Peter Gladwin Primary School

Welcome To Reception Class

olgahargreaves@gladwin.brighton-hove.sch.uk

bethmarcantonio@gladwin.brighton-hove.sch.uk

wb 22nd November

Christmas has started in reception this week! We have read the story of the Nativity in preparation for our end of term Christmas performance. Some new words arose as we read different versions so we discussed them together as a class. Words such as manger, inn keeper, stable, shepherd. We also used Google Earth to find our school and then gradually zoomed out to see our local area and then find where Bethlehem is located. The children loved looking at Google Earth. We will be exploring maps and trying to create our own in the next couple of weeks.

You may have also heard your child singing many of our Christmas songs. Next week will start practicing our acting skills. We have all the costumes in school so no need to get anything!

wb 15th November

Another busy week stretching our brains in Reception class! This week we have been exploring and talking about 2D shapes and doing our best to use full sentences and the correct mathematical language. What shapes can you spot in your home? We have also read the book 'Have you filled a bucket today?' and linked this with One Kind Word (anti-bullying week). We have been making an extra effort to fill each others buckets with kind words and actions. We are also still enjoying exploring autumn and on Thursday Mrs Hargreaves discovered a long line of children in our woody area. When asked why they were lining up so patiently (it wasn't time to come inside) the reply was "we're waiting for our turn to jump on the leaves." On closer inspection there was a HUGE pile of leaves perfect for jumping on - great fun was had by all!

wb 8th November

This week we have enjoyed reading a couple of stories together as a class.... 'Stanley's Stick' and 'Not a Stick'. The stories inspired us to venture onto our school field and go exploring for the best sticks we could find! After collecting our sticks we then thought and talked about what our sticks could be - we all have incredible imaginations. Some of the children's ideas included a hairbrush, an aeroplane and even a rabbit! We have all spent time this week turning a picture of a stick into a drawing of something else and many of us have had a really good go at writing to go alongside it. The children are applying all their amazing learning in phonics to their writing now - magic!

This week has included Remembrance Day. We have watched the CBeebies video linked below and also created some stunning poppies using small loose parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv_ub7Be7oA

wb 1st November

It has been great to all come together this week after the half term break. We have learned about Diwali which is a very important festival celebrated by many people around the world. Diwali is often celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs but can be celebrated by other religions too. In class we have made Diva lamps using play dough and small loose parts, explored making Rangoli patterns using Numicon and also read information about this ‘festival of lights’ using different fiction and non-fiction books. Alongside Diwali, this week has also been Bonfire night and we have exercised our fingers making firework patterns using black paper and pastels.

We have all certainly noticed the change in weather in our return to school and have talked about the seasonal change occurring, how we need to dress appropriately to keep warm and dry and have been outdoors spotting signs of Autumn.

AUTUMN TERM 2 - Seasons Come, Seasons Go

We have a busy half term ahead of us as we immerse ourselves in many more wonderful stories and experiences. We will also be working towards our Christmas performance in December which is always a really special event. See below for a snap shot of what we will be focusing on.

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wb 18th October

This week we have been fascinated by spiders and have been learning lots about their lifecycle. We have learnt lots of new words such as hatchling, spiderling, female and male. We have listened to lots of stories about how clever spiders are when they create their webs and how patterns can appear in them too. Alongside our super spider learning this week we have also been very active this week with our daily balance bike sessions and had great fun developing our skills of balance and coordination. Everyone is now ready for a rest over half term - see you all soon!

wb 11th October

This week we have enjoyed learning another apple poem, tasting apples and making apple mug cakes. Yummy! We also talked about the lifecycle of an apple and learned the names of many varieties of apples. To decide which variety was our favourite we each placed a red cube onto a ten frame and made comparisons as we went along. The class favourite was red delicious.

However, this week hasn’t all been about apples! We have also introduced ‘Story telling time’ (also known as Helicopter Stories). Over the course of the coming weeks each child will get the chance to sit with the teacher and tell their story. The teacher writes it down word for word as it is told. Then, towards the end of the day we sit as a class and create a stage space in the middle of our story square. Whilst the teacher reads the story aloud different children are invited onto the ‘stage’ to bring it to life and act it out. We’ve had a lot of volcanoes featuring this week along with walking tyres, monsters and a big bad wolf. Stories are a key component of childhood that enable children to learn about themselves, others and provide an amazing opportunity to develop their creativity and imagination. You can never read too many stories to your child!

wb 4th October

This week we have really enjoyed making up stories. Some children chose to use The Gigantic Turnip as a model for their writing whilst others chose to follow their interests. The children have also been on a colour walk this week inspired by looking at a lovely visual text called 'Nature's Colour Palette'. This is all feeding into our art work on colour mixing, painting and collage. We can't wait to share what we do with you! We have also been busy thinking about repeating patterns and have created many using natural objects, classroom toys and our own body percussion. W are so proud of all the children as this week also saw the start of learning our letter sounds. All the children have engaged well and your support at home has been really appreciated. Enjoy browsing a few photo's from the week and listening to the poem 'Falling Apples'.

wb 27th September

The children are now all fully into the routine of school and working and playing hard each and every single day. This week we have continued to learn a little more about owls. Some children chose to produce some amazing art work that can be seen in the photo's below. We have also started looking at the story The Gigantic Turnip. There is a link to a video of the story and some home learning challenges on our Google Classroom for October. Reading the story we have come across many new words and are becoming quite good at joining in with the repeated phrases throughout. We have also learnt a new poem this week, 'Chop Chop'. What do you think is being chopped and put into the bowl? Listen to the poem being performed below. At Peter Gladwin we place high importance on immersing the children in stories, songs and rhymes/poems and model and encourage speaking clearly and in full sentences. This all sets the foundations for success in learning. Have a great weekend and see you next week!

wb 20th September...

This week we have read the story Owl Babies and have started to become owl experts. We have learned that owls are predators and hunt for their food. They have excellent eye sight so they can see far away and are also nocturnal, meaning they are mostly awake during the night. We have also learned a poem called Wise Old Owl. Take a listen below to a group of children reciting the poem.

In maths we have been developing our subitising skills. This is where we look at a small number (1-6) of dots, buttons, objects etc and say the number without having to count. It’s something you can do at home and when you’re out and about and is an incredibly important mathematical skill for developing children’s number sense.

All children this week have also learned to colour mix and paint using the powder paints, danced with scarves for our daily Squiggle While We Wiggle session and most importantly enjoyed making new friendships.

wb 13th September...

Wow - we have had a fabulous first week getting to know one another! The children have been amazing at picking up the new routines very quickly and have settled so well. We have spent lots of time exploring the indoor and outdoor learning environment. Take a look at the photo slideshow below to see what we have been up to. We have built, performed, created, sung, moved, collaborated, investigated and so much more. We have also shared many stories about starting school and are working really hard on learning each others names as the basis for developing further friendships.

wb 6th September...

We have really enjoyed welcoming you all for your Stay and Play session and 1:1 meetings this week. It was wonderful to see the children start to explore their new classroom and interact with one another. This half term the theme of our learning journey is called 'Where are Story Begins'. We follow a curriculum very much led by nature and the seasons, festivals and celebrations and children's own interests. Interweaved into every single day we also immerse ourselves into high quality texts encouraging talk and the exploration of new vocabulary. Make sure you check our Reception page on this website each week to follow our learning journey.

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Useful information

Name
2021_Information_for_parents_reception_baseline_assessment.pdf	Download
EYFS framework changes Sept 21.pdf	Download
pps-ready-for-school-bklt_march2019_web-version.pdf	Download

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