Reception

Settling

The children have done so well with getting used to their new school routine. We always expect, that after the first few days, there can be a couple of tears as they realize that they have to come to school everyday, but they soon begin to see how much fun there is to be had. 

This week they've been exploring their new indoor and outdoor environments; engaging with playdough, farmyard animals, construction, jigsaws and colouring. 

Class of 2024-2025

Welcome back to the new school year. We're so excited to see you all, and can't wait to get started. 

For the first week, we have two teacher training days and are then completing home visits and consultations so we can meet all of our parents and children before they start school. 

Our start dates are:

Monday 8th September - children new to Anglesey - 8:45am-11:30am (no lunch)

Tuesday 9th September - all children - 8:45am-12:30pm (lunch provided)

Wednesday 10th September - all children - 8:45am-3:15pm (lunch provided)

Important to know:

• Please make sure your child comes to school in the correct school uniform. If they are in incorrect school uniform, you will have to take them home to get them changed. 
• At the end of the day, you MUST be on time to pick your child up. The gate to school will open at 3:05pm, and the children will be dismissed at 3:15pm. If you are late, you will need to collect them from the school office. 
• Attendance is VERY important. Any missed days equal missed learning, which they will need to catch up on. 
• Children will need a red school PE bag filled with spare clothes, that will stay on their peg at school. 
• Children will need to bring their bookbag to school every day. Please read with them every evening. 
• Children will need to bring a water bottle to school every day, clearly labelled, and only filled with water. 
• PLEASE label ALL school uniform. 

We will upload to Tapestry a couple of times a term, but most of our learning will be uploaded to this class page once a week. 

Our timetables are linked below. 

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Handa's Surprise Fruit Tasting

As we have been reading Handa's Surprise for our literacy story this week and we will be making fruit pizzas in DT... we have been tasting the different fruits and using our senses to describe them. 

We tried: mango, orange, tangerine, banana, avocado, pineapple, passionfruit and guava. 

Welcome Back!!

Welcome back everyone for the very last half term of our Reception year. 

This half term we will be tasting different fruit as we read Handa's Surprise, making Fathers Day cards, taking part in sports day and transitioning to year one. 

We can't wait to see what the children get up to as they get ready for year one. 

End of Summer 1

Wow, what a busy term it has been, with our Ofsted report coming in, the trip to Hatton farm, building fire in forest school and starting our PE lessons with gymnastics. We've had the best half term, and the children have made so much progress, we couldn't be prouder. 

Have a lovely week off and we will see you all soon for the last half term of the year. 

Forest School - Fire Building

This half term, we've learnt all about the fire triangle and how a fire needs heat, fuel and oxygen. 

We toasted marshmallows on the fire and finished our session with hot chocolate and a biscuit. 

Hatton Farm

We had a wonderful day at Hatton Farm, learning all about the animals that live there and what they need to survive. 

Eid Party 

We had such a lot of fun for our Eid party last week. Thank you so much for donating food for the party, with the left overs now being donated to the local foodbank. 

We hope you had a wonderful Eid with your families. 

Welcome Back!!

We cannot believe we're already in the Summer term... it feels like the children only started with us 5 minutes ago.

This term is super exciting, a lot of our curriculum is centered around visiting the farm and transport. We will also be starting formal PE lessons this term, to support our children in their transition to year one. 

We can't wait to see what they get up to. 

 Circus Skills 

To practise our gross motor skills, Flip the clown came to school to teach us all about circus skills. We explored balancing on a see-saw, juggling scarves, spinning plates and rolling a diablo. 

Bridges

In our DT lessons this half term, we have been learning all about bridges. We know that there are many different types, for many different reasons and they have two different types of foundation. This week, we built our own bridges for our animal to cross the river. 

World Book Day

For World Book Day, the author Saviour Pirotta came in to school to read some stories to the children. 

They were absolutely enthralled, and joined in with the repeated refrains with such enthusiasm. 

Ducklings

We had five duckling eggs delivered last week, which we kept nice and warm in their incubator and waited patiently (some of us) until they hatched. We were thrilled to find four had hatched overnight, and quickly moved them to the cage. Over the last week we've loved learning about the lifecycle of a duckling whilst watching it in real life. We've taken such good care of them, and had some fun watching them swim for the first time, especially as they were very naughty and kept splashing us!

Science Day

For Science Day, we decided to incorporate a range of our focuses this week. We are reading The Odd Egg in Literacy, we are singing Humpty Dumpty at the end of each day and our have also had our duckling eggs delivered, where we are learning about their lifecycle and how to take care of them in Science. 

For our science experiment, we took 4 eggs and placed each one in a sandwich bag. One sandwich bag was left empty, with only the egg inside. The second had some loose bits of cotton wool in there too. The third, the egg was wrapped tightly in cling film. The fourth, the egg was wrapped in bubble wrap. 

We predicted which of the eggs might break, and then the children dropped them from a height. 

We found that the cling film protected the egg the best, as it was wrapped so tightly around the egg, it absorbed the shock from the ground. 

Forest School - Bird Feeders

For our forest school sessions during this half term, we have been using our fine motor skills to make bird feeders to attract the birds back to our garden, now that Spring is finally on it's way. 

We threaded cheerios on to string, or pipe cleaners, racing to see which pair could thread the most. We then tied them to a tree and checked back in the afternoon to see if the birds had eaten them. 

We, of course, finished our forest school session with a cup of hot chocolate and a biscuit to warm up. 

Join us for a Pyjama Party for World Book Day

Chinese New Year

With Chinese New Year just around the corner, Reception have been learning all about how it is celebrated. We have been creating Chinese decorations like paper chains and lanterns, making money envelopes and role playing as if we had our own Chinese take away. 

Falconry

This week, Jason from Falconry UK came to visit us with some different birds of prey. We learnt all about the different features of a bird as we are reading the story Owl Babies this week. 

Litter Picking

We have been learning about woodland environments this half term, so this week we have been litter picking around our school to make it a tidier place, and safer for the wildlife around here. 

Sutton Park

We have been reading the story The Gruffalo, and discussing using our senses to describe a woodland. We have also been learning about the types of animals that live in a woodland and which ones hibernate, the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees and how litter may affect this environment. 

We took a trip to Sutton Park where we explored the woodland on a very frosty day, with the sun shining. We collected natural resources to make a transient art picture, warmed up with some hot chocolate, went on a Gruffalo hunt and had a picnic. 

We had the BEST day!! 

Spring Term Plan

Please click below for information on what we will be teaching this term in Reception

Welcome Back for Spring Term

Hi everybody, 

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas break, and a Happy New Year to you. 

We have such an exciting half term coming up, with a trip to Sutton Park to use our senses to explore the woodland and hunt out a Gruffalo. We also have a visit planned from Falconry UK to learn about different birds of prey to tie in with one of our Write Stuff texts - Owl Babies. 

In History we will be learning about the invention of the phone, in Geography we will be learning about the four seasons and the weather and in RE we will be exploring traditions around the world. 

We can't wait to see what the children get up to. 

Thank you!!

What a fabulous half term the children have had. They've worked so hard and had so many different experiences. 

We hope you have a lovely festive break and will see you in the new year 

Little Angel Gets Her Wings

The children were AMAZING in their performance of 'Little Angel Gets Her Wings'. They've gained such a lot of confidence learning the songs, dances and lines. 

Thank you for coming to see them perform :). 

Christmas Parent Workshop

Thank you to the parents for coming to the Christmas workshop to work with your child to create their Christmas party hat. The children had such a wonderful time. 

Our Nativity

Our performance of ''Little Angel Gets Her Wings'' will be on Tuesday 19th December at 2pm. Only 2 guests are allowed per child, due to the space available in our hall. 

Parent Workshop - Christmas 

Please don't forget that we will be running our annual parent christmas workshop on Thursday 14th December. You should have had a letter to tell you if you will to attend the 12:45pm or 2:00pm workshop. 

Gingerbread Men Making

As we have been reading The Gingerbread Man in The Write Stuff sessions, this week we made Gingerbread Men so we could use our senses to describe how the smell, look and taste. 

Christmas Tree Decorating

In Reception, we are so excited that Christmas is finally here, so we decorated our Christmas trees ready for the festive period. 

Forest School: Christmas

In our forest school sessions this half term we have been making Christmas wreaths. We learnt that Christians usually decorate their front door with a Christmas wreath in December. We used our fine motor skills to manipulate the wires of artificial fir leaves, bows, acorns and berries. We also added string to dried oranges and cinnamon sticks. 

The children loved finishing their forest school session with hot chocolate and shortbread biscuits. 

Design Technology : Bookmarks 

For our DT block of learning we have been exploring the skills needed to make our own bookmarks. Firstly, we explored existing bookmarks, learning what the purpose of them is and the different materials they are made from. We then practiced sewing in and out using binca so we would be able to sew a border on our final pieces, and drawing around templates and cutting out the shapes. We designed our bookmarks, thinking about what we would like to add to our bookmark to decorate it, and made them with some support from our teachers. We finally evaluated our final piece and thought about what we liked and what we would change if we did it again.  

States of Matter

In Science this half term we have been learning about solids, liquids and gases and how they change if we add heat or make things cold. 

We held chocolate in our hands and used our body heat to explore what would happen, predicting that the chocolate would melt and be runny. The following week we melted chocolate and predicted what may happen if we put it back in the fridge. We were shocked to learn that it doesn't return to the shape it originally was. 

Children in Need

This week we dressed in spots for Children in Need and participated in Pudsey related activities.

Happy Diwali

We have been learning all about Diwali; who celebrates it and how it is celebrated. We have been using clay and learning how to mould, manipulate and pinch to create diva lamps. 

Charlie the Tortoise

We read the book ''The Hug'' this week and the poor tortoise couldn't find anybody to give him a hug because of his hard shell. Mrs Rose kindly brought in her tortoise Charlie for us to explore the feeling of his shell. 

Autumn 2

Welcome back for Autumn 2. We have a very busy term planned, where we will be learning all about hibernation, people who help us in the community, Diwali, Day of the Dead and Christmas. We will also be starting our Design Technology unit where we will be making our own bookmarks. 

We can't wait to see what the children get up to, and how they begin to build on knowledge and skills they've already learnt. 

End of Term 

Wow, what a fun half term we have had. The children have now settled into their new environments and daily routines. We've explored maps of Lozells in Geography, Black History Month in History and Autumn in Science. We've been learning how to read and write and have been practicing our phonics every day, whilst exploring pattern, numbers 1, 2 and 3, and matching and sorting in Maths. In RE and PSHE we've discussed sharing an honesty, whilst also exploring Islam, Christianity and Sikhism.

Thank you, as always, for your support. 

We can't wait to see what the children get up to next half term. 

Black History Month

October is Black History Month, so we have been learning all about the differences in the past compared to now, with how people of colour were treated. 

We've learnt about famous icons of Black History, including Martin Luther King, where we listened to his speech and discussed how his dream was for equality and fairness. We each printed our hands, matching the paint to our skin colour and our teachers wrote our dreams for the future on them. 

Maps and Our Local Community

This half term we have been exploring the features of our local community looking at photos, but also exploring aerial view maps and ordinance maps. 

Reading Parent Workshop

Thank you to the parents who came to our reading workshop. Reading with your child at home really benefits them, and supports their love for reading, phonics and writing too. 

Autumn

Over the last few weeks, we have been out in our garden exploring how the season of Autumn is bringing changes to our garden. We observed the leaves falling off the trees, and searched for items that represent Autumn such as conkers and pine cones. We took the iPads outside, and took photos of our trees so we can look back at how they have changed in Spring. 

Induction Presentation

If you were unable to make the induction workshop for parents on Wednesday 20th September, please see the slideshow below.

Our Year Overview

Please see below for the overview of the curriculum for the year. 

Autumn 1

This half term is all about the children settling into their new classes with their new teachers and new environments. We spend the first few weeks learning about the class expectations, becoming familiar with the areas in the classroom, the dinner hall and the garden, and beginning our Literacy, Phonics and Maths sessions. 

Your children will begin to receive their library books which are changed every Monday, and their guided reading books which are changed on a Monday for RMc and RP, and Tuesday for RS. There are upcoming phonics and reading workshops for parents, to support you in supporting your children. 

Please see the curriculum overview above to see what we will be up to this year. 

2023-2024

Meet The Reception Team

Meet the team:

Class Teachers

Mrs McCoy - RMc & Year Leader

Mr Pendry - RP

Miss Spilsbury - RS

Teaching Assistants

Mrs Satnam

Mrs Gurdev

Mr Hussain

SEND Support Teaching Assistants

Mrs Chowdhury

Miss Ayres

See what we did last year!

Sports Day

We had the best time participating in Sports Day. We competed in a relay race, egg and spoon race, hurdle race, beanbag race amongst many others. Luckily the weather just held out for us!

Welcome Back

Welcome back for our final half term of the year. The sun is finally shining and we're going to try and enjoy it as much as possible. This half term we will be learning all about Father's Day, how the Earth has changed over time, shadows and reflections and we will be looking at aerial view maps of our community. We will also be participating in Sports Day, transition to our new class to meet our new year and get ready for year one. 

The children have made so much progress this year and we are so proud of them. We can't wait to see how they do in their final half term with us before they move to year one. 

As always, thank you for your continued support. 

Hatton Farm

Wow, what a trip!! We had the best time at Hatton Farm this week, comparing town and country and observing the animals. It was so much fun! We got to ride on a tractor, feed the goats, stroke a lizard, snake and rabbit, play on the funfair and hold a guinea pig. 

Pond Dipping

As we have been reading Tadpole's Promise this week, we took a trip to the pond at the KS2 garden and went fishing for tadpoles, observed the wildlife in the environment and tried to find a frog. 

Caterpillars to Butterflies

We have been revisiting life-cycles this week as we have been reading Tadpole's Promise. We had a delivery of our very own caterpillars and have watched them grow until they were huge, and each one turned into a chrysalis. After a week, they hatched into beautiful butterflies and we released them into our garden. 

The King's Coronation

To celebrate the King's Coronation, most of our class activities were linked to the Royal Family this week. We learnt all about what will happen during the Coronation, who will attend the special event and why it is celebrated.

Planting

This week our story was 'The Extraordinary Gardener', all about a young boy and how he turned his high rise block of flats into a colourful garden oasis. 

We learnt about what plants needed to grow, drawing on some of our prior knowledge from Nursery. Each of us added soil to a cup, dug a well, added cress seeds and covered with more soil before watering. We knew that we had to ensure our plants got some sunlight, and we would need to water them every few days. 

Circus Skills

Lucky us - Flip came back to visit us and this time he did a circus skills workshop. We first of all watched a show altogether in the hall, before we to have a go ourselves. We juggled scarves, spun plates, tried out the diablo and the balancing bike. It was SO much fun. 

Eid Mubarak

We hope everyone had the best Eid and enjoyed their celebrations. To celebrate at school we had an Eid party and the cooks in the dining hall made us a special Eid lunch. We played some games and danced to some Bhangra music. 

Porridge Making 

Our story of the week was Goldilocks so to step into her shoes this week, we made and tasted porridge. We weighed out oats, measured milk and added them to pan so they could cook. Once cooked, we added golden syrup to make it sweet. 

Some of us loved the porridge and said it was ''tasty and delicious'' but some of us thought it tasted ''disgusting''.

Welcome Back!

We hope you all had a fantastic Easter break and enjoyed some time off from school. I can't quite believe we're starting our last term of the year with you all... time is certainly flying. 

We have so much to look forward to this term... warmer weather for a start!! Flip the clown will make another visit for a circus skills workshop, we will take a trip to the KS2 pond and to Hatton Farm, we'll celebrate Eid and the coronation of King Charles amongst many other things. 

Please remember our times have changed slightly:

8:50am doors open / 8:55am doors close

3:05pm children finish in Reception / 3:15pm children will be taken to the main office and marked as late to be picked up

Happy Half Term

Wow!! What a busy half term - from snow, to raising ducklings, to Easter Egg hunts - we have absolutely had the best time. 

We've learnt all about where we live on a map, how our houses look different to others around the world, what Muslims do to observe Ramadan, what Christians do to observe Shrove Tuesday, Lent and Easter, the lifecycle of a duckling, how we appreciate our Mothers, what police officers do in our community and so much more. 

Thank you as always four your continued to support. Stay safe and have a lovely break. 

Easter Egg Hunt

To finish a very busy half term, the Easter bunny visited us and left us some special treats in our garden. We had the best time searching for our chocolate eggs :).

Easter Craft Workshop

Thank you to those of you who came into school to participate in the Easter craft workshop with your child. It was lovely to see you all working together to collage your egg. We know the children had the best time!!

Ramadan and Pancake Making

This week we have been learning all about Ramadan and how it compares to Lent. Usually before Lent, Christians observe Shrove Tuesday where they use what is left in their cupboards and make pancakes with different sweet and savoury toppings. We decided not to make pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, and waited, so we could discuss the similarities and differences between the observations and celebrations of Lent and Ramadan, and Eid and Easter. 

Handa's Surprise

This week we have been reading Handa's Surprise and learning all about the fruits that are common in Africa. We got to taste the 8 different fruits that feature in the story - banana, orange, tangerine, mango, pineapple, guava, passionfruit and avocado, and explore them using our feeling and smelling senses. 

Throughout the week we learnt a little about Africa - we listened to African music, made African necklaces and looked at pictures of the types of villages in Africa.

From Egg to Duckling

This half term we were lucky enough to have some duck eggs delivered to school in an incubator. We kept them warm and eventually 2 hatched out. Unfortunately, due to the snow school was closed whilst the other 2 ducklings hatched and Mr Doddridge had to take them home for the weekend and move them into their new cage. They spent time growing and getting stronger under their brooder before they were old enough for us to hold them and watch them swim. 

Usually, our ducklings go back to the farm and enter back into the breeding programmme but luckily for us this year, Miss Freeman has decided to keep them.

Maps and Houses

This week we have been looking at maps to try and find out where we live. We have explored the map of the UK and found England, then Birmingham and then Lozells. We made our own maps, and drew our route to school. 

World Book Day

We had so much fun for World Book Day. We are reading the book The Odd Egg next week, ready for the arrival of our duckling eggs. For World Book Day, we dressed up as anything that hatches out of an egg. There were some wonderful costumes of chicks, dinosaurs, butterflies and frogs. Super work everyone!

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school for the second half of the Spring Term. We are officially half way through the school year now, and we have SO much to look forward to this half term. We have our duckling eggs being delivered so we can hatch them and have some ducklings to look after, World Book Day and we will celebrate Mother’s Day, Ramadan and Easter.

The children will continue to recap Step 2 & 3 of their Phonics, before they move on to Step 4 in the summer term, they will begin writing sentences much more independently in Literacy, and we will be looking at manipulating numbers to understand the composition, etc in Maths.

As always, we thank you for your continued support 😊

Charlie the Tortoise comes to visit

For Valentine’s Day, we were reading the book ‘The Hug’ for our Literacy text. We had to use the touching lens and think about what the shell of a tortoise may feel like. Luckily, Mrs Rose was ever so kind, to bring in her 10-year-old tortoise Charlie, and the two baby tortoises (we named them Frankie and Bobbie as they don’t actually have names yet, and you can’t tell if a tortoise is a boy or girl until they are 7, so they needed unisex names). We all got to hold the tortoises, and feed them some lettuce. We thought their claws felt spikey, but their shell felt smooth and bumpy.

Forest School – Bug Hotel

This half term, we worked really hard as a year group to create a bug hotel for the bugs in our garden to have a safe space, and to hide away from the birds.

The first group lifted and carried the pallets, placing bricks carefully between each layer to build the structure. The second group used larger fire wood, and smaller pieces of kindling to stack along the bottom layer to create a nice cosy area for the bugs who like to live on the ground like worms. The third group used a Stanley knife to cut plastic bottles in half before filling them with leaves and twigs. The fourth group used a hacksaw to cut bamboo sticks to size, and they then slotted those in. The fifth group added tiles and some pre-cut bamboo sticks. Finally, the sixth group planted some pansies to place on top of the bug hotel to try and entice some creatures to move in.

As always, we finished our forest school sessions with a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and a biscuit.

Sutton Park

We had such a wonderful time on our trip to Sutton Park last week. We explored the dense woodland, using our senses to look at and collect the natural resources we found on the floor so we could make a transient art picture. There were so many cool pictures including robots, flowers, volcanoes, bonfires, faces and characters from the Gruffalo. We continued on a walk through the woodland, hunting for a Gruffalo and we even found an underground cave where a fox may live. Some of us spent time wading in the cool stream, before we enjoyed a picnic and some time to play games.

Sutton Park Trip Info

Please click the document below to find the Sutton Park trip information from the meeting on Wednesday 25th January. 

You will need to have paid for the trip by the evening of Friday 27th January. 

Puppet Workshop

We had the BEST time this week when Flip the clown came to visit us and brought all of his puppet friends. We watched a very funny puppet show and met some Flip's favourite puppets before taking part in a workshop where we learnt how to make the puppets talk, say yes and no, and show different emotions. 

Ice Investigation

This week we participated in a science investigation where we were looking at the quickest way to melt ice. We pretended that we needed to free the food for the owls to eat, like in our story. We had 4 different methods - using water, hammers, insulating materials and salt. We predicted that the water would be the quickest method, and learnt that we were in fact, correct. 

Owl Week

This week we have been learning all about owls as our story of the week was ''Owl Babies'. We were lucky enough to have a visit from Jason from Falconry UK who brought his wonderful birds with him. He brought 2 owls called Bailey and Brooklyn, a pygmy falcon called Rocco and kookaburra called Blue. He told us lots of facts about owls - they can see up to a mile away, they eat worms, mice and insects, their feet are called talons and they have feathers on their head that look like ears but they are there to scare other animals. 

We really did have the best time!!

Happy New Year!!

We hope you had a lovely break and rested your brains (but not too much!!). 

We have a really exciting half term coming up, with lots of fun things happening:

• A visit to Sutton Park.
• A visit from the Falconry Team with owls and other exotic birds. 
• Flip the clown will visit with his puppet show.
• Learning about dental hygiene. 
• Investigating ice, and how to best melt it. 
• Making salt dough hearts. 

We can't wait to see what the children get up to, and the progress they make. 

Happy Holidays!!

What a fantastic but very busy half term. We've got up to so much, and this week we're fully embracing Christmas. We have our Nativity performance, a phonecall from Santa, a visit from Santa and our Christmas Party. We'll also be making Christmas Cards and New Year calendars for the children to bring home. 

Don't forget that on Wednesday we will be closing at 2pm to get ready for our Christmas Fair. We will then reopen in the Junior Building at 3:30pm, so we hope to see you there.

We will be finishing school on Thursday 15th December this year, and returning on Thursday 5th January 2023. 

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday (and a fabulous Christmas if you celebrate it). Happy New Year and we'll see you in 2023. 

Stay safe and take care,

Reception Team 

x

Nativity

We hope you're as excited to see the nativity, as we are for you to watch it. Your children have worked so hard, and really enjoyed practicing the songs and dances to our Wriggly Nativity songs. 

We will be recording the performance and posting it here on our blog, so if you are unable to make it on Tuesday, you will still be able to see your child perform. 

Christmas Craft Workshop

Thank you to all of you who attended our Christmas Craft workshop and helped their child to make their Christmas Hat for the party this week. They had the best time!!

Christmas Craft Workshop

Please don't forget that you have been invited to a Christmas Craft workshop on Tuesday 6th December. You will have had an invitation for either the 9am session or the 2pm session. 

Our Chocolate Experiment

This week we have been learning all about how objects can change state. We have learnt that everything that exists in the world is either a solid, a liquid or a gas, and if we make something cold or hot we can change it's state. 

We each held a piece of chocolate in our hand, and noticed that our body heat made it melt. We learnt that it was changing from a solid to a liquid.

The best part was when our teachers let us lick the chocolate off (of course, we washed our hands before and after). 

Parent Workshop - Reading and Phonics

Please don't forget that there is a parent workshop on Monday 28th December in the infant hall for Reception parents where we will look at how Reading and Phonics is taught in Reception. There will be lots of opportunities for you to ask questions, and gain a better understanding of how you can help your child at home.

On Tuesday 29th December, the second part of the workshop will see you being invited into your child's classroom where you will be able to see their teacher teach a phonics lesson. Following the lesson, you will have the chance to participate in some phonics and reading activities with your child. 

If you are unable to make the workshop, please click the link below to see the presentation. 

Photographs

Thank you so much for sending in physical photographs, or emailing us digital versions of your children this week. It has prompted so much conversation, allowing them a stage to answer questions but also an opportunity to ask questions of others. They've been so interested in each other's past experiences, and waited with anticipation for the end of each day to discuss a new photo. 

Disabilities

We read the wonderful story of 'Freddie and the Fairy' by Julia Donaldson this week, for our Write Stuff lessons. It is a story about a fairy who is hearing impaired, and this prompted lots of discussion about different disabilities - both inward and outward. The children have shown such an interest in the ways that they can help people, showing just how kind and caring they are. We're so proud of our children, they've shown such respectful inquisitiveness to different disabilities and show an understanding that we are all different, but all special in our own ways. 

The World Cup

In Reception, we have been learning all about The World Cup this week, and a little about each country taking part. We have discussed the similarities and differences between the food, culture, religion, clothing and weather, amongst other things, of two of the countries playing each day. 

To support England and Wales (Mr Pendry is Welsh), we have shown these games live to discussed the basic rules of a football game with the children who were interested. For our children who have had experience of watching football at home, or participating in football at different clubs, they thought it was the best day ever. 

We can't wait to see who wins... COME ON ENGLAND!! (and Wales). 

Children in Need

Our children looked FABULOUS for Children in Need in their spots, yellow clothes and Pudsey ears. 

Thank you for your donations, we hope we've raised lots of money :)

Remembrance Day

''They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down on the sun and in the morning, we will remember them''. 

This week we have learnt all about Remembrance Day. We learnt that poppies grew in the trenches follow the war, so we have been creating our own poppies in lots of different ways. On the 11th November at 11am, we had a one minute silence to remember those who lost their lives. 

Day of the Dead & Halloween

This week it was Halloween on Monday and the Day of the Dead Festival on Wednesday. We learnt all about how the Day of the Dead festival originated in Mexico, and it is a happy time to remember those that are no longer with us. We explored pictures of the festival, designed our own sugar skull and Mrs McCoy brought her sugar skull in from home to show us. 

Diwali and Fireworks

This week we have learnt all about the Sikh festival of Diwali, how it is celebrated and who celebrates it. We found out that as it is the festival of light, we will see lots of fireworks in the sky. We also found out that there is a festival called Bonfire Night, and next week we will learn how to stay safe around fireworks. 

We found our creative sides and made some beautiful firework pictures using paint, forks and scourers. We also made diva lamps from playdough. 

Welcome Back!!

We hope you all had a wonderful break. We certainly did... Mr Pendry went to Wales to see his family, Miss Freeman went to France to see her family and Mrs McCoy went to America to see her family... it was a family filled half term. Mr Hussain, Mrs Satnam, Mrs Gurdev and Mrs Aziz also had a lovely break. 

For those of you who celebrate, we hope everyone had a wonderful Diwali .

This half term we have lots of exciting things happening. Our forest school sessions start on Friday mornings and we are building up to Christmas. Soon our Nativity rehearsals will start, we will put our Christmas trees up, bake gingerbread men and invite parents to school for a Christmas Craft workshop. 

We can't wait to see what you all get up to. 

Cultural Dress Up Day

To celebrate Black History Month, we dressed up in our cultural dress for the last Friday of term. 

Instruments & Shapes

This week we have had the most fun exploring instruments and shapes.

We watched the Disney Pixar animation of One Man Band, and wrote some lovely sentences about how Penny had a golden coin to give away but she thought the music was awful. 

We learnt all about circles and triangles in Maths, and looked for these shapes in the environment, which we added to our shape shelf in class RF. 

Autumn

This week, we have been focusing on the change of the season and looking at what happens during Autumn. We have been exploring the fallen leaves in the garden and drawing, leaf printing or collaging with them. We've also been exploring hibernating animals and harvested vegetables such as pumpkins. 

We know it's Halloween soon, so we have been making potions in our role play area, and dressing up as witches or wizards to cast spells. 

Black History Month

This month is Black History Month, and in Reception we have been recognising the lives and history of some famous black people who did amazing things. We have also been talking about race, and how our skin colour shouldn't define the way we are treated by others.

Last week, we focused on the life on Martin Luther King, and his famous speech, ''I have a dream''. We talked about what our dreams are for the future, whether that be for which career we would like, what we want for our family, or how we would like to see the world. 

Over the month of October we will be reading lots of books about people including Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Muhammad Ali, Pele, etc. 

September Parent Workshop

Please find the link below for the September Parent Workshop on Thursday 29th September at 9:05am. 

Settling

Reception have had an excellent few weeks in school... they are mostly all settled into their now, and are enjoying their daily timetables. Although we still have a few tears in the door in the morning, this will slowly become a thing of the past as the children become more secure and comfortable in their new routine and environment. 

We can't wait to see what they get up to this year. 

Welcome!!

A huge, warm welcome to all of our children and families to Reception year of Anglesey. Here, on our class page, we update what we have been up to each week, and upload any parent workshop powerpoints, important notices and letters.

From Thursday 15th September, most of our children will begin full time, and start having dinner at school. They will begin their daily sessions of Phonics, The Write Stuff, Maths and PSHE, along with reading groups. These will fit into their timetable alongside child initiated provision, where the children have access to the 3 classrooms, and 2 outdoor spaces. The snack table will also open, to allow for bagel and cereal breakfasts, or fruit in the afternoon. 

Please ensure your child now has their PE kit bag in school with lots of spare clothes, and they begin to bring their book bag everyday. We will send library books home from Monday 19th September. 

This half term is focused mainly on settling the children and supporting them with school routines and building friendship groups. At home, we would love if your focus could be on supporting your child to be independent with putting on their coat, recognising their name and writing their name. 

If you have any questions or queries, we do have an email address: yr@anglesey.bham.sch.uk.

Kind regards,

Mrs McCoy 

Sutton Park Trip

We will be visiting Sutton Park on Tuesday 28th June... please see the information below for everything you need to know. 

Queen's Jubilee

We had a wonderful day on Friday, dressed in red, white and blue for the Queen's Jubilee. We all got to have a lovely picnic in the playground, and complete lots of activities linked to the Jubilee. 

Welcome Back!

We hope you all had a lovely half term break, and enjoyed the weather (the little bit of sun that we had). 

We have lots to look forward to this half term, with a trip to Sutton Park for a picnic, celebrating the Queen's Jubilee, and beginning our transition for year one. 

As always we thank you for your support :). 

End of Half Term

It feels like only yesterday that we arrived back after Easter, but what a busy few weeks we have had. We've watched caterpillars turn into butterflies, visited the farm, visited the pond and fished for tadpoles and planted some cress seeds. We've been loving the water play in our outdoor area now the weather has warmed up, and Mrs McCoy taught us all about fires in forest school. 

We hope you have a lovely week off, and enjoy the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. 

Hatton Farm

We had such an amazing time at Hatton Farm. We rode a tractor, held a snake, lizard and guinea pig, fed some sheep and goats, and played in the amazing soft play, sandpit and outdoor play area. 

Fire Building

In forest school this half term, we have been learning about the fire triangle. Mrs McCoy taught us that fires need oxygen, heat and fuel to continue to burn. We then learnt how to take away these things to break the fire triangle and put out the fire. 

We collected sticks, and learnt that kindling and fire starters are excellent ways to start a fire. We built out fire up, and then toasted some halal marshmallows on the fire. We thought they were SUPER tasty. 

Caterpillars to Butterflies

To continue our work on lifecycles we had some caterpillars delivered to us. We watched as they fed until they were nice and fat, and then they formed into a chrysalis. After a week, they emerged from the chrysalis as beautiful butterflies. We fed them for a few days, using fruit and flowers, before releasing them into our gardens and watching them fly away. 

Junior Pond Visit

As we have been learning about life cycles, we made a visit to the Junior school pond to fish for some tadpoles. We learnt that frogs lay eggs that we call frog spawn, they hatch into tadpoles, and then the tadpoles grow arms and legs as they grow into frogs. We loved seeing the frogspawn, flies, dragonflies and bees at the pond, but were not lucky enough this year to see a frog unfortunately.

Planting Seeds

This half term we have been learning all about new life. We planted some cress seeds, and we have been making sure they have water and sunlight to make them grow. We will be sending home the plants with the children over the holidays, and would love to see how they grow at home. Maybe you could upload some photos onto your child's Tapestry journal. 

Hatton Meeting

If you didn't manage to make the meeting about the trip to Hatton, please see the attached information below. 

Hatton Trip Note

Dear Parents / Guardians, 

Please don't forget that you must pay for the trip to Hatton by Friday 13th May. Currently only 13 people have paid, which means at the moment, the trip cannot go ahead. The consent for the trip is also via the My Child At School app. 

Just to clarify, this is a separate trip to the one you have already paid for, for Sutton Park. That trip was postponed, and will be going ahead on the 27th June. 

If you are having problems with paying via the app, then please visit the junior site and ask to speak to Mr Bradley or Mr Ferris.

Kind regards, 

Mrs McCoy

Collins E-Books

We have now moved from sending guided reading books home to using Collins E-Books. You should have received a letter with your child's log in details for you to gain access. Each week, we will allocate the children their guided reading book for the week, and hope that you can spend 5 minutes a day reading this with them, and asking some questions to work on their comprehension skills. 

https://ops.collinsopenpage.com/sso/login?service=https%3A//ebooks.collinsopenpage.com/wr/index.html&eulogin=true

If you have any questions, or need a new copy of your child's log on details, please ask your child's class teacher. 

Happy Eid!

W