Term 1
During our first term, we have been busy settling into life in Reception, exploring our environments and making new friends!  We have been woodland detectives exploring our school forest, going on nature walks and learning lots of interesting facts about woodland animals and their habitats. We have become experts in recognising a range of nocturnal woodland animals that will only come out at night!  As artists we used natural materials in the classroom and outside to recreate some Andy Goldsworthy inspired art! Many of these materials have added to our loose parts resources, supporting our maths learning when representing numbers and subitising.

It has been great fun learning our phonics and we have enjoyed spotting graphemes and common exception words all around our classroom.  It was wonderful to be able to share many of our activities in a Harvest stay and play session, where we invited parents in to share out artwork and join in with our harvest provision!

Term 3

This term, we have journeyed far from Bristol and ‘explored’ Kenya in a range of ways, learning about the life of Kenyan people as well as traditional food, dance, music, clothing, buildings and the flag. Animals in Kenya have been of particular interest of ours and we have made some fantastic creations using many different materials and loose parts. 

Through the story, Handa’s Surprise written by Eileen Browne, a story set in Kenya, we have continued to develop our story-telling, reading and writing skills, including writing lists for Handa and creating our own versions of the story. This term we have been working on consolidating our subitising skills, finding more than and fewer than when comparing amounts, explored number bonds to 5 and the composition of 6 and 7. We had great fun learning along with the Numberblocks looking at patterns using the staircase model. We have been super math’s wizards learning all of these new skills this term!  

We had a very exciting afternoon learning how to play the drums! We learnt how to make different sounds on the drum by hitting it in different places. We have excellent rhythm! Ask us to perform for you at home!  During provision we have set up shop in a post office, making sure all the letters are delivered to the correct people. We have really enjoyed writing to children in each class and seeing what they write back! 

Term 5
In Reception this term, we have been exploring the question, How Do Living Things Grow? We planted bean seeds in wet kitchen roll and put them on our windows, watching as they started to grow and noticing the changes that take place. Other exploring has involved planting in the garden, looking at plants from around the world, taking apart plants to look at the different parts and looking at a range of books about growing. The children have had lots of interesting questions and really enjoyed noticing changes.   

Our investigations into number have continued and the children continue to seek a range of ways to represent numbers and are show increasing confidence in recalling their number bonds to five and ten, using their 5 and a bit hands.  

The story of Jack and the Beanstalk has been an exciting way to think about growing and it has been fantastic developing our storytelling skills and making changes to create our own. Some wonderful imaginations have emerged and the increase in confidence to apply sounds to writing has been fantastic to see!  

Our trips to Hartcliffe farm were amazing! We had a go at digging and then we got to smell and taste some plants. We smelt, rosemary and a coca-cola plant which we loved! We tasted Sorrel, Broccoli flowers, Mizuna flowers, and mustard leaves. We then got to meet and feed and lot of animals. We had a fantastic afternoon!  

We had such fun during Art Day! We painted our own Norbot taking inspiration from the artist Jackson Pollock. We used string to recreate his techniques – it was messy but great!  

Term 2

In Reception this term, we have been thinking about the question, what is up in the sky and beyond? We have been exploring colour and light and all the names of the planets in the Solar System. The children have also built amazing space stations in their outdoor areas! We even got to have a visit from the Explorer Dome!    The children worked hard rehearsing and learning the songs for our production of ‘The Bossy King’ Nativity. Their performances have been amazing! 

We have continued our phonics sessions, and the children are working hard on learning to write their letters. We have also been learning about instructions and made fruit rockets for Baby Bear to take to the moon, following our own instructions using ‘bossy’ words. We have been using our imaginations to reinvent parts of our story and make new story maps.  

In maths, we have been becoming super maths wizards! We have been working on our subitising skills, this is when we are able to see an amount without needing to count. We also tried out positional language and have really enjoyed explaining where things are. 

We have also been discovering our creative side this term and have made lots of lovely artwork including planets, stars and even rocket ships!  We were also able to work with technology experimenting with the Beebots and thinking about programming. 

Term 4
Our Spring into the Farm topic has been fascinating this term! We have been learning all about what animals produce and how this helps us. We have also been learning about animals and their young and how they are cared for.  

We have developed our storytelling skills through learning the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff – even changing the story to create and act out our own versions! Writing has taken off in the form of labelling, with the children taking a particular interest in labelling animals and things around the classroom– we have been working hard by applying our phonics strategies in all of our tasks.  

The children have continued to develop their use of loose parts to develop their play, some children choosing to build bridges for the Three Billy Goats Gruff!  

Exploring numbers has been great fun this term and we have been exploring a range of numbers and how they are made. We also had lots of fun learning to spot patterns in numbers such as odds and evens and doubles!  

We had an amazing time at Chew Valley Animal Park feeding the animals and seeing the baby goats. The children were so well behaved, you made us proud!