Category: Reception – St Adrian

21.10.22

Can you believe that the children have been in Reception for half a term? It has been very challenging, but also fun, engaging and full of wonderful memories! I would like to thank you all for helping us with smooth transition and supporting us in all we do!

This week it was a good one…. with lot’s of new experiences! We really cracked on with our practise for the Harvest assembly and were very busy collecting leaves for a beautiful Autumn crowns. And then we performed our song in front of so many people. Well done! And guess what…. we even stayed for the whole assembly, listening to all the wonderful songs.
I big thank you for your generous donations!

We also get to practise tennis and a real professional tennis player came to our school showing us how to properly hold the tennis racket and how to balance and dribble the ball.

Please make sure you rest well and have plenty of fun during half term.
In case you are stuck for ideas you can visit this lovely website. There you will find plenty of suggestions for how to have fun and learn at the same time.

https://hertfordshire.50thingstodo.org/app/os#!50thingstodobefore5/welcome

Can’t wait to hear all about the things you did. Don’t forget that you can also use Tapestry to share and record your your wonderful experiences!

Have a fantastic half term!
Mrs Solakova

14.10.2022

Hello children and parents!
It’s been another busy week… we were practising our Harvest song, getting ready for next Thursday and can’t wait to see you all in the morning. Please note that the time has now changed and the assembly will take place at 9:15am.
We also planted some hyacinths and daffodils and are taking a good care of them… fingers crossed that they will grow in spring.

We learned 4 new graphemes:

Please spend some time with your children practising our new graphemes. Make sure you check their school bag for a new tricky word book. In the book you will find the first three tricky words that we’ve learned.

We also began to do our first spelling words. We learned how to use our segmenting fingers and segmented CVC words. The children then had to write these words on their boards. We experimented writing on different surfaces like sand, mud, boards…. great writing Reception. Have a look at how we spelled Sam from our favourite story!

In Maths this week the children were encouraged to represent quantities in different ways by using a number of fingers on one hand. So for example four can be 3 and 1, but can also be 2 and 2. We also played a fun bingo game.

Finally, it’s been a pleasure to see all of you yesterday. Thank you for your positive comments and all the support. Please look for your activation Tapestry email!
Can’t wait to see all the fantastic home learning!!!

Reminders:
Harvest Assembly – Thursday 20th of October at 9:15am
Friday Inset Day

Have an amazing weekend!
Looking forward seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs Solakova

07.10.2022

This week has been another busy week where we have been thinking about what changes are happening in Autumn. First we went on a very special Autumnal walk and collected lot’s of natural materials like twigs, small seeds, leaves. Then we used our creativity and imagination and created beautiful art. I am very impressed with all the children. They had fantastic ideas… they used small leaves for hair, twigs for arms and legs, seeds for eyes. Have a look yourself 🙂

On Wednesday we had a very, very special celebration. Our lovely school had a birthday!!! We had a fun afternoon with lots of surprises…. disco lights, loud music, musical statues…. and popcorn with film… so much fun!!!

We also planted some very special flowers around the special 60th birthday tree!

In Little Wandle this week we’ve learned these new graphemes and phonemes:

Please remember that it is really important to practise the new sounds with your child. A key part of our reading is encouraging the children to orally blend the sounds, so why don’t you play that game over the weekend:
Can you touch your?
You need to say some phonemes and your child will have to blend them in their head and touch the part of the body you say. For example:
Can you touch your L-E-G?

Maths

This week the children were learning how numbers can be composed of 1s and we began to investigate the composition of 3. The children met number 3 and found out all about number 3. We went for a picnic and our 3 Learning friends had to share 3 chairs, 3 pears, 3 plates.

Gentle reminders:
Please remember to book your Parents consultation on Arbour.
We are still collecting various items for Harvest. So any donations would be highly appreciated.
Thank you to those of you that already shared their family photos. We are creating a lovely gallery and the children love looking at the pictures and talking about their families.

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

30.09.2022

What a busy week we’ve had! We were very excited to model on our new ‘Creation table’ and use our imagination to create different things. We’ve had castles, caterpillars, elephants, nests and so much more. We’ve been learning how to join, stick, link, fringe ….
We were also labelling our work, thinking about all the different graphemes we’ve learned so far.

At the end of the week the children voted and please put your hands together for our winners! I wonder who is going to win next week…

Little Wandle
This week we’ve learned 4 new sounds. Please practise the new sounds over the weekend and support your child with their Little Wandle home learning. This will really help them remember the new phonemes and graphemes.

In Maths this week we discussed why counting is as important as subitising. Last week we used subitising to identify the numbers in a set and this week we developed counting skills to enable us to identify how many they are in a set that cannot be subitised.

We also explored all sorts of things that can be counted, including sounds. We sang counting rhymes to support our learning. Why don’t you have a go too:

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

23.09.2022

What a wild week we’ve had…. someone walked in our classroom and left some footprints on the floor, black fur and a ripped piece of paper…

The intruder also left a sack labelled ‘Sam’s stuff’. Inside the sack we found different things beginning with ‘S’, like sandwiches and strawberries, and also a book…

The book was super mysterious too. Especially when we read only half of it…
The children were thinking about what could happen next, who might be Sam and why he left his sack in Reception.

We will continue reading the story next week and hopefully will find out!

Little Wandle
Thank you so much for supporting your children. I am impressed by how well they are writing their letters and remembering all of them. Great job Reception! The first writing certificates are now ready and will be given on a Monday.
This week we’ve learned 4 new sounds:

We also played lots of blending and sound talking games. Maybe you can have a go at home too.

What’s that noise?
Think about the different sounds the animals make While playing the game instead of saying ‘What noise does the cat make?‘ you can say ‘What noise does the C-A-T make?‘
Then your child will have to blend the phonemes in their head and make the sound.
Have fun!

Maths
In Maths this week, the children were encouraged to quantify sets of objects by subitising, rather than counting. When subitising, children can say how many there are in a small group of objects by ‘just seeing’ and knowing straightaway without needing to count. 

Subitising can be categorised as ‘perceptual’ or ‘conceptual’. Perceptual subitising is used for very small sets of objects (initially up to about 3) and conceptual subitising is used when sub-groups can be perceived within a larger set and the whole is recognised, e.g. if 6 dots are arranged in a dice pattern, children may recognise this as ‘two 3s’ and know this is 6.

The focus for this week was perceptual subitising and the children were subitising up to 3 objects. We met number 1,2 and 3.

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

16.09.2022

It has been such a pleasure to meet all the new Reception children. We had a fantastic start to the term and the children are settling in very well.
In the past 2 weeks we have been learning about the areas of the classroom, how to safely use equipment, how to tidy, where to find resources and so much more. Our role play corners have been particularly busy. We prepared lot’s of delicious meals in the home corner and camped under the stars, reading stories and melting marshmallows by the fire. What a treat!!!

Lunch time was also a success and the children are becoming more familiar with the routine and where to go. I am really impressed by how polite they are saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to the dinner ladies. They are showing super skills while walk and balance their trays. Well done Reception!

We are very good following the timetable, knowing what we are doing at the moment and what is coming next.

Our first PE session went really well too. This term we will be doing gymnastics and think about the different ways we can move changing speed and direction. We are also going to learn how to listen and respond appropriately to instructions.

This week we began our Little Wandle journey and the children learned four new phonemes

If you are able to, please support your child practising the new sounds. Pronunciation of these sounds is really important, rather than ‘s-uh’ we teach ‘ssssss.’ Avoid adding ‘uh’ or ‘er’ to the end of sounds.  
Practising how to form these letters is also crucial – why not practising forming them with chalk, paint, tracing the letter on your back and guessing what sound it is. 

Today the children chose their first sharing book, so look out for reading and writing folder and reading record book.

Lots of children came into school today sharing their feelings about Her Majesty the Queen’s death. Here at St. Adrians we encourage children to discuss how they think and how they feel. At home it is just as important. Maybe you and your child might want to watch the video and talk about it with you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/31694210

The children prepared a little something for our Friday assembly, reflection on what we have learned about the Queen.

‘I miss her and I am going to make her a card and send it to Heaven.’
‘I am going to give her a card and flowers out the window and it will fly up to Heaven’
‘The Queen died and would make her a picture and give her flowers to put on the floor like the others.’

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

The children absolutely love the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, often choosing the story at storytime.  We are, therefore, exploring the story sequence in more detail and learning to retell the story.

They became fierce cheeky Jacks, very cross mums and fierce giants in our Giant’s Castle.

A great inspiration for making our own castles.

The children also retold the story using puppets.

We’ve planted beans and can’t wait to see the roots and shoots appear.

More Jack and the Beanstalk adventures to come.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Nicola Palmer