writing sentences about our own mermaids.

In our maths we have been exploring directions and instructions. We used forwards, backwards, left and right to instruct the pirate to the treasure and were able to use programming skills to make the BeeBots plot a course, it was great fun!

During our child-initiated times we have been developing our social skills, sharing skills planning our activities, initiating challenge by being busy building, enjoying reading for pleasure and in playing the sand, some of us became mermaids by covering our legs in sand! 

We have had an enjoyable week and can not believe we have such a short time left in our Reception classes!

Friday, 4 July 2025

We have continued our learning related to Pirates, Mermaids and under the sea this week. In English/Topic we read the story ‘Pirates Love Underpants’! Based on the story the children had fun designing lots of different pants! They then wrote some independent sentences about their designs.

In Maths we have been singing and counting number songs we created our own repeated patterns, using wild animal templates.

Our home learning this week was to create your own Rainbow Fish, with beautiful shiny scales. The children really enjoyed making them and very proud to share their own’ Rainbow Fish’.

Friday, 27 June 2025

This week in Reception we have been looking at different types of jigsaw puzzles: lots of pieces, a few pieces, floor puzzles and ones with smaller pieces.

We have been reading the story of the Rainbow Fish and thinking about how the characters felt at different parts of the story and why. We thought about how we would feel. We wrote about the story and made out own fish and sea creatures.

Friday, 20 June 2025

We have had a glorious week of sunshine for our sports day! We had so much fun taking part in lots of different races, including an obstacle race, a shopping race, a seaside race and a running race.

 In Literacy, we have been looking at interesting and unusual sea creatures. We have been learning facts about them and writing some of them down. Did you know there is actually a fish called the blobfish!

In Maths, we have been exploring different objects to find out if they float or sink. We had a good guess first then we tried out our theories in the water! We also used different containers to make boats and we tested them out using duplo people!

In forest school, we noticed the shadows that the trees were making as it was so sunny. This also made us realise how quickly the trees grew new leaves and how different they look compared to the winter days.  

Friday, 13 June 2025

Can you believe that we have begun our last term in Reception!

Our new topic is Pirates, Mermaids and Under the Sea. In Literacy, we have been reading ‘Commotion in the Ocean’ by Giles Andreae. The book is a rhyming book, talking about sea creatures and animals that live by the sea. We have been writing about the sea creatures from the story, using all of our fantastic phonic skills and building our knowledge of sentence structure.

In Maths, we have been focusing on counting with one-to-one correspondence, counting over ten and twenty and using problem-solving skills to play board games, alongside learning to be able to follow the rules whilst turn taking and sharing. We have been able to explore lots of different types of games and had great fun playing them with our friends.

In forest school, we explored, we built habitats and enjoyed using the rope swing! Children have been showing such great confidence when entering forest school, from climbing to exploring on their own and developing an understanding of the wonderful natural world around us.  

Friday, 23 May 2025

This week Reception classes had an amazing time at Quex farm. We saw so many animals and were lucky enough to see lambs that were only one week old!

We were allowed to feed some of them and were shown how to do it safely so our fingers didn’t get nibbled! We had a bumpy ride around the farm on the tractor and had to spot the cheeky chickens along the way.

We also learnt all about wheat, how it grows and what can be made to eat with wheat. And at the end of the day we played on the bouncy pillows and the other play equipment.

Back at school we wrote about our trip, using sentences that included capital letters, spaces between words and full stops.

In maths this week we have been looking at number bonds to 10- 2 amounts that add up to 10. We found many different ways of showing number bonds.

Friday, 16 May 2025

This week has been all about butterflies. In Literacy we have been learning about Life Cycles and writing sentences to go with the different stages. In forest school we found a caterpillar crawling on the ground and we also found a moth in the tree. Back in the classroom, some of the chrysalises are now butterflies and we are going to set them free in the forest school area. We have also been doing different craft activities and making caterpillars and butterflies.

Friday, 9 May 2025

We have been exploring the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. We have had craft activities and some fabulous independent writing work going on all week.

Each class has had the opportunity to look after some caterpillars, we have been watching their development daily as they grow and change . They are now in the Chrysalis stage.

We had a visit from the author Em Cosh. We heard the story ‘Squiggledoodle’. We all created a dance to go along with the story.

In Maths we have been looking at odd and even numbers , we have been singing songs and had great fun pairing the socks on a washing line to decide if we have an odd or even number of socks!

In the Forest School this week we  have been trying to spot butterflies and birds.

Friday, 2 May 2025

This week we are continuing our topic on animals and had some special visitors in class! We held a ‘pet day’ where some members of staff brought their pets into school. We met Basil the cat, Blue the dog, Minnie and Marble the guinea pigs and Tortilla the tortoise. We learnt lots of information about each animal and also thought of questions to ask the owners so we could find out more. Later in the week we continued to grow our writing skills by writing facts independently about the animals.

In maths we enjoyed learning about doubling and used our animal theme to double the spots on butterflies and ladybirds. We were able to say what double a number was up to 5 and beyond and also practised writing number sentences to show our findings.

Out in forest school we found lots of little creatures that we cared for and built homes for. We also practised our doubling skills. We were also lucky to have a children’s book author visit us and read her book ‘Is it a Seed?’ We enjoyed playing along to the game, ‘guess the seed!’

Friday, 25 April 2025

Welcome back to term 5! During this term we will be learning about animals, where they live, what they need and other facts too.

This week in Maths we have been investigating sharing, how to make it fair and how the amount each person or group gets changes depending on how many objects there are to be shared. Sometimes we ended up with things left over and sometimes the things could be shared so that everyone got the same amount.

In literacy we discussed what we had been up to during the Easter break from school. We wrote sentences with capital letters, spaces and full stops. We talked about animals and what we already know about soe of them- like which animals make suitable pets!

In the forest school we were surprised at how much everything had grown over the holidays- some of the plants are taller than the children! We also found a hole that was not there before, possibly made by a fox.

Friday, 4 April 2025

This week we have been doing lots of Easter learning. We learned about two festivals: the Christian festival of Easter and the Muslim festival of Eid – we learned that people celebrate both festivals with good food, nice clothes and family and friends.

In maths we have been looking at how we can make up numbers to 20 using tens and ones using different apparatus.

We have been doing lots of craft ready for Easter. We made cards, and wreaths and chicks using lots of different techniques: painting, sticking, cutting and ripping.

In forest school we saw our tree was covered in beautiful blossom, which is a sign that Spring is really here. We made pictures of blossom trees using finger printing.

Friday, 28 March 2025

This week in Maths we have been exploring estimating, problem solving and positional language.  We had great fun guessing how many cubes we would need to help Jack reach the giant’s castle! We described where objects were in relation to other objects.  We took a toy animal to areas of the school to talk about different positions we found the toy : on, underneath, behind, in front of, on top of, next to, in between etc. We talked about times in a day, we drew a picture for what we do in the morning, afternoon and evening. We had a go at estimating how many hops we could do in 10 seconds or how many skips.

In literacy we have continued our learning on growing by looking at different fruits. We listened to the story ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad’ and spoke about what fruits were in the story.  We had sentences to unscramble and read we then had to identify the fruit in the sentence. We created our own fruit kebabs and labelled fruits for a salad bowl.

In forest school we estimated how many leaves were in different groups. We had fun pretending to be Jack going up the beanstalk to find the giant.

Friday, 21 March 2025

This week in maths we have been exploring measuring. We used objects in class and ordered them by length from shortest to longest. We also enjoyed learning about height by building towers – some were short and some were so tall! We even built some towers that were the same height as us. Later in the week we compared our heights and ordered ourselves in groups from shortest to tallest.

In literacy we have continued our learning on growing by looking at different fruits. We listened to the story ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and spoke about where the story is set in Kenya. We spoke about the different animals in the story and had lots of fun making animal masks! Later in the week we tried some fruit from the story in class, including mango, avocado and passion fruit. We thought about different fruits we like and then used our phonics knowledge to write a caption or sentence. We have also enjoyed listening to other stories about fruit and vegetables and wrote some amazing sentences about them!

We had lots of fun in forest school this week finding different sticks and comparing the lengths! We also found some chalk and practised our writing and drawing skills. It was such a lovely sunny day and some of us just enjoyed laying back and relaxing on the logs!

Friday, 14 March 2025

We are really enjoying our new topic of ‘Watch Me Grow’ and have been completing lots of fun activities!

This week we learnt about where our fruit and vegetables come from and had the opportunity to try some of these, including tomatoes, carrot, cucumber, pepper and celery.

One of our friends told us all about veggie crisps which her dad makes.  He kindly made some for blue class to share and they went down a treat!  Comments such as “ooh, these are delicious, yummy, I love the beetroot ones” and “please can we have some more?” were heard across the room!  Thank you to this kind daddy who has shared the recipe with us if anyone would like it!

In maths the children have learnt all about tallying and really enjoyed using tally marks to find out which vegetable is the most popular and least popular with the children in the class.  It looks like Mrs Hill is the only one who likes sprouts!

We also used tallying to record how many beanbags we could get in the hoop, favourite colours and how many skips we could do.

We have been trying hard to use our phonics and writing skills during child initiated.  Look at the lovely, labelled flower drawings and the shopping lists that we have written independently!

Drawing is one of our favourite activities, so we learnt how to draw a flower following the instructions on a video.  What a lot of artists we have!

Friday, 7 March 2025

In Reception this week we have been learning about Spring and Pancake Day. On Tuesday we tasted pancakes with lemon and sugar, they were yummy, the lemon was sour and the sugar was sweet.

In Maths this week we looked at number bonds to 10 and showed this in different ways.

In Forest School we looked for signs of Spring, we found some buds and flowers and the leaves are starting to grow on the trees.

During child-initiated time we did lots of different activities including making  flowers and sun catchers and doing observational drawings of flowers.

Friday, 28 February 2025

In Reception this week we have been having fun learning about plants. We have created a role play area ‘Flower shop’. The children have loved finding a selection of plants and flowers to buy.

Every child has planted some cress seeds. We talked about what we would need and collected our materials then we went outside to plant our own seeds. We will have fun looking after the seeds and watching them grow.

In Forest school the children enjoyed hunting for plants they found some pretty flowers and lots of plants peeking through the ground.

In Maths this week we are moving on from subitising and we have been learning all about number bonds.  We used a five frame to help write some number sentences up to five and ten.

We used toys within the classroom to hide items linking this to subtraction, some children could write subtraction sentences.

Friday, 14 February 2025

In maths this week we have been continuing our learning on measure by exploring capacity. We learnt that this means the space inside a container and had lots of fun using different cups, jugs, cylinders and pots to show empty half full and full! We also showed our understanding of which containers have more and which have less by ordering potion bottles from empty to full.

In literacy we have continued to look at the story ‘Whatever Next’ and focused on the middle and end of the story. We had lots of fun retelling the story and pretending to be Baby Bear and ask questions! In our books we used our phonics knowledge to sound out and write simple words and sentences to tell different parts of the story.

We had lots of fun in forest school again this week and were very excited by a large ‘potato’ we found in the ground! We spent a long time digging it up and then looked after it for the rest of the session. We also used sticks and leaves to build fires and found some broken logs to make steps!

We enjoyed having a student from a local secondary school visit us for the week to complete her work experience and she helped us to make some lovely valentine’s day rockets! We worked hard on our cutting skills and were very pleased with our work.

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.