This week children have been learning about 1 more and 1 less, we have used the song 5 currant buns to support this. Some of the children have started to create their own counting down songs outside. We often end the day watching an episode of Numberblocks on the iPlayer which is both enjoyable and educational. Each episode has terrific ways of demonstrating maths concepts and they have been really thought through to support a deeper understanding of maths. Needles to say the children love the characters and a lot of the children have been drawing the characters and singing the songs too.

The children have been continuing to learn about 2d shapes and have used them to make their Christmas cards. You will be delighted with the results, we are sure!

We cannot believe that December is here already! We are busy with our Christmas preparations and the children are excited about the start of Advent.

Encouraging the children to talk and increase their vocabulary is one of our main aims at the moment. This will support them in reading, writing, well, in everything! With this in mind and in recognition that winter is on its way, we have put a treasure hunt in the book bags for you to complete over the next few weeks, should you want to. Learning new words and exploring outside are two of our favourite things to do. We hope you do too.

In maths we have been developing the children’s use of positional language: words like in, on, under, next to and behind. We have built models and dens, used craft to make owls, foxes and snakes, as well as having lots of fun giving each other instructions in our play.

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.