Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!

This term, our topic is all about 'Potions'. We've all mastered our witch and wizardry powers, spells, and potion making skills! 

We've looked at a range of books to help us with our learning journey. Have a look below!

In our first week, we had a look at rhyming spells. We especially learnt a spell to make us super smart! Why don't you have a go below?

'Whirling, swirling, twirling too,

Make me smart with a bibbly boo!"

The fun didn't stop there! We then made magic potion bottles to turn us into spiderman, a ghost, a blueberry, and even a princess! It took us a long time to get these ingredients and we had to be very careful getting them without being caught! shhhhhh! Don't let anyone know we have them or else we can't make anymore!!😓

If you try mixing dragon scales, spiders, phoenix feathers, and add teaspoon of diamonds, you'll have made a potion to become a shiny, flying spiderman superhero! We've tried and tested it and it definitely works!

On top of that, to complete our witch and wizard look, we made our own magical wands! This really helped us to create the most fantastic spells! Check it out below and see our spells and maybe you can make one too!

"Bibbly, bobbly, boo, fairy dust, pumpkins, and bats. Turn me into a spider. Put webs on someone and make a cobweb. Put everyone in it and they will be stuck!"

"Hocus pocus! Get me a unicorn!" or even "Abracadabra! Make me into a beautiful princess! 

We have had a lot of fun this term and we let our imagination go wild! Below is our working wall which shows all the work we've done! 

Our First Term in Reception!!!

We've had a term full of fun here in Reception and have made such wonderful friends! 

Throughout this term we learnt all about different celebrations such as Diwali, Birthdays, Christmas etc. We have also made such fun things that we've taken home such as diva lamps, cupcakes, Christmas cards and calendars and so much more!!!

We've been practicing to improve our drawing every week! Have a look at our snowman!

We rode on bikes and scooters and made our own obstacle course as a team and helped each other go over, under and around till we all reached the end!

During our Christmas weeks at Welford, we watched our very first Pantomime, 'The Snow Queen' which was full of laughter and giggles! As you may have guessed, we've all been good, and so Santa came to visit us!

We hope you enjoyed watching our Nativity Scenes which is on the school website! We even got the chance to experience it ourselves through 'Now, Press, Play' and enjoyed being characters in the Nativity.

Have a look at our Christmas party pictures!

It's been an amazing term here in Reception and we can't wait to learn all about dinosaurs when we come back in January!

Have a lovely break and we shall see you again soon!!

Best wishes, 

Reception Team

Reception First Few Weeks

 First Few Weeks in Reception

The children in Reception are slowly settling in well and are learning the routines and expectations. The staff are pleased with their daily progress and are building positive relationships with them.

The children are choosing a range of activities both inside and outside eg construction play, mark making, sand, water, number work, reading, painting, small world play, playing hide and seek, role play kitchen and fine or gross motor activities.

They are learning about the School Rules - The 3 Rs

Respect - respecting each other and the adults eg sharing and saying please and thank you etc..

Ready - showing that you're ready to learn eg listening, sitting sensibly, holding a pencil properly etc..

Responsible - for your belongings (coat, bag, bottle), helping to tidy up, eating your dinner etc..

The majority of children are enjoying their varied meals and menus are available outside the classrooms. 

And their favourite part of the day is story time then home time!!

Pictures pending - awaiting updated consent list. Can't wait to share with you!

Reception staff.😀

 Sunflowers

Miss Colling wood kindly gave the whole school some sunflowers seeds to plant. 

In May we planted them with some soil, water and added some magic sprinkles and sun.

In June, after half term we were amazed by how much they had grown, helped by Mr Reid's son who had been watering them,  so we measured them...

Which group's sunflower is the tallest???

                                                                   Potions

We have been learning about witches and wizards and all things magical this half term.

Our first book was the rhyming Room on the Broom when the witch kept dropping things and gaining new friends for her broom. In the end she designed a new broomstick, and the children also invented their own ideas to add to a broomstick. We asked Who? Where? and What? questions, answering in sentences.

We re-enacted the story and made our own wands and witches hats and loved the part where we fell off the broken broomstick and frightened the dragon away. We made up our own rhyming spells. The children loved making magical potions with various horrible ingredients and counting how many items went into the mixture.

Then we read online The Magical Muddle where Tabitha and friends kept getting The Brainbox Spell wrong by putting the wrong initial sound in e.g. Ribbly Roo, Dibbly Doo, Wibbly Woo, Hibbly Hoo..

Swirling,twirling,whirling too. Make me smart with a Bibbly Boo

This led to some writing with a focus on initial and other sounds in words. We also ordered magical items by size. We asked Who? Where? and What? questions, answering in sentences.

Our next focus was on Winnie the Witch stories. We described a picture from Winnie Under The Sea using our phonic skills to write words and sentences. The children also used ribbons and percussion instruments to create a magical dance with some incredibly inventive moves. We asked Who? Where? and What? questions, answering in sentences. After reading Winnie and the Big Bad Robot we learned 2/3D shape names and some properties.

This topic has really captured the children’s’ imagination which they were able to demonstrate this in The Potions Shop buying, selling and creating ingredients for magic potions. Also we have learned several Magic Spell Words e.g. abracadabra, alakazam, shazam, bibiddi-bobiddi-boo, hocus-pocus and the real challenge

supercalafragalisticexpialadocious!!!

Then to cap it all we got a MAGIC sunflower seed from Magic Ms Collingwood and added some magic glitter, soil, water and sun … and waited … the shoot popped up … to see growth and change happening before our eyes.

In PE we’ve had Magic Dan the Tennis Man teaching us lots of hand to eye coordination activities with balls, cones and racquets.

“I love magic” “Winnie is funny” “Tabitha changed into a cat” “we played a rhyming game” “I like tennis” "I learned a magic dance" "my potion turned Ms Subb into a frog" "my wand has a feather on top" "Mr Reid has a magic thumb"

Reception Nativity

Reception staff have been so proud of our Reception children after the weeks lockdown. We have been so impressed with them performing the Nativity in the two days coming back to school.The children have been very busy this Christmas Week with our Nativity performance, decorating Christmas stockings, making Snowman Christmas cards, drawing and designing a picture of 'Frosty the Snowman' for the Christmas competition, making Christmas hats and more... The children enjoyed their Christmas party and they were so excited to see Santa arriving in class (Ho! Ho! Ho! social distance of course!) These are some of our activites we like to share. Please enjoy!

DIWALI CELEBRATIONS IN RECEPTION

 DIWALI   CELEBRATIONS   IN   RECEPTION

We have been learning about Celebrations in Reception this half term. 

The children have talked about their Birthdays and other cultural family events like Eid, Christmas, Weddings, Chinese New Year, Easter and Diwali.

(Understanding the world: People and communities; Enjoys joining in with family customs; Recognises and describes special times or events for family or friends 30-50, 40-60)

The common themes have included dressing up, having special food, decorating the house, giving and receiving gifts, writing cards, parties, dancing and music.

We have also celebrated Children in Need, Remembrance Day, Black History Month as you can see in our BIG BOOK.

These pictures are a selection from our week of Diwali activities which included making cards, Diva pots, learning the story of Rama and Sita, mask making, Rangoli patterns, dancing and singing.

Unfortunately we were unable to invite parents in due to the pandemic but we can share the experience through the School Website & Class Dojo.

The children love to dress up in traditional or celebration clothes (PSED;Health and Self Care 30-50)

Expressive arts and design: Exploring and using media and materials; 40-60 builds up repertoire of songs and dances

This is a big year for the children as they learn to read and, here, writing cards for a purpose (Literacy; Writing 40-60 - gives meaning to marks)

Making thumb pots really helps to develop fine motor skills and decorating them enables their creative skills to shine through. (Physical Development: Moving and Handling;  Handles ... malleable materials safely and with increasing control)

Here are some children making masks to act out scenes from the story of Rama and Sita which we read and answered Who? What? and Where? questions (Expressive arts and design: Being imaginative; create props to support role-play)

The children have learned a lot about Diwali and celebrations.

Let's see what we can learn about Christmas...