The first week of our final half term has gone by in the blink of an eye but what a brilliant week it has been!
Reception have returned from their break more determined than ever; ready for our final few weeks of learning in preparation for Year 1.
There are lots of exciting events happening across school this half term and it is a wonderful opportunity to make more memories and celebrate our achievements together as a school community. There will be information on Mrs Gregans blog regarding up coming events, please take the time to read it so you know what is coming up. There is also some important reminders in the final section of this blog, please be sure to read those too.
What have we been learning this week?
Maths: This week we have been super speedy subitisers! We have also begun to explore rekenreks, this is a new piece of equipment that we will use to support us in maths in Year 1. The rekenreks help us to develop our subitising skills by using the red and white beads to make numbers that are made of ‘5 and a bit’. We began by pushing one bead at a time and then used our subitising skills to move a group of beads together, e.g. if moving 6 we remembered to look for the 6th bead (by finding 5 red and 1 white), place our finger on the 6th bead and then push them across. We were all so focused and we are speedy at getting the ‘red’s ready’ in their starting position!
Art: We had so much fun in our first art lesson with Miss Neves this week. We drew self portraits and made a whole class art piece and really enjoyed getting messy with painted feet! Miss Neves has so many exciting ideas - we are already looking forward to the next art lesson next week!
Understanding the World: This half term our new topic is ‘Up up and away’! We have aready had some brilliant discussions where we explored what this could mean and what we would like to find out about this half term. We have already begun to explore air transportation and have been busy transforming our home corner into an airport! We have been suggesting some wondering question such as “why is it called a hot airballoon?” which we are looking forward to investigating together.
Art Competition
There is another exciting art competition for children to enter this half term. We had so many brilliant entries for our Ocean Pollution art and for the egg decorating competition that we cannot wait to see what creative pieces we get this time!
Good luck and have fun!
Let’s Celebrate!
Cooperative Roger Robin: Daniel!
Daniel, you are such a kind and caring member of our class and you bring so much joy to our learning! It’s lovely to see how well you can work as a team and what a fantastic learning partner you are by sharing your own knowledge and passions with others. Not only are you thoughtful and compassionate towards your friends but you also demonstrate this same attentiveness towards your teachers, noticing opportunities to help without being asked. You are a ray of sunshine in our classroom and always put smiles on peoples faces! Thank you for helping to make our classroom such a wonderful place.
Well done Daniel!
Focused Cooper Crab: Henry!
Henry, your focus has been brilliant this week. During our whole class activities and discussions, you have certainly been a Focused Cooper Crab! You have been ready, you’ve listened carefully to all of our discussions and you have shared some fantastic thoughts and ideas. The most wonderful part is that you have noticed just how much you can achieve when you are focused and we have loved seeing how proud you are! We are all really proud of you too. Keep being a Cooper Crab!
Well done Henry!
Butterfly Virtue - Intentional: Emilia!
Emilia, you demonstrate this virtue every day with your intentional attitude towards learning. It’s wonderful to see how much you enjoy ‘growing your brain’ and you are always looking for ways to push yourself and dig even deeper! You ask questions and make connections which has helped you to deepen your understanding. Well done Emilia!
Important Notices & Polite Reminders:
As the weather is very hot at the moment, all children need to bring a sun hat to school. If your child has a spare hat at home they are welcome to leave one at school as this helps to ensure it is never forgotten. Please make sure hats are clearly labelled to avoid them getting lost or mixed up.
Art t-shirts - Polite reminder to please send in a labelled art t-shirt on Monday. Reception will be having art lessons each week and an old large t-shirt that can be worn over their uniform will help to keep uniforms clean.
Reception Stay and Play - our final stay and play sessions will be taking place at the beginning of July and we are really excited to have another opportunity to share all of our wonderful learning with you. There will be two options and these sessions will be shared as a booking system. We are in the process of confirming the dates (it is a busy half term!) but you will receive a text when the booking system is open. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Upcoming events:
Monday 19th June (13:30) - Reception and Nursery’s Sports day (Reserve date: Thursday 6th July)
If you are coming to watch and support, please enter the school via the gate on St Patrick’s Road. A member of staff will welcome you and explain where your child will be competing. Our Student Council will be running a drinks stand at each event for you to purchase a cold drink and to raise some funds for our school. Please bring some change with you - unfortunately we do not have a card machine just yet.Wednesday 21st June (8am) - Gym Jam Jog whole school event, children can come to school in their pyjamas. They should arrive at 8am ready to jog around the school field, please don’t forget your sponsor forms - how many laps are you going to do?! After this we will go into class and enjoy some toast for a well deserved breakfast!
As always, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact via email - s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk
Wishing you all a wonderful half term break,
God Bless.
The Reception Team