Class 1 and Class 2

In Class 1, you will find Mrs Stanforth and her Teaching Assistant Mrs Mann. Next door, in Class 2, you will find Mrs Wilson and her Teaching Assistants Miss Blunt and Miss Bedford. Two more Teaching Assistants, Mrs Spinks and Mrs McAnespie work across both classes.These are our Reception classrooms. There are always lots of interesting things going on in here or in the outside area. 

 

Reception had a very exciting Maths Cafe and were delighted that so many of our parents/carers could come to join in the fun! After a letter from Dr Ranj that explained the challenges for the Maths Cafe, they put their measuring skills to good use with a series of challenges, measuring their feet, their hands, their heads, how tall they are, how many star jumps in a minute and other tasks using standard and non standard measuring. All of the children enjoyed completing the maths passport. It was so much fun but unfortunately the time went too quickly!
If you want to have a go at being a measuring master, try this...

The length of your foot is equal to the length of your forearm. True or False? Draw around your foot. Cut it out. Hold it against your forearm. Is it the same length?

How long is your foot? Measure your drawing using cubes.

Reception made brave, cunning pirates! They made and followed treasure maps and wrote clues for their friends. The pirate ship was complete with a pulley system to send notes in the bucket and a cannon, made to pivot and send cannon balls (balls) at the enemy ships. I wouldn't want to cross this bunch of pirates on a stormy sea!
Cavalry is home to many small creatures. This week we've been out and about identifying animal habitats. Do you know which creatures live in the homes in our school grounds? Some of these hibernate but which ones?
One group made a fabulous den home to shelter from the winter weather and keep warm. But which animal did this? Clue: they run around in groups, have fabulous ideas and a love of custard creams. They build dens but never sleep in them! You may recognise some of these species!!
Cavalry Reception classes had 'Snow much fun' making their snowmen baubles. We liked their colourful ear muffs and big smiles.
Reception had a lovely morning at March Library and their Winter Wonderland. Eden and Jess from 20Twenty have been working with both Reception classes on a theatre makers project. Today they sang one of the songs beautifully in front of a large audience of families, our school community and the public. Such great confidence!
We have been so impressed by the children who have started school with great enthusiasm and maturity! This week we have blasted off to space with 'How to Catch a Star'. We discovered lots of 2d shapes on our journey, made beautiful tissue paper stars to create a stained glass window effect and we built our own rockets outside using crates, planks and other objects. We have also started our Nature Explorers, with group 1 finding special things in the environment. We used our senses to explore the special area around us and discovered that it is impossible to speak above the sound of two jets circling above the school! 

Our Nature Explorer sessions are aimed at developing the children’s independence, confidence, communication skills and self-esteem by taking part in achievable tasks and activities in an outdoor setting. Evidence has proved that working in this way has given children an effective foundation that has raised academic achievements. It supports all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. 

Children will be required to have a change of old clothes, a waterproof coat and wellies on the days of their sessions. 

Last year, 2018-2019, we had so much exciting learning! Look at a little bit of the fun we had!
It was so lovely to sit and read in the sunshine today! These fabulous readers made the most of a quiet spot in the garden. 
 
World Book Day 2019
 
There were some superb costumes today for World Book Day! To add to the excitement, Reception had their first school trip, a visit to March library. Firstly, there was great excitement at going on a coach. Whilst at the library, the children listened to a story, completed a special library treasure hunt, borrowed a book and had another story! Thank you so much to Zoe Gowler and all the staff at March library!
The Reception staff are so very proud of their fabulous behaviour! What a great World Book Day 2019! 
Reception have been learning about Firefighters. They learnt about the role of a fire fighter, labelled fire engines, built fire engines outside using loose parts and then went on daring rescue missions (usually involving cats stuck up burning trees!). The week finished with a very exciting visit from our favourite Firefighter, Dale, who showed us all of his kit, told us what everything was called and how and when it is used. We know that some firefighters have to swim, they wear leggings (not trousers) and the jacket is a tunic (not a tulip, as one suggested!). Some of us got to try on his helmet, it was very heavy! Thank you once again to Dale for a very informative and exciting visit! 
Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh were up to no good in Reception last week as we read What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson! Not only did they steal the prize cow but they also stole other items from our school! It's a good job class 1 and class 2 were so good at creating Wanted posters and solving crimes! Look out for our crimes solving display as you move around school!

We have been busy on a secret mission in Nature Explorers! We have been squirrelling away making some fabulous things to go on our Christmas tree for the Christmas Tree Festival to be held at St. Peter’s Church on Friday 7th December - Sunday 9th December. Please do take your child, and the rest of your family, to see our entry and all of the other fabulous trees. Entry is free!

The Magic Wand

In Reception we found a wand!! Who does it belong to? Where did it come from?

The children, after much discussion in class 1 the children decided that the tooth fairy had dropped her wand and that it was magic! In class 2 they decided that Winnie the witch had dropped her wand.

We made up spells and made our own wands- it was great fun turning the teachers into frogs!!!!

We have been using our phonics to play some great games recently. A particular favourite is Obb and Bob, the aliens. Obb eats alien words and Bob eats real words. Ask your child to show you what happens when they enjoy the right snack!  

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/PicnicOnPluto.html

Nature Explorers
It was very, very windy! We found helicopters, they spin around! We now know that these are seeds from a sycamore tree and that they spin to move away from the tree to grow new sycamore trees. 
We also found leaves,"I found a red leaf, that's a sign of Autumn!" and we found acorns. 
We tried to stand still in the wind and we laughed as it tried to blow us away!
 
Friday 21st September
 
Please ask us about our very special carrots; grown in our garden, picked by our friends and munched by many of us!
Also, ask us about our plans to catch a star... how would we get our own?