Reception – Transition week

14.07.23

Hello children and parents,
What a week it has been… from meeting new teachers and watching the Year 6 production, to welcoming the new reception children, being super friendly and kind showing them around.
As you can imagine, the real highlight of the week was when the children visited their new classroom and their new teachers.

Everyone was very excited!
I really liked the climbing frame! – Indie
My favourite part was when we did the glittery paper craft! – Georgie
I liked the stars and the numbers! – Luke
The teachers were very nice! – Lucy

Next week updates:
We’ve decided to have our Teddy bear’s picnic on Tuesday. The weather is looking good so far, but has changed so many times (been checking since Monday :))… so in case it rains, we will have the Teddy bear’s picnic as part of the trip on Wednesday.
So please send your children to school, with their teddies on Tuesday.

Trip to St Albans museum
Please make sure that your child is wearing comfortable shoes and full school uniform.
If it rains your child must have wellies and a raincoat, if sunny, sun hat.
On the day they will need to have a backpack. Water bottles and home packed lunches should fit in the back pack. If you are planning to order school packed lunch, please make sure you let the office now ASAP. They can choose cheese or tuna sandwich.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Solakova

Reception – A very sporty week!

07.07.2023

Hello everyone,
big thank you for joining us on our Sports day. The children were absolutely brilliant remembering that sport is not just about winning or losing, it is about shared experiences and shared contest. We truly enjoyed all the activities and were very excited to try them all… and we managed to get through all the races, despite the light rain…. so lucky 🙂
Here are some photos from the day:

Well done children. You really deserved your medals and ice lollies!!!!

This week was our final week going to the library. Please make sure that you check for any library books in your house and if there are any, please bring them back next week.

In Little Wandle we continued revisiting tricky words, digraphs and trigraphs and also read even more difficult words like printed and smeared. We were learning that sometimes words that finish with-ed sounds have to be read with -t sound and sometimes with -ed sounds. Tricky isn’t it?

Transition Morning
Thursday 13th July – At 8:45 reception children will need to line up outside Year 1 classroom to spend the morning in Year 1 with Mrs Thompson. They will come back to Reception after lunch for a normal pick up at 3:15pm.

Reception class trip will take place on Wednesday 19th July. We will leave around 9am and be back on time for pick up at 3:15pm.
Please let me know if you can help on the day. We still need volunteers!!!
Please let the office know if your child will have school packed lunch on that day.

Friday 14th July – Non uniform day – £1 donation
Saturday 15th July – Summer BBQ – 12:30pm to 3:30pm

Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Solakova

Reception – A wonderful assembly!

30.06.23

What a week it was. Prepping for the open evening and working super hard on our assembly. The children showed resilience and perseverance, they remembered all the lines so well and used loud and clear voices when speaking! I can’t be more proud! We were painting, sticking, writing labels and even made a paper mache globe.

We’ve learned new songs and sang them beautifully. We even held the whole world in our hands!!!

The children had the opportunity to learn a lot about the creation of the world and to apply their knowledge in different contexts. Once again… Well done reception for a wonderful assembly!

For the open evening we all worked very hard, tidying the classroom, sharpening pencils, making displays and most importantly – showing our amazing writing, painting, clay work, maths skills and so much more!
We made beautiful clay friendship tea coasters and talked about God being our friend. We decided to use different kind of beans and the children created beautiful patterns.

Our writing was definitely the cherry on the cake. Have a look yourself:

In English we began reading a new book ‘Oi Frog’. We’ve had so much fun looking for rhyming words and thinking about where different animals should sit.

Big, big thank you for supporting us! It was a real pleasure seeing so many of you on our Assembly and Open evening!

Important dates:
Tuesday 04.07.23, 10 am – Sports day (your child should come to school already wearing PE kit)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Solakova

Reception – A week full of talents!

23.06.23

Lots and lots of experiences this week… First we played the paralympic game Boccia, and watched paralympic swimming. We talked about how anything is possible if you are not giving up and keep on trying:

As part of the music week we’ve participated in a Jazz workshop, practicing different beats and rhythms, thinking about how the music makes us feel. The children even listened to a real saxophone! How exciting!

And finally we’ve watched and enjoyed the St. Adrians got talent show. Well done to those who were super brave to go for the auditions. And of course a big round of applause for our finalists!!! You were absolutely brilliant. Well done!

Important dates:
Reception class assembly – Tuesday 27th June , 9:05 am
Open evening – Wednesday 28th June, 4:00 – 5:30 pm
New nursery and reception parents evening – Wednesday 28th June, 6pm
EYFS sports day – 4th July, 10am
Really hope that you will be able to join us!

Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Solakova

Reception – Happy Fathers Day!

16.06.23

Some Dads are big Dads and some Dads are small,
some Dads are shorter and some Dads are tall,
Some Dads wear blue jeans and some Dads wear suits,
some Dads wear sneakers and some wear boots.
But this Dad is my Dad from head down to toe
He is really the very best Dad that I know!
Happy Fathers Day!!!

We worked very hard writing very special Father’s day messages and hope that you will enjoy your cards on Sunday. Have a look at what we’ve made…

In Maths this week we were focusing on deepening the children’s understanding of how to compare quantities. The activities we did helped us to check children’s comprehension and provided opportunities for further comparison experiences. We even get to use rekenreks! Exciting times!

In Little Wandle we continued reading longer words and revisiting the tricky words thought so far. Please take time to practice them home as well. These tricky words prove to be very tricky!!! Here are a few examples of the words we’ve read today:

Have a lovely weekend and especially to all the dads, grandads, step dads, uncles, brothers, cousins and friends that step up to show a child what it truly means to be a Father.
Mrs Solakova

Reception – Welcome back

09.06.2023

Hello children and parents,
This week we’ve shared lots of exciting half term news, had a very entertaining drama workshop, picked up some radishes and admired an amazing art exhibition. Have a look yourself:

When we came back on a Monday morning we’ve noticed that some of the fruit and vegetables we planted in the Spring term are ready to be picked up. We had lots and lots of radishes and 8 strawberries 🙂
The children were very excited and they all soon disappeared. Let me tell you something… we did well looking them, because they were super delicious! Next on the list are cabbage and carrots.

The art exhibition was a total success! The children were impressed by how talented everyone is! They enjoyed looking for their own painting and finding the right number. Well done everyone!

We’ve had a lovely finish of the week by participating in a very exciting drama class. We joined Peter Pan and went on a very dangerous adventure. We’ve sat on an emotion chair and acted out different emotions. It was super fun:

Things to remember:
Friday 16th June – Fathers day assembly (there will be no reading morning)
Tuesday 27th June – Reception class assembly – 9:05am
Wednesday 28th June – Open evening – 4:00pm to 5:30pm

Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Solakova

Reception – Pentecost Party

26.05.23

Hello parents and children,

And just like that it’s the end of another half term. We took part in a historical event, the Coronation of King Charles III, we’ve been busy building a castle, we watched how the caterpillars are turning into butterflies, we grew delicious vegetables from seeds, we had a special Pentecost party, we celebrated Mary and made a beautiful poster, we created amazing bubble paint pictures for the exhibition that will take place in the first week back. We also learned how to read new tricky words and words that finish with -ing , -est  and -ed, together with longer words. In Maths we were thinking about number bonds to 10 and were busy exploring the 10 frame.

Sponsored bounce
What a lovely start of the week the children have had. Lots of fun  jumping, of course, exploring the big slide, obstacle course and jumping castle. Thank you everyone for your donations!

Pentecost Party
It is so lovely to see all of you supporting us and joining in for special events and celebrations. As always you were so generous and the children had an amazing time enjoying eating red food, blowing bubbles, playing with streamers and windmills. We were very excited to perform for you and if you want to have a go one more time here is the link for our Pentecost song:

Art week What a creative week we’ve had. The children learned a new painting technique – Bubble painting. We mixed some paint, water and washing liquid and blew very hard. The result is amazing and we can’t wait to show you our work.

Little Wandle
In Little Wandle this week,  we’ve learned the last 2 tricky words for Reception class.

We also practiced reading words that finish with – est  and -ed, like strongest, freshest, helped and blinked. When we come back we will have our assessment week, so please keep an eye for any materials that your child might need help with.

Butterflies in the prayer garden
And what a better end to a fun filled week, but releasing the butterflies. All five caterpillars turned into chrysalis, and from all five chrysalis emerged five healthy butterflies. The butterflies were so ready to fly away and start enjoying the sunshine and warmer weather.

Have a wonderful half term week!
Looking forward seeing you all next week 🙂
Mrs Solakova

Reception – Building a castle

19.05.23

Hello everyone,
This week we were super creative and actually builded a real castle using cardboard boxes paint and bricked wallpaper!!! What a big project it was, but guess what… we did well and our special magical writing place is ready to be used next week. In our castle the children will be able to write a short story/ sentence and dress up as a princess or knight. We have everything needed to make a book and at the end of each day the children will be able to celebrate their story writing with their friends. Can’t wait to see all the amazing books. Stay tuned and check the blog every week to see it too.

On Wednesday we celebrated National numeracy day. The children had access to many fun activities like making a number block crown and number block fan. They also printed numicons on a playdough and did number bonds to 10 while eating cheese biscuits:

We can’t be more excited to tell you that 4 out of 5 butterflies emerged and they are healthy and eating juicy fruit already. Hopefully the fifth one will emerge too, so we can release them all next week.

In Little Wandle we’ve read super long words like ‘lunchbox’ and ‘handstand’ and again practised chunking them up ‘lunch’ and ‘box’. Chunking long words is really useful and helps us read with ease. We’ve learned 4 new tricky words too:

Please practice reading them at home.

In Maths this week we practised thinking about pairs of numbers that make 10 using our double dice frame. The stem sentence we used was: ” I can see 4 counters, so I could say: “4 needs 6 to make 10”, or I could say “6 needs 4 to make 10”. You can practise the stem sentence at home too. We also played with 10 frames and had yellow and red tokens to make 10 in different ways.

In RE we talked about Judaism. Mrs Ruffell was very kind to come and tell us all about her family traditions and she explained what Seder meal means. We talked about the meaning of each food on the plate. The children could wear the special Jewish hat called kippah.

Things to remember:
Wednesday, 24 May 2023, 2:15 pm – Pentecost party
We will encourage children to wear red to school on the day; red being the liturgical color of Pentecost.
Any voluntary contributions towards the food (which will be limited to red items) should be provided by Monday 22 May. 

Have a lovely weekend!
Looking forward seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs Solakova

Reception – Butterfly life cycle

12.05.2023

This week in reception we’ve had a pleasant surprise!!! Our caterpillars are not caterpillars anymore. They were very busy eating and growing and then building a cocoon around themselves. We placed them into the net and can’t wait to see how are they turning into butterflies. We hope that they will do that during the school day, so we can see it!!!

Next week we will be writing about how caterpillars turn into butterflies and also will be creating models. Stay tuned for that!

In English this week we’ve read the final part of ‘Weirdo’. The children were thinking about how Maud is feeling at the beginning and end of the story, is it OK to be like the others, what makes a good friend. The children were writing sentences about these feelings and they did so well. This is the story if you want to have a look:

In Little Wandle this week we’ve been reading and writing very tricky words like ‘strong’ , ‘string’ and ‘dress’. Having so many consonants in one word can be very difficult, but we are determined to succeed. We also learned 4 new tricky words:

In RE we continued talking about good news and the joy they bring. Thank you very much for sharing your good news with us. Next week we will think about the Holy Spirit and the good news that Jesus is sending the Holy Spirit to keep us all safe.

In Maths this week, the children reviewed the composition of the numbers 6 to 9 using the ‘5 and a bit’ structure, and then explored how 10 can be composed. The children also developed a sense of the ‘ten-ness of 10’ by making their own collections of 10 objects. We used the 10 frame to support us and made different arrangements with different objects:

Things to remember:
Wednesday, 24 May 2023, 2:15 pm – Pentecost party
Friday 8:45am – Reading morning

Have a lovely weekend!
Looking forward seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs Solakova

Reception – God Save The King

05.05.2023

What a royal week we’ve had.
We have had so much fun learning about the King’s Coronation. The children were very excited to come to school dressed in white, blue and red and have a very special picnic.

We created lovely ‘Fit for a King’ display. First we made gorgeous crowns and then everyone was crowned. Have a look:

We played in our Coronation cafe, pretending to be Kings, having tea parties and eating cakes and sandwiches.

We learned the song ‘God save the King’. Have a go too. It’s very catchy 🙂

I hope you have a very special weekend however you are celebrating! Please remember to add photos on Tapestry, so we can all celebrate together at school!
Looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday.
Mrs Solakova