Blog 15 July 2021

Wow!  What a year it has been.  Tantrums and tears.  Laughter and joy.  Illness and health.  School and lockdown.  New friends coming and a friend leaving. New brothers and sisters being brought into the world.  I feel like we have seen and witnessed it all this year.  But what a fun year it has been.

I cannot believe how the children have grown and matured this year.  They are so ready for year one and I cannot wait to hear how they are progressing in the main school.

We welcomed Miss Angel into our class this year.  She has been such an asset to the EYU and we could not have coped without her sunny smile and youth and enthusiasm.  I am so pleased to say that Miss Angel will continue her work in the EYU, particularly in the reception class.

Miss Reiff is moving to the main school next year and will be working in year four.  We will miss her so much but it will be lovely for the children to see a familiar face walking in the corridors next year.  I know that Miss Reiff, while missing the EYU, will have a great time working in KS2 and the year fours will be lucky to have her.

We are sad to be saying goodbye to Mrs Haziza.  She has been such a huge part of the Kerem community and although I have only known her for 18 months, it has been an absolute pleasure working with her.  I know many of you who have older children have known her for many years and will join me in wishing her well in whatever she is going to be doing in the future.

We missed Mrs Craig for much of the year and I know she has travelled a very long and hard road, but we really look forward to welcoming her back sometime in the new year.  Before she was taken ill, she introduced us all to Tapestry.  I had never used this tool before and it was amazing. Thank you to everyone who has uploaded things from home.  It was wonderful to see what the children were doing on weekends and during lockdown.

To the children I would like to say:  Thank you all for being such an awesome part of the reception class.  I have enjoyed teaching each and every one of you and I cannot wait to come and visit you in year one and see how you are getting on.  I know that even if you are a bit nervous about year one, you will all be amazing and great and you will make me proud.  Please walk past the EYU often in the morning on the way to the main school and stop and say hello.  I know I will be seeing some of you because your brothers and sisters will be in the nursery.  Have a lovely summer and remember:  We can all be Superheroes because not all Superheroes wear capes.  We can be kind and helpful and friendly and we can share and those things will make us Superheroes too.

A final message from Mrs Roodyn:

We have now reached the end of the school year and this will be my last Jewish studies blog for Reception. The children have worked extremely hard this year mastering the Aleph Bet letters and vowels  and can now confidently read 2 and 3 letter words with ease.  This is a huge achievement and I am SO proud of each and every one of them for always trying their best.

It has been an absolute privilege and pleasure to teach your fabulous children over the past 2 years and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

I wish you a restful holiday and stay safe

Best wishes

Mrs Roodyn 

So everyone, whatever you are doing over the summer, travel well, be safe and stay healthy. 

Kind regards

Lindsay and the Reception Team

Reception Blog 09/07/21  

Dear Parents

With another full week under the belt, we have just one last week until the summer holidays.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children spoke about going to year one and most of them found the idea very exciting.  The one thing some of them mentioned was that they did not know how playtime was going to work.  With this in mind, next week on Monday they are going to have a shortened PE session and then a playtime in the playground with the year two and year three children.  This is what it would be like next year.  The toys and games will be left out for them and they can get the full experience.  

In Communication and Language the children have been reacting to the exciting things that have happened this week.  They were very happy about the fun afternoon yesterday and were speculating greatly beforehand as to what was going to be in store for them.  I had not told them anything about it, mainly because I did not know.  On Friday they could not stop talking about it and about how much fun it was.   

In Physical Development the children were bending pipe cleaners to make starfish, poking toothpicks into air dry dough to make sea urchins and cutting and decorating card to make sea anemones.  Our under the sea display is looking very good and I have attached a few photos for you to appreciate it with them.

PE in the park was something different this week.  As part of sports week the children dressed in different team colours and then had different activities in the park.  They had javelin throwing with plastic javelin sticks, shot put with plastic balls, and long jump.  It was great to see them all having such fun in a slightly competitive way.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the phonemes, digraphs and trigraphs which we have learnt and reading words and sentences containing these and the tricky words. .  

In Maths this week the children have been revising pattern by making patterned pasta necklaces and headbands. They have been revising capacity by filling and emptying containers in the water tray and we have been revising adding and subtracting by counting on and counting backwards.

In Understanding the World we discussed the bad things that people throw into the sea and into the rockpools.  The children showed a lot of concern for the poor animals that eat the plastic and paper objects and then get sick and die.  In our display you will see the items in the background which have a big red cross.  They include plastic bags, bottles, plastic straws, etc.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been singing with Mr Fingerhut, making items for our under the sea display, drawing with stencils, which was a new and exciting activity and creating storylines in their play with the dinosaurs and construction.  The children also had an exciting dance class on Thursday afternoon where Heidi taught us a Greek dance. It was great fun. 

In Forest School this week the children had to find a place in the park/forest which they really liked and then sit very still and draw a picture of how that place made them feel.  They then had the choice of making wooden medals or leaf print bandanas, or going into the forest and making things with the ropes and mallets.  The grand finale for Forest School was the toasting of marshmallows over a fire.  This was by far the highlight of the year for the children.

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about the Parashah Matot Ma'say.  They learnt that Hashem told Moshe to instruct the Jewish soldiers to fight the people of Midyan.  The Jewish people won the war and were then allowed to take the spoils of the war =- silver, gold and all the pots and pans and dishes belonging to the Midyanim.  Elazar, the son of Aaron, told the Jewish people that the pots and pans were not Kosher as they had been used for non Kosher cooking and in order to make them Kosher the Jewish people were instructed to scrub them clean and dip them in boiling water.  Nowadays if we buy new things for the kitchen which are not made of plastic, we have a Mitsvah to to'vel them - dip them in a Mikveh and say a special bracha.  The children watched a video of to'vellling taking place.  

The children also learnt a new vowel - : SHEVA.  It is a very tricky vowel and has several rules which they will learn in year one.

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs Roodyn

Reminders:

We are not sending any Aleph Champ reading home this week and if you have any books at home, please return them next week.

Please remember to collect your child at 3.30 on Monday afternoon from the main school.

School finishes on Thursday at 12.30 in the EYU

Please remember to send your child’s reading books to school by Wednesday this week so that we can check and store the books for use next year.

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 02/07/21  

Dear Parents

With less than two weeks to go, I cannot believe how full our days have been..  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children again started their Friday in the main school as part of transition.  We have been doing a lot of talking about transition and they have spoken about how they feel regarding year one. They met their new teacher again and although it was an exciting morning, some children still found it a bit overwhelming.  

In Communication and Language the children have continued to discuss year one and the big school.  They are feeling very grown up at the moment and it was lovely to see the children agreeing that although they are a bit nervous, they are very excited.  Most of them agree that they are, in fact, ready for year one.  

In Physical Development the children were playing with play dough, rolling it and cutting it out with cutters. They have been painting fish and cutting them out to put into our display about the seaside.  They look very pretty and our display is growing nicely.

Again it was a bit wet to have PE in the ball courts of the park this week so the children had PE under the gazebo in the garden of the main school.  They played ‘Grab-a-flag’ and ‘dodge cone’.  They were following instructions and testing their reactions. 

In Literacy this week the children have continued to read words containing digraphs and trigraphs as well as revising the tricky words.  They have also been sound talking CVCC and CCVC words.  I am really impressed with how their reading is progressing. 

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new trigraph ‘ure’.  A trigraph is ‘three letters that make one sound’.  The book is called “Azure”.   I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom. 

In Maths this week the children have been revising pattern.  They have been looking at patterns in the environment and then used the interstars to create their own patterns.  They are really good at creating, continuing and recognising patterns

In Understanding the World the children had a very exciting STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) week.  They started with a forensic science lesson at the main school.  They learned about fingerprints, footprints, disguises, and how to look for clues.  They had to find a dog that had been stolen just before a dog show.  It was loads of fun and the children really enjoyed it.  This was followed by a newspaper challenge.  The children worked in groups to make something using newspapers and masking tape.  Some children made a cage, someone made a robot, someone made newspaper flowers and one group even made a cat in a carry cage.  It was lots of fun and the children got to see what they could make with paper.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been singing with Mr Fingerhut, playing with ponies and barbies, creating stories using the playmobil characters and castle and playing with the wild animals.

In Forest School this week the children made tents using the canopies and ropes.  They worked in groups and although there was supervision, the children had to work independently to complete their den.

In Jewish Studies this week we learnt that the Jewish people were getting closer to arriving in Israel. Moshe was told by Hashem to divide the land in portions for each tribe and then to give a piece to each family. One man named Tzelaphchad had died without any sons to get his portion of land. His 5 daughters went to Moshe and asked if they could have their fathers portion. After checking with Hashem, Moshe said that they could get their fathers share.

Following Moshe having hit the rock and his punishment of not being allowed to enter Israel, Moshe puts his hands on Yehoshua's head and told him that he has been chosen to lead the Jewish people after Moshe dies.

As well as practising the Aleph champ reading, we all had a chance to read a word on the whiteboard with either 1, 2 or 3 letters. We used a dice to decide how many letters each child would get.

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs Roodyn

Reminders:

Please remember to send your child to school in their team colours on Monday, which is when they have PE.  

Please remember to collect your child at 3.30 on Monday afternoon from the main school and not 3.20 as it has been.

Please remember to send your child’s reading books to school every Wednesday.

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 25/06/21  

Dear Parents

Three weeks down and three weeks left to go.  I cannot believe that in such a short space of time I won’t be seeing your children again.  I feel like I’m not ready to say goodbye to them.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children started their Friday in the main school.  We have been doing a lot of discussing about transition and they finally got to meet their new teacher.  It was an exciting morning, although some children found it a bit overwhelming.  

In Communication and Language the children have been taking turns to speak about how they are feeling about the main school and year one.  They also talked about how much they have grown in reception and how they have matured.  The general consensus seems to be that they are ready and excited for year one but that they are a little bit nervous.  It was lovely to hear children showing empathy without even realising it.  

In Physical Development the children were playing with play dough once again, rolling, pinching, squashing the dough and then using cookie cutters to cut out different shapes.

It was a bit wet to have PE in the ball courts of the park this week so the children had PE under the gazebo in the garden of the main school.  They had relay races to find their team’s colour cones.  The team that got all their cones was the winning team.  

In Literacy this week the children have been doing a lot of reading words containing digraphs and trigraphs.  They have also been sound talking CVCC and CCVC words.  (CVCC means consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant words like t-e-n-t.  CCVC means consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant words like s-t-o-p).  They are really good at sounding out these words and their reading is progressing well.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new trigraph ‘igh’.  A trigraph is ‘three letters that make one sound’.  The book is called “An Owl Called Dwight”.   I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  At the end of the lesson I always ask the children for other words which have the ‘igh’ sound in them.  They always come up with words but of course, the English language being what it is, there are many ways of writing this sound. They are really enjoying seeing how many ways there are to write a sound.  

In Maths this week the children have been learning about 3D shapes.  They enjoyed seeing the correlation of the "D shapes to the 3D shapes, learning the names of the shapes and then using boxes of different shapes to construct for junk modelling.

In Understanding the World the children and I were very sad to see a number of dead bees out in the playground.  They were very excited when they found some that were still moving.  We managed to pick up a total of six bees and feed them some sugar water and they were then able to fly away again.  The children were fascinated to see the bees’ little tongues sticking out to drink up the sugar water.  They then made a little memory garden for a dead bee.  We also said goodbye to our butterflies which we watched from tiny caterpillars until they hatched out of their chrysalides.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children did music with Mr Fingerhut, learning a new song for our end of year video.  I’m sure you’ve all heard them singing or humming the song at home by now.  If not...watch this space.  The introduction of the Barbie dolls in the class has been interesting. Many of the boys have enjoyed playing with them too which has been wonderful to watch.  

In Forest School this week the children observed different shades of green.  They then went off to see how many different shades of green they could find. They were then able to choose between making floating pirate rafts or to use the ropes or to use the big net to find bugs and then study them in a jar.

In this weeks Parashah the children learnt that King Balak, who ruled close to Israel, became increasingly scared.  The Jewish people were getting closer and closer to Israel and King Balak was afraid that they would fight against him and his people.  King Balak called for his magician Billam to come and curse the Jewish people.

On his way to the palace, Billam’s donkey suddenly stopped walking.  The donkey could see a Malach (angel) holding a sword in front of him.  Billam could not see the Malach.  The donkey was scared to move forward.  Billam became angry with his donkey and hit him to make him move.  Suddenly a miracle happened…the donkey SPOKE to Billam and said, “Why are you hitting me?”

Just then Billam saw the Malach.  The Malach warned Billam not to curse the Jewish people, but Billam did not listen.

Billam arrived at King Balak’s palace and stood up and tried to curse the Jewish people, he wanted to say, “The Jewish people are not good” but instead he said “The Jewish people are good, they do mitzvot, they keep the Torah, they listen to Hashem”.

King Balak was furious with Billam and shouted at him “why are you saying these good things about the Jewish people when I told you to curse them?”

Billam answered and said “its not my fault, Hashem changed my words”.

Billam tried again, but again Hashem made only good words come out.

King Balak was furious and sent Billam home.

The children had fun creating their own donkey, cutting and sticking grey tissue paper to his body and painting clothes pegs to use for his legs.

The children have learnt a new vowel - SHURUK -  oooooo.  It's a VAV with a dot in the middle.  We sing "in my tummy says oooooo".

On Wednesday the children celebrated with a well deserved Aleph Bet party.  They have successfully learnt all their Aleph Bet letters and vowels and are now able to blend at least two letter words.  Well done Reception!! I am so proud of you all :)

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs Roodyn

Reminders:

Please remember to collect your child at 3.30 on Monday afternoon from the main school and not 3.20 as it has been.

Please remember to drop your child off at the main school on Wednesday 30th June and Friday 2nd July at 8.30.

Please remember to send your child’s reading books to school every Wednesday.

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 18/06/21  

Dear Parents

We are two weeks into the last term of reception and I cannot believe how fast the time is going.  Before we know it, it will be the summer holidays.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children were met by the year 6 pupils at the main school.  They behaved in a very mature and confident way, speaking and answering questions put to them by the bigger children.  They enjoyed the stories read to them by the year 6 children and were happy to give their opinions as to why they enjoyed or did not enjoy the story.  

The nursery and reception children have continued to play together after lunch and they have been so lovely together.  The nursery children have also had a couple of visits to the reception class and the children have been so kind, showing them where things are and helping them when they needed it.  I am so proud of how they have matured.

In Communication and Language the children have been taking turns to speak in a large group, showing how much they have grown in confidence.  Other children have been asking them questions and it has been a really lovely experience for them all, showing a keenness to listen and respond.

In Physical Development the children had fun in the playground running races, climbing, swinging and putting the click construction pieces together.  They have also been cutting, drawing, writing and painting, all to improve their fine motor skills.

PE in the ball courts was about using the cones.  They played games and had relay races using different forms of movement like jumping, side stepping and sprinting.

In Literacy this week the children used the new phonic sounds to complete sentences.  They had to fill in the missing word in a sentence.  This entailed first reading the sentence, then reading the words to see which word made the most sense.  They also had some zigzag books on the table which they were able to make themselves, an activity which they always enjoy very much.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new trigraph ‘air’.  A trigraph is ‘three letters that make one sound’.  The book is called “A Fairy Called Clair”.  I do apologise to the mums out there who are named Clair!  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  

The children have enjoyed having real reading books this term.  Thank you everyone who returned the books on or before Wednesday.  I hope you all enjoy the new books sent out this week.  

In Maths this week the children have been adding different coins to make a total.  They have also added up the cost of two or more items to find a total and then find the correct coins.  We even ventured into paying more for an item and working out how much change we should receive.  This proved to be quite tricky but they quickly remembered their ‘counting on’ and suddenly it all made sense to them.

In Understanding the World the children have continued to look after the plants in the garden and are excited by the little sweetpea shoots that are growing.  They also really enjoyed the ‘rain cloud’ experiment which Ms Reiff did with them using water, shaving foam and food colouring.  Computers at the main school continued to be a favourite, with the children trying to get to grips with the mouse.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children sang songs with Mr Fingerhut.  They practised singing in different ways and sang some old favourites, like the sea shanty “The Wellerman”.  They also enjoyed making things with the click construction, they played with the train track, the dolls house was a favourite, the ponies came out of hiding, the small Disney characters were a hit and, of course, their favourite, the large construction.

In Forest School this week the children continued the pirate theme.  They played the pirate game, following pirate ship instructions.  The children followed a treasure map that Emma had and they found pirate treasure.  It was a gold (wooden) doubloon.  They then had the opportunity to saw wood into little disks and then decorate them and string them to make pirate treasure necklaces.  

In this week's Parashah - Chukat, the children learnt that whilst the Jewish people were in the desert, a well travelled alongside them to provide water for them.  This well was in honour of Miriam, Moshe’s sister, because when Moshe was a baby he was placed in a basket in the river to hide him from King Pharoh and during that time, Miriam watched over him to make sure he came to no harm.  However, when Miriam became old and died the well disappeared.  Some of the Jewish people complained and cried to Moshe “what are we going to drink, we will be so thirsty”.  Moshe davened to Hashem for help.  Hashem told Moshe to take the Jewish people to a rock and to tell the rock to give water.  Some of the Jewish people laughed at Moshe and said “how can  you talk to a rock and then it will give us water, that’s crazy!”  Moshe became very very angry and instead of talking to the rock, Moshe hit the rock twice.  Water came gushing out of the rock and the Jewish people were happy.  However Hashem was very sad with Moshe because he didn’t listen to what he was told to do.

Hashem punished Moshe because he didn’t listen to what Hashem told him to do and did not allow Moshe to go into the land of Israel.

The children enjoyed creating their own rock using pieces of egg box, with water coming out of the rock using blue cellophane and Moshe next to the rock with a stick in his hand. 

In Aleph Bet letters this week,  the children have learnt the final 2 letters, TAV -ttttttt (with a toffee in his tummy) and TAV  -  tttttt (with no toffee in his tummy because he’s eaten it).  

The children have worked so hard and have done so well.  I am really proud of each and every one of them and as promised we will be celebrating with an Aleph Bet party before the end of the year.

Please keep practising the  Aleph Champ reading books with your children to retain their confidence and fluency and please sign their record book when they have read.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

Please remember to send your child’s reading books to school every Wednesday.

Although not applicable right at the moment, when the sunny weather returns, please remember sun cream and a sun hat or cap.

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 11/06/21  

Dear Parents

Happy last half term.  I cannot believe that in only five weeks time we will be off on our summer holidays.  The year has gone so fast and the children have grown and matured so much.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children were all very excited to be visiting the main school on Monday afternoon.  We discussed how the children might be feeling about it and, without exception, they were all very excited.  It was a very successful afternoon and the children showed in more ways than one that they have matured into year one children.  

We have also been able to reintroduce Nursery and Reception playing together in the nursery playground after lunch.  There was much excitement and I was so proud of the way the children were caring and kind towards the little Nursery children.  

In Communication and Language the children spoke in a large group about what they did over the half term holiday.  It was lovely to hear all of them taking turns at speaking and their friends sitting and listening respectfully. The children were also given the opportunity to ask questions and they are learning what is an appropriate question to ask.

In Physical Development the children played with play dough, kneading and rolling and cutting happily, all the while chatting to their friends about what they were doing.  They made everything from traffic lights to pizza to lollipops to little squirty worms. 

PE was such an adventure this week, taking place with Mr Moses in the ball courts at the park.  The children played ball games, all the time improving their throwing, catching and bouncing skills.  They had relay competitions and group competitions and it was so much fun.  

In Literacy this week the children have been writing about their half term holiday news.  I have been very impressed by the level of sound talking the children are using and, as usual, I am very pleased when they use phonetically plausible spellings in their writing.  I think my favourites this week were ‘boroad’ (borrowed) and ‘seedee’ (CD).  

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new trigraph ‘ear’.  A trigraph is ‘three letters that make one sound’.  The book is called “The ear that does not hear”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  

I have also given each child three reading books, in a folder, to bring home with them.  These books must please be returned on Wednesday in order for me to be able to replace them.  Any child not returning books will not receive any new books the following Friday.

In Maths this week the children have been identifying common British coins.  Some of them looked at me quite blankly when introduced to the coins and one child told me “but my mummy just uses a card when she goes shopping”.  However, they quickly got used to them and even told me about the coins they have in their money boxes at home.  We then made totals of coins and the children showed just how much they have progressed in their maths.  

I also ‘tested’ their problem solving skills this week.  I turned the carpet around and they had to work out where their carpet places were.  They had to work this out using their memory of where they sat in relation to their friends instead of remembering their shapes.  (Our carpet is made up of 30 shaped seating spots).  It was very interesting to see who knew immediately, who had to work it out and who had to be supported with where to sit.

In Understanding the World the children have been looking after the plants in the garden.  They are really keen to water them with the watering cans and with the hosepipe.  They are noticing the changes that are happening and were very excited when a sunflower appeared.

The children were also very excited to finally have a lesson in the computer suite with Mr Moses on Monday.  While they have enjoyed the iPads and the Bluebots, the computers made them feel very grownup indeed. 

Our experiment this week was 'colour rain'.  The children got the opportunity to discuss sinking and floating and why some objects sank and some floated.  They then got to do the same with oil and water and make predictions.  Finally we used food colouring in the oil and poured it onto the water.  The result was very beautiful drops of colour rain. 

In Expressive Arts and Design the children enjoyed music with Mr Fingerhut.  They learnt to sing songs in different ways, experimenting with pitch, volume and different voices.  The children also enjoyed the play dough, the sponge paints, the dinosaurs and cars and garage.  

In Forest School this week the children had a pirate themed session.  First they had to go and find ‘nature treasure’ and then tell everyone why their piece of treasure was special to them.  Carrie then read them a story about how to be a pirate.  The children all really enjoyed the story.  They learned the actions to pirate ship instructions.  These included ‘climb the rigging’, ‘scrub the decks’, ‘aye aye captain’, and many more.  They then played a game using these instructions.  After that they had the choice to make pirate flags, treasure maps or eye patches.  The children also had the choice to go into the wooded area with the ropes and create their own rigging.  The children all had loads of fun and were reluctant to return to school.

In this  weeks Parashah - Korach, the children learnt that Korach was a Jewish man who was jealous of Aharon. Aharon was the Kohen Gadol (chief Kohen) and Korach wanted to be the Kohen Gadol.  He complained that it was unfair that Moshe’s brother Aharon was chosen. Korach did not believe that it was Hashem who told Moshe to choose Aharon for this position.  Korach and lots of his followers from amongst the Jewish people went to Moshe and protested that it was unfair that Aharon was the Kohen Gadol.  Moshe davened to Hashem and asked Hashem for help.  Hashem told Moshe to tell the heads of all the 12 tribes to each bring a plain stick with their tribes name on it. The sticks were placed in the Mishkan over night.  In the morning a miracle happened, only the tribe of Levi (Aharon’s tribe) stick grew beautiful blossoms, green leaves and almonds on it, all the other sticks remained plain.

This was a sign from Hashem that Aharon was meant to be the Kohen Gadol.

During the lesson, we discussed what it means to be jealous and how we should always try to be happy for someone if they have something that you don’t.  We also discussed how a stick that is no longer attached to a tree or a plant can no longer grow anything new from it.  Hashem made a miracle happen when Aharon’s stick grew blossoms, leaves and almonds. 

The children have also learnt a new letter this week - SIN - ssssssss.  We discussed that the dot over the SHIN on the right side SSSSlid over to the left side so it now sounds SSSSSS.

Please continue to practise the Aleph Champ reading book with your children in order to retain their fluency and confidence and please sign their record book when they have read.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

Please remember to apply sun cream onto your child’s skin in the morning.  This should last for the whole day and the children should not need to reapply during the course of the day.

Please remember photograph money must be in by Wednesday 16th June.

Please also remember to send your child to school with a cap or a hat in the sunny weather.  

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 21/05/21  

Dear Parents

I cannot believe how fast this term has gone and that we are already at the holidays. It has been an exciting half term, full of superheroes, including an amazing dress up day last week Friday. 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been sharing and working together beautifully.  They are using their words to discuss how to proceed with their game and are taking on board what their friends are saying.  They are really showing that they are getting ready for year one.  We also had the little nursery children visiting on Friday and the children showed just how amazing and kind they really are.

In Communication and Language the children have been showing that they are able to speak confidently in a large group.  They are also displaying good listening skills and are waiting patiently for their friends to speak.  Again this shows that they are ready for year one.

In Physical Development the children have been using their cutting skills to make little stick superhero puppets.  They are getting really good with the scissors. They also enjoyed the TapTap game and challenged each other to make their names out of the nails. A lot of children now need to work on their letter formation, which we will have a big focus on next term.  They have also been climbing and building with the interstars and the large construction in the playground.

PE this week was another indoor / outdoor session because the rain couldn’t make up its mind.  The children played Stuck in the Mud and then worked on their throwing skills using beanbags to try and throw accurately.

In Literacy this week the children wrote about their pictures from Superhero Dress Up day.  I loved hearing what they had to say about their characters and to see how they are progressing with their writing, many of them using phonetically plausible spellings in their writing.  It still makes me smile when I see ‘superhero’ spelt as  ‘soopuhiro’

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new digraph ‘oi’.  The book is called “Colin Coin”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  I have also uploaded three reading books for the half term and after the half term I will be sending books home for you to read with your child.

In Maths this week the children have been revising doubling up to double ten and learning about halving up to half of twenty.  They are learning the relationship between halving and doubling and using their knowledge of doubling to work out what half of a number is.

In Understanding the World the children have continued learning about some people who have made a difference to our world.  They heard the story of Jane Goodall who lived with the chimpanzees in Africa.  They were very interested in how she lived in the jungle and where she slept and where she went to the toilet.  They have also been planting in the garden with Ms Reiff.  They planted grass seeds where there was a dead patch where the gazebo had been, and they planted sunflowers in tyres.  They had a great time doing this and got themselves really muddy and dirty.  (Sorry!)

In Expressive Arts and Design the children made their own superhero stick puppets.  They cut out carefully and stuck them onto lolly sticks.  They really enjoyed this activity and it was lovely to then see them making up stories, using their stick puppets as a resource.  They also had lots of chatty fun painting lovely pictures with the sponge paints. 

The children were playing with the wooden blocks in the classroom and four of them who were building together made the Beit Hamikdash.  I was told that if you look in the mirror you can see who has died.  Another one told me that it was the Beit Hamikdash and that all the people were praying.  I was also told that it was made for all the Jewish people and the fourth little lad told me that there is a light on the stairs and a TV and if you look at the TV and you say somebody's name it will turn on and you can see them.  

In Forest School this week the children played another game of ‘Secret Treasure’.  They were very competitive and tried to find ways to trick the opposing team.  Emma then read them a lovely story called ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’.  It was a story about plastic pollution.  The children then had choices.  They could either reuse plastic bottles to make a bug hotel or make seed bombs using mud and seeds.  They also had the opportunity to go into the forest to use the ropes in the trees.  One little lad pulled a huge log up into the air and another group made a huge spider web while a third group were making an escape route. 

In this weeks Parashah B’ha’alotecha, the children learnt that the Jewish people had been in the desert for a long time. Hashem placed a cloud over the Mishkan that directed the Jewish people when it was time to stop or move on, when the cloud started to rise the Jewish people understood that Hashem wanted them to pack up and move on, when the cloud settled over the Mishkan, the Jewish people understood that it was time to stop and set up their tents.  Hashem sent the Jewish people mann to eat each day.  We discussed what mann was, and how it would taste of anything you wanted it to.  The children talked about what they would have liked their mann to taste like.  Some of the Jewish people started to complain and cry “ we are bored with always eating the mann, we want real meat to eat”. Hashem was very sad that some people complained.  Hashem said “ I will give you meat but I will punish the Jewish people who complained “.

Hashem sent quails.  Many birds flew down from the sky.  The Jewish people cooked them and ate them and they were very happy.

We looked at a picture of a real quail and talked about it’s colouring, it’s claws and it’s special feature of a small feather on its head.

The children had lots of fun creating their own quail using paper cup cases.

The children have also learnt a new letter - SHIN - shhhhhhhhhh. They learnt that the dot over the SHIN is on the RIGHT side.  We use our RIGHT hand to say SHema!

Please keep practising Aleph Champ reading with your children to retain their fluency and confidence.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

Please see on Google Classroom Ms Simon has put up a ‘Birthday Card’ competition.  Please let your child be a part of this and have lots of fun doing so.

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and a great half term.

 Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 21/05/21  

Dear Parents

How lovely it was to welcome the children back to a three day week after a four day weekend.  Although it has only been a short week, we have managed to accomplish quite a lot.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been reinforcing how to work with their friends, sharing the resources and helping each other.  It has been so lovely to see them sharing the Lego and building collaboratively.  We have tried having the large construction not on a rota for these three days.  It has been working okay but only for short periods.  I think we might have to introduce the rota again next week.

In Communication and Language the children discussed what they did on the weekend and for Shavuot.  I am loving hearing the word ‘playdate’ coming back into the children’s vocabulary.  This fills me with hope that things are returning to normal.

In Physical Development the children have been honing their fine and gross motor skills in the classroom and the playground.  They have been building, cutting, drawing, threading, etc.  There was no PE this week due to no school on Monday.

In Literacy this week the children have begun making their own zigzag books.  They are really enjoying the new concept and I will be sure to put them on tapestry when they are complete.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new digraph ‘ow’.  The book is called “Brownie the Cow”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  I will upload their reading books onto Google Classroom next week for the half term and then after the half term I will give the children books to bring home.

In Maths this week the children have been revising ‘doubling’ up to double ten and I have introduced halving.  I will continue with this next week.

In Understanding the World the children have been learning about some people who have made a difference to our world.  They heard the story of David Attenborough and then watched a short interview with him on YouTube.  They also heard the story of Greta Thunberg and how she is trying so hard to save our planet. They are finding the true stories fascinating and are asking lots of interesting questions.  

The children also did some estimating, using the BlueBots with Mr Moses.  They were getting quite competitive, seeing who could estimate the nearest. 

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been creating stories and scenes around the Playmobil characters and the little ponies.  They are really enjoying these resources at the moment, particularly using the Lego to make accessories for the Playmobil characters.

In Forest School this week the children played another team game called ‘Secret Treasure’.  The children had to work in teams, each one pretending they had the treasure when in fact only one of them had it.  They then had to get the treasure across the field and into the goals without getting caught by the other team.  Emma then told them a lovely story about a lady with a special ring that made the days and nights and kept the weather lovely.  The children then had choices.  They could either make a special shield to protect the planet, or a special bracelet to protect the planet, or some of them did some whittling to make a wand to protect the planet, or they could go into the wood to protect their woodland friends again, using the ropes and pulleys in their quest. 

In this short week, the children learnt 2 important things in this weeks Parashah - Nasso.  

First, they learnt about a Nazir.  This is a man who wants to be closer to Hashem. A Nazir was not allowed to drink any wine/grape juice nor could he eat any foods connected to wine (grapes or raisins), he was not allowed to ever cut his hair and beard and he was not allowed to go to a burial ground.

The children also learnt that Hashem divided all the Jewish people into 3 groups: Kohen, Levi and Yisrael.  And Hashem told the Kohanim that it was their duty to bless the Jewish people.  

We discussed that in some families today, the daddy and/or mummy bless their children on a Friday night to remind us of when the Kohanim bless the Jewish people.

The children also learnt a new Hebrew letter - RAISH - rrrrrrr.

Please remember to practise Aleph champ reading book with your children regularly as this will help them with their fluency and confidence.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 14/05/21  

Dear Parents

What a lovely week we have had.  The weather is definitely warming up now and the April showers may have been delayed by a month but they haven’t impacted too much on our learning.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week I used some examples of behaviour from the class and animated them with the puppets.  The children had to tell me how the character might be feeling, how they could have behaved differently and what they could do to make it right.  I am also really sorry I forgot to upload a picture of our Kerem Superhero Boy last week.  So I hope you enjoy looking at him this week. 

In Communication and Language the children discussed their weekend news.  Everyone took part in the discussion and everyone sat very quietly and respectfully and listened to their friends.  This shows how much they have grown and developed since September, which is great to see. The children have also been making up their own games with the superheroes, creating some very good, and in some cases very noisy, dialogues.

In Physical Development the children have been writing, cutting, sticking, playing with Lego, building with Mobilo, etc, all to develop their fine motor skills.  They are getting very good at these skills and showing they are getting ready for year one.  They have also been building with large construction, running, catching, digging, climbing and generally building their gross motor skills outside in the playground.

Miss Angel did a lesson with them about healthy food choices and the children had great fun creating their vegetable hats and telling the class interesting facts about their vegetables.

I PE this week the children started off their lesson indoors because it was raining.  They were practising their throwing skills using a beanbag.  There was much hilarity when the PE teacher dropped the beanbag.  They then moved outside and played a game of ‘Dishes and Domes’ which was enjoyed by all. 

In Literacy this week the children have been reading and writing digraph words and sentences and also writing about their weekend news.  They are getting very good at remembering their finger spaces and full stops and many of them are remembering how to write some of the tricky words we have learnt.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new digraph ‘er’.  The book was called “Ernie Otter and Bert Beaver”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  I have uploaded their reading books onto Google Classroom again this week.  I will continue to do this next week and for the half term and then after the half term I will give the children books to bring home.

In Maths this week the children have been learning about doubling.  They began by learning up to double five and then extended it to double ten.  When we first did double 7, I was told “We can’t do that one.  We don’t have enough fingers!”  The children have also been learning the doubling rap.

In Understanding the World the children watched in wonder when we did the ‘walking water’ experiment.  Not only did they get to see the water ‘walk’ from one cup into another, the water was coloured so they saw the different water colours mixing to make new colours. It was a really great experiment.  

The children have also been finding snails and earthworms in the garden and studying them with great fascination.  I showed them the ‘Little Princess’ video ‘I Want My Snail’.  In the video the little princess stands on her snail by mistake and squishes it.  She then goes and buries her squished snail in the garden and has a little funeral.  When the children found a dead snail, they went and buried it and had a little funeral. It was very sweet to see.

The children were very excited to see that one of the sunflower seeds that I planted online during lockdown finally has a flower.  Next week it will be planted in the garden.  

We had some butterflies visit our class this week.  We observed them on Thursday and then we released them on Friday.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children did some junk modelling, making some very interesting constructions.  They also did painting and collaged their vegetables.  They made up stories using the Playmobil characters and built with the construction toys. 

In Forest School this week the children enjoyed another game of ‘eagle eyes’.  It then started raining so we went under the tarpaulin.  Emma read the book ‘Stuck’ by Oliver Jeffers.  The children then got to use ropes, pulleys, sticks, buckets, trees, etc. to rescue the forest friends who were stuck.  It was a great lesson for team work and for problem solving.  

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about the Chag (festival) of Shavuot, which we will celebrate next week on Monday and Tuesday.  The children learnt that Hashem asked all the other nations if they would like His present and they said “no”.  When Hashem asked the Jewish people they answered “yes”.  Hashem’s present was the Torah.  Hashem chose Har Sinai, which was a plain mountain, to give the Torah to the Jewish people.  However, Hashem made a miracle happen and the night before the Torah was given to the Jewish people, the mountain grew green grass and beautiful flowers all over it.  Moshe went up the mountain to collect the Luchot (10 commandments) from Hashem and gave the Jewish people the Luchot, which has all the laws of the Torah for us to keep.  We discussed all the 10 commandments and talked about how important it is to try our best to keep these laws.

The children enjoyed creating their own Har Sinai and making their own Luchot on the top of the mountain.

The children also had a great time making cheese/biscuit sandwiches because on Shavuot it is a custom to eat dairy products to remind us that the land of Israel is a land flowing with milk and honey.

The children also learnt a new vowel - CHOLAM ....OH.  It is a VAV with a dot over its head, and we sing the tune “ over my head says oh”.

Please keep practising the Aleph champ reading book with your children, especially over the days we are not in school in order to retain their fluency and confidence.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach 

Best wishes

Reminders:

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

I’m sure you will not be allowed to forget, but please remember our Superhero party next week Friday.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 07/05/21  

Dear Parents

How fast this term is going.  I cannot believe we only have three weeks left before the half term.  A couple of weeks ago we were celebrating the warmer weather.  I’m beginning to think that was summer and we are now back into Autumn.  😝

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children were discussing how being kind is not only in the way we use our hands, but in the words we use.  The children sat in a circle and I had each child’s name in a box.  The children had to randomly pick a name and then say something nice about that person.  It was a really lovely activity and the children said some really kind things about each other.

Our Kerem Reception Superhero is now complete.  He has a cape made of all the children’s handprints and around our superhero all the children have written how they can have kind hands.  He is definitely a Kerem superhero as he has the Kerem logo on his chest.  One little boy suggested that he needs a kippah on his head, so he has one.  We discussed in the class what would be a good name for our Kerem Reception Superhero and the decision we came to was ‘Kerem Superhero Boy’.

In Communication and Language the children told us what they did on the bank holiday weekend.  It sounds like many families had lots of fun, slowly and carefully easing back into a lockdown free  society.  It was so lovely to hear my children talking about doing ‘normal’ things for a change.  They were all very keen and excited to share their news.

In Physical Development the children have been honing their fine motor skills with cutting, writing, sticking, playing with slime, threading, etc.  They have also been climbing and swinging in the playground, riding the bikes, digging, pouring, building with the slot construction and playing games to improve their gross motor skills.  We have also been discussing making healthy choices when it comes to eating and why it is important to eat our lunch at school.

There was no PE this week due to Monday being a bank holiday.  

In Literacy this week the children wrote about what they did over the bank holiday weekend.  I was very impressed with the children using their robot arms to sound talk the words and then write the sounds they hear.  The children generally have made huge progress with their writing and I am very pleased with them.  We have been focussing a lot on finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new digraph ‘ur’.  The book was called “Curt the Turtle”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  I have uploaded their reading books onto Google Classroom again this week.  Each child has been given three reading books because they are making such good progress.  They will continue to be uploaded onto Google classroom for the foreseeable future, until Covid no longer poses a risk.

In Maths this week the children have been revising addition and subtraction, with both on the same page.  This has made them stop and think about which operation it is and which way they have to jump.  A few children are still getting a bit confused but mostly they are getting it right.  

In Understanding the World the children saw me make slime.  This was such a fun activity and they couldn’t wait to play with it.  Some of the descriptions they gave of the slime were “It’s kind of pink and it feels like wobbly warm jelly” and “I don’t know what it feels like but I think it feels like gooey slime from a snail”.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children used the bottles of sponge paints for the first time.  They did some really lovely paintings with them.  They were also having a great time with the Lego and the wooden blocks, making very intricate designs and then telling us about them.

In Forest School this week the children played another game of ‘Eagle Eyes’ which they really enjoyed.  They then worked in groups to create a superhero logo using only natural objects found in forest school.  They then had the choice to walk along the slack line again, or create their own superheroes using sticks and felt for the cape, or make their own superhero masks, sticking natural objects onto it to decorate it, or go and look for mini beasts.  The boys found a worm in the ground which they looked after really carefully.  We were very lucky to complete forest school before the rain came.

In Jewish Studies this week it is a double Parashah - Bhar B’chukotai.  The children learnt that Hashem told Moshe to tell the Jewish people that it is really important to be kind to our friends and family and never to say things that might hurt or upset someone. 

We discussed different ways we can be kind to each other and talked about the fact that kindness  does not have to be huge , even a small kind act can mean so much to someone.

The children enjoyed making their own personal friendship flower and used their own thoughts and chose their own words in each petal.

The children have also learnt 2 new letters FINAL TZADDI - tz.

and KUF  -  k.

Please keep practising the  Aleph champ reading book with your children to retain their confidence and fluency and please sign their record book and return on Monday.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

We are reminding the children the importance of Tzedakah (charity).  Please send in a small donation as often as you are able so they can put it in our Tzedakah box.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

In the currently unlikely event of a lovely warm sunny day, please ensure you put sun cream on your child before school as we are not allowed to administer it during the day.  One application in the morning should suffice for the whole day.

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 30/04/21  

Dear Parents

I cannot believe that we are nearly half way through this long term.  The time is going so fast and the children are all learning lots.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children learnt a new word “frustration”.  Using the puppets I explained how we all get frustrated at times and we discussed how we could deal with frustration.  We discussed how your heart rate increases and you can get very warm when you are frustrated. We all agreed that the best way to deal with frustration was to sit quietly and take deep breaths and sometimes allow someone to help you.  We also agreed that it is okay to get frustrated sometimes.  

We are also creating our own Kerem reception superhero.  Our superhero has a cape which is made from the children’s handprints.  It is not yet complete but it is looking amazing.  I will be sure to upload a picture next week of the completed project.  

In Communication and Language the children were discussing how they can be superheroes.  They discussed how, in their normal life, they can behave like superheroes.  We also discussed how kindness is a superhero power and how we can be kind to each other.

In Physical Development the children have been practising their cutting and colouring skills when making superhero masks.  They have also been running, jumping, climbing and cycling around the playground.  

In PE this week the children played ‘Shark Attack’ and ‘Toilet Tag’. In toilet tag, the children who were tagged had to squat (as if they were a toilet) and then someone else had to ‘flush them’ to save them. They also practised their underarm and overarm throwing of beanbags into hoops.

In Literacy this week the children wrote about how they could use their hands to show kindness.  They wrote their ideas on superhero word bursts and they are all proudly displayed around our special Kerem Reception superhero.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new digraph ‘or’.  The book was called “Mum’s Fortieth Birthday”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  I have uploaded their reading books onto Google Classroom again this week.  Starting next week, I will be giving all children three reading books.  They will still be uploaded onto Google classroom for the foreseeable future, until Covid no longer poses a risk.

In Maths this week the children have been recapping how to count back using the number line to subtract two single digit numbers. Initially the children got confused about which way to jump on the number line but now they are getting really good at this and are counting the jumps very carefully.  

In Understanding the World the children were amazed by the rolling fish experiment.  They made their own simple fish shapes using a strip of paper 2cm x 20 cm and then dropped them from a height.  They were delighted when their fish went rolling down to the ground. They cut out their own rolling fish during the lesson.  The next day I put fish templates out on the creative table and the children all cut out their own fish again.  They were thrilled when they realised the fish were still rolling beautifully.  They displayed really good cutting skills during this activity. They also used the BlueBots with Mr Moses, programming in different coordinates and directions.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been using their wonderful imaginations in the playground.  In one of the photos you will see how they have created a dog leash out of the stilt string and are leading their ‘dog’ around the playground while another child has written a list of instructions on how to train your dog.  In another photo you will see the children have used the large construction to build steps and a ramp as an escape route out of the garden.  When they discovered it wasn't high enough, they tried making it a bit higher.  They seem to be pretty determined to get out😂. The children were also having great fun creating their reception superhero and stuck glitter and tissue paper to create the superhero’s logo in the design of the school logo.

In Forest School this week the children had great fun playing ‘Eagle Eyes’ which is just another form of hide and seek.  They then learnt about how different animals camouflage themselves in their environment.  The children then had to collect natural materials to cover their hands to camouflage them.  We even found an earthworm to help make the camouflage more convincing. The children then had an opportunity to walk along a strap, a bit like a tightrope walker.  Some of them really embraced this while others found it too scary.  Some children then decided to use natural materials to build houses for their forest friends (the stuffed toys), which was great fun.

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day of  counting the Omer.  We start counting the Omer on the 2nd night of Pesach and count all the way until the festival of Shavuot (49 days).  The children learnt that up until the 33rd day of the Omer, Rabbi Akiva's students  were not being kind to each other and this made Hashem sad, so He sent a punishment that the students became unwell.  When the students realised that Hashem was not happy with them they changed their ways and on the 33rd day of the Omer, Hashem removed the punishment. This day is now a day of celebration and happy times again.

The children talked about how they can be kind to each other and offered some very good examples of how to be a good friend.

The children learnt that Lag B'Omer is often celebrated in Israel with large bonfires and dancing and singing and we watched a video of Israelis dancing around a bonfire last  year.  Today we celebrated lag B'Omer with Rocket iced lollies in the playground.

The children had fun making their own bonfire using coloured tissue paper and cellophane and writing Lag B'Omer using Hebrew letters and vowels.

The children have also learnt a new Hebrew letter this week - TZADI  -  TZ.  and a new vowel KUBUTZ - oooooooo.  We sing "three dots on a slide say "ooooooo".

Please keep practising the Aleph Champ reading book with your children and return them to school every Monday morning signed.  

Thank you so much

Shabbat shalom

Mrs Roodyn

Reminders:

Please remember that Monday is a bank holiday.  Please don’t send your child to school. 

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 23/04/21  

Dear Parents

What a great term this is turning out to be.  The weather is warming and the children are enjoying the sunny weather.  The girls are looking so pretty in their blue dresses and the superheroes topic is proving to be loads of fun.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been discussing how children feel when they are not allowed to join in with a game.  The children were all very open to saying how they have felt when this has happened to them.  We used the puppets to reinforce this. 

In Communication and Language the children were thinking about what it might be like to be a superhero.  They had to think about what their superhero name might be and what their superhero power would be if they were a superhero.  The children really enjoyed talking about this and came up with some amazing ideas.

In Physical Development the children have been using their skills to cut and stick different materials.  They have been constructing with the small waffle blocks and the interstars and been zooming around the playground like superheroes.  They have been climbing on the climbing frames and riding the balance bikes, sometimes very fast indeed.

In PE this week the children played banana tag. Two taggers had to run around catching the children who then had to stand still until someone unpeeled the banana. They then played potato catch.  They had to throw the bean bags in the air and catch them. 

In Literacy this week the children wrote about being a superhero.  They had to write what their superhero name would be and what their superhero power was.  They then had to draw a picture.  We had some very exciting superheroes, from Blossom, whose superhero power was petals, to Transformer Crab, whose superhero power was pinching.  The one thing they did agree on was that their superheroes all used their super powers for good purposes.

In Phonics this week the children revised the phonic sounds and digraphs which they have learnt and then learnt the new digraph ‘ar’.  The book was called “We Went To The Park”.  I have uploaded the book onto Google Classroom.  I have uploaded their reading books onto Google Classroom again this week.

In Maths this week the children have been recapping how to count on using the number line to add two numbers to make a total.  They are getting really good at this and are counting the jumps very carefully.  We have also been revising the number bonds of ten rap which they are enjoying.

In Understanding the World the children used the Beebot robots with Mr Moses again.  They are really enjoying working out directions and then putting the coordinates into the Beebot and seeing if it reaches its destination.  The children also did a bit of colour mixing and were amazed at the different colours they could make from just red, blue and yellow.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been painting.  It is so lovely to see them chatting to each other while mixing colours and creating beautiful works of art.  They have also been making lovely construction models, like a Batmobile with the large construction blocks and crowns using the interstars. 

In Forest School this week the children learnt about some minibeasts which have superhero powers.  E.g. bees, ants, earthworms and ladybirds.  The children then heard the story of Superworm, by Julia Donaldson.  After that they went off to find minibeasts and then studied them through the new magnifying glasses.  The children also had the opportunity to climb through the big spiderweb.  The challenge was to get through without touching the web.

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about the double Parashah - Acharai Mot and K’doshim.  The children learnt that Moshe told the Jewish people about some of the special mitzvot that Hashem would like us to keep.  One of the special mitzvot is not to wear clothes that are made with wool and linen mixed together.  This is known as “sha’atnez.  We discussed which animal gives us wool and which plant linen comes from and how it is made into linen.  The children enjoyed watching a video on how a sheep is shorn and how the wool is cleaned so it can be used to make us clothes. 

The children have also learnt THREE new Hebrew letters this week.  PAY - pppp

(PAY has a PENNY above his nose) and FAY - ffff and FINAL FAY - ffff ( final letters are only ever at the end of a word). 

The children are progressing really well with their Hebrew letters and vowels and are enjoying blending them together.  Please keep practising the Aleph champ books with your children and please return the Aleph champ books to school on Monday morning.

Please can you also ensure that ALL boys arrive at school each morning wearing a Kippah.  This is an essential part of their school uniform and we sometimes don’t have enough spare kippot to provide each boy with one.

Thank you and having a lovely Shabbat 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

Please remember to send your child’s white Aleph Champ book back to school if you haven’t already done so.

Please remember to send in spare clothing for your child if you have not already done so.

If you have any old navy tracksuit bottoms that no longer fit your child, please consider donating them to them to the EYU.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

What a great first week it has been back at school.  The children were all excited to see each other and have been amazing.  I think the most exciting thing about this term is the reintroduction of our carpet.  I think they have all forgotten that we usually have a carpet in the classroom. Our topic for this term is Superheroes and, as you can imagine, it has caused great excitement. 

In Personal Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been discussing how kindness is a superhero power and we have turned our kindness tree into a superhero kindness tree.  I asked the children what the phrase ‘not all superheroes wear capes’ might mean.  The answers were delightful, ranging from ‘capes make superheroes fly very fast and some superheroes can’t control them so they can’t have one’ to ‘there’s no such thing as superheroes’.  Eventually we realised that we can all be superheroes and that was amazing.  

In Communication and Language the children have all been so excited to share their news and ideas that they seem to have forgotten about putting up their hands and waiting their turn.  However with a bit of practice I am certain they will remember it. They have grown so much in confidence, which is very pleasing to see.

In Physical Development the children have been cutting, sticking, writing, hammering, building, riding, creating and generally having lots of fun learning.  There was no PE this week but the children were very excited for Mr Moses to come to the EYU and do some machanayim (Israeli games) with them.  

In Literacy/Phonics this week the children wrote their holiday news and were very excited to tell me all about what they had done.  From visiting Hamleys to Grandpa visiting with lots of toys, I heard it all and it was wonderful.  The children also learnt the short oo sound and I have sent the book on Google Classroom.  I have also used Google Classroom for reading books again this week as I am still waiting for some children to return their reading books from December.  Please, if you have not yet returned your child’s reading books, can you do so as soon as possible, as we still have quite a few books outstanding.

In Maths this week the children have been revising counting and numbers, counting on from a given number and adding two numbers together to find a total.  Number formation is also a problem still with quite a few children and we have been and will continue to practise this.

In Understanding the World the children used the Beebots with Mr Moses.  This was so much fun and the children really enjoyed the activity.  The children have also been noticing the changes in the weather and this has been a great topic of conversation.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have had free choice with cutting, sticking and collage.  I was very impressed how some of them used the cotton wool, milk bottle tops and masking tape to make a hoverboard for the superhero toys.  

There was no Forest School this week because of Yom Ha’atzmaut.  Forest School will resume next week.  As the weather is warming, you will need to make the decision about what your child will wear.  If it is promising to be a warm, dry day, you might decide your child does not need wellies and waterproofs.  If you are not sure, rather overdress than underdress.  

In Jewish Studies this week, the children revised all the Hebrew letters and vowels previously learnt and we learnt a new letter AYIN - AYIN is a silent letter like ALEPH,  we sing “and a silent AYIN” when we sing our Aleph bet letters and sounds.  The children also learnt a new vowel - Tzereh  - sound = EH.  We sing “ two eyes and my nose says EH!  Please keep practising with your children using their Aleph champ books in order to retain their confidence and fluency.

The children also celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut on Thursday.  It was so lovely so see them all dressed in blue and white and they all enjoyed an ‘off timetable’ day and were excited to complete the activities.  

They used collage to create their Israeli flags and then felt very important waving them around in the air.  They had to do some quite tricky cutting to make their children flying flags, then using split pins to attach the arms.  Everyone cut out independently and did a great job.  Each child also wrote a message to Hashem and stuck it in our reception Kotel.  It was lovely to see how serious they all were about their messages and their messages were very sweet.  The final activity of the day was by far the most exciting.  The children all decorated a biscuit using white and blue icing.  Some of them ate their biscuits immediately while others chose to take their biscuits home with them.  It was a great day enjoyed by all.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

Please remember to send your child’s white Aleph Champ book back to school as they cannot get their new red one until they do so and they are all ready for it.

As we sent all spare clothing home before the holidays, please remember to replace these if you have not already done so. The children often fall over and get very dirty.  We have loads of spare jumpers but trousers are in very short supply.  

If you have any old navy tracksuit bottoms that no longer fit your child, please consider donating them to them to the EYU.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 19/03/21  

Dear Parents

We have now had two weeks back since lockdown.  We began the week wondering if last week was just a one week wonder but I am pleased to say it wasn’t.  The children have been so amazing and calm and kind to each other.  I am so impressed with them.  

In Personal Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been discussing feelings and what situations would evoke certain emotions.  We have been using the puppets again to explain. The children are really good at identifying different emotions.  At the beginning of the year, most children were able to identify ‘sad’ or ‘happy’.  They have now added worried, frustrated, angry and anxious to their vocabulary.

In Communication and Language the children have all been willing to contribute to class discussions.  They have used their big voices so that everyone is able to hear and they are speaking with confidence.  This is really lovely to see and hear.  

In Physical Development the children have been riding the balance bikes, climbing the climbing frames, clicking the Mobilo together to create things and building with the large blocks and crates in the playground.  Indoors they have been building with Lego, cutting, sticking, writing in their personal notebooks and hammering the wooden shapes into the cork boards with the ‘tap-ta’p game.

In PE this week, because the children so enjoyed ‘Stuck in the mud last week’, they played it again this week.  They also played a game of ‘domes and dishes’.  Half the group had to turn the cones over like dishes and the other half had to try and get past them to turn the cones over like domes.    Then in groups of three, the children had to tag each other.  The person who got tagged had to take the cone and whoever had the cone at the end of the game was not the winner.

In Literacy/Phonics this week I am continuing with one-to-one assessments with the children.  They have been writing the letter sounds and CVC words and sentences.  I am so pleased with the number of children who are able to write CVC words without even using vocal sound talking and robot arms.  It has just become so natural to them.

In Maths this week I have been assessing the children one-to-one.  They have all made great progress with their Maths over lockdown and I am very proud of them.  Apart from the shapes in the ‘tap-tap’ game, they have also been allowed to use the water tray and have been learning about capacity, working out how many smaller bottles of water will go into the large bottle, etc.

In Understanding the World the children planted cress seeds and they will be bringing their cress home for the holidays.  We are also learning about the life cycle of the frog.  I read the book ‘Tadpole’s Promise’ to them.  They were a bit alarmed at the end of the story when the frog ate the butterfly.  Their faces were really sweet.

Pepsi also came and paid another visit to the EYU this week.  She is such an adorable little bundle of fun.  Some children are still a bit wary, which is fine, while others just wanted to pet her and play with her.  It was so lovely to see them with her. 

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have had free choice with cutting and sticking.  They have enjoyed using the fancy scissors and cutting pretty patterns.  It was also lovely to have music on Tuesday where Mr Fingerhut is teaching them a new sea shanty.  

In Forest School this week the children played a game of squirrels. They had to pretend to be squirrels and follow instructions and run away from the fox.  They then learnt about the life cycle of the frog and had to go and hunt for frog pictures in the woods.  They then had the choice of whittling sticks, making a clay frog or making a frog shelter using sticks and damp leaves.

In Jewish Studies this week, the children have been very busy completing their Pesach Seder books. The children have learnt the reason why we celebrate Pesach, how many days we celebrate the Chag (festival) in Israel and how many days we celebrate the Chag outside Israel as well as some of the requirements for the Chag, such as foods we are not allowed to eat on Pesach (chametz - foods made from wheat) and Seder night. 

On Friday, as well as having their long awaited Aleph Bet party, to celebrate learning up to letter SAMECH, the children also learnt a new vowel - TZEREH (sounds EH).  We sing “ two eyes in my face say EH” 

As we have been concentrating on Pesach over the past 2 weeks, we have not been able to read Aleph champ books with the children individually, therefore, I am sending home 3 revision Hebrew reading sheets for the children to practise over the Pesach holidays. 

I wish you all an enjoyable Pesach and a lovely holiday.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

Next week Tuesday is the last day of term.  The children will finish school at 12.20 and 12.30.  

Please remember to send spare clothes to school with your child.  The garden is very muddy and children often fall over and get very dirty.  We have loads of spare jumpers but trousers are in very short supply.  

If you have any old navy tracksuit bottoms that no longer fit your child, please consider donating them to the EYU.

I have noticed a few children bringing small toys to school this week.  I am allowing it for the rest of the term as there are only two days until the holidays.  However, when we return in April, all toys that are brought to school will be confiscated and placed in the cupboard until the end of the day.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 12/03/21  

Dear Parents

Finally we got to come back to school.  For me personally, amongst all the excitement, there was a certain amount of trepidation.  How would the children react to coming back?  How has lockdown affected them?  How will their behaviour be?  Will it be like September and will I need to begin all over again to teach them the rules and how to behave with their friends?  Well I am very happy to tell you the children have been amazing.   They have coped magnificently and I could not be prouder of them. 

In Personal Social and Emotional Development this week the children discussed how they were feeling about coming back to school.  They too felt excitement, tinged with a certain amount of worry.  Mostly they were excited to see their friends.  I think this has been the biggest challenge for them, not seeing their friends. Their worries included getting hurt, worried because they had not been to school for such a long time and some just feeling anxious but not entirely sure why.  One little lad was so excited to be coming back to school that he was worried when he woke up on Monday morning that it wasn't the 8th of March yet.  We made a giant spider web with the children, using string to link everyone together.  The children learnt that although we are all individuals, we are also all joined together as the reception class.  

In Communication and Language we have been reminding ourselves how to sit and listen to our friends in a large group.  The children remembered to put up their hands if they had something to say and they were very respectful of what others had to say and they listened very carefully. This has resulted in children quickly regaining the confidence to speak in a large group.  

In Physical Development the children have been riding the balance bikes, climbing the climbing frames, creating shapes with the waffle blocks and building with the large blocks and crates in the playground.  Indoors they have been building with Lego, cutting, sticking, writing in their personal notebooks and generally just building their fine motor skills while having fun and chatting away happily to each other.

In PE this week the children played a game of stuck in the mud.  They then honed their ball skills using the footballs, playing a game where the children had to work in groups of three.  This required them to use their collaborative skills and they did not disappoint.

In Literacy this week I am doing one-to-one assessments with the children.  I am very impressed with the progress some children have made with their sentence writing over the last three months.  

In Phonics this week I am continuing to do one-to-one assessments with all the children.  Most of them have been amazing with the sounds they have learnt and with their ability to sound talk CVC words and words using the digraphs they have learnt.

In Maths this week they have been doing lots of counting and working with 2D shapes.  They have also been exploring the Numicon and two of my little boys found a way to join the two trays together to make me a cake.  They then shifted some of the blocks to make a little space so that some of the shapes could stand up to make candles on the cake.  They were doing all of this while I have been assessing the children one-to-one.  They have all made great progress with their Maths over lockdown.

In Understanding the World the children are learning about seeds and planting.  We are looking at the trees and the bushes and how they have changed since we were last at school.  We will also be planting seeds next week, which will be lots of fun, and the children will be bringing their cress home for the holidays.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have had free choice with painting and collage.  It is so lovely to just watch them creating while chatting to their friends and recreating those friendship bonds.  It was also lovely to have music on Tuesday where the children were actually allowed to do a bit of singing.  It really was ‘music to my ears’.

Although it was very gusty and windy on Thursday, we watched the weather very carefully and eventually decided it was safe to go to the park for Forest School.  Emma moved us to the middle of the clearing where it was very safe and also very pleasant.  The children studied buds from different trees and then went off to find the trees that they came from.  After that Emma read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  The children then had a variety of activities to choose from.  They could either plant a bean seed and then stick a long stick into it for the bean plant to climb up, or they could use the mallets to hit sticks into the ground to build an imaginary giant castle or they could use clay to make a giant.  It was lovely to see Rueben, the security guard (or as one little boy called him, the construction guy) getting involved.

It has been absolutely fantastic to see all of the Reception children back in school after such a long time.  They have settled well and are excited to  start learning  all about Pesach.

We have discussed why we celebrate Pesach and have started to learn what happens on Seder night.  

The children have started  making their very own special Pesach Seder book.  Before each page is created they have learnt the reasons behind what we do on Seder night.

On Friday, we revised all the Aleph Bet letters and vowels we have learnt so far, and we also learnt a new letter SAMECH -  ssssssssssssss.

Please keep practising Aleph Champ with your children in order to retain their fluency and confidence.

Have a lovely Shabbat

Mrs Roodyn

Reminders:

Please can you all keep a lookout for Winston, the cat that has gone missing.  His family are very upset and would love to hear some good news.  If you find him, please give them a call.

I have noticed a few children bringing small toys to school this week.  I am allowing it for the rest of the term as there is less than 2 weeks until the holidays.  However, when we return in April, all toys that are brought to school will be confiscated and placed in the cupboard until the end of the day.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 11/12/20  

Dear Parents

I cannot believe we have come to the end of the autumn term.  What a term it has been.  The children have all worked extremely hard at their learning and their social skills and I am so very proud of all of them.

In Personal Social and Emotional Development this week the children created a communal picture.  We used a large piece of paper and started with half the class.  They had to draw a picture of something that makes them happy.  After a couple of minutes the children got up and moved around the paper, to either draw a new picture or to continue someone else's picture.   They did this a few times.  We then brought in the second group and they continued the picture.  There was so much discussion, sharing of resources and turn taking happening and the result was an amazing bit of art. 

In Communication and Language we have been continuing to listen to our friends and to ask relevant questions and answer in a polite manner.  The children are getting very good at putting up their hands when they have something to say.  They are being encouraged to give an answer and to respect everyone’s views.  They are learning that their opinions are valued and that it is not kind to laugh at each other.  This has resulted in children being much more confident to speak in a large group.  

In Physical Development the children have been using the Lego to build lots of intricate designs.  Lego is great for fine motor skills.  They have also been doing lots of mark making and writing and their pencil grip and letter formation is improving.

In PE this week the children had to do as many star jumps as they could in one minute.  They then played ‘Spaceship Football’ by making a spaceship out of cones and then kicking the football to knock the spaceship over.

In Literacy the children are continuing to use their sound talking skills to read and write CVC words and sentences.  I am so pleased to see how the children are progressing.    

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ sounds. The phonic stories were about ‘Yimmy Yak’ and ‘Ziggy Zebra’.  I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. Can your child think of any other words that have these sounds in them? Have a look at home and see if you can find any objects that have these sounds in them. If there are any CVC words, e.g. y-a-k or y-u-k you can sound talk them with your child.  

In Maths this week the children have been learning about numbers and comparing numbers.  We learnt about more than, less than, the most, the least, and how many more than. We made a bar graph of the weather chart for November.  It was very evident that November had lots of cloud days and not many rainy days.  

In Understanding the World the children were looking for minibeasts in the garden.  They found a small, soft caterpillar which was quite exciting.  They were a bit disappointed that it had to go back in the garden.  They were quite insistent that if we put it in the box with leaves we could keep it as a pet.  I explained that this would not be a kind thing to do and that the caterpillar needed to be in nature.  They accepted this and we let it go back in a quiet place behind the security guard hut.

This week I showed the children a picture of Prince William.  They had no idea who it was so I showed them a picture of the queen.  They knew that was the queen.  I was told that her name was Queen Elizabeth and that she lived in Buckingham Palace.  They then wanted to see the picture of the king.  I explained that the queen had a husband but that he wasn’t the king, he was called Prince Philip.  I also told them that he is ninety nine years old.  They then wanted to know if he was still alive.  I went back to the picture of Prince William and told them that he was the queen’s grandson, that the queen was his granny or his nanny.  I again asked if they knew what his name was and I was asked “Is he Prince Charming?”  

Pepsi also came to visit us again.  The children were able to go and stroke her gently.  Some children were a bit nervous but most of them enjoyed the experience.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been using their creative skills to make fantastic Lego designs, including a gorgeous Chanukiah.  They have also been making lots of Chanukah decorations.  

In Forest School this week the children played ‘The Conker Game’.  It was very exciting.  The children then learnt about fire.  They learnt that fire needs fuel, oxygen and heat to burn.  They used flint sticks to create a spark.  They were very excited when their flints caused a spark.  They then tried to set a bit of fuel (a cotton wool ball) alight.  Three children managed to make a fire.  Emma promised that they would have another try in the new year.  

In Jewish Studies this week the children continued to learn about the story of Chanukah.  They learnt that after the Jewish people successfully beat the strong Greek army, they went to the Bet Hamikdash to thank Hashem for helping them overcome the Greeks, only to discover that King Antiyochus and his soldiers had smashed it up and set it on fire.  The Jewish people were very sad and worked hard to clean and repair their holy Bet Hamikdash.  When it was time to light the beautiful golden Menorah, they were only able to find a small jug of oil that would burn for just ONE day.  However, Hashem made a miracle and the oil lasted for EiGHT days! 

Today, we celebrate Chanukah on the 25th Kislev, by lightning a chanukiah and adding a new candle each night for eight nights.

We remember the special miracle of the oil and eat foods fried in oil - Latkas, doughnuts.

We also remember how the Jewish people tricked King Antiyochus soldiers by playing dreidel when they heard them marching around looking for them and when they left they carried on learning the Torah.  We too, have fun spinning dreidels on Chanukah.

The children have also learnt a new Aleph Bet letter - CHAF (sound CH like the letter CHET).  The letter CAF has a “cookie” in his tummy but CHAF has eaten his so his mum has renamed him CHAF! 

Over the holidays, please keep practising with your children using their aleph champ reading books to retain their fluency and confidence. 

Have a lovely Chanukah and a fun winter holiday.

Best wishes 

Mrs Roodyn 

Reminders:

It appears that little Lego men have been making an appearance in the Reception Class.  We have let it go for this term but we have noticed that it causes quite a few arguments.  Please can I remind you that all toys must remain at home from January.  All toys brought to school will be confiscated and put in the cupboard until the end of the day.

Please remember that ALL the boys in the class MUST wear a Kipah to school.  It is part of the school uniform.  

Have an enjoyable Chanukah and a lovely fun winter holiday.

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 04/12/20  

Dear Parents

Just one more week until the holidays.  It’s been a long but very rewarding term and I cannot believe how much the children have grown and changed. 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have been thinking about how they would feel in different scenarios.  For example, how they would feel if no one wanted to play with them.  Or how they would feel if someone said something unkind to them.  I can honestly say we have had very few timeouts this week and the children have been playing beautifully with each other. 

In Communication and Language we read the story of ‘Puff the Magic Dragon”.  This fitted very well into the friendship theme because Puff felt very sad when Jackie didn’t want to play with him any more.  However the story had a happy ending because Puff found himself a new little friend.  The children have continued to use their descriptive words, describing Puff.  

In Physical Development the children are continuing to focus on their letter and number formation and their cutting skills. This week in their homework folders I will send the ‘f’, ‘v’ and ‘w’ formation sheets. There is no rush to complete these sheets with the children but I would appreciate it if you could send them back to school when they are done so that I can have a look at them.  

In PE this week the children did a Bean Game warmup.  They had to be a runner bean or a jumping bean and do the action on the spot.  A broad bean had to stretch or a baked bean had to curl up small.  A jelly bean had to wobble.  They then had to play a ball game and place the ball on to the corresponding colour cone.  

In Literacy the children are continuing to use their sound talking skills to read and write CVC words and sentences.  They are getting really good at these skills and it is so pleasing to see them when trying to read and write.  

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘W’ and ‘X’ sounds. The phonic stories were about ‘Winnie Witch and her cat Wilbur’ and ‘What’s in the box’.  I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. Can your child think of any other words that have these sounds in them? Have a look at home and see if you can find any objects that have these sounds in them. If there are any CVC words, e.g. b-o-x you can sound talk them with your child.  

In Maths this week the children have been learning about time.  First they had a series of pictures of things they do every day and they had to cut them out and put them in the correct order.  There were seven pictures which is a lot for little ones to sequence but they managed brilliantly.  We then used paper plate clocks and learnt about o clock times and then we touched on half past the hour times. The children had the opportunity to make their own paper plate clocks.

In Understanding the World we finished our November weather chart.  There really were a lot of cloudy days in November.  Next week we will cut it up and put it into a bar graph and compare the numbers.  After showing them a picture of Captain Sir Tom Moore last week, I’ve decided to show them a famous face each week and see their responses.  I showed them a picture of Donald Trump.  I was told: ‘It’s the Prime Minister’, ‘it’s Boris Johnson’, ‘it’s the old man we learnt about last time’, and ‘it’s the Rabbi’.  One child said ‘it’s Donald Trump.  He’s the Prime Minister in America’.  Another child informed us ‘no he’s not in charge any more.  There was a big election and now Joe Biden is in charge of the world’.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children made their own clocks using paper plates, card strips and split pins.  They found writing the numbers evenly around the clock very tricky. They also enjoyed playing in the home corner.  During their play I heard barking coming from the home corner.  They were playing mummies and daddies and the dog.  The children also had loads of fun playing with Lego this week.  There were lots of exciting constructions made and the children were very good at sharing and taking turns.  

In Forest School this week it was a bit rainy and muddy so Emma put up a large tarpaulin attached to a few trees and the children could stay under there.  She read the story ‘How to Catch a Star’.  The children then had the opportunity to make their own stars.  They used willow sticks which they bent into a triangle and fixed with pipe cleaners.  They made two triangles and attached them together to make a star.  They also had the choice to make their own tents, to dig for worms or to explore using the binoculars and magnifying glasses.

In Jewish Studies this week the children started to learn the story of Chanukah.  The children learnt that a new king came to power over Jerusalem, King Antiyochus.  He was a mean king and did not allow the Jewish people to keep Hashem’s mitzvot.  He stopped them keeping Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Brit Milan.  And he instructed  that all people bow down to idols.  The Jewish people did not listen to king Antiyocus, and insisted they carry on learning the Torah and keeping the mitzvot.  This made king Antiyocus very angry.  Some Jewish people ran away to hide in the hills and mountains in Jerusalem, this way they would be able to carry on learning Torah.  King Antiyocus sent his soldiers to look for the Jewish people.  So the Jewish people planned to trick the soldiers.  They carried on learning Torah and when they heard the soldiers coming they quickly hid their Torah and took out a dreidel to play, when the soldiers asked if they were learning Torah they said “no, we are playing dreidel! “ this clever trick allowed the Jewish people to keep learning Torah.  

Next week, we will complete learning the story of Chanukah, and learn about the miracle of the oil.

The children have  started to make and decorate their own Chanukiah and they  had fun practising how to spin a dreidel.  

In Aleph Bet lessons, the children have learnt their first vowel.  Patach - it makes the sound UH. They have been practising blending the letters they have learnt with the patach underneath.  They have all done really well and I am so proud of them and how well they have grasped this new concept.  They have also learnt a new letter “Kaf”. - sound k.

Please continue to practise Aleph Champ reading book with your children so they retain their fluency and confidence.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn

On Wednesday we celebrated the birthdays of the children who had birthdays in September, October and November. Happy birthday to Ethan Z, Rafael, Isaac, Hugo, Yonatan, Ethan S and Max. The children each received a happy birthday certificate, a happy birthday sticker and a happy birthday pencil. Children celebrating birthdays in December will celebrate on the first Wednesday we are back at school.

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 27/11/20  

Dear Parents

I cannot believe how fast this term is flying by.  Before we know where we are, it will be 2021 and there will be a whole new year to look forward to.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have been thinking about how we can show kindness to each other.  We are continuing with our ‘kindness tree’ and although I had hoped to have it done by this week, it is taking a bit longer than anticipated.  We will post some pictures of our kindness tree when we have finished it.  We had a visit from Ms Simon and Pepsi in the week.  The children were all very excited to meet Pepsi and were very well behaved and calm around her.  They made Ms Simon promise to visit again soon.

In Communication and Language we read the story of ‘Monstersaurus’.  The children loved this book and were amused by the fact that one of the ingredients in the monster recipe was bellybutton fluff.  The children used their descriptive powers to describe what the monster looked like.  The children are getting very good at listening to each other and respecting each other’s views.

In Physical Development the children are continuing to focus on their letter and number formation.  This week in their homework folders I will send the letter formation ‘e’, ‘u’ and ‘r’, as well as number formation sheets. There is no rush to complete these sheets with the children but I would appreciate it if you could send them back to school when they are done so that I can have a look at them.  

In PE this week the children were divided into two teams.  One team had to turn the cones upside down and the other team had to try and turn them over.  Then the children worked in partners to make a spaceship out of the cones and then prevent another child from knocking them over with a ball.

In Literacy the children are continuing to use their sound talking skills to read and write CVC words and sentences.  They are making huge progress and I am so very proud of all of them.  When we had read the story of ‘Monstersaurus’, we thought about the ingredients that were in the recipes and we made our own monster recipe as a whole class activity.  Some of the ingredients were slug slime, blue tack, old bananas and chillies.  When we had made our list, one child looked at them and said "Mrs Collier, I don't think we should be making this monster!"

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘j’ and ‘v’ sounds. The phonic stories were about ‘Jill Jellyfish’ and ‘Viv the Vet’.  I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Ask your child if they can think of any other words that begin with these sounds or have these sounds in them.  You can also ask them if they can find any objects in the house that have these sounds in them.  If you find any objects in your home that begin with any of these sounds, please don’t hesitate to take a picture and post it on Tapestry for me to see.  If there are any CVC words, e.g. v-a-n. you can sound talk them with your child.  

In Maths this week we are continuing with adding two groups of numbers.  The children worked with a partner, which in itself can be quite tricky.  One person had Unifix cubes and the other person had a number fan.  I wrote a number sentence on the board.  E.g.  4+5=  the person with the blocks had to count out first four and then five blocks.  They had to count the blocks together and finally the person with the number fan had to find the answer and hold it up.  They then swapped.  The children worked brilliantly together and I was very proud of them.

In Understanding the World we are continuing with our weather chart.  It seems there were a lot of cloudy days in November and not much rain.  I read the story “One Hundred Steps” by Sir Captain Tom Moore to the children.  Before reading the book, I put a picture of him on the whiteboard and asked the children if they knew who it was.  These were some of the answers I received:  ‘It’s the prime minister’.  ‘It’s Boris Johnson’.  And my favourite of all was ‘It’s the prime minister of America’. (I’m not sure who I should email first with this information, Number 10 or the Whitehouse).  Mr Moses used the Beebots with the children.  They enjoyed this activity and there was great team work.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children did some leaf rubbing.  They were fascinated to see how the shape of the leaf and the veins of the leaf were so pronounced.  The children did music with Mr Fingerhut. They were doing some musical interpretation and then played the instruments.  The children are developing a very good sense of rhythm.  

In Forest School this week the children heard the story "Where the Wild Things Are".  The children then went into the forest and had to build a tent.  They had to choose two trees and tie a rope between the two branches. They placed a tarpaulin over the rope and then had to find sticks to hit into the ground with a mallet to keep the tarpaulin in place. The children were then asked to put things into their tent.  There was a chimney, a coffee machine, and someone even tried rubbing sticks to make a fire. There was great teamwork and the children really enjoyed the activity.

ln this weeks Parasha, Vayaizai, the children learnt that Yakov (Jacob) had to run away from his twin brother Eisav (Esau).  Whilst running through the desert to his uncle Lavan’s (Laban) house, Yakov became very tired.  He took a rock as a pillow and lay down to sleep.  During his sleep, he dreamt of a ladder reaching all the way to the sky, with malachim (angels) going up and down.  When Yakov awoke Hashem told him that his dream meant that Hashem and His malachim would always be there to keep him safe.

Regarding Birthdays:  You will all have seen the email from Ms Simon about celebrating birthdays in school on the last Friday of each month.  In Reception, because it is such a short day and the children celebrate Kabbalat Shabbat,  there is very little time.  For this reason we will be celebrating birthdays for the month on the last Wednesday of every month, beginning in the new year.  This term we will be celebrating September, October and November birthdays next week on the 2nd of December.  December birthdays will be celebrated on the first Wednesday we are back at school.

Take care everyone.  Look after yourselves and others and I will see you all again next week.

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 20/11/20  

Dear Parents

I hope you are all well.  I cannot believe that we are halfway through the Autumn 2 term.  Three weeks down and only three weeks to go. 

It is Anti Bullying week this week.  In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have been learning about what it is to be a bully and how we should be a good friend in the playground and in the classroom.  We are making an anti bullying poster and a kindness tree where everyone’s ideas will be displayed.  We have also had some behaviour worksheets which the children could choose to do.  They had to cut out the pictures and stick them either in the sad column or the happy column.  We will post some pictures of our kindness tree next week when we have finished it.

In Communication and Language we have been reading stories about kindness.  We read Cinnamon Girl.  It’s a lovely story about a little girl who was being called names because her skin was a bit dark.  The children really enjoyed the story and the discussion which followed.  The other story we read was Giraffe Left Out.  It is about the animals not wanting their friends to play with the new animal.  This story really struck a chord with lots of the children as many of them had been on the receiving end of this behaviour.

In Physical Development the children are continuing to focus on their letter and number formation.  Some of them are finding the lead outs for joined up writing very tricky.  I will be sending home letters d, g, o, c and k.  I will also be sending home a number practise sheet.

In PE this week the children were honing their ball skills. They started with tennis balls and progressed to footballs.  They were practising their throwing and catching skills.

In Literacy the children are continuing to use their sound talking skills to read and write CVC words and sentences.  It is delightful to watch them sitting at a table and sub consciously use their robot arms to silently sound talk words.

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘ll’ and ‘ss’ sounds. The phonic stories were about ‘Bill Gull’ and ‘Bess and Tess’.  I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  Ask your child if they can think of any other words that begin with these sounds or have these sounds in them.  You can also ask them if they can find any objects in the house that have these sounds in them.  If there are any CVC words you can sound talk them with your child.  For example, the Bill Gull book has a h-i-ll, s-i-ll, etc.

In Maths the children are continuing to learn about simple addition.  They have been adding two groups of objects together to make a total.  I have modelled for them how to write a simple number sentence and they have been writing number sentences on their white boards.

In Understanding the World, the children have continued the weather chart for the month of November.  Every day we are recording the weather and at the end of the month we will count to see how many different weather days we had.  We read a Winnie the Witch story this week and in the book Winnie did magic to turn a boat into a submarine.  I was asked if submarines were real.  Many children thought they were fantasy.  I showed them a short video clip of a submarine submerging and I was told by one clever little person “the air must go out of the submarine and then the water must go in. The submarine has something called a ballast”.  Wow! I was super impressed.  The children have also been looking at all the earthworm bumps in the soil.  There are lots of them and the children wanted to know what they were.  They were fascinated by them and now all they want to do is to find earthworms.  They were very intrigued  to find out the process by which this happens.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children were doing free drawing and sticking and painting.  They are really enjoying the challenge of just the three primary colours for painting.  Some children try very hard to keep the colours separate and some children like creating their own colours.  The children also enjoyed their music lesson with Mr Fingerhut, showing their good sense of rhythm and their ability to copy a rhythmic pattern.

In Forest School this week Emma had her forest friends puppets.  The children first had to say what kind of animals lived in the woodland and then they were introduced to the toys.  There was a mouse, a badger, a mole, an owl, a squirrel and a hedgehog.  The children were then split into groups of three or four and each group had their own toy. They then had to go into the wooded area of the park and make a home for their animal using natural objects.  The results were really sweet.

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt the Parashah Toldot.  Rifka gave birth to twin boys, one was called Eisav (Esau), he was the first born and one was called Yakov (Jacob).  Eisav was red and hairy and Yakov had smooth skin.  Eisav was not a good boy, he  loved to hunt animals in the field whereas Yakov loved to learn Torah and do Mitzvot.  One day, Eisav came home very hungry and very tired from hunting and when he smelt the lentil soup that Yakov was cooking he said “give me some soup”, Yakov only agreed to give him the soup if Eisav gave him his birthright.  Eisav didn’t care about being the older twin and agreed to swap.  A few years later, Yitzchak their father, who was blind with old age, wanted to bless his first born son.  Rifka, their mother heard and dressed Yakov as Eisav because he was a good man and she wanted Yakov to get the special bracha.  When Eisav heard that Yakov had been given the special bracha from their father he was furious with Yakov.

The children had lots of fun making their own pot of lentil soup using real lentils and drawing their own Yakov and Eisav.

The children have also learnt a new letter YUD …….yyyy

Please keep practising Aleph Champ Reading books with your children so they are familiar and fluent with the letters and sounds learnt.

Shabbat shalom

Mrs Roodyn

 A few reminders:

Don’t forget that Forest School is continuing so please send your child in their wellies and waterproofs on a Thursday.

If your child brings home wet or muddy clothes, please remember to replace them the next day.

If anyone has old school tracksuit bottoms that your child doesn’t wear any more, please could you donate them to the early years.  We have lots of spare jumpers but no more bottoms.  

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 13/11/20  

Dear Parents

I hope you are all well and coping with the lockdown and restrictions that are being placed on all of us.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have been learning what it is like to be ‘the new kid on the block’.  We welcomed a new friend this week and the children have all been amazingly kind and friendly and made him feel quite at home.  We discussed how he might be feeling and the children were surprisingly empathetic for such a young age.

In Communication and Language we have been reading the story of Beegu.  We discussed where Beegu came from and how she was feeling when she got to earth.  She felt very sad and alone and frightened.  This linked in very well with our new little friend and the children were able to make the connection.  

In Physical Development the children have continued to focus on letter formation and pencil grip.  We have been practising very hard to write the letters using the correct formation.  In their reading folder I will be sending them with practise sheets for the ‘l’ sound as well as the ‘p’, ‘i’ and ‘n’ sounds. 

In PE this week the children were practising their ball skills.  They had to pick up a ball which was placed on a cone, throw it in the air and catch it, place it back on the cone and then run to find another ball.

In Literacy the children are continuing to do a lot of ‘sound talking’ and rhyming activities.  The children have been putting their sound talking skills to good use doing the sound talking sheets that have been provided in the classroom and outside.  They are showing a growing sense of confidence and accomplishment at this and it is wonderful to see their development.

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘l’’ and ‘ff’ sounds. The phonic stories were about Len Lizard and Gruffalo. I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  Ask your child if they can think of any other words that begin with these sounds or have these sounds in them.  You can also ask them if they can find any objects in the house that begin with these sounds or have these sounds in them.  If there are any CVC words, sound talk them with your child.  For example, the Len Lizard book has a l-o-g, l-e-g, etc.

In Maths the children have been learning about simple addition.  They have been adding  two groups of objects together to make a total and looking for the total on the number fan.  I have modelled for them how to write a simple number sentence.  We also used non standard units of measurement (a wooden block) to see how far our pompoms travelled when we blew them.  There was a resounding winner with a magnificent distance of 7 blocks.  This was even further than mine went.

In Understanding the World, the children have continued the weather chart for the month of November.  Every day we are recording the weather and at the end of the month we will count to see how many different weather days we had.  We also did an experiment, blowing pompoms with a straw to see how far we could blow it.  We then measured the distance using non standard units of measurement.  We also discussed “Poppy Day”.  Some children had a very good understanding of what the day meant.  I was told “Because a long time ago there was a war and after the war they wore poppies to say thank you.”

In Expressive Arts and Design the children made poppies to wear in class.  Many of them proudly wore their poppies home with them.  We also made Get Well cards for the “Save A Child’s Heart” charity.  

In Forest School this week the children played another game of Forest Fire.  After that they talked a bit about Diwali.  They combined their efforts to create a beautiful Rangoli pattern using natural objects.  After that they had to make a choice.  They could either make a diva candle out of clay, or they could create their own Rangoli pattern out of leaves or they could go and dig for worms in the forest.  They reminded Emma that when you carry a trowel, it must be pointy side down.  

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt Parashah Chayei Sarah.  Avraham told his servant Eliezer to go and find a wife for his son Yitzchak. Eliezer travelled with 10 camels on a long journey through the desert.  During the journey, Eliezer became very thirsty because it was so hot in the desert.   He came to a well.  He thought to himself, “I am going to ask one of the girls for a drink of water, if she says yes and then feeds water to my 10 camels as well, then I will know she is a kind girl and will be a good wife for Yitzchak”.  Eliezer asked Rifka for a drink of water, and not only did she bring Eliezer water she worked so hard to feed all his camels too.  Eliezer knew this was the right girl for Yitzchak.  He asked Rifka’s parents if he was allowed to take Rifka back to meet Yitzchak and they agreed.  Eliezer gave Rifka lots of jewellery as gifts.  Rifka met Yitzchak and they were so happy together and got married. 

We discussed how a well works, and how some countries still have to access water using a well and how hard a person has to work just to fill one jug of water. The children watched a video of a lady in India using a well to get water to wash her clothes.  

The children had fun making and decorating their own well and enjoyed threading beads to make their own jewellery.

The children also learnt a new Aleph Bet letter - TET......tttttt.

Please keep practising the aleph champ reading book with your children and please don’t forget to sign their record book.

Shabbat Shalom 

A few reminders:

• Don’t forget that Forest School is continuing so please send your child in their wellies and waterproofs on a Thursday.

• If your child brings home wet or muddy clothes, please remember to replace them the next day.

• If anyone has old school tracksuit bottoms that your child doesn’t wear any more, please could you donate them to the early years.  We have lots of spare jumpers but no more bottoms.  

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 6/11/20  

Dear Parents

It has been so great to see the children back at school after the half term and to hear what they have been up to over the holidays.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the puppets have been helping us to understand what we can say if someone takes your toy, if someone hurts you by accident, if someone hurts you on purpose, if someone doesn’t want to play with you, if someone wants to play with you and you don’t want them to.  The children came up with some very good ideas and I was amazed at the maturity of some of their responses.

In Communication and Language we have been reading the story of The Gruffalo.  We discussed the setting of The Gruffalo and talked about what else we might find in the forest.  We also discussed what the Gruffalo and the other animals wanted to eat.  We linked this to what we like to eat and what is a healthy choice to eat.  This links nicely with Health and Self Care in Physical Development.

In Physical Development the children have been focussing on letter formation and pencil grip.  We have been practising very hard to get our letters correct.  In their reading folder I will be sending them with practise sheets for the sounds we have learnt this week as well as for the first three sounds we learnt, ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’.  

In Literacy the children are continuing to do a lot of ‘sound talking’ and rhyming activities.  Some children are very good at this and some children still need a lot of practise.  Some children have also been using their phonic skills to begin writing about what they did over the half term.  

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘h’, ‘b’ and ‘f’ sounds. The phonic stories were about Harry Horse, Ben Butterfly and Fin Frog. I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  Ask your child if they can think of any other words that begin with these sounds.  You can also ask them if they can find any objects in the house that begin with these sounds.  If there are any CVC words, sound talk them with your child.  For example, the Ben Butterfly book has a b-u-g, a b-u-s, a b-i-n, etc.

In Maths the children have been learning about numbers to 10 using the number fans. They have counted objects and held up the correct number.  They have worked out how to use the number fans to indicate one more and one less than a given number and what number to show if we are adding two more or taking two away.  They then used the number fans to estimate how many objects they think there might be.  This proved a bit more tricky as there were no right or wrong answers.  They really enjoyed the challenge of using the number fans and we will use them again.

In Understanding the World, the children have started making a weather chart for the month of November.  Every day we are recording the weather and at the end of the month we will count to see how many different weather days we had.  The children have also made salt dough which we will use next week in our story.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have started making leaves for us to create a jungle.  They have done Gruffalo pictures, which we have cut up to make puzzles.  We have done splash paintings for fireworks for bonfire night.  The children have told us all about fireworks and some children also knew the story about Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot.

In Forest School this week the children played a fire game. They had to pretend to be different animals (owls, foxes, rabbits and hedgehogs).  They then had to run through the fire (Abbey and Emma) to the other side.  If they were caught, they became part of the fire.  This made the fire grow each time and it made it more difficult for the animals to run through.  They discussed the different colours in fire (red, orange, yellow).  They collected leaves and then made a pretend fire.  The children could then choose to make a firework out of an elder stick, a sparkly pipe cleaner and a bit of fabric, or make a splash painting fireworks picture, or go and dig for worms.  

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt Parasha Vayaira.  Avraham was a tzaddik - a very good man.  He did lots of mitzvot, but there was one mitzvah he excelled in  - he loved to invite people into his tent.  One day Avraham was visited by 3 men,  when they arrived at his tent Avraham immediately asked them to sit in the shade and washed their sandy feet to cool them down from the hot sun.  Avraham and his wife Sarah then prepared a beautiful meal for their visitors.  After the meal one of the men stood up and said to Avraham “next year your wife Sarah will have a baby boy”.  Sarah laughed and said “I’m too old to have a baby”.  Avraham was not aware that these 3 visitors were in fact malachim (angels) sent from Hashem.    However, the following year Avraham and Sarah had a baby boy - they called him Yitzchak (Isaac)

The children enjoyed making and decorating their own “Avraham and Sarah’s tent “ with the 3 malachim standing next to the tent.

Shabbat Shalom 

Mrs Roodyn 

A few reminders:

Please remember to send your children to school in their Forest School clothes on a Thursday.  Many parents were under the impression that there was no Forest School this term but it will continue for the remainder of the year.

Please remember that the children need a healthy snack for mid morning.  A packet of crisps or a cake is not considered a healthy snack.  

Please also remember that we are a nut free school.  This includes sesame seeds, which are not allowed.  This is to keep all children and staff safe from potential allergies.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children are  getting muddy in the playground in this weather and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.  Please could you also help us and help your child by teaching them to become independent when changing their clothes.  Many children are requiring changing and need an adult to do it for them.  

Lastly, if you have a security duty at the main school or at the EYU, please just drop your child off when you need to.  I am always here early and am happy to welcome them.  The security guards will always bring them in and find me.

Shabbat Shalom

Reception Blog 23/10/20  

Dear Parents

Finally it is the half term and we can all have a mini break and relax for a week.  I am hoping that the weather is going to be gorgeous so that we can at least go to the park for a walk, even if we cannot go away on a holiday.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the puppets have been teaching us that if someone does not want to play our game, we should not try to force them.  Also that people are all free to choose what they want to play with and who they want to play with.  No one has the right to tell us that we can’t play with someone. This has resulted in some quite interesting discussions and the children are giving some quite mature opinions.

In Communication and Language we are continuing to listen to stories about our five senses.  We read the story ‘Lucy’s Picture’ by Nicola Moon.  It is about a little girl who creates a tactile picture for her blind grandfather.  We have also been listening to lots of stories with rhyming words as many children are still struggling with hearing and identifying rhyming words.  I will upload a fun game with resources onto Google Classroom for you to play with the family over the half term. 

In Physical Development the children have been using their fine motor skills to create pictures by hammering shapes and cut outs into cork boards.  In PE the children continued to hone their ball skills.  They threw the ball in different ways, using both over arm and underarm, and then played a game where they had to keep the ball from coming into their side.  

In Literacy the children are continuing to write the phonics sounds which we have learnt. They have continued to do a lot of ‘sound talking’.  Some children are very good at this and some children still need a lot of practise.  I will upload a fun sound talking game onto Google Classroom for you to play over the half term. 

In Phonics this week we have learnt the ‘e’, ‘u’ and ‘r’ sounds. The phonic stories were about Ellie Elephant, Upside down Uncle and Red Robin. I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  Ask your child if they can think of any other words that begin with these sounds.  You can also ask them if they can find any objects in the house that begin with these sounds.  

In Maths the children have been learning about pattern.  They created a simple boy, girl, boy, girl pattern.  We then made a boy, boy, girl pattern.  They learnt that a pattern is something that is repeated over and over again.  They used natural objects (conkers, acorns, sticks, pine cones, feathers) to create basic patterns.  

In Understanding the World, the children are continuing to look at changes in their environment during autumn. It is very muddy and they have been fascinated to find some bugs and slugs in the garden.  We also found some little grubs which had been sleeping inside the acorns in the classroom.  They took them very gently and placed them in the bushes in the garden.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have continued to use their imaginations to create stories around their constructions.  They have also collaged a very big rainbow and ark, which is going onto a display in the dining room.  After reading the book ‘Lucy’s Picture’ they also created a large group tactile picture for display purposes.  They really love seeing their work on display around the school.  In music with Mr FIngerhut they played the instruments.  They had great fun and some of them displayed a very good sense of rhythm.

In Forest School this week the children played ‘Eagle eye hide and seek.’ They had to hide.  Emma was the eagle.  She stayed on the mat and called out ‘eagle eyes are closing, eagle eyes are opening’. The aim was for the children to get back to the mat without Emma noticing they were gone before they got back to the mat.

Emma read the book ‘Yucky Worms’ and the children learnt about worm facts like worms have 5 pairs of hearts and that worm poo is known as a ‘cast’

Children went hunting for worm cast. They found cast, poured water over the muddy cast and waited for the worms to come out.

They could then either continue to watch and wait for the worms to come out, or they could use a trowel to dig into the ground to dig for worms or they could make worms out of elder branches and pipe cleaners.

In Jewish studies this week, the children learnt about this weeks Parasha - Noach.  The children learnt that Noach was a good man but the people who lived around him were not good.  This made Hashem very sad.  Hashem told Noach to build a very big boat - an ark.  He was to put his whole family along with  7 kosher daddy animals, 7 kosher mummy animals of all the types and 1 non kosher daddy animal and 1 non kosher mummy animal of all the types, into the ark.  We discussed the names of some kosher animals and some non kosher animals.

Hashem then brought a flood for 40 days and 40 nights.  Only Noach and his family and all the animals in the ark were saved.  Noach then let out a dove to see if it was time to leave the ark, however the dove flew back with an olive branch in his beak and this showed Noach that it wasn’t time to leave the ark yet.  7 days later, Noach let the dove out again and this time the dove did not return.  Noach knew it was time to leave the ark.  Noach then saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky - a sign from Hashem that He would never ever bring another flood over the whole world again.

The children had lots of fun making their own ark, using lollipop sticks and choosing animals to go inside their ark. 

The children have also learnt a new letter -ZAYIN   -   zzzzzzz.

Zayin has a crooked hat and a crooked leg.

Please keep practising with your children so that they become fluent and confident with the letters learnt.

Shabbat shalom and have a lovely half term.

Thank you to everyone for sending the children to school ready for Forest School.  It makes life so much easier for us and it ensures that we are able to leave on time, giving the children the maximum time in the park.  I am also very impressed with how many children are able to change out of their Forest School clothes and back into their school clothes and independently.  Well done and thank you!

A few reminders:

Please remember that the boys MUST wear a kippah to school every day.  It is part of their school uniform.  Even if they are wearing a beanie in the cold weather, they need to bring their kippah to school to put on when they are in the classroom.

Please remember that the children need a healthy snack for mid morning.  A packet of crisps or a cake is not considered a healthy snack.  

Please also remember that we are a nut free school.  This includes sesame seeds, which are not allowed.  This is to keep all children and staff safe from potential allergies.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children are  getting muddy in the playground in this weather and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.  Please could you also help us and help your child by teaching them to become independent when changing their clothes.  Many children are requiring changing and need an adult to do it for them.  

Lastly, if you have a security duty at the main school or at the EYU, please just drop your child off when you need to.  I am always here early and am happy to welcome them.  The security guards will always bring them in and find me.

Have a great week and I look forward to seeing everyone again after the half term.  

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 16/10/20  

Dear Parents

Only one week to go before the half term.  In these unusual times I hope you are all looking forward to some time with your children at home.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children are continuing to learn how to be a good friend.  The puppets have been working hard to reinforce the rules.  This week we have been learning how everyone is different and just because someone may look or sound different we should still be their friend.  We have also been learning how we are all different and how we are all good at different things.  It is good to hear how many children are good at ‘scootering’ and ‘riding bikes’.  

In Communication and Language, we have been listening to stories about our five senses. It has been very interesting to hear how different children have different opinions and ideas.  When we read the story ‘Lima’s Red Hot Chilli’ I asked why it is not a good idea for Lima to eat the chilli.  I was told, ‘because it is not ready yet’ (meaning it's not ripe yet). They also very much enjoyed the story ‘The Smelly Book’ by Babette Cole.  They took great delight in telling me what else could be smelly!  We then conducted a smell test to see who could correctly identify different smells.

In Physical Development the children have been using large and small construction toys which help to develop their muscles.  We have continued to do a lot of dance  and freeze songs on the big screen and the children are getting very good at following the instructions.  In PE the children were given an obstacle course to follow which they did very well.  They then practised their ball skills by bouncing and throwing the balls and then dribbling the ball between two cones.  

In Literacy the children are continuing to write the phonics sounds which we have learnt. 

They have also been doing a lot of ‘sound talking’.  Some children are very good at this and some children still need a lot of practise. This week we have learnt the ‘ck’ sound. The phonic story was about Daisy Duck who found a sack. I have uploaded the story onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  Ask if your child can think of any other words that end with the ‘ck’ sound.  Have a look around your house and see if you can find any objects that end with the ‘ck’ sound.  

In Maths the children have been learning about simple 2D shapes.  They have learnt to name the shapes, talk about how many sides the shape has and they have been looking for the shapes in the classroom.  They discovered that some books are a rectangular shape and some books are square.  They found circles on the floor and on the walls and they found triangles in the felt cut out shapes.  They made shapes with their hands and with their arms.

In Understanding the World, the children are continuing to look at changes in their environment during autumn. We have had a problem with wasps in our playground.  It became noticeable very recently.  We got pest control in to get rid of them and as this happened before school, I took pictures and a video to show the children.  They were fascinated and this resulted in a very productive discussion about wasps, bees, and who has previously been stung.  They knew that bees produce honey and some of them knew that without bees, we would have no plants or trees.  They have all vowed to look after the bees that they see in the garden.  I had the magnifying glasses out and the children spent many happy hours looking for bugs and minibeasts, finding mostly slugs and snails.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have continued to create storylines around small world characters and large construction games.  They have created lovely pictures using shapes with the felt board and also sticking paper shapes to create pictures.   

In Forest School today the children were focusing on birds.  They knew that birds have two legs, two wings and make nests.  They then went on a bird hunt to see if they could match pictures of birds.  After that they were given the choice of making a clay bird, making a nest using natural objects or using the binoculars to go and look for birds.  They really enjoyed these activities and the weather was gorgeous.  

In Jewish studies this week, the children learnt Parashah Bereishit, how Hashem created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day - Shabbat. 

On day number 1 Hashem created the dark and light - nighttime and daytime.

On day number 2 Hashem created the sky and the sea.

On day number 3 Hashem created the grass, flowers and trees.

On day number 4 Hashem created the sun, moon and stars.

On day number 5 Hashem created birds and the fish.

On day number 6 Hashem created animals and insects and Adam and Chava (Eve).

On day number 7 Hashem rested.  Shabbat, and we too rest every week on day 7 - Shabbat.

The children had fun creating a special book for the 7 days of creation.

The children have also learnt a new Hebrew letter - VAV ....vvvvvv

Please keep practising the Aleph Champ reading book with your children as much as possible in order to maintain their fluency with the letters learnt.

Thank you to everyone for sending the children to school ready for Forest School.  It makes life so much easier for us and it ensures that we are able to leave on time, giving the children the maximum time in the park.  I am also very impressed with how many children are able to change out of their Forest School clothes and back into their school clothes and independently.  Well done and thank you!

A few reminders:

Please remember that the children need a healthy snack for mid morning.  A packet of crisps or a cake is not considered a healthy snack.  

Please also remember that we are a nut free school.  This includes sesame seeds, which are not allowed.  This is to keep all children and staff safe from potential allergies.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children are  getting muddy in the playground in this weather and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.  Please could you also help us and help your child by teaching them to become independent when changing their clothes.  Many children are requiring changing and need an adult to do it for them.  

Lastly, if you have a security duty at the main school or at the EYU, please just drop your child off when you need to.  I am always here early and am happy to welcome them.  The security guards will always bring them in and find me.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone again next week.

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 09/10/20  

Dear Parents

I cannot believe that there are only two weeks left of this half term.  The time has gone so quickly and the children have learnt so much.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children are continuing to learn how to be a good friend.  I have also been reinforcing how to be a good friend, using the puppets to support their learning.  We have discussed ways to start resolving conflicts. We have been learning to ‘use our words’, to say ‘stop it I don’t like it’, and also to try and find a simple compromise.  An example that we used was two children playing a game and both wanting to do things their way.  Maybe they could try one way first and then try doing things the way the other person suggested.  The children seemed quite open to these suggestions.

In Communication and Language, we have been listening to lots of stories.  We have been comparing the stories, discussing the characters and how they are different, anticipating what might happen next in the story, and also saying how the story could have ended differently.  We have also been speaking a lot about how different characters in the story might be feeling and why.

In Physical Development the children have continued to use a lot of construction toys and games to develop their muscles.  We have done a lot of dance and freeze songs on the IWB which uses their little bodies to move in ways which develop their muscles and coordination.  They also had PE on Monday which they really enjoyed, following stop and go instructions.

In Literacy the children have been writing the phonics sounds which we have learnt.  This week we have learnt the ‘o’, c’ and ‘k’ sounds. The phonic stories revolved around Ollie Octopus, Candy Cat and Kev Kangaroo. I have uploaded the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  E.g. there is a cat, a cup, cot, etc.  If it is a simple CVC word like cot, you can sound it out with your child. E.g. c-o-t cot.  If it is a more tricky work, e.g. olives, encourage your child to look at the picture to work out what the word is.  Ask if your child can think of any other words that begin with the sound.  Have a look around your house and see if you can find any objects that begin with the sound.  I have also uploaded the video I have made for you about how the sounds are said correctly, and how to write them using the pre-cursive script.  

In Maths the children have been learning to count out objects.  I gave them each a stick of Unifix cubes and when I gave them a number, they needed to count out the correct number of blocks and hold them up.  They were quite competitive amongst themselves, always trying to be the quickest.  We then tried holding up the number of blocks which was one more than the number I gave.  This proved to be a bit trickier but some children managed it quite easily.

In Understanding the World, the children are continuing to look at changes in their environment. We have discussed how in autumn the weather is very changeable.  It can be cold and rainy one minute and warm and sunny an hour later.  This is because the weather is trying to decide whether it still wants to be summer or whether it is time to move into winter.  We also conducted an experiment on floating and sinking.  We tried to predict which objects would float and which ones would sink and why this might happen.  The children also had a computing lesson with Mr Moses, using the iPads.  The children decorated succah pictures using stamps and images on the iPad.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been playing lovely games involving their huge imaginations.  There have been ninja games and princess games.  Large group games and small group games.  They were very excited to play the instruments in music this week.  Most of them showed a good sense of rhythm.  They also decorated and brought home their lovely Succah decorations which they made using old discs.  They were very glittery and pretty. 

In Forest School today the children looked at the different leaves on the trees and lying on the ground.  They discussed the different colours of the autumn leaves, as well as the different shapes.  They then went on a leaf walk collecting as many different colour leaves as they could find.  They skewered them onto a kebab stick and made their own leaf kebabs.  

In Jewish studies this week, the children continued to learn about the Chag of Succot.  They were all very excited to eat their snack in the succah this week.

Thank you to everyone for sending the children to school ready for Forest School.  It makes life so much easier for us and it ensures that we are able to leave on time, giving the children the maximum time in the park.

A few reminders:

Please remember that the children need a healthy snack for mid morning.  A packet of crisps or a cake is not considered a healthy snack.  Also please remember that from next week we will be having a hot school lunch again so a packed lunch will not be required. Please remember to send your child with a water bottle each day.

Please also remember that we are a nut free school.  This includes sesame seeds, which are not allowed.  This is to keep all children and staff safe from potential allergies.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children are  getting muddy in the playground in this weather and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.  Please could you also help us and help your child by teaching them to become independent when changing their clothes.  Many children are requiring changing and need an adult to do it for them.  

Lastly, if you have a security duty at the main school or at the EYU, please just drop your child off when you need to.  I am always here early and am happy to welcome them.  The security guards will always bring them in and find me.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone again next week.

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 02/10/20

Dear Parents

We are now halfway through the term and the children are all settled well into the routine of the classroom.  They are all happy to come to school and are becoming aware  of the morning routines.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children are continuing to learn how to share and take turns.  I have also been reinforcing how to be a good friend, using the puppets to support their learning.  We have talked about how we feel when someone is unkind to us and also how we feel when we are unkind to someone else.  It is not a nice feeling to be unkind.  We have also been reinforcing how to put out our hand and say “stop it I don’t like it” if someone is doing something we don’t like.  I have been using puppets in the class to reinforce these behaviours and feelings.  Petey, Poppy and Patsy have been introduced to the class and the children have really identified with the characters.  

In Communication and Language, the children have been getting really good at putting up their hands if they want to say something.  They have also been using their powers of discussion to negotiate with their friends and to discuss what they would like to do and how they would like to do something.  A child in the class was playing with the doll’s house when their friend came in and asked if they could come outside and play. The first child replied “I am just playing with this at the moment and I will come outside when I am finished.”  This was a very happy solution, discussed calmly and in a polite voice, taking into consideration what was being said.  I was very proud of them at that moment.  

In Physical Development the children have been using a lot of construction toys and games to develop their muscles.  They have been climbing and swinging in the playground, showing their balancing skills, and they have been writing their names every morning to develop their writing skills.

In Literacy the children have been writing the phonics sounds which we have learnt.  They have previously learnt the ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’, ‘p’, ‘i’, and ‘n’ sounds and this week we have learnt the ‘m’, d’ and ‘g’ sounds. The phonic stories revolved around Millie Mouse, Dan Dog and Gertie Goat. I have uploaded some of the stories onto Google classroom for you to go through with your child. The others will be uploaded today. The idea is for you to go through the book with your child.  Discuss the main character, eg. Millie Mouse.  You can ask your child “Can you remember who the main character is?”  If they don’t remember, remind them.  Allow them to look at the pictures in the book.  E.g. there is a map, a mop, mum, etc.  If it is a simple CVC word like mop, you can sound it out with your child. E.g. m-o-p mop.  If it is a more tricky work, e.g. monkey, encourage your child to look at the picture to work out what the word is.  Ask if your child can think of any other words that begin with a ‘m’ sound.  Have a look around your house and see if you can find any objects that begin with a ‘m’ sound.

In Maths the children have been learning to recognise and order numbers to twenty.  Although not everyone knows their numbers to twenty, they are learning the teen numbers through the activities which we are doing.  We played a rescue helicopter game on the whiteboard and the children had to give a number between two numbers.  Some of them were very good at this.  The children have also been ordering and sticking numbers to twenty, or if they can’t do to twenty, then as far as they could go.

In Understanding the World, the children have continued to look at changes in their environment.  They have painted lovely pictures of autumn trees and these are now on display in the art room.  We also conducted an experiment using balloons to create static electricity.  The children found their hair standing on end very funny indeed.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children painted lovely pictures of themselves.  They have also been doing lots of role play using the large octagon construction in the playground and have been playing with the dolls’ house, creating different dialogues.  It has been lovely to see the number of boys playing with the dolls’ house.  

In Forest School today the children discussed the different animals that may live in the forest at the park.  These included birds, squirrels, rabbits, bugs and worms and possibly the odd fox or two.  Some of the children were amazed to learn that bears and wolves were not to be found in our local parks.  The children then went on a seed hunt, finding seeds from different trees.  They were fascinated to see the different seed types and to learn the trees they came from. 

In Jewish studies this week, the children learnt about the Chag of Succot.  The children learnt that we celebrate Succot for 8 days in Israel and 9 days in all other countries.  The children learnt that on Succot it is a mitzvah to eat our Yom Tov meals in a Succah - a temporary home built outside.  The children saw a model Succah that  made for them and noticed how beautifully decorated it was, this is because when we fullfill the mitzvah of building a Succah we go even further and make the Succah beautiful.  The children enjoyed making their own Succah decoration using discs, glitter and gems.

The children also learnt about the mitzvah of shaking a lulav and etrog each day of Succot.  It was demonstrated to the children how to shake a lulav and etrog using a model set.

In the Aleph Bet lessons this week, the children learnt a new letter DALED - “D”.

We have now learnt 5 Aleph bet letters - Fantastic! 🤗 Please keep practising using Aleph champ book with your children daily, this will help them to become familiar and fluent with the letters and sounds.

Wishing you all Chag Sameach Mrs Roodyn.

Thank you to all the parents who sent their children to school ready for Forest School this morning.  It made life so much easier for us and it ensured that we were able to leave on time, giving the children the maximum time in the park.

A few reminders:

Please remember that the children need a healthy snack for mid morning.  A packet of crisps or a cake is not considered a healthy snack.  It would also be great if you could put their snack box separate to their lunch boxes as some of the children are eating some of their lunch at snack time.

Please also remember that we are a nut free school.  This includes sesame seeds, which are not allowed.  This is for the safety of all the children as some children may not yet have developed an allergy or some children may not be aware that they are allergic.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children get their jumpers and T-shirts wet when they are playing in the water tray or if someone is messing about with the tap and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone again next week.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 25/09/20

Dear Parents

Welcome to our third blog of the year.  It is so heartwarming to see how beautifully the children come into the school in the morning, holding out their hands for hand gel and happy to say goodbye to their parents.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have focused on self-confidence and self-awareness and have been gaining confidence to speak in a familiar group and to ask for help if they need it. They are learning to listen to their friends and respond in an appropriate way. They have also been discussing managing feelings and behaviour. They have been learning how to discuss and show their feelings, about their own and others' behaviour and its consequences. They have also discussed that some behaviour is unacceptable. They have been learning to work as part of a group and to understand and follow rules. These are all Early Learning Goals and part of the Reception curriculum. They have also continued to learn how to share and take turns with the resources. 

In Physical Development the children have been reinforcing their motor skills in the playground with the use of the climbing frames and balance beam.  They also had their first PE lesson of the year with Miss Nolan.  They were very excited to see the different games she had to show them and they did a lot of ‘move and stop’ to instructions.  

In Literacy the children have also been writing the phonics sounds which we have learnt.  They have previously learnt the ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ sounds and this week we have learnt the ‘p’, ‘i’ and ‘n’ sounds. The phonic stories revolved around Pete Penguin, Iggy Iguana and Ned Newt. The children have been thrilled with the new large whiteboards in the playground and have been doing lots of mark making.  In addition to this they have been doing lots of mark making on the ground with sidewalk chalk.

In Maths the children have continued counting the people in the class.  They have also been learning about adding one more up to number ten and ordering numbers to ten. Some children have been ordering numbers to twenty and have enjoyed the challenge. They are really enjoying the numbers and enjoy counting.  

In Understanding the World, the children have continued to look at changes in the environment.  They are looking at the colours of autumn and we have begun to paint pictures using brown, red, yellow and orange.  The children also saw the ‘skittles’ experiment and were amazed at the lovely skittles rainbow it made.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children continued to make portraits.  They have completed the self portraits and have begun making portraits of the staff.  These included not only the teaching staff but the security guards, Ismail, the dinner ladies and Mrs Craig.  My favourite was the picture of Andre the security guard.

In Forest School today the rules were reinforced about how to carry equipment safely and to come when you are called.  The children lay down on the mat with their eyes shut and listened to the sounds in the park.  They identified a bird tweeting, people talking, traffic noises, etc.  The children then used natural objects to make noises.  These included banging sticks together, rubbing leaves, shaking dry leaves, etc.  The children then made musical instruments.       

There has been a change in the plan regarding the clothing for Forest School.  It has been decided that because we are going early in the morning, we will send wellies and waterproofs home the night before. Each week we ask that you bring your child to school dressed ready for Forest School with their shoes in their bag to change into later. We will then send their wellies and waterproofs home at the end of the day for you to keep for the following week.

I will be uploading the phonics reading onto Google Classroom.  It is the same sign in as last year for the nursery.

Please remember that the children need a healthy snack for mid morning.  A packet of crisps or a cake is not considered a healthy snack.  It would also be great if you could put their snack box separate to their lunch boxes as some of the children are eating some of their lunch at snack time.

Please also remember that we are a nut free school.  This includes sesame seeds, which are not allowed.  This is for the safety of all the children.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children sometimes get their jumpers and T-shirts wet when they are playing in the water tray and outside and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone again on Tuesday morning.

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Reception Blog 18/-09/20

Dear Parents

We have now completed two full weeks of school and what fun they have been.  The children have been learning about their friends but, above all, they have been learning some new rules in the class.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have continued learning how to share and take turns with the resources.  They have all shown great confidence in coming into school in the morning with huge smiles on their faces.  

This week the children have also learned the consequences of hurting their friends.   The consequences are a five minute timeout and the need to apologise.   The children are generally responding very well to this.  I keep reminding them that if someone hurts them at school, they need to tell an adult.  It would be appreciated if you could reinforce this at home.

In Communication and Language, I have been reinforcing with the children the need to  raise their hands when they want to say something in a large group.  They have been learning the need to listen to their friends and the appropriate way of responding to what their friends say.  This includes not laughing at their friends and not shouting out a response.  For the most part, they are a very well mannered class and are doing the right thing.

In Physical Development the children have been reinforcing their motor skills in the playground with the use of the climbing frames and the balance bikes.  Some children are more confident than others but with practice and encouragement they are developing.  

In Literacy the children have been writing their names. They have also been writing the phonics sounds which we have learnt.  Last week we learnt about Spud Spider and this week we have learnt about Ali Ant and Tim Tortoise.  Next week I will upload a small book that I have made for each sound onto the Google Classroom.  

In Maths the children have continued counting the people in the class.  They have also been counting to five, practising writing numerals to five and ordering numbers to five.  To challenge the children, we ordered numbers to ten.  They were very excited about this.

In Understanding the World, the children have continued to look at changes in the environment and how it affects what we wear.  It has been a bit tricky trying to teach the children that we are moving towards winter when we are in the middle of a mini heatwave.  I have acorns and conkers in the home corner and the children are often commenting on the fact that the parks are full of these and that the squirrels eat these in winter.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children made self portraits which are now on display in the corridor outside Mrs Craig’s office.  Singing with Mr Fingerhut has proved a bit tricky with children not being allowed to sing due to Covid restrictions.  However, they have been doing a lot of musical appreciation and movement to music.  They have also been listening to stories told to music.  This week they had the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

In Forest School today the rules were reinforced about how to carry equipment safely and to come when you are called.  The children were also shown how to behave when a dog comes near them in the park.  They should stand very still and cross their arms across their chests.  On the way back from the Forest School area a dog walker walked past us and it was pleasing to see so many children freeze and cross their arms across their chests. The children were shown which trees were safe to climb and some children were very brave and tried to climb just a little way up. The children collected large sticks, which they then ordered from smallest to biggest and some other natural materials.  Last week they made a face, this week they made a whole person.  The long stick at the bottom of the body is the surfboard that the person is riding.                 

A big thank you to all the parents who have sent Forest School clothes.  As soon as it starts raining and gets muddy, we will be needing them.  These clothes will remain at school and we will send them home when they need a wash.

Please remember to send in spare clothes if you haven’t done so already.  Children get their jumpers and T-shirts wet when they are playing in the water tray or if someone is messing about with the tap and as the weather gets colder it is important that they have something dry to change into.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday morning.

Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Reception Parents

What a great week in Reception! The children have been very busy completing their Rosh Hashanah crafts and are very excited to bring them home to show you.  The children have also learnt 2 new letters this week - BET and VET.  BET has a belly button and VET has lost his! BET sounds “B” and VET sounds “V”.
 

Please remember to practise for a few minutes each day with your child so they become fluent with the letters.   When sending the books back to school on Tuesdays, please only send your child’s aleph champ RECORD BOOK. Please keep the Aleph champ reading book at home in order to practise.  Please remember to always sign your child’s record book so I am able to keep a record of your child’s progress.

Wishing you all a Shana Tova and a year filled with just happiness and good health.

Best wishes

Mrs Roodyn 

Dear Parents

Welcome to our first blog of the Reception year 2020/21.  It has been a busy week, the first whole week with a whole class in nearly six months and the children have adapted beautifully.  I am so very proud of them all.

There has been lots of settling in, chatting with friends and exploring what the new class has to offer.  

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) the children have been learning how to share and take turns with the resources.  Some children do this naturally and some children are still learning.  It is a natural part of development for children to think that everything belongs to them.  The children have also been showing how confident they are coming into the school on their own in the morning.  I am so pleased with the confidence that they are showing.  It just proves how much they have grown and how ready they are for Reception.

In Communication and Language, the children have been practising how to raise their hands when they want to say something in a large group.  They have also been learning the importance of listening to their friends when they are speaking.

In Physical Development the children have been practising their climbing skills in the playground.  Some children are more confident than others but with practice and encouragement they will develop.  I have also been checking the children’s pencil grip and will be starting an intervention group for those children who are struggling to hold a pencil correctly.

In Literacy the children have been writing their names.  Everyone was able to write at least part of their name, if not all of it and I was very proud of all of their efforts.

In Maths we have been counting the children.  This means the children have been practising to count to 22.  

In Understanding the World, the children have been looking at changes in the leaves on the trees. One child told me “when the leaves fall down they are brown and they go crunch”.  We  have also discussed the weather changes and that this season is called Autumn. We will continue to look at changes in our environment for the rest of the school year.  

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been drawing independently, creating beautiful pictures of families, flowers and even a turtle submarine that goes under the water.  The children have been exploring the home corner where they have been copying what they have seen at home and pretending to cook food, then serving it to their friends.

In Forest School the children were learning the rules of Forest School.  They learned how to carry a stick safely, they learned how to answer and come when called and they collected objects from the forest.  They then used their collected objects to create a big face on the ground. We also found a tiny slug and two baby worms at Forest School.                         

A big thank you to all the parents who have sent Forest School clothes.  As soon as it starts raining and gets muddy, we will be needing them.  These clothes will remain at school and we will send them home when they need a wash.

Have a great weekend

Shabbat Shalom

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Reception Parents

Welcome to Reception!

I hope you all had an enjoyable summer.  I am really looking forward to teaching your children for  Jewish Studies this year.  This week we are so excited to start the first letter of the Aleph Bet - Aleph.  Aleph is a very shy, quiet letter who makes no sound at all.  
All the children have been given their own Aleph Champ reading books and a record book.  Please spend a few minutes each day practising with your children so they become familiar with the letters and sounds as they learn them.  In keeping  with Covid 19 restrictions please could reading books come into school on Tuesdays and we will send them home 72 hours later on Fridays. 
 

This week, the children will also be learning about Rosh Hashanah and will start having fun making their Chag (Festival)crafts to bring home.

Looking forward to an exciting year ahead with your children.

Best wishes

Mrs Roodyn