Somebody swallowed Stanley- drama workshop

The children in Reception have had a fantastic start to their animal topic this half-term by engaging in a drama workshop with an Under the Sea Theme. Each class attended the workshop with Dominique, who took them through an ocean exploration story. The children put on their scuba suits and dived into the ocean to find a range of creatures, including jellyfish, sharks, whales and dolphins. The children had to pretend to be silent, still jellyfish to trick the sea monster into giving back the precious ocean pearl. 

  

Emergency!- Making emergency vehicles

After listening to the rest of "Emergency!" by Margaret Mayo, the children in Reception designed and made their own emergency vehicles. The children chose their own vehicles to draw, thinking carefully about the shapes they needed to use to represent lights, wheels, doors and windows. As part of their writing focus activity, they labelled the important parts they wanted to include when making their vehicle. The children took their designs home and hunted for the best recyclable materials they could find to bring to school. On the last week of term, the children carefully selected the best resources to create bright lights, fire hoses and steering wheels and explored joining different materials together. They made some amazing vehicles!

  

  

 a doctor's visit

For the last two weeks, the children in Reception have been listening to the book "Emergency!" by Margaret Mayo. They have been fascinated by the range of emergency vehicles which help people across the world, including: a fire-fighting plane, a snow plough and a mountain rescue helicopter. The children were fantastic at comparing the vehicles and used their knowledge to draw and label their own emergency vehicles. They listened to the differences between paramedics and doctors and were incredibly lucky to have a doctor visit them! Before the visit, the children came up with questions to ask and during the visit they listened really carefully to how a doctor looks after people in hospital. Our doctor was amazing and explained how lots of our school values are used every day while they are at work. 

  

 

Trip to Palmers green library

The children in Reception had the opportunity to visit our local library this week and showed the values of responsibility, trust and respect during their trip. They listened carefully to the instructions given by their teachers and walked safely along the pavements and across the roads to get to the library. While they were there, the children listened to a story read by one of the librarians and chose their own books to bring back to the classroom. It was a great opportunity to walk through our local area and use this knowledge to create and draw our own maps of Palmers Green as well.

   

  

 

Naughty Bus- Past and present

The children started off the Spring Term by finding a very cheeky bus driving through some baked beans in their classrooms! They predicted where the bus might drive to next and drew some fantastic images to show off their predictions. The children listened to the story "Naughty Bus" by Jan and Jerry Oke and were quick to recognise that the bus from the story was a bus from the past. The children spent some of their carpet sessions comparing transport from the past and present and were fascinated to learn that horses and carriages were used before cars were invented. The children were great at talking about changes to fire engines, buses and trains over time. In the provision, the children explored some of the Victorian toys from our library at school and loved trying to catch the ball using the cups and balls.

  

my granny goes to market- story map

After listening to the story 'My Granny Goes to Market', the children in Reception worked together to create story maps to help them retell the story. The children were fantastic at remembering what items Granny bought in each country across the world. They have been practising using the language: once upon a time; then; next; after that and finally, to help them retell the story in order and have been putting actions to each part of the story as well. At the end of the week, they performed their retelling, which was recorded and put on Tapestry for parents to watch. Well done Reception!

 

 

Market Day!

The children in Reception had a special surprise when they came to school on Wednesday 4th December. They had their very own market set up in the playground! Each class had a visit to the market in the morning and each child was given a coin to buy something. They had to think very carefully about what item they would choose to buy. The children had a choice between: slime, playdough, comics, dolls, dinosaurs, transformers, fancy dress costumes or a snack pot. The children remembered to say 'please' and 'thank you' when asking the shopkeepers what they wanted to buy.

  

Poles apart- life in different countries

 Continuing the Antarctica theme this half-term, Reception began a new story this week called ‘Poles Apart’. They have followed the journey that the Pilchard-Brown penguins and Mr White (the polar bear) have taken around the world. During the carpet sessions, the children looked at similarities and differences between England and Australia and decided that they would prefer to live in England because there are fewer poisonous snakes! The children’s favourite part of the week was when they had to rescue the penguins trapped in the ice by trying to melt the ice. The children found that the environment was not warm enough for the ice to melt, so cracking and tapping it with hammers was a more efficient way of saving Peeky, Poots and Pog.

 

Lost and found- floating and sinking

This half term started with a huge surprise in the classroom! The children in Reception found a trail of snowflakes leading to a tiny penguin hiding under the umbrella in each classroom. They tried to guess where the penguin had come from and what it might be doing in Palmers Green. The children discovered that he had come from the story ‘Lost and Found’ and enjoyed listening to the story this week. During their writing focus, the children designed their own boats with extra special features including popcorn machines and slides and had opportunities to create their boats with junk modelling materials. The children explored which materials might float and sink in the water trays and used this knowledge to ensure their boats floated. 

  

forest school

Today the Reception classes met Julia who runs forest school. The children began the session by exploring the area and finding different leaves that had fallen from the trees. They sat back at base camp and created a huge autumn leaf soup by throwing the leaves into the pot and saying 'red yellow gold orange lovely autumn leaves'. The children then chose their favourite leaf and stuck on some eyes to make it into a leaf friend. The children named their leaves with lots of funny names. They listened to an autumn poem and did some autumn yoga, pretending to be a hedgehog, a squirrel, a tree, a blackbird and an autumn warrior. The children finished their session by listening to the story: The Leaf Thief.

  

  

 

 

Multicultural week

This week the children in Reception have learnt about different cultures and celebrated their own cultures during Multicultural week. During the carpet sessions, the children listened to the story 'We All Belong' and identified positive similarities and differences between themselves. They spoke about ways to show kindness and respect to everyone, regardless of whether they look the same or different. The children learnt about Albania and Greece and learnt how to say hello in different languages. They were great at sharing their own languages with the rest of the class! During free flow, the children had opportunities to draw themselves and create self-portraits using loose parts. The children created Golden Eagles from Albania and observed different famous places in Greece. The best part of our week was when the children drew and coloured their own flags to represent their own cultures. 

  

  

 

fruit kebabs

As part of our Maths learning this half-term, the children in Reception made their own fantastic fruit kebabs. The children created their own AB or ABC patterns using different coloured fruits, but the best part was eating them, of course!

  

  

 

Three billy goats gruff- building a bridge

This week the children in Reception created their first story map to help them retell the story of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. The children came up with their own actions to retell the story from beginning to end and performed the story to their parents on Tapestry. The children have also explored making bridges in different ways, using Duplo, Lego and wooden blocks.

  

 

 

A dress with pockets- clothes from the past

Reception’s new focus book ‘A Dress with Pockets’ has really captured the children’s attention this week. They have enjoyed learning new vocabulary like puffy, polka-dot, swirly and swishy and using these new words to draw their own dresses for the character Lucy, who just wants a dress with pockets. The children spoke confidently about their own favourite clothes and compared their everyday uniforms to their fancy special occasion outfits. In their carpet sessions, the children compared clothes from the past and present and were shocked to find out that girls could only wear dresses or skirts for a period of time!

   

Colour Monster goes to school- talking about our feelings

  The children in Reception have been listening to the story ‘The Colour Monster Goes to School’ this week. They have been identifying how the colour monster feels at different points in the day and how they have been feeling as themselves as they settle into their new classes. They have been learning different calming techniques for when they feel sad (5 finger breathing) or angry (stomping ten times) and have been practising these during free-flow. The children also drew their own happiness jars and filled their hearts with all the things that they love.

    

First week!

The children in Reception have had a fantastic first week back. They have explored the indoor and outdoor environments independently and have enjoyed making new friends. The children began learning a new nursery rhyme, 'Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?' to help them remember the names of their new friends. They have been listening to the story 'The Kissing Hand' which is about a raccoon who starts school for the first time. The children were able to identify some similarities and differences between their own feelings and the raccoon's. They are really looking forward to next week when they can stay and play all day.