Autumn 2023

Home Overviews

Have a look at all of the wonderful knowledge, skills and activities we are exploring in Reception. Our grown up's at home can help us too...take a look at the suggested learning activities and ideas, read our story at home with us and make every learning opportunity count!

Autumn Term 2023

The Colour Monster Goes to School 

Weeks 1 to 3

We had a wonderful time exploring The Colour Monster Goes to School. This book helped us to explore our emotions, uncover each others thoughts about starting in Reception and also helped us to understand what our new school day would look like. We discovered lots of new vocabulary around emotions and naming our feelings and we discovered what it meant to make new friends. During the topic, we looked at different colours. We found that there are primary and secondary colours and we explored how to use these to make different colours too!

PHSE

Through our PHSE lessons we explored families. We looked carefully at the pictures and family set ups in the book and concluded that all families are different. We also decided that it is OK to be different. When we are having our PHSE lessons we always  remind ourselves "Everybody's different, and that's OK!"

MATHS

Our Reception Maths work began with us matching.  We found objects around our class that matched. We used the story Simon Sock as inspiration to find pairs of socks and objects.

Ruby's Worry

Weeks 4 & 5

Through out book Ruby's Worry, we began to think about what a worry is and all the different types of worries we have. Some children said the were worried about the dark at night and others worried about their friends. We realised that, the best way to deal with a worry is to talk about it, so we decided who we could talk to and we even made worry peg dolls and a worry box. Through this book, we also enjoyed exploring differences and celebrating what it means to be different. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect upon how God created us all uniquely. 

MATHS

Our next set of Maths lessons were focussed on looking at repeating patterns.  We discussed and continued the patterns orally before we began to make our own. 

We then moved on to comparing sizes.  We talked about what size box would be best for a certain object and then found objects that would fit in each box.

Our best part was when the really big box came into class and we all had a turn of sitting in it!!

The Squirrel's Who Squabbled

Weeks 6 & 7

Isn't it hard to share? Compromise is so difficult sometimes and thinking of other people can be tricky too. Our teachers decided to help us learn more about squabbling and how we can resolve things in a better way. We used all our previous learning from other topics to name our frustrations and feelings and to figure out a better way to solve conflict. Through our book 'The Squirrels Who Squabbled', we could see how the squirrels put so much energy into arguing when they could have helped each other. We could also see some wonderful illustrations in the forest setting of the book which got us thinking all about autumn and seasonal changes. We found our love of all things nature and using our new understanding of 'foraging', we began to bring all sorts of wonderful treasures from the outside to the inside. We made it so autumnal that we even had a class visitor, Cyril the squirrel, who took up residence in our class. 

At the end of the half term, we held a vote for our favourite book. Can you see which one won in the images below?

MATHS

We began to look at the numbers 1, 2 and 3. We found the numeral and sets of 3 objects and also represented the numbers with our fingers and different maths apparatus. 

We were introduced to subitising. We worked really hard on trying to identify the amount without counting. Our favourite activity was the 'plate game' were we had to subitise the spots to find our friends.

Here We Are

Weeks 8 & 9

Did you know that our world was a sphere, not a circle - it is a 3D shape! Well, in Reception, we know what shape it is because we used the book 'Here We Are' to uncover lots about our planet. There are continents and countries, rivers, oceans and seas. We looked at the Arctic and Antarctic, explored different types of places and people, we know about land and water and we understand a little bit more about our universe. This helped us realise that we play a small part in a much bigger picture. We started to talk about how we should be taking care of our planet and shared some ideas about how we could help with this. 

MATHS

The 2D shapes, circles and triangles were the focus of our next maths topic. We talked about their properties and made shape patterns with them.

We identified the shapes in real life objects too. 

RE

During our RE lessons we learned about Baptism and how it welcomes people into the church and the family of God. 

We re-enacted the Rite of Baptism service in small groups. 

We coloured in crosses to help us remember the sign of the cross.

The Way Back Home

Weeks 10 & 11

Having explored lots about planet earth, we next jetted off into space. With a space station set up in class, a rocket outside and lots in between, our children were thrilled to become astronauts and aliens. We looked at the history of space travel, learnt that there are different planets and that we are part of a solar system. Through our text 'The Way Back Home', we gathered our thoughts about what it means to be a good friend, to be kind and to help each other out. We talked about the feeling of loneliness and about the importance of offering friendship to those who look sad or lonely. This also supported our Anti-bullying week, in which we celebrated differences.

We also made lots of wonderful mess with space dust, asteroids, alien play dough and planet pictures!

MATHS

We moved on to the numbers  4 and  5. We used different representations and sentence stems to help us explain our thinking. We made 5 in different ways using counters and fingers.

Polar Express

Week 12 & 13

To finish off our term in Reception, we have been on a journey...to the North Pole. Using our text 'The Polar Express' we continued to develop our understanding of the world by discussing where the North Pole is, how we could get there and what we would expect to see when we arrived. The teachers let us play in chocolate...yes, you read it right...we played in chocolate and we discovered that hot chocolate cocoa powder is wonderful to draw in when it is dry and also even better when you add water. The chocolate was everywhere and it was simply wonderful. This helped us to discuss our senses and we really delved deep into what it would feel like to be on a train to the North Pole surrounded by the smell of hot chocolate and the sounds of laughter and excitement. Our teachers didn't stop there. 

In our last week of school, we were invited to attend school in our pyjamas and bring a cuddly toy. When we arrived, there was music blurring on our playground and we boarded the Polar Express. Our tickets were stamped, we trekked around the school and we made such a noise and racket that everyone came to see what was happening. We stopped off in our dinner hall, where the wonderful kitchen staff had made us hot chocolate and then we returned to class to explore some wonderful creative activities. What a magical day it was!

RE - Advent

Advent was a very busy time in Reception. From making cards and decorations, decorating the trees, performances and even a visit from Father Christmas.  

During Advent, we remember the Nativity story and the journey made by Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.  We made tea light holders to take home to remind us that Jesus was born as the light of the world.