Category: Reception – St Adrian

Dear parents,

Thank you for all the amazing Mary and Joseph outfits today.  The children enjoyed immersing themselves in our RE Curriculum Day dedicated to Saint Joseph.

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We began with a virtual whole school assembly where the children learned about Saint Joseph.  They discovered five key facts:

• Saint Joseph listened to God.
• Saint Joseph looked after Jesus and Mary.
• Saint Joseph trusted God.
• Saint Joseph shared his faith with Jesus.
• Today Saint Joseph is the patron of God’s worldwide family – the Church.

The children listened to a reading from the Gospel of Saint Matthew 1:18-25 (adapted)

Joseph loved Mary and was engaged to marry her.  When Joseph found out that Mary was going to be the mother of a baby, he was not sure what to do.  He wondered ‘Should I still marry her or perhaps I can quietly break off our engagement?

They also listened to the story of  The Day Jesus was Lost in the Temple and how Mary and Joseph looked for him.

We composed our own prayers to St. Joseph and the children wrote a prayer asking Saint Joseph to look after their family.

You may wish to say the following prayer at home:

We learned that Saint Joseph worked hard as a carpenter and had our own woodwork hut.

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Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Nicola Palmer

Dear parents,

A big thank you on behalf of Mrs Solakova, Mrs O’Connor, Mrs Reid, Mrs McConnell and myself for the generous Easter gifts we received at the end of term. We are blessed to have such a kind and thoughtful school community.

I hope you are all enjoying the break and looking forward to celebrating Easter over the coming days.

Good Friday is nearly upon us and I thought I would share some ideas to help your child understand the meaning of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Now is a chance for you to reflect on your child’s Lenten Promise.  You may wish to encourage your child to make a special effort for the last few days.  It is a time to grow more like Jesus; in goodness, kindness, helpfulness and loving.

Explain to your child that Good Friday is a special day; when Jesus dies on the cross.   This is a sad day but part of God’s plan; he came into our lives and showed us the path to follow.  Without Good Friday we wouldn’t have Easter Sunday, a happy day.

You may wish to challenge your child to make a cross.  In my experience, children come up with some very creative ideas, I am often presented with crosses made from Lego, sticks, boxes etc. 

Enjoy hot cross buns and explain to your child about the cross on the bun. We held our own hot cross bun party just before the end of term.

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If you haven’t already done this, look at your child’s Bible and read the Easter story.  Here is a video version which may help:

As we all know, Easter Sunday is the resurrection day when Jesus comes alive. The Holy Week thus ends with the celebration of Easter Sunday. The children made ‘He has Risen’ Easter cards to share with you on this special day. Have a look in your child’s book bag if your child has forgotten to give the card to you.

Below are some ideas for Easter activities:

Easter Activities

• I am sure you will all be enjoying delicious chocolate eggs!  We explain the symbolism of the egg and new life to the children by telling them it’s like the egg is the tomb; break open the egg just like Jesus when he breaks out the tomb. 

• Make a paper mache egg. 

1. Mix up a proportion of flour and water to a gluey consistency.  If you have PVA glue this is good to add too.
2. Blow up a balloon or use some other egg shape object.
3. Dip strips of newspaper into your mixture and cover the egg.
4. Leave to dry and decorate.

• Find stories of the people who saw Jesus in those first few days.

• Make an Easter garden.  Again, go with your child’s creative ideas.  It could be made out of Lego, recycled materials, grass cuttings, leaves, twigs etc. This will also be useful to support your child when we start learning about Pentecost upon our return to school. As you will see in the second photo, we made our own Easter garden in school to help the children learn the Easter story.

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• I am sure you will all be thinking about fashioning some form of an Easter Egg Hunt.  This could be either in your home or outside.  Possible clues your child could read using their knowledge of phonics (tricky words to learn by sight are in bold):
  • Under the mat.
  • Next look on top of a bed.
  • Go to the peg box.
  • Look in the pots and pans.
  • On top of a hat.
  • In a mug.
  • Look in your coat.
  • Meet Dad by the shed.
    
• Perhaps you could number the eggs.  Tell your child how many eggs they need to find.  A great problem solving activity eg. ‘So we’ve found numbers 2, 6 and 9.  What other numbers do we need to find?’

Lastly, I hope you have been able to access Church services online www.rcdow.org.uk.  If you are able to watch an Easter Service talk to your child about the Church colours.  In class we talked about purple being is the colour of Lent, preparing for Easter.  Now it’s white and gold! 

Wishing your all a wonderful Easter celebration. 

Nicola Palmer

Dear parents,

We’ve had a fantastic week at school and the children have now settled into a good routine.

Our first mystery guests joined us this week via Zoom.  The children were so excited!  They learnt all about St. Patrick’s Day and listened to a hilarious story about a hippo.  Both of these ‘parent visits’ stimulated lots of discussions and investigations about snakes and hippos.

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Please do let me know if you would like to join us.  Perhaps you could talk about your job or hobby to help us widen the children’s experiences.  However, a little story time is just as much fun.

We’ve also been focusing on learning behaviours and developing the language of ‘how I am learning’.  The three main characteristics of learning taught in early years are:

• Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things and “have a go”.
• Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy their achievements.
• Creativity and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas and make links between ideas.

Our class learning super heroes help us talk about how we are learning:

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Encouraging and praising your child at home will really support their attitude to learning in the future.  Here are some of the children’s ideas:  ‘I kept on trying to balance on the wobbly board’, ‘I thought of an idea’, ‘I decided to try another way’, ‘I changed my mind and did it a different way’. 

You may also be interested in this lovely book we have been reading in class “It’s Okay to Make Mistakes” by Todd Parr.

Todd Parr embraces life’s happy accidents and has a passion for making readers feel good about themselves, encouraging them to try new things, experiment, and dare to explore new paths.

Finally, in Letters and Sounds the children are revisiting digraphs (two letters/one sound) introduced over lockdown home learning. I’ve collected Letters and Sounds books to update.  These will be returned next.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and looking forward to another fun week with your children next week.

Nicola Palmer

Good afternoon Reception parents,

Thank you for preparing your children so well for their return to school.  They have settled back into school life amazingly well.  Indeed, it was difficult to choose the Head Teacher’s Award today and I, therefore, decided to present it to the whole class for being enthusiastic learners.

Our main focus has been reminding the children of the class routine in terms of organising their own belongings, preparing for lunch time, tidying up and getting ready to go home at the end of the day.  We have also concentrated on learning through play to allow the children time to rekindle friendships and use of the learning environment.

The happy boxes have been a great success, allowing the children to develop their language skills whilst reconnecting with home.  To quote one of the children “If you feel a bit sad, you can have a look at them”.

On Tuesday the children enjoyed participating in PE and learnt how to collaborate together playing parachute games.   Getting ready for PE required a lot of concentration and perseverance.  Supporting your child to dress and undress independently will really help increase your child’s confidence.

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We continued our learning about the season of Lent and the children listened to Luke’s story (based on Luke 2: 51, 52.):

The children have been sharing their Lenten promises.  Thank you to all those parents who sent their child’s Lenten promise to me via Tapestry.  If your child has not yet shared their Lenten promise with me, perhaps your child could bring into school a picture to help them talk about their Lenten promise.

Wishing all the mums a very happy Mother’s Day.  The children made cards which you will find in their book bags – they decided upon their own decorations and they are very much from their hearts. 

Nicola Palmer

Dear parents,

As promised, I have posted a video on Tapestry to show children the classroom and prepare them for Monday.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Nicola Palmer

Good morning parents and children,

It’s a strange feeling to be posting the last home learning blog before we’re all together again at school.  You have all been amazing and I shall miss hearing about the children’s antics at home.  However, I will certainly continue to post blogs on the class page and I hope we can still work together to create a history of your children’s achievements through their Learning Journals on Tapestry.  We always enjoy sharing home learning activities with everyone in class.

Personal, social and emotional development

Managing emotions

I know a lot of the children are excited to be returning to school, as indeed I am!  This week we have focused on the children’s well-being to make sure everyone is ready.  I hope the strategies suggested will help those that may need a little extra boost.  However, please feel reassured that we will start our week at an easy pace, playing together and getting used to being at school again.

As well as the top ten comforts mentioned yesterday, having a toolbox of weapons against those times when anxieties feel overwhelming is extremely helpful.

If your child is super-creative, encourage them to use that. The positivity of their creativity is by no means limited merely to situations when they need to manage their worries about school and the new normal. With their creativity often comes a wonderful sense of humour, there’s nothing more therapeutic than laughter. Let their imagination run wild, as long as the focus is positive; really encourage their magical thinking, it will go such a long way in helping them through.

Suggest going to different lands, visiting imaginary friends, being any animal they like.  Your child could write, draw, daydream, whatever they want. If your child is feeling at all worried, use their stories to create fantastical imaginative solutions. Perhaps your child is superhero who saves the day and everyone is safe and together again.

We would love to see any pictures created by the children at home. If you haven’t had a chance to create a ‘happy box’ with your child yet, a picture to bring into school and share with their friends will be just as good.

Plan activities to do in the evenings and at weekends for the first few weeks, to give them
something to look forward to and remind them they will have time to spend with you.

Establish a routine ‘family feedback’ time which makes it normal for everyone to air and
share worries from their day, as well as the fun things. This could happen over dinner time
and involve questions like, ‘What was the silliest moment of your day? What was the most
interesting thing you did today? Did anyone say anything kind or mean?” This also
encourages your child to talk about their feelings.

Story books are also a good way to support children with a range of emotional issues.
Stories can give a child a framework so they know what to do when confronted with certain
situations.

You can search on Book Trust for story books about worries or anxiety.

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/programmes-and-campaigns/bookstart/

Classroom video

I will post a video later today for the children to see our classroom.  Hopefully this will help children feel excited and confident, knowing what to expect on the first day.  It should also provide an opportunity to talk about any specific worries.

Religious Education

The joy of gathering to listen to God’s word

We will be exploring this story at school. I thought it may be nice to introduce it to your child to give a little head start and help your child feel confident to join in with our discussions.

The picture below shows a story from the Bible, Mark 10: 13,14-16. 

Jesus loved everyone, he was kind and gentle.  Parents and carers brought their children to Jesus for him to bless. Some people thought the children should not be bothering Jesus. But Jesus loved all the children and said ‘Let the children come to me.’  So the children gathered round Jesus and loved being with him. Jesus loved the children.

Questions to ask your child:

Why did the children want to be near Jesus?
Would you like to be there too, why?
What did some people think?
What do you think Jesus said to the children?
What does the story tell you about Jesus?

Enjoy your weekend and see you soon!

Nicola Palmer

Good morning Reception parents and children,

Welcome to our home learning for today.

Personal, social and emotional development

 Top 10 Tried and Tested Comforts

If your child is at all apprehensive about coming back to school, help your child take control and feel the positivity that it can bring.  Try compiling a list of all-time favourite comforts.   Perhaps their favourite film or book will be up there (both are great forms of escapism), or even their favourite teddy or old toy. Other contenders might be their favourite comfort food, the place in the house or garden where they always feel calm and safe, or even an old blanket that they used to cuddle (or still do).

Whatever makes the list, the mere act of compilation will have shifted focus onto positives, and they will, at the end of it, have a list to look forward to after school.   You can also use the list at other times when a little emotional boost is needed.

At school, we will be spending time to check in on your child’s well-being and take a few moments out of the busy day to learn relaxation techniques.  These are useful tools for your child to use when necessary, they are also great for adults too!  Check the ‘Safe Hands Thinking Minds’ website (address below) which includes free videos  by Dr Karen Treisman explaining some of the techniques.

safehandsthinkingminds.co.uk/covid-anxiety-stress-resources-links/

Letters and Sounds

A reminder of a game that the children know from school.   

What’s the Sound Mr Wolf game?

You will need:

•          Your child’s word bag.
•          Lots of space – outside is best.

What to do:

Take out tricky words (star shapes) from the word bag. 

You will only need the other high frequency words for the game (words that can be sounded out)

•          Stand your child several large paces away from ‘The Wolf’ (parent).
•          Pull from the word bag a word and ask your child to sound it out.
•          Your child will then say the sounds loudly as they take strides forward.
•          Make sure your child takes just one stride per sound.
•          Choose another word and repeat.
•          Once your child is close enough to The Wolf, turn round and shout ‘dinner time!’
•          The wolf chases your child who runs back ‘home’ and start again.  Agree where ‘home’ will be prior to beginning the game.

I normally stand with my back to the children and turn round each time I say a word.

You can also swap places with your child who becomes the wolf and reads the words out to you.

For support

•          Check the sounds with your child by clapping them first as you say them together.

•          Show your child how to take one step per sound for each word before he or she begins taking their paces.

For challenge

Try these words which focus on sounds we have learnt recently:

igh – n-igh-t, f-igh-t, b-r-igh-t, f-l-igh-t

air – ch-air, s-t-air, p-air,

ear – h-ear, f-ear, c-l-ear

This would also be a good opportunity to discuss word meanings and encourage your child to say a sentence which includes the word.

World Book Day

Below are activities to celebrate World Book Day.

Show Your Shares!

The theme of this year’s World Book Day is Share a Story. 

St. Adrian’s is inviting everyone to join in with SHOW YOUR SHARES. 

A story share could be: a picture of your child sharing a favourite nook, reading in an unusual location, sharing a story with a pet, reading a book dressed as their favourite character, and more! 

Remember to keep safe, where-ever you share your story and send the photo to me via Tapestry so that I can add it to the school ‘Show Your Share slides’.

Take a sneak peek inside the 2021 £1 World Book Day books

Follow the link and use the brilliant ‘look inside’ feature to help your child choose which book to exchange for the £1 World Book Day token! 

https://www.worldbookday.com/2021/01/inside-the-2021-1-books/

Book Token

You can download or print out a digital version of the book token to claim your £1 World Book Day book.  

https://worldbookday.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fb0047e963000a5e90da3d8a4&id=762df05516&e=08895572cc

Enjoy your day!

Nicola Palmer