Welcome to Miss Prescott's Reception Blog!
W/B: 21st July:
Where has this year gone?!?!
During our final 3 days in Reception we have been looking at photographs of all the fun and exciting things we have done over the year. It was lovely to talk to the children about all the new things they have learnt to do and their favourite memories.
It has been a pleasure to teach this wonderful class and all the staff in Reception will miss them as they move up to Year 1. The children have promised to help us settle the new Reception children in September.
We would like to thank our parents and guardians for all of the work you have done at home and for the support with parent workshops, themed days, fancy dress days and assemblies.
We wish the children well for September and we hope they have a fantastic holiday.
Regards
Miss Prescott xxx Mrs Steele xxx Mrs Larner xxx Mrs Hawkes xxx
W/B: 14th July:
Well done to Chloe who was awarded two medals at her gymnastics class this week.
On Thursday we had our Summer disco to celebrate the end of a very busy year. All the children had a great time!
W/B: 7th July:
Well done to Georgia and Riaz who have both achieved their stage 2 in swimming this week.
This week all of our learning has been themed around 'Brazil'. We have been finding Brazil on the map and learning lots of interesting information about the county e.g. the capital city, the flag and the rainforest. On Wednesday we had a Brazilian carnival day, the children each made a traditional headdress and we practised a fantastic carnival dance.
You can find our dance music on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDdIk7_FkVE
W/B: 30th June:
Don’t forget our Summer Fayre tomorrow!
This week all of our learning has been themed around the story ‘The Gruffalo’. We started our week with a walk in our wonderful woodland. We followed the clues that led us all the way to a lovely place for a story.
The next day we went into the woodlands and read lots of questions the Gruffalo had hidden for us.
On Friday we had a Wimbledon themed day. We watched Andy Murray play a game of tennis on our IWB and then we pretended to be a tennis umpire and answer lots of tricky number questions. Later on we practised some of our tennis skills and played a match against each other. For snack we had strawberries and cream, just like they do at Wimbledon.
We hope you enjoy reading your child’s end of year report and you are as proud of them as we are!
W/B: 23rd June:
Well done to Ruby and Molly who performed with their dance class at the Theatre Royal last weekend.
This week is National Sports Week and all of our work has been themed around sports. This week we went into the hall and took part in some circuit training, at each station there was a different Mathematics challenge to complete. As part of our adult guided work this week the children became managers and they had to share out their players into equal teams.
See below some of the other sports themed activities the children have been doing:
On Wednesday the children took part in their first whole school sports day. We were so proud of how all the children took part in their races and behaved on the day, well done Reception!
On Friday the children came to school dressed in their camouflage clothes to celebrate the work of the armed forces. During the day the children learned all about life in the army, army uniforms and army vehicles. The children took part in an army assault course, we used handprints to make our own camouflage, we made dog tags and some children wrote letters to the soldiers.
W/B: 16th June:
Our trip to Farmer Ted's
On Wednesday we went on our school trip to Farmer Ted's. The children and staff had a brilliant time taking part in lots of farm themed activities. When we arrived we had a tour of the farm and had a ride around the fields on the tractor. Throughout the day we helped Farmer Ted groom the ponies and guinea pigs and milk the cows. We also had the chance to watch the ferret races, birds of p stroke the snakes and frogs and have a play on the park.
On Friday we learn all about the produce we get from farms. In golden time we used milk, flour and eggs to make some cakes.
On Tuesday we watched our butterflies hatch out of their chrysalises and on Friday their wings were strong enough to be released out into our school woodlands.
We would like to thank Zevin and her family for bringing in lots of photographs and artefacts from her recent trip to Turkey. Zevin recently went to a family wedding in Turkey and she taught the children all about some special Turkish traditions, did you know a Turkish wedding lasts two days?
Sadly this week was Miss Ward's last week at Grange Valley. We would like to thank her for all of her hard work over the past 10 weeks and wish her good luck for the future. Come back and visit Miss Ward!
Reminders:
Don't forget our sports day on Wednesday 25th June at 2:00pm.
W/B: 9th June:
This week we have been learning all about minibeasts.
In Mathematics this week we have been focusing on number problems. The children have enjoyed taking part in lots of addition games and the teachers have been really pleased with all the different addition methods the children have been using. The children also went out around school hunting for bugs and using them to write number sentences.
On Tuesday afternoon the children went out into our schools beautiful woodland area to hunt for minibeasts. They each made a list of the minibeasts they found and some children collected them in our magnifying pots. Back in class the children carefully investigated the bugs and sorted our class bugs into groups e.g. wings and no wings.
During Golden Time on Friday afternoon we enjoyed telling stories and eating ice pops in our woodland area.
Some of the other minibeast activities the children have done this week:
Reminders:
Please remember on Wednesday we go on our class trip to Farmer Ted’s.
W/B: 3rd June:
This week the children have enjoyed playing ‘Frozen’, the girls made their own dresses and capes and enjoyed singing and dancing to ‘Let it go’. Next week we will plan some activities around this theme.
The children have been planting bean seeds, Molly can’t wait to climb it when it grows up to the clouds!
This week we welcomed some pet caterpillars into our class. The children can’t believe how much they have grown over the 3 days. I wonder what might happen to them next week?
The children have had lots of fun playing in our Creepy Crawly Café and bug area. On the specials board this afternoon it was spider sandwiches, would anyone like some?
Look at some of the other activities the children have been up to this week:
W/B: 19th May:
Where has this week gone?
In Reception we have had a very busy week with lots and lots of fun activities going on.
On Monday afternoon the school nurse came into school to teach the children about sun safety. She talked to the children about its dangers and how they can protect themselves.
On Tuesday afternoon the children learnt all about floating and sinking. The children experimented with a range of everyday objects and then they were challenged to work in two teams to construct a floating boat.
On Thursday we talked about road safety. We watched some video clips and learnt some important rules about how to cross the road safely. We practised crossing a pretend road in our classroom and then we went for a walk to practise it on the real roads. Back in class the children enjoyed writing road safety rules, making road signs and playing on our car mat.
On Thursday we took part in our 'Sponsored Skip' event to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and our school defibrillator. Thank you to everyone who sponsored their child, they all enjoyed taking part in the skipping activities.
As part of Healthy Heart week we have been learning about what our heart does and how we can keep it healthy. In our PE time we took part in some circuit training and throughout the session we monitored the effects it was having on our body e.g. our hearts rate and body temperature. For snack the children enjoyed making their own fruit kebabs using strawberries, grapes, melon, blueberries, apple and oranges.
Reminders:
Sports day is on Wednesday 25th June at 2:00pm.
Reception will be going to Farmer Ted's on Wednesday 18th June.
W/B: 12th May:
Thank you to all our parents and family who came to our parents pirate afternoon. We had a lovely time and we hope you did too. We hope you were impressed with the children's mathematics skills during our mathematics quiz.
In mathematics this week we have been focusing on weight. We used the balance to compare the weight of some treasure and help the pirates find out who had the heaviest treasure.
This week we had our first outdoors PE session. Some children enjoyed practising their kicking skills and then using them in a friendly game of football and some children enjoyed practising their throwing skills and using them in a very competitive game of dodgeball!
Some of the other activities the children have done this week:
W/B: 6th May:
Reminder:
Parents are invited in on Wednesday 14th May at 2:15 for a pirates afternoon.
In Literacy this week we worked in our phonics groups to follow Captain Hook’s clues. We read each clue until eventually we stumbled upon some real pirate treasure!
In Mathematics this week we had a surprise visit from Pirate Prescott. She heard how fantastic we are at solving number problems and came to our class for some help. We helped her find the answer to the number problems and saved her from walking the plank!
Meet our class tadpoles:
In PE this week we finished our PE lesson with some team races, well done to the yellow team for winning all the races!
Some of the other pirate activities the children have done this week:
W/B: 28th April:
Congratulations to Mrs Steele who graduated at Liverpool cathedral this week!
What fun we had completing our sponsored dance event on Tuesday. The children and staff in reception and nursery enjoyed dancing to a range of their favourite songs for a whole 30 minutes!. Thank you to everyone who has already returned their sponsor money.
On Monday the children found a message in a bottle in our water tray. The message came all the way from Captain Hook in Pirate Island. The children each wrote a message back to Captain Hook to give him ideas about how he could find treasure. Some children told him to make a treasure map and dig for it and some children told him to find a shipwreck under the sea.
In mathematics this week the children went to pirate school. The children were challenged to dress like pirates and hunt around our classroom for 3D shaped treasure. The children found cylinders, spheres, cubes, cuboids, cones and pyramids.
In our computer time this week we practised using the 2Simple programme to type simple sentences and draw matching pictures.
In our hall time this week we focused on balance. We explored balancing on different parts of our bodies. The children found it very hard to hold some of their tricky balances for 5 seconds!
In Mrs Steele's gardening club this week a group of children enjoyed planting a range of flower seeds, I wonder what colour the flowers will be when they grow?
The boys in our class have enjoyed practising their football skills this week. On Friday the boys had a class football match on our wonderful school field. Well done to Jake who was voted player of the match.
Reminder:
Parents are invited in on Wednesday 14th May at 2:15 for a pirates afternoon.
W/B: 22nd April:
Welcome back to school everyone!
We started our week by sharing our holiday news, the children told us all about the great things they have been doing over the holidays.
On Wednesday we celebrated St. George’s Day. We read the story ‘George and the Dragon’ and learnt all about how people in England celebrate this special day. Some children made shields and flags with the St. George’s cross on and some children made dragons in the playdough.
On Wednesday afternoon Mrs Steele started her gardening club. This week Thomas, Ruby and Zevin enjoyed planting potatoes and watering all the plants.
This week in PE we started to practise our gymnastics. We practised pencil and forward rolls. All the teachers were shocked at how fantastic all the children were. Some of the children looked very smart in their new PE shirts.
Our new theme this half-term is ‘Argh Pirates’. The children enjoyed helping the teachers set up our new pirate ship role-play area.
Some of the other things the children have done this week:
W/B: 31st March:
Well another term is over and the staff and children in Reception are ready for a well earned rest. Can you believe the children will soon be in their final term in Reception? Next half term our theme is ‘Argh Pirates’, if you have any ideas for our theme please let us know in your child’s home-school file.
This week we have been VERY busy. Take a look below at all the things we have been up to:
Monday:
On Monday we spent the day completing our pig craft and hats ready for our trip to the Songfest.
Tuesday:
On Tuesday morning we went on big coach to the Songfest at St.Helens Town Hall. Grange Valley joined 4 other schools as we sang lots of farm themed songs with the farmer and scarecrow Jo. Our children were a credit to our school and they defiantly sang the loudest.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday we went to Christ church with Sandra and her helpers Doreen, Jill and Ray. The children enjoyed exploring the story scenes around the church and learning the reason why Easter is celebrated. They also enjoyed making Easter craft. We would again like to thank Christ church for a lovely morning.
Thursday:
On Thursday each child entered the Willy Wonka design an egg competition. The only rule in the competition was the wrapper must have a repeating colour pattern on. The children practised making repeating patterns around the class before they completed their final design.
Some children were interested in finding out who was the tallest in our class. The children stood back to back and compared who was the tallest and then Jake decided it would be a good idea if we lined everyone up in height order.
Friday:
On Friday morning our parents and grandparents came into school for our Easter egg reading hunt. The children worked with their parents to read a list of words and spell out the hidden word. All the children were successful and each child was rewarded with chocolate from the Easter bunny.
Later in the morning Mrs Steele nipped out of class to change some reading books and on the way she found the Easter bunny fast asleep. Reception class sneaked up on the bunny and woke him
Please bring a tube into school on Monday, we will be using them to make junk model fireworks.
W/B 28th October 2013
Welcome to our class Emily J
Welcome back to school everyone. We hope you have had a nice break and are ready for this VERY busy half term.
What a fun week we have had in school, it has been full of spooky characters and strange goings on. In literacy Freda the friendly witch visited us for help, we had to think of rhyming ingredients for her spell. She came back to visit us later in the week and accidently turned Mrs Holcroft into a slimy frog! It’s a good job we have been practising our rhyming spells or Mrs Holcroft would have been a frog forever!
Tuesday was an exciting time for us, it was our first school disco. The children dressed up in spooky costumes and enjoyed dancing to the spooky music. Riaz won the 1D corners game, well done!
On Thursday we had a pumpkin designing competition, the winner was Alexia’s cat design.
This week the children also came up with some ideas of their own. The boys made up a broomstick ball game and the girls made their own spider craft.
W/B: 14th October 2013
Happy Birthday Alicia
Thank you to all the parents and guardians who came to our phonic workshop. We hope you found the presentation and pack useful. All the children enjoyed performing their phonics skills and they can’t wait to invite you in again. We still have some places left on the parents reading workshop, please ask staff for a letter if you are interested.
On Wednesday afternoon we spent our afternoon in Year 6. It was lovely to see the children working and learning together. We worked together to plant our daffodil bulbs in aid of Marie Curie cancer support.
This week we have been learning about Harvest time. We learnt about how all the different fruit and vegetables are harvested and where in the world they grow. We tried a range of different vegetables and we used the left overs to print pictures. On Friday we made our own vegetable soup for snack, it was yummy!
In Literacy this week we have been learning about the story ‘The Little Red Hen’. The children have been sequencing the story pictures and practising their story re-telling skills. Some of the children have suggested we make our own bread after the holidays, any volunteer’s parents?
We hope you enjoy your break and have lots of rest ready for another busy half term. Our new theme after the holidays will be ‘Spooky Stuff’, if you have any ideas please write them in your child’s home-school file.
W/B: 7th October 2013
Happy Birthday Jake E
This week autumn has arrived and the weather is turning colder. On Monday we went on an autumn walk down the lane at the side of school. We looked at how the trees had changed and collected leaves, acorns and conkers. When we got back to class we counted how many things we had, we talked about the colours and textures and we painted our own autumn leaves.
On the way back to school Mrs Larner thought she heard a dinosaur!
Recently we seem to have had a lot of birthdays in class and the children have been very interested in this. We followed this interest and it led us to celebrating Spiderman’s birthday. We had a party in the house, we made a birthday cake and made masks to wear at the party. In Mathematics we made birthday badges and counted party food and in Literacy we wrote a list of characters invited to his party. The Reception team and Mrs Threlkeld were very pleased with our list writing skills.
W/B: 30th September 2013
Happy Birthday to Jake A
This week in Mathematics we focussed on counting objects. As a class we made a list of good counting skills e.g. putting the objects in a line and using our pointy finger to touch each object. The children enjoyed helping to count how many items were in the characters packed lunch boxes.
This week we have noticed a real interest in writing from all the children. We are pleased to see the children applying their new phonic skills and forming letters.
On Tuesday afternoon a group of children enjoyed making a den outside. They used a range of building materials to construct walls, doors and seating. They spent the whole afternoon role-playing lots of different characters.
Parents are invited into school for our phonics workshop on Wednesday 16th October at 9:15am. Miss Prescott and Mrs Threlkeld will be talking to parents about how we teach phonics and reading at Grange Valley and then the children will be demonstrating some of their new phonic skills.
We have booked our first school trip to Underwater Street, the children were very excited when we told them!
W/B: 23rd September 2013:
This week the children have all coped fantastically with a very hectic timetable. In phonics we have introduced lots of new letter sounds and the children are really getting to grips with it. In literacy we enjoyed hunting around school for signs and reading them. For our independent activity we practised making name labels for our teddy bears.
On Thursday we made teddy bear biscuits, they were yummy. We decorated biscuits with chocolates and sweets to make a teddy bear face.
We have split the children into two key groups (blue and green). Each day we spend time in our key groups to share news, have snack and read stories. This week we have made our key group build a bear teddy. The green group have called their bear ‘Bobby’ and the blue group have called their bear ‘Bumble’. The children really enjoyed working with their group to make their special group bears. They each put a blue/green heart inside their bear and helped stuff them with fluff. We can’t wait to look after them during key group time.
On Friday we did our first Write Dance session. Write Dance is a movement programme which exercises arm and hand muscles and improves co-ordination and rhythm. This week we practised a range of patterns including: straight lines, zigzag lines, circles and semi-circles.
We have been making the most of the nice weather and we have enjoyed spending lots of time on our school field. We joined the rest of the school at playtime and some of the children had fun with their older brothers and sisters. At snack time we fed the horses some of our carrots.
On Monday we worked with the children to write a list of class rules:
- Listen to others.
- Share and take turns.
- Keep our classroom tidy.
- Use nice hands and words.
- Be kind and helpful.
- Use indoor voices.
- Try our best!
W/B: 16th September 2013:
Happy Birthday Evan & Molly P
This week the Reception staff are very proud of our class. All the children seem to have settled well and they are now used to the daily routines. Well done Reception!
This week we have celebrated Evan and Molly’s 5th birthday. Molly brought in a fantastic princess cake and we enjoyed eating it at story time.
This week the children have each painted a self-portrait. First we looked in the mirror and talked to our partner about our facial features. Then we worked in small groups to create our masterpieces. We have some very interesting self-portraits!
On Wednesday afternoon the school nurse came to see us in class. She talked to the children about germs and when and how we should wash our hands. At the end of the session we all put our hands under a special lamp to show us where the germs are on our hands.
This week we started our daily phonics sessions. The children have enjoyed learning new letter sounds and playing a range of fun phonics games. It has been lovely to see the progress the children have already made in a week.
The children have continued to enjoy playing with their new friends.
W/B: 9th September 2013
Happy 5th Birthday Molly P
Wahoo we have finished our first full week in school :). All the children have settled in well and seem to be having lots of fun in school. Towards the end of the week the children have been very tired and they are all ready for a restful weekend. This week has been a week of firsts: first full day, first school dinner, first play on the big playground, first session with Mr Leyland and first afternoon in the computer room. We have been very pleased with how all the children have coped with the new routines and experiences. Well done Reception!
In class we have continued to spend quality time playing alongside the children and we have also started to assess the children in PSED, literacy and mathematics.
Soon the children will be ready to take part in carpet sessions, any ideas for our first theme?
W/B: 4th September 2013
Firstly we would like to say welcome to Grange Valley Primary School. We look forward to working with all of our new children and families.
What an excellent start to school life in Reception Class! It was lovely to see all the children’s smiley faces as they came into class on Wednesday. They have all grown up so much over the summer and they all looked very smart in their new school uniforms.
All the children settled quickly and have enjoyed exploring their new classroom and making new friends. We have spent the first few days getting to know the children and their individual personalities. It has been nice to learn more about their interests, families, etc. On Thursday we went on a tour of our school and met some of the staff and pupils at Grange Valley. Take a look at some of the photographs below to see what else the children have been up to.
We look forward to all the exciting times ahead : ).
Miss Prescott, Mrs Steele & Mrs Larner
