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Reception

Staff: Mrs Claridge / Mrs Ward / Miss Coates / Mr Jordan 

Contact info: karen.claridge@panshanger.herts.sch.uk      nicky.ward@panshanger.herts.sch.uk

Remember to log on to Tapestry to see what your child has been doing recently.

Music is taught by Mr Mitchell on a Tuesday

Welcome to Panshanger School and to our Reception class. On this page, we post photos every half term sharing updates on the activities and learning the children are completing. 

Spring 2

This half term Reception have been very busy exploring New Beginnings.

We started the half term with the exciting delivery of an incubator at some eggs. Having waited patiently the children were delighted to see 5 ducklings hatch. The children then helped to take good care of the ducklings feeding them, cuddling them and watching them learn to swim.  Our ducklings helped inspire the children to write their own information books about ducks and supported our learning on new beginnings by exploring life cycles. 

The children were very lucky to be invited to visit Tewin Greens. Here the children learnt about growing different fruit and vegetables.  We planted our own Cornflower seeds and took them back to school to transfer them to make our very own “Bee and Butterfly” garden.  The children carefully used tools to peel and cut different vegetables to make our own vegetable soup. We all agreed it was very yummy!

We moved on to exploring our own history.  We created our own baby challenge, using our baby photos and trying to work out who they were.  The children discussed how they have changed and what they can do now that they couldn’t do when they were a baby.  We thought about what might happen as we grow up and what jobs we would like to do.  We talked about what happens as we grow old and explored the idea of sometimes needing to move into a care home. We talked about what it might be like. We visited Anson Court to sing to the residents and take them some pictures and cards to make them happy.  The children worked really hard learning lots of traditional songs and using watercolours to paint some beautiful pictures of flowers and landscapes to take.

We finished our half term learning about how some Christians celebrate Easter. We explored different traditions and then took part in an Easter challenge around the school grounds. Having found eggs containing a puzzle and some clues on our orienteering course, the children finally unlocked the treasure and used it to create their own chocolate Easter nests.

We look forward to exploring ‘The Great Outdoors’ next half term.

Spring 1

This half term Reception have been very busy exploring journeys.

We read the book ‘Hunter’s Icy Adventure’ and found out about the true story of the journey of Hunter the polar bear. We linked this to learning more about climate change and the impact it is having on our world. We explored ways that we could make a real difference, despite being only very young, We carried out an experiment to find out the conditions when ice melts the fastest.  We created our own wintery pictures, discovering what happens when white is added to coloured paint. In maths we compared our handprints to the paws of a polar bear. We found out theirs are so much bigger than ours!

We explored journeys that we have been on and different modes of transport that we could take. We took a virtual train ride through some snowy mountains and even had a virtual ride on a rollercoaster

We held our “Big Build” session, where our grown-ups came into school to help us build a vehicle of our choice. We were very lucky to have a visit from a traffic officer who told us about his job and let us look around his vehicle. We also had a visit from a Landscaping company and even got a turn to control the digger!

We have continued with our amazing adventures using a variety of books and old animations in Drawing Club and progressed well with our Phase 4 phonics using our scheme Animaphonics.

We have also found time to celebrate Shrove Tuesday by making pancakes and celebrated Chinese New Year by finding out about different traditions.

Autumn 2

We have had such a busy and fun half term exploring our theme Celebrations. We have learnt about some different festivals such as Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas. We had a visit from an Elder from Panshanger Church to talk about how some Christians celebrate Christmas and started us thinking about the different traditions that people have. It has been lovely hearing the children share some of their family traditions and talk so confidently about special times that they have shared with their family. We have explored how Christmas is celebrated around the world, especially in countries that our class have connections with such as Poland and Italy.

Our learning then moved to ‘Space’, when a rocket landed in our classroom. We shared stories and watched videos to learn about what it might be like to visit space. The children’s love for Drawing Club has continued to grow. We have explored different stories, tales and animations. The children were particularly taken with Pink Panther! The children’s magic codes have really developed, combining their imagination and use of phonic skills to write for a real purpose. Phonics has continued to be one of the children’s favourite parts of the day, with great excitement caused by what sound we maybe learning next. The children have become really confident at using Animaphonics to help them to read and write.

As December approached Reception took on the speaking roles in the EYFS production “Wriggly Nativity” which proved to be a huge success. The children had lots of songs and dances to learn, as well as speaking in front of a large audience, many for the first time. They were absolutely amazing and we were so proud of them all. Despite being incredibly busy we have also managed to fit in taking part in the whole school music concert, a visit to the Pantomime, making cards, calendars, reindeer food and so much more! We can’t wait to recharge our batteries over the Christmas holiday, ready for our adventures to continue next half term.