What a wonderful trip we had to Skelton Grange! The children loved travelling on the coach through Leeds city centre and seeing the hustle and bustle. It was like we had been transported to a different world when we arrived at Skelton Grange. The children saw nature at its best and we had a whole day to explore. The children learnt about the animals that lived in this beautiful habitat but we also thought about the characters in the Gruffalo story and where they might live, what they might eat. The afternoon was time to play together, participating in Forest School activities.

In maths this week, we have been learning all about 1 more and 1 less. We have used counters, bricks, sounds, and of course songs to help us with this! We have been singing 5 little speckled frogs to help us countdown from 5 as well as using a 5 countdown to be ready for learning as quickly as we can.

The children enjoyed using chalks outside to represent the numbers and we had a lot of fun talking about larger numbers too.

This week the children have learnt about Divali. We read a wonderful book called ‘The best Divali ever’. We used lots of resources from the CBeebies website to find out how Divali is celebrated and we also learnt a Divali dance! The children had great fun making clay Diva lamps and decorating them and making rangoli patterns. On Thursday, we visited the library an listened to Mrs Ajith, a member of staff, who will be celebrating Divali with her family this week.

We are doing all that we can to develop the children’s love of reading and books and we are so lucky to have the beautiful school library. Every Thursday, we visit the library. Miss Whiteley, our librarian reads the children a story and then they get to look at books with friends or adults. Yesterday we heard The Story Thief by Graham Carter.

We have had such fun learning this text and the children now know it really well. The children love all the different animals in the story and are so upset that Little Rabbit Foo Foo tries to bop them on the head! We had fun today innovating the story to make a new version and I caught some of the children telling their friends the new version which includes slimy snails, monkeys, puppy dogs and lions. The children enjoyed drawing some of the characters and practising writing their names with the correct formation.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the event last week where the children got to show their All about me boxes to their buddies along with family members. It was lovely to see all the effort that had gone into making the boxes and for the families to see the special bond that has developed between the Reception children and their buddies.

The children have been so enthusiastic about the letter sounds that we have been learning in Phonics. This week, we have learnt i, n, p, g and o. We have had a lot of fun engaging the children in different ways. The class used sand to learn how to form the letter shapes.

We are really encouraging the children to use and develop their fine motor skills in all areas of the classroom be it jigsaws, playdough, cutting, sticking or using lego. The more fiddly things they get to do the stronger and more precise their pencil control becomes. Doing their own zips, jumpers, shoes and buttons also helps, as well as helping them to be more independent. Please do look at the ideas on the newsletter this week and do keep encouraging the children to persevere.

Week 2 and we have now welcomed all the children into RDT. The classroom is full of busy learners enjoying role play in different ways; developing language and collaborating with their friends, showing us all the things they know about the world around us.

The children have started to complete the daily mile each day and we have some very fast and competitive runners! We took our first trip to the school library on Thursday and met Miss Whiteley, our librarian, the children were excited to visit a different part of school. She will be running Family Library Sessions for Reception children and their families on Tuesdays 3.00-4.00pm (younger/older siblings welcome). Meet in main reception. 

We were delighted to start welcoming the new children into Reception class this week and are so pleased with how well they have settled. The children have enjoyed getting to know all the areas both inside and out. We have enjoyed getting to know what interests them and how we can develop this. Thank you for the amazing effort in completing the ‘All about me boxes’ the children enjoyed sharing these and talking with such confidence and pride. The Year 6 buddies have been a tremendous help in supporting the children at lunchtime and it has been lovely to see these relationships develop. Please do check in each week to see what we have been doing in RDT!