On Thursday we enjoyed another walk to church with our Year 6 to celebrate the feast of the Ascension. We always enjoy walking alongside them, not only to do they take wonderful care of us on the journey but they help us in church too. It’s lovely to see how they guide Reception through Mass, encouraging us to be still and calm whilst listening to Father Peter.
What have we been learning this week:
RE: This half term we are reflecting on Jesus’s ascension to Heaven to be with His Father and how He knew his apostles and disciples would miss him so He sent the Holy Spirit to be with them. These are some of the wondering questions that we are exploring: I wonder why Jesus went back to His Father? I wonder where we might see Him in our world? I wonder how Jesus friends were feeling when they waited for the Holy Sprit? I wonder how the Holy Spirit can help us?
Literacy: This week we have been celebrating the progress we have made in phonics and with our reading and writing skills. We have been using this to complete our own water cycle diagrams and to creating labels for a class display. The children’s confidence with writing continues to flourish, with many of the children actively seeking opportunities to make labels, maps and lists during their play. It’s wonderful to hear them say “Mrs Hartley, I can write that label for you”, and to see them use all of their skills to do so independently. Well done Reception, what an exciting stage we are at within our writing journey!
Maths: This week in Maths we have been exploring numbers 6,7,8 and 9 and how they can be shown as ‘5 and a bit’. We have explored different ways that these can be represented by using dice frames, ten frames and different arrangements to help us recognise the ‘5 and a bit’ pattern with speed.
Understanding the World: This half term our topic is ‘Water’. We have begun with our first wondering question, where does rain come from?
This week we have continued to explore the water cycle and have been busy working together to build and create our own water cycle display. We have used different media and material to create the symbols (cloud, sun, rain and bodies of water) and combined this with our literacy skills to create our own labels. We are thoroughly enjoying this topic and are looking forward to teaching you all about it in our assembly!
Let’s Celebrate…
This week’s learning and virtue role models are:
Co-operative Roger Robin: Sydney!
Sydney, what a brilliant week you have had!
You have impressed so many adults across school with your kind manners and thoughtfulness. You have given your time to help others around school (especially at lunchtimes and in the classroom) without being asked and we are so proud of the co-operative Roger Robin you are. The best part is seeing the ‘skip in your step’ after you have done something kind for someone else. You see how helping others can make us feel good too!
Well done Sydney!
Co-operative Roger Robin: Kyler!
Kyler, you always come to school with a big smile and you have so much love to share. It’s wonderful to see how excited you are to be with your teachers and friends and we are so proud of all the progress you are making during your Reception journey; with even more fun, learning and laughter to be had!
Well done Kyler!
Whole School Virtues - Learned and Wise: George!
George we can see that you are really thinking about what choices will help you during our lessons and you have also reflected on how this helps others around. This has also meant that you have been ready to share your own understanding and ideas.
Well done George!
Lunch Time Awards:
We also have lunch time certificates which are awarded by the lunch time team to those children who they see being wonderful role models and using marvelous manors:
This weeks role model: Kian!
This weeks marvelous manors: Poppy!
Thank you both for being such wonderful role models and for remembering those acts of kindness everyday!
Challenge Books!
We hope you are enjoying the challenge books together at home. This extra bit of practise really does help and we can see the difference in the children’s writing in school. They are more aware of their letter formation and take time to think about it before they start writing. This is such an important part of our writing development in Reception and will really help us when we move into Year 1.
Thank you so much for your encouragement with this at home.
Optional Challenges!
It is wonderful that the children are so excited about their learning and to see how keen they are to continue this outside of school. We welcome any opportunity to share these learning experiences with you at home, which is why we have created ‘optional challenges’ across each year group which can be explored over this Summer 1 half term.
These challenges link to the wider area of our curriculum which in EYFS are:
Understanding the World (Science, Geography and History), Expressive Arts and Design (Art. DT and Music) and our Gross and Fine motor skills (PE).
Below you will find the optional challenges linking to the topics and areas of learning that we will be exploring this half term. These fun challenges are designed to cover a range of skills without being stressful or time consuming for you at home. You are welcome to complete them in any order you wish and it would be lovely to see pictures or examples of things that the children have enjoyed at home.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Important notices and reminders:
Eco Day - Green Day on Friday 17th May 2024
Our Eco council are always busy taking care of our school grounds and encouraging classes to recycle and take care of the environment. As part of their work, they have organised a ‘Green Day’ in order to raise some funds and awareness. Children are invited to celebrate and join in by wearing their own green clothes for which we kindly ask for a £1 donation in support.
Thank you.
Reception Assembly - Thursday 23rd May (AM)
We are delighted to invite you into school to watch Reception’s assembly on Thursday 23rd May. This will take place in the morning and there will be two showings (approximately 9:15 / 9:35). You are welcome to join us for either or both. Reception are really proud of how much they have achieved (rightly so!) and they can’t wait to share this learning with you.
Please continue to practise lines at home with those big clear voices.
Thank you.Challenge Books
We kindly ask that challenges be completed in pencil. If books could be kept in bags and returned by Thursday, we then have time to prepare the next set of challenges.
Thank you.If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Hartley
s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk
Have a lovely bank holiday weekend
God Bless,
The Reception team