Our class teacher is Mrs Speed.

Mrs Rose works with us sometimes to support our learning too.

 

A little bit about our Reception Class

When we start school in September, we spend time getting to know each other, our school and new routines. Our teachers spend quality time doing this so that we feel safe, secure and ready to learn.

In our class, we love books and base most of our learning around them. We use both our indoor and outdoor spaces for exploratory learning and enjoy a variety of activities. In April 2025, we had our outdoor space revamped. We love learning and exploring in this space.

                       

                                          

Our teachers lead some activities, including daily phonics, writing and maths with all of us together or in small groups. We also lead some of these activities, following our own interests. We have so much fun! Take a look below to see what we have been up to and our current learning. 

 

Term 4 2026

Science Week

We had lots of fun during this year's Science Week. The theme was Curiostiy: What's Your Question? We had a visit from Astro Adam, from 'Mad Science', followed by a workshop with Windmill class. We explored what happens when you add Universal Indicator to some powders. To do this we had to use our powers of observation, as well as be super listeners to keep us and our friends safe. We noticed that the powders changed colour to either red/pink or green.

                   

                                    

"It looks like sugar" - Auri

"It's turning pink" - Erick

"It's fizzing!" - Isla

We had a visit from a beekeeper and found out some interesting facts about bees.

In class, we investigated what happens to a crayon when it gets hot. First, we had to use wax crayons to draw some shapes. We then broke up the crayons that we used, added them to a bag before hitting the bag with a rolling pin to break the crayons into smaller pieces. Next, we sprinkled a few crumbs of the crayon colours onto our picture. Then, Mrs Speed covered our picture with greaseproof paper and used a hair dryer over our pictures. With spatulas, we spread the melted wax crayon where we wanted the colour to go. We had to do this quickly because the wax started to harden again.

                     

                                                    

       

       

       

"It needs heat to melt" - Sam

"It's melting" - Isabella

"It's getting hard again" - Tegen

As a class, we were very curious about Mrs Speed's family pet snake. She showed us some photos of Rex, a royal python, and her daughter made a few videos to answer some of our questions about him.

   

"How long is he?" - Aarav

"How old is he?" - Tegen

"What does he eat?" - Charlie

"Where does he live?" - Auri

"Does he bite?" - Kholo

 

We have had so much fun this term, but also worked incredibly hard. We have been exploring 'People Who Help Us' during Term 4. We found out about doctors, dentists, shop assistants and police. We even had our own crime scene to investigate! 

                             

                                                      

We have been working hard on becoming even more independent when writing. The following books have been our focus for sentence writing and innovation.

      

  

   

We have enjoyed exploring 3D shapes, sorting them in different ways, and making models with the shapes. We have continued to look at the composition of numbers within 10, using the stem sentence '5 and ... make ...'. We have been exploring doubles, and we know that these have to be two of the same number: for example, '6 is made of 3 and 3, 3 and 3 make 6'. We have finished the term looking at more complex patterns and patterns in the environment.

         

         

The Easter Story has been explored during our Religion and Worldviews lessons. We made our own version of a palm leaf and palm cross to remind us of Palm Sunday. Then we created an Easter garden, each week adding a different representation of a symbol linked to the Easter story.

  

       

We took part in our school Easter Service, joining in with whole school hymns and singing the timeless classic, 'Spring Chicken', with Windmill class. We made a colourful Easter cross to remind us of Easter Sunday, and displayed this in church during the service.

 

We enjoyed creating bookmarks using a marbling technique using shaving foam and paint. We also created Mother's Day and Easter cards this term.

      

Here are a few other photos of exploring and independent learning we have done:

      

       

 

Term 3 2026

What a busy term of learning we have had. We have been exploring habitats: where mini beasts live, rainforest habitats and polar habitats. When we looked at what it is like in Kenya, we explored the savannah. We also looked at how climate change is affecting our planet and what we can do to look after it. 

                                     

Our phonics and writing journey is going from strength to strength. We have been working on 'holding' our sentence in our heads and writing it with less adult support. Our letter formation and presentation has also been amazing! Books that we have used to help us on our reading and writing journey have been:   

                      

                               

As mathematicians, we have explored and compared mass, capacity, length and height. We have compared amounts using the language of more than, fewer than and equal. We are superstars at recognising numbers to 7 and how we can make these quickly: 5 and 1 more makes 6; 5 and 2 more makes 7. 

                                       

We have explored different ways to create art this term, from painting to 3D penguins and collage habitats and flowers. 

                      

                                                 

We had great fun at the end of January when we went on our first school trip to Mendip Activity Centre to go tobogganing. 

                                

 

Term 2 2025

Our writing has come on in leaps and bounds this team. We are getting very confident with our Phase 3 phonics. We have been writing simple sentences linked to our texts: 

                          

                                  

In Maths, we have been learning about 2D shapes and exploring numbers to 5. We are getting good at our composition of numbers to 5.

      

Linked to our Literacy and Understanding the World, we have been making and creating throughout the term.

                              

                    

                    

We have enjoyed finding out about light and dark this term. We have explored some of the wonderful festivals of light that take place during the Autumn and Winter including Diwali and Hannukah. We had a visit from Explorer Dome where we saw the stars!

                  

                                

We were all super sheep for this year's Nativity! We made a Christmas card for our family then walked to the local postbox to post them.

          

 

Term 1 2025

Following in the footsteps of the rest of the school, our first text of the year is a beautiful book called ‘Peace on Earth’. We have talked about what we could see in the gorgeous illustrations, as well as what brings us peace. We each came up with an oral sentence to create our own class poem, ‘Peace on Earth is…’.

We have been singing nursery rhymes up to 5 and showing us super counting skills in different ways. The children have enjoyed meeting and playing with their new Year 6 buddies, eating their very first school dinner and exploring the classroom.