Cygnus - Reflect and Review

Dear Reception families

The class have had their first term at school together. That’s 36 days in school! The children have been counting together in class and have been so excited to see their 100 day chart starting to fill up. 

We had RE with Bertie this week. Bertie owl has been helping us explore the concepts around faith and religion. Last week we started with our Harvest Festival church visit and we looked at the idea of family and community and which people are special to us. This week we talked about how our friends are special to us. We thought together about the idea of a role model and how they might behave. The children tried to think who would be a role model from our school and they chose Mr Frost! They agreed that he was a kind person who showed them how to learn music and that he was helpful and worked hard. The children were introduced to some of the rules of the Christian faith in the form of the Ten Commandments and we talked about Moses as a role model. We thought about why we have rules and why they are important. The children wondered what the world would be like if there were no rules. They thought it would be a bit scary and unsafe. Finally we considered some of the works, miracles and teachings of Jesus and the children thought he made a good role model to help people to live better.  

Our mathematics focus this week has been on patterns inside and outside. We used our lightbox to make patterns inside and looked for patterns in nature in the reception garden. 

The children have been doing really well at blending their sounds together to make words.

Please continue to practice the alphabet sounds with them at home. 

Suggestions are in your bookbags. This is the link to saying the pure sounds for set 1:Read Write Inc.: How to say the set one, set two and set three sounds

We had a fantastic week with our special visitors! We were thrilled to welcome children’s poet and author Samantha Rodgers to our school— the children left her assembly inspired and full of creative ideas. If you'd like to explore her books you can do so here.

The children continued this energy today by taking part in a range of active challenges, celebrating teamwork and the importance of keeping fit and healthy.

We are also excited to invite you to our North Hinksey Launch Event at Junior Parkrun on Sunday, 2nd November — and we’d love to see as many of you there as possible!

Finally we had our visit to St. Frideswide’s school to see Nick Cope in concert. 

The children were so excited to have our first school trip and they had a wonderful time joining in with Nick’s songs. 

Coming soon: Our topic next term will be the wonderful world and me. 

Notices:  

The first day of next term will be Tuesday the 4th November. Monday that week is an inset day and school will not be open. 

Next term please make sure the children have a waterproof coat every day. We have outdoor play as often as possible and we need to be ready for changes in the weather. 

Children also need a pair of indoor shoes/plimsoles to change into to come into the classroom and a spare set of clothes, including pants and socks, for any accidents. We do not have enough spare clothes for all the children and they often need to change because they have got wet or dirty during play. 

Wishing you all a wonderful half term. 

Best wishes

The Reception Team