Welcome to the Reception Class

The class teacher is Miss Holt and
the class teaching assistants are Miss Behan and Miss Stevens. 

Summer Term

PIRATES! 
Our final topic in Reception is Pirates. We will be learning about Maps and Flags, types of Boats and Pirate ships, we will be designing and making our own Pirate ship that floats. 

Later in the term we will be having a Dress like a Pirate day! 

For Vocations week we met Sister Cooey and Sister Lucy and learnt all about their calling from God. We thought about our gifts and talents and how we can use them to help others. We had a school dress up day where we came to school as something we wanted to be when we are grown up. We had a great day! 

For the end of our Musical Stories Music topic, we had a Teddy Bears Picnic. We brought our Teddys to school and had a class picnic. 

During the first half of our Summer Term we have been learning all about the lifecycle of a sunflower, we planted our own sunflowers. We learnt about all the things a plant needs to survive and how to look after our sunflowers. Our artist this term has been Vincent Van Gough, we painted our own sunflowers we used sand and rice to create a textured piece of work, we also sketched plants and created our own flower using items from the junk modelling box.

In Forest School, we have been exploring how our environment has changed from winter to spring and moving into summer. We have been bug hunting and exploring our dipping pond. We recently discovered a family of frogs living in our pond, they had laid eggs and we could see lots of tadpoles swimming around.

In our RE lessons we have been learning all about Mary, as a whole school we crowned Mary and had a special celebration for Pentecost, also known as the Church's Birthday!

For our planting project we have drawn some observational drawings of Miss Holts Class plants and planted our own Sunflower seeds. We can’t wait to watch our sunflowers grow!

We looked at parts of a plant and made our own plant by using rice for seeds, a straw for the stem and string for the roots some children even put some wiggly worms in the soil.  We have begun to learn about Vincent’s sunflowers and sketch and paint our own sunflower field. 

Spring Term

To finish our topic ‘People Who Help Us’, we had a special guest PC Christmas. He came and spoke to us about the role of the police and how they help the community. We got to sit in a police car and try on some uniform.
We even arrested Miss Griffin!

During National Science Week we visited the Think Tank in Birmingham. We loved looking at the fossils, animals and vehicles. 

We had such a great time with Garath P. Jones. He played the piano and ukelele and sang his book Rabunzel! A twisted fairy tale story about a rabbit with really long ears.

Click the link to watch and listen to the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXeE1VKG0EE&ab_channel=GarethPJones 

During the Spring term, our topics were Rhyming stories and People who help us. We made cards for people who help us every day. Nurse Nicola, who is a veterinary Nurse, showed us X-rays of a Snake and a Lion having a CT scan! We loved role-playing a Vet and writing our own appointment cards.

In Music we have been learning action songs, our favorite was Row Row Row Your Boat. We made our own boats and tested them to see if they floated.

During our Commando Joe Missions, we have been learning to work as a team and communicate effectively. So far, with the help of Steve Backshall, we have rescued spiders in Borneo and helped a lobster return to the ocean. We can’t wait for our next top secret mission!

In our RE lessons, we learnt all about Baptism and role-played Baptising Babies, we looked at our baby photos and looked at how we have grown and changed. During Mardi Gras, we made necklaces and masks and had a mask parade around the school. We decorated the number 40 to remind us of the 40 days of Lent. We have been practicing our school songs for the ‘Roll Back the Stone' Performance.

We celebrated our first World Book Day, we had a great time showing our friends our costumes and talking about our favourite stories.

Autumn Term 

Autumn Learning!
In our first term at school, we explored Forest School and watched how it changed from Autumn to Winter. We celebrated St Francis of Assisi's day and Rise Theatre visited us for God’s Planet Day! Our topic was Animals and we learnt all about different types of animals and where they live and made our own Elmer masks. To finish our topic we visited the Sea Life Center in Birmingham our favourite part was the penguins! Warwick Bear visited and taught us all about Road Safety. During our Advent preparation day, we wore purple, decorated the classroom, and made a small Bambinelli which Father Patrick blessed. Our Autumn highlight was our first Nativity, we loved wearing costumes and learning new songs.

Outdoor Learning and Forest Fun! 
 

If you go down in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise
If you go down in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise!