Reception
Spring 1 - Tiger and Panda Class Weekly Update
Week 1
What a wonderful first week back we have had. We wanted to take this opportunity
to wish all our Reception families a very Happy New Year and we hope you had a well-deserved break over the half term. Thank you for all the effort you have put into your child’s home learning, the time travel machines have been outstanding. The children have been coming into school eager and enthusiastic to present their home learning to their friends, articulately explaining the process behind their time travel machines.
This week, we introduced our new learning topic, ‘Tiny Time Travellers’ and we also started reading our new text, ‘Toys in Space’ by Mini Grey. We read the first few pages of the story and the children created a representation of the characters from the story. We discussed that over this term, we will be going on adventures from the past and in the present. The children generated many suggestions of places they would like to explore, ‘Dinosaurs’, ‘Castles’, ‘Space’ and ‘Pirates’.
This term, we will be learning about Space, to help the children with their learning, they decided that they should transform our role play area into a spaceship and that is exactly what they did! The children have been very creative and resourceful in creating a spaceship that has many important features such as a control room and steering system.
Following a discussion about what we think it is important for all human beings to have the children expressed it is important for us to have water, food and shelter in order to grow healthy. We discussed the different types of home that we live in, why we need a home and also questioned whether animals need homes, which of course they do. The children used different classroom resources to print representations of their home and make homes for different animals. The children used their phonics knowledge write labels of their homes.
The Reception children are continuing to work hard with their handwriting, spelling, reading and writing. It is amazing to see how much each child’s confidence is growing whilst reading and writing and how proud they are of their achievements. We have observed how the children’s fluency and accuracy when reading words and simple texts is greatly improving on a daily basis and the range of tricky Red Words that the children are now able to recognise, read and spell. How impressive!
Polite reminders for this term, PE is on Wednesday. Your child is to come into school wearing their PE kit. Please take your child’s earrings out for PE. Reading books are to remain in your child’s book bag.
Thank you for your continued support,
Castle Academy Reception Team
Autumn 2 - Tiger and Panda
Class Weekly Update
Week 4
This week in Panda and Tiger class because our learning topic this term is ‘Caring and Sharing’, we have been learning about people who help us such as police, doctors, nurses and fire fighters. In our maths learning, Fred the fireman’s fire engine broke and he needed our help to build a ladder tall enough to reach the house and to use a range of shapes to help Fireman Fred to build a new fire engine. The children also compared the shapes. Louie said, “the square has 4 corners, and the circle is round”.
We also discovered that if we need to find out more about something, then we need to ask questions. We read the story “I want to be a Doctor” by Laura Driscoll and the children generated questions of what they would like to find out about Nurse Hayley. Some of the questions the children generated were “why do we need to have injections?”, “what is a stethoscope used for?“ and “have you ever been in an ambulance?”
This week is also Road Safety Week, we learned about how we can keep safe while
travelling. The children also drew pictures of their road safety hero. Nakshatra said, “My daddy is my road safety superhero because he puts my seatbelt on” and Stefan said, “My dad is my road safety hero because he makes me sit in a seat that makes me taller”.
We have also discussed our Christmas show, letters to follow shortly!
Week 3
This week in Tiger and Panda Class the children received a response from The Rainbow Fish! The Rainbow Fish thanked the children for their wonderful advice. The children advised The Rainbow Fish to share his scales with his friends, the children expressed that they always feel happy after sharing their toys and that he should try it. The Rainbow Fish welcomed the advise and guess what? He shared his scales with his friends, and he is no longer lonely. The Rainbow Fish is very happy and has been having lots of fun playing with his friends.
We began re-telling The Rainbow fish in a more exciting way, changing our voices, and creating actions. We also, sequenced the story in the correct order using the language, first, next, and then.
As this week is Anti-Bullying week the focus is 'One Kind Word' and we have been reading different stories such as ‘Elmer’ by David Mckee. We discussed how it is okay to be different and we should celebrate our differences.
Elmer-by-David-Mckee.pdf
Please share this story with your child.
Week 2 
This week in Panda and Tiger Class we have been very busy transforming our role play area into a hospital. This has encouraged the children to use more precise language in their role play. As our learning topic this term is ‘Sharing and Caring’, we have been exploring what a doctor and nurse is and how they look after people if they become unwell. We used different sources of media to research what a hospital is and what equipment doctors and nurses use to care for their patients such as, stethoscopes, vaccinations, bandages, thermometers and x-ray machines. The children made lists of what we need in our hospital to ensure their patients are effectively cared for. We thought in detail of how we will be able to transform our role area, which was a home into a hospital and used reason to determine where certain equipment should go. One of children’s suggestions was, instead of using the table as an ordinary table, we could transform it into a hospital bed!
In our phonics lessons we have been learning the new sounds, ‘l’, ‘h’ and ‘sh’. We have also been reading and spelling 1.2 green words such as ‘pat’, ‘pan’, ‘gap’ and ‘dig’.
We also received a message in a bottle! We have since discovered that the letter was from the Rainbow Fish! He is feeling ‘lonely’ because the other fish didn’t want to play with him and he needed our advice. We wrote back to the Rainbow Fish encouraging him to share his scales. Hopefully we get a response soon…
If you would like to read The Rainbow Fish with your child download the link: The-rainbow-fish.pdf
Week 1
This week in Panda and Tiger Class we have been learning about our new topic this term, ‘Sharing and Caring’. We have been discussing important questions such as, what does it mean to ‘care’ and to ‘share’? and when have you shown care or when have you shared? This created a wonderful discussion, and the children shared many examples of when they have shown they care for their family or friends and when they have shared. We also talked about the importance of friends, and we made a list on how to be a ‘good friend’, the children suggested being kind, helping someone you see that is sad, sharing toys and not saying words that will make another child sad.
It was also Diwali on Thursday, so we learned all about the festival of lights. We recognised that not everyone celebrates the same celebrations and that it was fascinating to learn about new celebrations and festivals. We have also been reading books about Diwali such as ‘Rama and The Demon King’ and watching information videos. We also made diva lamps using clay and we cannot wait to paint them next week.
We have also been talking about safety when we are out and about due to it being Bonfire night this weekend.
What a wonderful week of learning in Reception!
Thank you for your continued support,
Castle Academy Reception Team
Friday 22nd October 2021
Due to the school closure today, please see the below activities that your child can complete at home.
There are also some tasks in your home learning books. Have a good week Reception and we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 2nd November.
Phonics - Activity 1
Help Miss McAleenan to say the sounds and do some Fred Talk.
Please watch this video to show you how to say the sounds correctly.
We have been playing this game in class. Click on the set 1 sounds and put the right sounds in the pot!
https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/spookySounds/index.html
In Maths we have been practising our counting skills. Have a go at the game below and match the pictures to the correct numbers. Why don't you count some things in your homes too! How many shoes can you find? How many jumps can you do? How many teddy bears have you got?......
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/underwater-counting
Activity 2 - We Are Learning what being responsible means.
We all have the right to:
Discuss each right.
What could you do to make sure you and others have those rights, e.g. right to be safe.
What responsibility’s do you have in school and at home?
Here are a few examples:
- tidy up the classroom
- don’t run in the hallway
- play nicely outside.
How can we make sure that we are all safe/happy/learning in school?
Task: Draw a picture of the responsibilities you have in school and at home.
Activity 3 - WALT give clear instructions.
Task:Make a sandwich. With your grown up, follow instructions to make your own delicious sandwich.
Some ingredients you may want in your sandwich are cucumber, tomato, lettuce, sweetcorn.
What is the 1st thing you will need to do?
1) Spread butter
2)
3)
4)
Please orally rehearse your instructions.
We would love to see pictures/videos of your wonderful home learning, please send them to the school office: enquiries@castle.emat.uk
Autumn 1 - Tiger and Panda Class Weekly Update
Week 3
This week in Panda and Tiger Class we started Read Write Inc. Phonics. The children have been learning the sounds ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘s’ and ‘d’. Please practise these sounds and writing the letters with your child. For example, ‘a’ saying ‘aaapple’ and when writing the letter saying the mnemonic phrase ‘around the apple, down the leaf’.
We also introduced our new topic this term, ‘Marvellous Me’. We discussed the meaning of the word ‘Marvellous’ and this was also our word of the day! When your child is at home, please do ask them what the word of the day was and see if they can remember the meaning of the word.
The children began learning a new poem ‘I am Rose’ and practised orally rehearsing the poem using Talk for Writing actions.
In our magic maths lessons, we are focusing on recognising numbers 1-10.
Please check the website for weekly updates.
