Apple Class Blog
21.07.23
Hello for the last post of the year!
Somehow, we have arrived at the end of the school year. It is difficult to remember the children when they first arrived back in September, fresh from Nursery but they have all come such a long way…
Despite the rain this week we have had a wonderful last week, and it is true to say that the children are all now looking very much like Year 1 children.
Monday was our disco where the children showed off their fabulous dance moves, enjoyed the bubble machine and joined in with games led by the DJ.
Back in class we listened to a story about a caterpillar who was not quite ready for change but who once had made their transition was ready to spread their wings and move on. We have also looked at features of non-fiction books and were authors, making our own fact books about minibeasts. We have played lots of games in phonics, timing ourselves to write tricky words and sorting real and nonsense words. In Maths we have worked on number formation, bonds to ten and ordering to twenty. On Wednesday we teamed up with our buddies from Year 5 to work on minibeast art and crafts. Look out for these in the school entrance in the new school year.
On Tuesday we had an Assembly led by a local Librarian telling us about the Summer Reading Challenge. This is run in libraries across the country to encourage children to visit libraries and continue to read throughout the 6-week summer holiday.
This year's Summer Reading Challenge theme is 'Ready, Set, Read!' and aims to keep children's minds and bodies active over the summer break. Children can read anything they like – stories, poetry, fact books, graphic novels or listen to audiobooks – it’s up to them! The books (physical or digital) can be borrowed from the library, and we recommend reading at least six books over the summer, with a Ready, Set, Read! reward for each of the six books they read. Once they have read their sixth book, they complete the challenge and will be awarded a certificate and medal. And best of all, it’s completely FREE!
Saturday 22nd July is Sign-up Saturday in Leeds, which is a dedicated time in libraries for joining the Summer Reading Challenge. There'll be a real buzz in our buildings on this day, as well as a range of self-serve activities, including a hunt for the Ready, Set, Read! characters among our bookshelves.
Summer Reading Challenge - find out more
And now it has come to that time of the year where we say our farewells to the brilliant members of Apple Class 2022/23. We have thoroughly enjoyed teaching and getting to know each and every one of this year’s Apples and we will miss them all!
We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our families for your support throughout the year and wish you all a happy and safe summer holiday.
Best wishes,
Apple Class Team
14.07.23
Hello!
We’ve had a busy week continuing our minibeast topic and exploring Superworm by Julia Donaldson. We found some worms to add to our wormery and have enjoyed watching them make tunnels in our soil. We have written our own sentences from the story and made wriggly worms out of playdough.
On Monday we had our sports morning. Luckily the weather held and we were able to take part in all the races. The children did a brilliant job running, hopping, balancing and jumping in a variety of races. They were all fantastic sports cheering everyone on. Thank you to all the parents who were able to support this event - we hope you enjoyed it too!
This week was also very special as we met our new class teachers! Some of our children will be joining Miss Atkinson in Pear Tree Class (Year 1) and some will be joining Miss Cotterill in Lime Tree Class (Y1 and 2). They played some games and did some drawing and writing as part of their transition. We are now very confident and excited about starting Year 1!
Housekeeping
We will not be giving out new homework for the Super Sentence Books for the rest of the term. Super Sentence books will be marked and sent home for keeping.
Please make sure that reading books, reading records and bookbags are brought into school on Monday 17th July. We will be passing up new reading books and current reading records to next year classes. Please continue to bring back any library books that may be at home.
Monday 17th July is also the day of our school disco! Children can come in their own clothes for the day. The disco will take place from 2-3pm with pick-up as normal.
Thank you and have a great weekend!
Apple Class Team
6.7.23
Our story this week has been The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. We looked at the different places that the characters visited and thought about the many different stories that we know by this author; the children had lots of favourites!
We have continued with our snail theme throughout our classroom provision making spirals with paint, pastels and pens as well as making curled paper snails in the finger gym. We have learnt about the life cycle of snails and continued with our search for minibeasts in the outdoor area.
In Maths we have compared different lengths and made repeating patterns that are spirals. We continue to practise our number facts to 10 so that we know them off by heart.
We are now collecting in an outstanding Library books - these can be sent into school in the children’s book bags if they have not already been returned.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to our Sports Day on Monday. This will take place on our school field at 9.30am. The children need to come to school in P.E kit and please ensure long hair is tied up and earrings are taped in readiness for this event. We are excited to run our races!
Have a lovely weekend!
Best wishes
Apple Class Team.
30.06.23
This week we have started our new topic about snails. We have been learning snail facts, observing snails in a tank in the curiosity area and writing about them. The snails even came out so we could hold them! We have made our own snail spirals and made bugs in the loose parts area. We've looked at similarities and differences between snails, slugs and other minibeasts. Outside, we have been making Gruffalo crumble and writing the recipe as part of our challenges.
In Maths, we have been solving problems involving measure, counting and sorting. We have used addition and subtraction to work out how many dinosaurs are in Harry’s bucket, how many animal legs we can see and who can build the strongest boats. We especially had fun making foil boats and seeing which boats shapes floated best!
We also had the opportunity to visit the Key Stage 1 classrooms. While we don’t know which teacher we will have or which room we will be in for Year 1 yet, it was nice to have a story and a short maths lesson in these new rooms.
Reminders
Our Nature Crowns Artwork at Guiseley Theatre as part of the Tales Told Festival is still on exhibition. The exhibition runs from 24th June to 2nd July if you get chance to go along!
Reception will be closed to pupils on Friday 7th July due to Industrial Strike Action. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding on this matter.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Apple Class Team
23.06.23
A busy week cramming all of our learning into four days but as always, the children have risen to the challenge.
We have re-lived our lovely day at Nell Bank last week by looking at the photographs and recounting our visit. The children have written super sentences, and many are now writing several sentences using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. Thank you for your support with the homework books, this reinforcement at home makes all the difference!
It has been a ‘monster’ week as the children have described and drawn Gruffalo’s and made monsters to reinforce our understanding of odd and even numbers. It was fun trying to work out how many body parts to add to odd /even monsters to fit the odd or even rule.
We have thought about life cycles, how we have changed since we were babies and related this to life cycles of caterpillars and plants. We are watching carefully as our beans grow!
We are exhibiting some Artwork at Guiseley Theatre as part of the Tales Told Festival. The exhibition runs from 24th June to 2nd July if you get chance to go along. There will be lots of super artwork from across our school and the local community along with other activities to attend during the week. Tales Told Programme
Next week snails and other minibeasts!
Enjoy the extended weekend.
Best wishes,
Apple Class Team
16.06.23
The highlight this week has of course been our trip to Nell Bank in Ilkley. We had a wonderful day! Activities included bug hunting, pond dipping, looking for camouflaged animals, water play and making Gruffalo crumble and houses for little brown mouse in Middleton Woods. The visit enabled us to bring to life so much of the vocabulary we have been working on in class. We were so excited to catch young newts which we learnt are called newtlets.
We also visited the water play area. It is fair to say everyone had a ball! The children were an asset to our school as always, and we were proud to take them out of school - well done Apple Tree Class!
May we also say a huge thank you to the parents who came on the visit to help out. We really could not go on days out without your support and we hope you had fun and were not too shattered!
Have a lovely weekend!
Best Wishes
Apple Class Team.
15.06.23
We've had another busy week in Reception. In preparation for our trip to Nell Bank on Friday, we have started our topic on The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. Most of us are familiar with the story and have been experimenting with rhymes and sequencing the story in Literacy. There are no new tricky words and sounds so we have sent home an activity in the Super Sentence Book! We have also enjoyed making a McDonald's Drive-Thru and pretending to order food as part of our outdoor play!
We have also continued with our Lost Words work. This week, we have learned all about the Kingfisher and the Heron. We have coloured Kingfisher pictures and will be making some more Kingfisher Art next week.
This week, we have been creating Nature Carnival Crowns for the Aireborough Art Exhibition beginning on 23rd June 2023. We will have artwork from throughout school on display in Guiseley Theatre from this date if you are able to visit. We made nature crowns from leaves, twigs, pressed flowers and other natural materials. The children did most of the work themselves and really enjoyed the activity. We cannot wait to display them next week!
In Maths, we have been learning all about sharing amounts. We have been sharing food between teddies and learning how to solve problems involving sharing.
Nell Bank
We will post pictures from our trip to Nell Bank over the weekend in a new blog post.
We hope that you enjoy this lovely weekend and make the most of the amazing weather we are due to have.
Best wishes
Apple Class Team
9.6.23
Well, we have reached our final half term in Reception! It is hard to believe but the children have come such a long way and we are so proud of the progress they have all made.
We have begun a new topic this week all about plants, gardens and growing. As part of this theme, we have been talking about seasonal changes and designing gardens. We have named the parts of a plant and learnt a new ‘lost word’ - heather. We have also marvelled at the wonders of our world. Here is a lovely story which we shared with the children. God's Brilliantly Big Creation Story.
In Literacy, we have learnt the rhyme Mary, Mary quite contrary focussing on the rhyming words. We have had fun thinking of some alternative rhymes and discussed the meaning of the word contrary.
We have been doubling in our Maths sessions - the children have enjoyed playing dice games, dominoes and pairs. We have also been trying to learn the double facts up to 6+6. In phonics, we have practised reading and writing longer words, specifically those with adjacent consonants at the beginning of words such as train, frog, crab, drum. These sounds are tricky to hear at the start of the words and we have been practising segmenting words carefully in order to hear them. We continue to work hard on learning our tricky words off by heart! Our sentence homework this week has a garden theme.
Next week, we are very much looking forward to going on our Nell Bank Trip on Friday 16th June. It is a lovely day out where the children learn all about minibeast habitats and act out the Gruffalo story. Please return the permission slip to the office as soon as possible if you have not done so already. We are unable to take your child out of school without it. Please see the memo on Tapestry with regard to what your child will need for this day. Thank you for all the offers of help - we really do appreciate your support!
Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine!
Apple Class Team
26.05.23
Hello
We have had another busy week and have based our learning around The Hundred Decker Bus by Mike Smith. We have enjoyed making buses our of various materials, including the mobilo and outside in our construction area! We have also written about where we would travel on a double decker bus and which deck we would like to sit in. We have also been making up funny lyrics and actions to ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and telling each other stories from the "You Choose" book. We have really enjoyed this transport topic and it has inspired lots of imaginative play and creativity.
We have also been using 2D shapes to create new shapes and Tangram pictures. For example, we have learned how to rotate two triangles to make a square, a larger rectangle and using squares to build rectangles! We have enjoyed making and learning the names of new shapes such as trapezium and parallelogram and have started to fit shapes together to make larger pictures.
This week, we also took our Reception Class Photo. It will be coming home for grown-ups to purchase soon. We hope you like it!
Today we have had a ‘make the rules’ day - a fund-raising day organised by FORP. The children have thoroughly enjoyed their day bending the rules!
We will be going on our Nell Bank Trip on Friday 16th June. Please complete the permission slips as soon as possible if you have not done so already. We are unable to take your child out of school without it. Please contact the office if you have any questions regarding payment/the trip itself.
We would also love any old dressing up outfits (ages 4-6/7) you have to donate - we can make use of them no matter what they are!
Next week is half term and we look forward to seeing you (and hearing your holiday news) on Monday 5th June. We hope you have a safe half term and enjoy a well-earned rest before your final weeks in Reception!
Best Wishes
Apple Tree Class
19.5.23
This week has been about everything transport and travel.
We have continued our work on Emma-Jane’s Aeroplane and took a trip to the Tarn as part of our topic. We waited patiently in the sunshine to watch some planes take off and land. After quite a wait we were rewarded with 3 or 4 in quick succession, just like buses as the saying goes! We talked about flight schedules, radio communication and why it is used and where the planes were heading (Poland and Spain). We also had to use our super listening skills to hear plane engines and how they change when landing and taking off. We also looked out for signs of Spring to compare to our previous Winter visit. On our walk, we spotted buds and blossoms, some cute ducklings and goslings and discussed how they are signs that seasons are changing. The children behaved brilliantly and had a short play in the park afterwards. Many thanks to the parent volunteers who came with us and helped us to stay safe on our walk.
In other areas we have been working hard on polysyllabic and 3 letter words in phonics, writing sentences about the places we would like to travel to and working on subtraction stories in Maths.
The children have used their creative skills to build some fantastic vehicles with the junk materials. They have made beautiful hot air balloon collages and done some paper weaving to decorate hot air balloons. It has been a particularly arty/crafty week!
We have also been learning this transportation song called “We all go travelling by” – it’s a catchy one that your child may wish to continue singing at home!
We have also watched this beautiful animation of the book Journey by Aaron Becker. We loved the sentiment behind it and spotting all the different modes of transport the little girl uses.
Finally, just a polite reminder for P.E days; please can the children have earrings taped before school as this is for safety issues during lessons. Thank you!
Have a lovely weekend and we will see you all on Monday for our final week before our half term holiday.
Best wishes
Apple Class Team.
12.5.23
Hello! We hope to find you all safe and well after another Bank Holiday and four day week! This week we have launched our Transport Topic.
In Literacy, we have read Emma-Jane's Aeroplane by Katie Haworth. This is a rhyming story about a young pilot who travels around the world and picks up animal friends along the way. This has been a super chance for us to write and find rhyming words and use GoogleEarth to explore the different countries. We have matched up the animals to the correct cities and have made airports in the small world area. We have also continued to enjoy the changeable weather outside with football, bug hunting and making aeroplanes with friends.
In Maths, we have begun to add using "first, then and now" sentence strings. Lots of us have become very good at using subitising and number bonds to find totals which has been super to see!
This week, we have also ran/walked a mile as part of a Guinness World Record attempt. We took some pictures and will keep you posted on how we get on!
Next week we are creating vehicles out of junk modelling equipment - please bring in boxes, bottle tops and anything you think could be useful to make a vehicle at the start of the week. Thank you!
We hope you have a super weekend.
Best wishes,
Apple Class
5.5.23
A short but busy week with lots of fun to celebrate the King’s coronation!
In Literacy our focus book has been The Cook and the King by Julia Donaldson. This led to us discussing our favourite meals and writing sentences about the story. The children are becoming much more independent when writing sentences and we have been very impressed with their homework in the Super Sentence books. We really appreciate your support with these books as it does help to embed the children’s understanding of sentences.
In Maths we have been solving problems with shapes by building models with multilink and looking at rotating shapes and tangrams. In other areas the children have been busy making healthy meal collages, modelling crowns in the playdough and building London bridges across the water tray with Duplo. We were very interested to hear how ravens are guardians of Tower Bridge and how Beefeaters care for them. Raven is our new ‘Lost Word’ and will be added to our mini books to bring home.
Today we have had a lovely day and the children have all looked super in their red, white and blue! We have learnt more about King Charles and what a coronation is. We have enjoyed a range of activities including decorating buns in red, white and blue, making flags and crowns and performing London Bridge is falling down. We also had a special picnic lunch!
We hope you enjoy the long weekend and any festivities you have planned.
Best wishes,
Apple Class Team
A few pictures of our fun with Nursery this afternoon !
28.04.23
Hello!
This week we have been excited to start our Royalty topic in the run up to the King’s Coronation on the Saturday 6th May. In Literacy, we have been reading The King’s Pants by Nicolas Allen and have been doing lots of pants-based activities. We have designed pants for various occasions, written sentences to describe the pants and have even washed and pegged pants on a washing line outside! We have had fun making split-pin Royal Guards and learning about the line of succession to the throne.
In Maths, we have been recapping teen numbers and how to make them using tens and ones. We have also been practising ordering them and using them in play. We also played a Race to 20 game. In this game children used their subitizing and counting skills to work out moves and count places to win.
During phonics, we have been practising writing words with adjacent consonants and using them correctly in sentences. We are already seeing an improvement in sentence writing and increased confidence and hope that this continues throughout the term. Thank you to grown-ups for their continued support!
Next week, school is closed to Green Apple Class on Tuesday 2nd May due to planned Industrial Strike Action. Red Apples are due to attend school as normal on this day. We will be continuing our work on Royalty and London in the run-up to the King’s Coronation. We will also be resuming PE lessons on Wednesdays as normal.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Apple Tree Class
21.04.23
Hello and welcome back - our final term in Reception!
The children have all made a fantastic start back after the Easter break. We have been so impressed with how keen the children have been to learn about our new topics. It has also been lovely to see how nicely they have played together and the imaginative games they have made up.
We have been finding about the festival of Eid this week. Through stories and chats with Miss Kaleem the children have learnt about the celebrations and customs that take place during this festival. They enjoyed a tasty treat of dates (provided by Miss Kaleem) often eaten to break fasting.
The lovely weather has given us the opportunity to check on the seeds planted by Miss Hanna and gardening club last term. We are hoping for a crop of raspberries, strawberries, carrots and sunflowers. Fingers crossed they don’t get eaten by the wildlife! We have been thinking about Spring and the changes we see in our environment and have begun learning about the various parts of plants and what they need to grow.
In phonics we have begun reading and writing longer words with adjacent consonants, and today the children are bringing home a ‘Super Sentence’ book. This replaces the Sound book that we sent home previously, these can now be kept at home for reference. Inside the Sentence book are details about how we teach sentence writing in Reception. We have included sentence writing criteria, tricky words and letter formation information. We ask that you support your child with the activities in this book and send it back to school on Thursdays for checking and so that we can add the following week’s homework. Please do ask a member of the team if you have any questions.
In Maths we have been working on numbers beyond ten, building teen numbers with numicon and on tens frames. The Number blocks episodes are an excellent way of reinforcing the tricky teen numbers with your child.
Next week - preparation for the King’s Coronation !
Have a super weekend,
Apple Class Team
31.03.23
Hello!
This week started off in a very exciting way! We had opened our banana bags ready for snack when some of our Green Apple children noticed a 2cm frog jumping around the sink area. It was an African Reed frog who had come over 4,000 miles in a refrigerated truck from the Ivory Coast in Southern Africa. How strange that he had come in our banana bags! Now, the frog has been adopted by Miss Greenwood, our office administrator, and has settled happily in a special tank at her home.
BBC Look North were very interested and came to visit us on Wednesday afternoon. Mrs Millen and three pupils were interviewed on camera for a shirt feel-good news segment that was aired on Thursday Evening (29th March).
The interview can be found on BBC iplayer here (about 23 minutes in):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001klg4/look-north-yorkshire-evening-news-29032023
You can see the BBC News Article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-65069077
This week, we have enjoyed taking part in all sorts of Easter-themed activities. We have listened to the Christian story of Easter and talked about Easter traditions. We have written tricky words on eggs, made Easter collages and even made Easter baskets with our Year 5 buddies. We have enjoyed chocolate, hot cross buns and other Easter treats!
We have worked on using 'I have...' in sentences and are getting so much better at writing full sentences independently. We have been working on using full stops, finger spaces and making sure that our sentences start with a capital letter.
In Phonics, we have been consolidating out knowledge of phase 3 digraphs and tricky words
On Friday, we took part in the FORP Easter Egg Scramble. The children were really well behaved and enjoyed finding out which egg they had won! A big thank you to our PTA and FORP for organising such a lovely event.
In Maths, we have been working on creating patterns. We have been keen to practise more complicated repeating patterns that use two objects such as AABAAB or ABBABB. Maybe you could try some at home!
Reminder: For the first two weeks after Easter we will be doing PE on Mondays instead of Wednesdays. Can children please come into school in their PE kits on these Mondays: 17.4.23 and 24.4.23 and school uniform on those Wednesdays.
Have a Wonderful Easter Break! We look forward to seeing you when you return and hearing about your holidays.
Apple Tree Class
25.3.23
Hello!
We are tentatively looking forward to Spring and have enjoyed some lovely bursts of sunshine whilst playing in our garden this week. With this in mind we have been busy in the creative area crafting flowers and printing tulips. The children have shown a real flair for art activities having lots of their own ideas and using tools and resources independently.
We have continued with our Little Red Riding Hood story this week and began with some hot seating of the characters in the story. The children have written speech bubbles in their writing books and we have listened to many different versions or spin offs of the story. Here is one of our favourites The Last Wolf which picks up on the discussions we have had about looking after the environment last week.
In Maths we have been busy exploring height and length and have had great fun comparing who is the tallest and has the biggest feet in our class! Our shoe shop has expanded and now includes a variety of headwear; this led to a us learning about sacred and special headwear through the story ‘The Proudest Blue.’ Miss Kaleem showed the children how she wears her hijab and the children have enjoyed trying these out for themselves.
Next week the Book Fair is visiting school and it will be open every day after school for you to browse and purchase books. We are also running a competition linked to the fair - it is to design a token for World Book Day next year which is very exciting! Details are in your child’s book bag. The deadline for entries is Monday 27th March.
Have a super weekend!
Apple Class Team
17.03.23
A warm welcome from Apple Tree Class. We hope that you had a lovely long weekend last week due to the snow!
This week, we have continued our traditional stories topic with Little Red Riding Hood .
We have practised retelling the story and have enjoyed taking part in Little Red Riding Hood themed activities such as making playdough cakes and writing get well cards for Grandmother. We have also been acting out the story and retelling it in our small world area. We have enjoyed consolidating our skills from last week in the maths area by making groups of 5 and 10. We have also had an extra dance lesson with Hannah from Leeds Rhinos! We showed her some super moves and performed a short routine. We have ended our week with a non-uniform day. Thank you so much for your Red Hamper donations for the raffle hampers. The winners will be announced next week after the final performance of Y5/6’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”. See the photos in our gallery below!
In Literacy, we have read different versions of Little Red Riding Hood and made a class story map. We have been retelling the story in the small world or acting it out in our book and role play areas. We have been working on using story language such as "Once upon a Time" and connectives such as "then" and "so" when retelling the story orally.
In phonics, we have been revising our digraphs sh, ch and th as well as ai, or and oa vowel digraphs. There is no homework this week but we would encourage parents to use the sound mats sent home last week to revise the sounds and practise them with their children at home. We will be collecting in books at the end of term to create Super Sentence Books ready for the summer!
In Maths, we have been recapping the concept of the number 0 and making equal groups using picnic food. We have recapped number bonds to 10 and 5 and found different ways to make them.
Housekeeping
Please make sure you sign or comment in your child's reading record when they have ready their reading book with someone at home.
Thank you for your continued support. We hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Best wishes
Apple Tree Class
9.3.23
Well an eventful end to the day today; as always the British weather can be relied upon to surprise us! However we made the most of the snow managing to make a very fetching snowman in our garden. :-)
Monday seems a long time ago now, however mid phonics, we had a very special delivery made by Mrs Atkinson from the office. Apple Classes had received a letter from The old woman who lives in a shoe. She asked for the children’s help to design and build her a new home as she was so squashed in her shoe house with her many children.
As always, the children rose to the challenge and were very creative in their responses. They set to work making houses from boxes and junk modelling materials decorating them and adding details. They made sturdy Lego homes and super buildings using the blocks - even adding furniture and all mod cons! See our gallery below for the fantastic ideas they had. We think that the old woman will be incredibly happy with her new homes!
The children have also continued to enjoy using the shoe shop to try, buy and sell shoes. They love trying them out around the classroom! Measuring feet and using the till to pay for items covers lots of real-life maths.
In Maths we have also been learning about 3D shapes. We have talked about which shapes are good for stacking and which are not and why. This helped us in our house building project too.
We have written sentences about The Elves and the Shoemaker story and have continued to recap our digraphs and trigraphs in Phonics. Once again, a busy, busy week!
Best wishes
Apple Class Team
3.3.23 - Today we were visited by The Story Busy from Leeds Library Services. We sang some songs, played musical instruments and had a story with Sally and Colin. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a brilliant time!
2.3.23
Hello!
This week our story has been The Elves and the Shoemaker. We have been retelling the story and sequencing the events in the story. We have been learning the rhymes One, two buckle my shoe and a modern-day version of There was an old woman who lives in a shoe. We have compared illustrations from old versions of these rhymes. We have been looking at how clothing and footwear has changed.
The children have really enjoyed playing in the shoe shop role play area and have been busy fitting shoes, taking money, making price tags and talking to customers politely.
In Maths we have been exploring number bonds to 10. We have learned that 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 and 5+5 all make 10 (as does 10+0). Feel free to test your apples at home as the bonds to 10 are handy to know as the children move through school.
In Phonics we continue to practise our Level 3 sounds. We are consolidating our knowledge of the tricky words taught to date. Thank you for your continued support with these challenging vowel digraphs in the sound books and in reading books.
On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day with a parade of the T-shirts we have been making in school. The T-shirt design has led to lots of lovely discussion about our favourite books and characters. We proudly paraded our storybook character shirts in the hall as the children have worked hard to design and complete them this week. They will be coming home with the children today as a memento. The children completed scavenger hunts and shared stories with the Year 5s. It was a fun and busy day!
We will be updating our gallery on Friday 3rd March as we have a visit from The Storybus!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Apple Class Team
24.2.22
We have had a super week - the children all came back refreshed and raring to go after our half term holiday.
We have been learning about Shrove Tuesday and its meaning this week. We have had a pancake theme going on in the classroom; we have been busy rolling out pancakes with the play dough and adding different toppings in the creative area . Our story Mr Wolf's Pancakes also introduced our other theme for the half term - traditional stories. The children enjoyed spotting a number of fairy tale characters in the book. One of the characters he meets is Wee Willie Winkie, we have been practising this rhyme and learning a little about Victorian times when it was written. We looked for clues in illustrations of the rhyme such as his nightgown and cap as well as the candle that he carries. We compared these to clothes and how we light our streets and homes today.
In Maths we have met 9 and 10 and have worked on building nine and ordering numerals to 10. In Phonics we have completed the Level 3 sounds - we will now work on using these sounds in lots of reading and writing activities.
House keeping
Just a few reminders about routines as the different days can be confusing.
Reading scheme books are changed on Mondays.
Library books are collected in and changed on Wednesdays.
Sound books are collected in on Thursdays.
We have a number of library books that have not been returned. It is easy for them to get muddled up at home but please can these be hunted out and sent into school; they will have a school stamp on them.
Please can we also make a polite plea for ALL uniform to be clearly labelled - at this point in the year labels often fall off or wash out of clothing and so need re-labelling. Thank you!
Have a super weekend!
Apple Class Team.
10.02.23
It was lovely to welcome you all into school for appointments on Parents' Evening this week. It was good to share the children's progress and chat about how settled and happy the children are. We are so pleased with the progress they are making.
In class this week we have continued our birds topic and learnt more about penguins. The children have been interested in how they differ from the birds we see in our garden, and we have explored where they live in the world and some of their characteristics. We were very surprised to find that some penguins live at the beach! We have read lots of penguin stories and enjoyed learning some fun songs and rhymes whilst waddling like penguins! We have made penguin collages and ordered the life cycle of an Emperor penguin as part of our challenge work.
After reading some non-fiction books, we wrote some simple facts about penguins in sentences. We have also been busy writing around our classroom: taking telephone messages, writing shopping lists in the home corner and labelling the models we make in the construction area.
In maths we have been working on measuring height, length and time. We have also been working on learning the Days of the Week using this song from BBC Supermovers.
In phonics we continue to work hard on the phase 3 digraphs. This week we have learned ow, oi, ear and tricky word you. Sounds and tricky words are in the homework books as usual. We will be issuing new Sound Books after Half term for those who have filled their first book.
This week has been Online Safety Week. We have talked to the children about how to stay safe online and to speak to a grown-up if they find anything uncomfortable as they are watching videos or using the internet. We have watched Episode 1 of a series called  Jessie and Friends to explain to younger children how to keep safe. For more information on Online Safety Week, please visit: https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers
Housekeeping
On Friday 10th February, we break up for half term. We return to school on Monday 20th February.
On Thursday 2nd of March we will be taking part in World Book Day. We will be ordering oversized t-shirts for the children to decorate with characters and scenes from their favourite books.
We hope that you and your families have a great half term and cannot wait to hear about what you got up to when you come back.
Best wishes
Apple Class Team.
03.02.23
This week we have been learning all about Penguins. In Literacy, we have been reading ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers. It is a story about a boy who finds a lost penguin and his journey to return him to the South Pole. We have been learning lots of penguin facts, making jointed penguins and singing songs about penguins! We had great fun waddling and flapping our flippers. We also took advantage of the windy weather by making some simple kites in our outdoor area. It’s amazing how much fun you can have with some string and a carrier bag!
Our new phonics sounds this week are long and short oo, ar and or and we are learning the tricky word my. Look out for these in sound books and practise them with your child as these digraphs are getting tricky now!
In Maths, we have been looking at how to combine groups and playing dominoes to practise this skill. We have also been looking for pairs and matching through memory games and snap.
Next week, we will be continuing with our penguin theme as we round up for half term. We are looking forward to welcoming grown-ups into school for Parents Evening (Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th). Please contact the office if you are having trouble booking an appointment and would like to see your child’s class teacher.
In the meantime, we wish you a happy and safe weekend!
Apple Tree Class
27.01.23
This week we have continued to find out more about birds with our focus for literacy being on non-fiction books which we used to find out simple facts about birds. We used our knowledge to draw careful pictures looking closely at the colours and markings on the birds.
On Wednesday we had a walk to Yeadon Tarn (or the dam as it’s known locally ) to feed the wildfowl and do some bird spotting. We saw swans, geese, moorhens, gulls and mallards. We were very excited to spot a pair of mandarin ducks with their very pretty markings. We had fun feeding the birds a mix of seeds, salad leaves, nuts, oats and peas (thank you for all your donations) from behind the safety of the railings. We had a play in the park before returning to school having worked up an appetite for our lunch! We were very proud of the children’s behaviour who all walked sensibly and were polite to the members of the public that we met. We would like to give a big thank you to our volunteer parents/carers who came with us.
In other areas we have continued with our work on phase 3 sounds in phonics. The new digraphs are more of a challenge, but the children are recognising them well and are working hard at careful pronunciation. Parents and carers guide to pronouncing sounds. Your support with the work in sound books is really helpful, thankyou for returning them to school on Wednesdays ready for marking. This week, we have learned ai, ee and oa and have tackled our first trigraph - igh.
In Maths we have worked on the composition of 6, 7 and 8 and have begun to write matching number sentences. We have also been making longer, thinner and shorter, thicker playdough worms to feed the birds.
Next week we are exploring the Antarctic with Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
Finally, a reminder about our plans for World Book Day which is coming up in March. We recently sent a letter to all parents detailing our plans to hold a decorate a t shirt theme for the first time. Please see below. We kindly ask that all financial contributions are made by next Thursday (Thursday 2nd February) to allow us an appropriate length of time to order t shirts and the resources required to decorate them (and of course to give the children chance to decorate them before WBD!). We have received some queries this week regarding sizing for t shirts - please note all children will receive an oversized t shirt as this will give them much more space for their book cover design and ensure every child in school has a suitable t shirt to wear. See the letter below for more details:
Have a great weekend!
Apple Class Team
20.01.23
Hello!
Birds, migration and measures in Maths have been themes for this week.
A cold and frosty week has helped us to understand a bit more about why we need to help look after birds in wintertime. We have made bird feeders to hang in our garden as we know that food can be scarce for them. The children have been interested in learning about the similarities and differences between the great variety of bird species. We are looking forward excitedly to our walk around the tarn next week (weather permitting), where we will do some bird spotting and feeding of the birds!
We have enjoyed a measurement topic in Maths this week. We have been using balance scales to compare weights and learning about the capacity of different containers through our play. The children are learning to use the correct vocabulary such as heavier, lighter, when using scales and full, empty and half full to explain what they are doing.
Language and vocabulary have been the focus for our literacy work this week. The children have been re-telling our story Calvin can’t fly and have impressed us by how well they have sequenced events and used vocabulary from the story. Some super listening at story times!
In Phonics we have learnt some more digraphs qu, ch, sh, th, and the tricky words we, me, be. It a pleasure to see the children are building up their skills for reading and writing on a daily basis!
A reminder that Monday 23rd January is a Staff Training Day, so school will be closed for the children.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Best wishes
Apple Class Team.
13.1.23
Starlings and Calvin Can't Fly!
Our second week of Spring term has been all about our first garden bird - the starling. We began the week with the enjoyable story 'Calvin Can't Fly: The story of a Bookworm Birdie' by Jennifer Berne. Calvin is a starling who would rather read and study books than learn how to fly with his family. The children have written superb sentences all about Calvin and his learning to fly, using new tricky words he and she. We have looked closely at starlings and learned about murmurations (when hundreds of starlings fly together - click here for an example). We learned that starlings murmurate to warn, keep warm at night, confuse predators and to communicate with each other for survival. The children have also painted pictures of starlings for a classroom display. We have also enjoyed learning songs about birds such as "cuckoo where are you?" and "All the little ducks go upside down".
In Maths, we have been learning about different ways of making numbers up to 5. We have been taking groups of animals and hiding some. Then we have had to work out how many are missing by how many we can see. We have been using our five frames and fingers to help us if we need them but we've been getting pretty good at counting and using our number knowledge to find answers.
In Phonics, we are continuing with Level 3 sounds and have learned y, z/zz, qu, ch and tricky words he and she. New sound sheets are going home in books this Friday.
In PSHE, Harold the Giraffe has helped us to talk about what is safe to go into our bodies and discussing the importance of medicine safety. We know the differences between medicine and other things that go into our bodies, when we may need medicine, who can give us medicine and understand why medicine is stored in safe places (and away from children).
Next week, we are continuing our work on Calvin Can't Fly and making our own winter bird feeders!
Have a great weekend
Apple Class Team
6.1.23
Happy New Year!
The children have all come back very happily and now seem to be old hands at school life!
It has been lovely to hear about the children’s holidays and the fun they had. They wrote some super sentences in their writing books.
We have had a wintry theme this week and through story we have learnt about seasonal changes. We heard about a character called Jack Frost, read a Percy the park keeper story One Snowy Night. We enjoyed learning to mix shades of blue to create pretty wintry scenes.
In Maths we have been looking at the composition of 5 and sharing. We played ‘picnics’ making sure we had equal amounts and were sharing fairly.
In Phonics we have begun learning the Level 3 sounds. The children are excited to learn another set of letters and look at the display each day to see what the new sound is before we begin our phonics session. This week our sounds are j, v, w, x. The homework continues with the same format as before - thank you in advance for your support with this and reading little and often.
Today in our PSHE lesson we learnt about how to keep our bodies healthy and the importance of tooth brushing. The children were very knowledgeable about how to clean their teeth. They each have a mini toothpaste and brush to bring home today in their book bags. We have also re-capped our Golden School rules and made a class book about them. What a busy week!
Next week we are continuing our Winter theme and beginning to learn about garden birds. If anyone has any spare bird feeders to donate, they would be greatly appreciated - we are hoping to attract birds to our garden area although we will have to play quietly… ;-)
Have a lovely weekend,
Apple Class Team.
Reindeer Crafts and Christmas Dinner
Just updating the blog (as promised) with pictures of our morning with Year 5. Mrs Amos and her Year 5s came to visit us and help us make a Reindeer headband. We really enjoyed working with them and the Year 5 children were very kind, patient and caring towards the younger children. We ended our session with a sing-a-long of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and Year 5 performed 'White Christmas' along with some signs. We learned how to sign Merry Christmas! Our gallery also includes pictures of our Christmas Dinner! We enjoyed it immensely and used our brilliant manners to ask for our food.
We wish all of our parents and grown-ups a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Apple Class Team
15.12.22
Festive activities and Christmas Parties!
This week, we enjoyed our Christmas Party! The children played party games, had some party food and ended the party with a visit from Santa! Santa had a book for each child and wished everyone a Merry Christmas. The children were fantastic at taking turns, being good sports and using their manners during the party. Everyone had a super time as you can see in our Gallery!
We are looking forward to Friday which is Christmas jumper and Dinner Day. We will add another gallery for this Friday afternoon. Please make sure your child is wearing their uniform with their Christmas jumper replacing their school jumper/cardigan.
Dates for Diaries: We break up for Christmas on Friday 16th December and return on Tuesday January 3rd 2023. We also have a Staff Training Day arranged for Monday 23rd January so school will be closed to pupils.
Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to all of our parents/carers who have very generously bought, made or given gifts for Reception Staff this Christmas. They are always enjoyed and appreciated. This Autumn term has been a busy one and the children have learned so much and come a long way. We are proud of each one of them and how they have settled into school. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Best Wishes
Apple Class Team
9.12.22
Lots of festive fun this week as our countdown to Christmas continues!
Of course, the highlight of our week has been putting on our show Baarmy Bethlehem. The children’s hard work learning songs, lines, actions, and dances paid off in their lively performance. We were so proud of all the children who sang beautifully and spoke clearly - well done Apple Class and our Nursery friends! We hope you enjoyed the show as much as the children enjoyed performing it. See our photos below.
In other areas we enjoyed the story Weasel is Worried. This reminded us how the seasons are changing and about the cosiness of Winter months too. We learnt about weasels and their habitats.
In phonics we have continued to embed our knowledge of all the sounds and words we have learnt this term. (These can be found on the laminated mats given out last week). We have enjoyed beginning to write lists for Santa and sending Christmas cards to each other. Thank you for your continued support with the children’s reading and phonics homework - especially during the busy run up to Christmas.
In Maths we have been learning about rectangles and a special rectangle called a square. We have been making these shapes and with a variety of equipment and talking about their similarities and differences.
Next week we continue our countdown to Christmas and on Tuesday have our Christmas party. The children may wear their party clothes for the day but please be mindful that we will still use our outside space, so party clothes need to be practical. Thank you for all the contributions that have come in towards the cost of the party. On Friday we have Christmas dinner and it is our Christmas jumper day; after that we think we will all be ready for a rest!
Have a lovely weekend,
Apple Class Team.
02.12.22
This week, we have been finishing off our work on hibernation and cracking on with Nativity rehearsals. As Thursday marked the 1st of December, we all helped Mrs Richardson to put up our Christmas tree and started our sweet Advent Calendar. We are performing "Baarmy Bethlehem" on Wednesday 7th December at 9:30. Please send in your form or see the office for tickets. We can guarantee 2 tickets per child for the performance.
This week, we had a surprise visit from the local Police. They were here to visit Nursery but as Jackson L's dad is a member of the police force, he came in to talk about what a police officer does and showed us around his car. The children enjoyed looking at the different features on the car and we discovered that the sirens are very noisy! Thank you to Officer Lowther for visiting us.
In maths we have been working on different ways of making 5 such as 5 ones, 3 and 2 and 4 and 1. We have practised forming 5 in different ways to work on our subitising skills.
In phonics we have learned the digraphs ff/ll/ss and have practised writing words that use them in our literacy books. We have finished learning Level 2 sounds and will spend the next two weeks recapping and consolidating learning. The final sound book homework for the term will go out on Friday 2nd December along with a laminated sound mat for practising phonics at home. Please return for marking and checking on Thursday 8th. The children will still get new reading books on a Monday until the end of term.
We hope you are all getting into the festive spirit and we look forward to seeing you at our Christmas Performance on Wednesday 7th!
Best Wishes
Apple Class
25.11.22
Hibernation and nativity have been the themes for this week.
We have been noticing how the changes in temperature and weather make us feel .We thought we would like to curl up like the animals in the stories we have read. It was a cold dark night tells of how a hedgehog looks for a place to hibernate and the nocturnal animals he meets on the way. We have also read a lovely friendship story about a prickly hedgehog who finds it hard to find someone to hug. We thought about friendly behaviour and how we can look after each other. Click here The Hug for a snippet of the story.
Inside we have been busy developing our knowledge of 4 and 5. We have made star wands with five points and played games using fives frames to practise the bonds to four and five. It is our aim for the children to recognise or subitise small amounts as we learn these numbers.
In phonics we learnt the sounds h/b/f/l learning to form the letters clearly and correctly. We practised writing them in some words as well as noticing these sounds in our play in classroom provision.
Amidst this we have been working on our songs for our Nativity performance “Baarmy Bethlehem” and will soon begin to learn our lines. It is all starting to get very exciting and festive!
Below are some clips of the fun we had with Year 5 during World Nursery Rhyme week. Thank you to our Year 5 children for working so nicely with the Reception children.
Saturday 26th November is the school Christmas Fayre, we hope you will be able to attend and enjoy the start to the festive season.
Have a lovely weekend!
Apple Class Team.
17.11.22
Hello! This week has only been a short one but we've certainly been busy in Reception!
This week has been National Nursery Rhyme Week so we have been recapping and learning Nursery Rhymes. Year 5 practised some nursery rhymes to sing with us on Wednesday afternoon. We always enjoy having older pupils come visit us and we enjoyed singing some classic nursery rhymes together. More information on Nursery Rhyme week can be found here.
In Phonics, we have learned some new sounds: ck, e, u and r. We have sent these sounds home to learn and practise in Sound Books. We enjoyed making robots to embed our 'r' sounds - see some of our work in the Gallery below!
In Maths, we have been working on positional language. We have been using on, in, on top, under, behind, in front and between to describe where things are. We have had great fun hiding teddies in different places and explaining where they are using the words we have learned.
This week, we will be sending home Lost Word Books. We have based our Early Years curriculum around "lost words" vocabulary such as Ivy, acorn, fern and weasel. The Lost Words are words associated with nature that have been removed from child dictionaries because they are not used as often anymore. Our aim is to bring these words back into pupil vocabulary and plan activities around texts linked to them. We have been learning them in class and would like to share them at home with you. We will need to add more words throughout the year so we will let you know when we need them collecting in. If your child sees or has experiences with any of the lost words, please put them up on Tapestry to share with the class. We hope you enjoy learning our Lost Words and finding ways to use them when you're out and about!
Reminder - School is closed on Friday 18th November 2022 for Staff Training.
We hope you enjoy your long weekend and we shall see you on Monday!
Best Wishes
Apple Class Team
11.11.22
Signs of Autumn and our environment
This week we have been thinking about the world around us.
On Monday we had a good explore in our grounds on a leaf hunt. We had a lovely time crunching through the leaves, identifying different trees and looking for signs of Autumn. We are specifically learning to recognise oak, sycamore and horse chestnut trees so if you spot any out and about on walks, please do point them out to the children. Everyone found their own stick and made a magic wand, wrapping leaves around it with pipe cleaners. Back in class we matched leaves and seeds to the trees and completed crafty activities. Leafy stories we have read include We're going on a leaf hunt , Leaf Man and The Leaf Thief. We were treated to a beautiful rainbow one afternoon too which sparked lots of discussion about the weather and seasonal changes.
Today we talked a little about Remembrance Day and the meaning behind it . The children have been colouring and making poppies in provision.
Our work embedding the first set of sounds in phonics is now complete; the children are doing very well with their blending and next week we begin to learn a new set of sounds. Thank you for your help with reading and the sound book homework - practice really does make perfect!
In Maths we have been working on our recognition of 1,2,3 by sorting and matching numerals and representations of these. We enjoyed a target game using hoops and bean bags to practise this. We also squeezed in our usual P.E slot with Mr Spence playing a variety of games on the MUGA; so all in all a busy week of learning!
Enjoy the weekend!
Best wishes
Apple Class Team
4.11.22
Diwali and Halloween
We'd like to wish you a warm welcome back after half term. We hope you had a fantastic one!
This week, we have been doing Halloween crafts. We have been painting and making pumpkin and ghost pictures and talking about our experiences Trick or Treating. Spooky! We have also been learning a bit more about the Hindu Festival Diwali. Rishav and his family celebrate Diwali and showed us some pictures of their celebrations. Diwali is the Festival of Light and marks the beginning of a new year. Rishav showed us how his house was decorated with lights to end the year just gone and bring in the new. Rishav said his favourite part is having a big meal with his friends and family and being allowed to eat lots of treats! A big thank you to Rishav and his family for talking us through some of their customs. Children had a look at some real diva lamps at the curiosity table and have made and coloured their own Rangoli patterns.
We have also enjoyed 2 PE lessons with Matt from Leeds Rhino's this week. We have loved playing new games, learning about how exercise affects our bodies and have practised following instructions. We have pretended to move like different animals and we even got the chance to work as a team to collect pirate treasure! We all had a great time.
In phonics, we have been recapping i,n,m,d and learning how to write them. Please continue to practise these sounds with your child at home. For Maths, we have looked at numbers 1, 2 and 3. We have also been practising our counting skills and sorting objects into groups of 1,2 and 3.
Next week, we are looking forward to talking about fireworks and bonfire night! Please upload anything you do to celebrate bonfire night over the weekend. We will be reminding children of some basic bonfire safety on Friday and hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.
Best wishes
Apple Class Team
21.10.22
An arty-crafty week this week in Apple Class.
Alongside our usual choice of creative activities, we have been busy printing our Christmas card designs with some extra help from Mrs O’Hanlon our Chair of Governors. We have also been busy creating our own sock puppets; the children enjoyed adding details such as eyes and noses. The puppets have proved popular, and it has been lovely to see the children using the puppets in their play. Thank you for the spare socks that you sent in.
Last week we also introduced a Friday afternoon story session. Apple Class have been paired up with a reading buddy who comes each Friday afternoon to read stories and share books. It is a lovely calming end to the week when the children have been busy all week. Thank you to the super Year 5 children who read stories with such fantastic story telling voices!
In addition to this we have of course continued working hard on our phonics, embedding our first set of sounds in preparation for reading books. In Maths, we have looked at pattern all around us and have been busy making our own patterns with natural objects , cubes and beads.
Today we break up for half term holiday, we are very proud of how well the children have settled in and wish you all a restful week’s holiday.
See you on Monday 31st October,
Best wishes,
Apple Class Team.
14.10.22
Hello again!
Firstly, we'd like to say thank you to all of the parents/guardians who came to Parents Evening this week. It was lovely to meet you all and tell you how brilliantly the children have settled.
This week, we have continued our work on buttons and talked about the textures of different materials. We talked about how the buttons felt in our hands and the words that we use to describe rough, smooth, bumpy, soft and hard textures. We also did some taste testing to talk about how different foods feel in our mouths using vocabulary such as chewy, powdery, juicy and crunchy. We really enjoyed trying oranges, marshmallows, pancake and yoghurt and describing how they feel when we eat them. We also made our own sandwiches and had the chance to practise spreading butter and jam before eating. They were delicious! We also read 'The Disgusting Sandwich' by Gareth Edwards. It's such a funny, entertaining book and we were glad that our sandwiches came out much better than the one in the story!
In Maths, we have been practicing weighing and measuring different objects. We've enjoyed using the playdough and cubes to weigh and compare objects and have been practicing using "full", "half full" and "empty" in the water area when comparing containers and amounts.
Our new phonics sounds for the week are g/o/c/k. The children are picking them up well and are getting better at using their robot arms to sound out words. Next week, we will be re-capping all s/a/t/p. We have also been learning the songs to match each sounds. You can download the powerpoint to practice them on here.
Next week, we are making sock puppets! If you have any old or odd socks, we'd love for you to bring them in on Monday for us to stick and sew on features.
We hope you have a super weekend!
Apple Tree Class
7.10.22
Hello,
This week has felt much more autumnal, and it was lovely to share the collections of treasures that the children have brought in. There were some fantastic finds, including a busy little spider who had made its way into class via one of the bags !
We have been busy sorting the objects by colour, size and category. We have also been comparing amounts of conkers using the terms ‘fewer’ and ‘more’ and the ‘same' or 'equal’. We realised we can recognise and see how many are in a group without counting (subitising). We learnt to check by counting amounts in a line onto 5 frames.
We continue to learn a new sound each day in phonics; this week our sounds have been i/n/m/d. Thank you for your support with the sound books at home - practising the sounds at home really helps embed them. Ask the children to use their robot arms when sounding out words!
We’ve been finding out more about textures and also about clothes from the past using our ‘Button Box’ story. We also read ‘The Paper Dolls’ by Julia Donaldson - the children have loved making their own versions and were very surprised when they opened them up to reveal a string of people. Different textures and fabrics have been used to decorate and collage them.
Yesterday was National Poetry Day and we regularly read poems and rhymes during story time - BBC Nursery Rhymes are great to share with your child. We have also been learning a simple poem called All of Me off by heart.
Next week we are looking forward to seeing you at Parents' Evening. These are to be held on Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th Oct and you can book up via the online booking system. If you have any problems in doing so, please contact the office who will make an appointment for you.
Enjoy the weekend and we will see you on Monday.
Best wishes
Apple Class Team!
30.09.22
Hello!
We have had another super week of learning, playing and sorting. We have been doing some more work on “The Button Box” and have sorted buttons and other objects in lots of different ways. We have also had an extra mini-PE lesson with Sam. He built an obstacle course in the hall. We all had a brilliant time and listened well. Sam was impressed with our ability to listen and follow instructions!
This week, we have started our Level 2 Phonics lessons. We would like to say a big thank you to all of our parents and guardians who attended the sessions. Session information is now available on Tapestry. If you would like more information, please ask a member of staff.
Our sounds this week are s, a, t and p. Sound Book Homework will start this Friday. In the books is a copy of each sound to write over, learn and practise at home. There is an action (mnemonic) and song to go with each one too. It is important that the children learn to hear the sounds in word and pronounce them correctly (ssss not “suh”).
Sound books will go home in bookbags each Friday and collected in on the following Thursday for checking and adding new sound sheets. Please make sure that your child’s sound book is back in their bookbag for Thursday. We will also be giving some mini-books to go home: “Kit and Sam” and “Pat”. These books are for reading with a grown-up and they introduce the characters and sounds in our phonics scheme. They can stay home to keep and collect.
Housekeeping
Autumn Treasure Bags – We have realized that the label on the Autumn Bags asks them to be returned after Autumn half term. This is an error for which we apologise! If your child has collected their autumn treasures, please can they bring them into school next week.
Birthday Sweets – as a team, we politely ask that Birthday sweets/treats not be brought in on your child’s birthday. We are trying to stay in line with our Healthy Schools policy and maintain fairness and consistency across both classes.
Thank you for your continued support and we hope that you have a great weekend!
Apple Class Team
23.09.22
Hello!
Another lovely week in Apple Tree Class. The children continue to take to the many new routines so well and it is lovely to see the new friendships blossoming.
This week we have been finding out about our families and our homes. We have really enjoyed sharing the pictures that you have sent; the children have been telling us all about their family members and pets. In the creative area the children have been busy making collages of their homes and families.
We have also been working on our listening skills and hearing sounds in words as a pre cursor to our phonics sessions which we begin next week. We are holding a meeting on Wednesday 28th September to explain how we teach phonics and reading in Reception. The meeting will start at 9.10am, which gives us time to register and settle the children. We do hope to see as many of you at possible, as learning to read really is a partnership between home and school. Please let us know on the reply slip if you are able to attend so we know how many coffee cups to put out!
In Maths the children have been matching and sorting and have enjoyed sorting lots of different buttons after we read ‘The Button Box’ story. Next week we will be sorting lots of natural items, and so the children are bringing home an Autumn Treasure bag this weekend. If you are out for a walk, you might find lots of acorns, conkers, pinecones and different leaves to put in your bag and bring to share in school.
Have a wonderful weekend !
Apple Class Team.
16.09.22
Hello!
We have had a super first full week in Reception. We have been busy making sandcastles and ice creams in the sandpit, making cards and pictures and enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having. We are also pleased to tell you that Reception children have been really good at remembering their manners in the dinner hall and have got to grips with lunchtime routines. The children have managed well with this week and continue to settle in nicely.
This week, we had our first PE lesson with Mr Spence. The children practiced getting ready, moving around a space in different ways and balancing beanbags on their bodies. Their behaviour was super and Mr Spence was very impressed. Well done!
Reminder: Next Monday 19th September is a Bank Holiday to mark the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Housekeeping - please label all items of clothing that come into school, including water bottles, PE Hoodies and jumpers.
We wish you all a lovely weekend.
Best Wishes
Apple Class Team
Hello!
A warm welcome to Reception Apple classes and to Rufford Park Primary if you are new to our school. On this weekly blog we will aim to update you with news, information and photos of the children.
Now you have activated your child's Tapestry account you can see all the things that your child is doing whilst at school. Please keep checking regularly on our blog as well as on Tapestry for the latest updates and housekeeping notifications. This week we have sent you a memo with information regarding P.E and other routines.
We have had a lovely first few days and the children have all been busy exploring their new classroom and begun to meet new friends. On Thursday and Friday the children stayed for lunch and all did very well carrying their own trays and there were lots of clean plates! The children have settled in well and we’ve been really pleased to see how quickly they’ve made themselves at home. Next week the children start attending school for full days as from Monday.
Have a super weekend !
Best wishes
Apple Class Team
