Reception

The Three Billy Goats Gruff – Summer 2022

This half term, Reception had a special delivery of a mystery box of grass seed!  This led us into our new story the Three Billy goats gruff. We learnt the story off by heart with the actions.  We have had lots of fun painting trolls and writing about them. We have used what we have learnt in phonics to write about animals that live on the farm. We planted our own grass seed and talked about what it needed to grow. We have looked at bridges around the world and built our own.  We have learnt songs about the Billy goats and the grumpy troll and even did a troll dance altogether. We enjoyed innovating the story by replacing the goats and troll with new characters to create our own new version of the story.

The Snow Queen – Summer 2022

This half- term, children in Reception have been learning our own story about the Snow Queen who turns the world to snow and ice. They have been looking at seasonal changes and recording the weather to tell the Snow Queen what it is like in Cambridge. They have also replied to her emails asking them to research polar animals. They have enjoyed exploring ice and experimenting with freezing and melting. Children also created their own ice palaces and discussed words to describe them.

World Book Day 2022!

Everyone in Queen Edith celebrated World Book Day with a whole week of events! Each year group read ‘We’re All Wonders’ written by R J Palacio.

We’re All Wonders is a text for younger readers based on Wonder and shows what it’s like to live in Auggie’s world – a world in which he feels like any other kid, but he’s not always seen that way. We discussed themes of belonging, being seen, empathy, difference and kindness. Each year group had a project that they carried out linked to this text.

Nursery painted beautiful self-portraits with the title We’re All Wonders.

Reception children wrote individual letters to Mrs Jarman telling her how they are all special.

In Years 1 & 2, children used the text to inspire them and wrote their own recipes for kindness, to create a kind person 

In Year 3, they wrote a letter from Auggie to his friends on Pluto, exploring his experiences and feelings. They started when people were mean to him, then looked at visiting Pluto, to making his first friend who saw him as a wonder.

Year 4 created a diary entry, empathising with the main character of August, revealing his emotions both before and after his first day of school. They also wrote a letter to the Plutonians to show how Auggie was feeling after making new friends.

In Later Years, pupils used both We’re All Wonders and the original story of Wonder to look at inferences within reading, family dynamics, anti-bullying targets, emotive language and diary entries. We chose one of the children from Auggie’s school tour and wrote as one of them, framing our writing from a different perspective, not that of the protagonist. Some chose Julian, the school bully; Charlotte, the friendly but self-obsessed drama fanatic, or Jack Will, the friendly boy who sees with kindness and becomes Auggie’s best friend.

Our Book Fair was a huge success with us receiving ‘rewards’ per class for books to choose for our book shelves and also ‘rewards’ for us to spend on widening our representation of texts. Thank you to all who bought books and, in turn, supported the school!

The Gingerbread Man – Spring 2022

This term we have been learning the story of The Gingerbread Man. We found a ‘crime scene’ outside with crumbs and footprints leading out onto the field. After looking at different footprints we decided that they belonged to a fox. Children have been learning the story using actions, creating story maps, decorating their own gingerbread people and writing their words in speech bubbles. We have been looking at the Autumnal changes around us and finding out about animals which hibernate and which are nocturnal. We have been thinking about what happens when we go to bed and encouraging children to brush their teeth! The story has linked with Christmas celebrations as we created a film of the story to share with parents. Finally, they baked their own gingerbread men to eat at their Christmas party.

Learning to Read and Write – Autumn 2021

Children are encouraged to build on their skills in reading and writing during their own play and with adult-led sessions. In the Autumn Term, we are teaching all the Phase 2 sounds during our daily Phonic sessions. We use the ‘Teach Your Monster to Read’ monsters to introduce each new sound following the Letters and Sounds program.

We play lots of games to encourage them to blend the sounds to form simple words. Children are given opportunities to ‘have a go’ at writing in different areas of the environment following their interests. We also model writing with children, inviting their contributions- which sound can you hear next?

Our class stories support children’s literacy skills, encouraging them to create their own story maps and encouraging them to create their own stories. They have time to enjoy ‘reading’ to themselves and to listen to a wide range of exciting stories.

The Enormous Turnip – Autumn 2021

In the Autumn term Reception found enormous beetroots growing in our garden, this led on to our new story of The Enormous Turnip! Children enjoyed learning inspired by this theme. They learnt actions to the story and drew story maps to enable them to re-tell the story by themselves. They learnt about Harvest and where our food comes from, explored vegetables and used them to print, enjoyed seasonal changes on Autumn welly walks, learnt new songs, wrote shopping lists for soup and ended the half term by talking about healthy foods and making our very own turnip soup!

Investigating the World around Us – Autumn 2021 – Reception

Here are some photos from Reception of children exploring the world around them. We have been finding out about which where our food grows and whether it grows above the ground or under the ground. This links in with our story, ‘The Enormous Turnip’

The Three Billy Goats

This term, children have been learning the story, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ at home and at school. It was wonderful to see everyone back together again and share our learning. Children have creating and writing about trolls, building bridges and creating their own stories based on the original. They particularly enjoyed playing the ‘hot seating’ game, taking on the roles of the different characters. They have also been looking for signs of spring and new life with egg hunts and celebrating Easter.

The Snow Queen

This term, children have been learning our own story about The Snow Queen at home and in school. They have been exploring winter and experimenting with ice and exploring snow. They received messages from the Snow Queen asking for their help to find out about polar animals. They have been weather detectives and looked at palaces and castles around the world. Children created their own castles and thought of their own ‘magpie’ words to describe them.

The Enormous Turnip

This term children have been settling into school and learning our routines. They have started to learn letter sounds in phonics.  We find a monster in the monster sound trap each day then use Teach Your Monster to Read to help us learn the sound and use actions to help us remember it. The monsters are then displayed on a jungle vine in the classroom. Children are beginning to use the sounds that they have learnt in the environment and are beginning to make their own words. Children have been learning the story of The Enormous Turnip and activities have been based around harvest and seasonal changes. They have learnt to retell the story with actions.

Phonics At Home

As part of your home learning your child will be taking part in phonic activities set by their teacher. Many of you may have used Oxford Owl as it gives levelled reading books. The link below will also give you a video to show you how to make the sounds in a way that will help your child with reading and writing. The sounds are taught in a particular order in phases which develop during Reception and KS1. If you are unsure which phase your child is working on at the moment then please contact your child’s class teacher.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/what-is-letters-and-sounds/

You don’t need to print out lots of flash cards or letters, just make your own or ask older brothers and sisters to help you.
There are lots of fun activities that you can do indoors and in the garden, hiding sounds so that your child can go on a treasure hunt, having competitions to see how many words you can make with a sound your child finds tricky or being sound detectives on your daily walk. Have fun together!