Reception Class News 07/ 11/ 25

Welcome back, Reception Class, to an exciting new term!
We have started this term full of enthusiasm as we explore our new learning theme: Festivals and Celebrations!
What a wonderful week it has been as we have learned, created, and shared together.

Understanding the World Development: We began by learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Together, we discovered that the word "Diwali" means a row of lighted lamps. We listened to the story of Rama and Sita and learned why lighting lamps is such an important part of this celebration. Exploring a variety of Hindu artefacts helped us to deepen our understanding, and we completed our Questful RE map on 'Why Hindus light candles at Diwali.'

As this Sunday is Remembrance Sunday, we explored why we wear poppies today and their significance of hope and new beginnings after the war. We will observe a two minutes silence at 11 o'clock on Tuesday as part of our remembrance of all those people who served and those serving now.

Expressive Arts and Design Development: We had lots of fun creating beautiful Rangoli patterns using paint, chalk, and pencils. These designs are often made to welcome good luck and happiness. We also crafted Diva lamps out of salt dough, painting them in bright colours and adding tea lights to bring warmth and light into our classroom, just as people do during Diwali. To add to the festive atmosphere, we created firework pictures by blowing paint across the paper and adding glitter, reflecting how fireworks light up the sky during Diwali celebrations.

In music, we began exploring songs that tell stories. We listened to Alabama by Bellowhead , a new song for us, but we loved its upbeat rhythm and lively storytelling. We identified instruments such as drums, violin, guitar, and voices. We joined in by clapping and stamping the beat and also sang along to I’m a Little Teapot with big smiles and fun actions!

Physical Development: In PE with Mr J, we began our session with a warm-up game called 'Working on the Farm.' Moving around as bunnies and dogs, we practiced being aware of space and of each other. We then played Stuck in the Mud and Catch the Dog’s Tail , both fast, fun games that had us moving, laughing, and working as a team.

Mathematical Development: This week, our focus was on counting and cardinality, counting and ordering numbers to 10. We sang lots of counting songs, matched sets of objects from 5 to 10, and ordered numeral cards carefully. We also began to reason with numbers in the 1–10 range, showing just how confident we are becoming with number work.

Literacy Development and Language & Communication: We immersed ourselves in our new story, Star in the Jar. We began by identifying different objects and predicting what the story might be about, some of us cleverly guessed it was about collecting objects! After listening to the story, we explored new vocabulary and compared it with a similar story, discussing similarities in characters and the plot. We practiced sentence accuracy by using capital letters, finger spaces, neat letter formation, and full stops. We're so proud of the fantastic, independent sentences we wrote!

Personal, Social, and Emotional Development: In our first well-being session of the term, we shared our favourite activities, such as drawing, playing with friends and family, crafting, and bike riding. We practiced being great listeners, making sure to look and listen as each person shared. For our well-being activity, we each chose a calming color – green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and gold were popular choices. We then practiced deep breathing while imagining our bodies filling with our calming color, helping us feel relaxed and peaceful.

What a wonderful start to the new term, Reception Class!
You’ve all shown such curiosity, kindness, and creativity in exploring our theme of Festivals and Celebrations.
Keep shining your light brightly as we continue our learning journey together!