Term 4

This term we explored the big question: 'How can you defeat a dragon?' as the children were showing a real interest in knights, castles, princes and princesses, and dragons. We looked at the texts Zog, The Paper Bag Princess, The Knight who wouldn't Fight and King Jack and the Dragon. 

The children thought about what they would get a golden star for at school, like in the story Zog and they designed and described their own dragon. They created story maps to retell stories, made up their own dragon stories, created their own coat of arms and used paper bags, boxes and poles in deconstructed role play to use their imaginations in their play. 

World Book Day

This year we celebrated World Book Day by thinking of Inspirational Authors. Ramsey Class enjoyed reading lots of books by Julia Donaldson and wrote her a letter about being an author. The children dressed up as some fantastic characters and we even had our very own Zog, Sir Gadabout the Great, Madam Dragon and Princess Pearl from Zog! 

Easter

In RE this term we were exploring the big question: 'Why do Christians put a cross in an Easter garden?' We looked at why the symbol of the cross is important to Christians, listened to the stories about Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Tom and Tessa helped us learn about how forgiveness is important and finished the term with making our own Easter Gardens and we even made some yummy hot cross buns! 

Spring Walk

At the end of term, we went on our season walk to see how the local fields and trees have changed. We saw lots of trees with buds beginning to grow on the branches and we saw lots of spring flowers including daffodils. The crops in the field are growing and the weather wasn't as cold as last time but we still needed our wellies! When we were on our walk, we took some time to sketch our tree and when we got back we used spring flowers to create portraits like the Artist Arcimboldo. 

Rochester Castle Trip

The children went on their school trip to Rochester Castle. We went on the train from Sittingbourne to Rochester where we then walked to the Castle. When we arrived, we explored inside the castle and climbed up and down over 200 steps! We went all the way to the top but didn't see any dragons! Phew! Before leaving the castle, we had a bit of time to reflect in the Chapel, and Rev. Simon lead us in a prayer. Some of the children said some lovely prayers, too. Afterwards, we had lunch and then joined in with castle games, story telling and sketching before walking back to the train station to go home. All the children were AMAZING and we are very proud of how they behaved. Thanks to all the staff and parents who came with us; it was a lovely day. 

Parent Reading Friday

The children have loved having their adults come in to share a favourite story with us. We have lots more volunteers coming in over the next term! If you want to read, speak to a member of the Reception team to arrange a date. 

Term 3

This term we have been thinking all about the big question 'How does it feel?' 

We started with the Colour Monster book and used it to explore different feelings. When do you feel happy, sad, calm, angry, afraid or loved? Do you sometimes feel more than one feeling in one go? 

We then moved onto reading '
Oi, Get off our Train!' by John Burningham. We learnt all about the different, endangered animals in the story and made up our own stories.  

We read 'The Princess and the Pea' by Hands Christian Anderson and then 'The Squirrel's Busy Year' by Martin Jenkins. 

The children investigated soft and hard materials and then used this to create their own perfect bed. We explored the seasons and the children wrote their own stories about woodland creatures. 

We ended the term with finding out about where in the world Lunar New Year is celebrated and made fortune cookies with their own written fortunes in.  We then explored how people celebrate Chinese New Year. The children cleaned the classroom, made decorations, wrote Chinese symbols on red money envelopes and made a dragon to use in our own parade. Mrs Julier played some Chinese music to listen to and then the children made their own music, using a Chinese Lion puppet to move to. 

In maths we have been learning about numbers up to 6, identifying representations of numbers to 6, capacity and the mass of objects. 

In RE we looked at the unit 'What do Christians believe is special about Jesus and the message he brings?' We looked at stories from the Bible including: Fisher of men, Jesus calms the storm and The Lost Sheep. 

Term 2

This term, our big question was 'What makes a journey special?' 

We read and explored the books: 

We began with looking at Baby Bear's journey to space and made our own vehicles using boxes and the large outside blocks. The children wrote a list of snacks they would take on a journey to the moon and also designed their own planets. 

During DT week we looked at how Diwali is celebrated in the world. We made rangoli patterns, diva lamps and designed, made and evaluated sashes for Rama and Sita using recycled materials. 

In the book 'On the Way Home' by Jill Murphy, Claire hurts her knee. But when people ask her how she did it, she tells some very different tales. We made up our own stories and used watercolour paints and modelling clay to create our own book. 

Ramsey Class had some exciting news. 4 baby African Land Snails arrived in our class for us to look after and watch grow. They are very tiny but will grow into very BIG creatures. We have named them Pixie Good, Betsy Lou, Ollie and Phoebe. We will clean out their tank, feed and water them and keep an eye on how big they get. 

During Term 2, we participated in some outdoor learning. We found different kinds of leaves including colours, shapes and sizes. We made a trail of stones, sticks and leaves like the breadcrumb trail in Hansel and Gretel and went on a stickman hunt to find Stickman and get him back to his family tree. We ended the term with our Winter Walk and even posted some very important envelopes in the post box like in The Jolly Christmas Postman story. 

During December we looked at the very special journey that Mary and Joseph took in the Nativity story. We were terrific twinkly stars and amazing angels in our own Nativity play 'Hey Ewe!'. In RE we looked at the Big Question 'Why do school's put on Nativity plays?' We learnt all about that Christians celebrate Christmas because they believe Jesus was born to save people on Earth. We explored how Christians celebrate Christmas in Church, at home and in the community and we made our own Christmas cards, Christingles and has a Christmas party. 

Parent Reading

We have enjoyed having our first parents in to read to us on a Friday afternoon. We look forward to having more mums, dads and grandparents in to read other exciting stories! 

Term 1

During our first term in Ramsey class, we have been focusing on the very important topic of 'us'. We have listened to lots of stories and participated in activities all about things we like and dislike, what we can and cannot do and what we would like to be when we grow up. 

The children have been talking about their own emotions and how they feel coming to school. They have been learning about making friends and following the class and school rules of 'Respect, Ready and Safe'. 

In the story 'Can I build another me?' by Shinsuke Yoshitake, we thought about what kind of 'me' we would build. Our parents came in to help build our 'mini me' robots and we all had great fun!

The children have access to a range of loose parts. These are items such as pine cones, buttons, stones, sticks, conkers, leaves, dried fruit, wooden slices, wooden or metal rings and many more. They can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, line up, taken apart and put together again in a different way. Through loose parts play, children are working on their focus and engagement, natural curiosity, collaborative work and engaging in conversation, creativity skills and developing higher levels of critical thinking and problem solving. 

The children have started their learning in phonics and have learnt many new sounds including s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g and o. They are beginning to blend the sounds for reading for words like sit, man and dog. 

There is a link to a video which shows you how to say each of the sounds. 

In maths the children have been learning about matching pairs, comparing the size of objects, comparing amounts of items up to 5 and have continued and created their own repeating patterns and finished the term off with making yummy fruit kebab repeating patterns! 

Autumn Walk

To finish off our first term, we went on our termly season walk. We walked into the village and across the road, into the field. We talked about the weather and looked all around us, making observations of the world around us. The children noticed that lots of leaves were changing colours and falling on the ground. We looked at the biggest tree in the field and talked about how it might change next time we visit. 

Welcome to Year R!

We have been busy settling into school and thinking about ourselves this term. The children have enjoyed learning in our classroom environment as well as exploring St Laurence Church. We have been learning to play games in P.E and taking these skills into our learning within the classroom. The children are enjoying learning their new sounds and continue to grow in confidence with this. We are excited about the year ahead and starting our Bapchild Journey!

The Welcome Service 

Thank you to everyone who joined us at St Laurence Church to celebrate our new reception class either joining or continuing their journey as part of our Bapchild Family. 

Planting

We have been looking after our garden and planting flowers and a herb garden that we can care for this year!

The children enjoyed talking about the different colours and smells of our herb garden.