Reception

Dear Parents

I cannot believe we have come to the last day of the last term in this, my last year of teaching. A forty year career which has spanned two continents has suddenly come to an end.

As I look back on this, my last year of teaching, I am amazed at what the children have achieved. There have been many highlights this year.

Our Hannukah show back in December seems like such a very long time ago. Just comparing that show to our end of the year show proves how much the children have grown and developed.

Our visit to Kew Gardens in February was amazing. How a trip is booked for the middle of winter and we end up with such lovely weather still baffles me. This trip was my first and only trip with the children at Kerem (Thanks to Covid and trips being banned). It was such a lovely day. It was with sorrow that I removed all of their lovely tree paintings, inspired by their trip, just yesterday.

Our children enjoyed many lovely sessions in Forest School with Emma and Carrie. Rain and sunshine and everything in between, we were in the woods having fun. I was just thinking this on Thursday at our last Forest School when Emma mentioned it: We had no whiners and moaners about the cold this year. The children were true grit and determination and were not afraid to get dirty. Sorry (not sorry)!

We also had an amazing Sports Day this term. The team spirit which the children showed was truly great and I will forever remember the scooter scooting and the buggy going flying, not to mention one little girl moaning that the tunnel was too small for her. It was such a fun day with just the right amount of activity for little children.

Our End of the Year Show was a definite highlight for me. Their bravery and courage inspired me and their singing was so sweet and uplifting. I will never forget the words to Puff the Magic Dragon and I just love the message that ‘It’s okay not to feel okay’. I hope that is a message that the children take with them into the main school and eventually into their adult lives.

There were many other highlights, too many to mention. Each time I did a happy dance when someone got their first reading book. Every time we celebrated when someone understood that addition meant putting two groups of objects together to make a total. Each time a previously shy child spoke in a large group. Whenever reluctant sharers said ‘you can play with this’. All of these are highlights in reception and I think it is going to be those small victories that I will probably miss the most in the coming months.

Thank you to all the parents and families who have made my Kerem journey such a happy one. I will miss each and every one of you. I’ve said it before and I say it again: “Kerem is the perfect school to retire from”.

Kind regards

Lindsay Collier and the Reception Team.

Final Newsletter from Morah Cassie

JS Newsletter Reception:

It has been so lovely getting to know all of the wonderful children in Reception class and hearing their stories and their ideas. We have had such fun together and I am sure they are going to have a fantastic time in Year 1.

Over the summer it would be great if each child could take a look at their alef-bet laminated cards, so that they can start on the best foot in September. We have done so well learning our alef-bet letters and the vowels kamatz and patach this year; I am so proud of you all! I have sent home a red card with the alef-bet on it for each child to colour in and display or to cut up and make little alef-bet practice cards.

Please do try to keep up with tefillah over the summer weeks. There are loads of gorgeous short tefillah videos available online that your child may like to sing along with. My favourites are Jewish Prayers Davening and Tefillah for Preschool Kids by Morah Stephanie's Preschool, and Davening for Toddlers with Morah Ester by Ester Chein. Have a look and find one you like best!

Each Friday at Kerem we have a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat with lots of lively Shabbat songs. If you would like to play some Shabbat songs at home, for an Erev Shabbat dance, some of our class favourites can be found online. Have a look for:

-I Work Six Days a Week by Rabbi B

-Baruch Hashem it’s Shabbos by Yaacov Shwekey

-Getting Ready for Shabbat Song by Jkids

-It’s Shabbat by The Maccabeats

-Shalom Sesame: Aleph Bet Song by Shalom Sesame

Wishing you a wonderful Summer and enjoy Year 1!

Morah Cassie

Dear Parents

I cannot believe how quickly we have come to the end of our last full week of the year.

I think the highlight for me this year, this term, this week has got to be our end of the year show.

To the wonderful narrators, Liba and Amit, thank you. You were the glue which held the whole production together and you were amazing.

To the awesome pirates, Mia, Ellie, Ari, David and Harrison, you did a brilliant job. Aaaarrgh!!!.

To the gorgeous ballet girls, Ariella, Mila, Dylan, Emma S, Chloe, Isabella and Avia. Amidst much laughing and giggling you got there in the end. You were adorable so thank you. And Avia, (or shall we call you Sophie), you were wonderful. So brave to do a solo, even if it was only one line. Well done and thank you!!

To the very regal looking royal family, King Jacob, Queen Eden, Prince Jimmy and Princess Aria. You looked like you belonged on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Thank you for being very special and amazing.

To Speaker Liam...Thank you for being so kind to do that role at the last minute. You were brilliant and I enjoyed seeing your wonderful smile while you were saying your lines.

To Speaker Emma K... You remembered your words so well and you didn't even giggle this time like you always did in the practises. You were amazing. Thank you.

To Speaker Gabriel... Wow! What can I say? You spoke up so loud and clear and with the biggest smile on your face. Your confidence knew no bounds and I was so proud of you. Well done!!

To Speaker Eli... You made me laugh so much Eli. You were amazing. You were so smiley and happy and you made everyone else smile, so thank you for that.

To the gorgeous Princess Pat, Talya. You looked so cute sitting in your tree. Thank you for being so awesome.

To Little Jackie Paper, Reuben, thank you for playing your part so well. You were great. And for remembering what to do and when to do it, even though you missed all of the practices last week. Well done!

And last, but by no means least, to Puff, our Wonderful little Magic Dragon. You really looked so sad when your friend Jackie abandoned you and the way you curled up in your cave made me feel quite sad. Thank you. You were amazing.

A huge thank you to the parents for all your support and well wishes. It was just a wonderful day for me and I have all of you to thank for that.

On Friday the children went to the main school to visit the year one teacher again. It was a fun experience and the children were all very chatty on the way back across the park. They all seem really excited about year one and I know that they are all super ready. After the session with Miss Nathan, the children had their snack in the playground with their buddies, after which they had a little play. They are all super excited about the playground equipment which will be available to them next year.

This week in Forest School it was a little bit warm but really lovely. Emma had the tarp outside in the sun where we counted and said our names. We then went into the woods and played a game of ‘Eagle Eyes’.

Emma discussed the four seasons which the children had gone through in Forest School. The children then had the choice of activities. They could:

*make a wooden medal for themselves using the bow saw and the hand drills. Most of the children were really keen on this idea.

*make a bandana.

*use the sweeps to find bugs

*make potions

*play on the swings or hammocks.

At the end of the session the children thought about their year in Forest School and said what was their favourite activity of the year.

Thank you Emma and Carrie for a lovely year with many different, fun activities.

In Jewish Studies this week we looked at Parashat Pinchas. In Parashat Pinchas, Moshe knows he is not going to go into Eretz Yisrael. He asks Hashem to appoint a new leader. Hashem chooses Yehoshua because he is a good person and therefore able to lead Beneh Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael, as Hashem wishes. We talked about some of the leaders in our lives, from Ms Simon and Mrs Collier here at Kerem to Captain Barnacles in The Octonauts and Ryder in Paw Patrol. We discussed the qualities that a good leader must have and the children had some very wise insights, sharing that a leader should be kind and fair. A leader shows us how to behave and what to do. We learned the moves to the song Follow the Leader by DJ Rafi, which can be easily found online if you would like to listen to it at home. Reception class had fun making their own brilliant sandals, as Bnei Yisrael followed in the footsteps of Yehoshua. Some of the children also chose to colour in some beautiful, intricate, mindfulness colouring pages based on the name Joshua, which looked very smart indeed.

We also started to look at the topic of The Three Weeks. The Three Weeks is a sad time when we remember the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples. The Three Weeks happens between the 17th of Tammuz and ends with the fast of the 9th of Av. On 9th of Av both Holy Temples were set on fire. The Temples were destroyed because the Jewish people were not being kind to each other. We listened to an old favourite song of ours called B’Libi - By Uri Davidi, which is all about loving others as ourselves. We also enjoyed a fabulous version of Im Eshcachech Yerushalayim by a band called Derech Achim, both of which can be found online if you want to have a listen. We will continue to learn about The Three Weeks next week and will be working on a burning temple craft to bring home over the next few days.

In alef-bet we looked at two letters that often get confused with each other - Final Mem and Samech, which do look very similar. Try thinking of it like this- Samech’s base is more curvy, just like an ‘S’ is. We also had another look at our final letters, which all come at the end of a word. I have sent home a tiny laminated reading practice card. Please have a look at it with your child and see how much they have learned over the past few busy months!

This week we had our final Shabbat party in Reception. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jimmy

Shabbat Ima - Aria

Shabbat Ben - Amit

Shabbat Bat - Chloe

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

Welcome to the end of another busy week in reception. The 'End of the Year Show' is shaping up nicely and I love that some of you have been told exactly what's happening, while others have been told it's a secret.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children had another visit from their buddies. The year fives brought their packed lunches over and we had a picnic in the Reception playground. It was really lovely seeing them chatting together in little groups and getting to know one another that little bit better.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been rehearsing the 'End of the Year Show'. They are getting really excited to show you what they have been rehearsing and I know you are going to love it. Just a little warning: There may be a few tears (from the parents) so please make sure you have a tissue somewhere handy.

In Physical Development this week the children have been cutting and sticking and drawing and painting to complete the scenery for our end of the year show. They have also been clicking the waffle blocks and Octons and building with the bricks in the playground. They have tried their hand with the numbers fishing game, something which required some great coordination.

In Literacy this week the children have been revising the digraphs and trigraphs we have learnt as well as some of the tricky monster words. They have also been completing writing their chick diaries which has been quite fun.

In Maths this week the children have been revising addition and subtraction using rolling dice. They have remembered that in addition it doesn't matter the order of the numbers but in subtraction the bigger number needs to come first.

In Understanding the World this week the children have continued to be fascinated by the chicks. The chicks are growing so nicely and it was wonderful to see the children holding them so gently. Some children were a bit scared to hold the chicks so they stroked them instead while others were so calm the little chicks fell asleep in their hands. We were sad to say goodbye to the chicks on Friday but we realised that they are getting too big for the brood box and need to run about more freely.

This week in Forest School it was a little bit muddy due to the rain the night before. However it was lovely and sunny in the park, although the clouds came over a few times. Thankfully it didn’t rain. After counting around the circle, we did our names to an accompanying action.

After that the children played a pirate game. They were in the boat, which was a stick outline of a boat, and had to follow Captain Emma’s instructions. The children were very enthusiastic about this game and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Carrie read the story ‘The Singing Mermaid’ which prompted much discussion.

After that the children had the opportunity to:

*whittle a stick to make a mermaid.

*make a stick boat/raft

*mud painting (Thursday was international mud day)

*look for birds using the binoculars

*making potions

It was another lovely day in Forest School. Thank you Emma and Carrie.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been creating and decorating props for our End of the Year Show. They have had great fun thinking of ideas and putting them into practice. They have been cutting and scrunching and painting and sticking and the props are looking really beautiful.

This week in Jewish Studies, Reception learned about how in Parashat Chukat, Miriam saved the life of her baby brother, Moshe, by watching over him when he was placed in the basket and hidden in the bulrushes in the river. As a reward, Hashem made a well of water appear in the midbar for Bnei Yisrael to drink from. When she died, the well of water dried up. Bnei Yisrael then knew that they had the well because of Miriam’s good deeds. Hashem remembers the mitzvot and good deeds we do. We talked about the different good deeds that we have done in our lives. The children shared some of their good deeds - helping take care of their siblings, sharing and giving tsedakah. Reception class is full of real tsadikim! We created a beautiful mosaic craft of Miriam in the sunset with the fresh water she provided for Bnei Yisrael with her well. This week is a double parasha Chukat - Balak, so we also touched on the tefillah Ma Tovu, a beautiful blessing which many say every day which comes from the parasha of Balak. They are the words of Hashem, but are spoken by Bilaam.

In alef-bet this week we looked at our final letter - Final Tsadi, which comes at the end of a word and makes the sound ‘ts’ just like in the word Chamets. We also looked at two letters that people often get mixed up because they look very similar - Daled and Reish. We spotted the fact that Daled has a little ‘tail’ just like a dog, so that’s how we can tell them apart. Please keep playing with your laminated alef bet cards - jumbling them up into different orders and asking your child if they can tell you the sounds each letter makes. Just a couple of minutes a couple of times a week can make all the difference.

This week at our Shabbat party we had the following people at the Shabbat table:

Shabbat Aba - Harrison

Shabbat Ima - Dylan

Shabbat Ben - Jacob

Shabbat Bat - Ellie

Wishing you a fabulous shabbat,

Morah Cassie

Reminders:

On Wednesday we will be having our End of the Year Show. It will be at 9.30 in the Reception classroom. Please be seated promptly as, not only is it very disturbing for the little ones if people arrive late, but they also get upset if they cannot see their parents in the audience.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and a wonderful weekend

Kind Regards

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

We are quickly approaching the end of the year and I cannot believe how quickly this term is flying by. The children are starting to feel like Year One children and they are all so ready to move to the main school.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children went to the main school to meet their new teacher. Her name is Miss Nathan and I can see some of the children already adore her and cannot wait to be in her class. While there they chatted about themselves, read a story and did a short activity. They were then met by their buddies who showed them around the school. They were very chatty and excited on the walk back across the park. They were all so incredibly well behaved at the main school and all made me so very proud.

In Communication and Language this week we have had many discussions about Year One and the main school with some children voicing some anxieties while others have been super excited. After their visit to the main school, please chat to your child about year one. We have also been practising our end of the year show, which is progressing very nicely.

In Physical Development this week the children did their Fabulous Fun Fundraising Obstacle Course. I was a bit concerned that ten laps would be too many but they were amazing. They completed the course in two groups during PE and when they were done many of them asked if they could do it again. A huge thank you to Mr Antony for setting this up and helping to make it such a fun activity.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children are revising the sounds, digraphs, trigraphs and tricky monster words which they have already learnt. They are also writing a Chick Diary documenting the journey with the chicks.

In Maths this week we have been revising sharing. The children have been drawing visual representations and then writing the answer. We have divided a number of objects between two, and then three people.

In Understanding the World this week, and the highlight of the week, has been the arrival of the eggs. Monday saw Ken arrive with an incubator with ten eggs. On Wednesday morning we came into school and there were four little chicks. During the day another little one hatched and one little girl came running up to me telling me: "Mrs Collier. Another little chick has just hatched right in front of my eyes. It really did. For real it did. It was just there and it hatched". The excitement is contagious and we have a constant stream of visitors coming to check on the babies. We currently have nine little fluffy chicks.

This week in Forest School Emma put the tarpaulin under the trees again. It was lovely and cool under the trees. We started with our usual Forest School Song and saying our names with an accompanying action. After that, Emma played a lovely pirate themed game of ‘Emma Says’ (Like Simon Says but Emma Says). The actions were all Pirate themed. Carrie then showed the children a treasure map they found in the woods. The children were super excited and quickly identified it as the Forest School woods. The children and Emma followed the map and found the Forest treasure.

The children then had the choice to:

*Make a wooden doubloon

*Make a treasure map

*Use the bug pots to keep bugs

*Investigate an owl Pellet

*Make pirate potions

*Walk on the slack line

It was a really lovely Forest School session, under the trees and keeping cool. Thanks again to Emma and Carrie for being so amazing,

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have started making props for the end of the year show. They have also moulded with the playdough, played with the Batman Castle, built with the foam bricks and made mobile phones with the Mobilo.

This week in Jewish Studies, Reception looked at parashat Korach, in which Korach is jealous that Moshe and Aharon have been chosen to be the leaders of Bnei Yisrael. He feels that he should have been a leader as well. Hashem is angry with Korach and his followers for causing the argument. Hashem punishes them by making them disappear completely. Then, Moshe puts a staff from each of the 12 tribes in the Mishkan and leaves them there overnight. In the morning only Aharon’s staff had blossomed and was covered with flowers and sweet almonds. This was Hashem's way of saying that Aharon was the true Kohen Gadol and that Moshe and Aharon were the leaders chosen by Hashem. Reception children each made their own blossom staffs out of flag sticks and lots of different coloured and textured fabrics and yarns. These went straight onto the classroom wall for a gorgeous bright display. Reception also continued to learn about the topic of kosher fish this week, and they got crafty, cutting and folding their own paper origami style fish. It was quite a fiddly craft, requiring plenty of manual dexterity and an eye for detail, but each child did so well and made a gorgeous fish to take home.

In alef bet this week we looked at the letter Final Nun (Nun Sofit) which says ‘n’ and only ever comes at the end of a word, just like in the word ‘champion’. Some of the children noticed that there are three people in Reception class whose names end in Final Nun - Eden, Harrison and Dylan! Try to think of a few more words that end in the ‘n’ sound at home. We also looked a bit closer at four letters that often get confused with each other - Bet and Vet, and Caf and Chaf. They do look very similar so people often mix them up, especially if they are trying to read in a hurry! (If it helps, think of it like this- Bet and Vet both have little tails, like a bear who goes to the vet. And Bet has a belly button so he says ‘B’ . Caf has a cookie in her tummy so she says ‘c’ for cookie.) Do keep playing at home with your laminated alef-bet cards. If there are letters that your child isn’t recognising very easily, try popping them on the fridge door or somewhere else they can see them a few times a day and give them a hug /chocolate button/newly kosher Fruit Pastille (!) each time they tell you the correct sound the letter makes.

On Friday we had a Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Judah

Shabbat Ima - Ariella

Shabbat Ben - Reuben

Shabbat Bat - Emma K

Wishing you a wonderful Shabbat,

Morah Cassie

Coding Workshop:

We are really pleased to invite you to hear about our exciting and innovative computing and coding curriculum. Please join us for an interactive showcase on Monday 26th,Tuesday 27th or Wednesday 28th June, in which Ms Vinokur will show you what the children have been doing in computing classes this year. You will have the opportunity to engage with some of the robots, programs and devices that we use to develop their computational thinking and technology skills. Please sign up using this link.

Reminders:

Please remember to send your child to school with a hat or a cap. It is very hot and sunny in the playground and if it is too sunny they are not allowed out without some sort of head covering.

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful week,

From Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

It looks like summer has finally arrived. Everything is buzzing with activity as we start getting ready for our end of the year show and there is much excitement in the reception class.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have again been discussing their move to year one. They are very excited about their visit next Friday to meet their teacher. On Friday, while in the main school waiting for their whole school photo, they did Tefillah with their buddies, which made them feel very special indeed.

In Communication and Language this week we have been discussing our end of the year show and started practising it. The children are very excited and cannot wait to show you what they are doing. Regarding this, we are going to need five pirate costumes. If anyone can help us out with these please, it will be hugely appreciated.

In Physical Development this week we cannot forget our amazing sports day. Mr Antony did a wonderful job getting the children ready for this event and it was a great day. The children were all super excited and looked lovely in their house colour T-shirts. They were really amazing on the day, encouraging each other and being very good sports. The encouragement from the sidelines too was amazing, so thank you everyone for cheering them on so well.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been practising their digraphs and tricky monster words. They have also started completing a lovely piece of written work for their year one teacher, telling her all about themselves. This also forms part of their transition to year one. Their homework this week reflects many of the digraphs which they have previously learnt and is all about their wonderful sports day.

In Maths this week the children have been learning about halving and doubling numbers to twenty. We used the children to double the numbers and we were able to get to double twelve. They are so clever, they started telling me about double one hundred and double two hundred. It didn’t take long for them to work out the correlation between doubling and halving and that if double five is ten, then half of ten is five.

In Understanding the World this week we have been looking at rock pools and the creatures that live in them. We read the story 'Sharing a Shell' by Julia Donaldson and the children were fascinated by the characters in the story. In the coming days I will be reinforcing the impact that our behaviour has on these fragile creatures and what we can do to protect them.

It was a very hot day in Forest School this week so Emma very cleverly put the tarpaulin under the trees. It was lovely and cool under the trees so that was where we stayed. We started off with our usual Forest School song followed by counting and saying our names to an accompanying action. We reminded ourselves of the rules of Forest School, after which

Emma played a game of Eagle Eyes with the children. It was a good game which was a bit like a mix of ‘hide and seek’ and ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf’.

Carrie then read a story called ‘How to be a Pirate’ after which the children had the choice to:

*Make a pirate flag

*Make a nature eye patch

*Throw canon balls (pine cones) at tin cans to practise their aim

*Make leaf brooms to practise sweeting the deck

*Make a leaf brush to paint their pirate ship

*Play with the insects

*Do bark rubbing

It was another fun day in Forest School. Thank you Emma and Carrie.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children made papier-mâché rocks for our rock pool and have been painting sea creatures to go into the pool. It is really looking amazing and next week, when it is more ready, I will post a picture of it on the newsletter. The children have also been building palaces and houses with the bricks outside in the playground, as well as building train tracks to far away places.

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception looked into the parasha Shelach Lecha. In Shelach Lecha Bnei Yisrael are given the mitzvah of taking a piece of their unbaked dough to the Kohanim as a present. This makes the bread which Bnei Yisrael eat special. This mitzvah is called ‘taking challah’ and is still done nowadays. Each child made their own creative woven tapestry challah cloths to adorn the Shabbat table.

In alef-bet this week we focussed on the letter Final Fay, which makes the sound ‘f’ as in ‘off’ and only ever comes at the end of a word. We also looked again at the vowels Kamatz and Patach, which both make the sound ‘a’ as in apple. The children are doing so well getting used to putting the letter and vowel sounds together. We are even having a go at combining two letters and a vowel as a class to make very simple words such as ‘gan’ or ‘cat’. See if you can play with your laminated letter and vowel cards to make some more words at home.

We started to look at the topic of Kosher fish this week too. For fish to be kosher they need to have fins and scales. We talked about the different sea and water creatures we know and discussed which ones would be kosher and which ones would not. We had a fabulous time exploring shells, and different types of water life in our cool ‘rock pool’ in the garden. We each made our own fish puppets to go up on the wall in our classroom, which already looks absolutely smashing. Well done Reception!

This week we had our Shabbat party with nursery at the main school while we were waiting for the whole school photo to be taken. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Gabriel

Shabbat Ima - Talya

Shabbat Ben - Eli

Shabbat Bat - Liba

Reminders:

Please remember to send your child to school with a hat or a cap. They will not be allowed to go out into the garden to play without one.
Please also remember to apply sunscreen to your child in the morning.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

I cannot believe how close we are to your children being in year one. Just one short half term and their time at the EYU will all be over. This is promising to be a very busy but fun half term.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been discussing year one and what the children are to expect when they get there. They have also met their buddies again this week. On Friday morning the year five buddies came over and read a story to their little friends before venturing outside to play for a bit. It was lovely seeing the interaction between the different ages. The year five children were very respectful of the fact that our children are so little and they were very gentle with them.

In Communication and Language this week I heard about some lovely holidays which were taken over the half term. Thank you to the parents who uploaded pictures onto Tapestry. The children always enjoy talking about their trips and activities and showing their friends the pictures. The children have also been discussing the upcoming ‘end of the year show’ which was revealed to them this week. We will be recreating ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ and there is great excitement about this.

In Physical Development this week the children have been writing and drawing, cutting and sticking. They have painted lovely pictures moulded with playdough. I even had a special breakfast pizza made for me which included little red tomatoes and black olives. Many of them have been threading with the new beads in the class, making pretty little bracelets and rings. In the playground they have built with the Octons and foam bricks and ridden the balance bikes and practised their races for sports day.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been writing their holiday news using phonetically plausible spelling. They have also learnt three new digraphs: ‘ay’, ‘ou’ and ‘ie’. There were also two new tricky monster words this week: ‘little’ and ‘one’. Their homework at the end of the week will reflect this new learning.

In Maths this week the children have been learning about odd and even numbers and practising counting in twos, fives and tens, singing along to the number counting rap. https://youtu.be/p2NYeVU-Me4. It’s great fun to sing along together. They have also revised number bonds to ten, playing ‘number bond tennis’. They are always filled with pride when they get the answer correct.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been taking great care to water the plants in the garden. They have been observing how the plants have grown and cannot wait for the flowers to bloom. However, with flowers come gorgeous, fluffy bumble bees. The children get very afraid when they see these bees and I am trying really hard to show them that these gentle bees mean them no harm. We have had a few bees which have been deliberately trampled to death and this makes me very sad. We have also been discussing what we find in rock pools. We read the story ‘Seahorse’ by Eric Carl and the children were fascinated to learn that in the animal kingdom, many baby animals are left to fend for themselves and that often the male of the species looks after the eggs or the young.

In Forest School this week the children started their sensory circuit with a game of ‘Emma Says’. This was like Simon says but with Emma instead. The children then played a game of catch, throwing a Forest Friend from one to the other. The final part found the children leopard crawling back to the mat. The children then sang the Forest School song, counted themselves and said their names to an accompanying action.

After revising the Forest School rules, Emma challenged the children to use their ‘superhero eyes’ by following a rope in the woods and counting how many things Hazel the fox left in the woods.

Emma then read the story ‘A Worm called Wallace’. It was a non fiction book written as a fiction story and was very interesting.

The children then had the option to:

Make a wiggly worm out of elder sticks.
Make camouflage fabric with leaves and a mallet
Hit sticks into the ground to make houses for the Forest friends
Use the sweep nets and bug pots
Investigate the elder flowers
Use the pestle and mortars to make leaf paint.

It was a gorgeous day in Forest School with the sun shining warmly on us. Thank you Emma and Carrie for another fun day.

Because the weather is looking so lovely for the foreseeable future, I don’t think it’s necessary for the children to wear wellies and waterproofs for Forest School, unless it suddenly turns really wet. However, the children will need caps or sun hats and sun screen. Please remember that we are not allowed to apply sun screen. It must either be applied in the morning or the children need to be able to apply it independently. It is also important to remember that there is long grass which could become scratchy and uncomfortable. If you think your child needs leggings or other long, thin trousers, please send them to school on a Thursday.

In Expressive and Design this week the children have been threading beads to make delightful jewellery. They have also independently created their own resources to support their play. The foam bricks have proven to be a huge success and they have made fabulous constructions. They have created dialogues with the cars and garage, made towers with the small wooden blocks and played with the sea creatures in the rock pool. There was a delightful moment when a group of little girls were ‘saving’ the fish because they were drowning.

In Jewish Studies it has been lovely to welcome back Reception class after the half term break and to see everyone so refreshed! This week we looked at the parasha Beha'alotecha, in which Hashem tells Moshe to make himself two silver trumpets to blow as signals when he wants to gather Bnei Yisrael together. The Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire are also signals for Bnei Yisrael, for when to travel and when to rest. We talked about different signals in our lives, for example fire alarms, ambulance sirens and the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, which all tell us that something important needs our attention. Each child made a beautiful craft with a Pillar of 'Fire' on one side, made from all sorts of tactile materials, such as feathers, felt, and foam. On the other side of the craft piece, a Pillar of Cloud is represented with soft billowy cotton wool. The children made such wonderful efforts to get their crafts just right - well done!

At home, try to have a chat about the parasha and see if your child can recall:

1. What did the Kohanim blow to get Bnei Yisrael's attention? - 2 silver trumpets.

2. What did Bnei Yisrael follow at night? - Pillar of Fire.

3.What did Bnei Yisrael follow during the day? - Pillar of Cloud.

In alef-bet we looked at the letter Final Mem and a new vowel Patach. Patach makes the sound 'a', as in apple. The children are really enjoying blending the vowels with the alef-bet letters they have learned so far.

We also took a look at Havdalah this week. Havdalah, or “separation” in Hebrew, is Shabbat's closing ceremony when three stars appear on Saturday evening. We talked about the different beautiful sweet spices (besamim) we can use for Havdalah to give the new week a sweet start. We made our own besamim pots to use at home with delicious rosemary picked fresh from the EYU garden.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Aba

Shabbat Ima - Mila

Shabbat Ben - Liam

Shabbat Bat - Mia

Reminders:

Please continue to post any pictures on Tapestry of fun things you did during half term or anything of interest that would be nice for your child to share. The children get really excited to discuss with their friends what they have been doing out of school.

On a hot day please make sure that you apply sun cream on your child first thing in the morning. (sun cream that will last for the whole day) Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.

On Friday the 16th June please drop your child at the main school promptly at 8.30am for our whole school photo.

Sports Day:

Sports day will take place on Tuesday 13th June at The Wilf Slack Sport Ground, East End Road, N3 2LE.

It will be run by Mr Antony with the support of school staff.

Parents and children should arrive at the grounds at 9.00am.

When you arrive, it will be clear where the children should be taken and where parents should wait.

During the morning there will be a couple of event viewing areas where parents will be able to go and again, this will all be marked out clearly.

Children should bring snacks and plenty of water with them as well as a packed lunch. Please make the lunch is a mezonot, nut and sesame free packed lunch. We have staff and children with serious allergies so it is important that this is adhered to.

The PTA have arranged Oh Brown Bear to sell cookies and iced coffee.

Children should come wearing suncream and have sunhats with them.

School staff will bring asthma inhalers as well as epipens.

When the sporting events have finished, we are inviting the whole school community to join together for a picnic lunch so please feel free to bring picnic blankets and food for yourself too.

The event will be finished by 1.00pm at the latest.

At the end of the event we will need parents to transport children back to school.

Children who are not coming back to school must be signed out with the class teacher.

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a great weekend.

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

I cannot believe how quickly we have come to the end of summer term one. It seems like only last week we were all away for the Pesach holidays. The weather has finally warmed up and the children have been enjoying the garden.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been discussing their transition to year one. While many children are very excited about the move, many of them are filled with some trepidation. It is very important that we all continue to talk to the children about the move, speaking positively about year one and listening to their concerns.

In Communication and Language this week the children have talked about their weekend news. They have discussed their move to year one and how they feel about it and they have talked about what they are going to be doing during the upcoming half term holidays. It sounds like there are going to be some exciting trips abroad as well as some holidays in the UK. There also sounds as if there are going to be some lovely, relaxing days at home, just like me.

This week I read the story 'What Does Daddy Do?', by Rachel Bright, to the children. I followed this by asking the children what their daddy does for work. Well, it turns out that not one of the children had a clue about what daddy does. Many of them told me: "Daddy goes to his office". Some told me: "Daddy used to go to his office but his office closed down so now he works from home". I then tried pressing them for more detailed answers. Here are a few of them. "My daddy goes to the office and he sorts papers." "My daddy goes to the office and he works on his computer." "My daddy talks on the phone all day long. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." "My daddy works in a shop." "My daddy is a dealer." "My daddy sells food." But I think my favourite of all was: "My daddy goes to his office and he goes on his computer and he has all the letters of the alphabet and all the numbers and sorts them out and puts them in order." I just love the innocence of these answers.

In Physical Development this week the children have been building with the new bricks in the playground. They have been stacking them to quite a great height but, because they are foam and therefore quite light, the wind has often blown them down. They have climbed the climbing frame ropes and walked across the wobbly bridge without holding. They have also been cutting, sticking, drawing, writing and generally keeping delightfully busy with their imaginative play.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been practising their CCVC, CVCC and CCVCC words as well as their tricky monster words. They have been making sentences and using the tricky monster words in sentences. I am not giving them homework for the holidays. I would like the children to have the opportunity to relax and have some fun.

In Maths this week we have continued with the word problems. The children have practised making visual representations of the word problem and many of them have worked out whether it is an addition or subtraction number sentence and written it down independently.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been investigating the new water feature and sand tray. They have discovered that when you place a ball into the water, it floats and that the ball travels in a downward direction with the water. They have also worked out for themselves that you cannot build or mould with dry sand and that you cannot sift wet sand. They are also very impressed with how much the flowers and vegetables have grown and are watering them diligently in this warm weather.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children collaborated together to papier mache a Mount Sinai. It was sticky and gooey but lots of fun. We put it in the garden to dry but it took a long time. The children then decorated it with pretty flowers. They also moulded with playdough and had great fun making me pizza and cookies for my lunch. This week they seemed to fixate on making the most adorably decorated shields. They showed some great imagination and I was suitably impressed.

Reception has been buzzing with preparation for Shavuot this week. The children made little cheesecakes on Monday, and during Jewish Studies sessions, decorated some beautiful and intricate crafts with Shavuot songs. Do have a look at these shavuot songs at home and see if you can sing some of them together. Reception also made and decorated an impressive papier mache Har Sinai in the garden, and they had fun pretending to be Bnei Yisrael and Moshe receiving the Torah.

In alef-bet, we looked at the letters Tav and Tav, which both say 't' as in the word Torah. Please continue to play with the laminated letter cards and have a go at blending some of the letters with the 'kamatz' vowel. The children have been doing this in class and really enjoy having a go!

We have sent home a Shavuot story and activity pack for you and your child to enjoy together over the school break. This is not compulsory, but should be good fun!

Wishing you Chag Sameach,

Morah Cassie

Important reminders:

Please post any picture on Tapestry of fun things you do during half term. These are always lovely to see.
Please make sure all girls are sent in with their hair tied up and wearing only blue accessories.
Next half term please make sure that you apply sunscreen on your child first thing in the morning. This should be sunscreen that will last for the whole day as we are not allowed to apply sunscreen at school.
Please can you also send your child in with a sun hat.

Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful half term.

Kind regards

From Mrs Collier and the reception team.

Dear Parents

What a lovely week we have had. The children have been enjoying the warmer weather and have played mostly outside in the gorgeous sunshine.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have had to reiterate how we speak to our friends. There had been a bit of name calling from some of the children, particularly between the boys and the girls. However, despite this, there also seems to be a few little spring romances blossoming, which is rather sweet.

This week the year five children came to visit reception class. Next week we will link the reception children with a buddy in year five. These buddies will then be on hand to support them during transition from the EYU to the main school and will be there for them throughout year one.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing creating our own reception class story. We have drawn our story mountain and discussed our main character, setting, problem, solution and ending. We will continue our story into next week and next term the children will be thinking about their own stories.

In Physical Development this week the children have been balancing the bamboo poles with the blocks to create a Superhero village. They have also clicked with Lego and small waffle blocks and created with the large Octons. Some of them are becoming extremely agile on the climbing frames, even climbing the ropes. I must admit to being quite impressed by this as rope climbing was not something I ever managed to accomplish.

In Literacy and Phonics this week we have been revising CCVC, CVCC and CCVCC words as well as learning a few new tricky monster words. These new words are: like, some and come. Their homework this week will reflect these new words.

In Maths this week the children have been thinking about word problems. They have drawn visual representations of the word problem then written the number sentence. For example, I have a cat, a dog and a chicken. How many legs do they have altogether? The children then drew a cat, a dog and a chicken and counted the legs. They then wrote the number sentence 4+4+2=10.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been exploring the new water tray and sand tray. Through investigation, they have discovered that water travels in a downward direction and cannot travel upwards. They also learnt that a bowl of water which is full to the brim is extremely difficult to carry and easily results in wet feet. The new sand tray was also a huge success with the children raking, digging and sifting for treasure. It was such an exciting week with our new playground equipment.

In Forest School this week the children started with their sensory circuit. Log jumping was the first part, followed by making a repeating pattern using oak leaves and ivy leaves. The last part was a smelling exercise. The children had to pick a blade of grass, squash it and crush it between their fingers, then smell it. They then did the same with the ivy and oak leaves.

The children then sang the Forest school song, followed by the children saying their name, not with an accompanying action but by saying their favourite smell.

Emma then told the children about bees. This was followed by a game of the children using pipettes to move ‘nectar’ from one bowl (the flower) to another (the hive), followed by the ‘waggle dance’, just like bees.

After collecting lots of nectar, Carrie read a lovely story about Betsy Buglove, a little girl who loves all sorts of bugs and minibeasts.

The children then had the choice to:

*use pine cones or alder cones to make a little bee.

*use little bamboo sticks to make a bee hotel

*use the sweep nets to collect bugs

*go and explore the woods

It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day in Forest School. Thank you Emma and Carrie for yet another fun afternoon.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been exploring the new foam bricks in the construction area. There are three different colours and they are super fun to build with. But, of course, it doesn't matter what the new playground equipment looks like or does, you can rest assured that the most enjoyment will be had from the large, empty boxes that everything was delivered in. If you ever have things delivered in strong, sturdy, big boxes, please consider donating them to the playground before recycling them.

In Jewish Studies this week, reception class is continuing to get ready for Shavuot, learning an old favourite tune 'Little Har Sinai' by Rabbi B, which can be found online as well as a new favourite 'Hashem Gave Us the Ten Commandments'. We made some brilliant mountain finger puppets to enjoy at home.

We looked at this week's parasha of Bamidbar and we learned about how the midbar (desert) is the place where Beneh Yisrael received the Torah. Hashem looked after everyone’s needs when they were travelling in the desert on the way to Eretz Yisrael. Hashem looks after us wherever we are. Hashem is everywhere. Reception made a beautiful collage of the earth with blue and green tissue paper, and decorated it with some of the lyrics of the old tune 'Hashem is Here, Hashem is there'.

Reception class is marching on swiftly now with alef-bet letters. This week we took a look at the letters:

-Kuf - says 'k', as in kangaroo

-Reish - says 'r' as in raashan or rose

-Shin, says 'sh' as in Shema (and it's the one with the dot on the right-hand side, just like we use our right hand for Shema), and Shofar.

-Sin - says 's' as in 'Simchat Torah'.

Please keep playing with your laminated letters and reading practice cards at home. There is no need to overdo it. Just pick 2 or 3 letters to play with each time and spend a few minutes on it a couple of times during the week and try to keep it light.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,

This week on our Shabbat table we had the following people:

Shabbat Aba - Amit

Shabbat Ima - Emma S

Shabbat Ben - David

Shabbat Bat - Isabella

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a lovely weekend

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

What a wonderful week we have had. It has been busy but very satisfying. We started the week right after the coronation weekend and everyone was talking about the king and what they had seen on the television (including a few of them seeing themselves😊). We started the week with Lag B’Omer and the children looked so lovely in their warm, fire colours.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been reminding ourselves of how we speak to our friends. We are trying to develop empathy and getting the children to understand how they would feel if their friends were unkind to them. The trusty puppets popped in for another visit to support the children with their learning.

In Communication and Language Development this week the children have been discussing the coronation. They talked about the king and what they had watched. Many of the children spoke of their mini break in Windsor and their visit to Windsor Castle. We read the story ‘The King’s Pants’ and there was much laughter and discussion about the book.

In Physical Development this week the children have been cutting and sticking, making the King’s pants. They have also clicked waffle blocks and magnetic blocks and built with the large octons in the playground. They have hung on the climbing frames, gaining confidence every day and whizzed around on the balance bikes.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been learning about CCVCC words. These are words which have a consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant. For example ‘stamp’. They have also revised using ‘ed’ to create a past tense word. For example ‘stamped’. They have also learnt three new tricky monster words: have, were and out. Their homework this week will reflect this.

In Maths the week the children have been using a number line to work out subtraction. They learnt that when you are taking away you need to jump to the left to get a smaller number. We even tried our hand at calculating subtraction of teen numbers using the number line.

In Understanding the World this week the children learnt about static. They were very amused to see how a balloon could make their hair stand on end and how a balloon could stick itself to their jumper. The ‘sticky uppy’ hair was a huge success.

On Tuesday the children had a mini first aid course. They worked in three groups, each with a giant teddy. They were taught how to stop bleeding, apply a plaster and how to deal with a head bum, using an ice pack. They learnt that if someone has a head bump, you need to ask them ‘are you feeling sick’ and ‘are you feeling dizzy’. They then learnt about calling 999 if someone was really poorly. Many children didn’t know their door number or the name of the road they live in. This is something that all children should know. The children were then given toy phones to work in pairs to call 999 and report an emergency. Martin then showed the children how to put their teddies into the recovery position. The session then finished with a story called ‘The Mini Adventures of Freddie’, about a little boy who is very accident prone. Thank you Martin. This was a great session for young children.

Forest School this week started with the children completing their three part sensory circuit. Part one was jumping, part two was leaf sorting and part three was pushing against a partner, feeling the pressure in their hands and feet.

After that the children sang the Forest School song and said their names with an accompanying action. At that point there was lightning and thunder and we had to go back to school. After Emma read the story of Tadpole’s Promise at school, it was deemed safe to return to Forest School where it was just a bit drizzly and damp. The children were tasked to find pictures of the life cycle of the frog which were hidden in the long grass which they then had to put in order. After that the children had to stay in the grassy area and not go into the woods. They had the following choices:

*go on a bug hunt

*do a tree shake to collect bugs

*complete a watercolour painting

*play with the minibeasts

*observe the little invertebrates in the pots

It was rather fun and exciting having thunder and lightning in Forest School but we were glad it cleared up long enough to return. Thank you Emma and Carrie for another great Forest School experience.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children decorated the King’s Pants (after reading the book called The King’s Pants) and then hung them on the display line in the class. They also created dialogues with the Playmobil Pirate ship and built with the Lego and the small waffle blocks. The home corner was well used and the babies were well looked after.

We have had a fabulous and very busy week in Jewish Studies this week. We started off the week with some special activities in celebration of Lag Ba'Omer. After a joint tefillah with Nursery, each child made a beautiful bonfire handprint craft, and decorated their own delicious Lag Ba'Omer-themed bonfire biscuits with red, yellow and orange icing. We had a chance to play with red, yellow and orange coloured rice, and got creative, rolling, cutting and moulding red, yellow and orange play dough. Reception and Nursery had a Lag Ba'Omer picnic all together, which unfortunately had to be enjoyed inside, due to the inclement weather, however it was still good fun!

Reception is moving ahead with alef-bet and this week we focussed on reviewing the vowel sound 'kamatz', which makes the sound 'a', as in apple, and the new letters:

Pay , which makes the sound 'p' as in pizza,

Fay, which makes the sound 'f' as in fruit, and

Tzadi, which makes the sound 'ts' as in tsitsit.

We looked at Tzadi and Ayin together too, because they look very similar, and people often get them mixed up. Please continue to play with your laminated alef bet and mini reading practice cards at home, so that your child gets really comfortable with the sounds the letters make.

For further practice, if you would like to try and blend some of the letters and the kamatz vowel to make little 'words', please do have a go - it can be a lot of fun!

Try to make these 'words' with your laminated cards:

-pat

-mat

-tag

-add

Reception is continuing to count the omer in tefillah every morning. We are getting closer to Shavuot and this week we started to discuss what is special about this chag, and the fact that it is a celebration of Bnei Yisrael receiving the Torah on Har Sinai. Reception started to make their own gorgeous mosaic Torah pictures, which we hope to finish and send home next week.

This week we had our Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Reuben

Shabbat Ima - Eden

Shabbat Ben - Jimmy

Shabbat Bat - Ellie

Reminders:

Regarding packed lunches:

Thank you everyone for embracing the packed lunches. I have seen some really beautiful, tasty, healthy, great lunches.

Please remember we can have no lunch items which contain nuts or sesame seeds and there should be no hummus and no chocolate for a treat.

Please can you keep snacks and lunches separate. Snacks will be kept in the class and lunches will be taken upstairs to the dinner hall once everyone is in.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend everyone.

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

It was so lovely to be back at school this week and seeing everyone’s smiling face. Thank you everyone for your kind wishes while I was unwell.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have had to speak again about when is a good time to listen to our friends. Some children have been making some very silly choices and, when asked, have blamed their friends for telling them to do it. The puppets again made an appearance, helping the children to understand that they know right from wrong and not to listen to their friends if their friends are telling them to do the wrong thing. The children always respond very well to the puppets and I love every time I bring them out.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing the Royal Family and the Coronation of King Charles. They are all very excited about watching the event on television. Many of the children had very good knowledge of the Royal Family and I can see that many discussions have been had at home.

In Physical Development this week the children have been cutting and sticking, drawing and painting, clicking Mobilo and Lego, all to develop their fine motor skills. They have also ridden the balance bikes, created amazing obstacle courses with the blocks in the playground, and done some amazing gymnastics on the climbing frames.

The children also had their weekly PE lesson with Mr Antony, which they all thoroughly enjoyed. During PE lessons they have been practising the events which they will all be taking part in on sports day next term.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been practising CVCC words. These are words with a Consonant, Vowel, Consonant, Consonant, e.g. jump. They have also been learning that ‘ed’ changes a word from present tense to past tense, jump becomes jumped. Their homework reflects the work they have been learning.

In Maths this week the children have used their knowledge of number bonds to ten to work out how much change they would get from 10p if they bought different objects. They were quite amazed when they discovered the correlation between number bonds and money change.

In Understanding the World this week the children watched in amazement when we created a ‘skittles rainbow’. Some of them predicted correctly what would happen and some were unsure what to expect but they were all in awe of the beautiful pattern it created. The children also had a fascinating workshop by Mr Budwig about solar power. They learnt lots of very important facts about solar power and enjoyed the activities and resources which Mr Budwig supplied.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been painting beautiful portraits of King Charles and Queen Camilla. They are really amazing pictures. The children have looked very carefully at the photos and then painted what they saw. I am so pleased with their pictures and they will all go onto a display in the corridor outside the classroom. They have also painted lovely red, white and blue bunting for our tea party. The children also had a wonderful ‘Perform’ workshop, all about the coronation. They acted out many different scenarios and had a great time and learnt a lot about King Charles.

In Forest School this week we were a few minutes early so we sat quietly and listened to see what we could hear. We heard traffic noises, birds and the wind in the trees. When Emma arrived the children completed their sensory circuit.

After that we sat in a circle and sang our Forest School song. We then said our names with an accompanying action.

Emma used her forest friends to discuss features of a mammal: they are warm blooded, have fur or hair, give birth to live young and feed their young milk. Emma then introduced National Hedgehog day.

The children played a hedgehog game called ‘hibernating hedgehogs’.

Emma then told the story of how the hedgehogs got their spikes.

The children had the option to:

*making pinecone and clay hedgehogs

*make a mud hedgehog decorated with sticks

*looking for bugs with a sweep net

*finding bugs and putting them into the bug pots

*looking at the bug books to identify different kinds of bugs.

It was a gorgeously warm day in Forest school and for the first time it really felt like spring had sprung. Thank you Emma and Carrie for another wonderful afternoon.

It has been a short week, but a jam packed week for Reception class. On Tuesday we delved into the fascinating topic of Lag Ba'Omer, which is day 33 of the Omer and a day of celebration and joy. We discussed the teachings of Rabbi Akiva who encouraged his students to show loving kindness to others and we played the song ' Amar Rabbi Akiva', which has the beautiful chorus of 'Ahavta Lareyacha Kemocha' translated as- love your neighbour like yourself. We discussed Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a student of Rabbi Akiva, who brought a lot of light and happiness into this world with his Torah teachings.

We made beautiful motifs of Lag Ba'Omer bonfires to remind us that we celebrate Lag Ba'Omer with bonfire parties, fireworks and enjoying the outdoors with barbecues and with bows and arrows. As we worked, we chatted about the people in our lives who bring us joy, and why. The children had some lovely insightful answers, so please do discuss this at home with them.

We are really picking up speed with our alef bet now that Pesach is over, and we are getting ready for year one. This week we looked at the letters Samech (which says 's' as in slide) and Ayin (which makes no sound of its own). We also started to introduce the vowel Kamatz (which makes the sound 'a' as in apple). Please keep playing with the laminated letter cards and the little reading practice cards I will be sending home.

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Cassie

This week on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Liam

Shabbat Ima - Avia

Shabbat Ben - Judah

Shabbat Bat - Dylan

Reminders:

On Tuesday we are celebrating Lag B’Omer. The children can come to school wearing red, orange, yellow (fire colours) clothing.

Shabbat Shalom everyone and have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

What a pleasure it has been to be able to teach your children again this week in Mrs Collier’s absence. It has been a really busy week and there was much excitement on Wednesday with Yom Haatzmut. Thank you for sending your children to school looking so smart in their blue and white outfits.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children discussed what makes them happy. They then also went on to discuss what they could do to make their friends, their parents or their teachers happy. This led to us discussing different words to use instead of ‘happy’. We learnt words like ‘cheerful’, ‘merry’, ‘joyful’, ‘gleeful’, ‘delighted’, etc. The children loved learning new words and it was wonderful hearing them use these new words in a sentence.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing the books we have been reading, focussing on the main characters, the plot and the setting. The children have also been thinking about the word happy (as described above) and discussing what makes them happy. With Yom Haatzmaut celebrations on Wednesday, the children also discussed what kinds of food they would like for their ideal party.

In Physical Development this week the children have focussed on cutting and sticking to decorate flags and crowns for Yom Haatzmaut. They have used different media for writing and drawing. They have balanced blocks and built with Lego. In the garden they have ridden the balanced bikes, sometimes at great speed, built with Octons and climbed on the climbing frames. All the children made a cup of orange juice by squeezing a fresh orange. They found that they had to press and turn the orange quite hard but it was rewarding when they could drink the juice. We were treated to an Israeli dance lesson with the nursery where we managed to follow a dance with flags, a circle dance and a line dance which was lots of fun.

In Literacy this week the children have been focussing on CCVC words. These are words which are built up of a Consonant, Consonant, Vowel, Consonant. For example, the word frog is a CCVC word. Their homework will reflect this work. After discussing what kinds of food they would like for a party, the children then all wrote a food list for their ideal party.

In Maths this week the children have been focussing on money. They have identified UK coins and then used coins to go ‘shopping’ in a shop we set up in the maths area. The children used their knowledge of number bonds to add the cost of two objects together. For example, if a lollipop cost 4p and a pencil cost 3p, how much money would you need altogether. It was very interesting to note that many of the children who know their number bonds got confused because it was pence and not just a plain number. Next week they will continue with this learning and begin to learn about giving change from 10p and later from 20p.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been revelling in the warmer weather. Many have made comments about this and I even heard one little girl complaining that she had to go to sleep and it was still light. They are also enjoying singing the ‘Seasons of the Year’ song. They are also enjoying observing how the flowers and vegetables are growing out in the garden.

In Forest School this week, after saying our names and doing a warm up activity, we had a lovely story about a dandelion. The choosing activities included relaxing in the hammocks, climbing trees that are safe to climb, making dandelion crowns, dandelion printing and planting seeds.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have made crafts for Yom Haatzmaut. They made blue and white shakers for a song and dance which Mr Style taught them and they really enjoyed using them. They made flags and decorated biscuits. There was a lot of blue and white craft going on this week.

It has been another fabulous week in Jewish Studies. On Monday each child made a blue and white crown to get us into a festive mood. We also made our own little Kottel scene in the hallway which looked very smart indeed! The children talked about what they would daven and wish for if they were to visit the Kottel - this including a toy unicorn with wheels, a dragon toy bag with a zip and a Barbie house, which all sound brilliant.

This week we have been listening to lots of nice Israeli music, including 'Hope' by Fountainheads and Erets Yisrael Sheli (Yaakov Farhi version), which can both be found online.

Each morning we count the Omer, saying the bracha as a class. Our star pupils have marked our class Omer Calendar on the classroom wall with beautiful gems, googly eyes, shiny gold paper and other exciting materials. The calendar is becoming more beautiful and colourful every day, just as we are getting ourselves more prepared for Shavuot.

In alef bet, we looked at letters Mem (which makes the sound 'm') and Nun, (which makes the sound 'n'). We had a go at writing beautiful Mems and Nuns. Please keep playing with your letter cards at home. If you are missing any cards, do let me know; I am happy to replace them.

If you would like to send your child into school with a Jewish Studies Show and Tell item, please do so - it could be anything at all of Jewish Interest - eg a kippah, a benscher etc, but please don't send in anything too valuable or precious.

Wishing you a shabbat shalom,

This week on our Shabbat table we had the following:

Shabbat Aba - Eli

Shabbat Ima - Chloe

Shabbat Ben - Gabriel

Shabbat Bat - Aria

Kind regards

Morah Cassie

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom. Have a great long weekend everyone.

From Mrs Onona and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

Welcome back everyone after what sounds like a very exciting Pesach holiday. It sounds like many holidays were held abroad, but, like me, many holidays were also held in the Uk. Whatever you decided to do, I hope you had a relaxing holiday with some good quality family time.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been reiterating the classroom and playground rules. The children have been discussing how to look after their friends and how we feel when someone is unkind to us. We remembered to say ‘sorry’ when we accidentally hurt someone and then to ask ‘are you okay?’ afterwards.

In Communication and Language this week there have been many holiday discussions. It is so pleasing to see how the children are using much more detail in their narrative, particularly using a lot of descriptive language. They have also answered many questions about their holidays.

In Physical Development this week the children have been writing and mark making about their holiday news, building with Citiblox, moulding the playdough, threading beads and constructing with Lego. While playing outdoors they have ridden the balance bikes, some of them at great speed, found bugs in the sand, drawn and written with chalk and climbed like agile little monkeys on the climbing frames.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been writing about their holiday news. I have seen some delightful phonetically plausible spellings and some lovely writing. We have not learnt any new digraphs or trigraphs this week. Instead we are taking some time to revise the ones we have already done. This week we practised ‘ai’, ‘ee’ and ‘igh’. We have also been revising the tricky monster words and will learn some new ones next week.

In Maths this week the children have been revising their number bonds to ten. Because they enjoy the number bond rap so much, we decided to write our own number bond rap with bonds to nine. It starts with someone suggesting ‘0+9, let’s be kind’. I thought this was a lovely way to start our new rap. We have also used the large counting frame to count in twos, fives and tens and we even had a go at counting in twos starting at number one. It was tricky but they did really well.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been delighted to see how the seeds have grown in the planter boxes. Soon we will have lovely veggies to pick and eat and some gorgeous wildflowers to attract the fluffy big bumble bees. The children have also been noticing the change in the weather and have been delighted to go outside in the sun without jumpers for a very short while.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been running around in the superhero capes, saving the world. They have built with the Citiblox and the Lego, played mummies and daddies in the home corner and looked after their babies. They have moulded the playdough and built with the Mobilo. There have been some interesting discussions around the wooden castle and they have all had loads of fun being creative.

This week in Forest School we had a gorgeous sunny day. There was a bit of mud but the grass was lovely and dry.

The children started by completing a ‘sensory circuit’. This comprised jumping over logs, walking a straight line on a rope, running slalom between flags and then lying on the mat on our backs to relax.

Forest School looks very different this term and we noticed that Spring has definitely arrived. We all said our names but, instead of an accompanying action, we had to say something we observed that was different in the park. It was lovely to see how observant the children have been.

The children learnt a new game called ‘Animal actions’. This is a listening game. If Emma made a correct statement, the children did the action. E.g ‘monkeys climb trees’. If Emma made an incorrect statement, the children had to freeze. E.g ‘Foxes can fly’. This proved to be a good, thinking game.

Carrie then read ‘The Earth Book’ because Saturday is ‘Earth day.’ The children learnt many different ways to look after our earth.

The children then had the choice to:

*decorate flower pots and plant a sunflower seed

*make a tree paintbrush

*do mud painting on fabric

*make a special ‘earth day’ mud birthday cake.

*whittle a stick candle

*use the new special hammock

It was another gorgeous, sunny day in Forest School. Thank you Emma and Carrie.

It is lovely to have Reception class back after the Pesach break. I was so happy to hear the children proudly tell me that they’d had a go at singing Ma Nishtana and finding the afikoman - well done children, we are so proud of you all!

We learned about the Parasha of Tazria-Metzorah and how we must not speak unkindly about others. Words are very powerful so we must be very careful with them. We sang along and made our own actions for a beautiful song called BeLibi by Uri Davidi, which you can find online if you would like to play it at home. Each child made a craft - friends holding hands and sharing kind words. We also got to make friendship bracelets to give to mummy.

We started to learn about Yom HaAtsmaut, Israel's birthday, which is coming up next week. Reception children each made a birthday card for Israel. The children worked together to make their very own Kotel, and we had such fun talking about all of our favourite places in our beautiful and special land of Israel.

Reception class learned the letter Lamed, which says 'L' this week. Please keep playing with your laminated letter cards at home. Here are some ideas you might want to try:

1. Place a few letters on the table face up. Ask your child to pick the one (or more) that makes a particular sound eg 'can you find me the letter that says 'v' - (vet and vav)

2. Ask your child to choose a letter and say its sound. Try to think of a few words that start with the sound

We had our usual Friday Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jacob

Shabbat Ima - Emma K

Shabbat Ben - Ari

Shabbat Bat - Ariella

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards from Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

Welcome back everyone after what sounds like a very exciting Pesach holiday. It sounds like many holidays were held abroad, but, like me, many holidays were also held at home. Whatever you decided to do, I hope you had a relaxing holiday with some good quality family time.

In Maths this week the children have been revising their number bonds to ten. Because they enjoy the number bond rap so much, we decided to write our own number bond rap with bonds to nine. It started with someone suggesting ‘0+9, let’s be kind’. I thought this was a lovely way to start our new rap. We have also used the large counting frame to count in twos, fives and tens and we even had a go at counting in twos starting at number one. It was tricky but they did really well.

This week in Forest School we had a gorgeous sunny day. There was a bit of mud but the grass was lovely and dry.

Carrie then read ‘The Earth Book’ because Saturday is ‘Earth day.’ The children learnt many different ways to look after our earth.

The children then had the choice to:

*decorate flower pots and plant a sunflower seed

*make a tree paintbrush

*do mud painting on fabric

*make a special ‘earth day’ mud birthday cake.

*whittle a stick candle

*use the new special hammock

It was another gorgeous, sunny day in Forest School. Thank you Emma and Carrie.

Reception class learned the letter Lamed, which says 'L' this week. Please keep playing with your laminated letter cards at home. Here are some ideas you might want to try:

1. Place a few letters on the table face up. Ask your child to pick the one (or more) that makes a particular sound eg 'can you find me the letter that says 'v' - (vet and vav)

2. Ask your child to choose a letter and say its sound. Try to think of a few words that start with the sound

We had our usual Friday Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jacob

Shabbat Ima - Emma K

Shabbat Ben - Ari

Shabbat Bat - Ariella

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards from Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

We have reached the end of the Spring term and my goodness, how quickly it has gone by. It feels like just last week we were welcoming the children back from their winter holidays. However, it may have been quick but it has certainly been eventful.

We were all super excited to have our playground back and could not wait to start playing in it. The climbing frames were a novelty which some children found super easy and which other children found quite tricky. The track was a huge success which saw balance bikes whizzing around confidently. When the little obstacles arrived, it just seemed to complete the picture and, while there are still a few tweaks to be made over the holidays, we are very happy with the results.

We also celebrated book week with everyone excitedly dressing up as a favourite book character. There was great excitement on dress up day and the children were keen to show off their costumes in the parade. It was also a new experience to meet a real, live author and the children thought of many interesting questions to ask her.

The children enjoyed their visit to Kew Gardens. We were all a bit anxious about the weather but it was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine. I think the children were most looking forward to the picnic lunch, which in itself was very exciting, but it was still a beautiful day and a fantastic outing. The coach trip was fun on the way there but much quieter on the way back, with some children (and one or two adults) falling asleep after a tiring day.

Purim brought much excitement to the EYU with the children again looking forward to dressing up. They sat beautifully through the Megillah reading, booing loudly at the appropriate time.

We were sad to say goodbye to Mr Fingerhut but we welcomed Mr Style. He is starting to teach us all many new songs, the particular favourite at the moment is ‘ToeKnee ChestNut’. He has also been singing many Pesach songs, some new ones and some the children already know.

This term saw the introduction of the beautiful fish tank in the Reception dinner hall, thanks to Mr Lipman. The children were all super excited to see the tank when it was set up and to see the fishes when they appeared. They sit eating their lunch, chatting to each other, but always keeping an eye on the fish. A huge thank you goes to Mr Lipman for doing this for us. We really appreciate it.

Many exciting things happened this term. We celebrated birthdays with the class and we rejoiced quietly when some children received their first reading book. The children listened carefully to Sophie, the puppet, who taught them many lessons on how to be kind to their friends. They learnt that subtraction is basically the opposite of addition and they learnt the number bond rap. They learnt new digraphs and tricky monster words and some children became very fluent readers.

All in all it's been a busy and eventful term and we are now all looking forward to some relaxation and downtime.

We were very happy to welcome Miss Gershon into our class at the beginning of the year and it is with sadness that we say goodbye to her now at the end of the term. She has been an enormous help in the reception class and the children have all loved having her around. We all wish her well in the future.

I know many trips are planned for this holiday. If you are jetting off somewhere nice, I wish you safe travels and a lovely holiday. If, like me, you are staying at home, I wish you a peaceful stay. Whatever you are celebrating, enjoy, stay safe and I will see you all again in the summer term.

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

As we complete the last full week of the spring term, I'm looking back at the photos taken of the children back in September and I cannot but wonder at how much they have grown. Not only in size but emotionally too.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the puppets again made an appearance. We discussed the feelings of anxiety and frustration. These were new words to many of the children as previously many of them simply referred to these emotions as being sad. This is perfectly understandable as frustration and anxiety can both lead to tears and tears equals sadness when you are little. The children responded really well to the puppets, listening very quietly to what the puppets had to say.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing these new emotions and what causes them. Just like last week the children gave some very good examples of times when they felt anxious or frustrated, either at school with their friends or at home, often with their siblings. They spoke so confidently to their peers and I couldn't be prouder of them.

In Physical Development this week the children have been using small implements like paintbrushes, playdough tools, scissors, pens and pencils. They have also been balancing the bamboo huts, this week using the larger wooden shapes to hold up the structure. They have had playdough in the ‘Matzah Factory’ which they had to roll and then create patterns on their matzah using Lego blocks. They have constructed with Lego and Mobilo and used the large Octons to build fancy armour. The climbing frames and obstacle course have remained firm favourites with children trying different methods of completing the obstacle course.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have continued to revise the digraphs and trigraphs that have previously been taught, as well as learning three new tricky monster words: 'said', 'so' and ‘have’. We have also continued to assess each child's knowledge of phonics and tricky monster words.

In Maths this week the children have been revising the number bonds to ten using the number bond rap. They have also revised subtraction to ten and written the number sentences. Previously the children have measured using non standard units of measurement, e.g. unified cubes, but this week they learnt to measure objects using a ruler. They know to put the object on the zero and see what number it goes up to. They recorded their findings on a 'measure the matzah' page. The children have also been exploring the large foam 2D shapes, creating some beautiful designs, including one which the whole class took part in. It was an amazing experience.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been discussing spring and all the differences which they see around them. They have commented on the buds and blossoms on the trees and that many of the trees now have their green leaves. They have also commented on the warmer weather, amazed that even though it has been wet and windy, it has not been as bitterly cold as in previous weeks. We have also planted some seeds and are watching with bated breath for something to happen.

In Forest School this week we started by counting ourselves and saying our names with an accompanying action. After that the children did their mindfulness exercise by lying on their backs doing deep breathing, in through their nose and out through their mouth. They imagined their calm place, doing their deep breathing.

The children then played a special game for ‘tree awareness week’. The game was called ‘You Are Safe When…’. For example, Emma called out “you are safe when touching a willow tree”. The children all had to run and touch a willow tree before Emma could catch them. This tested their knowledge of trees and they did really well.

Emma then told a story called ‘The Tree People’, which was a lovely folk tale about trees.

The children then had options to:

*paint on paper with sticks or leaves.

*do some tree rubbing

*make crowns with cherry blossoms

*make clay tree people

*play tug-of-war using one of Emma’s long ropes.

It was a lovely day in Forest School and the rain held off until you all came to fetch your children from school.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have used the home corner to full advantage, sitting at the lovely Seder table. They have also made playdough matzah and studied a tough tray full of lovely spring animals. They have still had the normal home corner and dress up area as well as the babies, which has resulted in games of mummies and daddies.

This week in JEwish Studies we practised some of the Pesach tunes that we have learned, including Ma Nishtana, Dayeinu and a melody for the 'Order of the Seder', which we made a craft of too. Reception class celebrated Rosh Chodesh Nisan and sang the chorus of Hodu La Hashem Ki Tov, which the children will also enjoy singing on Seder night.

Reception class learned this week that during Pesach we start to count the Omer; counting seven weeks until the chag of Shavuot. The children were excited to make their own Omer counting charts that they can use at home and they are looking forward to counting the omer with their friends in school after the Pesach break!

This week we had our usual Shabbat party on Friday. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Amit

Shabbat Ima - Ellie

Shabbat Ben - Harrison

SHabbat Bat - Liba

Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the reception team.

Dear Parents

Emma then told a story called ‘The Tree People’, which was a lovely folk tale about trees.

The children then had options to:

*paint on paper with sticks or leaves.

*do some tree rubbing

*make crowns with cherry blossoms

*make clay tree people

*play tug-of-war using one of Emma’s long ropes.

It was a lovely day in Forest School and the rain held off until you all came to fetch your children from school.

This week we had our usual Shabbat party on Friday. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Amit

Shabbat Ima - Ellie

Shabbat Ben - Harrison

SHabbat Bat - Liba

Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the reception team.

Dear Parents

What a lovely week we have had. While Purim is now just a memory, the air is busy with Pesach learning and Pesach activities. Some have started to talk about holidays which they will be going on and there is a general buzz of excitement around the EYU.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been learning about different emotions. They are all very familiar with 'sad', 'happy' and 'angry' and can identify these easily. We used the puppets to illustrate feelings of 'jealousy', and ‘embarrassment'. The children were very interested to learn that everything that they feel has a name and were keen to know why they felt certain emotions. The puppets did a great job of explaining these feelings and the children always enjoy watching them. Next week we will discuss other emotions which are common in children, like ‘empathy’ and ‘frustration’.

In Communication and Language this week the children were discussing different scenarios where they may have felt the emotions talked about in Personal, Social and Emotional Development. Some children talked about things which happened in the class, some children about things that happened at home with siblings. A couple of children also discussed something their parents may have said or done, causing them to feel certain emotions. It was lovely that the children felt safe to speak and that they listened so beautifully to each other.

In Physical Development this week the children have been using paint brushes and scissors, glue sticks and felt tips. They have practised their fine motor balancing skills with the bamboo huts and clicked with the Lego. In the garden they have clicked with the Mobilo and the Interstars and run races. They have also used the small obstacles to create an obstacle course and they have ridden the balance bikes. The new climbing frames were put to good use and the children were great at taking turns on them.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been practising the digraphs and trigraphs which they have already learnt. They have also learnt two new tricky monster words, 'when' and 'what'. We have been assessing the children's knowledge of phonics and tricky monster words and this will be ongoing into next week.

In Maths this week the children have been revising the number bonds of ten and have learnt the number bond rap. They have also been learning how to calculate addition sums using a number line. For example, if the sum reads 5+4, they must put their finger on number five and make four jumps, landing on number nine. They really embraced this new challenge with some of them ready to try subtraction.

In Understanding the World this week we were very excited to see lots of soil arrive to fill our planters. There were many questions asked about what we were going to plant. When I said we would plant some vegetables which we could eat, I was met with some stares of total horror. The thought of picking their own baby tomatoes, small cucumbers or carrots was totally foreign to some of them while others really embraced the idea. So watch this space!!

It was a lovely, almost warm day in Forest School this week. After singing our Forest school song, counting everyone and saying our names to an accompanying action, we did our calming exercise. We lay on our backs and relaxed different parts of our body, starting at our feet and working upwards.

Emma then introduced the game ‘Eagle Eyes’. Those of you with children in year one will remember this game from last year. In this game, Emma sat on the carpet and the children had to hide. It was a bit of a twist on the game ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’.

Carrie then read the story ‘Growing Good’ by Bernard Ashley and Anne Wilson. It was about a plot of land which people turned into an allotment and grew many different flowers and vegetables.

The children then had the choice to:

*make seed paper.

*make pots of love

*make a patterned leaf

*make a rope swing in the woods

*explore in the woods

*go and have a snuggle in the hammocks

It was another great session in the forest and it was enjoyed by all.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children did some amazing free painting. They also created some lovely models out of Lego and had fun with the Playmobil Water Park. They created a Disney bamboo hut village and did some lovely pictures using the stencils. In the playground they drew with the chalks, clicked with the Mobilo and the Interstars and made large constructions using the Octons.

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception class has really enjoyed getting stuck into Pesach preparations. We focused on learning Ma Nishtana and what it means and we prepared our own Ma Nishtana page to go into our very own Haggadot which the children will bring home just before the Pesach break. There is a fabulous version of Ma Nishtana by The Maccabeats, which you can find online, and can use to help your child practise if you want to at home.

We also started to learn the Order of the Seder and tried out a sweet little tune, which we will sing at our model seder in a few days' time. We have also started to learn about Hallel, which comes at the end of seder and we made a bright craft with some Pesach songs, to take home and enjoy in preparation for Pesach.

Due to our major focus on Pesach, we have not learnt a new alef bet letter this week, but we will be reviewing the letters we have learnt so far. Please do keep your alef bet folders at home until after the Pesach break and continue to play with and practise the sounds each letter makes with your laminated cards.

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Liam

Shabbat Ima - Eden

Shabbat Ben - David

Shabbat Bat - Talya

Reminders:

*Please can all reading folders be returned to school by Thursday morning. If you have not finished the homework then please keep the sheet for another week. If you have not finished the reading books, please make a note and I will reissue them the following week.

*Please can all the parents of the boys ensure that your child comes to school with a Kippah on their heads and can you please ensure that your child's Kippah is labelled with their name. I understand that they come off easily and it is much easier to find them and return them to their rightful owner if they are labelled.

*Please can all parents ensure that their child's spare clothes bag has a change of clothing in it. We are very short of trousers and if anyone gets wet, we are currently unable to change them.

Thank you and have a great weekend.

Shabbat Shalom

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

What a wonderful week we have had. Monday brought with it the excitement of Purim to come with all the children chatting excitedly about their costumes. Tuesday was so lovely seeing all of their excited little faces in their dress up clothes. And then of course Wednesday, post Purim, party exhaustion and snow. What more could a reception teacher ask for?

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the puppets again made an appearance and demonstrated to the class alternative ways to say "I don't want to play with you." There are many different reasons why children say this. Sometimes it's because they just want a bit of 'down time'. The puppets reminded them that it's okay to want to be alone for a bit and that you can say something like "I just want to be on my own for a bit and we can play together later". Or "I'm feeling a bit tired right now. I just want to rest for a few minutes and then we can play together." Another reason is that children are playing something and don't want to change games. The puppets suggested saying something like "We are playing this right now. Come and join us for five minutes and then we can play your game for five minutes." The children really seemed to respond very well to these suggestions, giving some great suggestions of their own to the puppets.

In Communication and Language this week the children have all been chatting about Purim, with the main topic of conversation being their costumes. There was also lots of discussion about Purim parties which were attended, many of the children attending the same parties. There was also a lot of discussion around the Personal, Social and Emotional Development topic and sharing their ideas with the puppets.

In Physical Development this week the children have had the Interstars and the Octons to clip together and the balance bikes to ride. The children were also very excited when they saw the new little climbing apparatus which had been delivered. They had great fun making an obstacle course and running and jumping along it. Although there has unfortunately not been too much outdoor play this week, the children have gone outside at every opportunity. They have also built with Lego, which is always a firm favourite, and built train tracks going to fabulous far flung places.

In Literacy this week there have been no new digraphs, trigraphs or tricky monster words. We have, instead, been practising the digraphs which the children have already learnt. We are currently assessing the children’s knowledge of the digraphs and trigraphs and tricky monster words. Some children wrote about what they did on the weekend. The children also made cards for each other for Purim, decorating them and then writing in them.

In Maths this week the children have been learning the number bonds of ten. Next week we will learn the ‘number bond rap’. They have also been measuring objects using non standard units of measurement (Unifix cubes). We learnt that the little hammers in the class are seven cubes long and that different size books are different lengths. We also learnt that when measuring a spider (toy), it is a different size from its head to the tip of the abdomen than it is from its legs on one side to its legs on the other side.

In Understanding the World this week the children celebrated Purim, with many discussions being held about the subject. Also, while very excited, the children were very confused as to why it was snowing in spring. I tried explaining that seasons were not set in stone and that sometimes they overlapped with each other. While accepting this explanation, it did not make them feel any better about having so little outdoor time. The children have also been having lots of interesting discussions over the remote control walkie talkies with each other. They have really been embracing the technology in the classroom.

It was a very wet and muddy Forest School this week. After counting and saying our names, we played a game of Ostrich Tag. It’s a bit like ‘Stuck in the Mud’ but you have to use your ostrich beak to tag someone on their ostrich tail.

We then went to the tarpaulin under the trees and heard Emma’s story about many, many years ago when the whole world was only one colour and that was grey. A little butterfly was challenged to change the whole world and bring colour into the world.

The children then had the choice to:

*Make pictures by throwing powder paints at a sheet.

*Drawing on the trees with rock chalk.

*Digging for worms

*Mud painting the trees

*Snuggling calmly in the hammocks

It was such a lovely Forest School. It was not as cold as I thought it was going to be and, although muddy, it didn’t rain. The children may have been very messy but they had the best time.

In Creative Arts and Design this week the children had great fun creating their Purim cards, as well as decorating their Mishloach Manot boxes. They spent a lot of time decorating their boxes and handed them to their friends with great pride. They also moulded with playdough, creating lovely cookies and cakes, and clicked with the Lego, making some very interesting designs, including a French rocket with a French flag.

In Jewish Studies this week we introduced Parasha Ki Tisa where Hashem tells Beneh Yisrael to keep Shabbat on the seventh day. We make Shabbat special and different from the other days of the week by saying Kiddish over wine and having three meals at which we make a brachah over two challot and sing zemirot. We played a really beautiful version of Dror Yikra by the Maccabeats which the children were keen to hear again and again. If you would like to listen to it at home, search for the Maccabeats, Dror Yikra - Cup Song, online and see if you can copy the actions! Reception were given a mix of pictures of Shabbat and every day items, they cut out pictures of Shabbat-friendly items and made lovely crafts by sticking them on and decorating a Shabbat table scene to take home.

The children each made hamantaschen this week and our Purim party was a roaring success - we had some imaginative costumes, the children gave and received Mishloach Manot and we heard the megillah read to us by Rabbi Luis.

We started to look at Pesach this week too and Reception made some great matzot, which we will keep to go into their Haggadot.

Alef bet - please keep the folders at home until after Pesach and keep practicing the sounds each letter makes with your laminated cards. We are not going to formally teach any new letters until after Pesach, but we will be reviewing the letters we have learned so far.

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jimmy

Shabbat Ima - Isabella

Shabbat Ben - Eli

Shabbat Bat - Mia

Reminders:

Please can I remind parents that all reading folders need to be returned to school by Thursday morning. This gives my staff and I plenty of time to get them ready for Friday. If you have not read the books with your child, just let me know and I can give them to you again for the following week.

Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team

Dear Parents

What a busy, fun filled week we have had in reception. It has been wonderful chatting with so many of you in the focus meetings and I look forward to the meetings which are still to be had.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been learning about different ways we can show affection to our friends. The puppets made a surprise appearance and explained that not everyone likes being jumped upon or grabbed. I have discovered that what some children see as affection can be quite alarming to others. We discussed the issue and have decided that appropriate forms of affection are high five, fist pump, gentle squeeze of the arm or even a gentle hug.

In Communication and Language this week the children have discussed what they did on the weekend. There were parties which were attended and visits to grandparents. There was even a bit of football involved. The children also discussed friendships and how to be a kind friend. They were very thoughtful and came up with some lovely ideas.

In Physical Development this week the children have clicked with the Mobilo, created with the kids K’nex, built with Lego and used the usual small implements at the creative table. They have also tackled the climbing frame, seeming to particularly enjoy hooking their legs over the log and hanging with their heads on the ground. There has also been a game or two of football as well as tag and running races.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds we have already learnt, as well as learning some new digraphs, trigraphs and Tricky Monster words. The new sounds are ‘ure’, ‘er’ and ‘ow’. The ‘ow’ has proved quite tricky as last week we learnt ‘ow’ as in ‘the brown cow went to town’ and this week we learnt ‘ow’ as in ‘go slow in the snow’. The new Tricky Monster words are ‘ball’ and ‘tall’. Their homework this week will reflect the new sounds and words which have been learnt.

In Maths this week the children have been learning the number bonds of nine. They have also been revising how addition and subtraction work together and that when you are subtracting, you have to take the small number away from the bigger number. Kung Fu Maths has been in use and lots of number sentences have been written on whiteboards.

In Understanding the World this week the children have decided that they would like to do another weather chart for the month. We still have November’s weather chart up and they would like to compare the two months. The children have also been noticing the changes in the weather and the buds on the trees with Isabella telling us “we have a tree in our garden and it’s full of blossoms”. The iPads and remote control cars were back this week, causing much enjoyment.

In Forest School this week we counted everybody and then we said our names with an accompanying action. We then did our calming exercise by lying down on the mat, closing our arms around ourselves and tapping ourselves lightly on our arms. We extended this to giving ourselves a really tight squeeze and then giving ourselves a really good hug.

Emma then extended last week’s game of ‘drum stalker’ by giving the children blindfolds. This proved tricky and some children found it quite uncomfortable not being able to see. Emma then read the story “What Small Rabbit Heard”. It was a delightful story about a small rabbit who kept mishearing things because of the loud wind.

After that the children had the choice of the following activities:

Making a wind vane using a stick, a straw and leaves.

Make a windy ribbon stick

Making a swing

Lying in the hammock

Making a large catapult with Emma.

It was another great Forest School session. Thank you Emma and Carrie.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been cutting and sticking to make amazing cards and pictures. They have drawn using the small stencils, which are quite tricky to manipulate, but they have triumphed. They have created dialogues with the Barbies and action men. It was very pleasing to see some boys playing with the dolls too. They have also clicked with the Mobilo and created journeys with the train tracks. It has been great seeing them playing together, sharing the resources.

Jewish Studies:

In our Parasha lesson this week, we discussed the Kohanim who worked in the Mishkan, lighting the Menorah every day and receiving the gifts which Bnei Yisrael brought to the Mishkan. We looked at pictures of the special clothes the Kohanim wore. The children got to try on a beautiful pretend Kohen Gadol outfit with a smart turban and magical jewelled breastplate. The Kohen Gadol and the Kohanim helped Bnei Yisrael to come closer to Hashem. Reception acted out climbing up the steps and lighting the very tall menorah like the Kohanim. They made and decorated their own turbans to take home and had such fun acting like the Kohen Gadol in service in the Mishkan.

We continued to get into the Purim spirit this week, ready for next Monday night. We focussed on the four key mitzvot of Purim: giving mishloach manot משלח מנות; giving charity צדקה; listening to the megillah מגילה; and having a special Purim meal/ seudah. Reception made some gorgeous little puppets to help tell the story of Megillat Esther at home. Some of the children also decorated clown masks, which we hung up in the classroom for everyone to enjoy.

In Alef-Bet this week we looked at the letter Khaf Sofit - Final Khaf which says 'ch' and only comes at the end of a word, just like in 'melech', 'baruch' and 'derech'. Please keep on playing with and looking at the laminated alef bet cards and practising the sounds that each letter makes.

Purim Reminder:

On Tuesday the children can come to school in fancy dress. Please make sure that he costume your child is wearing is easy for them to take up and down for toileting purposes. Please ensure that any trousers/dresses are not too long. Any props, including hats and glasses, must be separately named. We request that no 'weapons' be included with the costume (swords, guns, etc).

In keeping with the Purim Mitzvah of giving to two charities, please may I ask the following:

The main school has been asked by the Royal Free Hospital Charity to collect the following items. It would be so wonderful if we could do this on Purim too. The items are warm socks, adult colouring books and pencils, packs of cards and hand cream. If you are unable to do this, please can your child fulfil one of the mitzvot of Purim by bringing in some Tzedaka.

This week we had our Shabbat party and on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Gabriel

Shabbat Ima - Emma S

Shabbat Ben - Judah

Shabbat Bat - Dylan

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

It was so lovely to welcome the children back after the February half term holidays. Everyone was excited to be back and share their holiday news. Glitter Camp seems to have been a great hit with the girls. When I asked if any boys had been to glitter camp, Chloe made a circle with her fingers and told me “zero boys”.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we welcomed little Ellie into our class. Ellie has fitted in so well. It is as if she has always been part of the group. Thank you to everyone who reached out during the holidays and before to welcome her and her family. This behaviour has rubbed off on the children and they have, in turn, been very welcoming. It was lovely seeing children use their initiative and show Ellie where to hang her coat, put her bag and go to the toilet, all without being asked.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been speaking about their holiday news. I have heard about ski trips, visits to Legoland, stays in hotels and many holiday camps. The children have all gained so much confidence when speaking in a large group and their friends listened very politely.

In Physical Development this week the children have been writing, drawing, cutting and sticking. They have clicked with Lego and magnetic blocks and built with the Octons in the playground. They have pinched, rolled, moulded and cut the playdough, creating some fabulous cookies and cakes. They have climbed on the new climbing frames, doing gymnastics and competing with each other. They have ridden the balance bikes, sometimes at great speed, being always mindful to avoid obstacles.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the tricky monster words, phonemes and digraphs which we have already learnt. The new digraphs and trigraphs which have been learnt this week are ‘ow’, ‘oi’, ‘ear’ and ‘air’. Their homework this week will reflect the sounds which they have been learning and the new sounds will appear in their reading folders. There were no Tricky Monster words this week.

In Maths this week the children have been learning that when you add two numbers together it doesn’t matter what order they are written. E.g. 2+4 is the same as 4+2. However, when writing minus sums, you have to put the bigger number first. E.g. 6-2 is not the same as 2-6. We have used the rolling dice to create some lovely minus (take away) sums.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been exploring the remote control cars and robots. The children waited very patiently for their turn and then had to manoeuvre the cars or robots using the controls. Some children found this quite tricky, whilst others found it really easy.

In Forest School this week the children started the session by counting and saying their names with an accompanying action. They then all lay down on their backs and did their mindfulness breathing exercises and thought about a peaceful place.

After that Emma taught them a new game called ‘Drum Stalker’. Emma shut her eyes and beat a drum. As she was beating the drum, the children had to stalk up to her. If she stopped beating the drum, the children would freeze. If Emma then saw them moving, they were out of the game. It was a great new game which proved very popular.

After that Carrie read a story called ‘Stuck’ by Oliver Jeffers. It was a great interactive story which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

Emma then introduced pulleys with ropes and buckets for the children to explore in the woods. The children also had the option to rescue their Forest friends from being stuck in the trees or they could make a large catapult with Emma or make a swing in the trees.

It was another great day in Forest School. We were very pleased it didn’t rain, even though it looked like it might.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been creating dialogues with the Playmobil characters, making cards with the stencils, building with the Marble Run and making delightful creations with the Lego. They have also had huge fun in the home corner and the dressing up clothes have proved to be a great hit this week. We also welcomed Mr Style, our new music teacher, into the reception class. We were very sad to see Mr Fingerhut go but we were very excited to meet Mr Style. He taught us lots of new songs and we think we are going to be very happy with him as our new teacher.

This week in Jewish Studies we discussed the Parasha of Mishpatim, which we read in shul last weekend. In Mishpatim, Moshe went up Har Sinai to receive the whole Torah. Keeping the mitzvot of the Torah brings us closer to Hashem, and one of the mitzvot of the Torah is to keep milk and meat separate. This is one of the ways of keeping Kosher. Reception class produced some lovely place mats for meaty and milky and played games focussing on deciding if foods were milky or meaty. We also discussed the Parasha for this week, which is Terumah. In it, Hashem told Moshe to tell Bnei Yisrael to build a Mishkan - a holy building like a big Beit Knesset (shul) which Bnei Yisrael could come into, to feel close to Hashem.

The Bet Knesset today reminds us of the Mishkan. The children enjoyed hearing the description of the Mishkan and how it looked, smelt, and what there was to touch. We looked at and felt different fabrics scented with orange and bergamot, a beautiful spicy mix; a bit like the delicious aromas that would have been in the Mishkan as the Kohanim ground and burned all sorts of sweet spices each day. We looked at pictures of how the Mishkan would have looked. Have a chat with your child about how it must have felt to have visited the Mishkan to come closer to Hashem. It must have been very exciting!

We also started to talk about Purim this week, and told the story of Megillat Esther. Reception made wonderful graggers to shake when we hear the name Haman. Some of the children also chose to decorate clown masks for Purim. We talked about Hamantaschen and what flavours we like best! We also started to learn the song 'Chag Purim' - there is a lovely version of this song online by 'Shaboom', and a really nice Purim song medley online by Micha Gammerman that you might like to listen to to get into the Purim spirit at home.

In alef bet this week we focused on the letters kaf and khaf. We discussed how kaf has a cookie in his tummy so he says c for cookie. Please keep practising with your laminated cards, the children are doing very well. If Any of your cards have gone missing please do let me know and I will replace the letters that you need. My email address is cdaniels@keremschool.co.uk.

This week on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Ari

Shabbat Ima - Mila

Shabbat Ben - Jacob

Shabbat Bat - Chloe

Reminders:

*If your child has taken Benzi home, please remember to email some pictures to my email address lcollier@keremschool.co.uk. Please don’t email them to Morah Aviva or put them only on Tapestry.

*Please remember to bring your child’s reading folder back by Thursday morning.

*If your child has needed to change trousers at school and has brought home school spares, please can you return them to school. If your child’s trousers are unnamed Primark or have another child’s name in them, please can you send them back to us.

Purim:

Tuesday 7th March 2022

We are so excited to celebrate Purim with your child in school on Tuesday 7th March.

Your child can come to school in fancy dress. Please make sure that the costume your child is wearing is easy for them to take up and down for toileting purposes. Please ensure that any trousers/dresses are not too long. Any props, including hats and glasses, must be named separately. (Please can no swords be sent in).
So that your child can fulfil one of the mitzvot of Purim, please can you send them in with some Tzedaka.
The children swap Mishloach Manot with each other. So that everyone has the same, please can you send in one small bag of crisps, one carton of drink and a packet of raisins. You do not need to gift wrap these as the children will be decorating special boxes to put their Mishloach Manot into.
Please make sure all food sent in is on the Kashrut list. Please can this be sent in in a small, named plastic bag. For the children to be able to swap Mishlaoch Manot with each other we need you to send this in by Friday 3rd of March.
On Tuesday 7th March (Purim) the children will stay at school until 1.30pm. They will have lunch, which will be our Purim Seuda. .
Please send your child in with a fruit snack as normal.

Thank you and Shabbat Shalom. Have a great weekend.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

I cannot believe we are now officially halfway through the year. Three terms down and three terms to go. What a wonderful half term we have had. And what a beautiful way to end the term, with a whole school trip to Kew Gardens.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been discussing Children’s Mental Health week. Walking in nature is always good for a person’s mental health so the visit to Kew came at just the right time. We read many stories about Mental Health and Self Esteem, one of them being ‘Ruby’s Worry’. The children then discussed what Ruby could have been worried about and what they could do if they had a worry. Most of them knew that they could speak to someone, their parents, an older sibling, a teacher, etc. We also discussed what we can do if we are upset or angry and some of the suggestions were: ‘find a quiet place to sit until you calm down’, ‘listen to calming music’, ‘take deep breaths’, ‘count slowly to ten’ or ‘do something you enjoy’.

In Communication and Language this week the children have done a lot of discussing about their trip to Kew Gardens, talking about what they had seen and experienced. They also had many discussions about worries, about nightmares, about families, about friendships. There were also a lot of circle time discussions about being kind and helping friends if they have a worry. We reminded ourselves and each other that it’s okay not to be okay but that the best thing is to talk about it.

In Physical Development this week the children have built with Lego and Marble Run, used paint brushes and finger paints, cut out pictures and written on white boards. They have climbed on the new climbing frames and run down the hill in the nursery playground. They have ridden the balance bikes and run races. In addition to all of this they have walked for miles around Kew Gardens and had PE with Mr Antony.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky monster words we have already learnt, as well as writing about their trip to Kew Gardens. We wrote a communal sentence and then many of the children got to write about their own experiences. There were many examples of phonetically plausible spellings in their writing.

In Maths this week the children have continued to learn about the relationship between addition and subtraction. They are learning, for example, that if 5+3=8, then 3+5=8 and also that 8-3=5 and 8-5=3. They are enjoying finding out these relationships between numbers and it all seems to be making sense to them.

In Understanding the World this week we have had many discussions about our trip to Kew Gardens. We started at the main school which, in itself, is very exciting. The coaches transported us to Kew Gardens and we arrived just before they opened. The first thing we did upon arrival was to have our snack. We then divided into two groups. Group one had a learning session while group two went for a walk. The learning session was about how a seed grows and how important seeds are. The children learnt about some of the plants which are flowering in the gardens. Group two went to the enormous Hive, which was a big structure which represented a beehive with the sound of bees buzzing playing through speakers. They also walked around looking at the shapes of different trees. After that we swapped over.

After group two’s learning session we went and had our lunch. It was lovely sitting out in the glorious sunshine to eat. After lunch we walked to the play area where we were able to have a little play for a short while. We then headed back to the coaches to begin our journey home. Many children fell asleep in the coach so it was a much quieter trip back. I’m sure the children slept very well after their day out. It was an amazing day out and the weather could not have been more perfect.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have focused on their tree paintings. This was a three step process. Step one was to mix their own shade of brown paint using red, yellow and blue and to paint a bare tree just with trunk, branches and sticks. Step two was to mix their own shade of green paint using a small amount of blue and yellow paint and to fingerpaint leaves onto the trees. Step three was to have different colours of pastel paint and to use earbuds to dab the paint onto the trees to create little spring buds. The end result is lovely and we now have three mini forests of trees looking at us in the dinner hall. Please see the pictures of this in the picture gallery below.

In Forest School this week Emma talked about the different shapes of buds on the trees. The children had to be ‘bud detectives’ and match bud twigs to the different trees. They matched willow buds, hornbeam buds and oak buds. They really embraced this activity with great enthusiasm.

Emma then told us a story about how the pussywillow tree came to be given that name.

The children were then able to choose from the following activities:

*Make a clay tile using budding twigs to create a pattern

*Use clay and twigs/leaves to make a kitten

*Weave with soft, thin sticks

*Match the singing birds with the pictures on the posters

*Match bud twigs to the bud posters.

*To build a swing with Carrie using a long rope and a sturdy branch.

It was another lovely day at Forest School so thanks once again to Emma and Carrie.

In Jewish Studies this week:

This week was Tu B'Shevat. Reception brought home the cress that they planted last week to nurture. The seeds have already started to sprout.

This week we will be reading Parashat Yitro. Moshe tells Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai to get ready to hear the Asseret Hadibrot (the Ten Rules). They were not allowed to go up onto Har Sinai. Reception class made colourful Har Sinai collages and talked about how excited Bnei Yisrael were. You might enjoy listening to these songs on Youtube with your children at home: 'Hashem Gave Us a Present' - My First Singalong Siddur, 'I am a Mountain' - Rabbi B. Chat with your children about what they would do to prepare to receive the Torah at Har Sinai - they all had such fabulous ideas (including dressing up as Rapunzel, which was my favourite idea!).

The children focused on the new letter of 'yud', which makes the 'y' sound. Please practise and play with your laminated letter cards at home with your children, with a focus on the sound each letter makes.

We also reviewed our brachot this week and made some beautiful kiddush cup decorations to save ready for our haggadot.

This week on our Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Reuben

Shabbat Ima - Ariella

Shabbat Ben - Harrison

Shabbat Bat - Emma K

Reminders:

*If your child has taken Benzi home, please remember to email some pictures to my email address lcollier@keremschool.co.uk. Please don’t email them to Morah Aviva or put them only on Tapestry.

*Please remember to bring your child’s reading folder back by Thursday morning.

*If your child has needed to change trousers at school and has brought home school spares, please can you return them to school. If your child’s trousers are unnamed Primark or has another child’s name in them, please can you send them back to us.

Many thanks

Have a lovely half term break. If you are travelling, I wish you safe travels. If you are staying at home, I wish you a restful week.

Shabbat Shalom

From Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

And so we come to the end of another week. It has been a very happy week in reception. Our new playground is loved by all and the weather has had a definite spring feel to it.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have again had the puppets out to illustrate how we should treat our friends and to show how unkind words or actions make us feel. The children seem to relate well to the puppets and really enjoy when they pay us a visit.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing what they did on the weekend, as well as voicing their thoughts on the actions of the puppets. They have told stories of times when they felt overwhelmed by the actions of their friends and by how their friends have made them feel. It is so heartwarming to hear them speak so honestly.

In Physical Development this week the children have built with the marble run and made cute designs with the medium sized waffle blocks. They have cut and stuck paper lanterns as a continuation of their learning about Chinese New Year. Outside they have run races, played football, ridden the balance bikes, walked over the wobbly bridges and constructed using the small waffle blocks.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have learnt three new tricky monster words: they, all and are. They have also learnt four new digraphs: ar, long oo, ur and or. They will have these new tricky monster words and digraph cards in their reading folder. This is just a reminder that the tricky monster words and sound cards don't need to come to school every week. I would much rather you keep them at home and work with them, just returning the small folder.

In Maths this week the children learnt the bonds of eight. I also reintroduced Mr Minus very briefly. We discussed how we can make four number sentences using just three numbers. E.g. If I give them the numbers 3, 5 and 8 they can make 3+5=8, 5+3=8, 8-3=5 and 8-5=3. They were intrigued to see the relationship between the addition and subtraction.

All reception children have now been signed up to Doodle Maths. This is an online Maths programme covering all the steps in the Maths learning. You can decide how quickly or how slowly you wish to work through the programme. Your child's login details are in their reading folder.

In Understanding the World this week the children continued to learn about Chinese New Year. We watched a learning video about Chinese New Year and the children cut and stuck thin card to make Chinese Lanterns.

The children have also had access to the iPads as well as the remote control cars, remote control robots and walkie talkies with Miss Molina. It was a very exciting time and they thoroughly enjoyed the access to the technology this week.

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to Mr Lipman in the nursery who has kindly donated a fish tank and some lovely fish to the reception dining hall. It is very exciting to sit eating our lunch and seeing the fish swimming around.

In Forest School this week the children started by counting the children in the group and then saying their name to an accompanying action. After their mindfulness exercise, the children played an action game of ‘Squirrels’.

After this, Emma talked about the Spring Equinox on the 1st of February when there was twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night.

Emma then told a story about a long, long time ago about a Mole who liked darkness and a Buzzard who liked daylight. It was a delightful story which got a lot of discussion about the days.

The children then had choices. They could:

Whittle sticks to make a stick man.

Use the ropes and tarps to make a hut.

Relax in the hammocks.

A group of little girls gathered some berries and then had a ‘wedding’ where they threw the confetti (berries). It was so sweet.

Thank you Emma for yet another fun filled day in the park.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have created designs with the small and medium waffle blocks, made some crazy designs with the marble run, had some fun dialogues with the Playmobil Theme Park, made Chinese lanterns, accessed the dress up clothes, cooked happily in the home corner and played lots of games, particularly enjoying the Lava Game in the playground.

Jewish Studies:

In this week's parasha of Beshalach, Bnei Yisrael leave Mitzrayim (Egypt). Paroh and the Egyptians chase after them. They arrive at the Yam Suf where Hashem makes a miracle (nes) happen and the sea splits so that Bnei Yisrael are able to walk across on dry land. Hashem makes another miracle for Bnei Yisrael. All the time that they are in the midbar (desert), they eat Mann which miraculously appears each morning (except on Shabbat).

This week, we focussed on the letter tet, which makes the sound 't'. Please make sure to look over (and play with!) your alef bet laminated cards at home and review the sound each letter makes from alef to tet.

We had a lovely time learning about Tu B'Shevat and the Seven Species that grow in Israel. We tasted some delicious fruits, looked at the seeds and discussed how Hashem helps trees and plants grow in stages from tiny seeds.

On Friday we had our usual Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table were:

Shabbat Aba - Liam

Shabbat Ima - Aria

Shabbat Ben - Amit

Shabbat Bat - Avia

Trip to Kew Gardens:

*The coaches will be leaving from the Main School so all children need to be dropped off at the main school on Monday morning.

*The Reception staff will be at the main entrance of the Main School to welcome your child at 8.30.

*Please ensure that your child is at school on time as the coaches will not wait for any latecomers.

*All children need to be wearing their school uniform, with comfortable shoes for walking.

*Please keep an eye on the weather forecast over the weekend and ensure your child has a suitable coat and, if necessary, scarf, hat and gloves.

*Children will need to bring a snack and lunch with them in a rucksack. As the children will be carrying their own bags, it is advisable to put their snacks and lunch in a paper or plastic bag to lighten the load.

*It might be advisable to send their water in a disposable plastic bottle as this is also lighter for carrying.

*Please remember that all food must be kosher and cannot contain any nuts or sesame seeds.

*The coaches should be back at the main school for pickup at 3.30.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

What an amazing and exciting week we have had. While it has been fun sharing the nursery playground, nothing can beat having our own space back. I'm sure you will all agree with me when I say that, although there are still a few bits that need tweaking and seeing to, the area is looking fantastic.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have yet again addressed the issues of "You can't play with us" and "I'm not your friend". The puppets came out and the children listened very intently to what they had to say to each other. Puppet Priya was very sad that Puppet Jordyn was rude to her. She explained that by being told she couldn’t join in the game, she was feeling very small and worthless and sad. But gorgeous Puppet Sophie sorted it all out and by using their words and by Jordyn making first an offhand apology but then a heartfelt apology, everyone felt better.

In Communication and Language Development this week the children have been discussing what they did on the weekend. They have also continued to listen to lots of stories and discuss various aspects of these stories. Much discussion was had about the PSED, with children sharing how this has happened to them and how it made them feel.

In Physical Development this week the children have been creating with the junk modelling, building the train tracks, rolling and moulding playdough, clicking Mobilo together, rubber stamping and painting as well as playing football, riding the balance bikes and running races in our new playground.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky monster words which they have already learnt. They have also learnt the short 'oo' sound (as in book, foot, etc), as opposed to the long 'oo' sound (as in food, tool, etc) which they will learn next week. They have also learnt the new tricky monster words 'my' and 'you'. These will all be in their reading folders on Friday.

In Maths this week the children learnt the number bonds of seven. The children wrote the number bonds and practiced them using Kung Fu Maths. They then enjoyed the online dice rolling activity. I would set the dice rolling and they would tell me when to press stop. They then did the Kung Fu number sentence then wrote the number sentence on their whiteboards. They are becoming increasingly confident with number sentences and I am so proud of their progress.

In Understanding the World this week we have been discussing where we come from. Children have been telling me about parents and grandparents who are from all over the world. This information is going onto a huge display outside in the corridor. While asking the parents in the playground where they were born, many of you expressed the desire to give me details of grandparents and great grandparents. With this is in mind, homework this week is a world map. On it I would like you to plot where extended members of your family were born. You can add as many or as few family members as you like. This is meant to be a fun activity to complete with your child.

The children also learnt a bit about Chinese New Year this week. Many of them knew quite a few of the animals in the Chinese calendar. We reinforced this by writing our names in Chinese writing and by exploring capacity with red and yellow rice.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have designed train tracks, stamped with the rubber stampers to create some amazing designs and patterns, created objects out of recycling materials, made trains and other vehicles with the Mobilo, painted their names in Chinese lettering and explored the dressing up area and home corner.

In Forest School this week the children did their usual saying of names and counting. After that Emma introduced Big Bird Week. She asked the children if they could name different types of birds. I was very impressed with the knowledge of the children and how many different types of birds they could name.

The children were then divided into red team and blue team. They had to run into the woods and find matching pictures of birds and bring them back to their team leader. The red team were victorious by a mile but the team spirit was amazing with the red team then helping the blues.

Emma then told a lovely story about The Pine and the Winter Sparrow. It was about a little sparrow who hurt his wing so was unable to migrate with his friends. He looked all around for a tree to keep him safe for the winter. The trees were very unhelpful and unkind. Eventually a large pine tree offered him shelter. It was a lovely story about being kind and helpful.

The children were then able to choose from the following activities:

Match Emma’s furry birds to the bird identification chart.

Make a bird feeder using cheese and apples.

Use the bendy willow sticks to make a nest.

Snuggling in the hammocks.

Collecting long sticks and logs to make an obstacle course.

It was yet another fun and exciting session in the park and the children had lots of fun, many choosing to splash around in the puddles.

In Jewish Studies this week we focussed on Parashat Bo and the final three plagues (makot) that Hashem sent, to encourage Paroh to let Benei Yisrael go free from Egypt. These were locusts, darkness and sickness of the first born. Hashem rescued Bnei Yisrael from slavery, taking them out of Mitzrayim to be free and to become the Jewish Nation. Hashem gave Moshe instructions to tell Bnei Yisrael. Bnei Yisrael listened to Moshe and followed all his instructions. Bnei Yisrael did exactly what Moshe and Aharon told them to do.

Reception class created pictures of the 10 plagues (makot), which we are saving to use in their haggadot. We listened to and joined in with the song 'Pull a Funny Face' by Julia Donaldson.

We introduced the letter chet which makes a 'ch' sound like in challah, so please make sure to sit together and have a look over your laminated letter cards from alef to chet, practising the sound each letter makes.

We also started learning about Tu B'Shevat, the New Year for Trees, and how important trees are in our lives. Reception made some beautiful blossomy trees and learned the song Tu B'Shevat Higiya.

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - David

Shabbat Ima - Talya

Shabbat Ben - Jimmy

Shabbat Bat - Liba

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Cassie

Reminders for the week:

*Please remember to send your child’s reading folder back to school by Thursday morning. It is very difficult trying to get them all sorted and ready to be handed out on Friday if I don’t have them.

*If Morah Aviva has given your child Benzi for the week, please can you email ME the photos by Monday morning, not Morah Aviva. I then print them and have them ready for her lesson, where she discusses them with the children.

Thank you everyone.

Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom.

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

What an amazing and exciting week we have had. Book Week has been exhausting but super fun and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We started the week with ‘dress up’ day on Monday. Everyone looked super cute in their costumes and the children enjoyed parading in front of their friends and the nursery children to show off what they were wearing. The children stood up confidently on the carpet and explained to the rest of the class what character they were and what book it came from. The children were very amused to see that the adults had dressed up too and we also had to talk about our costumes and the book we were representing. I am trying to read all the books brought in by the children so if your child has not yet brought their book back, it just means that we haven’t yet had the chance to read it.

This covered the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Literacy and Expressive Arts and Design.

On Tuesday we were visited by the famous author Pippa Goodhart. The children were quite in awe of meeting a famous person and thought of some very interesting questions to ask her. Although they were mostly interested in how a book is made, they also wanted to know where she writes her books, how she thinks of her ideas and why her pictures are always so bright. Pippa read some of her favourite books to the children, which they really enjoyed.

The class was joined by the Year Five children who came for a book read. The Year Fives are the ones who will buddy up with the Reception children at the end of the year and form part of their transition to the Main School and Year One. There was much fun and laughter during this activity and everyone had a smile on their face.

In the afternoon we made jelly. The children saw how the jelly powder dissolved in the water and how the water changed colour when the powder was added. They were very excited to have their jelly during our Book Week Picnic on Wednesday.

These activities cover the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, Literacy, Maths and Understanding the World.

On Wednesday we had our Book Week Picnic. In the morning the children baked biscuits with Mrs Dagul. They had to measure and weigh the ingredients and mix the dough. It was lovely to have the smell of baking wafting down the corridor. The children also made jam sandwiches. Some children really struggled with spreading the butter and jam on their bread while others found it really easy to do. (Perhaps this is something that you can do with your child at home). They then cut the sandwich in half and in quarters. (Some children didn’t want jam and they just had a butter sandwich instead). The children all brought a teddy friend to the picnic which was very sweet. Their picnic comprised a jam sandwich, a home baked biscuit and a pot of jelly.

This covered the areas of Communication and Language, Physical Development, Maths, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

On Thursday the children learned about spiders. It was interesting hearing how much the children already knew about spiders. They learnt a new word ‘arachnid’ and I wonder how many of them came home and told you the new word. They learnt that spiders have eight eyes and that they can travel great distances using their spinning thread and a breeze. We read the story ‘Diary of a Spider’ which they really enjoyed. They then went to the playdough table and made some black playdough spiders.

This covered the areas of Communication and Language, Physical Development, Literacy, Maths, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

In Forest School this week the children started by counting themselves and saying their names. Carrie then taught us all the ‘spider game’. The children had to run around and respond to different instructions. ‘Spider Scamper’ = run around, ‘Make a web’ = get into groups of three, ‘Web slingers’ = sling webs like Spider-Man, ‘Eat a fly’ = pretend to eat and ‘Birds coming’ = freeze.

The children then had the choice of different activities. They could:

Use ice shards to make an ice tower

Make a wooden spider spinner by cutting a wooden disc using the saw

Identifying different spiders

Using charcoal to try some Chinese writing

Use the ropes in the woods

Lie in the hammocks

Try to chop the icy ground using the trowels and mallets

Forest School was gorgeous and icy and really not as cold as we thought it was going to be. It was a beautiful day and another exciting session with Emma and Carrie.

On Friday we continued to read some of our Book Week stories and we watched a learning video about spiders.

This covered the areas of Communication and Language, Literacy and Understanding the World.

This week in Jewish Studies:

In this week’s parasha of Va’era, we talked about how Hashem told Moshe to go to Paroh to ask him to let Benei Yisrael go out of Mitzrayim (Egypt). Paroh said ‘no’ so Hashem sent seven punishments (plagues): blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, animal sickness, boils and hail. We made some fantastic frogs in class to take home and we sang 'frogs here, frogs there'.

We have moved on with our alef-bet this week and looked at the letter 'zayin,' which makes the sound 'z'. The children practised writing zayin letters and discussing different things that start with the sound 'z'- zigzag, zoom, zebra, zayit (olive).

Each child will be coming home with a little packet of alef bet flash cards to practise their letters at home. Please keep the cards at home and just return your empty alef bet packet each Monday. Please sit with your child once or twice a week and ask them to tell you what sound each letter makes.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Eli

Shabbat Ima - Mia

Shabbat Ben - Gabriel

Shabbat Bat - Isabella

Reminders:

Please remember to return your child’s reading folder by Thursday morning at the latest in order for us to have it ready to hand out the next day, Friday.
Please remember to visit our Book Fair on Monday and Tuesday afternoon at 3pm to buy some books for your children. Just remember books make lovely gifts so if you have any birthdays coming up…🤗

Have a lovely weekend everyone and Shabbat Shalom.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

It has been a lovely first full week back to school after the holidays and finally we are all back together again. It has been great to welcome back our friends who only returned this week. There is once again great excitement as our playground continues to take shape. Our fingers are collectively crossed that it will be up and running again in the very near future.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been trying very hard to communicate with one another in a polite and respectful way. The constant reminders are definitely paying dividends and, although there are still a few mishaps, overall the children are being very kind to one another. I am so proud of how they are dealing with issues and using their words rather than their hands.

In Communication and Language this week the children have listened to many different stories, discussing the main characters in the book. The children have really been enjoying the Mr Men books and discussing the characters. The children who have come back from holiday have told us about their holidays and their friends have been listening to what they have to say.

In Physical Development this week the children have been moulding with playdough, threading beads, cutting, writing, sticking, building with Lego, knocking nails in cork boards in the Taptap game and building the equestrian role play. Outside they have been riding bikes, climbing the climbing frame, writing in shaving foam and building with Stickle Bricks and Octagons.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have continued to learn the digraphs and they learnt their first tricky trigraph. The new sounds are ‘ai’, ‘ee’, ‘igh’ and ‘oa’ and are in their reading folders. We also had two new tricky monster words this week: ‘her’ and ‘was’, which are also in their reading folders.

In Maths this week the children have been revising number bonds using Kung Fu Maths. They have also been learning about doubling. We started with doubling to double five and then extended it to double ten. When writing it on the white board, the children could immediately see the pattern of, when doubling to ten, the answers were counting in twos.

In Understanding the World this week we started learning about different countries around the world. I started by teaching the children a bit about South Africa. The children who have connections with South Africa or who have been on holiday there were very helpful, telling the others all about what they know. When showing the children slides of South Africa, many of them were very touched by the pictures of homeless people who had no place to live and no place to sleep. They were also fascinated by the pictures of the baboons and the spiders.

In Forest School this week the children started the session with counting and saying their names with an accompanying action. This was followed by a game of Giants, Wizards and Elves. After that we went under the large tarpaulin where Emma taught us all the Makaton signs for frost and ice. Carrie then read the story of ‘Jack Frost’. While listening to the story, the children had to listen carefully and when they heard the word frost, they had to do the sign and when they heard the word ice, they had to do the sign. This proved to be quite tricky but some of them managed very well. This was followed by a discussion about how animals find it hard to find food in the winter when it is icy.

The children were then able to choose from the following activities:

*Getting cranberries out of a block of ice to leave for the birds.

*Making a snowflake using twigs and pipe cleaners.

*Making a picture of a snowman using flour and a sieve.

*Painting trees with mud and brushes.

*Digging in the mud with a trowel.

It was a lovely session and, although it was very muddy, it didn’t rain. Thank you Emma for another exciting session of Forest School.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have written and drawn with carbon paper (this activity never fails to amaze them), threaded beads, built puzzles, made Lego designs, moulded with playdough, had horse races with the equestrian set, and created dialogues with the tree houses and characters.

This week in Jewish Studies, Reception discussed the parasha of Shemot. This is the first parasha of the second book of the Torah. In this parasha, Moshe is born to Yocheved and Amram. Meanwhile, Paroh, King of Mitzrayim wanted to get rid of all the Jewish baby boys. Yocheved hid him for three months at home and then, when she couldn't hide him any longer, she put him in a Tevah (basket/box) in the river. His sister Miriam watched over him, and she saw him being taken out of the water by Paroh's daughter, Batya. Reception made lovely crafts of baby Moshe in the Tevah. We talked about the middah of kindness in the parasha and all the different kind people who looked after Moshe in the story. We talked about all the kind people in our lives and how we can show kindness too. We read 'The Smartest Giant in Town' by Julia Donaldson.

We reviewed our Hebrew letters alef to vav and had fun making the letters in different ways and with different materials, like shaving foam, puzzles and play dough.

We looked at different brachot including ha'ets, hadama, and shehakol and looked at a recipe book with lots of yummy food pictures and decided which brachot would be most suitable.

On Friday we had our Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Judah

Shabbat Ima - Dylan

Shabbat Ben - Ari

Shabbat Bat - Eden

Reminders:

Next week is Book Week. We are having ‘dress up’ day on Monday. The children will come to school dressed as a character from a book. The adults are all dressing up too.

Please remember to have your child’s reading folder back at school by Thursday of the following week in order for me to have it ready for your child to take home on Friday.

Dear Parents

It was wonderful to see so many smiley faces at the gate on Wednesday. We have missed many of our friends this week but we are all looking forward to seeing them again when they return.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been revising the school and classroom rules and reconnecting with their friends. The children have been reminding themselves and each other how to speak to one another and how to be kind.

In Communication and Language this week the children told us all about their holidays, some abroad, some local and some staying at home, just like me. I heard some great details of swimming in pools and swimming with dolphins, trips to DisneyLand, stays in hotels and eating ice-cream. It sounds like there was lots of fun in the sun and the children seem to be well rested and excited to be back.

In Physical Development this week the children have practised their writing skills both on paper and on whiteboards. They have done cutting and sticking as well as balancing the Citiblocs and manipulating the Playmobil characters. They have moulded, rolled and pinched the playdough, making different shapes. They have run around in the nursery playground, ridden on the bikes, climbed the climbing frame and honed their football skills.

In Literacy this week the children have been revising the phonic sounds and tricky monster words we have learnt. They have also been writing words and sentences on their whiteboards. Some children have been writing their own holiday news stories using some very good sound talking as well as phonetically plausible spellings. (Just a reminder of what phonetically plausible spelling means: it is when the child sounds out a word and writes the sounds they hear based on the phonics they have learnt. For example, a child might write the word ‘one’ as ‘wun’. Another very popular example is ‘chocolate’ being written as ‘choklit’.) My favourite phonetically plausible spelling this week was D-oo-b-I (Dubai).

In Maths this week the children revised Mr Plus. We used an online dice throwing video and then used the numbers for our Kung Fu Maths, after which we wrote it as a number sentence on our whiteboards. This proved great fun and it was lovely to see the children writing number sentences so confidently. The children then had the opportunity to complete an independent activity by throwing two dice and writing the number sentence. I added an extra element by giving them a five minute sand timer and they had to see how many number sentences they could write in five minutes.

In Understanding the World this week we looked at a map of the world and plotted on that map where people went on holiday. We found out where lots of exciting countries were located and it was very interesting to realise that what looks like such a small distance on a map is an aeroplane flight many hours long.

When learning the song ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ with Mr Fingerhut, the children learnt the line that said: “Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff”. The children wanted to know what sealing wax was. So using an old, fat wax crayon and a match, I showed the children how people used to seal their letters in the old days before envelopes were invented. They were fascinated to see the wax melt and how you could make an indent in the warm wax.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children accessed the home corner, cooking up a storm using the playdough to make cookies, meatballs, pizza and lots of other lovely, yummy foods. They have created dialogues with the pirate ship and combined this with the Citiblox, creating very interesting role play.

We had our first Forest School of the term on Thursday. It was really not cold, although it was a bit damp. After counting and saying our names with an accompanying action, Emma tasked everyone with going and finding a small object in the woods. This was all part of a ‘mindfulness’ activity for the children. Emma then taught us a new game called “Giants, Wizards and Elves”. Each character had an action. Giants had to stretch up tall, wizards had to make a ‘wand’ action and elves had to crouch down. This game was similar to a game of “rock, paper, scissors”. Giants beat wizards, wizards beat elves and elves beat giants. The children were divided into two groups. They had to secretly decide what character they were. The teams then had to face each other and do their actions. The winning team then had to run and chase the losing team, trying to catch new members for their team. It was such a fun game.

Emma then told us a story which happened a long, long long, long time ago. It was about a lady who lived in a village who spent her whole life learning new things. It was a delightful story about facing your fears.

The children were then able to choose from the following activities:

*lying in the hammock

*walking the slack line

*making a swing using sticks and ropes

*using the mallets, ropes and tarps to make a shelter

*making a wish for the wish tree

*making a wish bracelet by hollowing out elder beads

*making their own mini giant out of clay

It was another great Forest School session on a lovely, muddy day in winter.

Jewish Studies:

My name is Cassie Daniels (Morah Cassie), and I have just joined the EYU as the new Jewish Studies Teacher. I have really enjoyed meeting the fabulous Reception children this week and I am so looking forward to sharing my knowledge with them!

This week in Jewish Studies we caught up with Yosef and learnt how he helped Paroh to interpret his dreams in order to prepare for a long famine in Mitzrayim (Egypt). We discussed how Yosef's brothers travelled to Mitzrayim to buy food during the famine and how the family was finally reunited! We spoke about the Parasha of the week - Vayechi, where, after years of living in Mitzrayim with his children and grandchildren, Yaacov showed his love for them all and gave them many blessings. First, he blessed his grandchildren and hugged and kissed them, and then he called all his sons to gather round to give each one a blessing. In this parasha of Vayechi, Yaacov blesses his children and grandchildren with the beautiful blessing we know as 'HaMalach Hagoel Oti'. We spoke about our grandparents and what we call them in our families (Safta, Grandma, Saba, Zaida etc). We talked about how they love us very much and how we are lucky to have them in our lives. We listened to the words of Hamalach Hagoel Oti in a beautiful lullaby tune. We learned that some parents like to sing this song at bedtime to their children. Please ask your children all about it, they loved the idea of a lullaby from Yaacov Avinu! The children made a wonderful craft with the words of Hamalach Hagoel Oti to take home and enjoy.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jacob

Shabbat Ima - Chloe

Shabbat Bat - Reuben

Shabbat Ben - Emma S

Reminders:

The week beginning 16 January is Book Week. On Monday 16th it would be great if all the children could dress up as a character in a book. The adults will all be dressing up too.

During the course of the week and the following weeks, we will be inviting parents to come and read their child’s favourite story to the class. If you would like to do this, please see me and we will fill in a suitable time for you. These sessions will take place at 2.45 on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend.

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

Wow! I cannot believe what a busy Autumn Term we have had and how quickly it has gone.

There have been many highlights this term, the biggest one for me has simply been getting to know your children and their different personalities. We welcomed three new friends at the beginning of the year which is always exciting. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who extended a hand of friendship to the new families, inviting the children and their parents to playdates.

Another highlight has been the work in the playground. I think the children will forever talk about the digger in the playground. It has been fun sharing the nursery playground but we now cannot wait until ours is done so that we can get out there and explore the new equipment. Our fingers are collectively crossed that when we come back in January, a new and exciting playground will await us.

Something which divided opinions at the beginning of the year was the introduction of the new menu for lunchtime. Although it took a bit of time, what has been exciting for me is seeing how many children have tried new food and decided that, actually, it is very tasty and then having them ask for seconds. This shows such a growth in confidence and flexibility of mind.

For me, Forest School is always a highlight. Emma is amazing with the children and they always enjoy her lessons. But by far, the most exciting Forest School session has to have been the icy afternoon when Emma showed the children how to make a fire and then we all toasted marshmallows. They were so yummy in our tummies. Thank you Emma for always giving our children something they will remember.

Another exciting highlight has been the introduction of the new phonics scheme. Initially it seemed very daunting but as the term has progressed, so have the children. A huge thank you to everyone who practises the sounds, digraphs and tricky monster words with their children regularly. I can see the results.

Who can forget the highlight this year of the children playing in the snow. Seeing their little faces when they woke up in the morning and looking at the white winter wonderland must have been something special. This was probably the first time many of the children had seen snow or remembered seeing snow and it was such an exciting day, throwing snowballs and trying our hand at making a little snowman.

Of course, the Chanukah show on the last day was very exciting. Practising for the show was fun and, although very short, I think the children did amazingly well in front of an audience. It just shows how far they have come and how their confidence has grown.

A message from Ms Tabach:

This week in Jewish Studies we just managed to speak about the Parasha of this week, a very exciting one! We started talking about Joseph's dreams and the present that he got from his father, Yaacov. We made a rainbow coat for the Parasha activity, so please ask your child to tell this bit of the story. It has been an exciting week for the kids, full of stories, activities, and anticipation for the winter holidays.

To me, it has also been a couple of days full of emotions. As the term comes to an end, I will say goodbye to my Kerem children. I will be moving to a different life project, which involves, among other things, working for a different, but not less important cause. Therefore, with sadness I will say farewell to the EYU. I take this opportunity to thank the school and the parents for the great support you have given me. Throughout my short time at Kerem, you’ve showered me with great feedback, amazing comments, you’ve shared stories about your kids, and, to know that I have influenced the little ones, even if a little bit, into the path of Torah u’Mitzvot, fills my heart with joy. I wish you a Happy and bright Chag Chanuka.

All in all it has been an amazing Autumn term. Thank you everyone for your support this term. Please enjoy the holidays. If you are staying at home, wrap up warmly and be safe. If you are travelling, safe travels and enjoy your holiday.

Kind regards

Lindsay Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

What a lovely, busy, chilly week we have had. We were excited to see work resume in our playground and the grass starting to be laid. We cannot now wait to see the finished product, hopefully when we get back in January.

The children have been visibly tired and a lot more irritable this week. It's been a long term and the excitement of Chanukah and upcoming holidays has taken its toll. So in Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been discussing our friendships again. We have talked about how we treat our friends and the kind words we can use. For example, we can say "I just want to be on my own for a bit" rather than "you can't play with me". Many children have taken this on board and everyone is feeling a bit happier.

In Communication and Language this week we have discussed the upcoming holidays and it sounds like many exciting holidays are to be had, particularly in the sun. We have read books and discussed the stories. We talked about how we can be kind to our friends and we have discussed what we can do to calm us down when we are angry.

In Physical Development this week the children have used the little shape stampers to decorate around their pictures. This required quite a bit of pressure from their little fingers, so well done to all of them. They have also coloured, cut and stuck pictures for their Chanukah crowns and manipulated the Playmobil pirate ship characters. In the nursery playground they rode bikes, climbed the climbing frame, kicked a football and run many races. They also had their weekly PE session with Mr Anthony.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky monster words we have learnt. I have also been assessing the children's phonics and although many children are growing in confidence to sound talk words, some are still struggling. If your child is struggling with sound talking, I will be sending home a holiday pack for you to practise phonics with your child over the holidays.

In Maths this week we have been revising number bonds to six using our KungFu Maths. We also got to look at our weather chart for the month of November. The children answered simple questions like: "How many rainy days were there?" There were slightly more tricky questions like: "How many rainy day and sunny days were there all together?" Then the really tricky questions like: "How many more rainy days were there than sunny days?" This was quite a complex question which some of them managed to answer.

In Understanding the World this week the children were fascinated by the frost on the ground. They picked leaves and blades of grass and studied the frost patterns. They scraped the frost with their finger nail and held it in their hand until it melted. They had great fun tramping on the grass in the nursery playground and hearing the frost crunch.

It was a gorgeous day in Forest School this week. Although it was a bit chilly, the sun was shining and the grass was icy and crunchy. After counting and saying their names, Emma played a game of ‘squirrels’. The children had to run around like squirrels and follow instructions like ‘nibble your nuts’, ‘chase a friend’, and if Emma called ‘foxes coming’ the children had to make a tree for a squirrel to keep safe. After that they played a game of ‘Forest Fire’. Instead of typical forest animals, there were polar bears, penguins and seals. After that Emma taught the children about fire. The children learnt that a fire needs three things to burn: heat, oxygen and fuel. Emma also taught them the ‘respect position’, which is one knee on the ground and the other knee bent. The children were very excited to hear they were going to toast marshmallows. After learning a few more fire safety rules, the children were ready to toast their marshmallows. In addition to toasting marshmallows, Emma also provided a ‘slack line’ for the children to explore. This proved much trickier than it looked but it was loads of fun. The children also had the opportunity to drill through elder beads to make a forest bracelet. There was much excitement in this, the last Forest School of the term. Thank you Emma for a fun afternoon.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children made pictures and decorated them with the pattern stampers. They also made their Chanukah crowns which they will wear for the Chanukah show next week. In addition to this they have built with the Lego and had fun creating dialogues with the Playmobil characters. The dress up clothing was a popular choice this week, as was the home corner.

This week in Jewish Studies we were busy! We started the week talking about Chanuka - about the story, the symbols and the meaning of the festival. The children learnt that we play the dreidel to remember how the Jewish people used to deceive the Greeks when they forbade us to practise the laws of Hashem. We spoke about why we eat foods that are made with oil - to remember the tiny bit of kosher oil found in the Beit Hamikdash, that miraculously lasted for 8 days, allowing us to light the big Menorah.

We also spoke about the Parasha of the week - Vayishlach, where after many years, Yaacov meets Eisav and, in order to make him less angry from the last time they were together, Yaacov sent a lot of presents, hundreds of animals. Even though Esav seemed to have forgiven Yaacov, the children were left to decide if, when welcoming Yaacov, Eisav really kissed him as written in the Torah, or if he bit him, as explained by the Torah commentators. We spoke about ways to calm ourselves when we get angry and the children mentioned some great ways to do so like breathing, counting to five, smelling a flower, or even eating pizza! Well done little peace gurus!

On Friday we had our usual Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jimmy

Shabbat Ima - Talya

Shabbat Ben - Judah

Shabbat Bat - Mia

On Wednesday we will be having our Chanukah show. Reception will start at 10am. We hope to see everyone there. If your child is not going to be at school on the last day and you haven't told me, please can you let me know.

Have a great weekend everyone and Shabbat Shalom.

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team.

Dear Parents

What a busy week we have had. We have all been very excited to see that work in the playground has resumed and there has been a lot of digging happening and a lot of noise coming through the door.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have been discussing different feelings. The children all knew about the three most popular feelings of happy, sad and angry. They enjoyed learning about feelings of frustration, elation, fear, etc. It was fun seeing them working in pairs, pulling different faces at each other and their partner having to identify the emotion.

In Communication and Language this week we have read lots of stories, identifying the main characters and the setting. The children have also thought about and discussed something that would make them fearful. It fills me with such pride when I see how their confidence has grown and that they are happy to speak in a large group.

In Physical Development this week the children have designed and cut out their own football jerseys. They have moulded, pinched and rolled playdough, making emotion faces. They have enjoyed the climbing frame and hill in the nursery playground and built with the crates and blocks outside.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have learnt four new digraphs and one new tricky monster word. They learnt the 'sh', 'th', 'ng' and 'nk' sounds. They know that the 'th' is a 'sticky tongue out' sound and that it can be a blowy sound, as in THree, or a buzzy sound, as in THis. Their new tricky monster word is 'push'. Their homework sheet will reflect the work we have done.

In Maths this week we have been recapping Mr Plus with the bonds of six. The children know that it doesn't matter which order you write the numbers in addition and that 4+2 is the same as 2+4. We also learnt how to do Maths Kung Fu, using our whole body to say the number sentence.

In Understanding the World we have finally completed our weather chart observations for the month of November. We can't wait to add up all the different weather types and make a bar chart next week, comparing the different numbers.

in Forest School this week the children played a group game. There were many rules to this game.

Rule 1: to stay within the red flagged area.

Rule 2: if Emma called ‘Dens’ the children had to get into pairs to make a den.

Rule 3: if Emma called ’fire’ the children had to get into groups of three and wriggle their fingers to make a fire.

Rule 4: if Emma called ‘friends’ the children had to run and say ‘hi’ to everyone they passed.

This was a really good game as it forced the children to collaborate and think really hard. Next week the game will continue with lots more rules.

Emma then read a story called ‘A Worm called Wallace’. It was a delightful rhyming story with lots of worm facts. Some of the important facts they learnt was that worms breathe through their skin, that worms have no eyes, that worms eat mud and that worms get oxygen into the soil.

The children then had choices. They could choose between..

Using the bow saw on the saw horse and then a hand drill. They could saw a small piece of wood into a round disc, drill a hole in it and make a dreidel. There were sanding blocks to make the disc nice and smooth and felt tips to decorate it.

The children could also go and explore the woods.

It was a lovely, sunny, chilly day and a great time was had by all.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children designed their own football jerseys. It was so good to see many of the boys, who don't usually access the creative table, keen to design their jersey. They also had some delightful dialogues with the Playmobil holiday park, cooked in the home corner, had fun with the ponies and did the usual self accessed cutting, drawing and sticking.

In Jewish Studies we had a packed week! We started the week learning about Parasha Vayetze. We learnt that after leaving his parents’ home, Jacob headed to Charan, to stay with his uncle Lavan. On his way there, Jacob laid down to sleep on rocks and he had a dream. He dreamt of a tall ladder, all the way to the sky, where angels were going up and down. We then spoke about Jacob’s stay in his uncle’s house and how his uncle, Lavan, tricked him when handing his daughter Leah instead of Rachel, over to marriage. Jacob had to work 7 years for his first wife, and seven more years to finally marry Rachel. The children worked on a beautiful activity where they cut, decorated and dressed puppets (Jacob, Leah and Rachel), and put them under the chuppah.

I hope you enjoy discussing the Parasha with your children. We also started talking about Chanukah.

On Aleph-Bet we moved on to letters "Hey " and "Vav". The children did activities where they had to recognize the letters, write them down and draw objects that start with these letters. Please keep reading the Aleph-Champ with your child at home.

We spoke about how the Greek people didn’t allow the Jews to study Torah, and they had to pretend they were playing dreidel when the guards came around. The children started their Chanukah activities.

On Friday we had our usual Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Liam

Shabbat Ima - Ariella

Shabbat Ben - Reuben

Shabbat Bat - Emma K

Wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom and a great weekend.

Kind regards

Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

What a busy week we have had. Excitement about the playground has slightly waned as there has not been much action but, without a doubt, the highlight of the week has been the Chanukka workshop on Friday morning. Thank you to everyone who attended.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children continued learning that 'it's okay not to be okay'. We have been discussing some of the things that might make us angry or sad or upset. Some children showed huge emotional intelligence. As everyone was in, the children also got to share the friendship bracelets they made last week. Each child made two bracelets last week. This week they sat in a circle and each child had the opportunity to pick a name randomly out of a box. They then kept one bracelet for themself and gave the other to that person. It was really lovely to see them being so kind and so appreciative.

Communication and Language this week was largely related to the PSED with children saying what makes them angry or sad. I am loving the fact that some children who were previously a bit shy to speak in a large group were able to share their thoughts with the group. It tells me how much their confidence has grown and developed.

In Physical Development the children have been doing lots of writing on their whiteboards for Maths. Many of them still need some support with number formation. They have also been writing tricky monster words using good, old fashioned carbon paper. They were amazed to see their writing magically appear on the next page.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been listening to many stories, discussing the main characters. The children have learnt four new sounds this week and have started learning the digraphs. A digraph is two letters together that make one sound. They have learnt the 'y', 'z', 'zz', 'qu' and 'ch' sounds. The new tricky monster words this week are 'we', 'be' and 'me'. Their homework will reflect the work we have done.

In Maths this week the children have been working with Mr Plus and learning how to write number sentences. They know that two groups of objects can be added together to make a total. Mr Plus has been shopping for treats and walking through the forest gathering goodies in both his hands.

In Understanding the World this week the children have continued to do the weather board, drawing the weather each day. They are getting very excited that this is almost at an end and then we can use our Maths skills to count and compare the different weathers.

In Forest School this week the children started the session playing a game. They had to work in pairs and be a pair of birds. These pairs of birds then had to go into the woods and collect sticks and leaves to make a nest. Emma then had a pile of 'bird food' which the 'birds' had to collect, one piece at a time and take to their nest. This was a great, fun activity. The children then had choices. They could either whittle an elder stick using a vegetable peeler to make a candle. They finished off their candle by sticking a yellow leaf onto the top. Their second choice was to use the clay to create a forest gnome. Or they could go and explore the woods, making a swing with Carrie. It was a great session and, although muddy, it didn't rain.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children did some independent painting. They also cut and stuck collage pictures, constructed with the magnetic shapes, played with the Playmobil holiday park and role played in the home corner and with the dressing up clothes.

This week we also had our Chanukah workshop. It was so lovely to see so many parents come to school, ready to help their child paint their Chanukia. We hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did having you and I'm sure your Chanukia will look lovely with the Chanukah candles.

What a busy week we have had in Jewish Studies! We learnt about this week’s Parasha of Toledot. We met the twins Yaakov and Esav. We learnt that Esav grew up to be a hunter. He had lots of red hair. Yaakov grew up loving Torah.

One day, Esav came home from hunting in the fields and was so, so hungry. He wanted some of the delicious red soup that Yaakov was cooking. Esav traded his first-born brachah for a bowl of hot, tasty lentil soup.

We also began learning about Chanukah! We learnt all about the Chanukiah. We counted the candles and learnt that the candle we use for lighting all the other candles is called the shamash.

On Wednesday we had an important visitor - Rabbi Luis came to visit us! He told us all about a mezuzah, and then he attached a brand new mezuzah onto the doorpost of the nursery classroom and he said the special bracha for hanging a mezuzah.

A big thank you to Mrs Hill who took our special Shabbat party this week.

On our Shabbat table this week we had:

Shabbat Aba - Amit

Shabbat Ima - Mila

Shabbat Ben - Jacob

Shabbat Bat - Isabella

Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team

Dear Parents

I cannot believe how quickly this term is flying by. It has been such a pleasure seeing so many of you at the focus meetings and I look forward to discussing your children with the parents I've not yet seen. This week has been anti-bullying week so we have been having many discussions about how to treat our friends.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we discussed what we think bullying is. The children gave some lovely ideas in the discussion, including verbal bullying and saying unkind things. Our anti-bullying week display looks really good and the children are very proud of their work.

As part of anti-bullying week, Catherine from Streetwise came in and spoke to the children about friendship and bullying. She started by talking to the children about their friends and what they like to play with their friends at school. She then showed them an animated video with birds. There were lots of little birds and a big bird and there was a lot of being unkind in the video. The children discussed some of the unkind behaviour (bullying) they had seen.

Catherine then discussed what we could do if someone was being unkind to them. The children had some very good ideas, including telling someone, asking them to play, being kind to them and telling them to stop.

Thank you Catherine. We really enjoyed listening to you.

Our Communication and Language this week has been largely based on anti-bullying week. The children have discussed bullying and what it means and the different types of bullying. The children also expressed how it makes them feel if someone is unkind to them.

In Physical Development this week the children have decorated and cut out odd socks, drawn around their forearms and hands and decorated them and cut them out and threaded beads to make bracelets. Each child has made two bracelets, one for themself and one to give to a friend.

In Literacy this week we have read many books about bullying and being kind to each other. The children are recognising the main characters in the story and discussing them.

In Phonics this week the children have learnt the new sounds 'j', 'v', 'w' and 'x'. The new tricky monster words are 'he', 'she' and 'buses'. Their homework sheet this week will reflect the new sounds and words we have learnt.

In Maths this week the children have been using non standard units of measurement to measure different socks. This has proven to be a great fun activity. We also used the foam bricks to measure objects around the room as well as each other. This caused much hilarity amongst the children and was a great learning experience.

In Understanding the World this week we have continued to create our Weather Chart for the month of November. The weather has been so changeable and unpredictable that if we don’t do the picture first thing in the morning, it has changed by the afternoon.

In Forest School we started the session saying our names to an accompanying action. I know the children do this every week but it is so lovely to see the children thinking about different actions each week and to see their confidence growing.

Emma then taught the children a game of ‘hibernating hedgehogs’. The children had to snuffle around like hedgehogs and when Emma called ‘Hibernating Hedgehogs’ the children had to freeze and close their eyes. Emma then covered a couple of children with a tarp and the other children had to open their eyes and work out who was under the cover. This was definitely a favourite game and I’m sure Emma will play this game again.

Emma then introduced another game called ‘pass the bell’. The children had to pass a bell from one to another around a circle, trying to do this without the bell ringing. This required lots of concentration and self control.

The children then had the option to:

Make a leaf patterned lantern

Make a shelter for the Forest friends

Explore the Forest with the trowels and binoculars

Make a swing with Carrie.

It was a great session with much mud play.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children decorated odd socks and hand prints for our anti-bullying week display. They threaded beads to make their friendship bracelets, one for themself and one for a friend. They also had fun with the Barbies and ponies as well as the train track. The dressing up clothes were a popular choice, as was the home corner.

This week in Jewish Studies the children learnt about Parashat Chaye Sarah, "The Life of Sarah". The Parasha started telling us that Sarah died at the age of 127, and we talked about the cycle of life. We then learned that Avraham was old and he wanted Itzchak, his son, to find a wife and have his own home, so he sent his helper, Eliezer, to find someone. Eliezer looked for a girl that would show chessed , kindness, which was the most important thing to consider, so he saw Rivka and asked her for some water, to test if she was going to help him. Rivka offered water to Eliezer but also to the ten camels that were part of his entourage. Eliezer knew then that she would be Itzchak's wife. The children made a beautiful collage of a well, to represent the iconic place where Eliezer saw Rivka and saw her good middot. Please discuss with your child parts of the Parasha story, they are always very happy to share what they have learnt.

In Aleph-Bet we moved on to the letter Dalet , sounds "d". Please make sure your child reads the Aleph-Champ and practises the sounds of what we have learnt so far.

On Friday we had a beautiful Shabbat Party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Harrison

Shabbat Ima - Mila

Shabbat Ben - David

Shabbat Bat - Chloe

Have a lovely weekend and Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Mrs Collier and the reception team.

Dear Parents

What an exciting week we have had. Monday saw the builders digging up our playground. This caused great excitement for everyone. We were all a bit disappointed when there was no activity on Tuesday but on Wednesday we were super excited when a digger arrived. Watch this space and I will keep you updated.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the puppets made another appearance showing us how to be kind to our friends. We started the ‘Heads Up Kids’ programme, which will run until the end of the term and into the new term. This week the children learnt that Sophie says It’s okay not to be okay. It was so heart warming to hear many of the children discussing this with their parents at home time. You will probably be hearing a lot about what Sophie says in the coming weeks and months.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing things that can make them feel upset or, in Sophie’s words, ‘not okay’. The children told me of some of the things that make them feel ‘not okay’ and we also came to the conclusion that sometimes we don’t know why we are feeling ’not okay'.

The children also discussed their bonfire night and the fireworks they saw and heard. I heard some lovely expressive and descriptive language.

In Physical Development this week the children coloured and cut poppies. They manipulated paintbrushes for splash painting, hit nails in the TapTap game and generally had lots of energetic fun in the nursery playground.

In Literacy and Phonics this week I have been assessing the children. I am very pleased to see how many children know all the sounds we have learnt. Some children are still struggling with sound talking and we will address this through intervention groups in the coming weeks. I have sent home a sheet with two activities. One is trickier than the other. Please look at the two activities and see which you think is most suited to your child’s abilities.

In Maths this week the children were introduced to my friend Mr Plus. My Plus has very big hands and he goes into the shops and takes things from the shelves. For example, he had three Mars bars in his right hand and two peppermint chocolates in his left hand. When he put them all together into his bag, he had five chocolates all together. Many of the children who were struggling with the concept of adding two groups of objects together found this very useful and some children even went and drew their own Mr Plus and did their own addition sums independently.

In Understanding the World this week we discussed Poppy day and why we wear poppies on the 11th of November. The children were very interested in this, with many of them choosing to make their own poppies to stick onto their jumpers. It was lovely that some of them chose to make a poppy to take home for a sibling or a parent.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children were delighted with the new Batman set which was donated to the class and they spent many happy hours playing with it. They also enjoyed splash painting their fireworks pictures and colouring and cutting their poppies.

In Forest School we started the session saying our names with an accompanying action. It is lovely to see the children’s confidence growing. We went on to play a game of Forest Fire. The children then stood in a circle and looked at some circular patterns using natural materials by the artist James Brunt. They hunted materials and made their own circular pattern. The end result was really beautiful.

The children observed what they thought was a nest. Emma told us it was a squirrel nest called a ‘drey’.

The children then had choices. They could:

Use sticks to make a dray.

Use clay to make a little candle holder.

Use sticks and a tarpaulin to make a shelter.

Use small sticks and wool to make a poppy.

This week in JS we learned about Parasha Vayera.

In this Parasha we learn how Avraham Avinu had the great mida of "Hachnasat Orchim" - good hospitality. He would wait outside his tent and welcome guests so they could eat and rest from their journeys through the desert.

We learned that one day, when Avraham and his wife, Sarah were old, Avraham wasn't feeling very well, but still he made sure he did his best to welcome three men who were passing by his tent. The men, who we now know were angels, told them that Sarah would have a baby that year. Sarah laughed because she found it funny that she, that old, could have a baby!

In the end, the angels were right because, like we discussed in class, there's nothing impossible for Hashem! Avraham and Sarah had a baby boy and they called him "Ytzchak", in reference to Sarah's laugh.

The children decorated a paper house, whilst we discussed what and how they welcome and host people at their houses. We spoke about which foods we serve and how nice it is to share our toys with our guests.

In Aleph-Bet the children learned the letters "Guimel" and "Dalet".

Please continue to practise the Aleph Champ at home, and don't hesitate in contacting me if you need help in recognizing the letters.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Gabriel

Shabbat Ima - Aria

Shabbat Ben - Harrison

Shabbat Bat - Avia

On Monday morning the children had a special Perform workshop. It was all about witches and dragons. We had a ‘real witch’ visiting us and she was looking for helpers to go on a journey. They did marching, punching, kicking and running, which all helped to see how strong they were and if they were strong enough for a journey. They learnt about Camelot, Excalibur and Sir Lancelot with actions for each. They made a potion to turn them into birds to get to ancient London quicker. Then they had to help the witch look for her black cat which had been taken by the wicked dragon. When they saw the dragon they had to freeze. It was a fun activity which was enjoyed by all.

Quote of the week:

When discussing our bonfire night experiences, Eden told me: “We were going to pick Dael up from Emma Kalmin’s house and I saw fireworks next door and some were far, far away.”

Happy weekend and Shabbat Shalom

From Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

It has been so good to be back at school this week and seeing everyone’s smiling faces. I really missed the children so much last week.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we discussed what to do if someone hurts us or says something unkind. The children know that they should tell a teacher or try to sort it out with their words. They also know that using their hands is never a good thing and that hands should be kind hands. They know that it’s okay to feel angry sometimes and that sometimes, if they feel angry, they might need to sit quietly until they feel better. We also discussed that it is never a good thing to do what our friends tell us to do if we know it is a wrong thing. We used the puppets to illustrate this. This also fed into the Communication and Language area of learning.

In Communication and Language the children also discussed what they could remember about Nelson Mandela. We had some very interesting thoughts, mainly the fact that he spent many years in prison.

In Physical Development this week the children have built with the Marble Run, played with some very tiny and intricate bits of Pirate Playmobil, joined magnetic shapes, threaded beads, written with pencils and on whiteboards, cut out pictures and used glue sticks.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children revised the sounds they have already learnt. The new sounds for this week were ‘ss’, ‘h’, ‘b’, ‘f’, ‘ff’, ‘l’and ‘ll’. They know that sometimes, but not always, when two sounds the same are together, they make the same sound as one individual sound. The new tricky monster words were ‘as’, ‘put’ and ‘his’. Their homework sheet this week reflects the work they have learnt this week. An eBook has also been uploaded for each child. Please use your personal username and password to get into the book and read it with your child.

In Maths this week we discussed ‘pattern’. The children told me that a pattern is something that repeats itself. We made patterns using the children. Some children were very good at identifying the patterns I created. We then looked at pictures which I took when I went for a walk on the weekend. The children were able to identify the repeated pattern. On one picture of a house we found sixteen different patterns.

In Understanding the World this week we discussed ‘Faces of Israel’, focusing on Persian Jews

We were lucky to have Mrs Lipman come in to talk to the children about being Persian. She taught them many interesting things:

Persian people speak Farsi.
How to count to 10 in Farsi.
The children listened to two very popular songs,’Incy Wincy Spider’ and ‘Happy Birthday’, in Farsi.
They learnt the names of different Persian foods that they eat including Gondi, which is a bit like a chicken meatball, which they eat every Shabbat and Rice with Tahdig.
They drink lots of tea and eat special desserts including Baklava.
In Persia they celebrate the Persian New Year.
In Persia they have a separate New year which is in March, at the beginning of Spring. It is called Nowruz. They set up a special table called Miz Hafsin. On the table are specific foods all starting with the letter sound,’s’. Sabzeh, samanu, senjed, serkeh, seeb, seer, and sekkeh.

We compared it to the Jewish New year, Rosh Hashanah, where we eat sweet things and dip apples in honey.

The children ended the sessions by learning a Persian dance.

The children enjoyed making Persian raisin cookies called shirini keshmeshi with Mrs Dagul.They helped to weigh out and mix all the ingredients together and they looked and tasted yummy.

This week on Thursday morning we were all a bit worried about the rain. However it turned into a lovely afternoon. In Forest School this week the children all said their names with an accompanying action. They then played a game of ‘Forest Fire’. The children were all in groups of different kinds of forest animals. Emma was the fire and she tried to catch the animals. Each animal that was tagged became part of the fire. The fire kept growing until all the animals were tagged.

Emma then told a lovely story about a long time ago when the forest animals all lived happily with the elements of fire, air and water. The children really enjoyed this story and listened carefully.

The children then had different activities to choose from. They could:

Do splash painting to make a fireworks picture using paints and a stick.
Use elder sticks to make a rocket.
Use the coloured leaves to make a fire picture.
Explore the forest using the trowels, binoculars, sticks, mallets and ropes.

It was a gorgeous session and the children really enjoyed the mud.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children drew pictures of Nelson Mandela for our display. They also played with the Playmobil pirate ship, created towers with the Marble Run, traced around letters, built with the large construction, used the magnetic blocks as microphones and made robots.

In Jewish Studies this week the children learnt about this week's Parashah Lech Lecha. In this Parashah, HaShem told Avram to leave homeland and to go to another country. Avram didn’t doubt or question HaShem’s instruction, and so we learn that neither should we. Also, in this Parashah, HaShem promises the Land of Israel to Avraham’s descendants and tells him that he would have as many children as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand. The children worked out that we are all children of Avraham Avinu!

The children made a beautiful piece of work reflecting the promise HaShem made to Avraham - you can talk about it together whilst you enjoy looking at their crafts.

We also played a game where the children had to choose the right items and pack Avraham's bag to take on his journey to the desert and the children knew what was needed when travelling to a hot place.

This week you will receive a folder with the Aleph Champ and a record book, for us to communicate about your child's progress. Aleph Champ is a motivating and challenging Hebrew reading scheme based on the karate motivational system of colours and levels. The scheme consists of nine reading books which your child will use to practise at home and in school throughout Reception, Year One and Year Two. It reviews the letters and vowels learnt so far in Reception, reinforces vowels and reading, rules that will be taught in school and develops reading fluency. When your child has completed each book, he/she will be tested and awarded a certificate. Please see what pages need to be practised every Friday and send the folder back on Monday.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - David

Shabbat Ima - Mia

Shabbat Ben - Eli

Shabbat Bat - Mila

A message from Morah Aviva about Ivrit lessons.

From next week Tuesday, the 8th of November, the children will start taking Benzi home. He will go home every Tuesday and needs to be returned to school the following Monday. Please take photos of your child doing activities with Benzi. Please remember that these can be simple things like having a story read to him, going to football practice or watching a favourite television programme. He does not need to have a super fabulous outing every week. If you could send three or four photos to Mrs Collier at lcollier@keremschool.co.uk that would be great. We will then discuss the pictures in the Ivrit lesson.

New Words Learnt This Week:

Stav - Autumn

Alim - Leaves

Alim Noshrim - Leaves falling

Ananim - Clouds

Quote of the Week:

There had been a couple of children upstairs in the toilets who had been playing with water and making a bit of a mess. I had been discussing with the children how we should behave in the toilets and what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behaviour. Shortly after that Amit came to me and said "Mrs Collier. Please can I go do a wee?" I told him he could go. He looked at me with a gorgeous grin and a pointy finger and said "I'm only going to do a wee. I'm not going to do a mischief".

Happy weekend and Shabbat Shalom

From Mrs Collier and the Reception Team

Dear Parents

It has been a great pleasure teaching your children this week.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children all talked about what made them special. This could be a physical attribute or something they were good at. While some children found this a bit tricky, others were keen to share their ideas about what made them different and unique.

In Communication and Language the children talked about what they did on the weekend. They were also keen to share their thoughts on Nelson Mandela and some were quite outraged at the injustice that he suffered. They also discussed Diwali, many commenting on the fireworks displays, linking this to bonfire night which is coming up soon and which they are all very excited about.

In Physical Development the children have been cutting, sticking, drawing, and writing. They have been balancing the Citibloks and clicking the Mobilo to make some fantastic trains and cars. They have climbed on the climbing frames, with some showing very agile skills on the ropes. They have ridden the balance bikes and done lots of running around the playground.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children revised the sounds they have already learnt. The new sounds for this week were ‘ck’, ‘e’, ‘u’ and ‘r’. The new tricky monster words were ‘to’, ‘go’ and ‘onto’. Their homework sheet this week reflects the work they have learnt this week. An eBook has also been uploaded for each child. Please use your personal username and password to get into the book and read it with your child.

In Maths this week the children explored weight and size comparing different sized pumpkins. They used balancing scales to see which were heavier and which were lighter. They first predicted what would happen when the pumpkins were put onto the scale, correctly saying that the heavier one would make the scale go down. They then found out how many cubes were needed to weigh the same as one of the pumpkins.

In Understanding the World this week the children focussed on Black History Month, learning about Nelson Mandela. The children were fascinated to learn about his life and the fact that he spent so many years in prison for doing the right thing. They also learned about Diwali, creating their own Rangoli patterns using coloured pasta.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children were cooking in the home corner while looking after their babies. We had some children dressing up as princesses and superheroes. They did some free choice collage, cutting and sticking their own bits of paper to make their pictures.

In Jewish Studies this week we learnt about Parashat Noah. We learned that Noah was a good man amongst not very nice people, and Hashem was not happy with how people were treating each other, so HE decided to destroy the world. However, because Noah was a good man, Hashem told Noah to build a Teiva (an ark) to save himself and his family, and the animals which were also to be saved.

Once they were all inside, Hashem sent a Mabul (a storm) that lasted 40 days and 40 nights.

In the end, Noah sent a dove to check if the storm had finished and the dove came back with a green leaf in its lips, showing that vegetation was growing back, a sign that the storm had indeed finished.

The children were very impressed with the story but their favourite part was that Hashem sent a rainbow after the storm as a sign that He would never destroy the world again.

The children made a beautiful ark by drawing, cutting and putting together geometric shapes. We then went on to build and colour a rainbow as the craft of this Parasha.

The children started learning the Aleph-Bet - the Hebrew alphabet, this week. The children were very excited to learn the first letter - "aleph", and to practice writing it. From next week you will receive a folder which contains a reading report and an Aleph Champ book. Please practice at home with your child as the more they practice now, the more they will be able to keep learning when we get to the end of the aleph-bet, when they will need to know all the letters and vowels.

On Friday we had our beautiful Shabbat party. On the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Judah

Shabbat Ima - Aria

Shabbat Ben - Amit

Shabbat Bat - Eden

Quote of the week:

Mila said “I am special because I am happy because I love my baby brother”.

I wish everyone Shabbat Shalom and a restful weekend.

From Mrs Onona and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

Welcome back after a lovely break. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and that you are relaxed and ready for the new half term.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development we revised the rules of the classroom and the playground. The children were very good at remembering these and implementing them. We remembered to say "stop it I don't like it" if someone is bothering us and that if someone says this, we must STOP!

In Communication and Language the children have been talking about what they did over the holidays. It sounds like there were some amazing trips away as well as some great days out at home. Most children spoke loudly and confidently so that their friends could hear them. Most children remembered to listen to their friends and to be polite and kind.

In Physical Development the children have been clicking the Mobilo to make some amazing constructions, balancing the Citibloks, writing their names, cutting, sticking, painting and dancing to music.

In Literacy and Phonics this week we have been revising the sounds learnt and modelling sentence writing. I wrote about my holiday news with the children and they helped by sound talking the words and writing some of the sounds. We learnt that you need a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, a full stop at the end of a sentence, a space between words and that if you make a mistake, you put a little line through it and you learn from it. The children all had great fun helping me write my sentence: ‘I went to Cape Town’. I have uploaded an eBook for each child. Please access this book and read it with your child. If there are any problems downloading the book, please let me know. There is one homework page for this weekend. The children should sound talk the word and look for the corresponding picture, then draw a line from the word to the picture.

In Maths this week the children have been counting using the large counting frame. They have counted in ones right up to one hundred and have tried counting in twos to twenty. They have been practising their numbers using the magnetic numbers and boards.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been amazed by the amount of rain we had yesterday and the fact that they were walking in it. Some of them were fascinated by the Forest School tarpaulin which, when it rained, poured little rivulets down forming a little tap which many of them used to wash their hands. For the month of November we are going to create a weather chart to which all the children will contribute. At the end of the month we will analyse the chart to see what the weather has been like for the month. This is a great activity for Understanding the World as well as Maths.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have played with the Barbies, dressing and undressing them. They have also had great fun in the home corner where one child was flipping broccoli in the frying pan, a great fine motor skill.

In Forest School this week it was a bit wet and muddy so Emma put up the cover and we all sat on the ground cover under the tarpaulin. The first activity was collecting all the birds eggs in the forest, which the magpie had stolen, and putting them back into the big log nest. After that the children had to use their feet in the wet leaves to make a nest. Emma then told a lovely story about how the robin got its red chest. The choice of activities included making a bird feeder, closely observing a real robin nest, listening to a bird sound book, making a clay owl, playing with Emma’s forest birds and making a nest for them. They could also investigate the woods, being constantly mindful of the potential hazards. The highlight of the day was walking back to school in a huge downpour.

In Jewish Studies this week we learnt about the Parasha of the week - Bereisheet and that Hashem created our beautiful world in 6 days and He rested on the 7th day - Shabbat.

The children learnt that:

On day number 1 Hashem created the night and the day.

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

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

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

On day number 5 Hashem created the birds and the fish.

On day number 6 Hashem created all the animals and Adam and Eve.

On the 7th day - Shabbat - Hashem rested. We rest on the 7th day each week, and we celebrate the Shabbat..

The children enjoyed starting their activity for this week's Parasha. Due to a short week, we couldn't finish it in class, but if they could finish it at home, the Creation Booklet would look even more special.

On Friday we had our beautiful Shabbat party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Reuben

Shabbat Ima - Liba

Shabbat Ben - Jimmy

Shabbat Bat - Talya

Quote of the week:

When talking about her holiday news, Eden told me “I went to Israel and my brother said the plane is blue and purple. The pool was actually the roof and it was very high up. There was a park next to the beach and next to the gym”. What a lovely long account of a fantastic holiday.

I wish everyone Shabbat Shalom and a restful weekend.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team.

Dear Parents

I cannot believe we have come to the end of the first half term in reception. It feels like only last week we were celebrating our summer holidays. It has been a fun filled term with the children settling and we, the adults, getting to know all their different personalities.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development the children have been learning about kind hands. We use our hands to help and to be gentle, not for hurting and snatching. The children have come up with some great ideas for kind hands.

In Communication and Language the children have been gaining confidence to raise their hands and speak in a large group. They have been learning what makes a sentence and that sentences are made up of words. When we learn our tricky monster words I always ask if anyone can use the word in a sentence.

In Physical Development this week the children have been writing, drawing, painting, sticking, dressing the Barbies, balancing blocks, clicking the Mobilo and being creative. They had PE with Mr Antony which they all thoroughly enjoyed, practising their jumping, running, balancing and general coordination skills.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have been revising the sounds and tricky monster words already learnt. The new sounds for this week are 'c' and 'k'. The children have been using their robot arms to sound talk words like cot, cap, can, kit, etc. We had one tricky monster word this week which was 'is'. These sounds and words are in your child's reading/homework folder, along with one page of phonics sounds and words. It has been so pleasing to see some of the children taking a great interest in the sounds, sitting right in front of the sound board and writing the sounds on a sheet of paper. I have uploaded an eBook for each child. Please use your individual login and password to access this.

In Maths this week the children have been learning about the number 3. How to write the numeral and how to write the word 'three'. Also what numbers go together to make 3. E.g. 3+0, 2+1, 1+2, and 0+3. They have also started learning number formation. There is a page in their homework folder for number formation. Many children are struggling to write their numbers so I will be sending a similar sheet home quite regularly.

In Understanding The World this week the children have been finding acorns in the nursery playground and have been discussing what they are and why they are there. This has been completely child led, with children sharing their knowledge.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been painting using the water paints and brushes as well as the bottled sponge paints. They have built structures with the Citiblocs, made trains and carriages with the Mobilo and struggled but succeeded to dress the Barbies. There have been some lovely dialogues between the Barbies and their children.

In Forest School this week the children all said their names with an accompanying action. After that they played the ‘Squirrel Game’. The children then heard the story of ‘The Squirrels who Squabbled’. Although many children had this book at home, they were very good and there were no spoilers. After that, the children could choose an activity.

They could:

Make a squirrel from a teasel and some clay.

Do printing using paint and crab apples.

Use the magnifying glasses and pots to look for minibeasts.

Look after the Forest Friends.

Have a rest in the hammocks.

It was a gorgeous day in the woods and everyone enjoyed themself.

In Jewish Studies this week, another short week due to our High Holidays, we celebrated Yom Kippur, which is a happy day, even though we don’t eat or drink, nor do we do any melachot that is forbidden. On this day, Hashem seals our year and He decides how our lives will be. We also read the Jonah story. Your children might have told you the whole story even before they heard it at shul. As we came back from Yom Kippur we went straight into learning about Sukkot - the “hut” festival, where we sit and eat in a Sukka to remember the times when Hashem protected us in the desert, and Simchat Torah, when we finish and start over the reading of the Torah. This is a big celebration and the children made flags to take to shul and sing around the Torah.

This week there was no Shabbat party because we were getting ready for Sukkot!

We wish you a happy Chag Sukkot and Simchat Torah, and I look forward to seeing the children in two weeks, when we will start learning the Parashat Hashavua

Quote of the week:

While learning the 'o' sound in phonics, I asked the children for words beginning with an 'o'. Harrison confidently raised his hand and said : "Opera house. There is one in Australia. I've seen it. I went to it and I saw a show".

Reminders:

Please remember to put your child’s name in all their belongings as this makes finding things much easier. If your child brings home a jumper with someone else’s name by mistake, please return it as soon as possible.
Please remember that reading/homework folders need to be returned by Thursday at the latest.

Thank you everyone for a lovely half term. It has been a pleasure getting to know you and your children and I look forward to the rest of the year.

If you are going away for the holidays, travel safely and if you are staying at home, have a restful time. I will see you all again on the 20th October.

Kind regards

Lindsay Collier and the Reception team.

ELS Pronunciation Video

Friday 30 September 2022

Dear Parents

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who attended the Curriculum/Reading evening on Wednesday. It was lovely to see so many of you there. I hope you have all received, and have managed to access, the slide presentation which we used. In your child's phonic resources folder, you will find your special card with your child's name and password to sign up for the e-books. You will be sent the link for the e-books next week. Attached please find the video which shows you how to pronounce the different sounds.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week we have continued to learn to share, take turns and be kind to each other. We have discussed not using hands on each other but to use our words instead, again using the puppets to illustrate this further. We also had a visit from Pepsi, Ms Simon's lovely dog. The children had great fun walking Pepsi around the playground.

Our Star Pupils this week were Mila, Eden and Ariella. Well done girls for being amazing role models to your friends.

In Communication and Language this week the children discussed what they did on Rosh Hashanah. They have also been practising how to listen to their friends, first in a small group and then in a large group.

In Physical Development this week the children have been moulding with playdough, building with the Citiblocs, cutting and sticking and building with the Mobilo, all to develop their fine motor skills. They have been running around, riding balance bikes, climbing and hanging, carrying large blocks and crates, all to develop their gross motor skills. The children all really enjoy the playdough and if you have never made playdough with your child, I can recommend it as a great, fun, learning activity. I have put into their reading folder a recipe for quick, homemade playdough, should you choose to be creative.

In Literacy and Phonics this week we have revised the sounds and tricky monster words which they have already learnt, as well as learning the 'g' and 'o' sounds. As the sound bank is growing, we are able to sound talk many more words, including some nonsense words. The new tricky monster words for this week are ‘put’ and ‘of’. You will find these sounds and tricky monster words in your child’s reading/homework folder.

In Maths this week we were discussing simple 2D shapes. Many children knew the names of the circle, square, triangle and rectangle. We then counted the sides and corners of the different shapes. The children went on to make lovely pictures using the cut out shapes. They also created lovely pictures using the felt cut out shapes.

In Understanding the World this week the children have been discussing the sudden drop in temperature. They have commented on the fact that they need to bring their coats to school and some of them are wearing scarves and hats. The children have also been playing with the dinosaurs, comparing sizes and talking about the names of the different species. The dinosaurs have ridden on Mobilo trains and been in large construction aeroplanes.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children have been creating pictures with the shapes, making intricate designs with the Citiblocs, having cute dialogues with the ponies, making cookies with the playdough, creating pictures with the felt cutouts, cooking up a storm in the kitchen and being awesome mummies and daddies to the babies.

In Forest School this week the children started by describing different Forest ‘treasures’. There was an acorn, a horse chestnut and a pine cone. The children used very good describing words to describe these treasures.

After that the children played the ‘Squirrel Game’. Emma pretended to be a fox and she tried to catch a squirrel. The children had to quickly group, with two children making a tree and one child being inside as the squirrel. If the children were properly grouped, the fox couldn’t catch them. It was a great game for maths skills and teamwork.

Emma then told us a lovely story of ‘The Nut Thief’. It was a story about feelings and cooperation. It was not in a book so there were no pictures and the children had to use their imagination. It was great and they were enthralled.

The children then had choices of activities. They could:

Do pinecone paintings.

Go and rest in the hammock. This was so tempting that even I had a go.

Make an elder and seed necklace, using drills to make holes in the wood.

Play with the Forest friends (stuffed animal toys).

Investigate the woods.

Play with the ropes.

In Jewish Studies this week we have had lots of fun. We started our short week by sharing our experiences of Rosh Hashanah. We talked about where we spent Rosh Hashanah, who came to spend it with us, what we ate and which shul we went to. We spoke about the shofar and the noise we heard from it. Some children told me that they went to the river to do tashlich, so we learnt about tashlich.

Moving forward to the next festival, we started talking about Yom Kippur and what we can and cannot do. We discussed what it means to fast, that adults are not allowed to eat or drink on that day, and that we spend all day in shul asking Hashem to forgive us for anything we might have done that hurt Him, and likewise we say sorry to our friends.

We also read the story of Yonah, which is read in shul on Yom Kippur. The children made beautiful activities and they will be able to tell some (if not all) parts of the story. I hope you enjoy listening!

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Jacob

Shabbat Ima - Isabella

Shabbat Ben - Liam

Shabbat Bat - Dylan

Quotes of the Week:

Discussing the Shofar workshop, Jacob told us: “It’s actually difficult. You just need to lick your lips. You just need to do a big breathe in and out in the shofar”.

Reminders:

Please remember to return your child’s reading / homework folders by Thursday at the latest.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team

Friday 23 September.

Dear Parents

What a lovely week we have had in Reception. Children are coming into class much happier and there is a general sense of confidence and happiness in the mornings. Many children are complaining of tiredness by the end of the day which tells me how busy and active they have been.

I have decided to add a little extra to my blog and I’m calling it ‘Quote of the Week’. It’s a bit like Ms Simon’s ‘Heard in the Corridor’. You will see this if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development we have been discussing being kind to our friends. How we can help our friends who are still struggling a bit, how to speak to our friends in a kind way, how to include everyone in our play, etc. It is really heart warming to see the little ones showing compassion and often empathy to their friends.

This week I would like to congratulate Mia, Amit, Jimmy and Isabella on being amazing star pupils. Well done all of you.

In Communication and Language we talked more about the queen and her funeral. The children were very keen to share their knowledge and I got some delightful insights. We also discussed different fruits and why they are good for us. The children shared with the class what their favourite fruit was. We now have a lovely fruit display up in our dining hall.

In Physical Development this week the children have been practising their pencil grip and writing posture. When children are writing they should be sitting flat on the chair with both feet firmly on the ground, their page positioned correctly and their non-dominant hand resting on the page. They have also built with the marble run, making some delightful creations and constantly asking for more marbles. It has been wonderful to see their teamwork with this activity.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have learnt four new sounds: ‘i’, ‘n’, ‘m’ and ‘d’. They have done lots of sound talking of CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words using their robot arms. Examples of words are: map, mat, pin, sit, etc. they have also started learning some ‘Tricky Monster’ words. These are words which cannot be sounded out. Our first three Tricky Monsters are: ‘I’, ‘the’ and ‘no’. These four new sounds and three new words are all in their small Phonics Resources folder.

In Maths this week the children have been exploring capacity. They had coloured rice with scoops and different sized containers. There was great excitement around this activity in the playground and the birds were very happy to eat the spills. We also discussed the number ‘2’. We looked at how to write the numeral and how to write the word ‘’’’two’. The children learnt the different ways to make 2. E.g. 2+0, 1+1, 0+2. They used the unifix cubes to demonstrate this.

In Understanding the World the children were observing the leaves in the immediate surroundings, commenting on the colours of Autumn. There was also much discussion about the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the new King Charles.

In Forest School this week the children looked at the shapes of different leaves and tried to make their bodies into those shapes. The children listened to the story of ‘Leaf Man’, which they thoroughly enjoyed. It involved using their imagination and they were very interested to see the pictures of all the animals made from leaves. They then had the choice to make a leaf picture, make a leaf kebab, thread leaves using a needle and thread or go into the woods. Emma let them use the ropes, which was great fun. There was also the introduction of the hammocks, which the children found tricky to get into but soon learnt how to relax. It was very tempting, but I managed to resist.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week the children were making their lovely fruit for our display in the dining room. They have had some lively discussions with the Playmobil Theme park and the doll’s house. The Marble Run had some fantastic creations with some rollercoaster looking rides and the magnetic shapes have turned into swords, microphones, robots and many other amazing things.

On Thursday morning the children were all dropped off at the main school for a ‘Shofar Workshop’ with Rabbi Simon. They came in so bravely, some with great excitement and others with a bit of trepidation. However, once they saw their friends and, in some cases, their older siblings, they were fine. They had a lovely workshop learning about the different types of horns from different animals, which could be used as a shofar and which ones had to be used on Rosh Hashanah. The children were very well behaved and I was super impressed with them. I was even more impressed with the way they then walked back to the EYU, all of them carrying their own bags, with no complaints.

On Friday morning we had a lovely workshop with Sarah and Mirelle for Rosh Hashana. It was lovely to see so many of you joining us for this activity and there was such a sense of camaraderie and friendship and calm. Thank you everyone who took part. We hope to be having more workshops like this one.

In Jewish Studies with Ms Tabach, the children continued to learn about Rosh Hashanah and the mitzvot related to this Festival. The children learned that Rosh Hashanah is the world's birthday and this year the world will celebrate 5783 years!

We discussed that Hashem created the world for us a long time ago, and with it, He created so many beautiful things for us to enjoy, like the sea, the sun, flowers, plants and fruits, which we will further look into in Parashat Beresheet, in a few weeks.

We spoke about the challah shape that, different from every week, on Rosh Hashanah is round, to symbolise the cycle of life, which restarts every New Year. The children made challah from scratch - we learned which ingredients are needed, we measured, kneaded and shaped it. I hope you enjoy your children's challah on the Rosh Hashanah table. As well as the challah, you will see the packs that your children are bringing home. The children worked hard to make these beautiful works and I really hope you enjoy going through them while your child explains what each one means.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Harrison

Shabbat Ima - Emma S

Shabbat Ben - Gabriel

Shabbat Bat - Chloe

Quotes of the Week:

I am putting two quotes today as I just couldn’t choose:

After discussing the funeral of Queen Elizabeth I was told:

“King Charles was sad to say goodbye to the queen at her funeral.” By Emma S

“They dug a hole to put the queen in because she died.” By Mila

Reminders:

Please remember to return your child’s reading / homework folders by Thursday at the latest.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team

Friday 16th September.

Dear Parents

This has been our first full week in Reception and I am really pleased with how the children are settling into their new class. They are still learning the rules but they all seem to be very happy, mostly coming into the classroom with a big smile.

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development the children have continued to settle and learn the rules. We have started with Star Pupils and this week we congratulate Reuben, Gabriel, Chloe and Arya for being our first four amazing stars. Just a reminder that when your child is the star pupil they may bring in something from home for show and tell. This will be on my table and the other children will not play with it so it will be absolutely safe.

In Communication and Language some children have been gaining confidence to speak in a large group while others have had to reign in their enthusiasm and remember to put their hand up if they wish to say something. Children have told us what they did on the weekend and we also had some discussions about Queen Elizabeth.

In Physical Development this week the children have been cutting and sticking. They have threaded coloured pasta to make necklaces, practised their pencil grip and clicked Lego blocks together. They have threaded around shapes and clicked ‘Interstars’ together to make crowns. In addition to this they had PE with Mr Antony where they practised their running, jumping and hopping.

In Literacy and Phonics this week the children have started learning the first four sounds, s, a, t and p. I have given each child their reading / homework folder and in this folder are the four sounds. Even though some children know these sounds, they are there to revise, to use to build words and with the little phrase which they are learning to support with letter formation. E.g for the ‘s’ sound it says ‘swerve around the snake’. There are also two homework sheets for phonics. One is letter formation for the four sounds (please use the rhyme when they are writing the sound). On the other page the children should use the sounds they know to sound talk and write the words ‘s-a-t’, ‘t-a-p’ and ‘s-a-p’. They also have a library book to read with you. Some children have received a reading book. Once your child has learnt most of the sounds and can sound talk confidently they will get a reading book. All children, as we know, learn at a different pace and so all children will start receiving reading books at a different time.

Please can you ensure that your child’s reading book, library book, homework and both folders are returned to school by Thursday at the latest. If the folders are not returned I will not be able to send them out with new books and homework on a Friday.

In Maths this week we have continued to count. The children even counted to ninety-six, the number of years the queen was alive, using the large counting frame. They built the number puzzle to twenty and made patterns using the pattern camels. They played with the Numicon, and had great fun trying to fill the board.

In Understanding the World this week we have had quite lengthy discussions about Queen Elizabeth and her family. We read the book Queen Elizabeth ll and the children were fascinated to hear that the queen received a bible when she was crowned and they wanted to know all about it.

This week the children also baked honey cakes. They had great fun measuring and mixing the ingredients. I hope they enjoyed eating them on Friday afternoon.

Forest School this week was lovely with gorgeous, mild weather. The children started by counting everyone, including the adults. They then said their names with an accompanying action. They went on a stick hunt and then placed the sticks in size order from shortest to longest. After that they had the choice to make muddy potions, make clay puppet heads on a stick, do leaf paintings and make houses for the forest friends (soft toys). They ended the session saying what made them happy in Forest School.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children stuck together cut up pictures of Queen Elizabeth and some of these are on display in our corridors. They threaded pasta to make lovely necklaces and they had enormous fun with the Playmobil pirate ship.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Eli

Shabbat Ima - Emma K

Shabbat Ben - David

Shabbat Bat - Ariella

Reminders:

Please remember to put your child’s name in all their belongings as this makes it much easier to find if they are lost.
Please remember to return your child’s reading / homework folders by Thursday at the latest.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

From Mrs Collier and the Reception team

Jewish Studies - 13th Elul - 9th September

Welcome back to the new school year! In Jewish Studies this week, the children began by saying their Teffilah and all the brachot that are already known to them.

We spoke about two important things in Judaism: The Mezuza (little box affixed to every door in a Jewish house) and Tzedaka (money to the needy).

The Mezuza is there to protect us, and because it has the name of Hashem, we kiss it when we pass by it. Tzedaka is the money that Hashem expects us to give to the people that have less than us. It is a mitzvah to put a coin aside, every day, and then give it to charity. The children made beautiful mezuzot and tzedaka bags, which they brought home to create the tzedaka habit. Please encourage your children to put a coin in it every day, this strengthens middot such kindness, fairness and keeping mitzvot.

On Friday we had our Shabbat Party and it was great to see how much they had missed our Shabbat party over the holiday!

Shabbat Shalom

Ms Tabach

Friday 9th September.

Dear Parents

What a great first week we have had. It has been lovely getting to know all of you and your wonderful children. Despite a few tears and tantrums in the morning, the children have all been very happy playing together and having fun.

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week the children have been settling back into school and learning the routines. We have also welcomed three new friends and the children have been so kind and gentle with them, ensuring that they are happy and have someone to play with. They have shared the resources and taken turns with each other and generally made me very proud.

In Communication and Language this week the children have been discussing their summer holidays. I have heard about some fantastic trips to exotic locations and it all sounds very exciting. I cannot believe how eloquent and confident some of the children are. Now they need to remember how to listen quietly and respectfully when their friends are talking.

In Physical Development the children have been practising their cutting and sticking as well as their pencil grip. They have clicked small waffle blocks and made 3D shapes and stacked the blocks to see who can make the tallest tower (and the biggest noise when it falls down 😄). They have used their huge imaginations to build with the large construction, walked across the balance bars and ridden the balance bikes. Some children are super confident while others are still quietly cautious.

In Literacy this week the children have heard many stories read to them. They have listened carefully and identified some rhyming words, said what they thought might happen next and predicted how a story might end. I have also been assessing the children’s phonic skills in preparation for starting phonics next week.

In Maths this week the children have been doing lots of counting. We have been doing the date board on a daily basis and the children are learning the ‘days of the week’ song. They have been introduced to the visual timetable in order to see the sequence of events for the day and they have followed the big hand on the clock to know when five, ten or fifteen minutes is up. We have also been assessing the children’s maths skills in preparation for starting maths next week.

In Understanding the World the children have been playing with the dinosaurs, many of them knowing the names of some of the species. I am very impressed with their knowledge as I struggle to pronounce some of the names. The children have also been using the magnifying glasses to observe the snails and slugs in the garden, commenting on their patterns and their slimy trails.

In Forest School this week the children enjoyed being in the woods and getting muddy. When Emma told them that the muddier their hands, the more fun they’ve been having, some little girls went and wiped their hands on the ground to get them super muddy. They thought it was hilarious. The children then had the choice of digging in the mud to look for creatures, making mud paint and painting the trees, making clay friends for the trees or looking after the forest friends (stuffed animals). A great time was had by all and it was great to see the sharing and teamwork displayed by the children.

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been creating dialogues with the small world characters in the tree house, cooking up a storm in the home corner, being fantastic mummies and daddies to the babies, playing made up games in the playground and generally being happy little four year olds. It has been so lovely to see their personalities come out in their creative play.

This week on the Shabbat table we had:

Shabbat Aba - Amit

Shabbat Ima - Avia

Shabbat Ben - Ari

Shabbat Bat - Liba

Reminders:

Please remember to put your child’s name in all their school clothing, including their kippah. It is very frustrating looking for items of clothing and having to guess.
Please remember that every Thursday is forest school and to bring wellies and waterproofs every week.

Thank you and kind regards

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs Collier and the reception team.

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