We have had lots of fun learning all about birds this week at school, as part of our whole-school participation in the ‘Big Schools Birdwatch 2025’ by the RSPB. Inspired by our learning, the children in RDT have been incredibly eager to look for birds around them when outdoors and very excited to recognise and name what they see. You could extend this interest at home by getting outside and seeing which birds you can spot. The RSPB website contains some fantastic resources for identifying and recording birds for young children.

Our talk for writing learning this week began by working together to make our own bird feeder to put outside. We then used talk and our writing skills to record the instructions for creating a bird feeder – if you would like to make your own at home please see our instructions above!

We have learnt lots of information about birds this week through sharing information books. During our library session, we listened to lots of facts about birds before joining in with a bird-themed quiz! We have also really enjoyed looking at different bird books in our reading area whilst exploring provision.

We have also practised and developed our fine-motor skills through different bird-themed activities this week. Many of us enjoyed catching worms for the birds on our finger gym table! We also applied our mark-making skills to create detailed robin drawings from reference as a group learning experience. This then inspired some of us to choose to do this again independently when exploring in provision!

What a busy and fun-filled Bird Week we have had in RDT!

This week, we were really fortunate to have our local policing team come into school and visit us in Reception! We have been – busy learning about different people who help us within our community this half-term, so this visit provided a fantastic opportunity for us to see what it really means to be a police officer. Many of us are enjoying using our imaginations to take on the role of police officers within provision and now we have much more knowledge to inform our play! Thank-you to our visitors for giving us such an exciting and informative experience!

We began our learning experience by trying on some special police hats and hi-vis jackets, as we took on the role of Police Officers! We then walked over to see a real police van, watching the flashing blue lights and listening to the siren! As we learned about the different parts of the police van, we were able to get inside and see it for ourselves. Some of us sat in the front cab, some in the back and some of us even had a go at getting into the cage!

We all listened carefully as our special visitors told us more about how the police help us and our community. We were eager to ask lots of questions to learn more. We all enjoyed this wonderful opportunity to learn through this memorable, real-life experience!

Our Talk for Writing text for this half-term is This is the Bear by Sarah Hayes. We have really enjoyed becoming familiar with the story by listening carefully and exploring the key vocabulary within the text. This week, we have been learning to tell the story ourselves through talking and by using the actions that we came up with! As we practised telling the story, we used our class story map to help us recall the key characters, events and phrases. You could use our story map below to retell the story at home with your family!

Here are some photos of us enjoying retelling This is the Bear through talk and with actions!

We have all enjoyed discovering new learning experiences within provision this week as we started to explore our new ‘people around us’ theme! We have had lots of fun visiting our new ACE Shop, where we made our own shopping lists and became different roles within the shop with our friends. Our shopkeepers did a fantastic job of serving the customers and we soon got the hang of queuing up to wait to be served!

We also loved exploring small-world play with our new hospital and people who help us figures! We enjoyed acting out different scenarios taking place using the hospital building, ambulance and rescue helicopter with our friends throughout the week. We also enjoyed learning more about different people who help us by looking closely at the wooden people figures and using them within our small-world play.

Nativity week! We have been building up to this all half term, the children were performance ready and have loved dressing up, saying their lines and wiggling to the songs. Here is our filmed performance for anyone who wants to watch it again! We are so proud of the children as standing on the stage is daunting at any age. Thank you for all of your support with costumes, line learning and song singing!

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.