Welcome to Reception

2020/21

Week beginning 3.1.22

Merry Christmas from everyone in Reception

As the children come to the end of their very first term at school, we would just like to say how immensely proud we are of each and everyone of them, for the enthusiasm, hard work and resilience they have shown during these strange times. In addition, I would like to say thank you for the support you have given from home, it is very much appreciated by us all. 

Finally, we would like to end the term with something truly delightful! Each class has been learning  Christmas songs as part of their music lessons over the past few weeks and we would like to share them with you. Enjoy...

Week beginning 23rd November 2020

This week began with children feeling and describing jelly, foam, ice, lego, waves, spiders and a variety of other things in preparation for retelling the Bear Hunt story. The children thought about what kind of hunt they could go on and what it might be like to have to go through cold, slippery ice or hot, soft sand. They spent time practising ready for group performances to the class.

In phonics, we have continued to sound out and blend words. We have also focused on the tricky words I, go, to and the. We encourage children to recognise these by sight. These could be written on post-it notes at home, stuck around the room and you could ask children to run and tap them as you say them. Great exercise too!

Week beginning 16th November

We have been reading and learning to retell the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. We have explored the different settings in the story and used scissors to make collages to represent all of the obstacles the children go through on their hunt! In our phonics we have been learning the phonemes 'c' and 'k' and practising blending sounds to read words, and segmenting them to write words. In maths we explored numbers 4 and 5 and thought about different ways of arranging 4 or 5 objects.

Autumn Term 2

WEEK BEGINNING: 2nd November 2020

 We have been very busy since we came back after half term! In Phonics, we have learnt the new phonemes 'm' and 'd', along with the tricky word 'I'. Everyone learnt how to make numbers in different ways and we looked at 2D shapes, thinking about their similarities and differences. During our Skills lessons we read 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' and  created our own versions of the story. We also had lots of fun finding out all about our five senses, playing listening, smelling and tasting games. In PE we are learning about balancing on different parts of our bodies. 

Autumn term 1 

Please find information regarding Autumn term one in the above slides. The slides include term dates, P.E days and general information. Please ensure you slide through all the slides in order to read all the important information.

WB: 19th October     Happy half term!

Wow! Can you believe that we have completed our first half term at school?

Time has flown by and we have already learnt so much and made some great friends along the way! This week we have continued to work hard at our Phonics and Maths but have also focused on finger strong activities and cutting. We have also loved our outdoor adventures and thoroughly enjoyed creating mud pictures and writing. 

WB:12th October   Reading 

The children have continued to explore a wide range of fiction and non fiction books, at school with their friends. We would like to thank you all for sharing your child's reading book at home. Please remember that this book needs to be inside their book bag everyday. Please add a comment or initial inside your child's reading record, once the book has been shared. Reading and sharing books is a great way to stimulate imagination, develop language skills and opens up a world of knowledge and opportunities whilst supporting learning. You should now also have access to 'Bug Club' please log on and explore the library. 

"You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax all you need is a book"- Dr Seuss

WB: 5th October  Goldilocks and The Three Bears and Nature Art 

This week the children have been working hard in Maths to sort items by size. They worked in teams to ensure that the bears had the correct bowls, cups and plates depending on their size. Outside they had great fun making nature portraits and clay pots using natural resources that they had found. 

WB:28th September  Phonics fun and sorting in Maths 

This week the children thoroughly enjoyed starting whole class Phonics. We focused on developing our speaking and listening skills. We enjoyed making our 'big ears' and listening carefully to all the different sounds that we could hear. We also explored rhyme, initial sounds, began to develop our fine motor skills and practiced forming letters within our names. In Maths we sorted objects by shape, size and colour and also used our language to explain how we had sorted them. 

WB: 21st September - Outdoor adventures 

WB: 14th September   Welcome to Bushmead 

We have had a great first week welcoming all the children to Bushmead Primary School. The children have enjoyed making new friends, meeting their teachers and exploring their new learning environment. 

Reception 2019/2020

Thank you so much for all the wonderful hats and cakes you made for the competition.

Winners will be announced shortly.

Help us support this very worthy cause, which is close to our hearts.

Please click here to donate:

Just Giving – Bushmead Primary School Fundraising for Brain Tumour Research

Wednesday- Mathematics websites

Game 1: 'hit the button' https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Game 2: 'make 10, top of the class' http://www.snappymaths.com/addition/make10/interactive/make10totc.htm

Dear Parents,

We have received emails and have had conversations with parents who undoubtedly have questions about home learning. Here are some of the frequently asked questions we hope this helps.

How will I know where to access my child's learning?

You will receive a parent mail to inform you that your child’s learning for the day has been set. This will be done daily between 9-10am.

Where and what will the learning tasks be?

All home learning will be on this page and resources if needed will be listed below. Some days this may include the use of websites or it may include using basic everyday household objects. There will be a Mathematics, Phonics or Literacy and a Topic task daily.

How can I share my home learning with my child’s teacher?

All parents should have now received their teachers email address. Please email feedback of the tasks to the teacher by the end of the school day (3:30). These do not need to be extensive they can be general comments or photographs. Year group feedback will then be displayed on this page through children's work. Please note that if you email any queries teachers will only respond within term time and school day hours.

How can we continue to read at home?

Please log into bug club. Each child has their log in details stuck inside their reading records with a guide of how to do this. Teachers will be monitoring this and will ensure that your child always has books available.

It is important during this time that we all stay healthy, active, safe and positive.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs Billington

Foundation Stage Year Leader

How you can help to support your child’s reading during home learning?

As your child develops into a confident reader, ask him/her to read through the book and ask them to clarify meaning of any unfamiliar words in the text. You could also stop the story at any point to make predictions or discuss the different characters or setting. It is essential that children understand what they are reading. Until children can comprehend the majority of what they are reading they should remain on that book or similar texts. It is also important that children tell stories using their imagination, they could do this by looking at the pictures in a sibling’s book. 

Online reading resources and support during home learning 

Phonics play provides games and resources that we use to support children’s phonics knowledge at Bushmead Primary school. In reception we are currently working within phase three, but often reconsolidate our learning by revisiting phase two. They also offer a range of short and funny comics that can be viewed on screen or printed out. Phonics play are currently offering a free subscription please visit the website for information at- https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/  

Bug Club is a Literacy program designed to support the effective and engaging teaching of reading. All children in Foundation Stage have access to this. You can find their login details inside their reading log book. Teachers will ensure that children have allocated books. You can log on by visiting https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0

Oxford Owl You can sign up for free and access e books online. You can select a phonic phase and also share fiction and non fiction texts. Select phase 2 and 3 books.https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page 

Learning Log

At Bushmead we are supporting Brain Tumour Research.

On Friday 27^th March children will be able to wear a hat of their choice to school.

Have a look at the hat quiz and discuss who you think could wear these hats?

You could draw the people who might wear them or use your phonics to write their names.

You could also take some photos of yourself wearing different hats in different places.

Due: Wednesday 1^st April

WB: 9^th March   Supertato

This week we have shared the story of ‘Supertato’. We have made predictions about what we thought would happen next in the story. We have designed our own super vegetables and have written character descriptions using our phonics knowledge. The Children have also been comparing the weight and lengths of their vegetables using cubes and balancing scales.

Over the next week we will be creating our own stories and ensuring that our super vegetables do not get trapped by the evil pea!

Thursday 27th February

A little bit of snow doesn't stop Reception from going outside! We had great fun playing in the snow in our boots. We talked about the properties of snow, made snowballs and worked together in teams to create some larger spheres.

WB: 24^TH February    Word of the Week: Healthy and unhealthy

At the beginning of the week we shared the story of ‘Mr Wolfs Pancakes’. We celebrated Pancake Day by writing lists of key ingredients, ordering the method to make pancakes, pancake races and then we finally got to make and taste our own delicious pancakes!

This week we have also been thinking about the different foods that we like and dislike. We have discussed the importance of a balanced diet and have also started to think about where our food comes from.

WB 3rd February                   Word of the Week: Friends

This week we have been looking at the story of the 'Rainbow Fish'. We have been thinking about what makes a good friend and we have been trying to demonstrate this through our play.

W/B 27th January        Word of the Week: shape

This week we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We looked at the story of Chinese New Year and made dragons using 2D shapes and enjoyed creating 3D dragons with our junk modelling. In our music lessons we have been learning to sing and move to lots of different songs.

WB: 20th January       Word of the week: Fact

This week we have been learning about bears. We have loved learning facts that we didn't know about bears. Did you know that bears can sleep for up to 20 hours a day?! 

At the end of the week we became authors and illustrators to create our own fact files full of facts that we had remembered. 

WB: 13th January

This week we have been continuing with our work on bears. The children have enjoyed using musical instruments to recreate the atmosphere from 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.

They have also been reading and remembering facts about different types of bears and making their own fact files. In computer lessons the children have been learning to use the keyboard and writing more facts about bears.

WB: 7^th January              Word of the Week: Setting

‘We’re Going on a Bear hunt’

This week the children will be sharing the wonderful story ‘Were Going on a Bear Hunt’. During this week we will begin to talk about and experience the different parts of the journey that the family took before meeting the big brown bear. The children will be feeling different materials and textures, creating and completing simple captions and sentences, creating their own bear masks, designing and creating bear patterns and reading and discussing simple sentences.

WB: 18th November         Word of the week: Thank you

We have been learning about the importance of Remembrance Day and why we celebrate it. Over the week we created our own poppies, learnt a poppy poem and made a thank you card for someone special to us. 

WB: 11^TH November                   Word of the Week: Fireworks

The children have enjoyed creating some beautiful firework pictures using paint in different ways. In Literacy the children have been creating their own name rockets and have followed, written and ordered instructions in order to create their own delicious chocolate sparklers.

WB: 4^th November     Word of the Week: length

Wow!! What a fabulous day we had yesterday meeting the four different owls that came to visit us. The children were really excited and thoroughly enjoyed holding them using the special gloves, asking lots of questions, hearing lots of facts and watching them fly across the hall.

WB: 28^TH October    Word of the Week: Brave

This week the children have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the story ‘Owl Babies’. The children have sequenced and retold the story using their fabulous owl spoons that they have made using paints and patterns. We have also created some beautiful pictures of a night time scene using chalk and black paper. The children have loved listening to other owl stories and have talked about feelings, similarities and differences between them all. The children then drew pictures of their favourite owl characters and wrote some wonderful labels, captions and sentences about them using their phonics knowledge.

The children are very excited about our Owl visit on Monday. Photos will be uploaded very soon!

WB: 7^th October       STEM Week     Word of the Week: Investigation

We have been carrying out many different investigations and creating our own inventions. We have made our own boats and tested if they floated or sunk depending on the materials that we used. We have also created our own rockets and launched them into space by using different sized bottles.

WB: 30^th September     Word of the Week: Family

This week the children have been talking about their families and homes. We have also been on a walk around the back of the school field, looking carefully at similarities and differences. Next week we will be looking at what we have inside our homes and be creating our own dream bedrooms. We will also be thinking about the importance of looking after ourselves and looking at healthy and unhealthy foods.  

WB: 23^rd September       Word of the Week: Family

Next week we will begin our Literacy, Mathematics and Skills sessions, which will focus on our topic for this term which is ‘All About Me’. In Literacy we will be developing our speaking and listening skills by talking about our families, homes, likes and dislikes. Within Mathematics we will be recognising simple 2D shapes and beginning to explore their properties.