Reception Ash 2024 - 2025 Autumn 2

It has been so nice to see the children of Ash class settle back quickly after the October break. As the weather has become darker and colder, we have been doing a lot of indoor arts and crafts to do with the weather and how the seasons change, collecting different coloured leaves to make collages and explore the season of autumn.

Our topic this term has been “transport” and the children have loved role playing in the classroom, pretending to work at a garage, fixing the broken tricycles and seeing how cars work. In Literacy, we made our own passports, writing our names and dates of birth and looking at maps to see where in the world we would like to visit! On our “wow” day, we were lucky enough to sit in the driver’s seat of the headteacher’s car (though he didn’t like it when we honked the horn too loud), and we have also been coming up with new ideas for vehicles, including a flying caravan, and a helicopter that can also be a submarine!

We were also fortunate enough to go on a trip to the cable cars at Greenwich, travelling on multiple forms of transport across London, and seeing the amazing view from above. We had so much fun!

In maths this term, we looked at the composition of numbers up to 10, beginning to understand that smaller numbers can be added together to form bigger numbers. We also learned about positional language and developed our awareness of both 2D and 3D shapes, using our newfound vocabulary to describe their properties and what happens when we move/ rotate them.

We have had lots of fun this term and are now ready for a relaxing winter break!

Reception Ash 2024 - 2025 Autumn 1

It has been so wonderful to see the children of Ash class settle into life at Berger Primary school. They quickly learned the rules and routines, made friends and have grown in confidence so much over such a short amount of time.

This term our topic was “all about me”. The children have been learning to form the letters in their name correctly and looked at themselves in the mirror to help paint a self portrait. During our “wow” day, we looked at pictures of ourselves as young children/ babies, and discussed how we have changed and how people grow as they get older. We also read many lovely stories about growing up such as I’ll Love You Forever, Paper Dolls, Once There Were Giants, Dogger, and The Toymaker.

In maths, we have been exploring numbers 1 to10, putting them in order, counting, and even doing simple addition. We have also learned what repeating patterns are and had a go at making our own!

We are so proud of Ash class for their resilience and dedication this term!

Spring 1

This term we enquired ‘Do all stories have happy endings?’.  

We learnt about a variety of famous authors: Tola Okogwu, Nathan Bryan, Oliver Jeffers, Michael Rosen and A.A. Milne. Reading a different story every day and discussing if all stories have happy endings. We successfully used sentence stems to help us discuss our points of view as well as helping us to debate with others.

In literacy we learnt to use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We used this skill in writing a letter to our favourite author, writing sentences about our favourite authors and writing a class story book. We have also focused on colourful semantics to help extend our writing skills, looking at who, what and what doing to perfect our writing and extend our communication and language skills.

For our WOW day we got to watch a personalized message from Tola Okogwu, telling us what it is like to be a famous author, as well as reading a story to us! We continued the day with brainstorming ideas for a story and writing a class story!

We also took a trip to the local library,  to learn about library behaviours and learn about how a library works. We enjoyed browsing the library and reading stories there for the afternoon. 

Throughout the half term we focused on a number of different things for Understanding of the World. For science, we learnt about the life cycle of amphibians and mammals, cutting and sticking pictures out and correctly putting the life cycles into the correct order. We continued work on emotions and the zones of regulation, applying this to everyday life as well as having sessions dedicated to better understanding our emotions and how to deal with them. For geography, we learnt about China and celebrated the Chinese New Year by having a parade around school with the dragons we have made!

In Art, this half term we focused on the famous Illustrator Dapo Adeola. Focusing on different pieces of work each week and using a variety of materials to recreate our own versions. These materials included: pencils, oil pastels, collage, charcoal, watercolours and paint.

Autumn 2 in Ash Class

 This term our question was “Where do you want to go and how will you get there?”. This linked with our topic of Transport and made for great cross-curricular links through maths, literacy, history and science.

Throughout the term we learnt about many different types of vehicles and how they have changed over time. This included flying vehicles, floating vehicles, cars, trains, bikes, emergency vehicles and construction vehicles.

We linked this to our maths which involved shapes and as we learnt about them we considered whether or not they would make for good wheels, and if not why not. The children enjoyed this hands on learning as they imagined a very bumpy ride in a vehicle with triangular wheels!

In maths we also focused on counting, ordinality, cardinality and repeated patterns. Pupils were able to access this learning through a variety of hands of learning experiences using maths resources as well as games. Pupils enjoyed working both indoors and outdoors during their maths groups to enrich lessons and learning opportunities.

Linking back to our question, in geography children learnt about different places you can fly to, discussing where they had been and what it was like to go on a plane. We also discussed different types of transport they had been on, and they loved the bus role play area we had!

For our WOW day we went outside and experienced different types of transport including cars, bikes, skate boards and even roller skates! We also looked at pictures of them on the different types of transport ranging from a horse and cart to a plane – the children loved seeing their friends on different types of transport and enjoyed talking about their experiences to the class.

Pupils made their own vehicles from recycled materials. They also partook in weekly Art lessons where they studied the same artist using different materials and resources, with a range of techniques. This took place on their creative day of the week, this day also involves music, dance and PE. They have grown in skill and talent in these creative skills – well done to all!

We ventured to the O2 using the DLR, over-ground, tube and cable cars, to experience as many different methods of transport as possible in one trip! We loved the cable cars and had an amazing day out. Once we got to the O2 we had a picnic and then ventured all the way back to Berger – a big journey for little legs!

We also ventured to Forest School to explore the outside world! Digging, exploring and doing what we do best – getting muddy! The pupils loved Forest School and it was a lovely way for them to reconnect with nature in a busy city.

Philosophy for children covered a variety of topics effecting children today. These included ‘I am seen, I exist”, pondering whether they would rather live on earth or discover a new planet, where pollution goes and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. We also discussed the internet and how to be safe online, as well as asking pupils is a virtual world better than the real world?

We finished the term by preparing for the children’s first Christmas Play- which was very exciting! The children loved learning the songs and dances for the play. They performed it to friends and family and did a wonderful job.

The children have done a wonderful job with settling into life in reception and we are so proud of them for completing their first full term!

Ash Class 22-23

Literacy

In Summer 2 we have been reading stories celebrating what makes us all different and unique. We have also read stories which focused on our 5 sense. We have continued our work on sentence structure and mastering our handwriting and letter formation. 

WOW Day 

With our topic being what makes me ME? We each got a paper bag and took it home for the weekend. We filled it with things that are special and unique to us. Then for out WOW day we went through all of the bags and took turns at guessing whose bag was whose. It was a really brilliant chance to be able to show what makes us so unique to our friends and lead to some brilliant class room discussion. 

Art

We have been focusing each week on making a page for our end of term “All about me” book. We did a self portrait, family portrait, a drawing of our favourite season as well as our favourite food and drink. We also used oil paints to decorate a summer tree. We did this in small groups and it gave us a brilliant chance to work as a team. 

Trips

This term we performed at the Round Chapel in Hackney with other schools. We performed a collection of sounds and really enjoyed the atmosphere and did a brilliant job at learning all of the songs. 

We also went to forest school! We got to spend a whole day at forest school, having a picnic in the park. 

Science

This term we got to do a lot of experiments. We have been learning about predictions. We put on our science coats and did a skittles experiment, as well as a glitter and milk experiment and a Diet Coke and mentos one! It was fun to see if our predictions were correct or not. 

Skills

We have  also been developing our fine and gross motor skills - painting, climbing, riding bikes and playing outside in all weathers!

Summer 1

In Summer 1 we have studied the topics of Australia and Habitats.

For our Australian WOW day we tried vegemite sandwiches, pavlovas and anzac biscuits. We read both fiction and non-fiction books about Australia and considered whether we would prefer living there.

We also had sensory experiences with sand, eucalyptus oil and coconut oil with oats.

We learnt about the wild life in Australia and then wrote a sentence about which was our favourite and why.

Spring 1

Literacy

In Spring 1 our literacy focus was Famous Authors. We learned about them and how they write their stories. The Authors we learnt about included: Tola Okogwu, Julia Donaldson, Oliver Jeffers, Michale Rosen and AA Milne.

WOW Day 

We were lucky enough to zoom with Tola Okogwu for our WOW Day. She read us a story and we had the chance to ask her questions we had about being an author.

Art

We made a honeypot from Winnie the Pooh using paper mache! As well as decorating faces so we could weave the ‘hair’ into braids just like the story “Daddy Do My Hair” by Tola. 

We also made an art piece by decorating trees using a range of material so they looked as if they were covered in snow. We particularly enjoyed using the cotton wool, beads and glitter. 

Trips

To encourage our love of reading we took a trip to the local library - Homerton Library. Here we were able to meet with the librarian and understand how a library works. It gave us the opportunity to explore more books and informed us how to access them! 

We were lucky enough to make another trip to Victoria Park to observe how winter had changed our surroundings, noting the trees had lost their leaves and it had gotten a lot colder!  

Science

We learnt about the life cycles of amphibians and mammals. This was something we really enjoyed - we can’t wait to see tadpoles later on in spring. 

Skills

We have  also been developing our fine and gross motor skills - painting, climbing, riding bikes and playing outside in all weathers!

Autumn 2

Math

This term we have been learning about composing and decomposing numbers in different ways using mastering number. We also learnt about 2D and 3D shapes. 

Art

We have had lots of opportunities to explore colours and mixing. Using a range of different techniques to achieve this. We really enjoyed making Christmas cards using hand prints and making them into snowmen. 

Transport Topic & Trip

This half term we have been learning about transport and it’s ability to take us to other places. 

We learnt about different types of transport such as cars, trains,  boats, planes, bikes, motorcycles and even helicopters. We explored this through making our own vehicles using a range of materials.

We went on a transport trip: taking the DLR, train and best of  all - cable cars. We then had a picnic at the o2 and discussed what our favourite method of transport was.

Science

This linked with our focus on materials in science. What would be a good material to make a boat float? Does this material float or sink? Is it strong enough? We enjoyed doing experiments to test our ideas. 

Philosophy for children 

During philosophy we have interesting discussions to get us thinking about different topics. These discussions help to challenge our thoughts, listen to others ideas and accept that not everyone will have the same opinions. 

Skills

We have  also been developing our fine and gross motor skills - painting, climbing, riding bikes and playing outside in all weathers!

Summer

We decided to go outside in the sunshine and have a little treat to celebrate and recap all of the different habitats we learnt about. We had some ice lollies as we finished our habitats topic with the habitat polar lands.

Summer 1 - Art work

Here are some of the creative pieces of at work that we created linked to our habitats topic.

Summer 1: Literacy - Habitats

We have been learning about different habitats in literacy. We have been thinking about the different types of clothes we would need to take with us to visit different habitats around the world. We have also been working really hard with our reading and have been getting very confident at reading independently.

Summer 1 - Maths

We have been focusing on 2D and 3D shapes in maths, we have been learning about the properties of the shapes and making structures out of them. We have also been focusing on doubling and halving. But our favourite thing was when we learned about routes; we had to follow directions and routes to go to different parts of the school, as well as visit our local Co-op.

Trip to London zoo

As part of our topic ‘Australia’, we decided to visit the zoo. We saw lots of different types of animals there, we even saw some Australian animals. What animals can you see in the pictures?

Spring 2 - Our art work

Here are some of our art work from this term. We used various materials to create our art pieces. We made the Sydney Opera House out of tissue paper and paper plates, as well as use Australian aboriginal dot painting to trace and make numerals.

Spring 2 - Maths

We have been working on number formation this half term. But the biggest thing that we focused on was addition and subtraction. We used lots of different methods to solve sums, we used number lines, we used objects as well as our fingers.

Spring 2 - Australia WOW day

As part of our topic ‘Australia’, we tasted lots of different types of traditional Australian food, we danced like Australian animals and we even used aboriginal Australian dot painting technique to make numerals.

Spring 1 - Our art work

Here are pictures of some of the art work we have been busy creating in Ash class. We mostly enjoyed making colourful fish out of paper plates.

Spring 1 - Forest school

We have been doing lots of different activities in forest school, from litter picking to painting trees with mud. But our favourite session has be the session where we built our own fire, made s’mores and had hot chocolate.

Spring 1 - Turkish

We have had lots of fun learning the names of the days in Turkish and learning Turkish words to describe different emotions.

Spring 1 - Maths

We had a big focus on shape, space and measures this half term. We used unifix cubes to make repeating patterns, we painted flowers and measures then using unifix cubes and discussed the height of the flowers. We learned about the names and properties of 2D shapes and made pictures with the shapes. We also used scales to weigh objects and discussed which are light and heavy.