Thursday 18^th April

We have had a busy week back in school. We enjoyed listening to the children’s Easter news in key worker time on Monday. We read the story ‘Stanley’s Stick.’ In the story, Stanley has a special stick which turns into lots of different things. We used our imagination and thought of lots of other things we could turn the stick into. The children drew a picture and wrote a fantastic sentence about it. In Phonics, we revisited all the sounds and tricky words we already know. We will be learning new sounds next week.

In RE, we have been learning about Jesus’ Ascension into heaven. We know Jesus went to heaven to be with his father. We talked about heaven and imagined what it might be like. The children drew some fantastic pictures of heaven. We went on a walk, looked at the clouds and thought about what we wonder about. Tomorrow, we are going to go to church and look at the Tabernacle.

In Maths, we have been concentrating on counting. We played lots of different counting games in our coloured teams. We know we can count things which can and can’t be seen. We also revisited our learning about odd and even numbers. The children have a homework activity in their book bag which focusses on odd and even.

On Wednesday, we went outside and talked about Spring. We used our senses to think about what we would see, hear and feel outside. We also talked about Eid and had a little Eid celebration. The children coloured a prayer mat and enjoyed dressing up.

Thursday 14th March 

This week in school, we have been celebrating British Science Week. We have been learning all about Mary Anning who was a palaeontologist. We learnt all about fossils, went on a fossil hunt, drew fossils and made a fossil out of salt dough. Tomorrow, we are going to take part in a Science Roadshow in the hall. 

The children enjoyed designing their rockets which we have begun to make. The children had to think about how to attach all the parts onto their rocket. We will be finishing our rockets next week and then the children will be able to take them home.  

In Literacy, we have been learning about non-fiction texts. We learnt lots of facts about Space and made a fact file. In Maths, we have been learning about doubles. We played lots of games to understand how to double a number. We know when we double a number the numbers are equal. 

In RE, we have been learning about when Jesus went to Jerusalem on a donkey. We made palm leaves and shouted “Hosanna!” as children pretended to be Jesus entering Jerusalem.  

In Phonics, we have learnt 2 new sounds and tricky words. 

Sounds: oo (long) – moon, food, soon, oo (short) – book, look, good 

Tricky words: said, when 

Thursday 7^th March

The children really enjoyed celebrating world book day today. They looked amazing in their costumes and had a fantastic time reading in our reading café in the hall. We read lots of stories throughout the day and used our imagination to make up stories too. Please see some photographs below of the children.

We have started learning all about Space. We painted a huge box and made it into a space station. The children enjoyed painting and drawing pictures to stick onto the box. We made aliens and wrote a caption or sentence about our alien.

In RE, we have been learning about the story The Good Samaritan. We know during Lent we grow in love for others and the Samaritan helped the man. We retold the story and decorated a heart. We sat in a circle and shared how we can be loving in school and at home.

In Maths, we have been comparing numbers. We have also been focussing on numbers from 11 to 20. The extra Maths homework this week, which your child will take home tomorrow, is focussed on numbers 11-20.

In Phonics, we have learnt two new sounds and two new tricky words.

New sounds: igh, oa

New tricky words: are, like

Please see photographs below of our learning from the past few weeks and World Book Day.

Thursday 29^th February

This week, we have been learning about shapes in Maths. We learnt 2D and 3D shapes. We sorted shapes, drew shape pictures, went on a shape hunt and completed a 3D shape experiment. We made a ramp and found out if the shapes can stack, roll or slide and talked about why. Your child will bring home some 2D shape activities tomorrow to complete at home.

In RE, we have continued our learning about Lent. We planted a seed to remember we grow in love for Jesus during Lent. We are going to water it everyday and hopefully it will start to grow soon. We have been talking about how Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights alone in the desert. We thought of I wonder questions about how Jesus felt, where he might have slept and what he might have seen in the desert. The children thought about the story and made a fantastic picture of a cactus in the desert. The children enjoyed singing a song called ’40 days’ which I have uploaded below.

The year 6 children came into our class this morning and led a collective worship, all about the Bible story The Good Samaritan.

We have continued our learning about Africa and learnt lots of new facts. The children changed the story ‘Handa’s Surprise’ and chose a different fruit to put in Handa’s basket and a different animal to steal the fruit. The children orally retold their story. We also completed an observational drawing of a piece of fruit and finished making our African animals out of paper plates for a wonderful display.

In Phonics, we have learnt some new sounds and tricky words. Your child has a Phase 3 tricky word bookmark in their bag.

Sounds: ai, ee

Tricky words: her, all

What a busy week! We are looking forward to dressing up for World Book Day next Thursday and another fun week in school.

Thursday 22^nd February

We have had a busy week in school. We started our topic learning all about Africa. We looked at lots of pictures and compared Africa to where we live. We enjoyed playing in our new Africa role play area and looking at lots of animals in books. We have been reading the story Handa’s Surprise. In the story, Handa was carrying a basket of fruit on her head and lots of animals stole the fruit without her knowing. We went in the hall and retold the story using actions. The children drew a piece of fruit in Handa’s basket and wrote about it. The children are making fantastic progress with their writing.

In Maths, we have been learning one more and one less. We played lots of games to understand one more and one less. At home, give your child a number and see if they can tell you one more and one less. They can use objects to help and either add one or take one away.

In RE, we have been learning all about Lent. The children helped to change our class worship table to purple. We made a huge tree for our display board and made a Lenten promise. We also learnt about Ash Wednesday. Everyday during Lent, we are going to choose one child to say a prayer about something we are grateful for.

In Phonics, we revisited all the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.

Thursday 8^th February

We have had a fantastic final week of the half term. We enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year. The children worked together to make a Chinese New Year role play area. We completed lots of fun activities such as dancing, making paper chains, fans and dragons. We learnt the story ‘The Great Race’ and retold it using actions in groups.

On Monday morning, we received a letter from the farmer in our story, asking us to make a map. He was relieved Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len didn’t manage to take the cow. He decided he wanted to let people visit the animals so asked us to send him a huge map of the farm. We worked as a team to cut out pictures of animals for the map and label them. We sent a picture of our map to the farmer.

Yesterday afternoon, we completed a road traffic survey. We learnt how to make a tally chart. We talked about which types of vehicles we saw the most of and which we saw the least. Ask your child what they saw! 

In RE, we learnt that Jesus wants us to help the poor and look after everyone. We have a pretend class pet rabbit who the children named 'Elsie'. We made her a shelter, food and water. We played with her throughout the day to make her feel loved and cared for. We know we have to look after other people, just like we do with our class pet. We talked about giving food to the food bank and helping children and families who are not as fortunate as we are.

New Phonics sounds: th, ng

New tricky words: you, they

Please see the photographs below of our fantastic week in school. Happy half term! 

Thursday 1^st February

This week, we enjoyed listening to the story ‘What the Ladybird Heard.’ We labelled pictures and some children wrote captions. We have been learning about using finger spaces when writing a caption or sentence.

In Maths, we sung the song ‘5 little men on a flying saucer.’ The link to the song is below. We performed the song using our fingers. We then used a dice frame to represent 5, 6 and 7. We know we need 2 dice frames to show 6 and 7. We talked about more and less and played turn taking games.

In PSHE, we have been learning about rules. The children were very cheeky and broke some of our rules. We talked about why we have rules at home and in school. We followed the rules and played board games. Have a go at playing some board games with your child at home too.

In RE, we continued our learning about the story ‘Feeding the 5000.’ We talked about how Jesus helps and cares for us all and wants us to help others. We played parachute games in the hall and made sure everyone felt cared for and included, just like Jesus does. We painted pictures of people who care for us and made a huge class umbrella.

In Phonics, we have been learning some new sounds and tricky words.

New Phonics sounds: qu, ch, sh

Tricky words: was, my

Thursday 25^th January

We have had another busy week in school with lots of exciting learning. The children enjoyed moving in different ways on their hands and feet in PE. They moved around the hall like different animals and performed the movements in groups. Please see the photographs below of our recent learning in PE.

In RE, we have been learning the Bible story ‘Jesus feeds the 5000.’ We painted a pattern on a fish using celery and weaved paper, just like on a loaf of bread. In the story, Jesus performs a miracle and gives the people bread and fish.

On Monday, we read the story ‘In every house on every street.’ The children enjoyed talking about the different rooms in their houses and what they do in each room. We talked about the kitchen and making food. We followed a recipe and made delicious Rice Krispie cakes. The children then worked together to write an ingredients list and the instructions for the recipe.

In Maths, we have continued our learning about 5. We enjoyed listening to the song ‘5 speckled frogs.’ We talked about one more and one less. We also made different amounts on our fingers to 10.   

In Phonics, we have been consolidating our learning of the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far this half term. We know that the digraph ‘zz’ comes at the end of a word. We have enjoyed playing lots of games in our Phonics area. Please make sure you read with your child every night at home.

Tomorrow, we are going to be learning about school now and in the past. We will be working hard to make a video of our school which I will post for you all to watch.

Thursday 18^th January

We were very excited to see it had snowed this week. We talked about the season Winter and painted our window. Some of the children made some snowflakes too.

We continued our learning about Mr Gumpy. The children drew their own animal to go in Mr Gumpy’s boat and wrote some words or a caption about it. The children tried really hard and wrote some fantastic words.

In Phonics, we have been working hard to learning lots of new sounds and tricky words.

These are the sounds and tricky words we learnt last week and this week.

Sounds: j, v, w, x, y, z

Tricky words: we, he, she, me, be

In Maths, we helped to put the Numberblocks back in order. They got all mixed up and needed our help. Some of the Numberblocks ran away and we had to work out which ones went missing. We compared the Numberblocks from 1-5 and we know we add 1 more every time. We played some games, focussing on one more.

We had lots of fun playing with the Bee-Bots this week. We learnt about the directions forward, backwards, left and right. We know how to turn a Bee-bot on a make it move. We followed the pictures and programmed the Bee-Bot to move. The children also enjoyed playing on the Bee-Bot App on the Ipads. This learning linked to our learning about Maps. The children drew their own Map and told us how to get to different places on their map.

In RE, we have been learning about Jesus. We know Jesus welcomes all of us. We talked about the special places in school where we can speak to Jesus. The children worked together to improve our worship area. They asked to add some cushions, pictures and flowers. We learnt the story about when Jesus welcomed the little children and blessed them.  

Thursday 11^th January

Happy New Year! We have had a fantastic week back in school together. The children enjoyed sharing news in Key Worker groups. 

In RE, we learnt that the Wise Men travelled to Bethlehem to see baby Jesus and they gave him gifts. We know they followed a star and rode on camels. The Wise Men were very kind giving the gifts to Jesus. We talked about all the ways we are kind to our friends and family and made a big star. We also talked about the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh and made a present to give to someone special. We also learnt the Glory Be prayer. There is a video below of the Glory Be prayer and the story of the three Wise Men visiting Jesus. 

Our core story this week is called ‘I wonder why…’ We had lots of fantastic discussions about what the children wonder about. In Literacy, we have begun our learning about the story ‘Mr Gumpy’s Outing.’ It is a funny story where Mr Gumpy goes on a boat down the river and lets lots of animals and children join him. Suddenly, everyone falls out of the boat into the river. The children enjoyed retelling the story and made a story telling area in the classroom for Mr Gumpy.

The children have been amazing in Maths this week. We have had lots of fun playing subitisng games and moving counters on a number line. The children enjoyed taking a ‘picture’ in their mind of the arrangement of dots and then remembering where they all go. We played games on the interactive whiteboard. At the start of every Maths lesson, we say our number bonds to 5 using our fingers. These are:

5 + 0 = 5

4 + 1 = 5

3 + 2 = 5

2 + 3 = 5

1 + 4 = 5

0 + 5 = 5

See if your child can say the number bonds to 5 to you at home.

In topic, we have begun learning about maps. We looked at lots of different maps including a map of Longridge, Google Maps, tube maps, map of a zoo, London map. The children drew fantastic maps and made a huge map of Longridge as a team on the carpet. It would be great if you could show your child Google Maps and see if they can spot the roads, fields, ponds, houses, churches, schools etc. 

Thursday 14th December

In RE, we learnt the next part of the Nativity story when the shepherds were visited by an Angel and told the good news that baby Jesus was born. The shepherds then went to see baby Jesus in the stable. We enjoyed making a sheep and retelling the story.

In Maths this week, we have been focussing on shape, space and measure. We made repeating patterns in lots of different ways. In exploring time, some children chose to make a repeating pattern with cubes or colour a pattern.

In PE, we had lots of fun performing different rolls. We learnt how to egg roll, pencil roll and rock and roll. The children all performed a short routine to each other.

In DT, we have started making Gingerbread Man houses. On Wednesday morning, we came into school and found Elfie in our house in the role play area. He was sitting in the bath. He left us a note to say his friend the Gingerbread Man was feeling sad as he didn’t have a house. We looked at pictures of houses, designed our house and we have started to make them.

In Phonics, we have been consolidating all our learning from this half term.

We are looking forward to performing our Nativity show this afternoon!

Thursday 7^th December

In RE, we have been learning all about the birth of baby Jesus. We have a manger in class and used role play and pretended to be Mary and Joseph. The children know Mary gave birth to baby Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem and laid baby Jesus in a manger. We enjoyed singing the song ‘Away in a Manger’ and learnt some actions. We also watched a short video called ‘Room for a little one’ all about the Nativity story.

We have a naughty Elf in our class called Elfie. On Monday, we came to school and found he had left us some letters to write to Santa and a huge envelope to put them in. He also left us a story called ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ which we have enjoyed reading. The children wrote fantastic letters to Santa and I posted the letters last night. We are hoping Santa replies soon.

In Phonics, we learnt 2 new sounds. These are: ll and ss. These are digraphs and come at the end of words for example, bell, tell, mess, less.

We have continued to learn the 6 tricky words: I, no, to, go the and into.

This week in school is assessment week. We have been seeing all the wonderful things the children have learnt since September. The children have really impressed us with all their learning and we are very proud of them all. We are looking forward to the school fair tomorrow after school.

Thursday 30^th November

In RE, we have been learning all about Advent. We know Advent is a time for waiting. We all coloured a circle and made a path for Mary and Joseph to travel on to Bethlehem. Every day during Advent, we will move Mary and Joseph along and say a prayer. We also made a class Advent wreath and talked about the different coloured candles. 

On Wednesday, we went on a very exciting trip to the pantomime. We had an amazing morning and the children really enjoyed the show Little Red Riding Hood. On Tuesday in PE, we had took part in a yoga session. The children enjoyed learning breathing and relaxation techniques and lots of different animal poses. Please see the photographs below. In Maths, we dipped pom poms into paint and made patterns. We talked about the different ways we made patterns using 5. We also made patterns using cubes. 

In Phonics, we learnt 3 new sounds and another tricky word.

New Sounds: f, ff and ll. We know ff and ll come at the end of words.

New tricky word: into

We have now learnt the first 6 tricky words. These are: I, no, go, to, the, into. Your child has a tricky word bookmark in their book bag with them all on. Please help your child to learn these tricky words at home. See if your child can spot them in their reading books too.

Thursday 23^rd November

We have enjoyed learning all about people who help us this week. The children helped to changed our role play area. They decided to add a doctors, vets, hairdressers and farm. The children also asked for a post box to pretend to be postmen. We enjoyed lots of role play activities and talked about how the different people help us.

In RE, we learnt the next part of the Nativity story when Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem. We made a donkey and the children drew a picture using oil pastels to make a big collage of Bethlehem. We used role play and retold the story. The children made the long and dusty road to Bethlehem using the large wooden blocks. 

In Literacy, the children were amazing at retelling the story ‘The Gingerbread Man.’ See if they can orally retell the story to you at home. In Phonics, we have learnt 3 new sounds.

New sounds: r, h, b

Tricky words: no, go

In PE, we focussed on climbing up equipment safely. The children pretended to be Jack climbing up the beanstalk and climbed on the climbing frame safely. They also climbed up onto apparatus and safely jumped off.

In Maths, our focus this week was learning how lots of parts make up one whole. We cut shapes into parts and put them back together again like a jigsaw. We used Mr Potato head to learn how all his body parts needed to be put back together to make one whole. We also know numbers can be broken up and added together to make a whole.

Thursday 16^th November

We have had another fantastic week in school with lots of new learning. We started our week by making gingerbread, The children helped to measure the ingredients and followed the recipe. They rolled the dough and cut a gingerbread man. We put them in the oven and enjoyed eating them in the afternoon whilst watching the story on the board.

In Literacy, we found some gingerbread men with pictures on. We had to write the words on a whiteboard. We left our work for the gingerbread man to see and he wrote us a note to tell us he was very happy with our writing. In Phonics, we have learnt 3 new sounds and some more tricky words.

New sounds: ck, e, u

Tricky words: I to

In Maths, we have been learning about more than, fewer than and equal to. We played a game called ‘who has more?’ We played lots of games where we compared amounts and explained our reasoning.

In RE, we started to learn the Nativity story. We started with the Annunciation. This is when Angel Gabriel went to visit Mary to tell her she was going to have a baby. We know the baby was going to be called Jesus. We also know that Mary said ‘yes’ to God and agreed to have the baby. We enjoyed making angels and whole class angel wings. We thought about how Mary felt and wrote a message to Mary on the angel wings. We also used role play masks to pretend to be Mary and Angel Gabriel and retold the part of the story.

Thursday 9^th November

In Phonics, we have been learning 3 new sounds. These are: o, c and k. We have also learnt our first tricky word: the. This is a word that the children can’t use their Phonics to say the sounds, they just have to read it by sight.

In Maths, we sang the song ‘5 little peas’. We used our hands to say and make 5. We played a game where we rolled the dice and added the correct number of toppings onto the pizza and grouped objects and made marks on a whiteboard to show the amount.

On Tuesday, the children were very surprised somebody had been in our classroom. Chairs were on the floor and someone had made a big mess. After lots of searching and thinking, the children decided it must have been the evil pea. They made wanted posters and stuck them around school and kept an eye out for evil pea in our classroom.

We continued our learning about keeping healthy and the children enjoyed making fruit kebabs. See the photographs of the activity below. They carefully cut and peeled the fruit and stuck them onto cocktail sticks. The children know lots of ways of being healthy.

In RE, we learnt the story ‘Jonah and the big whale’. The children sequenced the story in groups and coloured a picture of Jonah and the Whale. Tomorrow, we will be talking about Remembrance Day and decorating a poppy. We will also be celebrating Diwali which is on Sunday.

Thursday 2nd November

We have had a great first week back after half term. The children enjoyed telling us all about the exciting things they did over half term during key worker time. We completed lots of spooky activities in our classroom this week including pinching the spiders and sitting them on the masking tape. 

In Literacy, we read the story Supertato and the children enjoyed making their own Supertato. They used cellotape, masking tape and glue independently to stick different materials onto their potato. We also made lots of different words using letters with the sounds we have learnt in Phonics. The children enjoyed playing with our pebbles and phoneme frames to make words during exploring time. 

The sounds we have learnt so far in Phonics are: s a t p i n m d g 

We have started our number of the day learning. We have been focussing on number 1. We sang a number of the day song and used the interactive whiteboard game to learn all about the number 1. The rhyme to help us write the number is 'go straight down and that is all.' We have also been learning about 'more than' in Maths. We compared different amounts and played a game with our marvellous maths partners. 

We have begun our learning about Music and set up a new Music area outside. We have also been learning about democracy in PSHE. Tomorrow morning, we will be taking part in a collective worship all about our gospel value humility. 

We had lots of fun in our PE lesson. We read the story Jack and the Beanstalk and retold the story for our warm up. We then pretended to be Jack, the giant and the cow. The children moved in different ways around the hall. We then completed 5 station activities. The children's favourite was throwing the bean bags (magic beans) through the climbing frame, pretending to be Jack's mother. 

Thursday 19^th October

We have come to the end of our first half term in school together. We are incredibly proud of all the children and how well they have settled into school. We have had a fantastic half term and we are looking forward to seeing the children for our next half term together. Thank you for coming to our showcase of learning. The children enjoyed celebrating their fantastic learning with you all.

This week, we learnt how to overarm throw in PE. The children threw bean bags as far as they could and then aimed into hoops. We also enjoyed throwing and catching with a partner. Have a go at doing some overarm and underarm throwing with your child at home. We got the big balls out and bounced them on the ground and caught them. The children enjoyed playing catching games with their friends.

In RE, we have been learning about Baptism. We used role play and pretended to Baptise a baby. We enjoyed looking at photographs of some of the children getting Baptised in church. We also visited our school church. We looked carefully at different parts of the church and talked about what we could see.

We also compared ourselves now and as a baby. We talked about the similarities and differences and drew a picture of ourselves when we were younger. We looked at the baby pictures and guessed who the picture was. We enjoyed learning about the seasons and completing lots of activities about Autumn.

In Maths, we learnt about number 4. We made Numberblocks and found different ways of making 4. We played a dice game where we had to make the pattern on the dice. In Phonics, we learnt sounds m, d and g.

What a busy week! Have a wonderful half term!

Thursday 12^th October

This week, we enjoyed throwing and catching in PE. We played a game called roll ball where the children hat to hit the cones in their house point teams. The children are fantastic at getting changed for PE.

In Phonics, we continued learning the sounds p, i and n. Go on a hunt around your house and see what you can find beginning with the sounds. We enjoyed reading the story The Hug and we retold the story in groups. We learnt different actions for different words in the story. We have also been learning the nursery rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York. See the link below for the song. 

In Maths, we have been learning about the composition of numbers. We talked about making 2 using 1 and 1. We watched a Numberblocks video and talked about what we have 2 of on our bodies. We also found different ways of making 3. We read the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears and gave each bear the same item. We know 1 and 1 and 1 makes 3. 

In RE, we listened to a story called Somebody Swallowed Stanley. Stanley is a plastic bag and lots of sea creatures eat him. We talked about caring for God’s world and putting rubbish in the bin. The children enjoyed leaf rubbing and making bubbles and told us what they wonder about God's wonderful world.  In collective worship, we listened to the story Noah’s Ark from the Bible. The children enjoyed playing with our Ark during exploring time.

We drew a self portrait and painted a portrait too. We talked about mixing paint to make the colour lighter or darker The children looked in mirrors to help them. We look forward to showing you the portraits on Wednesday at our showcase of learning.

Thursday 5^th October

We have had another fantastic week in school filled with lots of fun and learning. In PE, we learnt how to under arm throw. We enjoyed rolling a ball to a friend and throwing bean bags into hoops.

In RE, we talked about how we can look after God’s creation. We went for a walk in our school grounds and talked about how we can look after the world. We drew around our hands and talked about how we can use our hands to care for the world. We stuck them around our big painting of the world.

We continued our learning about Owl Babies. We talked about woodland creatures and made a fact file. We read a non-fiction book in core story time and learnt lots of facts about Owls. Ask your child to tell you a fact they have learnt.

In key worker time, we used our listening ears and played a game called ‘don’t wake grandma.’ The children had to listen carefully and when they heard the keys they pointed to where the noise came from. Yesterday, we talked about members of school and our church community. We looked at pictures and drew a picture of someone in our community.

In Maths, we have been doing lots of counting and one to one correspondence. We lined objects up to count them accurately. The children enjoyed meeting our Marvellous Maths Monkey who helped us with our counting. 

In Phonics, we learnt 3 new sounds: p, i and n. We learnt the rhymes for forming the letters, played lots of blending games and even wrote some cvc words. Try writing these words with your child at home: sat, pin, tip.

Wednesday 4th September 

In RE, we changed the lyrics to the song 'He's got the whole world in his hands.' Ask your child to sing it to you using the image below. 

Thursday 28th September

We have had another busy week in school. We enjoyed reading the story funny bones. We played with the skeletons in the reading area and used the pictures to retell the story. We also started learning all about the story Owl Babies. We read the story Owl Babies and retold the story using props. We used actions to learn some key words from the story. We also enjoyed singing a song all about owls.

We enjoyed using lots of different materials to make things in the creative area. We learnt how to use the cellotape to stick cardboard and plastic together. Some children made cars, binoculars and a house. We talked to the children about choosing something to make before starting. Tomorrow, we are going to be making owls and doing lots of owl crafts.

In Phonics, we have continued to learn sounds s. a and t. We enjoyed writing the letters on whiteboards.

We talked about our families in key worker time and drew a picture of all the people who live in our house. The children used a pencil to carefully draw the outline of the people in their family. We really enjoyed listening to the children tell us all about their special families in key worker time.

In RE, we continued our learning about creation. We know we have a special book called the Bible which we keep on our worship table. We lit the candle and took part in a worship. We talked about what we wonder about God’s creation. During exploring time, some children drew a picture for a thank you prayer and shared them with the class. We have a special floor book where we keep all our learning in and children enjoyed drawing pictures of something God created and stuck it in our book.

In Maths, we played lots of games for subitising numbers 1 to 3. We looked at different sets of dots and described the different patterns. We played a matching game with large squares and 3 pom poms and talked about the patterns.

Thursday 21^st September

The children enjoyed using the white boards and pens to write their names in the morning. The children know our morning routine and put all their belongings away by themselves.

In PE, we focussed on jumping. We learnt how to jump for distance and enjoyed doing lots of activities in our house point teams. Ask your child to show you their jumping at home. We read The Gruffalo story and the children enjoyed retelling the story in our reading area using the props.

In Phonics, we have learnt three sounds. These are: s, a and t. We found lots of objects beginning with these sounds, sorted objects and learnt how to form the letters. Your child has the sound cards in their book bag. Please help your child to learn the sound and write the letter at home. We will give more information about this at the reading and phonics meeting next week.

In Maths, we focussed on matching and sorting. We enjoyed listening to the story A pair of socks by Stuart Murphy. We paired some socks and completed a cutting activity during exploring time where the children had to match the socks to make a pair.

We have also been learning all about the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. We made faces out of fruit. We used our cutting skills to cut different fruit out and stick them down to make a face. We used mirrors to look at our different features on our face.

Thursday 14^th September

We have had another fantastic week in school. We looked in our talking basket and found lots of things related to our Marvellous Me topic. We found a face, mirror, house, people and lots of things to talk about. We went on a walk around school and used our listening ears and talked about all the different noises we could hear. The children enjoyed finding their sibling’s classrooms, the school office and lots of other places. We enjoyed making faces out of playdough, writing about how we are feeling and making a ‘name train.’

On Monday, we had our first PE lesson. I can’t believe how amazing the children were! They met Bobby the bear who showed the children how to get changed for PE. In the hall, we travelled in different ways and jumped in hoops and over cones. We played a car game and pretended to go on a journey to the beach. I can’t wait for our next PE lesson on Monday.

On Tuesday, we had a visit from the life education bus. Katie talked to us all about how to look after our bodies. We also enjoyed meeting Harold the giraffe who told us all about how he keeps healthy. The children enjoyed watching him brushing his teeth and having a wash.  

In RE, we have begun to learn a special song called ‘God loves me.’ The link is below if you would like to sing it at home with your child. We also learnt how to do the sign of the cross. The children decorated a cross. We have a very special worship table in our classroom. We say prayer every morning, before lunch and at the end of the day. We have started to learn our special prayers together.

In Maths, we sung 5 current buns and read the story Ten Little Dinosaurs. We counted and recognised numbers to 10. I was very impressed with the children’s fantastic counting. We also enjoyed learning a dinosaur counting song, ready to sing to you at our showcase of learning at the end of the half term.

We introduced house points and the children now have a special carpet place. The children have earnt lots of house points for their teams and we look forward to counting them all tomorrow.

Please see below some photographs of our learning from our first 2 weeks in school.

Friday 8th September - Our first week in school

We have had an amazing first week with the children. We have really enjoyed getting to know all the children and seeing them making lots of new friends. 

We have had lots of fun playing matching games and learning number songs. We enjoyed singing the nursery rhyme '1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive' and a dinosaur counting song. In Phonics, we played lots of fun listening games. We enjoyed listening to the story called The Colour Monster. 

We have learnt our new class routine. We know where to put all our belongings and played a fun game to find our names. In circle time, we snag a song to introduce ourselves and our names to our friends. The song is below. We made lots of marks in our writing area and some children chose to paint on our easel. The children also enjoyed showing their friends all the exciting things from home in their chatter bags. 

Welcome to Reception

Class of 2023-24

This page will be updated at the end of every week with photographs and lots of information about our learning. 

We can't wait for the year ahead. 

Thursday 13^th July

I can’t believe we only have one week left until the summer holidays. We have had a year full of laughter, fun, smiles and made so many memories together. The children have had an amazing first year in school and I am incredibly proud of them all.

This week, we have been learning about the seaside now and in the past. We were given a special box with lots of items from the past including a bucket and spade, penny lick, clothes children used to wear in the sea and lots of pictures. We played a sorting game and sorted all the objects into now and in the past. We also enjoyed singing the song ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.’

The children have thoroughly enjoyed playing with our puppet theatre. Yesterday, the children were very excited to find real Punch and Judy puppets. The children worked in groups and performed lots of funny shows. Lots of the shows involved the crocodile stealing the long sausages! We listed to the story The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch and answered lots of questions in core story time.

In Maths, we used our problem-solving skills to build bridges. We worked in groups to build the longest and strongest bridges. We measured the length and strength of the bridges using bean bags. The children worked well as a team and used fantastic problem-solving skills. We have been talking about animals and their babies. We played a matching game and matched the animals.

Tomorrow, it is Pirate day! The children have enjoyed helping to make a fantastic Pirate area in our classroom. They decided to bring the large wooden blocks inside and made a boat. They also drew a treasure map and pretended to be pirates. We can’t wait for our Pirate Day tomorrow.

Thursday 6^th July

We have had another busy week in school. As part of our Phonics this week, we have played lots of games to see all the sounds and tricky words the children know. We were blown away with how well they did! I am very proud of all the children.

In Literacy, we made a puppet theatre. The children chose to use blue paint to decorate the box. We cut out the front and some children helped to stick the sides together to make it stand up on the table. Yesterday, we made puppets and performed shows to our friends. The children have enjoyed playing with our puppets too. This morning, we talked about Punch and Judy and watched a Punch and Judy show during carpet time. 

We have been learning all about the  different seasons. We learnt a song about summer, made ice lollies and we treated the children to an ice cream. The children enjoyed pretending to come to the ice cream shop and buy their ice cream with pretend money. They were challenged to say whether the cost of their ice cream was an odd or even number. We sat together to eat our ice cream and enjoyed listening to a story.

This afternoon, the children took part in the races for Sports Day. They were fantastic! It was great to see all the children taking part and enjoying the fun races. Thank you to you all for your support and cheering the children on. 

Thursday 29^th June

I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of June. The children have had a fantastic week, full of lots of new learning. We have had lots of friends join us in class this week. Danny the Dinosaur joined us for Phonics and kept spelling words wrong. The children worked hard and corrected him. They decided to let him sleep in our classroom and some children made him chocolate in the creative area for his breakfast! The children have enjoyed having Danny in our class and wrote him lots of sentences and drew him pictures.

We also had a visit from Bod and Stephen. Bod is odd and Stephen is even. They were very naughty and threw numbers all over the classroom. The children worked very hard to sort them into odd and even numbers. I have made a video of the children singing the song and attached it below. Ask your child to sing the song at home and help them to learn the odd and even numbers. Here are the lyrics to the song…

I’m a number cruncher and my name is Stephen,

I like numbers if they’re even!

0 2 4 6 8

I’m a number cruncher and my name is Bod,

I like numbers if they’re odd!

1 3 5 7 9

On Monday, when we came into school, the children were very excited to see we had 4 butterflies in our net. We mixed sugar and water and put it into the net for the butterflies. After lunch, we went into our eco garden and set the butterflies free. The children have really enjoyed learning about life cycles. During core story time, we read a story all about the life cycle of a frog. The children also enjoyed watching a video all about the life cycle and some children even chose to make a frog in the creative area.

We have enjoyed talking about Summer. The children packed a suitcase and chose what to put inside. They labelled all the things in their suitcase. We set up an ice cream parlour outside and the children have spent lots of time pretending to buy and sell ice creams.

Have a look at the photographs below of our learning from the past few weeks.

Thursday 22^nd June

In PE this week, we enjoyed using tennis rackets to guide the balls around cones. We also used the rackets to push balls to our friends and through cones. The children showed fantastic control and really enjoyed the fun games. Our class caterpillars have turned into chrysalides. They are currently hanging from the lid and we have put them into our large net. The children are very excited to watch them turn into butterflies. We continued our learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. The children coloured a butterfly and drew the life cycle inside.

In Maths, we have been learning all about grouping and sharing. The children enjoyed sharing and grouping animals into equal amounts. This morning, we learnt about odd and even numbers. We sorted the Numicon into odd and even numbers and matched them to the amount.

Thursday 15^th June

We have had another hot and sunny week in school. In PE on Monday, we focussed on doing the crab walk. We learnt how to do the crab and held it for 5 seconds. We then completed 5 different stations with fun activities. In Maths, we have been learning all about doubling. We sang a fun doubling song and tried to learn the doubles off by heart. The video link is below.

We continued our learning about under the sea. We used celery to print patterns on a fish and wrote sentences all about our favourite sea creatures. The children really enjoyed watching a video with lots of sea creatures. They particularly liked looking at the turtles. We have our very own caterpillars in class. The children have enjoyed seeing them grow over the past few days. We learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly and tomorrow we will be painting butterflies. 

In Phonics, we have moved onto Phase 4. There are no new sounds introduced in Phase 4. I have attached a document below with the Phonics Sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.

Thursday 8^th June

We have had a fantastic first week back in school. In our key worker groups, the children told us all about what they did over half term. The children enjoyed looking at pictures from my wedding day and they asked lots of questions about my wedding! They enjoyed eating some chocolates from the day too!  

As part of Environment Day, we read the story ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley.’ The story is all about a discarded plastic carrier bag, who is swept into the sea. As he drifts through the ocean waves, he is mistaken for a jellyfish and swallowed by a series of unsuspecting animals. We talked all about pollution and how we can look after the earth. We went litter picking and for a nature walk. We chopped up petals and used a pestle and mortar to make some perfume. We also used different flowers and things we found on the nature walk to create nature art. We talked about how we can care for the environment and made a promise. The children enjoyed learning an environment song. The video for the song is below.  

The children worked hard in Maths this week, focussing on addition. They enjoyed playing our alien addition game and solving tricky sums. In phonics, we have been revisiting all the sounds we have learnt so far.

New tricky word: little

Thursday 25^th May

On Tuesday, the children worked hard to write their invitation for our picnic. We hope you liked it. Thank you to you for joining us for our Teddy Bear’s Picnic yesterday. The sun was shining, and the children really enjoyed eating their lunch with you all. Well done for finding the name of the bear too!

The children enjoyed telling their friends all about their favourite bear in circle time. We have also been busy drawing pictures of flowers. We looked at the detail in the flowers and carefully drew them. We then used water colours to paint them.

We have been enjoying lots of time outside in the sun. The children asked to paint stones they found and made bubbles. They have been enjoying playing in our outdoor small world area and some children made a fire and pretended to toast marshmallows, just like on our class trip!

This week in Phonics, we have been consolidating our learning from this half term.

Have a wonderful half term! 

Wednesday 17^th May

Yesterday, we went on our class trip to WildWood Days. We all an amazing day! The children loved playing on the rope swing, bike, climbing post, mud kitchen and music area. We found lots of mini-beasts and looked at all the nature. We toasted marshmallows, made tree cookies, clay mini-beasts, built dens and fed the chickens. Look at the photographs below of our fantastic day!

Today, we wrote all about our trip to the woods. We have also been busy finding lots of different ways to sort mini-beasts. The children’s marvellous monkey task this week is to use the watercolours and paint their favourite mini-beast.

Phonics

New sound: er

Tricky words: there

Thursday 11^th May

The children really enjoyed our Coronation activities. We made crowns, sung the national anthem, made a throne and flags. The children even worked together to make a long paper chain for our classroom. This week, we became Marvellous Monkeys! At the beginning of every week, we will set out one or two challenges for the children to complete independently during exploring time. The children complete the activity on the monkey table in the classroom. Once the children have completed the challenge, they post it into the post box and move their picture. This week, the challenge was to draw a vegetable and write a sentence about it. We had some fantastic pictures and writing posted in the post box when we had a look this morning! The children have enjoyed being marvellous monkeys and completing the challenge.

On Tuesday, we wrote instructions for how to make vegetable soup. Yesterday, we went on a mini beast hunt. Ask your child what we found! We enjoyed singing the mini-beast song. Here is the link to song if your child wants to sing it at home:

If I Were A Minibeast - Makaton Signing with Singing Hands and Out of the Ark Music - YouTube

In PSHE, we have started to learn about money. We made a garden centre shop and pretended to buy some vegetables. In Maths, we learnt how to match shapes and patterns. We made a structure using cubes and challenged a friend to copy the pattern.

Phonics

New sounds: air, ure

Tricky Words: some

Thursday 4th May

Yesterday, the children really enjoyed making vegetable soup. They worked hard to peel, grate and chop all the vegetables. The children decided they wanted to blend the soup using the blender. It was absolutely delicious! We are looking forward to writing some instructions for how to make the soup.

Our bean plants have grown! The children watered them daily and every seed has grown. This morning, the children helped to re-plant the beans into our large planters outside. They were fascinated by the seed and the roots when we took them out of the soil. In RE, we continued our learning about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. In Maths, we have been exploring numbers to 20. We ordered numbers to 20 and made a number line. We were then sneaky kangaroos and hid a number or swapped some numbers around. The children then had to work out which numbers the kangaroo had changed on the number line. The children enjoyed this activity and asked to take it home for homework tomorrow! We also completed subtraction from 10 and 20.

Tomorrow, the children can come to school wearing red, white and blue for the coronation. We have lots of fun activities planned for the day, including our special coronation lunch. Due to the bank holiday on Monday next week, we are hoping to complete PE outside on Wednesday morning. Please make sure your child has their PE kit in school. 

Phonics - we revisited our previous learning this week. 

New Phonics sounds: ear, oi

New tricky words: so, were

Thursday 27th April

The children really enjoyed the walk to the Wetlands yesterday. Mr Small, Phil and Mike led the walk and told us lots of information about the Wetlands. They are all trustees of the Wetlands. We used binoculars and spotted lots of different birds, plants, flowers and mini-beasts. We also found a duck egg and a hole, dug by a fox. Have a look on the Grimsargh Wetlands page and ask your child to point to what they saw. Following our walk, we wrote a recount and made thank you cards for Mr Small, Phil and Mike. 

Explore by Season | Grimsargh Wetlands

We have also been learning all about plants. On Tuesday, we planted our own seeds. We sang a song to help us remember the steps for how to plant the seeds. We are keeping our pots on the windowsill and hopefully they will start to grow soon. The children have also been busy putting soil into our planters in our outdoor area. Over the next week we are going to plant some seeds in their too and hopefully they will grow. The children used 3d shapes to make repeating patterns. We also made numbers 11-20 with the Numicon and talked about the number patterns. In RE, we have started a new topic about good news. We pretended to be on television and shared our good news with our friends.

New Phonics sounds: ear, oi

New tricky words: so, were

Thursday 20th April 

We have had a fantastic week in school. The children enjoyed sharing news and telling us all about their half term. They particularly enjoyed eating lots of chocolate! We started our new topic by looking in our new talking basket. We found mini-beats, a butterfly and caterpillar, gardening tools, seeds, a watering can and lots more.

In Maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes. We went on a shape hunt in the classroom and outside and talked about the shapes we found. We also explored if the 3D shapes could roll, slide or stack. The children also enjoyed singing a number bond song. The song is below so you can sing it together at home.

In Literacy, we have been reading the story ‘Stanley’s Stick’. We went outside and found lots of sticks. We used our imagination and pretended to turn our stick into something exciting, just like Stanley did. Some children made wands, dinosaurs, stars, boats or even themselves! We are looking forward to writing about our sticks tomorrow.

New Phonics sounds: ow, ur

New Tricky words: come, do

Number Bond Song

The children have really enjoyed singing this song this week. Sing it together at home!

(to the tune row row row your boat)

9 and 1 are number bonds,

8 and 2 are friends,

7 and 3,

6 and 4,

5 and 5 are twins.

Row row row your boat,

Gently down the stream,

Don’t forget the other pair,

10 and 0…scream!

Thursday 30^th March

We are nearly at the end of another busy half term in school. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who came to our Art Exhibition. I am sure you are all incredibly proud of the children’s work and we are very grateful for your continued support with your child’s learning. The children performed the songs beautifully and really enjoyed showing you all their work.

This week, the children have been busy learning lots of facts about space and making a fact file. We talked about non-fiction books and looked at lots of books about space. We enjoyed reading the story ‘Whatever Next’ and pretended to go to space in a cardboard box, just like the bear in the story. The children used their imagination and made their own stories.

The children have really enjoyed performing lots of songs on our stage outside. They have been working together to writing the lyrics during exploring time and then performed their songs to the class. Some children even decided to be the conductors and others played instruments alongside the children singing. It has been wonderful to see the amazing team work and smiles on the children’s faces as they perform to us. Yesterday, we enjoyed our Cricket session and we are looking forward to a Dodgeball session tomorrow. In RE, we have been learning the Easter story and attended whole school Mass in church this morning.

In Maths, we have been comparing amounts to 10. We counted to 20 and built a tower and compared the number of bricks in our towers. Some children made a number line to 10. We also enjoyed playing in the water tray where we had to find 2 pieces of Numicon which added together to make 10 in the water beads.

This week in Phonics, we consolidated our learning so far. In your child’s book bag, they have a grid with the phonics sounds we have learnt so far and all the tricky words.

Please see the photographs below of our busy week in school. I hope you have a fantastic Easter, and we look forward to seeing the children when we return.

Thursday 23^rd March

This week has been assessment week in school. We are incredibly proud of all the children in Reception class and the amazing progress they have made with their learning this year.

The children have started making their rockets. We looked at lots of different pictures of rockets and talked about the different parts. We drew a picture of our design and made it on the floor with the materials. We talked about how we will attach all the parts together and what we will use to decorate it. The children have started decorating their rockets today and will hopefully finish them tomorrow. The children are excited to show you their rockets at our Art Exhibition on Tuesday. Thank you for all the materials you sent into school for our rockets.

Phonics sounds: ar, or

Tricky words: have, one  

Thursday 16^th March

The children have enjoyed learning all about Space this week. We have started to learn a song all about going to Space in a rocket. We made aliens and wrote all about them. On Tuesday, the children were very surprised to find their aliens went missing. They made posters to stick around school and worked together to make a trap. In PE, we practised our under arm and over arm throwing. The children enjoyed trying to throw the bean bags through different parts of the climbing frame. Yesterday, we looked at the painting ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent van Gogh. We looked closely at the colours and lines on the painting. We have started to make our own picture using different media. The children enjoyed experimenting with water colour paints and wax crayons on large pieces of paper.

In Maths, we have been representing and sorting numbers 9 and 10. We used a tens frame to represent the numbers. Some children made their own tens frame outside using sticks. We ordered numbers to 10 and talked about the composition of numbers 9 and 10.

In Phonics this week, we revisited the sounds and tricky words from last week.

Phonics sounds: oo as in ‘food’ and oo as in ‘book’

Tricky words: when, said

Thursday 9^th March

We have had a busy week in school. In PE, we practiced our throwing and catching. We enjoyed playing a target game where we had to hit the cones with beanbags. We enjoyed watching a video about a little girl who lives in Africa. We looked in her house and her school. We compared it to our own houses and school. We learned that she must walk to get water every day. We learnt all about life in Africa and sorted lots of pictures.

In Literacy, we have been focussing on full stops. We wrote sentences to label pictures. We spotted all the digraphs in our words too. We enjoyed listening to the story ‘Stuck’ by Oliver Jeffers which the children chose to buy on World Book Day from St Catherine’s Hospice. In Maths, we played lots of games to consolidate our learning about addition. We also learned about length. We ordered the children from shortest to the tallest and measured our feet. We also made play-dough snakes and compared the length of the snakes using shortest and longest. 

New Phonics sounds: oo as in ‘food’ and oo as in ‘book’

New Tricky words: when, said

Thursday 1st March

On Monday, we had a visitor come into school who showed us lots of different science experiments. We had to predict what was going to happen. Our favourite experiment was when we made a fizzy drink explode. It nearly touched the ceiling!

Yesterday, we had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day. The children looked amazing in their hats. We read the story Elmer and decorated our classroom door as Elmer. The children had the opportunity to buy a book, year 5 came and read our favourite stories to us, we made animal masks and went on a book treasure hunt outside.

In Maths, we continued to learn about addition. We played a game with dice and dominoes and wrote addition sums. We learned all about the numbers 18 and 19. In PE, the children enjoyed playing our star game. We learnt how to do an over arm and under arm throw. We enjoyed throwing lots of different equipment into hoops.  

We continued our learning about Africa. We talked about animals in Africa and made an animal out of a paper plate. We also performed some African dancing and made an African necklace. The children used cotton buds to decorate their necklaces.  

Please see the photographs below of our learning this week.

Thursday 23^rd February

Welcome back! We have had a fantastic week in school. We enjoyed listening to all the children’s news about half term during Key Worker time.

We have started our learning about our wonderful world – far away. We looked in our new talking basket to begin our topic. Inside the basket we found lots of different flags, the Eiffel Tower, a rocket, an astronaut, an aeroplane, and an Australian Hat. We enjoyed listening to the story ‘Handa’s Surprise.’ We retold the story using dance in the hall. We also wrote a list of all the different fruits in Handa’s basket.

In Maths, we played a matching pairs game and compared numbers 6, 7 and 8. We also learned how to combine two sets of objects together. In PE, the children found lots of different ways of being a star. They balanced using their hands and feet. We travelled along equipment and balanced on benches and boxes. The children jumped off and made a star shape. They enjoyed playing our catch a star game for the warm up too.

We also compared Longridge to Africa. We talked about Africa and looked at lots of pictures of houses and schools.

New Phonics Sounds: igh, oa

Tricky Words: are, like

Thursday 9^th February

Our final week of the half term has been very exciting. This week, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week. We took part in mindfulness activities, played a skittles feelings game, made friendship bracelets, wrote kind messages to our friends, sang songs with Miss Borgen and took part in a talent show. We enjoyed playing lots of turn taking games and completing jigsaws with our friends. We are looking forward to wearing something that makes us feel happy to school tomorrow. The children have been amazing this half term and made fantastic progress with their learning. We hope you all have a wonderful half term with your family! 

Phonics

Our Phonics Sounds: ai ee

Tricky Words: all, her

Thursday 2^nd February

This week, we have compared our school now and in the past. Tomorrow morning, we will be going for a walk to the old school house, down the back lane. We looked at photographs of school in the past and been on a tour of the school to compare the rooms. We also made a video of our school for new children to watch and find out about our wonderful school. In PE, the children learnt lots of different ways of travelling on their hands and feet. The children enjoyed listening to the story ‘What the ladybird heard.’ Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh used a map to try and steal the cow. Some children then chose to make a treasure map and we set up a pirate area outside. In Maths, our focus numbers this week are 16 and 17. We continued our learning about capacity. We also used the scales to measure the weight of different objects. We compared the objects using the language heavy and light. We also sorted numbers 6, 7, 8 and learned how to make each number using Numicon.

Phonics

This week in Phonics, we re-capped our learning from the past few weeks. Below are the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.

Our Phonics Sounds: s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss j v w x y z zz sh ch th ng qu

Tricky Words: I, no, to, go, into, the, you, they, was, my, be, he, she, we, me

Thursday 26^th January

This week, we have been celebrating Chinese New Year. We listened to the story about The Great Race, made dragons, danced, wrote our names in Chinese, decorated our classroom, and made a rabbit. The children also really enjoyed eating prawn crackers!

In Literacy, we have learnt the story 'Mr Gumpy’s Outing' off by heart. We worked together to think of lots of different actions for all the animals in the story. We innovated the story and added our own animal into Mr Gumpy’s boat. In Maths, our focus numbers are 14 and 15. The children enjoyed making the numbers using Numicon, writing the number and learning one more and one less than the number. We have also been learning about capacity. We enjoyed filling cups with different amounts of rice and comparing the amounts. 

In PE, the children turned into monkeys! They were challenged to climb under and over lots of different equipment. The children particularly enjoyed climbing under and over our climbing frame.

Phonics

New sounds: th, ng

Tricky Words: you, they

Thursday 19^th January

Yesterday, we had lots of fun playing in the snow. We wrapped up warm, put our wellies on and went outside. We found lots of signs of Winter. We wrote phonics sounds, our number of the day and our names in the snow. We played some Phonics games and even made a snowman!  The children named their snowman 'Snowy.' We then read a story all about animals that live in the Arctic. The children asked to make some iceburgs for our Arctic water tray. We put water in the freezer and waited for the water to turn into ice. We have also continued our learning about Longridge. The children painted a cardboard box and turned it into a building in Longridge. They also drew their own map of Longridge. In Maths, we have been writing addition sums to make 4 and 5.

Sounds we have learnt this week: qu, ch, sh

Tricky Words: my, was

Thursday 12th January 

We have had another busy week in school. Please see below some photographs of our learning this week. We begun our learning about Longridge. We know that our school is near Longridge. We looked at photographs of different parts of Longridge including the Library, Post Office, Aldi and High Schools. The children learned that there are lots of shops on Berry Lane and a long time ago there used to be a train station. We used the construction materials to make a large map of Longridge. 

Maths 

In Maths we have been focussing on one less. We played lots of games to help us understand one less. The children particularly enjoyed standing in a line and pretending to be on a bus, stopping and letting one person get off, then counting how many people were left on the bus. Ask your child at home to tell you one less than numbers to 10. You could play the bus game too! 

We have continued learning about a different number every day. We have been learning about numbers 11 and 12 this week. Write the number and ask your child to tell you what it is. 

Literacy and Phonics

The children enjoyed following a recipe to learn how to make Rice Krispie cakes. The children wrote instructions and enjoyed eating them on Wednesday. We invited 2 year 1 children into our class and taught them how to make the cakes. 

Sounds we have learnt this week: x, ,y, z, zz

Tricky words: we, me, be 

Thursday 5th January

Happy New Year to you all! We have really enjoyed seeing the children again and hearing all about the exciting things they have been doing over Christmas. The children enjoyed telling their friends all about their Christmas holidays in key worker time.

In Literacy, we read the story ‘In every house on every street.’ We talked about our own houses and what we use the different rooms for. We drew a picture of our favourite room and wrote some words about it. In Maths, we have been learning all about number 5. We used Numicon to find different ways of making 5. The children helped me to write addition sums and some children even wrote their own on a whiteboard. We made different shapes with 5 blocks and compared the different shapes. We also talked about one more and one less than numbers to 10. As part of our morning routine, the children have enjoyed learning about a new number every day. 

We shared our topic basket with objects related to our new topic. We found a map, brick, house, people, pig and pictures of Longridge. We are looking forward to learning all about our local area next week. In RE, we started our new topic called 'Celebrating.' We met our new friend Bobby the Bear and celebrated his birthday. We talked about lots of different things we celebrate with our friends and families. 

Phonics

New sounds we have learnt this week: j, v, w

Tricky words: he, she

Phonics game - write the following words on pieces of paper. Hide them in your house. Ask your child to go on a hunt to find the words. Bring them back and read them. 

jet, vest, will, wig, van

Thursday 15^th December

We have had a very fun week in school. The children were amazing in the Nativity show on Tuesday. We are so proud of them all for their fantastic singing and dancing. We hope you enjoyed the show. On Wednesday, we enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner wearing our Christmas jumper. We pulled crackers and sang Christmas songs. We have also been learning the Nativity Story. The children worked in groups to sequence the story using pictures and used role play to retell the story. They have enjoyed playing with our Nativity scene during exploring time.

Thursday 8^th December

Our Elf has continued to get up to mischief this week. He has been watching us all week and left us some challenges. We have been working hard to practise the Nativity songs, ready for our performance next week. Thank you for coming to watch our performance of the gingerbread Man story. The children really enjoyed retelling the story and we are very proud of the children for learning the story off by heart. In RE, we have been learning the Nativity Story. The children have enjoyed playing with our Nativity scene and retelling the story with their friends.

Our learning

We have been assessing the children to see all the sounds and tricky words the children have learned this half term. The children have made fantastic progress with their reading. Thank you for all your support with your child’s reading at home.

New sounds we have learnt this week: ll, ss

Tricky words: I, no, go, to, the, into

Friday 2^nd November

We have had a very busy week in school. The children really enjoyed the pantomime on Thursday. In RE, we made a class advent calendar which we have hung on our washing line. The children enjoyed decorating our Christmas tree and our classroom. We have a class Elf who seems to be getting up to lots of mischief. On Thursday, we found him reading a story in our reading corner and this morning he was hanging from the washing line.

Literacy/Phonics

We have continued our learning all about The Gingerbread Man. We are looking forward to our performance of the story for you all on Tuesday.

We have been learning some new sounds this week. 

New sounds: f, ff, l

Tricky words: I, no, go, to, the, into

Maths

In Maths we have been learning lots of positional language e.g. behind, in front, under, in, on, between

We have also been learning all about number 4. Some children made the number 4 ‘Numberblock’ during exploring time. We have been talking about the composition of number 4.

Extra homework challenges:

1. Go and hide a teddy in your house. Ask your child to go and find it. When they find it, ask your child to describe where it is using positional language. E.g. The teddy is under the chair.
2. See if your child can tell you some numbers which add together to make 4. E.g. 3 and 1, 2 and 2, 4 and 0.

Thursday 24^th October

We had lots of fun this morning completing the Superhero assault course for our chosen charity, St Catherine’s Hospice. The children were amazing superheroes! They climbed onto equipment, jumped off, went through tunnels, over bridges and lots more. Please see the photographs below. We will let you know how much money we raised soon.

Literacy/Phonics

We have continued our learning all about The Gingerbread Man. Yesterday, we made some delicious gingerbread biscuits. The children followed the recipe and measured all the ingredients. They put them into the oven. Luckily, none of the Gingerbread biscuits escaped and the children ate them all up at the end of the day. The children labelled some pictures of things they used to make the biscuits.

We have been consolidating our learning in Phonics this week. Please see below all the sounds and tricky words we have learnt so far.

Sounds (phonemes): s a t p i n m d g o c k ck u b r h e

Tricky words: I, no, go, to, the, into

Topic and RE

In RE, we have begun our learning about Advent. We made an advent calendar together which we will open every day in December. We have been learning all about Florence Nightingale. Last week, the children wanted to make a hospital in our classroom. We then decided to compare hospitals now and in the past. We learnt all about Florence Nightingale and how she was a very special nurse. We looked at lots of pictures and used role play to compare the hospitals, no and in the past.

Thursday 17^th October

What a busy week! We have celebrated Safety Week and National Nursery Rhyme Week. Please see below all the exciting things we have been doing.

Literacy/Phonics

In Literacy, we have been learning to orally retell the story ‘The Gingerbread Man.’ The children worked in groups to choose actions for different characters in the story.  The children wore masks and pretended to be characters from the story. The children enjoyed going to the Library and choosing a new book to share at home.

Sounds we have been learning this week in Phonics: h, b, r

Tricky words: no, go

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning all about shapes. We went on a shape hunt, made shape pictures and had lots of fun making shape patterns. The shapes we have been learning about are circles, triangles, rectangles and squares. We talked about the similarities and differences between the shapes.

Go on a shape hunt in your house and see how many different shapes you can find!   

RE

In RE, have started a new topic called ‘Birthdays.’ We had a birthday party. We played pass the parcel, danced to music and even ate some chocolate cake.

We also talked about looking after God’s wonderful world. We went litter picking and recycled some of Miss Ollerenshaw’s rubbish from home.

Topic

This week is safety week. We have been learning all about people in the community who keep us safe. We used role play to show how people in the community help us. We dressed up as nurses, doctors, firemen and policemen. The children decided to turn our home corner into a hospital.  This morning, we talked about road safety. We talked about how to cross the road safely. We stood by the church and crossed the road safely. Mrs Poulton surprised us by driving past. We had to make sure we waited for her to go past before we checked the road was clear and then crossed the road. Miss Ollerenshaw pretended to be a lollypop lady too.

The children have also really enjoyed singing and learning lots of nursery rhymes. Ask your child to sing their favourite rhyme to you!

Thursday 10^th November

Literacy/Phonics

In Literacy, we have continued our learning about Supertato. On Monday afternoon, we found somebody had stuck our carrots onto the table. The children guessed it was the evil pea and decided to make a trap to try and catch the evil pea. We also made wanted posters and stuck them around school. We told other classes to watch out for the evil pea and let us know if they saw him. On Wednesday, we came into school and found the evil pea was caught in Oliver’s trap. The evil pea and his friends were splatted all over the table. The children have continued to make lots of traps, just in case he returns! 

Sounds we have been learning this week in Phonics: ck, e, u

Tricky words: to, I

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning one more and one less. We played a game with bean bags and buckets and compared the amounts in the buckets. Ask your child to tell you one more and one less than numbers to 5.  

RE

In RE, we shared our Baptism pictures with our friends. During class worship, we talked about Remembrance Day and made poppies. We painted the window display in our classroom.

Topic

The children wanted to learn all about Sleeping Beauty. We read the story and retold it with our friends. In PE, we retold the story Jack and The Beanstalk using actions. We also completed lots of jumping activities and even learned how to play hopscotch. We have been enjoying playing hopscotch in our outdoor area.

Thursday 3^rd October

We have had a fantastic week back in school.

Please see below some of the activities we have been doing this week.

Literacy/Phonics

In Literacy, we have been reading the story Supertato. We had lots of fun making our own Supertato. We described our Supertato to our friends during key worker time. The children also enjoyed listening to the story ‘Funny Bones’ and making skeletons.

Sounds we have been learning this week in Phonics: o, c, k

Tricky word: the

Maths

In Maths, we have been sorting and matching numbers 1, 2, and 3. We hid the numbers around the classroom and played a matching game to match the number to the quantity. We sorted numbers 1, 2 and 3 and some children were even able to tell us one more or one less.

RE

In RE, our topic is ‘Welcoming.’ We visited our church before half term and talked about how we are welcomed into God’s family. We looked at pictures of our visit to church and recalled the different parts in the church. We have also begun our learning about Baptism. If your child has been Baptised, please send a picture in of their special day to show everyone. We attended Mass on Tuesday with the whole school to celebrate All Saints Day.

Topic

Our topic this half term is Fantastic Fantasy. We started our topic by looking in our talking basket and discussing all the things inside. We found a knight’s helmet and sword, characters from fairy tales, superheroes, and lots more. The children asked for a Superhero Area outside. They worked together to decide what they wanted in the area and helped to set it up. We also celebrated Diwali, the festival of light. In PE, we experimented with different ways of moving. We learnt how to control an object by touching, pushing, patting, throwing, and catching.

In PSHE, we have been talking about all the things that make us special. A dinosaur came to visit us and taught us his favourite song. We looked into a mirror and sang his song. Ask your child to sing it to you and talk about what makes them special. 

I'm special. You're special.

There's no-one quite like me.

I'm special. You're special.

Clap if you agree. (Clap, clap).

Thursday 20th October

What a busy first half term we have had. The children have been amazing and settled into school. We have enjoyed sharing lots of stories, learning numbers, patterns and comparing length in Maths. In Phonics, we enjoy learning new sounds and we are beginning to segment and blend words.

We enjoy learning through play during exploring time and we have made lots of new friends. Please see below some pictures of our learning from this half term.

Thursday 6th October

Art - Arcimboldo 

We have been learning all about the artist Arcimboldo. We made fruit faces in the style of Arcimboldo. We then cut out lots of pictures of our favourite fruit and made a face. 

Can you guess who is hiding behind the fruit face?

Our first few weeks in school

We have had an amazing first few weeks in school. We have made lots of new friends, settled into the school routines and had lots of fun. Our topic is Marvellous Me and we have been learning all about ourselves. We shared our chatter bags with our favourite things and talked about our wonderful families. 

In Literacy, we have really enjoyed reading the story 'Owl Babies' and retelling the story. Mr Fitzgibbon gave us an egg. We are so excited to see what is inside when it hatches. We have learnt the phonics sounds s, a and t and played lots of fun games to help us to segment and blend. We have taken part in collective worship and learnt our special school prayers.