Wednesday 16th June

It is hard to believe that Ruby class are in their last half term of the year! What superstars they have been this year.

The last two weeks have seen us dive into the world of Superheroes. As a class we have read many superhero stories, learnt about superhero powers and thought about our own superhero qualities. There has been dressing up, gadget making, super teddies and much more, lots of fun!

Alongside this, we have continued with our phonics and writing, thinking now about forming simple sentences with finger spaces, capital letters and full stops. The children have written letters, notes, stories, instructions and even postcards from around the world, with so much progress being seen.

In Maths, we have been focusing on addition and problem solving involving addition, moving on to subtraction stories next week. 

A reminder that is is Sports Day next Tuesday 22nd June. We've already started practising with some running relays, egg and spoon races and hurdles. If you need a reminder of the t-shirt colour that your child needs, just let us know. Unfortunately, you can't join us for this, but we will make sure we take lots of photos to share with you after the event!

Lastly, it has been super hot the last few days so thank you for the sun hats and water that your children have remembered. The weather is set to change though and as we go out in all weathers, do remember, raincoats may be needed again.

Many thanks for you continued support,

The Reception Team.

Maypole Dancing

This has always been a tradition at Dormansland Primary school and we didn't want to lose that this year. So, although we couldn't have any of you in personally to watch our dancing, we did the next best thing and filmed our performances! We had lots of fun skipping around the maypole, hope you enjoy watching - and clapping along to the music! Videos below. 

STEM week

We are having so much fun in Ruby class this week! Already we have looked at the innovation of transport and medicine and have been super scientists investigating and exploring lots. As you can see from the photos below, there has been a hive of activity with investigations into floating and sinking, dissolving, which is the fastest surface for a car to roll down and much more. We have been predicting what we think will happen before each investigation and have then explored different findings. When making windmills and paper aeroplanes, there was a lot of persistence evident when the children tried so hard to make things work, often coming back to try new things for success - great mindest to have. We have been so impressed by their engagement, knowledge and inquisitive thoughts when investigating. 

A message to you all from Mrs Heale:

I want to say a huge thanks to all the Ruby Class parents and families. I really appreciate the generous gifts and the kind moving messages. Of course, I have to say an even bigger thank you to all the children in Ruby Class. They have been wonderful, and as always it's a pleasure and a delight to see them grow and develop. You can see how much fun and joy we all had on my last day on the Class page (pics below!). This was all down to the incredible staff in Ruby class and your amazing children.

Thank you all so much.

Mrs Heale.

Link to the phonics 44 phoneme sounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xv86tGhyPI

Tuesday 4th January

Good morning and Happy New Year Ruby class. What a strange morning to be waking up to! I would very much like to be welcoming you all back into the classroom today to begin the Spring term, however, this is not quite how it's going to be for the next few weeks!

I hope that you all had a fun Christmas and New Year, albeit a slightly different one to usual.

For today, I have some activities for you to have a look at and try at home below.

Maths:

Subitize to 5 – watch and join in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSlA-u_ABmU

Now, watch an episode of Numberblocks called Holes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08dmjsk/numberblocks-series-1-holes

In the episode, Five and friends discover a hole that makes their heads fall off! For an activity at home, Go and collect 5 toys. Have you collected 5, how do you know?

Give some to somebody else at home. How many have you got? How many have they got? Together this makes 5. Can you do it a different way?

Phonics

Watch the following video using the link below. This will go over some of our sounds that we have already learnt and practise some blending with you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8h2kRccHqU

Topic

We are going to be looking at some traditional tales this half term. Let’s start with an old favourite, Jack and the Beanstalk.

Please find a link to the story below.

There is a copy of a leaf outline below that you could print out, or make your own. Could you choose a part of the story to draw a picture to go with and have a go at writing a sentence to go with it?

Maybe you could even make your own beanstalk??

Nativity

A sneak preview below of your children in their costumes for the upcoming Nativity tomorrow! 

Thank you so much for all of the costumes that have come in with the children, they look fantastic. We had our dress rehearsal to the school via Zoom this morning so all siblings got a chance to see each other today. All went well and we had lots of applause, albeit virtual!

We look forward to showing you all tomorrow.

A couple of things to note to help it run smoothly: 

- Please test you can get onto zoom beforehand so that you are ready for a 9.30am start. 

- When you are on Zoom, please mute your video and sound so that it is just the children that will be heard.

- If you 'pin' the view of the children, it will show them in full screen.

Thank you, we hope you enjoy watching. 

Monday 30th November

We had a fantastic week last week for Art Week. If you’ve had a chance to look at the photos below you’ll see lots of paint, glitter, colouring, handprints, pattern making and fun. We started the week off by learning about the artist Andy Warhol and his famous PopArt prints. We had fun replicating these in our own way using vibrant colours and different images. The theme of Art Week across the school was inspirational heroes, so our take on that in reception was to look at people who help us, starting with NHS workers. This led us nicely to a collaborative piece of art work which was our handprint rainbow.  The children have experimented with lots of colour, also pattern this week. This has been in a variety of forms, one of the favourites being a musical pattern using coloured bells. 
Friendship day was on Thursday and this usually means children all mix classes allowing for new friends to be made whilst art work is completed to cover the school in ‘Christmas’. However, due to Covid, this obviously had to be a little different this year but we still had fun doing lots of Christmassy activities and the displays around the school have all been transformed. I am sure Miss Newns will take lots of photos so that you can all see the finished creations. 
 

This week is Nativity week! Again, not quite as we would normally do it, but we hope you’ll enjoy the performance that the children put on for you. Thank you for all of the costumes that have come in and we look forward to showing you the children in their show on Thursday. 
 

Have a super week.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Wednesday 18th November

We've had a lovely last few days! We are still covering our Space topic and the children have been in their very own rockets to arrive at our Space Station in the classroom. They are great at pressing the relevant gadgets and gizmos to help with all the work needed at the station - sun glasses are a must, see photos below! We've also been creative, making pictures to do with space out of different shapes and have learnt about the different planets that all go around the sun. 

With a slight interlude, we paused to reflect on Remembrance Day and all made poppies to wear for our whole school Zoom assembly at 11am. Ruby class were amazing at sitting and listening and we had a really lovely discussion about why we wear poppies. 

Monday and Tuesday this week were then set aside to celebrate the Hindu festival of light known as Diwali. We've had a super couple of days with lots of lovely activities linked to this. The children have made their own Mendhi patterns, Rangoli patterns, Diva lamps, decorations, bunting and had a great time acting out the story of Rama and Sita which is retold during this festival. Photos to follow...

We are now back in Space for the next few days and are reading the story, 'The Smeds and the Smoos.'  This is a lovely Julia Donaldson story which allows us to talk about friendships, sharing, also our similarities and differences. 

Amongst all of this, we've continued with our number and shape learning, exploring numbers further and looking at patterns.

Our phonics has continued with us moving into Phase 3 now. We are constantly recognising the sounds and having a go at blending them to make short words. We are beginning to have a go at this in our writing too, segmenting words to have a go at writing the sounds that we can hear. 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Friday 6th November

Welcome back after half term and to a busy one ahead!

This week we started with a lovely story called 'Whatever Next' which is about a teddy who takes off to the moon in his cardboard rocket! We have linked this to lots of space role play, art work and rocket building. (We hope you enjoyed the junk model rockets that came home yesterday!)

We have been re capping Phase 2 phonics sounds with lots more blending and segmenting of the sounds we know. Next week we move on to Phase 3 phonics. The children are doing brilliantly at recognising their sounds and having a go at beginning to build words. 

In Maths, we had a money focus this week so have looked at the different coins that can be found and which coins we don't have, e.g a 3p or 4p coin! We had a shop outside and had some lovely shop assistants and shoppers coming to buy their items on their shopping lists. This is great role play that you could carry on at home! 

Added in to that was a bit of work fireworks, also national sandwich day which was on Wednesday. A super busy and productive week!

Next week we continue with our space theme looking at facts about space to include the planets, the moon and astronauts.

Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Thursday 22nd October

Welcome to the end of the first half term at primary school Ruby Class! What superstars the class have all been these last few weeks. We have been amazed by how quickly they have settled into school life and how much their confidence has grown since those first few days.

We are seeing some fantastic learning every day and this week have followed the story 'The Little Red Hen'. We have retold the story using storymaps and also props outside. We have also made bread rolls (see photos below!) and had our very own harvest festival via zoom with the lovely Andy and Ellie Eyre from the Baptist Church. The musical instruments have been out again this week and we are practising following a pattern to a number of beats.

It has been lovely chatting to you at parent's evenings. A lot of you have asked about the phonic sounds, so below is a link to the jolly phonics letter sounds video where you can hear each of the sounds being said in the way that we teach them to the children. 

Link to listen to the phonics sounds:

https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/resource-bank-old/learn-the-letter-sounds/

We hope that you all have a great half term week and look forward to seeing you all back in November!

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Friday 16th October

This week we have had another autumnal theme to include hedgehogs, then pumpkins! We learnt about hedgehogs and h ad a go at writing some facts about them. We were all intrigued to find out that they are good swimmers! We then read the story 'Pumpkin Soup' and talked about sharing and turn taking which is a theme running through the story. We had a look at some real pumpkins and had a guess what they look like inside before cutting them open and scooping out the insides! Some of us planted the seeds in the hope of growing some new pumpkins once we learnt about the pumpkin life cycle.

In phonics, we have learnt some new sounds and have been trying hard to hear the beginning and end sounds in words. This has then been a focus for our writing where everyone has had a go, we've had some super writing this week! At this stage, we want everyone to 'have a go' and lots of praise is given for all attempts whether it is on paper, using chalk or on a whiteboard.

In Maths, we have looked in more detail at the number 5 and how kit is made up of 5 ones. We've introduced part part whole models which show how numbers can be made up of smaller parts. See the example below.

We look forward to 'virtually' meeting you all for parent's evenings next week.

Have a great weekend,

Best wishes,

The Reception Team.

Friday 9th October

This week we have had great fun learning all about Autumn. We have been on an Autumn walk and spotted lots of conkers, acorns, red, brown and yellow leaves, even some squirrels having fun climbing the trees!

We also read the story, 'Leafman' and had our very own Leafman come to visit! He didn't stay long though and got blown away in the wind so we had to go searching for him. Eventually we found him stuck up high in our gazebo outside! We all had a go at becoming firemen and tried to rescue him back down! When he arrived back in class, he had a towel made for him, a bedtime story, even a pizza for tea. (All made and created by some Ruby class children!).

In phonics, we have continued with our Phase 2 sounds and have spent lots of time thinking about what sound we can hear at the beginning of words.

Maths has continued with the number 5 and lots of investigating and experimenting with counting and ordering numbers.

Have a super weekend.

Best wishes,

The Reception Team

Friday 2nd October

Another fantastic week in Reception class!

This week we have read the story, 'Have you filled a bucket today?'. It's a lovely story which focuses on being a 'bucket filler' and doing lots of nice things to making others happy. The children have been fabulous at recognising 'bucket fillers' this week when they've seen others sharing, being kind, helping each other and smiling or saying nice things. We've tried not to be 'bucket dippers' which makes others sad.

We've also continued with Phonics and have learnt the sounds i, n, m and d. We've spent a lot of time thinking about words that begin with these sounds and listening for the sounds in words. We've also started to blend some sounds that we've learnt together to make words such as 'at', 'in' and 'it'. Look out in your child's book bag today for a yellow phonics book. This will come home every Friday and we will collect it in each Tuesday. See if your child can tell you the sound and the action to go with it.

In Maths, we have counted lots and also have met numbers 3 and 4. We've looked for groups of 3 and 4 and thought about what they look like in number form as well as amounts that we can see out and amount. We've counted conkers, acorns and made different number sand and oat cakes outside. We've also linked the numbers to shapes, recognising that a square has 4 sides and a triangle only has 3. 

Next week, we move on to looking at Autumn - quite appropriate for the current weather!

We hope that you all have a lovely, and not too wet, weekend!

Best wishes,

The Reception Team. 

Friday 18th September

Wow, what a week! It has been so lovely to properly welcome all of our new families and children to Ruby class this week. The children have all been superstars and have settled into school life absolutely brilliantly. We have had lots of fun on the lower deck in the sunshine, read lots of stories, sung songs and nursery rhymes, and enjoyed some counting and number activities. We have seen so many children being kind to one another, sharing and getting to know their new friends. This will be one of our main focuses over the next few weeks. 

Thank you to all of the parents too for helping the children come into school so well in the mornings, they have been amazing.

A couple of reminders; please could all children bring in a water bottle each day (separate to their lunch box if they bring packed lunch), please make sure everything is named including bottles and please could they bring in their book bags each day so that any work they've done or letters can come home in them. It is helpful if the yellow reading record books are in their bags every day also. We will aim to change their books every Tuesday and Friday.

It looks like next week may be a little rainy at times, so the children will all need a waterproof coat in on those days. 

Next week, as the children move towards full days, we will be starting phonics and looking at number in a bit more detail through some of our play activities. This is alongside many more getting to know you activities and learning more of the school routines. 

We hope that you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday!

Best wishes,

The Reception Team