Welcome to Reception!

Teacher: Mrs. A Wadley

Teaching Assistants: Mrs. Caton and Mrs. Owen

Hello Reception children and families!

      Welcome to our class page. 

 Here you will find information about what we are learning about this year.

The children have settled into school so well; making new friends, adjusting to new routines, and learning new things along the way! 

I will regularly update this page with information on routines, resources and ideas for you to help your child at home and also with what we have been learning in the classroom!

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me using the following email address:

rechomework@cottam.lancs.sch.uk

Mrs. Wadley

A visit from some Firefighters!

This week, our topic 'everyday heroes' is moving onto firefighters so to get our week off to an exciting start we had a visit from some Firefighters from Fulwood Fire Station! They told us about all the different jobs they have to do and showed us their special uniform and how it keeps them safe. Then, we went outside to see the fire engine! It was very exciting to see all the equipment and learn what it is used for. We even had a go at holding the hose. It was brilliant!

A visit from a dentist!

This week we have been learning all about the job of a dentist and dental health so we were very lucky to have a visit from Lochlan's Mummy, Ruth as she is a dentist! She had a special box that had lots of interesting objects in from her dental surgery. We had to guess what they were used for! She also told us how important it is to keep our teeth clean and showed us the right way to clean them.  Then we all got a special sticker for being wonderful listeners and asking great questions. Thank you for visiting us Ruth!

A visit from the Police!

To enhance our learning on 'everyday heroes', we were very lucky to have a visit from our local PCSO's today. We learnt all about the different jobs they have to do, what they wear and we even got to sit inside their Police car - the siren was very loud! The children listened very well and asked some fantastic questions.

World Book Day!

To start the day, the children all took it in turns to tell the class what character they had come as. Everyone spoke clearly and had lots to say! All the children looked fabulous in their outfits. We spent some time reading stories and watched a puppet re-telling of 'The Gruffalo'. It was brilliant!

Storytelling workshop.

As part of our activities for World Book Day, we took part in a workshop exploring the story 'The Jungle Book'. We listened to the story and had lots of fun pretending to be the animals in the jungle. Our acting skills were fabulous!

Children's Mental Health Week.

As part of children's mental health week we spent time identifying how different situations make us feel. We talked about what we can do if we feel sad or angry. We also took part in a 'YOGI' yoga session - it made us feel very relaxed!

4th February 2022

This week has been full of more exciting learning! We started with the story ‘Whatever Next’ which is about a bear who makes a rocket and goes to the moon. We listened well and answered questions about the story. We were all really interested in the moon so we learnt all about the famous astronaut, Neil Armstrong. We pretended we were on the moon and had a go at space walking!

On Tuesday, we had another ‘travelling Tuesday’. This month, we got in our ‘aeroplanes’ and travelled to China. We found China on a map and identified the parts of the map that were land and sea. We compared it to England. It is much bigger!  We looked at the flag, and the different types of transport. We learnt how to say 'hello' in Chinese and tasted some Chinese food.  It was also Chinese New Year on Tuesday so we learnt all about the year of the tiger and did some dragon dancing.

We have also had lots of time outside this week learning to ride our bikes. We did lots of brilliant listening and realised how important it is to look where we are going - it was so much fun! 

28th January 2022

We have another really busy week of learning! We read ‘The Train Ride’ and went on our own train ride – we spoke in full sentences to tell our friends what we could see out of the windows, then we wrote our sentence - our writing was amazing! We used our constructing skills to make wonderful trains using the wooden blocks and our cutting skills to make trains out of shapes.    Maths this week has been learning about weight – we have compared lots of objects in the balance scales and used the words heavy, heavier, light and lighter. We have also been investigating things that float and sink. We predicted and then carried out an experiment – some of the results surprised us! We used our knowledge of floating and sinking to try and make a boat that floats – we found out that some materials are much better than others!

21st January 2022

Our new topic for the new year is 'Ticket to ride!'

We started the topic finding out how many different types of transport the children already knew - we then sorted them into whether they travelled by air, land or sea. After this, we decided to find out more about buses, so we looked at the story ‘The Naughty Bus’. We listened carefully to all the places he went,  sequenced the story pictures and drew maps of his journey. We used our voices to construct story sentences and chose 1 sentence to write! We thought about a capital letter at the start and a full stop at the end. We continued our learning about 'The Naughty Bus', by making our own naughty bus and then taking them on a journey around the playground. They went in lots of strange places! We used our journeys to make our own class version of the story.

We have also been using our investigative skills to work out how to move the beebots!  We used lots of positional language as we tried to get the beebots to move along the maps we had drawn of The Naughty Bus' journey. 

The sun came out this week, so we also went on a welly walk to see how many different types of transport we could spot – it was very exciting to see aeroplanes, bikes, lorries and even a digger! Our counting skills were used lots – there were so many cars!

17th December 2021

The last few weeks have flown by!

We have enjoyed learning about ‘The Three Little Pigs’, especially using pig and wolf voices when we joined in with the repetitive phrases! We used the words ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘third’ when we were remembering which pig built which house. Our memory skills were used again when we had to use pictures to make a story map.

Some of the children wanted to read ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ so that became our next story of the week! We listened carefully and joined in brilliantly with the repeated phrases. Our Daddy Bear voices were great! We used our knowledge of the story to retell it using actions, then wrote a letter from Goldilocks to say sorry to the three bears. We listened carefully for sounds in the words we wanted to write and used finger spaces. Some of us remembered to put a full stop at the end!

In Maths, we have investigated the numbers 4 and 5, using a 5 frame and learned all about squares and rectangles, using new vocabulary to describe them. Our shape pictures were great! We have also done some fabulous counting and found numbers that are '1 more' and '1 less'.

We have also been busy with the Nativity, a pantomime trip, Christmas lunch and party day plus lots more Christmas activities in the classroom.

The children were fantastic in the Nativity and had a fabulous time watching Snow White. We were so proud of them!

What a busy and wonderful first term at school the children have had!

Thank you for all your help and support.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mrs. Wadley

The Gingerbread Man

What a busy week we have had learning about The Gingerbread Man. We listened to the story and had fun retelling it - we liked saying 'run, run as fast as you can!' We even put the words in the right order. We also used our fine motor skills to make bridges for The Gingerbread Man to cross the river. Then, one morning we came into the classroom to find the gingerbread men we were going to decorate had run away! We had to solve some clues to find them. We loved it!

5th November 2021

What an exciting week our first week back after half term was! We began the week with the story ‘The Little Red Hen’. We listened to it and then retold it using lots of actions. We used our memories to recall how The Little Red Hen made bread, then we made bread too! We loved kneading the dough! We also learned about the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and talked about how we can be a good friend. We all made a friendship bracelet and gave it to one of our friends. It made us feel happy to see our friends smile. We also had our second ‘Travelling Tuesday’ – we got into an aeroplane and ‘flew’ to India! We found it on a map – it is much bigger than England! We watched a video to compare it to Cottam – we noticed lots of differences. Then we made the Indian flag and tasted some Indian food – lots of us thought it was spicy! It was also Diwali and Bonfire night this week - phew! Have a look at the photos showing all the learning we did!

Halloween!

The children looked amazing in their costumes and we had a super spooky day! 

We looked for spooky creatures in scary spaghetti and made silly soup in cauldrons. We practiced our cutting skills to make a pumpkin and went on a pumpkin hunt! We sang some spooky songs and finished our day watching 'Room on the Broom'. What a busy day!

Black History Month

October was Black History Month, so as part of this we read the story of Handa's Noisy Night. We learnt the names of lots of different animals including pangolin, porcupine, bush-baby and woodpecker. We also made African collar necklaces and used an African drum to tap the rhythm of our names.

We then learnt about a lady called Alma Thomas. She was the first black female artist to have her paintings on show in an art gallery. She didn't become an artist until she was in her 70's so she  showed us the importance of being dedicated to something you love to do and never giving up. It’s never too late to achieve your dreams! We had a go at producing a piece of art work using her style. We did an amazing job!

 15th October 2021

This week we have been learning about our senses. We listened to the story 'Peace at Last' and discussed all the sounds Mr. Bear heard. Were they loud or quiet sounds? Then we thought about what sounds we might hear outside. We used our listening ears on our first welly walk! The children listened very carefully to the sounds we could hear - we were surprised to hear birds flapping their wings and the wind! We have also used our sense of smell to try and guess some hidden smells - it was quite tricky! Lots of the children didn't like smelling vinegar but they loved smelling chocolate! 

In phonics, we have now learned s a t p i n m d and g and continued with blending and segmenting cvc words. The link below has some suggestions for phonics games to play at home and I have also uploaded a short video to help the children with how each sound should be pronounced for when you are practicing at home.

Maths has been full of pattern making this week. We have been learning how to make repeating patterns using colours, shapes and even actions!

Another super week - well done children!

Travelling Tuesday!

Today we had our first travelling Tuesday! We got in our 'cars' and travelled all the way to England! We found England on a map of the world and saw how small it is compared to lots of other countries. Then we found out that it is the biggest country in the United Kingdom! We learned that the capital city is London and that is where the Queen lives. Lots of us have been to London! We looked at the shapes and colours on the flag and even watched a video all about Stone Henge. We had lots of fun trying to make our own Stone Henge, deciding on what we could use to make a flag and tried a cream tea - that got a big thumbs up!

Where we will travel to next month?

1st October 2021

Our story of the week was 'Once there were Giants'. A lovely story which helped with our discussion on how we have changed. We asked the questions  - what could we do as a baby? What can we do now? The children came up with some super answers! 

We are doing daily phonics sessions and have learned the sounds s,a,t,p,i,n. We have been playing lots of games and practicing blending these sounds together to read some words e.g at, in, sat, tap. I will upload some ideas for games for you to play at home to help your child with this.

In Maths we have been matching and sorting. The children have been looking at a group of objects and thinking about how we could sort them into 2 or 3 groups. They suggested by colour, size and shape. Well done children!

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs. Wadley

24th September 2021

The children have had another jam packed and fun week of school! They have all shared with the class their family photos - thank you for sending them in. There was lots of confident speaking and wonderful listening - well done children!

Now the children have settled, I have put together a video presentation for you to find out a little bit more about the Reception year. Please see the link below. The additional links below are mentioned in the video so please do have a listen.

Our First Week at School!

We have had so much fun making new friends and exploring all the exciting things in the classroom. Look at the photos below to see what we have been doing.