Reception Class News 20/06/25 and 27/06/25

We've had a busy and brilliant couple of weeks in Reception, full of learning, laughter and lots of exciting new discoveries. We can't wait to share everything we've been up to!

In our Mathematical Development, we have continued exploring numerical patterns. We've been investigating odd and even numbers by looking at them in familiar contexts. We used objects and groups to decide whether a number was odd or even, and discovered that even numbers can be shared into equal groups, but odd numbers always leave one out! This week, we built on our shape learning by composing and decomposing shapes. We recognised that just like numbers, shapes can be made up of other shapes! We had a brilliant time using pattern blocks to make hexagons out of triangles, rhombuses and trapeziums, what clever shape builders we are!

In our Literacy Development, we have been enjoying our beautiful class story, The Storm Whale. Last week, we explored the characters and setting, and this week we planned and wrote our very own retelling of the story. We thought carefully about the beginning, the build-up, the problem and the ending. We tried really hard with our writing, well done everyone!

During PE in our Physical Development, we've been working with Coach Beth to learn a new skill, throwing and catching! We practiced using both hands and focused our eyes carefully on the ball. We're really improving with our coordination and teamwork.

In Understanding the World Development, we began our new Questful RE journey by exploring some of the stories that Jesus told. We started with a very exciting delivery from Clever Club, a mystery book all wrapped up! Inside was the story of The Good Samaritan. We read the story together and talked about who was a good neighbour and who wasn't a kind friend. We thought about how we treat others and how we can be good neighbours too. This week, we continued our journey with the story of The Lost Sheep. We reflected on what the story teaches us and started thinking deeply about our big question: Why did Jesus tell stories?

In Expressive Arts and Design Development, our music sessions have been full of fun and imagination! Last week, we listened to Flight of the Bumblebee by the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov. We imagined we were buzzing bees, zooming from flower to flower collecting nectar. We also listened to 'We Are Family' and tried to identify the instruments we could hear. Our singing voices were in fine form as we sang our current favourite song, Big Bear Funk! This week, we sailed into the world of sea shanties as part of our Rivers and Oceans theme. We loved singing and moving to the beat, and some of the songs even helped us practice our counting and odd and even numbers! We used prepositional language to follow actions, moving forwards, backwards and side to side. It was amazing to see how music, maths and storytelling all joined together.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we've been thinking about our transition into Year 1. Last week, we talked about what we'd like our new teacher to know about us, and this week we thought about what we would like to know about Year 1. We had lots of great questions! Do we still get choosing time? What does the garden look like? Will we still have playtimes? We had great conversations with our partners and shared our ideas together. Afterwards, we joined in with some movement songs to shake out our questions and get our bodies moving!

In Heartsmart, our lesson was called "When I Grow Up..." and our big message was that we can do anything if we work hard and don't give up. We had fun acting out different jobs using picture cards--some of us became doctors, teachers, vets and even builders! Our friends had to guess which job we were doing. We talked about the skills we'd need for different jobs and agreed that trying our best and practicing are the most important things. Boris reminded us: "You can do anything if you work hard and don't give up."

Bible Link: 'In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were working for the Lord, not for men.' – Colossians 3:23

What a brilliant couple of weeks we've had. We're growing, learning and shining every single day.

Have a lovely weekend!
Reception Class