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Year R

Indoor PE Tuesday morning
Outdoor Games Monday afternoon – Wednesday afternoon (Summer)
PPA/COSMIC Thursday morning
Library Thursday afternoon

Learning and Topic map – Spring 1


Spring Term

Understanding the World: People, Culture and Communities

  • Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.

The children have been exploring maps. We have talked about where we might see maps and what we can use them for. We looked at lots and lots of different types of maps… treasure maps, Atlases, maps of the world, maps of the UK, trail maps and fiction maps.

We had lots of opportunities to draw our own maps for different purposes, including creating our very own treasure maps with a route to the treasure, and a map of our route to school.

We made a map of the school and used it to follow a trail along specific landmarks within school, and end up at a specific location!


Expressive Arts and Design: Being Imaginative and Expressive

  • Perform songs, rhymes, poems and stories with others, and – when appropriate – try to move in time with music.

This week we have been exploring music, and focussing on percussion instruments. In our keyworker groups, we have had a go at playing lots of different percussion instruments: cymbals, maracas, snare drums, castanets, the triangle, xylophones, glockenspiels, claves, an agogo, African drums, tambourines, bells and

The children loved experimenting with making different sounds with their instruments. We had a go at playing music quietly, loudly, fast and slowly. We also talked about what each percussion instrument sounded like, and which one we preferred to play and why.


Understanding the World: The Natural World

  • Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.

Expressive Arts and Design: Creating with Materials

  • Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
  • Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.

This week we have been exploring Spring, and looking at how the seasons change. We have talked about the cycle of the seasons, what happens as winter turns into spring, and what we can expect to see. In our keyworker groups, we have matched photographs of baby animals with photographs of adult animals. We have used our knowledge of spring and seasons to create our own spring collages. The children looked at some examples and then were free to create their own, using any materials and colours they thought would be best. Some children created a farmyard scene, with new baby animals. Some children created flowers, trees and plants. We shared our artwork between our keyworker groups and talked about what we liked best about our work.


Understanding the World: The Natural World

  • Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants.

All of the children have planted their own broad bean, in a transparent pot, so that we can watch it grow. We have talked about what plants need to grow well; sunlight, water and soil. We explored the stages of growth for plants and are very excited to observe our beans sprouting, growing shoots and finally growing their leaves, stalks and flowers.

The children have loved engaging with our sensory tuff tray this week. We have used some of our key texts, ‘Oliver’s Vegetables, ‘Errol’s Garden’ and ‘The Prettiest Flower’, to inspire us in our role play. The children have been able to dig, plant and explore with various vegetables, such as radishes, green beans, broad beans, mangetouts, sugar snap peas, carrots, turnips and baby sweetcorn.


Knowledge and Understanding of the world

  • There are no early learning goals that directly related to computing objectives; it is still expected that children will be introduced to appropriate technology and use it within their provision.

We have been investigating technology this week, and have been using BeeBots to find out more about computers and basic programming. The children learnt how to turn their BeeBot on and off, and how to make it move. They were shown the direction and GO buttons, then they programmed their BeeBot to move. We explored what happens when we input directions but do not press go. We explored what happens when we input further instructions without clearing the BeeBots memory first. Then we set challenges for the children… Can you make your BeeBot travel to a certain point? Can you send your BeeBot to a friend? Can you instruct your BeeBot to turn around a corner?

Now we know how to use BeeBots sensibly and properly, we will be able to add these to our enhanced provision for the children to access when they choose in their Discovery Time.


Understanding the World: People, Culture and Communities

  • Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
  • Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.

We have been celebrating the Lunar New Year! The Reception classroom environments have been enhanced with a Chinese New Year theme, lots of red and yellow colours to symbolise good fortune and lucky wishes. The children have engaged with Chinese New Year through fictional picture books, imagery and photographs, non-fiction library books and music. We have learnt about the origin story of the Lunar New Year, and the meaning of each animal. We have talked about Chinese traditions around new year and have compared these to New Year’s Eve here. The children have loved Dragon Dancing in the hall, playing instruments to create their own Chinese-style celebration music, creating Chinese fans, decorating lanterns, painting Chinese dragons and lions, and looking at special Chinese outfits and money purses.


Expressive Arts and Design: Creating with Materials

  • Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools, techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
  • Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.

The children have been working on their modelling skills, and have been using modelling dough to practise making balls, sausages and other shapes. The Reception environment has been full of PlayDoh and modelling dough activities; the tuff tray has been very popular this week with children creating different shapes, using rolling pins and using shaping tools to add textures to their models.

We have made animals out of clay in our Keyworker Groups. The children have made an animal that would live in the habitat they created previously. We have discussed what sorts of animals might live in our habitats, and why. We then thought about the feature these animals have and how they are suited to living in their habitat.

Understanding the World: The Natural World

  • Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.

This week we have been learning about life cycles – we have focused on the life cycle of a frog. We have talked about what life cycles are and how each stage is different. We have used real life photographs to show the children what frogspawn, tadpoles, froglets and frogs look like. The children then put these in the correct order. The children have complete various activities related to frogs and their life cycle.


Drawing Club

This term we have introduced ‘Drawing Club’.

Drawing Club involved a short period of time together as a whole class, followed by time with the children exploring their ideas and creativity.

First, we share a story – we have previously read ‘Not Now, Bernard!’, this week we are reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’. Then, we talk about the characters, the setting and other curious moments from the book.

The children use their imagination to bring the story to life in their own way. What does the monster’s house look like? Where did he come from? What will he eat next?! They draw their own pictures and use sound and number codes to enhance their ideas. A number 5 could open a door, the sound “ch” could turn day into night, the word “the” could make a wolf angry! We also learn new vocabulary, with actions, related to the book we read.

So far Drawing Club has been a hit!


Expressive Arts and Design: Creating with Materials

  • Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools, techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
  • Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.

The children have been creating their own printing artwork, using a range of fruits and vegetables. We cut each fruit or vegetable in half, in different ways, and experimented with paint to create different prints. We looked at how we could create different prints using the same fruit, by changing the way we press it onto the paper or by changing the colour of the paint. We have loved seeing how different each piece of art looks. The children are super proud of their work – and so they should be!

Some of the printing artworks are on display in the Reception Creative Area for the children to have a look at over the term.

Understanding the World: The Natural World

  • Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.

This week, we have used our keyworker time to talk about contrasting environments. We have looked at a map of the world, and identified which parts are water and which parts are land. Then we talked about countries; some countries are very different to one another. We have been learning about hot and cold climates. We have looked at photographs of different landscapes, such as an arctic climate, deserts and tropical climates. We also identified some animals that would live in each type of climate.

We can explain how we know a climate is hot or cold by describing what we can see.

The children have also had the opportunity to explore and become Travel Agents as we have created a new role play area following this learning and the children’s interest in holidays.

Understanding the World: The Natural World

  • Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants.
  • Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.

Expressive Arts and Design: Creating with Materials

  • Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.
  • Share their creations, explaining the process they have used.

This week the children have used their previous knowledge of contrasting environments and climates to learn about different habitats. We talked about what a habitat is and looked at different types of habitat; the arctic tundra, rainforests and jungles, big cities, farmyards, ponds and lakes, deserts, the savannah and grasslands, woodlands and the ocean.

We have looked at photographs of these habitats and thought about what they would be like to live in… cold… hot… dry… wet… sunny… green… sandy… freezing… icy… dark…

The children then chose a type of habitat to create. We used junk modelling and recyclable materials to create a habitat. The children have tried to choose appropriate materials, colours and textures, to resemble the landscape of their habitat.


Welcome back to school. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Years with your family and friends. We are excited about the new term ahead and will keep you updated with some key information.

Daily routines

We ask you to ensure:

  • All clothing is named before your child comes back to school.
  • Your children will need to bring a water bottle that is clearly labelled, every day.

P.E Days

Reception have Outdoor P.E. on Monday and Indoor P.E on Tuesday. Please make sure your child is sent into school in their P.E. kit on P.E. days. We kindly ask that you ensure your child wears their normal Warren Park polo shirt and jumper or cardigan with either shorts or tracksuit bottoms (blue, grey or black preferred if possible). We ask that children do not wear football kits. P.E. lessons will be held outside wherever possible so your child should wear suitable footwear, such as trainers, rather than school shoes or boots.

Reading

We would like to thank you for your continuing support with reading this year. Reading in Reception is our priority. Ideally, we would like your child to read at home every day for 20 minutes. We also ask that you use the words and sound flashcards at home to support your child to learn these. The reading books that are going home are at your child’s phonic and word level; the expectation is that they should be able to read them fairly independently.

Last half term we have noticed quite a few children are struggling to learn the words we are sending home. This is key to developing fluent readers as they will recognise by sight and will not have to use their phonic knowledge to decode these words. It is important to practice these words every day. Please speak to a teacher if you need support with this.

Children will continue to bring home bedtime reading books for you to read together. These books go out every Friday and need to be returned every Wednesday. We have invested in many books for you to enjoy at home with your child so please ensure these are returned.

Drawing Club

We are excited to announce next half term we will be starting ‘Drawing Club’. Drawing Club is an opportunity for children to immerse themselves in the books we read, to explore characters and settings. Most importantly children have the opportunity to use their imagination and create new outcomes and scenarios from the stories we read.

Spring 1: Curious creatures

Hear are a few areas of learning we will be looking at next half term.

Expressive Arts and Design

We will create clay creatures and design a habitat.
We will learn how to make a print.
We will practice our observational drawing techniques.
We will use collage to create a Chinese dragon.

The natural world

We will explore contrasting places including deserts, jungles and the polar regions.
We will also explore life cycles.
We will explore different types of habitats.

People and communities

Children will have the opportunity to look at and explore Chinese New Year.
We will learn about their customs and beliefs.

 

This is just a snapshot of what your child will be doing this half term. Please refer to the school website for more information and detail.

As always, we are always here to help!
If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come and see us and we will be more than happy to help.

Thank you for your continued support.

Year R Team


Knowledge and Understanding of the World: Past and Present

  • To know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on experiences and what has been read in the classroom.

During keyworker time this week we have been looking at the sequence of our school day, using visual timetable cards. The children were introduced to time-related vocabulary, to describe the order of our school day; ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘after’, ‘last’, ‘before’. We talked about how some of our school days are different to others, for example COSMIC Outdoor Classroom on a Thursday morning, outdoor P.E. on a Monday afternoon and indoor P.E. on a Tuesday morning. We also recapped the days of the week, discussing how many days there are, what order they go in and how many days we spend at school. We sang our Days of the Week song together and ordered flashcards. The children were fantastic at finding the correct day, using their initial sound knowledge to identify which day comes next.


Email the Year R Team at yearr@warrenpark.hants.sch.uk


Autumn Term Archive

A Special Visitor

We had a very special visitor this afternoon… Father Christmas! We were all very excited to welcome him to Year R and enjoyed sharing what we hope to get for Christmas. Before we said goodbye we showed Father Christmas our amazing singing and actions, to the song ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney’ – he was very impressed!

Christmas in Year R!

The children have been enjoying plenty of festive activities in Reception this week. At the beginning of December, the children helped decorate their classrooms – we put up a beautiful Christmas tree, turned the book corner into a snowy grotto and turned the home area into an elf workshop. Both classes have had one of Santa’s elves come and visit, causing mischief each day!

This week the children have been able to write Christmas cards for family members or friends, make and model their own salt dough Christmas tree decoration, create Christmas paintings, explore and share Christmas stories and wrap presents in the elf workshop.

The tuff tray has been a Winter Wonderland train track, with snow and glitter and winter animals. The children have loved exploring this, and have added additional decorations such as pine cones, cotton wool and more winter animals.


Fiction and Non-Fiction Books

This week we have been sharing fiction and non-fiction books. We have learnt what a fiction book is and have been comparing fiction and non-fiction texts. We looked at contents pages, read some information facts and talked about the characters we know from fiction books. Some of our favourite characters are The Gruffalo, Zog the Dragon, Plip the Penguin, Elmer the Elephant and Winnie the Witch. We talked about authors who write fiction books. We also shared some non-fiction texts, and read about real things like outer-space, firefighters, the weather and Christmas around the world. The children sorted the books into fiction and non-fiction by looking at the differences between them.


Heating

Understanding the World: The Natural World

We have been thinking about the natural world around us and our environment this week. We have looked a heat, warmth and heating. In our keyworker groups, we talked about what things provide heat both at home and at school. The children came up with some great ideas, thinking about their immediate school environment and also their own homes; kettles, radiators, putting on a jumper, being underneath blankets and duvets, ovens, hot water in the bath, microwaves and the fireplace. We also thought about things that provide us with heat in nature, like the sun or fire! We played some sorting games and had a look at lots of different images and objects in our classroom tuff trays.

Photos coming soon!


Children in Need Day

The Reception classes had a great day supporting the Children in Need charity and taking part in Pudsey Bear themed activities! We really enjoyed coming into school in our favourite outfits; we had lots of Pudsey bear jumpers and headbands, cosy pyjamas, superhero costumes and even a few princesses. The children were able to take part in lots of crafts and activities throughout the day. We enjoyed Pudsey colouring, pom-pom challenges, collaging our own Pudsey bears, finger painting colourful eye patches just like Pudsey’s and using the tuff tray to create a big Pudsey bear out of rice, lentils and sequins.


Joining Materials

Expressive Art and Design: Creating with Materials

This week, we explored various ways to join materials. We used glue sticks, PVA, hole punches and treasury tags, staplers, masking tape, Sellotape, split pins and paper clips. We learnt how to use all of these resources and investigated which joining methods worked best for different types of materials. We then put our new joining skills to use to create our own giant monsters in our keyworker groups. They look amazing! We have created a display in our classroom to show off our colourful and quirky monsters.


Autumn Adventures and Autumn Art

 Over the past few weeks at school this half term, the children have been embracing autumn and we have thought about what the season of autumn is like. We went on an autumnal walk around the school grounds to find some autumn objects in nature outside… the children collected sticks, leaves, twigs, bark, acorns and pinecones. We carried them back to the classroom in a big bucket and talked about what sort of crafts and activities we could do using the natural resources.

The children have made hedgehogs out of leaves and other natural materials. They have used finger-painting and their own hand shape, with autumn colours, to create beautiful autumn trees. Some children decorated the large sticks and twigs we picked up on a walk, using string and tissue paper.


Superhero Week!

So many of our children love superheroes; talking about them, dressing-up and role-playing. We decided to follow their keen interest and spend a week dedicated to exploring superheroes. In our keyworker groups, we have shared all of our favourite superheroes – we talked about why we like them and what powers they have. The teachers in Year R were able to hear about some great new heroes and find out all about how they can save the world. We discussed what sort of powers we would like to have, and why. Then, we used our DT joining skills to create our own fantastic superhero capes and masks! The children did this activity all on their own, from cutting out their templates to sticking on any creative materials they thought they needed for their hero outfit. Lots of us commented on how much we enjoyed superhero week 😊


Ourselves

Understanding the World: Past and Present

We have been exploring how we have changed from being a baby to ourselves now, in the present. We discussed the things we are able to do now compared to when we were a baby. We shared images of ourselves as babies, and looked at physical changes. The children enjoyed noticing how much they have grown up! We explored the stages of life, and talked about what will change during each stage. Together, we put the life stages in order and thought about what we will be able to do in the future.


Colour Mixing

Expressive Art & Design: Creating with Materials

This week we found out that we can mix colours to create new colours. We talked about primary colours and learnt a song to help us remember how to mix them to create new colours! The story ‘Elmer the Patchwork Elephant’ was linked to our artwork this week. We noticed that Elmer is covered in all sorts of different colours, and we used our colour mixing skills to create our own Elmers in our keyworker groups. The children were very proud of their Elmers, which are hanging in the Creative Area in our Reception classroom.


Halloween

Celebrating Hallowe’en this week has been lots of fun for the children! We have had all sorts of activities on display for the children to explore this week. They have been decorating pumpkins in the style of Yayoi Kusama, making pumpkin potions with lentils and flour and glitter, singing spooky songs, carving and smashing pumpkins with utensils outside, counting spiders and webs, reading spooky books and picking up eyeballs with tweezers for a Funky Fingers activity. They have also been dressing up as skeletons, witches, dragons, trolls and vampires!


Special things

We have talked about Special Things, discussing what is special to us and why it is so special. Some of the children mentioned their pets, special toys, special outfits, special teddies and even a special book.

Then we talked about what is special to other people. We linked this to Christianity and shared some images of special things found in a church.

Week 5 & 6

Understanding The World: The Natural World

The children have been exploring each of their 5 senses over the last two weeks. We began with sight, using magnifying glasses, binoculars and mirrors to explore our sight and different ways to see. For listening, we explored various instruments and described what they sounded like. We also talked about different things we can hear when we are outside. We investigated our smelling and tasting senses by taking part in an experiment! The children were able to try smelling and tasting different foods whilst blindfolded – they used their senses to describe what they could smell and taste, to guess the food. We tried bananas, chocolate, jelly sweets, crisps and toothpaste!

Week 4

Expressive Art and Design: Creating With Materials

We have been thinking about our families, where we live and who we live with. The children were introduced to some artists and their self-portraits. We have used mirrors to look at our faces and describe ourselves. Then we created our own self-portraits! First, we used pencils to draw shapes to represent parts of our face. Then, we added colour to our self-portraits with colouring pencils. We tried to choose appropriate colours for our features. We evaluated our artwork together and enjoyed calling ourselves artists for the first time at school!

Week 3

Understanding The World: People, Culture and Communities

This week we have been looking at photographs of all the different and important places around our school. We have also talked about our classroom; how we can look after it and where things belong. We went on a trip around our new school to find key areas, like the headteacher’s office, the medical room and the office.

Weeks 1 & 2 – Settling in

The children have settled into life and routines at Warren Park School brilliantly. They have been very busy right from day one, taking part in all sorts of activities, exploring and learning.

We have been exploring our classrooms and learning environments, and we discussed our Class Rules. We have been busy making friends, getting to know our teachers and finding out what activities we enjoy best in Reception.


Welcome to Year R!

The children are settling into their daily routines really well, and we have been delighted to welcome both Snapdragons and Cactus classes into Reception, and into their new school. Below is some key information about school life and Year R…

Our Team:

Mrs Pilgrim
Miss Marsh
Mrs Nunn
Mrs Billmore
Mrs Coleman
Miss Kettle

In Reception, the children will need these things everyday:

  • A named water bottle
  • Their Reading Log and school reading book
  • Their named book bag (these fit perfectly in their named trays)


Other things to note in Reception:

  • Please name all clothing
  • We kindly ask that children do not bring in any toys or things from home. This is because they might get lost or broken.
  • Please ensure your child brings a named coat into school when it is cold.
  • Please fill your child’s water bottle with water only

COSMIC (Boulter Building) – Thursday mornings

PE days:

Outdoor PE – Monday afternoon        Indoor PE – Tuesday morning

Curriculum Maps