WELCOME TO RECEPTION CLASS

Born in a Barn Lyrics (Please click the link for lyrics.)

 

1.Shh, Dont wake the Baby

2. Its a long way on a donkey

 

3. Don’t worry Mary

 

4. No Room, No Room

 

 

5. Wake up Shepherds

 

 

6. We are camels

 

 

7. He’s the king

 

 

8. Born in a barn

 

 

22.11.24

(Blog Post)

Good afternoon all,

After that PUNFUL start last week I shall begin swiftly. This week is UK Parliament Week. We had a virtual guide around Westminster Palace. We noticed the incredible history, symbols and sculptures. The children tried to think of what this incredible building was. Some suggested a castle, church and interestingly a palace! When we explored the grounds and discovered the ministers’ chamber where our country is safeguarded for future generations. I do like to think, if we have the St Francis children safeguarding our future in the years to come, we would truly be in safe hands. We then explored a core value of democracy – voting! We discussed what a ‘healthy’ debate is and how we share our values, thoughts and get people to see our way of thinking respectfully. Another set of phase 3 sounds have been encountered and knocked out of the park. Please note that we are still in the early days of our phonics journey and these core skills simply take time and need to be constantly revisited. You will really start seeing a jump in the length of books and breadth of language used. Home and school will always be different places so if you need any adjustments to the home reading, please let me know. In mathematics the sound of pins getting struck by ‘super’ strikes have rung out. Children have applied number knowledge, subitising, addition and subtraction in this fast paced task. We have compared quantities used STEM sentences using key language more/greater, less/fewer and same/even. Some children took this even further by then combining irregular amounts! We were inspired with our painting this week and tired our hand at painting a robin. We looked at the variety of colour on a simple robin. When we went outside to paint, we were watching the world go by and looking at our stunning environment. Unbelievably! The robins around us clearly love to do some modelling work, as when we were painting a pair fluttered and scampered around us – truly magical. I must finish with a great moment of the week. The first test with costumes on, I will attach pictures below! Costumes will be tweaked slightly so we shine like we should. As a class we wanted to reflect upon our roles in the Nativity and the feelings that may have come up. A big well done to Parlick Class for the exceptional example they set! Thank you all for an incredible week and see you all Monday.

With love,

Mr McGill

15.11.24

 

You all better keep your eyes peeled! We are BAKED in business this week! You can really PEEL it in your bones! That this week has been a special one and if you want the puns to stop, you’re in for a ROOT awakening. The children and I have been ever vigilant for the evil pea. Luckily for us, Supertato was keeping an eye out too. It was a real treat seeing that Supertato made an appearance at some of your homes too! Trigraph! What on earth is a trigraph you may ask. Luckily for us Pendle Class worked extremely hard (as always) on a very tricky new concept. A trigraph simply put is 3 letters that makes one sound e.g. ‘igh’  l-igh-t = light. We did have a range of vowel sounds to work through. This will grow our writing/reading repertoire exponentially. In our phoneme frames and sentence writing, we implemented these sound in words and sentences. Children were even pushed to create their own sentence! Please give your little stars a big well done from me! In mathematics number composition was looked at, we gathered natural materials to match number and amount. Children then looked at irregular ways to count to given numbers. For example, 4 sticks and 3 cows. Individually we have 4 and 3, but instilling this number knowledge in us will allow us to make quick combined links for addition and subtraction. Number truly is all around us! Speaking of which, Christmas magic! I have emailed each of you roles and if needed, additional bits for costumes. If you have not received this, please contact me. Children made reflective pictures for the birth of Jesus Christ and an ‘I Wonder’ statement. This allows children to express a deeper thought about the story and discuss it with an adult or friend. We had 2 very special/ important events this week. Anti-bullying week and Pennies for Pudsey. As a class we looked at why these causes are important and how we can do a little bit of good in the world. Something that is very common, not just in the classroom, but at St. Francis! We will continue to look at these key themes and honour them not just for a day or week – but a lifetime! Thank you all for your love and support for the home learning. I hope you all have a lovely weekend together as a family and see you all Monday! I will see you TATER!

 

8.11.24

Good afternoon all, Superheroes assemble! Hold on to your seat folks. We had our very own superhero in school today! It was not a bird or a plane. It was ‘FIREMAN DAVE!’ He came into school to explain his role, how he helps others and helped us learn some fire safety tips. He did give us a little bit of homework. As a family, do you have a fire safety plan? Can you remember the first line of your address? Dave explained how these were important to know. I hope you can discuss it calmly as a family over the weekend. Another week, another brilliant set of digraphs have been accomplished, children are now implementing these in words and even sentences. In very exciting news we will begin our vowel digraph sounds next week! When appropriate, books with these sounds will be sent home. In mathematics number composition is key and children have been building towers, using comparative language and combining the towers to make numbers sentences – sounds supeerrr to me! Children recorded this information in ways that were appropriate to them. In our topic work, we had a recap and celebration of Diwali. Children made rangoli patterns outside to welcome you all to school and mehndi art to accompany the celebration. Mrs Davies and I are just in the process of attaching the sounds to the website for you to work on at home. As you may imagine the Nativity swing is in full effect. Children are super excited and I hope you are all seeing that at home. I shall send out roles next week. It will be Christmas before you know it. On a somber note, the children wrote lovely prayers for our Remembrance Day. You could really see children demonstrate great values, love and respect into our world. We then made a poppy for our remembrance class display. Well done team. I am so proud of you all. I hope you all have a lovely weekend as a family. With love, Mr McGill