Reception Blog
Week Beginning 19th October 2026
We have had a fabulous first half term at school!
We have been learning about Halloween this week and how different people celebrate it all over the world. The children have been using hammers to improve their fine motor skills by hammering nails and golf tees into the pumpkin and they have thoroughly enjoyed exploring and describing the pumpkins! We have also been learning about the artist Yayoi Kusama. She is famous for using polka dots to decorate real pumpkins as well as paintings of them, with polka dots! The children have had a go at creating their own Yayoi Kusama inspired pumpkins. They have also created charcoal and pencil sketches of pumpkins too!
We have also continued our daily phonics sessions. This week we have learnt the ‘j’, ‘v’, ‘y’ and ‘w’ sounds. The children have completed some rainbow writing to practise forming each sound and the phonics booklet for these sounds will be sent home today.
The children also took part in Balance Bikeability training. We were so impressed with how well they were able to manoeuvrer the bikes and their stopping and turning skills. The children really enjoyed the experience and it was great for their gross motor development!
We also met our Year 6 Buddies! We had such a fun afternoon playing, drawing and reading with our buddies and we cannot wait for more exciting activities with them! All of the buddies have written a letter to their reception buddy which they will bring home this week.
Well done for a wonderful first half term of learning!
Week Beginning 21st September 2026
We have had a fantastic second full week in Reception! The children have started to settle in and become more familiar with their surroundings. We have enjoyed singing, decorating our names with dabby paints, circle times and exploring all of the activities in each area.
We have started our Maths carpet sessions this week and the children thoroughly enjoyed using Cbeebies Numberblocks as a hook for each session. We have learnt how to write numbers 1, 2 and 3 using these rhymes:
"Straight down in a line, number 1 is looking fine!"
"Around and back on the railway track! TWO-TWO!"
"Around a tree, around a tree, that is how we make a three!"
We will be learning about numbers 1 to 10 over the next couple of weeks, including learning the rhymes for how to form each number correctly.
We have also started our daily phonics sessions. This week we have learnt the ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘s’, ‘d’, ‘t’, ‘I’, ‘n’, ‘p’ sounds. The children have completed some rainbow writing to practise forming each sound, making sure they use the rhyme to write them correctly.
We have been so impressed with how well the children are settling in to Reception and we are looking forward to an exciting year ahead! Well done Butterflies and Ladybirds for a fantastic first full week at school! You are amazing!
Week Beginning 28th September 2026
We have had another fantastic week in Reception! The children have enjoyed exploring the mud kitchen. We read the story ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ and the children used the mud, herbs and flowers to create ‘tiger food’.
We have continued our Maths carpet sessions this week and the children thoroughly enjoyed using Cbeebies Numberblocks as a hook for each session. We have learnt how to write numbers 4 and 5 using these rhymes:
"Down, across, down once more. That’s the way we make a four!”
"Across, down and round to the end, number 5 is round the bend!”
We will be learning about numbers 1 to 10 over the next couple of weeks, including learning the rhymes for how to form each number correctly.
We have also started our daily phonics sessions. This week we have learnt the ‘g’, ‘o’, ‘c’ and ‘k’ sounds. The children have completed some rainbow writing to practise forming each sound, making sure they use the rhyme to write them correctly.
The children have enjoyed beginning to spot signs of Autumn. We have sent home some bags for the children to collect Autumn Treasures such as conkers, pine cones etc, to fill our investigation station! We can’t wait to see what they find!
The children have also been thinking about who lives in their house. They have drawn their family members and it has been lovely to hear the children speak so confidently about their families.
Week Beginning 5th October 2026
We have had a fantastic week in Reception with a real Autumnal focus!
The children thoroughly enjoyed their first performance at The Stoke Poges School. They sang 'Under the Harvest Moon' beautifully and performed three Poetry Basket poems too! They then enjoyed exploring their learning environment with their grown-ups. We were so proud of how well they sang and how confidently they performed!
In Maths this week, we have continued using Cbeebies Numberblocks as a hook for each session. We have also continued our daily phonics sessions. This week we have learnt the ‘u’, ‘b’, ‘f’ and ‘e’ sounds. The children have completed some rainbow writing to practise forming each sound and the phonics booklet for these sounds will be sent home today.
Well done for another wonderful week of learning!
Week Beginning 12th October 2026
We have had a fabulous week!
In Maths this week, we have been learning about partitioning. This means breaking a number up in to smaller numbers. The children began by breaking up numbers within 5 and using their hands to say the stem sentences of:
_____ plus _____ equals _______. And ______ is made of _______ and ______.
e.g. 2+3=5 and 5 is made of 2 and 3.
We have also continued our daily phonics sessions. This week we have learnt the ‘l’, ‘h’ and ‘r’. We have also learnt our first digraph and ‘Special Friend’ which is ‘sh’. The children have completed some rainbow writing to practise forming each sound and the phonics booklet for these sounds will be sent home today.
The children also had a very special visit on Thursday from Liz Fost. She is a professional Story Teller and came in to share the story ‘The Most Magnificent Moose’, by Rachel Bright and Jim Fields. The session was fun and engaging and the children thoroughly enjoyed participating.
Well done for another amazing week of learning!