Class 2022 - 2023
Welcome to our Class Page!
This is the Class Page. Here you will find information about what your child is learning, photos to show you the experiences your child has been taking part in, as well as top tips to support your child at home.
Please check back here regularly to see what we have been getting up to!
Mrs Elliott (Class Teacher), Mrs Mather (Teaching Assistant/HLTA), Mrs Asghar (Teaching Assistant)
Our Class Photo
P.E.
P.E. will be taught on Friday morning. Please send your child with a complete named P.E. Kit.
Thank you!
What's coming up?
Friday 26th April - Meet the Teacher 2:30 - 3:00pm
Smithills Farm Trip - Tuesday 21st May
Forest School
This half term Forest School will commence for half of the class on Thursday afternoons. Please send your child with an appropriate change of clothing as they will go out in all weathers.
Reading
We will focus on a new traditional tale each half term. This half term we are enjoying the The Enormous Turnip. Your child will also have an individual reading record (yellow book) and some home reading to be completed on a daily basis. Please return the signed record to and from school. Thank you.
Please follow this video link (shown at our Parent meeting) that explains more about the Read, Write Inc. Scheme that we follow in school.
https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/XZBUwLCv/aKTW7DoU
Click the image below to view a video that will help your child practise reading sounds at home. Please keep checking this as it will be updated regularly.
Please have a look at our curriculum overview for the Summer term.
Reception Curriculum Overview - Summer
Come Fly With Me - Asia!
We have been making some exciting journeys as part of our new theme, 'Come fly with me.' Reception visited our very own Airport and got onto the plane for a long, 11 hour journey to China! We imagined that we packed our own suitcases and saw some of the sights and animals there. We have also spotted Asia on the map and know that it is the world's largest continent. When we returned, we got ready for another trip to India. So far, we have enjoyed tasting some of the food, creating some Indian Rangoli prints and doing some Bollywood dancing. Next, we plan on visiting the largest country in the world, Russia and Egypt. Keep checking our page to see some photographs of our super learning.
Christmas Party and a Special Visitor!
The children loved the Christmas party! We played games of musical statues, bumps and pass the parcel, enjoyed dancing and eating lots of food! In the afternoon we had a special visit from Father Christmas and he gave all of the children a gift.
Christmas Craft Stay and Play!
Reception invited the parents in to help them get ready for the Christmas Party, we made hats and decorations. Thank you to the parents who were able to come in and support. The children really enjoyed themselves.
Bolton Garden Centre Visit
Reception were excited about visiting Bolton Garden Centre on the morning of Monday 4th December. We visited as our theme is ‘Come and join the celebration.' The children looked closely at the different Christmas lights and decorations. They were very well behaved and made their teachers proud.
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Come and Join the Celebration
This half term our new theme is 'Come and Join the Celebration'. We have been learning about different celebrations that we may have taken part in with our families, such as birthday parties and weddings. We learnt about how people in different cultures celebrate these traditions. We also talked about what a birthday celebrates and discussed how we change over time, as we grow older! We also found out about some other celebrations, including Bonfire Night, Diwali and Remembrance Day. We have been enjoying playing together in the home corner, acting out birthday parties, writing invitations and and even making our own model 'cakes' in the creative area! We have been painting wedding cakes and making bouquets.
Help is at Hand!
This term our theme is 'Help is at Hand'. The children will find out about the jobs that need to be done at home, and how they can help. We will discuss who works at our school and how these people help us. We will identify ways in which the police, ambulance and fire service help within the community and we will have an opportunity to meet people who work in these job roles. We will learn about how doctors and nurses help us and will find out about the ways we can stay healthy and safe. We will identify wider job roles in the community and how these people contribute to our society (e.g. builders, electricians etc). We will learn about how we can be helpful citizens too!
Dental Nurse Visit
We had a lovely afternoon learning all about oral hygiene and how to look after our teeth. We talked about all the things we use our teeth and mouth for, and the things we can do to protect our teeth, such as brushing them twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, drinking milk and water and eating healthy foods. We then met some special characters who talked to us about how they looked after themselves and their teeth. The children got to use their toothbrushes for the first time. We brushed our teeth for 2 minutes: the children were really good brushing their teeth and Mrs Davidson and Ms Mather could see that we all brush our teeth at home!
Litter Picking
As part of our 'Help is at Hand' theme we have been learning about the contributions we can make to help our community and school. The children met Mr Greenwood (the school's Site Manager) and found out that one of his important job roles is to keep the school grounds clean and tidy! We decided that this is something we could help with. The children used the litter pickers to help tidy up our school. The children decided that they would always put litter in the bin.
Little Lancashire Village
We really enjoyed our visit to Little Lancashire Village, where we got to role-play lots of different grown-up jobs like being a flight attendant, dentist, beautician, builder, vet, working and visiting various shops and cafes. See the photographs below that show how much fun we had.
Fire Fighter Visit
Reception and Nursery enjoyed a visit from the local Fire Fighters. They reminded us how to stay safe and showed us all their interesting equipment and uniform. Miss Ainsworth kindly volunteered to model the uniform for us. The children asked some thoughtful questions.
Please see below our previous Curriculum Overviews.
Reception 23/24 AUTUMN 1 Curriculum Overview
Reception Autumn 2 Learning Overview
Reception Curriculum Letter Spring 1
Reception Curriculum Letter Spring 2
The Previous Year in Reception
Reading - What are we reading this term?
Every term we will focus on a different traditional tale. This term we are learning the story of 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'.
In Autumn, we focused on 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and 'The Three Little Pigs'. We spent time learning how to retell the story using actions and puppets to help us!
Curriculum Overview - What are we learning this term?
Please see below for our Termly Overview. This gives you a brief look at the areas of learning that will be taking place in Reception.
Reception Documents
Balancing
In Commando Joe this week, we were working on our balancing skills. We had to balance on beams to make our way around.
The Gingerbread Man
We have been reading the story of The Gingerbread Man. We enjoyed working with our friends to follow the recipe and then decorating them. The best bit was eating them!
PE
In PE we got out the climbing equipment. We enjoyed balancing and climbing with our friends and working on our gross motor skills.
Jack and the Beanstalk
On world book day we went on an exciting trip to the Lighthouse Venue to watch Jack and the Beanstalk. We loved going on a bus with our friends and singing lots of songs.
Beebots
We loved using the beebots to explore directions. We directed the beebots to our friends and to The Gingerbread man.
Aqua Explorers
We had so much fun exploring the rockpools and learning about the different sea creatures that can be found.
Commando Joe
In Commando Joe this week we had to look at a puzzle that Commando Joe had set up and work as a group to recreate it from our memory.
Mother Goose
We watched a production of 'Mother Goose' performed as a Christmas panto at school. The children all really did enjoy the show and interacted with the actors with real energy!
Reading in the library
On Wednesday, 14th December, our parents were invited into school to come and share books with us in our beautiful school library. Everyone sat and listened to stories and chatted about the pictures in small cosy groups. We finished the session by all listening to a special Christmas story altogether, it was lovely!
Our Nativity
The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in our Reception Nativity earlier this week. Everyone dressed up and took part and the children all did themselves proud by reciting their lines and singing the songs with real volume and enthusiasm. Well done Owls and Hedgehogs it was a performance to remember and the rest of school and the parents all loved it!
Our visit to the garden centre
On Tuesday 6th December we visited a local garden centre to learn more about the traditions of Christmas. The children really enjoyed the whole experience including the minibus ride across town.
Learning about China
Our new theme is 'Come fly with me to Asia' and the first country that we have learned about is China. It was interesting to find out about the differences and similarities that exist in the Chinese culture and traditions compared to ours' here in the UK.
Travelling to India
This week we began our visit to India. We flew across on an aeroplane to meet a 5-year-old girl who lives there. We learned about how she spends her time with her family, visiting the Temple, attending school and playing with her brother and visiting her cousins in the countryside. There were lots of things which were different and many that were similar to the things we do here. We also learned a traditional way to greet someone when in India. We went on to draw our own Mehndi patterns, make Diva lamps and use our senses to explore traditional Indian spices.
I am Special!
In RE we have been talking about how we are all different, similar, totally unique and all very special to God who loves us. The children discussed how we all look different from one another and that we all experience a range of different emotions at various times. We looked at children from around the world and talked about God's love being the same for each living person. We then all placed a photograph of ourselves on the large heart to help remind us of God's eternal love for each of us. We finished our activity with a prayer thanking God for his love.
Dinosaur Dancing!
In PE this half term we are learning to dance like dinosaurs. This week we listened to a story about 'Where the wild things are' and learnt some new vocabulary. Then we explored words that describe how dinosaurs behaviour and look, for example, stomp, thud, fierce, claws, roar, gnash, etc. We then practised our moves and put them to music. Finally, we talked about how dinosaurs are born from eggs and we all pretended to be baby dinosaurs hatching, growing and then hunting! It was really good fun!
Our visit from the fire-fighters!
Yesterday the fire-fighters visited us at school. They talked to us about how to keep safe at home and told us not to play with matches or lighters. Mrs Robson tried on a full fire-fighters uniform, it was so heavy! Then, we all went outside to look at the fire-engine and ask the fire-fighters some interesting questions that we wanted to know the answers to. Finally, each of us had a turn to use the huge hoses to spray water in the car park and as the fire-fighters were leaving they put on the blue lights and sirens to give us the full experience!
Come and join the celebrations!
'Come and join the celebrations' is our new theme for the first part of this half term.
Diwali
We have been learning about Diwali the 'Festival of Light' for Hindus and have looked at how they celebrate at home and in the Temple.
Bonfire night
We have made firework pictures and creative 3D fireworks in the playdough to celebrate bonfire night and have talked about our own experiences of this special time at home.
Birthdays
The children were all very excited to talk about how we celebrate birthdays and what it means to grow up and get older. We have role-played birthday parties in the home corner together, made birthday cakes with candles in the playdough, created our own unique birthday cards in the writing area and sung 'Happy Birthday' to Mr Mistry from Year 1 when he came to celebrate with us on his 30th birthday.
Weddings
This week we have been learning about weddings in different cultures and have acted out a Christian wedding in class. The children thoroughly enjoyed it!
Therapy Farm Visit
The Owls loved visiting the Therapy Farm and have enjoyed lots of new experiences! First of all we got to touch and handle some smaller, exotic animals and we were all very brave. Lots of the children were eager to stroke them and we used lots of vocabulary to describe how the animals felt. After we explored outside and met the larger animals including the sheep, chickens, rabbits, goats and ducks! We got up close to the animals and even had the opportunity to feed them by hand which was wonderful.
Our Autumn Walk
This week we have been on a walk to our forest school to look at changes to the natural world around us. Before we went to look around the forest the children predicted what we might see. Some children thought we would see trees, grass, leaves on the ground, owls, hedgehogs and worms. However, some predicted we would find lions, bears, monkeys, snakes and a giraffe in the forest. It is safe to say that we didn't find any dangerous animals! We did collect lots of acorns, conkers, twigs and different coloured leaves and everyone really enjoyed exploring our forest and seeing the season of autumn first hand.
The Oral Health Team visited us at School
At the end of last week the Oral Health Team visited us in class to teach us about healthy eating, keeping our teeth clean and to better understand the role of a dentist and how they help us keep healthy teeth. We really enjoyed the visit and brushed our teeth with expert guidance, role-played visiting the dentist and looked at foods that are healthy and not so healthy. We now know more about healthy teeth and what we need to do to achieve them!
Our Visit from the Police
This week we were visited in Reception by a police officer. He came with all of his equipment and shared with us about how the police are here to keep us safe. He told us how often the police search and find lost people, both young and old using the police helicopter. Some of us then tried on the different police uniforms and pretended to be police officers. Finally, we spent some time looking more closely at his helmet with it's special badge, his handcuffs and walkie-talkie. It was a very interesting visit.
Celebrating and learning about Harvest
This week in RE we have been learning all about Harvest and how it is different and similar in different parts of the world. We looked at how familiar foods start out growing in fields as crops and how important the farmers are for taking care of them as they grow. Finally, we tried a range of seasonal fruits and then voted which was our favourite. Blueberries were most popular with our class. Everyone tried all the different fruits which was very grown up and made Mrs Robson and Mrs Musa very proud.
Thank you to all our parents who have sent in Harvest donations for Urban Outreach. Look at our great collection! Well done everyone.
Our First PE Lesson
We had great fun doing our first ever PE lesson together. Everyone joined in as we learnt how to control a ball and move it in a range of different ways. Mrs Robson and Mrs Musa were very impressed with the children's ball skills and listening. Well done everyone!
Litter Picking at School
We have been helping at school this week by litter picking on the large field. We all worked together and collected lots of rubbish. Afterwards we all washed our hands! Well done Owls, good job!
Road Safety Visit
On Wednesday this week we had a visit from someone from the Road Safety Team. She talked to us about keeping safe when we are out and about near roads and how important it is to always hold a grown-ups hand. We also learnt about where it is safest to cross a road and the role of the lollipop person. It was great fun and we will be practising stopping the traffic and crossing the road next week in our play outside.
Our First Lunchtime at School
On Tuesday of this week the children did a full day in School and had their first ever lunch in the big hall. They did so well and everyone tried both their dinner and pudding. Well done children!
Our First Week in Reception - September 2022
The Owl class have had a wonderful start to their life in Reception at St Matthew's! We were so brave when leaving our families and we were all excited to visit our new classroom. The children had fun exploring and learning in all areas of the provision. Mrs Robson and Mrs Wright are so proud of how we came into school and how quickly we are settling into life in Reception.
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