Reception

Academic Year 2023-2024

Cygnets, Ducklings and Goslings are hatching new ideas and exploring and beginning to learn about the world around them.

We dive into new learning experiences, always making a splash, do our best to get along swimmingly and are discovering how to spread our learning wings and fly. 

Please feel free to contact us on the following email addresses:

Cygnets - clintern@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk

Goslings - lholloway@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk

                         Ducklings - sbarlow@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk                                        - vwhite@whiterockprimaryschool.co.uk

SUMMER TERM

This term our theme is

'Be Curious'

This term we will be asking questions about where we live and the local area. We will compare the types of homes we have, and the names of animals homes. We will explore the local area with a library trip and a beach trip. This will culminate with an exciting learning celebration at a garden party.

UPCOMING DATES

Paignton Library Trip dates

Ducklings- Tuesday 21st May 2024

Cygnets- Thursday 23rd May 2024

Goslings- Friday 24th May 2024

Beach Trip- Dates to be confirmed soon.

Monday 15th April 2024 - Non-pupil day

Tuesday 16^th April 2024 – First day of Summer Term

Thursday 18^th April 2024 – Rocksteady Assembly and Workshop

Monday 6^th May 2024 – Bank Holiday

Friday 24^th May 2024 – Last day of Summer 1

Monday 27^th May 2024 – Friday 31^st May 2024 – Half Term

Monday 3^rd June 2024 – First day of Summer 2

Tuesday 25th June- Sports Day

Wednesday 17^th July 2.15pm- Garden Party

Wednesday 24^th July 2024 – Last day of Summer Term

Summer Term Curriculum Map.

Friday 3rd May 2024

This week we have been looking at the story On The Way Home and the importance of telling the truth. As part of our Literacy learning we have been looking at the meaning of vocabulary in the story On The Way Home such as zooming, sneaking and lumbering. In phonics, we have been reading longer words with six graphemes, sorting ar/or words and reading new tricky words. In maths, we have been using number stories to add and takeaway using counters and ten frames. We have been working on our presentation skills to share about the clubs and activities we do outside of school.  

Friday 26 th April 2024

This week we have been looking at features of a map and creating our own maps to follow a route around school. In phonics, we have been reading longer words with suffixes, sorting th/ch words and reading new tricky words. In maths, we have been counting to 20 and making teen numbers 13-20 using numicon. In our outside area we have been role playing being at a party, singing songs and sharing play food.

Friday 19th April 2024 

This week we have started daily toothbrushing in our classrooms and had a fantastic visitor from Rocksteady teach us how to play instruments in a band. 

In Phonics, we have started reading phase 4 words and building our fluency.

In Maths, we have been counting ordinal numbers 10, 11, 12 and 13 and using 1 :1 correspondence as we count. In Literacy, we have been writing sentences with finger spaces about our homes.

UPCOMING DATES

Tuesday 19th March - Parents evening

Thursday 21st March - Parents evening

Thursday 28th March - Last day of Spring 2

Spring Term

This terms theme is

'One World, One Heart'

This term we will be learning about other places around the world. We will begin our learning as an egg appears and we need to solve the Mystery of how it got here and which animal it came from. 

28th March 2024

This week we have been observing the changes of frog spawn to tad poles and caterpillars to chrysalises.  We will record any changes that occur during the Easter holidays to show the children when we return. We have been learning about why Easter is important to Christians and practising our letter formation.  In maths we have been looking at complex patterns and discussing patterns in the environment. 

21st March 2024

This week we have been observing the frog spawn that Mrs Holloway collected. We also have some tadpoles already. We have been using our observation skills to draw what we can see and our phonic skills to write what we can see. In maths we have been looking at 3D shapes and using them to make junk models and build tall towers. 

Week beginning 11th March 2024

This week we have been retelling the story of 'The Little Red Hen'. We talked about the characters and decided if they were helpful or not. We also discussed

whether the friends were being kind to one another and what we would do if our friends needed our help. We finished off our week by making bread. The children learned how to knead the dough just like the Little Red Hen. In maths we have been sorting odd and even numbers and learning about the composition of numbers to 10, using a variety of Maths resources to support us with this.

Week beginning 4th March 2024

This week we had some very small caterpillars arrive. We have been watching them to see how they grow and drawing them. We have also read the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and looked at how the caterpillar changed. In Maths, we have been learning about 1 less than a given amount. We have enjoyed singing a variety of number songs to help us with this. We also celebrated World Book Day as a school. During the day we took part in different activities and then enjoyed sharing books with some of our friends in Year 3. 

Thank you to those who were able to attend our Phonics workshop on Wednesday. It was great to see the children enjoying their learning with their adults from home and we hope you found it helpful. Please speak to your child's teacher if you have any questions regarding Phonics.

29th February 2024

This week in Maths we have been making 9 and 10 in a variety of ways and have started to  look at the parts of numbers eg 9 can be made out of 5 and 4. In literacy we have been thinking about instruction writing. We have written some instructions on how to plant a seed. We planted our own seeds and we will see what happens. 

22nd February 2024

This week we have been comparing height in Maths. We had fun drawing around each other, creating a class height chart and getting in height order. We also had a go at creating our own pancakes and making and eating them. They all tasted very nice! We have also been looking at how to keep ourselves healthy. We have been sorting vegetables and fruit and will start to look at growing our own food. 

8th February 2024

This week we have learnt about the Chinese New Year celebrations. We all got together with the Nursery children and explored a variety of activities. We practised our performance, cutting, fine motor and creative skills. We have also been recapping all of the phonic sounds and tricky words that we have learnt so far.

1st February 2024

This week we have enjoyed looking at new and old toys. Mrs White brought in some toys that were her dads toys so they were very old. We compared what new and old toys were made of and draw and talked about our favourite toys. In maths we have been doubling and thinking about what happens when we add the same again to an amount. In phonics we have been learning to read longer words eg. carpark. 

The children also had a great time reading with some of our older children. They talked about the characters in the story and shared ideas about what they thought might happen next.

The children had a great time on our 'Welly Walk' as they explored our local area. They each had a map and were challenged to find things that matched the pictures on their map such as road signs, a post box and several bus stops.

25th January 2024

This week we have been learning to read words with double letters in like 'rabbit' and 'bigger' and we have been trying to spot diagraphs in words. We have been comparing environments in literacy by looking at the weather in hot and cold countries. We have also taken a closer look at our local environment and followed routes on google maps to find the shops and our own homes. In Math

we have been exploring 6, 7 and 8 by recording and making them in different ways. 

18th January 2024

This week we have been looking at the book The Ugly Five to help us compare hot and cold countries. We have also taken a close look at the characters in the story and come up with metaphors to help describe them and move like them in dance. In Maths we have been exploring weight (mass) and capacity. We have had great fun experimenting in the water, rice and lentils to find out which containers hold the most and we have been using our muscles to be human scales to compare objects weight.  

11th January 2024

This week we have been investigating the appearance of the penguin on the field. We have been exploring the woodland for clues and coming up with ideas as to how the penguin will get home. To support this learning we have been learning about Chris Gilmore an artist who creates types of transport out of boxes. We then designed and made our own modes of transport out of boxes and discussed which transport we thought the penguin might need to use to get to Antarctica. In maths we have been looking at how 5 can be made in various ways and recording this using a 5 frame. 

5th January 2024

This week we have been investigating! We found an egg and we have been trying to find out who the egg belongs too and what might be inside. We have also been subitising numbers 0-5 in maths and grouping objects. We all had time to talk about what we got up to in the holidays and what we would like to do in the New Year. 

Autumn Term

This terms theme is

'Free to be me'

This term, we will be looking at ourselves as individuals. We will begin by looking closely at our features before celebrating our similarities and differences. We will also be learning about different job roles and how our families are different too. 

15th December 2023

What a busy week we have had this week. The children have had a great time exploring and meeting Santa in the caves, they have performed 3 Nativities and done an amazing job and they have all enjoyed their Christmas dinners with their house teams. We are all so very proud of the children for their hard work this term. Have a happy, heathy Christmas and new year from all of the Reception Team!

7th December 2023

This week we have been preparing for the Nativity and recapping all we have learnt so far in our Maths and Phonics. We have been though all of the Phase 2 phonics sounds now and leant some Tricky words. We have been subitising and writing numerals in Maths. We have also been preparing for Christmas by making cards and decorations for our families and friends. We also received a video message from Santa which we loved!

30th November 2023

This week we have started to practise for the Nativity performance. We are all doing so well remembering when to stand, sing and do the actions. We have started to get ready for Christmas in our classes too. We have been designing and writing cards, decorating trees and making a work shop for Santa. In Maths we have been looking at 4 sided shapes and having a go at finding and drawing them. 

23rd November 2023

This week we have been exploring the story of The Stick Man. We have been in the woodland collecting sticks to make our own stick families. We have been making 4 and 5 in different ways and used the song 5 little speckled frogs to help us with this. We are all doing really well in our guided reading sessions and enjoyed changing our library books. Lots of children are enjoying spending time in the library and sitting in the library tree sharing a book together. 

16th November 2023

This week we have been exploring the book Pumpkin Soup. We have started to write words and captions linked to the story and we also made our own soup. We have learnt about and celebrated Children in Need by wearing non school uniform, creating art work and joining in with activities organised by year 6. In maths we are now leaning to make 4 and 5. We have been practising how to write these numbers now too. 

9th November 2023

This week we have been learning about Diwali and have made some diya lamps so that we can place candles in them and celebrate the festival of light. We have been thinking about other times that we also use candles to celebrate special occasions. In Maths we have been exploring the properties of circles and triangles. We have also started to learn about Remembrance Day and have been making our own poppies.

3rd November 2023

This week we have continued to learn about the numbers 1,2 and 3 and how two numbers can be added together. We have been looking at the number bonds to make 3. We watched the 3 Billy Goats Gruff and then we arranged our goats on our bridge and field to make a number bond eg 0 and 3 make 3, 1 and 2 make 3, 2 and 1 make 3 and 3 and 0 make 3. We have also been thinking about rhyming words and having a go at writing some. We have also been making some firework art. 

19th November 2023

This week we have started to look at the numbers, 1,2 and 3. We have been spotting them around the class and showing the numbers in different ways. We can also clap the numbers too. In our writing we have been practising our name writing again and also we have started to begin to write simple cvc words like pin and sock. 

12th October 2023

This week we have loved meeting our parent and staff visitors who have been sharing their job roles with us. We have learnt how they look after us and others in our community and the wider world. In our literacy lessons we had been invaded by the Evil Pea from the story Super Potato. Luckily we found them all and put them back in the freezer! In maths we have been exploring pattern and making our own repeated patterns in a variety of ways. 

5th October 2023

This week we had some unexpected visitors land in the woodland. Captain Beattie and his crew had crashed landed from their Super Hero HQ. We had to investigate the area and find his missing friends. We then used our phonics skills to add their names to their pictures. We have been exploring our school grounds looking for clues and we found the super heroes in the Library and the Dinner Hall. 

28th September 2023

This week we have been taking a closer look at our different families. We have looked at how they are special and different. We have enjoyed sharing our family photos and talking about different family members. In maths we have been sorting and matching items by colours, size and theme. 

21st September 2023 

This week we have been looking closely at our faces and drawing our self portraits. We have been looking at our similarities and differences and celebrating what makes us unique.  

14th September 2023

This week we have been learning the phonics sounds s,a,t,p. We have been thinking about the first sound in words and talking like a robot to break down words into sounds eg. c-a-t cat. We have also had our first library session and started to learn 2 harvest songs. 

8th September 2023 - Our First Week in Reception

We have all had a lovely first week in Reception. We have been exploring the different classes and the field, and making lots of new friends. Next week we will be starting to talk about and notice what makes us special and learn our new phonics sounds. Ask what sound we have learnt at the end of the day and see if we can remember.