Mrs Brentnall, Mrs Thomas, Mrs Frattaroli & Mrs Barker would like to welcome you to

ORANGE CLASS

Term 6

The Olympics

Where in the World?

Our Last Beach Walk!

We had great fun on our last walk to the beach this week! The children had earned a marble treat after a term of hard work, so had donuts when we arrived. They were delicious, and gave us lots of energy for the morning!

They then did some expert sandcastle building and hole digging in the sunshine. We have been really proud of how well the children have behaved during our Beach Walks, walking sensibly to and from the beach and playing and learning really well when we are there. Well done Orange Class!

Thank you to all the parents who have come to the beach with us this year!

Skateboard Workshop

All the children in Orange Class tried their hand at Skateboarding this week, some of them overcoming their fears to stand on the skateboard and even move across the playground with the help of their friends!

Summer Fair

A big thank you to the Friends of Westmeads who organised lots of fun activities for this year's Summer Fair. Orange Class really enjoyed themselves and came back laden with treats!

Sports Day

We had a Stunning Start to our topic on the Olympics this week, with a very active Sports Day. In the morning we had lots of different races - egg and spoon, relay, bean bag, slalom - and then in the afternoon we had lots of different sports equipment to try out. The children enjoyed trying out Basketball, Tennis, Speed Bounce and some other Athletics activities. We also enjoyed a class picnic in the Outdoor Classroom (which might have been everyone's favourite part of the day!). Well done to all of the children for their super effort and attitude throughout the day! 

Term 5

Land, Air and Sea

What could live in a place like this?

Book Week!

To celebrate Book Week Orange Class were very lucky to have a visit from the author and illustrator Zehra Hicks on Wednesday. Zehra read 2 of her books to us - Cheeky Monkey and Pug Hug - and taught us how to draw Cheeky Monkey! We also came to school in special hats showing our favourite story and listened to lots of stories, some read by the teachers from other classes.

Art Workshop with our Artist in Residence

We learned lots at our first Art Workshop with Becky Vincer, Westmeads' Artist in Residence, this week. The children used different stencils to print onto pieces of fabric, thinking about how much paint to put on the sponges and how to apply it to the stencil. We also enjoyed using some stamps that Becky had made for us and printing in the classroom.

Nature Walk

This week we went on a nature walk along Stream Walk. We were looking for different habitats and any animals that might be out in the lovely Spring weather. We saw blackbirds, a robin, sparrows, butterflies and a squirrel. We then had a look at the mural on the wall behind Westmeads, before heading back to school.

Pond Dipping

This week we have been looking at different habitats and where different animals live.

We visited the school pond to do some pond dipping. We thought about how to protect our wildlife and made sure we put everything back safely after we had studied it. We caught newts, fish and pond skaters.

Our First Beach Walk

Orange Class enjoyed their first walk to the beach this week in beautiful sunshine. When we got there we enjoyed hunting for interesting pebbles and shells and creating our own collection on one of the groynes before having a play with our friends! The children walked fantastically there and back, remembering to stay with their partner and turn off their voices when we crossed the roads. They earned a very well deserved marble to add to the jar!

Guinea Pigs!

Orange Class enjoyed visiting our new school pets, the guinea pigs, today.

England Does The Daily Mile

Orange Class enjoyed their run in the sun on Friday afternoon, joining in with England Does The Daily Mile. Before we went out, we talked about why we run and exercise and how it makes us feel - these are some of the ideas we came up with:

'Because it makes me strong.'

'Because it makes me happy.'

'Because it is fun and exciting.'

'Because it is good for me.'

This term we are reading 'Puffin Peter' by Petr Horacek. We have been finding out more about puffins - what they look like, where they live, what they eat and what their babies are called (pufflings!). We have made puffin headbands to wear and painted puffins. We are looking forward to reading more of the story each week, and to finding out what happens to Puffin Peter.

Maths

In maths we are learning more about numbers 11 to 20. We are counting forwards and backwards from 0 to 20 and singing number songs to help us remember the order of the numbers. We are using lots of practical equipment to make numbers 11-20 - Numicon, bricks, buttons and toys in our classroom. The children have come up with lots of creative ways to show different numbers.

Term 4

'Splish Splash!'

'Why do we need water?'

    Science Week 

This week the children have enjoyed a range of exciting science activities and these have included the biscuit dunking challenge, raisins in lemonade and optical illusions.

We were all very shocked to find out that the most robust biscuits was the 'Rich Tea'

which could be dunked 127 times before breaking!

Maths

We have been enjoying doing lots of measuring around the classroom since returning to school. The children have built towers and found different objects in the environment to measure using blocks, rulers and tape measures.

Team Building Week

We enjoyed a Team Building activity this week, working together to cross the river using stepping stones. We didn't have enough stepping stones to get all the way across the river, so each group had to work together to pass them along the line to reach the other side. The children showed great communication skills, listening to their friends and making good suggestions about how to solve the problem.

Term 3

Buildings

'How are they made and what are they used for?'

Term 2

Once Upon a Time

'Can you tell us a story?'

Message from the Year R teachers

It has been a quieter week in the last week of Term in Reception, but we have been busy doing lots of different Christmas crafts – making cards, decorations and paper chains. In Phonics we have played games to practise reading and writing words with the sounds we have learned so far and in Maths we have played counting games and sung number songs. We have also spent lots of time outside in the playground, playing games with each other and even enjoying a hot chocolate in the Outdoor Classroom. We hope those of you at home have enjoyed some of the Christmas activities we shared on Microsoft Teams and have been having fun with your own Christmas preparations.

We loved watching the videos of the Nativity performances this week! These are now available for you to watch on Microsoft Teams. We are sure you will agree that all the children gave confident performances and sang beautifully. Well done to everyone in Yellow and Orange Classes! A big thank you again to Luka’s Dad for filming and putting the videos together for us.

Next term our PE days will be as follows:

Yellow Class – Mondays

Orange Class – Wednesdays.

Please send your children in PE kits on these days.

Thank you to you all from everyone in Reception for the very generous and thoughtful gifts and cards. We hope that you all have a very happy and healthy Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all in 2021!

Mrs Watkins             Mrs Brentnall            Mrs Thomas

 The Gingerbread Man

Orange Class loved reading and retelling the story of the Gingerbread Man using puppets and small world characters. We made salt dough gingerbread men and decorated them to hang on the Christmas tree, and even decorated little gingerbread men to eat as our marble treat!

We are Reading Rockstars!

Children in Need

We had a fantastic range of outfits for Children in Need this Friday, when Orange Class all dressed up in things that make them happy! From dinosaurs to pyjamas, superheroes to princesses, everybody looked brilliant! Thank you to all of you for helping your children choose their outfits and for donating to such a worthwhile cause.

Phonics on the Creation Station!

This week in Phonics we have been learning the /c/ sound and the letters C and K. Linked to this lots of the children made their very own King Crowns on the Creation Station, decorating them with shiny jewels and pom poms.

Indian Food Tasting for Diwali

This week we learned a little bit about the Festival of Diwali. We watched some Cbeebies programmes about how the festival is celebrated and read the story of Rama and Sita. As well as designing Rangoli patterns on the playground with chalk or in the classroom with Numicon, we tasted some Indian Foods. Some of them we liked, and some we were not so sure about! But the children used lots of lovely adjectives to describe what they were eating, sharing their opinions with each other and discussing what the foods tasted like.

Stories that are special to us

This term we are learning all about stories and we have started this theme by reading lots of different books. We have loved sharing the children's favourite stories this week! Have a look at the photos to see which stories we've read.

Term 1

All About Me

'What can you tell me about yourself?'

Fun in the Reception Garden

Orange Class have been making Silly Soup in the Mud Kitchen, using different natural materials. They carefully cut up some flowers and mixed them with conkers, pebbles and leaves to make delicious recipes! The children watered the plants and swept up to help keep our outside area tidy and well looked after!

Write Dance

Write Dance is an exciting music and dance approach to develop the skills needed for writing. This term the children have enjoyed dancing and moving to music and chalking on the large chalkboards outside. 

Harvest

The Little Red Hen

We have been thinking this week about where our food comes from. We have learned the story of The Little Red Hen and performed it in front of the rest of the school in our special Harvest Assembly on Wednesday. We made hats to where during the assembly, showing one of the animals from the story.

Handa's Surprise

This week, as part of our work on Handa's Surprise, we printed with fruit. We also made observational drawings of some of the different fruits in the book. We went on a fruit hunt in the Outdoor Classroom, using positional language to describe where the fruit was hidden - 'under the bench', 'next to the tree', 'on the leaves'. Once we'd found the fruit we even got to taste some of it!

Fantastic FRED

The children had great fun this week when Fantastic FRED and the Professor came to visit Westmeads! Fantastic FRED and his professor talked to the children about how to look after their own mental health in a positive and memorable way. 

F.R.E.D is an acronym for the four practical ways in which children can help to look after their own good mental heath:

Food – eating the right foods

Rest – getting enough sleep

Exercise – being active

Digital Devices – managing time online

Stomp, Chomp, Big Roars!

Here Come the Dinosaurs!

Outdoor Classroom

Orange class had fun in the Outdoor Classroom this week, finding conkers, slugs, snails and apples that had fallen from the tree. They made potions, looked for fish and insects in the pond and looked for bugs in the bug house.

Owl Babies

The Rainbow Fish

This week we have been reading the story 'The Rainbow Fish' by Marcus Pfister. 

The children learnt to trace a picture of a fish and then added handwriting patterns to decorate them using special handwriting pens. They had to control the pens and pencils carefully to draw different patterns and shapes. They found out where everything is kept on the office table area and learn how to tidy it away carefully ready for the next person. It's really important that everyone remembers to write their name on their work!

Our First Week

The children enjoyed exploring their new environment and making lots of new friends during their first week of school. They are settling into their daily routine well and have shown great excitement when learning new things.

First day in Orange Class!