We’ve had a wonderful and busy week in Reception as we move further into our Growing and Changing topic, and the children continue to amaze us with their curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm for learning!

Phonics
This week we introduced the tricky words 'here' and 'all', and the children have enjoyed spotting these in their reading and using them confidently in sentences. We also learnt a brand new sound ‘ure’ – the children have been segmenting and blending words with this sound, practising writing it independently, and creating sentences using ‘ure’ words. It’s fantastic to see their confidence growing with each new sound!

Maths
In maths, we’ve been listening carefully to rhythmic patterns of up to 5 sounds and working out how many we can hear – a great way to build subitising skills! We also explored Numberblocks doubles and used 10s frames to visualise and understand double patterns. Later in the week, we built on our shape learning by hunting for 2D shapes within 3D shapes, spotting circles on cylinders and squares on cubes – the children were brilliant detectives!

Drawing Club
Our story this week was the beautifully illustrated Pip and Egg. We explored the vocabulary words friendship, change, journey and home, discussing what they mean and how they relate to the story.

• The children drew the moment Pip and Egg met.

• They designed incredible homes for them – complete with slides, trampolines, and magical touches!

• Using their imagination, the children thought about where Pip could go next on an adventure – Egypt, the city, or even the park!
  They labelled their drawings and many had a go at writing their own creative sentences.

Understanding the World – Planting Sunflowers
As part of our topic, we talked about planting and growing. The children watched a demonstration on how to plant sunflower seeds and then had the opportunity to plant their very own in a pot! We talked about what plants need to grow – sunlight, water, soil and care – and the children are now very excited to look after their seedlings. We hope they’ll be ready to take them home at the end of next term!

PE
This week we focused on aiming and scoring. In pairs, the children practised throwing bean bags into hoops and scoring goals with a ball, keeping track of their scores – it was great fun and a brilliant way to develop coordination. We’ve also made a start on our Sports Day training, and the children are already showing great sportsmanship and enthusiasm!

Star of the week: Congratulations to Noah R, who is our star of the week, for perservering with his sounds and tricky words.  Noah R will be taking home his certificate and Wilfred the Elephant to write in the book all about his time spent with Wilfred over the next week and will bring him back next Thursday.

Please remember to read with your child, even for just 5 minutes! Please also remember to record it in the reading record. We will only change your child's book if you have read with them 2 or more times in that week! Reading books are changed on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Please remember to have the library book in your children's book bag on Thursday to be changed. 

Any issues or concerns we need to know about, please speak to the Acorn team before and after school or email at: acorn@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

We’re so proud of all the hard work and joyful learning happening each week. Thank you as always for your continued support. Have a restful weekend and we look forward to another exciting week ahead!