Reception 2023 - 2024

Welcome to Reception Class 

We hope you enjoy seeing our fantastic learning in Reception 

Class Teacher Mrs Byrne-Brown

Teaching Assistant Mrs Aykut

19/4/24

This term we have started working with numbers beyond 10. We used two tens frames and counters to represent the numbers beyond 10. We had to fill the first ten frames with all the counters. Then we had to add one more or two more or three more counters to the second tens frame to made the numbers 11, 12 or 13.

28/3/24

After reading the story of the 'The Three Little Pigs', reception children got inspired to build houses using bricks and sand. We also used straws, sticks and bricks to build the three types of houses in the story. We explored what it was like for pigs to live in the farm. We enjoyed making a den and acting out scenes of the story and we even made a warning sign to keep safe from the wolf!

22/3/24

Reception class worked together as a team to convert our shed into a Garage. We are very excited with our new Garage and have enjoyed fixing our bikes and cars. 

Our next project is the investigation area and we had fun painting the pallet.

16/3/24

Reception children enjoyed taking part in science week. We joined Fiona in a live event to learn how she cares for sheep, cows, and pigs at each stage of their lives. We are all looking forward to our trip to the farm next term. 

We also learnt about the life cycle of a chicken and labelled the life cycle diagram using our phonetic knowledge.

13/3/24

Maths morning with parents.

We had a wonderful maths morning with our parents showing them our learning. We then played maths games with our parents. Thank you for coming to our maths lesson moms and dads.

8/3/24

World Book Day

We all dressed up as our favourite character from a book on world book day. We also took part in a whole School assembly to understand the importance of celebrating World Book Day.

1/3/24

This term in PE we are learning different types of ball skills. We are learning how to throw and catch a ball, bounce a ball while moving into space, demonstrating different ways of bouncing a ball and rolling and pushing a ball.

12/2/24

We used spring onions, carrots, frozen peas, soya sauce, vegetable oil to cook noodles to celebrate Chinese new year. We had to be very careful when grating the carrots and when cooking the food in the hot oil. After cooking, we enjoyed eating our noodles using chopsticks.

5/2/24

We had another fun PE session as we got the climbing equipment out. We had to test our strengths on the ropes, balance on the planks, climb up the equipment safely and climb back down again. We also had to jump off, bounce and roll over. It was another great PE session with our PE coach, Mrs Alcock.

2/2/24

Thank you for attending the phonics workshop for parents. Please do speak to Mrs Attridge or myself if you have any questions.

26/1/24

After reading the book, ‘Jack and the beanstalk’, we planted bean seeds. We learnt that plants need soil, water, sunlight and space to grow.

12/1/24

Happy New Year!

Our topic for this term is traditional tales and this week our focus book was 'The princess and the pea.' After reading the book, the children took some peas to the digging area and burried them in the soil to grow. We discussed how plants need water, sun and soil to grow. The children also make a bed for the princess using tissue papers to make the matresses and they put a pea under the matresses to check if she was a true princess.

15/12/23

It has been a busy week as we have been practising our Christmas nativity. We also made wonderful Christmas hats that we wore when having our Christmas lunch.

8/12/23

We had a great time getting the early year's evironment ready for Christmas. We helped Mrs Attridge set up Santa's grotto and we also made Santa's sleigh using the playground equipment. 

1/12/23

We have been working very nicely together to keep our outdoor area clean. There was some good sharing of equipment and team work.

17/11/23

The children enjoyed a wonderful maths morning session with parents as they took part in many activities that involved learning in maths. It was so wonderful to see so many parents turn up.

10/11/23

Reception children enjoyed their first PE session with their coach. They showed very good listening and followed the rules. They worked in teams and were very good in turn taking.

Please remember to come to School in your PE kit every Friday.

3/11/23

We have been enjoying performing music and dance on our new stage this week. Watch that space for many more performances to come.

20/10/23

The children identified what herbs they were planting by smelling them. They had to dig out the soil, plant the herbs and water them. They all took turns in planting and watering and discussed which was their favourite herb.

13/10/23

After reading the book, 'It's my Birthday' by Heln Oxenbury, the children baked cakes and decorated them. Then we had a class party and enjoyed our delicious cakes together.

6/10/23

This week we have been reading the book Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson. The children made nests for the owl babies and identified Diurnal and Nocturnal animals.

29/9/23

This week in Maths, we have been learning how to match, sort and compare different objects using different attributes like colour, shape and size. The children also enjoyed building interesting objects like musical instruments, robots, flower pots, etc, in our junk modelling area.

In phonics the new sounds we have learnt are g, o, c, k. 

22/9/23

This week we been reading the book, 'My mom and dad make me laugh' by Nick Sharratt. We have been discussing what makes us laugh and what our moms and dads do that we find very funny. 

We have also been looking at the different spotty and stripy patterns in our environment and have been designing our own patterns.

RECEPTION 2022 - 2023

Monday 3rd July - Friday 7th July: Under the Sea

This week the children have been learning about Under the Sea creatures. They have listened to lots of books linked to under the sea, learnt an under the sea dance, took part in under the sea yoga and engaged with some under the sea colouring and snap. The children have also been busy building construction models which they wanted you to see. Lastly, Duroni got a certificate in celebration assembly this week and sat through the whole assmbly next to his special friend Zainab in Year 6. 

Monday 19th June - Friday 30th June: Summer 

This week the children have been learning about the season Summer. They have been reading books relating to summer and completing various activities about Summer. Children have also had a go at writing items they would take to the beach. Here are some photos of their learning. 

Monday 12th June - Friday 16th June: Growing and Father's Day

This week the children have been learning about what a plant needs to grow. They listened to the story Oliver's Vegetables and also planted their own tomato seed. The children made sure their plant had soil, a tomato seed and some water. The children have learnt that their plants need to be watered every day to help it grow. The children have also learnt about Father's Day and have made their own card this week too. 

Monday 22nd May - Friday 26th May: Healthy Teeth

This week the children have been learning about keeping our teeth healthy. We looked at how to brush our teeth, how many times and how long to brush our teeth for. The children also learnt which foods are good and not good for our teeth. 

Monday 15th May - Friday 18th May: Mental Health Awareness Week

This week the children have been focusing on their wellbeing. They have been learning that it is okay to feel different things and that if we aren't feeling happy that we should talk to someone about it so that our worries get better. The children started the day doing a Joe Wicks workout and in PE they did some yoga. 

Tuesday 2nd May - Friday 12th May: Coronation Celebrations 

The children have been engaging in lots of activities which are linked to the King's Coronation. They prepared for a Coronation celebration with the whole school. The children making crowns and decorating biscuits. 

Tuesday 18th April - Friday 21st April: Growing 

This week the children were introduced to their new topic growing. The learning focused on the children learning about the human life cycle and how plants grow. Here are some pictures of their learning: 

March 20th - Friday 31st March: Easter 

Over the last couple of weeks the children have been learning about Easter. They have completed lots of different activities such as:

1. Pom Pom egg painting

2. Tissue paper bunny and egg collage activity

3. Easter bingo

4. Easter word hunt 

Here are some pictures of their fun learning. 

Tuesday 28th March RE DAY: Easter 

The children learnt about Easter, how it is celebrated and the symbols. The children also learnt about Passover which is a Jewish festival similar to Easter. They tried a hot cross bun and made the link with the cross on the hot cross bun. 

Monday 13th March - Friday 17th March: Science Week and Mother's Day

This week the children have been completing different science activities throughout the week. 

1. Wildlife faces - the children had to connect the animals faces together and spend particular attention of the shape of their face, colour of their eyes and skin and key features that the animal has. 

2. Happy smells - the children had pictures of different food items. One of each item was in a small pot which was covered in black paper and had pierced holes. The children had to use their sense of smell to guess what was inside the pot. 

3. Nature dectective - The children went outside to look for creepy crawlies and look at the sheet to see what they found. 

The children also used their cutting skills to make a plant picture. 

On Friday they learnt about Mother's Day. They wrote Mother's Day cards to take home and also spent some time making their own cards or colouring a picture for their mum during CIL. 

World Book Day

The children came dressed up in story characters. They spoke to their friends about what they were dressed up as and which story their character came from. The children too part in lots of different activities:

1. A book scavengar hunt

2. Choosing a favourite book and designing the front cover

3. Drawing pictures of themselves and their friends in the costumes they were wearing. 

The next day the chidlren drew of a picture of the character they dressed up as. They then treid to use their phonics to write the name of their character. 

Tuesday 21st February - Friday 24th February: National Yoga Day and Pancake Day

This week the children had a go at participating in Cosmic Kid Yoga. They also learnt about Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday and completed various activities based on this. As a treat, they all got to eat a pancake on Friday which they loved. 

RE DAY Thursday 9th Feb. We talked about the different groups we belong to and how we can tell what group someone belongs to because of the clothes they wear like our school uniform. We drew pictures to show what groups we belonged to and who in lives in our house. 

Monday 23rd January - Friday 27th January: Chinese New Year 

This week the children have been learning about the festival Chinese New Year. They have watched videos to develop their understanding. The children have also listened to the Chinese New Year story and learnt about all the animals in the story. They have also explored writing numbers and animal names in Chinese in coloured sand. The children have also watched the dragon dance and had a go at making their own dragons. 

Monday 16th January - Friday 20th January: People Who Help Us

This week the children have been focusing on People Who Help Us. They have been learning about different People Who Help Us and their jobs. The children have also learnt about the vets in particular, who goes to the vets and what happens when you visit the vets. The children have been watching videos to develop their understanding. The children have enjoyed their new role play area this week which is the vets. 

Monday 9th January - Friday 13th January: Small in the City

This week the children have been listening to the story Small in the City which is set in a city. Reception class have been learning about London this week. They have learnt about the key buildings in London. The children have recreated their London experiences using the London tuft tray which consisted of high rise buildings, key buildings found in london, the underground sign/tube map, traffic lights and lots of different vehicles. In Maths the children have been learning about repeating patterns. The children have also been beginning to use their phonic knowledge to write words which match the picture selected. 

Our Christmas Party!

Christmas: 12th December - 16th December

This week the children have been preparing for the Christmas fair. They have been busy making reindeer food and a christmas ornament for their christmas tree. The children have also been listening to christmas music and taking part in christmas maths. They have been busy decorating a christmas tree on the computer. The children have also been busy making a Christingle ready for the Christingle service and enjoyed Christmas dinner on Christmas jumper day. They have been busy making a christmas party hat to wear whilst having their Christmas dinner.

Christmas: 5th December - 9th December

This week the children have been learning about Christmas. They have been busy decorating the Christmas tree. Taking part in Christmas maths and learning about the season Winter through sensory play. 

Winter, Letters to Santa and RE DAY: 28th November - 1st December

This week the children started the week learning about Winter. We looked at the key features of winter, winter clothing and artic animals. We have also been busy writing our letters to Santa and then made a trip to the postbox to post the letters. Finally, we have been learning about two festivals 'Hanukkah' which is celebrated by Jews and 'Christmas and Christingle' which are celebrated by Christians. The children have learnt that both are festivals of light. 

Phonics: 

We would like to celebrate Reception class reading a sentence this week. They are getting better every day at reading during phonics lessons. Well done!

Our family: Monday 21st November - Friday 25th November

This week the children have been learning about their family. They have listened to a range of stories which relate to family. We have spoken about diverse families and names of family members. The children have also been busy drawing pictures of their family. Some children have also been busy recreating events from home in the home corner. 

Children in Need: Monday 14th November - Friday 18th November

This week the children have been learning about children in need. They listened to the story 'Pudsey Great fundraiser' and learnt about raising money for a charity. Reception class have been busy making and decorating pudsey bear biscuits to raise money for children in need. The children have also been busy colouring in pudsey bear bunting for the fundraising day, colouring in pudsey bears, adding pom poms to pudsey bandanna and counting bears. Here are some photos of their learning this week. 

Monday 7th November - Friday 11th November: Remembrance Day

This week the children have been learning about Remembrance Day. They have listened to the story 'Where the Poppies Now grow' and watched videos all this day. The children have also coloured in poppy wreaths, made poppies with playdough, designed their own medals which would have been given to the soldiers and created their own poppies. The children also took part in a minute silence on Friday at 11am with the rest of the school. Here are some photos of their learning this week. 

Monday 31st October - Friday 4th November

This week the children have had great fun learning about Halloween, Diwali and Bonfire Night. The children have taken part in lots of activities to support them to understand these celebrations. The children also listened to lots of stories which linked to these festivals.  The children designed pumpkins and dressed up for halloween. They created their own mendhi patterns, rangoli patterns, dressed up in traditional indian clothes and danced to some diwali music. Finally, they created their own firework paintings with paint and chalk for bonfire night. The children also watched lots of videos to learn about the festivals. 

Monday 17th - Friday 21st October: Black History Week 

This week the children have been looking at the actor Ira Aldridge and the country Madagascar. They have also learnt lots about black history by watching videos and taking part in lots of craft activities. The children have also read lots of stories linked to black history. The children have made bead necklaces using pasta and straw and also created their own aftican masks. The children also had a visitor from another child in the school to see the traditional clothes that are worn. The children have also learnt some afro beat dancing and created their own dance moves to the song from Madagascar called 'I like to move it move it'. Here are some pictures of their fun week. 

Monday 10th October - Friday 14th October 

This week the children took part in RE Day where they learnt about Harvest and a Jewish festival called Sukkot. The children learnt that during Sukkot Jews live in a Sukkah for 7 days and are thankful for the world God has provided for them. Reception class enjoyed colouring in a Sukkah and also making paper chains. The children have been looking at a book 'Amazing Africa'. They have listened to african music, explored african safari animals and also looked at african patterns used on traditional clothes. The children have also taken part in some african cutting. Here are some pictures of their learning. 

Monday 3rd October - Friday 7th October: Harvest week

This week the children have been learning all about Harvest. They have been taking part in fruit and vegetable printing, decorated a giant scarecrow using straw and bits of fabric and learnt the song lyrics and actions to the song 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow'. The children also learnt about what harvest is and how it is celebrated. On Friday they went to see the collection of food themselves and the rest of the school had collected. The children learnt that this food was going to be taken to the food bank. Here are some pictures and a video of them performing the song. 

Monday 26th September - Friday 30th September

This week the children have listened to the story 'Leaf Man'. They have learnt about the season Autumn. The children have also begun learning their phonic sounds. They have been busy identifying the initial sounds of the phonic sounds they have already learnt. Reception class have also started busy fingers which involves them completing activities to improve their fine moter skills e.g. cutting, writing and colouring. Here are some pictures of the fun learning the children have been doing this week. 

Reception class have been fun settling into school this week. They have been busy learning both inside and outside. Here are some pictures of the children having fun!

Archive Reception Page

Welcome To Reception Class!

We hope you enjoy exploring our fantastic learning in Reception.

Class Teacher: Mrs A Attridge

Teaching Assistant: Miss S Spears

Chicks!  

We have been watching our eggs hatch, we have 9 eggs and so far 7 of them have hatched. We watched one of the eggs hatch live on Thursday morning and we are stil waiting

for two more to hatch. The chicks are now going home with Mrs Attridge for the weekend. 

20/5/2022

Big Bear Funk Summer Term music

This Term we are listening and makin our own Funky Music with Bear Bear Funk!

Firework Fun! 

On Monday we had a lot of fun paining to Music. We listened to Music for Royal Fireworks and splattered the paint to match the music. 

Today we celebrated Diwali, We made Rangoli patterns, sculpted clay divas, had a Diwali feast of samosas, pakoras, and bhajis and then we learnt a diwali dance. Mrs Dhanjal from Year 3 came to talk to the children about how she celebrates Diwali at home. 

Today for RE Day we have been learning about the Christian Festival of Harvest. We have learnt about what food we collect at Harvest and what we could put in a healthy packed lunch. 

We have been reading the story of Roy and Silo the penguins who wanted an egg of thier own to raise. 

Welcome to Reception

Have a look at some of the great work we have been up to at school.

November 2020

Archive Reception 2019- 2020

1st June 2020

Hello Reception, hope you have all had a lovely half term break. It has been so nice to see all the work you have done on Purple Mash over the last few weeks. It has been lovely to read your sunflower diaries too!

Thank you Ayo for sending me some photos of your plant, it looks like you have been taking great care of it! Have a look at Ayo's photos!

Don't forget if you want to email me some photos please send them to reception@fourswannes.herts.sch.uk  

Weekly Sports Challenge:

We would like to set you & your families a weekly challenge whilst we are in this challanging situation.

Monday 4th May: This weeks challenge - How many squats can you do in 30 seconds? Send us your videos to cparcell@fourswannes.herts.sch.uk and we will announce the winners next week on the school websites lastest news. 

Daily Phonics Lessons

Hi Everyone, Good news from Monday you will be able to access a daily phonics lesson online. Starting on Monday April 27th 2020 the Government have made these available at different levels. Please see the letter below for more information. Thank you so much to those of you who have been busy working on Purple Mash its been lovely to see your work. Stay Safe, Mrs Attridge xx

Monday 20th April 2020

Hello Reception, hope you have all had a lovely Easter Holidays. I hope those of you who got sunflower seeds when school closed have planted them, I would love to see some pictures if you email them to me at reception@fourswannes.herts.sch.uk

This week we are moving on to phase 4 of our phonics work. Please watch the phase 4 videos on cvcc words on espresso. 

Purple Mash

I have also set some ToDo's on purple mash for the week. Please log on and complete by the end of the week.

Any questions please email me and I will get back to you as soon as I can as some days I am needed in school so I wont be able to answer straight away. 

Keep safe, hope to hear from you all soon 

Mrs Attridge, Miss Maria and Miss Spears xxx

Monday 30th March

This week I have set four tasks on the 2do list on Purple Mash. Please use your log in that was sent to you the other day. I will be able to see what tasks you have done.  Also if you go in to mini mash don't forget to save anything you do in your tray, just like when we are in school. I hope you are all keeping up with your reading on the oxford owl site.

Mrs Attridge 

Home Learning Suggestions.

Please visit www.phonicsplay.co.uk for daily practice of phonics.

As a class we have covered phase 2 and phase 3 so please revise these and use www.espresso,co.uk/login/Authn/UserPassword for phonic activities. 

Go over any sounds your child is unsure of and try and sound out and write words contained in the espresso videos. Use Twinkl for worksheets related to the sounds they do not know. 

Maths

Daily counting and ordering of numbers using espresso.

As a class we had recently started looking at money and coin values. Why not set up a home shop paying with pennies and some silver coins.

For topic we were going to start growing sunflowers, if you were in last Thursday I gave the children some sunflowers to grow. If you have any other seeds have a go at growing those instead.

Any questions please email me. 

Mrs Attridge

Author - Terry Willis Visit - 27th November 2019

Today the children were visited by the Author Terry Willis. She read lots books to the children that she had written.   Before Terry read each story, she showed a map on the white board to show the children what part of the world the story was set in.  We learnt lots of new words Savannah, Author, Inference, illustrator were  alldiscussed with the children.  Mrs willis left us with signed copies of all the books she had read to us. 

Children In Need Day

What a fun day we had in class to raise money for Children in Need. We retold our Pudsey story, designed Pudsey a new bandana and we even got to come to school in our own clothes!

Odd Sock Day

For Anti-Bullying Week we all wore our odd socks to school to show that it's ok to be different.

Remembrance Day 2019

To remember those who have died Reception made clay poppies.

EYFS TRIP TO PARADISE WILDLIFE PARK

Nursery and Reception had a wonderful time at Paradise Wildlife Park this week.

Sunflowers

This week our class received a letter from Tilly the gardener asking us to grow some Sunflowers. She left us a packet of Sunflower seeds and asked us to  see who could grow the tallest Sunflower.

Tennis Skills

This term we are learning tennis skills, we had great fun trying to use the tennis rackets!

People Who help Us

Reception Class had a visit from the big sister of one of our class who is a Emergency first dispatcher. She told us all her about her job and what she has to do! Emilyee and Mikayla answered lots of questions from the class. Thank you so much for coming in on your day off!