This week the children have been learning all about why we celebrate Christmas and they have been very busy doing lots of different Christmas themed activities.

All of the children have made their own snow globe bauble. Don’t they look fabulous?

Some of the children chose to complete snowmen puzzles. These puzzles required the children to practise their segmenting skills.

Some children chose to put Christmas stars on Christmas trees. This activity required the children to practise their blending skills.

Other children chose to design and decorate their own Christmas jumpers. I’m sure you will agree that the children’s jumpers are all very busy, unique and sparkly!

Some children chose to play with the mosaic shapes and they skilfully built different Christmas items with them whilst other children made repeating patterns with my Christmas pegs.

Some children chose to decorate Christmas trees. They were set the challenge of decorating the trees in rows of consecutive numbers! The children certainly did a fabulous job.

Outside some children chose to build and decorate Christmas trees using the natural resources that they found in the forest.

Whilst other children chose to use their phonic knowledge to write to Father Christmas with their Christmas wish lists. Let’s hope Father Christmas is making notes!

The children are definitely looking forward to their Christmas party tomorrow. They have now completed their first term in Reception. Bubble closures, staff and children absences and a global pandemic have not stopped the children having a wonderful and productive first term in Reception. The children have worked so hard this term and they definitely deserve a lovely Christmas break. We would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of the children and their parents a very Merry Christmas and we hope that you all have a Happy New Year! See you all again in January!

Reception children raise money for Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham by wearing Christmas jumpers and non-uniform.

This week the children have been learning all about their ears. We have listened to lots of different sounds and we have learnt about how we hear sounds. The children have also listened to the story of the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff.’

In discovery time some children built bridges for the three goats to use to cross over the river. They had to be a solveosaurus as the bridges had to be tall enough to fit the troll underneath!

The children also built bridges outside. They enjoyed making the bridges big enough to fit themselves under! The children also acted out the story. They happily took on the role of the goats and the troll!

The children have also been working hard in Maths. They have made number line bridges using the digit cards 1-10 and they have been matching quantities to numbered goats in tens frames. The children are now using wonderful mathematical language to explain how / why they knew they had the correct number of items in each tens frame. The children used the language of it’s on its own, it’s one and another one, it’s one and another on and another one, it’s three and one more, it’s four and one more, it’s five and one more, it’s five because the top line is full, it’s ten because the tens frames is full etc.

Some children chose to make the troll out of play dough. They self-selected their own resources and they designed their troll themselves. The children also wrote some lovely sentences about their troll using their phonic knowledge.

Some children chose to make bridges and goats at the workshop table. The children were very independent in thought and action. They have been great thinkodactyls!

Some children painted lovely pictures of the troll. The children are becoming very independent at the painting table and they are beginning to choose colours for a purpose. Their paintings are wonderful!

The children are also working really hard in their phonic lessons as well. They are learning lots of graphemes and phonemes and they are now blending the sounds together to read words. The children were able to read lots of words which enabled them to cross the bridge!

The children have also been able to recall key events and phrases from the ‘Three Billy Goats’ story and lots of children chose to write sentences about what the different characters in the story said.

The children have been working super hard this week. We are very proud of each and every one of them! Well done Swans.

This week the children have been continuing to learn about their sense of sight. The children have been artists and they have painted observational paintings of their eyes. The children tried really hard to paint the white of their eye, their iris, their pupils and their eye lashes. We think they did an amazing job don’t you?

The children have also used their sense of sight when they went on a 2D shape hunt around the school environment. The children saw lots of 2D shapes on their walk around the school grounds. Below are some examples of the shapes the children saw. Can you name the objects and the shapes that the children saw on their walk?

This week the children have been continuing to learn about their sense of sight. The children have been artists and they have painted observational paintings of their eyes. The children tried really hard to paint the white of their eye, their iris, their pupils and their eye lashes. We think they did an amazing job don’t you?

The children have also used their sense of sight when they went on a 2D shape hunt around the school environment. The children saw lots of 2D shapes on their walk around the school grounds. Below are some examples of the shapes the children saw. Can you name the objects and the shapes that the children saw on their walk?

Our theme for anti-bullying week has been ‘being kind’ and ‘it’s ok to be different!’ The children have been very busy and their anti-bullying themes have been taught through the ‘Elmer’ stories by David McKee.

The children began the week designing and making their ‘Bee Kind’ badges. The children proudly wore these badges all day all week!

The children have listened to lots of different Elmer stories this week. They have discussed how the other elephants loved him because he was different. Being different made him special. The children have also discussed how Elmer was always kind and helpful and how he always liked to make his friends smile and laugh. The children have enjoyed making their own Elmer’s for the Elmer day parade. Some children explored colour mixing when they decorated their Elmer’s.

Other children used their IT skills to design their Elmer’s. They skilfully used the track ball to move the mouse around Elmer and used the buttons to select different colours and brush sizes. All the Elmer’s were beautiful, unique and special in their own way.

Continuing this theme some children thought about how they were special or unique they were. The children used their knowledge of phonics and their think writing to write a sentence about themselves.

Some children also decorated their initial letter. All the initial letters were decorated in different ways but all were beautiful. This once again emphasised to the children how we are all beautiful and special in our own way.

The children also took part in an e-safety lesson discussing their self-image and identity. The children thought about their feelings and emotions and how they can be affected by others. They discussed how other people can have an effect on our feelings and emotions and they thought of some situations of when this might have happened. The children also discussed ideas and suggestions for what they might do or what actions they could take, in each arising scenario.