Westonzoyland Primary School ‘Achieving, Learning and Growing Together’
Merlin – Miss Stockford (Reception)
Welcome to our Merlin class page, where we keep you up to date with our learning, and where you can find useful information specific to our class.
Our PE day is Tuesdays, and we are fortunate to welcome back Mr Pigden, a specialist sports coach, to work with us again. However, please ensure PE kits (with all items clearly named) are in school every day as we may go out for additional sessions throughout the week.
Our learning is centred around mini topics, usually based on class books that we are sharing within class as well as enveloping the interests of our children.
Initially, we will be using the topic 'All about me' so that children can develop confidence in sharing what is most familiar, their families, and talk about themselves and their interests, celebrating themselves and others' in a reassuring environment as well as exploring feelings and emotions, differences and similarities.
Week beginning 25th March
Our new classbook is 'Oliver's vegetables', linking with our sowing of seeds and setting up a vegetable and garden shop. This is a natural progression from our learning from the Supertato books, and we now focus on money and understanding of plants and seed growth. We were all very excited to see that our evil peas we planted last week have all germinated and grown over the weekend. We have to keep a close eye to make sure they don't escape, otherwise its back to the freezer!
Outdoor learning
Week beginning 4th February 2019
This week we continue to use Elmer as a focus to explore jungles, to develop new and exciting vocabulary to describe what we see, hear, smell and feel. We will be developing our colour mixing, looking at works by Kandinsky to then create our own work.
Our maths focuses on key facts such as doubles, and one more/less, and recalling facts quickly.
Week beginning 28th January
Our wonderful world travels takes us to the Jungle this week, where we will be imagining it is a lot warmer than the temperature outside - looking out for snow... Our literacy class book focuses on Elmer, celebrating our differences and how unique we are, as well as discovering the wonderful animals and plants of the jungle. Our maths uses jungle animals to compare and order according to weight, and we will be searching for objects in our environment heavier and lighter than our (toy) elephant. Mrs Garbett introduces a kindness bucket which will be used throughout the school, where we try to fill our bucket with kind deeds the children do each day.
Just a little sprinkling of snow that we had to make the most of!
Week beginning 21st January
We continue our discoveries of the South Pole, researching different animals and people who live in the Polar regions, as well as writing using sequential language. Our maths focuses on the language of height, and we will be comparing, ordering and measuring objects using the vocabulary of tall and short.
Week beginning 14th January 2019
We are really flying in our learning, applying our new skills and knowledge with enthusiasm, and shining in our achievements. It has been great to see how Merlin are growing in all aspects of their learning and rising to new challenges.
This week we continue with exploring the Polar regions, researching for information on animals living in colder climates, applying our literacy skills to reading and then writing facts we discover. Our maths focus on using vocabulary focused on height, as well as finding one less of a quantity.
Week beginning 7th January 2019
Welcome back, and Happy New Year!
We have an exciting week coming up, with our very first school trip. On Wednesday, for most of us, we will be going on a coach for the very first time - extremely exciting in itself - and visiting We the Curious, a hands on science exploration museum. I know the children will gain much from this, and are already getting excited!
We will be exploring the Polar regions as part of our wonderful world topic - exploring contrasting areas - our starting point being the book 'Lost and found' where a boy takes a penguin back to the South Pole...
Our learning will branch out to support children in developing their own knowledge of where their interests take them, recording their findings in different ways.
Our maths will develop number recognition, as well as estimating and counting with greater accuracy, as well as develop measuring skills in different contexts.
Please remember to always have wellies and warm coats and hats in this colder weather - we will, as always, be embracing it as part of our learning!
We had an absolutely amazing day at 'we the curious' learning lots through exploration.
We have all made bird feeders to help feed the birds. We realised that at this time of the year there is very little to eat outside.
Week beginning 17th December 2018
This week we truly celebrate the beginning of the festive period, taking part in our school traditions and applying our knowledge in a Christmas theme.
We had a very special visitor - Father Christmas - who gave us all a lovely book. We really enjoyed sharing them with our friends.
Today we considered those less lucky than ourselves, raising money by wearing our Christmas jumpers.
Counting and comparing quantities - using tweezers to select objects through the glittery threads!
Putting our reading skills to good use - building Christmas trees! We loved this game, practising our super phonic and sight word knowledge
Making repeating patterns - using festive pictures, shiny beads and paper chains
Week beginning 10th December 2018
This week our learning theme focuses on The Stickman, retelling the journey and the uses of a stick! We went on a walk gathering sticks before selecting materials to make our very own stick person.
Making a stick person
We visited the church to learn about the true meaning of Christmas. We really enjoyed looking at the features within the Church building as well as listening to the story. We loved joining in the singing of the Christmas carols with the rest of the school.
Week beginning 3rd December 2018
Drawing The Gruffalo using our knowledge of the descriptive phrases within the story
We really enjoyed decorating cakes in the style of that terrible creature...the gruffalo
\Week beginning 26th November
We continue with our theme of The Gruffalo, developing language of description within our writing as well as exploring different materials to create our own terrible creatures. Our maths skills practise adding of two sets, again within the theme of the Gruffalo, adding orange eyes, purple prickles, black tongues...
We have thoroughly enjoyed retelling the story of The Gruffalo
Fun with clay
This week we have really enjoyed developing our repeating patterns using pegboards
Week beginning 19th November 2018
This week we embrace the colder weather with one of our favourite stories, The Gruffalo, searching the woods for animals, developing our language when describing the different characters, and trying not to be eaten by the Gruffalo! Our maths will develop comparison, ordering and measuring within the woodland theme as well as counting with found objects.
We have been practising our sounds and developing our reading so well that this week we are starting our new Read Write Inc groups, working with children in other classes and meeting and working with different staff. We are really proud of our accomplishments in such a short time. Keep up the great work at home, practising sounds and reading every day REALLY does make a difference!
Week beginning 12th November 2018
We continue with our Gingerbread theme within our literacy, writing labels, captions and speech bubbles. Our maths sees us counting sets of objects and match with the correct numeral, focusing on numbers 11-15.
we are beginning to write our own sentences
Recognising, ordering and counting on a gingerbread theme
Look at our speech bubbles! We practiced what the Gingerbread man said to the characters before starting. We are very proud of our writing.
Week beginning 5th November!
Week beginning 22nd October...
Our new outdoor learning environment - we have really enjoyed exploring our new equipment in the autumn sunshine.
We really enjoyed learning to programme the beebots around a themed obstacle mat
Monday 22nd October Today we went on an autumn walk, finding leaves of different shapes and colour tones to compare, collecting them on thread with a needle to then share in class.
We have been enjoying the Autumnal sunshine in our collaborative learning
We have been applying our phonics to reading and segmenting simple words, using autumnal letters!
Our Write dance has been inspired by robots this week - dancing and drawing has been amazing, and we can see the progression children have made in just one week! Robot experts!
Conkering maths!
Challenging fine motor control - hammering in tees and balancing marbles on top!
Careful drawings of ourselves
Amazing and colourful portraits of ourselves and our families...
Welcome to Merlin Class 2018!
We have had a first great week at school and children are very much keen to learn. Learning our class routines, exploring new resources and how to look after them, as well as develop new friendships have been the main focuses as we settle back, and it is amazing to see how grown up the children look in their school uniform.
Thank you all for taking the time to name all items of uniform - including daps - this makes such a difference in saving time uniting lost items with their owners! Please remember, as the weather cools, to ensure this extends to coats and wellies as well.
We will be giving school books in the next week or so, with the emphasis of the adult modelling reading skills, such as pointing to each word as they read, sounding out words and blending, and encouraging children to find sounds and words they know, very much in a game orientated way. The focus is to instill a love of reading, as well as to develop reading routines at home, with the expectation that children are reading at least three times a week. Please record in your child's reading journal other books shared at home too.
What a great start! We won the attendance cup with 100% attendance. Keep it up Merlin!!
Our first week at school!
Friday 18th The Royal Wedding - Merlin style
Busy in the workshop....inspired by the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Friday 11th...we are the champions of Golden Mile challenge this week...most miles in the whole school. We are VERY proud of ourselves!
Week beginning 5 May
This week we develop skills of a scientist, experimenting with different concepts such as floating and sinking and magnetism. We explore works of artists and celebrate our own styles of painting and drawing.
Our maths focuses on shape, using them to create models and patterns, as well as sort them according to properties using mathematical language.
We are writing for different purposes, centring on our child initiated interests, such as animals and plants, researching using technology and topic books, as well as sharing our experiences from home.
We looked at different snails and their shell patterns before carefully drawing our own.
We have loved using our new painting easel. we are proving ourselves to be amazing artists - unique and individual styles celebrated by all.
Artists at work
Our painting gallery
Tap a shape designs
Week beginning 30 April
We are continuing with our class story Jack and the Beanstalk, using detail to write parts of the story, and being really careful with our finger spaces and capital letters. We are putting lots of effort into positioning our letters on the line.
Our maths this week focuses on using and recognising coins, using them in context to buy items, utilising our garden centre in the class room within our learning. We will be exploring the outdoors, investigating minibeasts and plants that are venturing out or growing in the warmer weather.
We have enjoyed recording animals and plants of interest in the forest school area to share with the class
Week beginning 23rd April 2018
This week our learning centres on Jack and the Beanstalk, learning the story and acting it out with puppets and props using a stage! We will be hot-seating different characters and questioning their actions - was it a good choice to steal the hen? Why did Jack do this? We will be designing our own castles and writing character descriptions. We will be following a sequence of instructions to sow beans, and hopefully watch them grow.
Our maths will link with Jack and the Beanstalk, estimating and counting beans and bugs in jars, ordering magic beans and measuring beanstalks. We will be continuing to explore one less of different numbers in different contexts as well as practice our number formation.
Beanstalk maths
Our castle designs
Checking out the garden, watering and planting flower seeds.
Week beginning 16th April
This week our literacy continues with Supertato, reading different stories with Supertato and Evil Pea as the main characters, using speech bubbles and re-writing the story.
We will continue practicing counting and grouping in twos and tens using different objects and solving problems.
We will be learning the benefits of exercise and how it helps us to keep healthy, and trying out lots of different sports and fitness.
Today we sowed peas - hope they weren't the evil ones...
Maths - measuring worms, grouping and counting...
Week beginning 9th April 2018
This week our work is inspired by our class book Supertato, thinking about heroes and villains and making our own! We will be designing and making traps to catch Evil Pea, and writing about how we succeeded.
We will be busy planting potatoes and other vegetables in the school garden, and thinking about what helps them to grow.
Our maths will practice grouping and counting in twos, as well as learn to count in tens. we will be ordering numbers to 20 and counting objects accurately in different contexts.
We made our own Supertatos
look at our super Supertato writing!
In the garden
PE - learning how to control the ball
We have been learning how to keep our teeth healthy
Week beginning 19th March 2018
This week our learning takes on an Easter theme...
We really enjoyed our Easter Egg hunt!
Paper weaving - we followed a series of instructions to create our own woven eggs.
We have been busy solving problems by sharing quantities of objects, and recording our findings.
Week beginning 12th March 2018
Our maths this week focuses on doubles using practical apparatus and mental strategies. We will be applying our knowledge to solving problems in practical ways.
Our literacy focuses on the use of Pig in the Pond, writing instructions for getting undressed, writing labels and finding out about farm animals and their young. We will be thinking about using finger spaces and full stops when writing sentences of our own choice.
Finding doubles
We enjoyed creating our own rhythms and patterns, exploring a range of instruments...
We have been preparing our own fruit snacks this week, chopping different fruits - very, very carefully!
World Book Day - a week late due to snow!
Busy in maths!
Enjoying the snow - we investigated snow features, such as icicles, snowflakes, snowprints, snowballs and drifts!
Back in the warm, we made our own snowflakes in anticipation of the snow blizzard coming our way!
Celebrating Mystery Monday with a Chinese theme.
Monday 19th February
Welcome back after the lovely, but frosty, half term break! We start with Mystery Monday, and in our box we discovered a dragon and chopsticks. We have explored Chinese New Year, and the story behind the zodiac animals, as well as getting stuck in with our creative skills, dancing to Chinese music, creating masks and lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year, as well as using the chopsticks to eat noodles.
Big box fun! We designed and made our own transport, then used them for our imaginative play. Lots of fun ...and paint.
Exploring length
Week beginning 5th February 2018
This week we will be exploring objects inside and out within the context of length, comparing and ordering objects according to how long or short they are, organising objects into groups according to whether they are shorter or longer than a given object, as well as beginning to measure and record the length of objects using non-standard units, such as cubes and matchsticks.
Our literacy continues with the theme of a train journey, extending from our class story of The Train Ride from last week. We will be thinking of our own ideas of what we would like to see and draw and write simple sentences, focusing on finger spaces and using a full stop.
We will be exploring joining techniques as well as mixed medium when using reclaimed materials to create our own transport, working in small teams to plan and make a giant vehicle, a prop for our imaginative play.
Frosty explorations
Exploring shape
We compared old and new bikes before making careful drawings
Week beginning 29th January 2018
Our literacy focuses on different transport we would like to journey on, labeling parts of chosen vehicles we have investigated, and writing simple sentences of knowledge we have gained, using internet sources to help us.
Our maths explores 2D shapes, naming and describing their properties before sorting them into chosen criteria. We will be creating patterns and pictures using small and large shapes, working by ourselves and within collaborative groups, creating giant transport shapes or pictures of our own choice.
Week beginning 22nd January 2018
Our maths focuses on the concept of one less, counting back one to find one less than a number. We will be singing lots of number rhymes to help us, as well as ordering number tracks and playing physical games involving jumping back one.
This week our literacy centres upon the rhyming story 'The Train Ride', a journey of a child who travels to the seaside to meet her gran, and explores all the things she sees. We will be labeling pictures linked to the story of different objects seen, applying our phonics carefully by using 'fred fingers,' helping us to segment each sound in the word. We will be rehearsing simple sentences together before having a go at writing our own, again based on what can be seen from the train window. We will also be role-playing journeys in trains, as well as constructing our own small worlds using the train track as a focus.
Drawing penguins
Look at our artwork
Week beginning 15th January 2018
Our literacy continues with the theme of 'Lost and Found', focusing on the penguin, what he might need to pack for the South Pole, and writing our own lists. We will also be looking at non-fiction sources about penguins, and labeling parts of a penguin using our phonic knowledge.
Our maths explores finding one less than a group of objects, counting out a specific number of objects, and then taking one away to find one less. With practice we will be able to know one less than a group without counting them all to check!
Beat the timer! We enjoyed reading and matching captions to pictures, with the aim of beating the timer.
Tuesday 9th January
We thoroughly enjoyed using the gym apparatus, thinking about different shapes we can make with our bodies, as well as keeping each other, and ourselves, safe.
Creating shapes on different apparatus
Week beginning 8th January 2018
Happy New Year!
This week we link the frosty mornings with our new book Lost and Found; discussing how the penguin feels at different points of the story, linking emotions to times when we feel sad or lonely, and how we can be a good friend. We will be exploring the habitats of the polar regions and the animals that live in them, comparing the region with our own. We will consider types of transport to get to the South Pole and create our own, testing whether they float or sink.
Maths will focus on counting carefully and matching with the corresponding numeral, up to 20, as well as ordering them. We also have different types of transport to sort and count, linking in with our new topic, as well as new objects on a polar theme to count and order.
Counting and ordering
Getting all dressed up for the Christmas carol concert
Different Christmas activities
Week beginning 4th December
This week our maths focuses on creating patterns, designing our own repeating patterns using a range of materials and methods as well as counting backwards from different numbers.
Our literacy extends our familiarity of The Gingerbread Man to changing the ending - how can the gingerbread man escape the fox? We will be writing letters to Santa, applying our phonics knowledge for this very important letter.
Phonic sessions will introduce or, ar, oo (as in look) and ow (as in snow), applying these in our reading and writing, as well as reinforcing previous learning in games which practice segmenting and blending.
Repeating patterns
Week beginning 27th November
We introduce the story of The Gingerbread Man within our literacy sessions, learning repetitive phrases together so we can retell the story with confidence using puppets and signs. We will be reading and writing labels of the characters within the story.
Our maths sessions will be focusing on finding one less of a number and a quantity, in lots of different contexts, as well as practicing formation of numerals to five.
Our phonic sessions introduce the sounds oo, ee, ay and igh, reading them within words as well as extending our sight vocabulary of high frequency words.
The Gingerbread man
We have really enjoyed the sunshine the last few days...
We were really keen to learn in the new shop
Week beginning 20th November
Our phonic sessions introduce th, ng, nk, ch, reading and writing them within words. We will be practicing oral segmenting of words containing previous digraphs.
Our class book, Owl Babies, within Literacy will be the starting point for linked activities, considering how the owlets feel at different points of the story, and roles of family members within the story and in our own experiences. We will be using props to retell the story and write labels to describe how each owl is feeling.
Our maths focuses on adding one more to a set and recording in different ways, including writing the total. We will be playing lots of games that involve adding one more, and being able to recognise one more of any number to 20.
We will also be thinking how we can use Technology to aid our learning in specific areas.
Week beginning 13th November 2017
This week we introduce digraphs ch, sh, th and ng within our phonic sessions, as well as the sight words of 'the' 'it' 'to' and 'and'!
Our handwriting focuses on robot letters, forming r,n,m,h correctly.
Maths activities focus on adding two sets of objects together in different contexts, moving onto our own recording of totals.
Our literacy centres around the book 'Owl babies' exploring animals that live in the woods, particularly nocturnal animals, as well as exploring 'light' and 'dark'. We will also be thinking about the roles family play, such as helping to keep us safe.
On Friday our learning becomes a little spotty, supporting Children in Need...
Adding two sets
We enjoyed making a fruit salad for snack
We enjoyed making clay models in response to the story Owl Babies, using tools to create different marks for texture. We were very proud of our efforts.
We won the Attendance Cup with 100%. Great work Merlin!! We were very excited about having a real trophy.
We enjoyed dressing up for Children In Need.
Week beginning 6th November 2017
This week we share experiences of Bonfire Night and carnival, celebrating both Bridgwater and Burnham carnivals! We look forward to seeing the Westonzoyland cart. At the end of the week we take a moment to pause and reflect, thinking of all those who lost their lives in war, and the significance of the poppies we wear.
Our maths continues to develop skills of counting and recognition of numerals to 15, practising counting objects in different contexts.
Our phonic sessions introduce the sounds 'x', 'y', 'z' as well as the high frequency words 'mum' 'in' 'a' 'big'. We continue to use magnetic letters to segment simple words to represent objects and pictures, as well as practising ladder letters in our handwriting - i,l,t,j,y,u; making sure we start each letter in the correct place, and holding our pencil correctly.
Our rocket pictures (and other things) using 2D shapes
We had an amazing time building our own carnival carts after sharing our experiences and looking at photos of great designs.
Counting, counting and more counting!
Week beginning 30th October 2017
This week we start off with Mystery Monday, our very first experience of having a mystery object in a box, with our learning linked to it throughout the day. We explore our family traditions for Halloween, experiences of Bonfire Night and consider how to keep safe.
We learn the new sounds of r,h,j, applying them to segmenting and blending words, both orally and with letters.
Mystery Monday
Firework painting
Week beginning 16th October 2017
This week we become bakers, baking our own bread ready for our parents who are invited in on Thursday. We are very excited that we will be waiters and waitresses, choosing from a selection of fillings to spread on our fresh rolls and share with parents! We will be practicing our weighing and counting skills, as well as estimating, when making the dough.
Our maths focuses on shape, naming cubes and cylinders within our model making, as well as name shapes and begin to describe simple properties of 2D shapes, comparing them with 3D shapes.
Phonics continues with identifying sounds within words, using magnetic letters to segment and make simple words, as well as learn the new sounds of b, f, e and l. We will be hunting for these graphemes in different areas of the school!
We enjoyed sharing our freshly made bread with our parents, and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with different fillings, especially the chocolate spread!
We have enjoyed building and describing our models, using different 3D shapes
We have been practicing our phonic knowledge within different activities, enjoying the success of making real words that we can read!
Write dance - cats We have been developing our drawing skills and pencil control, drawing careful circles to create a classroom full of cats and mice!
Week beginning 9th October 2017
This week in our literacy we focus on developing our pencil grip, creating patterns linked to The Little Red Hen and develop formation of letters in our names. We will also be using different media to create artwork linked to the story. We are also excited about going to the church on Thursday to sing our songs.
Our new sounds within our phonic sessions focus on c,k,u,d. We will be using our listening skills to help develop our segmenting (separating words into their sounds) and blending (putting the sounds back together to create a word) in different games.
Maths focuses on counting objects VERY carefully, and find one more of a set of objects. We will be practicing these skills in lots of contexts, such as building towers, fishing, netting footballs and moving ducks from one pond to another!
Harvest Festival - our first visit to the church
Look at our artwork...combine harvesters have been a great hit this week in response to our favourite harvest song.
Autumn hunt! We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the school grounds checking for signs of Autumn.
Writing our names
We thought carefully about how we sat on our chair and how we held the paper before holding our pen carefully to copy our name. Super effort by all! Some of us were even able to write without the help of our namecard.
Having a go at writing our names...
Week beginning 2nd October 2017
Literacy
This week we introduce the story of The Little Red Hen, using this as a starting point to explore Harvest. We will be learning new songs, as well as enjoying more familiar ones, practicing Big, red, combine harvester in anticipation of our Harvest service next week.
Maths
We will be comparing sets of objects within our maths, recognising which has the fewest and which has the most, as well as practising counting, using a harvest and autumnal theme, such as comparing piles of conkers, leaves, fields of farm animals to name a few!
Phonics
Children are progressing well with their phonics, enjoying games which practice phase 1 skills as well as learning new sounds. This week we introduce m,g,o,n, again being reinforced in play activities as well as RWI sessions. The homework is really supporting their work in class so thank you all for your support.
Looking for minibeasts!
Outdoor counting
We have really enjoyed working together to construct amazing designs
Week beginning 25th September 2017
This week we continue to embrace the story of Goldilocks and the three bears; the children are showing so much confidence and storytelling language in retelling the story, loving the use of the interactive board and ebook to help them. We begin to explore the different characters, describing them with interesting language as well as using a storymap to help structure the story.
Our phonics continues with rhyme and alliteration - the homeworks have been super, we can see that the children have enjoyed seeking objects beginning with the same sound and we will be practising this skill lots! We also begin to introduce sounds with their graphemes using the Read Write Inc programme, incorporating many different activities to reinforce new letter sounds. This week we will be introducing s,a,t,p, with some children extending with i,n,m.
Our maths continues to reinforce the recognition of numerals, now to 10, aswell as counting out corresponding sets. We will also be ordering numbers to 5, linking with numicon tiles.
Fun with phonics
Conker maths!
Friday 22nd September
We enjoyed working as a team to co-ordinate the parachute, enjoying applying our rhyming and phonic knowledge to seeking objects under the parachute before finally working together to create a 'mushroom' - succeeding in making the whole of Merlin disappear!
Parachute fun
We made the most of the sunshine today, enjoying painting with Autumnal colours; mixing our own shades to compliment individual and group pictures.
Paint enthusiasm
Number game
We enjoyed running and jumping in the corresponding numbered hoop when the dice was thrown, identifying numerals to 6! We got quicker and quicker the more we practiced.
Number game
Porridge for the three bears
We have thoroughly enjoyed making porridge this morning, finding it too runny, too hot and too lumpy before finding it 'just right.' We tried syrup and raisins to sweeten it, and ate it all up, just like Goldilocks!
Making porridge
Goldilocks and the three bears
Monday 18th September
Welcome to another week!
This week our learning focuses on Goldilocks and the three bears, with lots of role-play, porridge making and ordering of objects linked to the story according to size.
Our phonic sessions continue with rhyme as well as alliteration, so lots of games involving identifying the initial sound of words.
Our maths involves counting and comparing of two groups of objects, as well as reinforcing the recognition of numerals to 10, making use of natural objects in our environment.
We will be exploring lots of different mediums in our mark-making; helping us with anti-clockwise movements in readiness for forming letters.
There is definitely an Autumnal feel in our second week, and children have enjoyed exploring different concepts within this context, whether counting conkers, collecting and comparing leaves, mixing autumnal colours or looking for autumn clues on walks around the grounds.
Tuesday 12th September
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Forest School area whilst making houses in response to our class story of The Three Little Pigs. We thought carefully about keeping ourselves, and our friends, safe whilst working together to build amazing 'houses of sticks.'
Fun in the forest school area
Our first PE session!
Look at our robots
Monday 11th September
Welcome to our second week in school!
This week we will continuing one of our favourite stories, 'The Three Little Pigs,' with children being encouraged to retell the story in groups using props and identifying their favourite parts. Children have learnt the repetitive phrases really well, and love joining in with the story.
Our write dance continues, (a big hit last week by all the children) moving on to a robot theme, where we focus on creating straight lines, both vertical and horizontal, and join them up to create robots. We will also be encouraging children to find their name label and have a go at writing their names, initially the first letter.
Write dance involves dancing to a thematic piece of music, involving specific movements with arms, before using a crayon in each hand to draw large scale marks, developing into specific pictures on the identified theme.
Our maths involves lots of counting this week, using rhymes such as One potato, two potato, and 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive, and counting objects accurately, matching groups of objects with the numeral, initially with numbers to 5. We will be playing lots of games to secure our knowledge with even more counting within our play contexts.
Just incase we have some energy left before lunch, we all enthusiastically join in our Dough Disco, where we strengthen our finger muscles by exercising them using playdoh, involving lots of different movements, and of course accompanied by a piece of disco music!
Friday 8th September
Wow! We have survived our very first week in school. Well done to each and every one of our Merlin members. We have been learning our new routine, and have loved our Write Dance sessions, dancing and then mark making to volcano inspired music to wake up our brains and bodies.
We have loved sharing our special boxes with staff and friends, and they have really helped in getting to know the children, as well as developing confidence in speaking in a group. Thank you to all those who have already brought theirs in, and we look forward to outstanding ones next week.
We have been exploring 2D shapes, and really loved the treasure hunt outside, searching for shapes hidden really carefully as well as making patterns and pictures with them.
A busy first week
Tuesday 5th September 2017
Merlin have thoroughly enjoyed their very first day of school! We have amazed ourselves with all our learning, enjoying the story of The Three Little Pigs, using puppets and playdoh to extend our learning of the story. We practised our counting using numberblocks as well as sorting and creating pictures with shapes. Miss Stockford tired us out with Dough Disco and Write dance which focused on a volcano erupting! Lots of fun!
Writedance
Welcome to Merlin Class
This page is intended to give you an overview of the routines in Reception, together with useful information. We will also post photographs and examples of work throughout the year. We hope that you will find it useful.
Teaching Team
Class Teacher: Miss Stockford
Teaching Assistants: Miss Hellyer and Miss Gregory
PPA Cover: Mrs Harris
This Term's Learning Expedition
We are learning about the woods in our learning. See our curriculum map in the link below to find out how we will be involving all curriculum areas.
PE
Our PE day will be Tuesdays, involving a specialist sports coach. However please make sure your child has their P.E. kits in every day in case of timetable changes. Could all clothing be clearly named (including shoes) to avoid anything getting lost.
Homework
Homework will be set on Fridays and expected back by the following Thursday. It is really important that this is completed in order to consolidate children’s learning of the week. Reading, initially sharing books and modelling reading strategies, such as pointing to each word, highlighting known sounds and high frequency words, is expected to take place at least three times weekly, and it is essential to support your child's learning in these early stages of reading at home in order to practice new skills and knowledge introduced at school.