Welcome to Life at KPS for Reception

Mr Ahluwalia and Mrs Morgan warmly welcome you to Reception.

The aim of this page is to highlight some of the fantastic learning that has been happening in Reception, this page will be updated monthly, with photographs and information about the learning we have completed during the month.

We hope you enjoy looking through these updates and do discuss your child’s learning with them to celebrate their success. We look forward to any suggestions you may have to make your child’s learning a pleasant experience.

October 2022

Communication and Language

This month we have looked at the story, ‘Goldilocks and the three bears. The children have really enjoyed retelling this story using the story maps provided. Weekly, the children have been introduced to a new word and they have been used the vocabulary from the story, such as ‘breakfast’, ‘hot’ & ‘porridge’. The children had an opportunity to ask and answer questions, and helping to identify the beginning, middle and end of the story when discussing the events with the classroom. The children mentioned their favourite characters in the story and the reasoning behind their answer.

Expressive Arts and Design

We finished reading and learning ‘Goldilocks and the three bears story.’ We quite enjoyed roleplaying in the Wendy house pretending to be the bears and being imaginative making up our own story lines.

During the Black History month activities, we explored a range of pattern making using lines, dots, shapes and colour. This was interesting because we created our own repeated patterns getting ideas from African themed prints.

Our Music teacher also taught us to tap repeated rhythms. We had to listen attentively as we had to play the drums quietly, loudly, quickly or slowly.

Literacy

We enjoyed learning the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  The story maps in our classrooms helped us to structure the story showing the beginning, the middle and the ending. Having the story maps also helped us to embed our learning during our independent learning time with our friends.  We have started Phonics. We look forward to learning a new sound each day. We are beginning to hear initial sounds in words. We have also started forming letters of the sounds we’ve learned.  We take books home to practice what we have learned at school. We are also learning to write our names.

Maths

We have spent time singing number rhymes, which helps us to understand the order for numbers. The children have been sorting and matching objects by size, colour or kind. They were challenged to give a reasoning for their answer. For example, they were asked to find two objects of the same and one object that was different. Also, we focussed on matching objects using different objects around our classroom. This helped the children to sort related things accordingly. For example, matching shoes, socks, the kind of pencils in a pot, animals etc. The theme of patterns was continued as the children created and sequenced their own designed patterns through shape, size and colour. To conclude, the children were counting objects using 5 frames. This helped the children to develop the concept of ‘more than’ and ‘less than’.

Personal, Social, Emotional Development 

We are now settled and are enjoying our time at school. The adults are giving us great opportunities to engage our learning through play, exploring in small groups and sometimes as individuals. We get to choose where to play, who to play with and how long for. During this time, we learn to share resources and ideas with our peers.  We are developing skills such as turn taking, negotiating, making friends and even getting to know other people’s point of view. The adults encourage us to have a sense of independence especially at lunch time and when changing for PE

Physical Development

The children were focusing on how to move, balance, control, and being aware of the obstacles surrounding their area. For example, an obstacle course was designed for the above skills. In addition, the children were digging in our garden and discovered garlic and potatoes from last year. We focussed on handling and controlling paint brushes as the children painted characters from Goldilocks and the three bears. There were lots of physical activities outdoors such as football, tennis, bikes and chasing each other. These kept the children mobile outdoors. They are learning to share, wait for their turns and negotiating with each other.

Understanding the World

We had so much fun learning about Black History month. Our theme was ‘Celebration’ We looked at black British born celebrity Ainsley Harriot a chef, TV presenter and author from a Caribbean heritage. We then looked at African and Caribbean food, music and dress. We explored some African artefacts with various, interesting designs and patterns. These inspired us to create our own patterns. We finished off by staging our own African/ Caribbean carnival. Dressing up in colourful clothes and dancing to African and Caribbean music was so much fun. It taught us to appreciate different communities.