Autumn 1

Autumn term marks the start of a new school year and the start of a new adventure for our Reception pupils! It has been so exciting to meet and welcome all our new families into school.  The children are having fantastic time exploring their new classes and it has been wonderful to watch new friendships form.  Here are just some of the things we have been up to since starting school...  

Starting School

We are enjoying reading 'Starting School', by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, and learning more about our new school! As we've read the book, we have learnt about places in our school and the people who work there.  We have been busy looking at photographs and using maps to help us explore our school and find various places.  We loved going on a school scavenger hunt! 

Phonics

We began the term with lots of sound games and activities to help us develop our listening skills and focus on environmental sounds. We enjoyed going on a sound walk and describing sounds we could hear! 

We have now started phase 2 phonics and are currently working on reading and writing initial sounds.  Our teachers have been so impressed with our skills! 

Maths

We are currently learning how to Match, Sort and Compare items. We are having so much fun looking for things that are the same, discussing objects and explaining sorting rules.

The Colour Monster

We spent the week reading The Colour Monster and learning all about the feelings and emotions we experience.  We learnt that different colours can be used to represent our feelings and explored some ways to manage our feelings.  We enjoyed taking part in some calming yoga to help us feel relaxed and ready to learn! 

Who Are You?

We have been reading Who Are You and using the book to help us learn more about each other.  The story helped us to understand what makes each one of us special. We enjoyed learning about each others families and sharing family photos together.  

We also created some self-portraits, inspired by Keith Harring.  We developed our mark making skills with pens, pencils and crayons before using mirrors to carefully create our self-portraits. 

The Real Superheroes

We have been been busy talking about our favourite superheroes.  We've been busy making masks, puppets and even cities for them to fly around!  As we read the story, The Real Superheroes, we realised that not all superheroes wear capes and masks.  We learnt abou doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers and many other people who help us in the community.  We thought about ways we could help the community and even jobs we could when we're older! 

Autumn 2

This half-term we will be learning about seasonal celebrations that happen throughout autumn and winter.

The Leaf Thief 

We began this half-term by discussing seasonal changes and observing those that happen in autumn.  

A mysterious box full of autumnal objects arrived in our classroom and we had to work out who it was for and what they might like to do with it! As we began our new book, The Leaf Thief, we decided the book must be for the squirrel.  We learnt about squirrel homes and decided to use the objects to build a special squirrel nest which we later learnt is called a drey! 

Seasonal Changes in Autumn

We have been searching for signs of autumn in and around our school.  We went on a walk around our school grounds, looked at the trees and spoke about what was happening to the leaves. We learnt the names of some trees and also found out that not all of them lose their leaves!

Local Walk to Buck Woods

We also went on a walk to Buck Woods to explore an environment similar to the setting of the Leaf Thief.  We spoke about what we could hear, see and feel, building some great vocabulary through our senses!  We collected lots of beautiful autumn tresures which we brought back into school and used for different activities!

Bonfire Night

We have also been learning about some of the celebrations and events that take place throughout autumn.  We were very excited to learn that Bonfire Night was approaching.  Our teacher's explained why Bonfire Night is celebrated and also helped us learn how to keep safe.  We constructed our own bonfire, held out safety tape and sat around to countdown to a firework display on our class screen.  We also made some delicious edible sparklers and thought about how we can hold real sparklers safely.