We have had another busy and exciting week in Reception!

Phonics

In Phonics, we have continued to revisit and consolidate our Level 3 sounds to help strengthen the children's confidence and fluency. Some children have also been working in a focused group to further develop their segmenting and blending skills. We have enjoyed practising our Level 3 tricky words through songs and games before using these words in our own writing. The children worked hard to write sentences containing one or more tricky words.

Maths

In Maths, we have been exploring positional language and using it to describe the location of objects and their spatial arrangements. We have also been recapping our learning about doubles, finding doubles of numbers and recognising patterns, such as knowing that double 5 equals 10. Alongside this, we have continued our work on numbers beyond 10, focusing on the numbers 14–20 and investigating different ways to make these numbers.

Drawing Club

Our Drawing Club story this week has been The Rainbow Fish. We began by reading the story together and exploring new vocabulary. Throughout the week, the children completed a range of exciting tasks linked to the book. They drew the Rainbow Fish, labelled its features using words such as fins, scales and tail, and later imagined the Rainbow Fish meeting a new sea creature. The children also wrote sentences to accompany their drawings, developing both their creativity and writing skills.

PE

In PE, we have continued practising for Sports Day and the children have shown fantastic enthusiasm and determination as they prepare for Monday's sports day event.

RE

In RE, we revisited our learning about the Old Testament before reading the story of Abraham and Sarah. We discussed God's promise to Abraham and how he trusted God, even when he could not immediately see the promise being fulfilled. To help us think about trust, two children took part in an activity where one child was blindfolded and guided safely across the room by their partner. We reflected on how both children needed to trust one another, just as Abraham trusted God. We also read the story of Jacob and Esau and discussed forgiveness. The children thought carefully about how, although siblings and friends may sometimes argue or feel upset with one another, it is important to say sorry, forgive, and rebuild relationships.

Year 1

This week we were also excited to welcome our new September starters for a taster session. While our visitors explored Reception, the current children had the opportunity to spend an hour in Year 1. They represented our class brilliantly, showing how sensible, mature and ready they are for the next stage of their learning journey. We were all very proud of them!

Star of the week: Congratulations to Sammy and Ryan, who are our stars of the week. Sammy is our star of the week for reading and blending a simple sentence and Ryan is another of our stars of the week for always following the school rules and being a fantastic role model to his peers. Ryan and Sammy will be taking home their certificates this week. 

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 also have the library book in your children's book bag on Thursday to be changed. These reading books and library books will be collected on Thursday the 10th and, therefore, please can you remember to put these in your children's bag. If they have not been returned, I will have to follow this up. If they are damaged or lost, please make one of the Acorn team or the office aware. 

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