AUTUMN 1

What a wonderful start to the school year we’ve had in Reception! The children have settled beautifully into school life, making many new friends and growing in confidence each day.

We began the term by learning all about each other – our likes and dislikes, and what makes each of us special and unique. Our first story was ‘Meesha Makes Friends’, which helped us think about how it feels to start school and how we can be good friends by being kind, sharing and helping others. We then read ‘Our Class is a Family’, which reminded us that we are all part of one big class family. The children also explored their own families and discovered that every family is special in its own way.

Next, we enjoyed ‘The Colour Monster’ and learned all about our emotions – how to recognise them, talk about them, and understand that it’s okay to feel different emotions. We also loved ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’, which taught us about having a positive “can do” attitude and that we might not be able to do things yet, but with practice and perseverance we can achieve anything!

As part of Black History Month, we learned about Mary Seacole. We talked about how she was brave, kind and helpful, and thought about ways we can show those qualities in our own lives. The children loved role-playing in our hospital area and making their own “medicine” just like Mary!

To finish the half term, we explored the festival of Diwali and learned about how it is celebrated around the world. The children created beautiful Diva lamps, colourful Rangoli patterns and intricate henna designs.

In Phonics, the children have been doing a wonderful job learning new sounds and how to write them. They have also started to blend and segment sounds to read and write simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. The children have been working very hard and are making fantastic progress!

In Maths, we started by sorting and matching objects by colour, size and shape. We then moved on to comparing quantities using words like more, less and the same. The children enjoyed making ABAB patterns and even challenged themselves to make patterns with three colours! We also explored measurement, comparing items that were bigger or smaller, and used cubes to measure objects around the classroom – even finding out who was the tallest and shortest in our class! More recently, we’ve been learning about numbers 1 to 5, recognising numerals and counting out matching quantities.

It’s been a fantastic start to the year and we’re so proud of all the children’s hard work, enthusiasm and progress. We can’t wait to see what new adventures and learning the next half term will bring!