Appley Bridge All Saints'

 

Welcome to Reception Class.  During the Spring and Summer terms, Mrs Green, Mrs Brannon, Mrs Stretton, Miss Hooper, and Mr Hunter will be working in our Reception Class and are all looking forward to the exciting year ahead.  Please feel free to speak to one of us after school if you have any questions or concerns or if you would like to discuss the curriculum content further.

Spring 1

This half term in Reception Class, we have had heaps of fun and learned about lots of different things.  Here are a few of the things we have been up to.

We read books and watched a video to find out about the Chinese New Year then we all made a folded dragon and learned to write our initials in Chinese.  We made a huge dragon from fabric and a cardboard box and painted it brightly. We also found that we had some great sewers in class as we stitched it together. We showed our dragon off to our mummies and daddies, grandmas and grandads at open session when we danced it around the playground and made lots of noise using musical instruments.

In RE, we have been listening to the stories Jesus heard when he was a boy and the stories he told to his followers, and we have talked about how the Bible has two parts - the old and new testaments.  The children have loved dressing up and role playing the stories of Daniel in the Lions’ Den, Moses in the Bulrushes and Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours.  After that, we wrote prayers to say thank you to God for helping us when we are frightened and we planted seeds in pebbles and in good soil after reading the story of The Sower. 

One afternoon, we had a special visitor – Nurse Jones - who helped us learn all about keeping ourselves healthy.  The children thoroughly enjoyed washing the glitter (germs) off their hands with soap and water and learning that, to make sure they have washed them for long enough, they can sing Happy Birthday whilst doing it.  They were able to listen to their hearts before and after jumping up and down to hear how much faster their hearts beat after exercise and we learned about eating rainbow foods to keep us healthy.  Later on we made vegetable soup from a rainbow of vegetables and fruit smoothies from a rainbow of fruits.  Both were yummy and we made pictograms showing which were our favourites  –  banana smoothie won by far!

Of course, we cannot forget Supertato and the Evil Pea.  What fun we had, at school and at home, after reading this story! 

Have a look at these photos of some of our activities.

Festivals and Celebrations

The last few weeks have been a very busy time in Reception, learning all about festivals and celebrations.  First, we learned about Guy Fawkes, fireworks and bonfire night and we made some very sparkly firework pictures!   We then found out about Diwali - the festival of light celebrated by Hindus all around the world.  We made rangoli patterns in different ways and enjoyed listening to the story of Rama and Sita and the demon god, Ravana. The children loved dressing up and taking on the characters whilst re-telling the story.  We mixed salt dough and made and decorated diva lamps which looked beautiful when we lit them in the dark.  We moved onto learning about the Jewish festival of light – Hannukah – and made menorah pictures with our hand prints. 

After talking about where light comes from, we made a dark den and had great fun using torches to make shadow puppets.   The children wanted to know about planets and so we found out some planet names and made our own planets from paper mache.  Of course, we then had to make a rocket and the children had lots of fun sitting in it pretending to be astronauts landing on various planets and having some amazing adventures.

In the meantime, we have completed phase 2 phonics and moved onto phase 3 and we have read lots of lovely stories including The Gingerbread Man, Edward Built a Rocket Ship, Rama and Sita, Wow! Said the Owl, and many more. In maths we have found 1 more and 1 less; used 2d shapes to make patterns and pictures; used balance scales to talk about heavier and lighter; compared lengths, widths and heights and used non-standard units to measure some of them.

Now we have just begun to learn about the Nativity and the story of Christmas.  We have already found out that the most important thing to remember at Christmas is that it is an exciting celebration of Jesus’ birthday.

First Week

We welcomed 11 children on Tuesday and then all 25 were in class on Wednesday.  The children have all  been doing a super job of  getting used to their new surroundings and routines, and have had fun exploring the different areas both in their new classroom and outside.  Here are some  photos from the first week – we're sure you'll enjoy looking at them.

A Guide for Parents- Mathematics Facts for Children to Learn in EYFS/KS1

Early Years Foundation Stage Framework

This is the statutory framework which outlines what children must be taught in the EYFS.

Phonics Scheme

We use the 'Letters and Sounds' scheme of work to teach phonics.

Articulation of Phonemes Video

A short video for parents showing the correct pronunciation of all phonemes taught in the 'Letters and Sounds' scheme.

Finch Lane, Wigan, Lancashire WN6 9DT

01257 252647

bursar@appleybridgeallsaints.lancs.sch.uk