Friday 28th March 2025

Dear Parents,

This week, we have used some immersive activities to delve into the ten makkot. We turned the shaving foam red like the blood, used fishing nets to catch frogs and we even have live locusts in the classroom. This develops understanding of the world as well as promoting communication and language.

In PE Reception focused on playing team games, learning how to strategize and play in different roles as a team.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing prior phonics knowledge as well as looking at new tricky monster words ‘love and children’. Please try to go over these at home. They have been using words, pictures and sounds to build their own words and sentences. They have also made tricky word spinners. Please use them at home!

In Maths this week, we have continued with ‘Building 9 and 10’. We sang a variety of counting songs; 10 little men in a flying saucer, 10 monkeys jumping on the bed, one potato, and used a ten frame to see when there was one less or one more. The children also used unifix cubes, beads and Numicon to look at different ways of making 10. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children have made some 3D spring flowers to add to our display as well as some beautiful butterflies. In music, the children went around the circle saying bonjour to each other. Then they mimed working like when we were slaves in Egypt, then some children were given instruments and the other children danced to “Dayenu” song. There were also frogs hopping and acting out staying completely still in the plague of darkness. They then clapped along to a song, following the instructions.

In Forest School, Reception began their session today with another fun sensory circuit. Then everybody sat at the log circle to take part in our usual welcome routines. We discussed Mothering Sunday and the children joined in with Emma as she read the story of ‘Owl Babies’. 

For the rest of the session, some children chose to make little pots of love for a loved one which involved using heart hole punches to cut heart shapes out of leaves and placing them in a small pot with a lid. Other children were keen to make their own owl baby and took part in a woodwork project with Emma to achieve this. Firstly they paid close attention to the rules for using a bow saw. Then they used the saw with Emma to cross-cut a log with one straight end and one diagonal end. After this, they designed and drew an owl face on the diagonal end of the log. The children enjoyed using the slacklines again today. Some children set up a mud kitchen area in the woods and made mud soup and a special mud potion!

At the end of the session, Emma taught the children a song called ‘Bele Mama’ a traditional song from West Africa. Some children chose to accompany the music with sticks.

This week in Ivrit, we had an exciting time learning all about preparing for Pesach! We spoke about cleaning and tidying our classroom, as well as helping Ima and Aba at home to get ready for the chag.

As part of our learning, we made beautiful hand-crafted door signs to hang on our bedroom doors once we finished cleaning them for Pesach.

We also learned some new Ivrit words related to Pesach:

• יֵין (Yaein) – Wine

• אַרְבַּע כּוֹסוֹת (Arba Kosot) – Four glasses

• קְעָרַת פֶּסַח (Ka’arat Pesach) – Pesach plate

• מַצּוֹת (Matzot) – Matzot

• הַגָּדָה שֶׁל פֶּסַח (Hagada shel Pesach) – The Pesach Haggadah

We had a wonderful time preparing for Pesach and practicing our Ivrit in a fun and meaningful way.

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception continued to explore Pesach, and as the Haggadot are being put together, we focused on some extra elements to enhance the children’s sedarim. Each of the children created nifty little 10 Makot puppets to help them retell the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim and made fabulous moveable parts collages featuring the Order of the Seder. We sang along to a beautiful version of Ma Nishtana by Boys Town Jerusalem, which you can listen to at home by following this link:  Ma Nishtana. We also read The Littlest Levine by S. Lanton, which discusses the wonderful role even the youngest members of the family can play on Seder night by reciting Ma Nishtana.

We explored the Order of the Seder, which has many different melodies, and we tried singing several versions. Here is a lovely version that we really enjoyed: The Order of the Seder (Kadesh Urchatz)

In Alef Bet this week, we looked at the new letter Pey, which begins two new vocabulary words:

• Paroh, king of the Egyptians
   
• Parah, meaning cow/heifer.
   

We also touched on the parasha of the week, Pekudei. In Pekudei, the Mishkan is completed. An Anan (cloud) descends from heaven and rests on the Mishkan. It shows Bnei Yisrael when to travel and when to rest. When it begins to move from the Mishkan, Bnei Yisrael know it is time to fold up their tents and move on to another place. When it stops moving, Bnei Yisrael know it is time to set up their tents around the Mishkan and rest. The Anan shows Bnei Yisrael that Hashem is always with them. Those who wished to, made brilliant fluffy cloud crowns.

On the Shabbat Table this week we had:

Ima-Hannah

Aba-Michael

Bat-Odelia

Ben-Isaac

Reminders:

We are working to enhance our ICT area and would greatly appreciate any donations of items you may no longer need, such as torches, walkie-talkies, pulley or wind-up toys. Thank you.

Please ensure all boys arrive at school with a named kippa clipped on ready for the day. If the children can have spare kippah in the bags as well as spare clips, that would be great.

Please bring back reading books and HW folders so that we can send more home!

Please send back library books before the Pesach break!

Please label all jumpers and cardigans!

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and a restful weekend.

 Mrs. Freedman, Mrs. Tapper, Miss Le Fort and Morah Cassie

Friday 21st March 2025

Dear Parents,

This week, the main focus in Personal, Social and Emotional development has been around using words to resolve issues which bother us. We have talked through some situations which were challenging for children to manage and worked together to think of ways of dealing with them. There are often a number of sensible suggestions when we make time to talk outside of the situation, after a short time to process and think. We are trying to empower the children to be involved in decisions as much as possible so that they have the tools to manage social situations.

In Communication and Language this week, we have expanded our knowledge of vocabulary linked with Pesach and ancient Egypt. We talked about the use of symbols instead of writing as well as ‘mummification’. We also talked about the processes involved in making matza; grinding, kneading, cutting and rolling, which the children acted out in our outside role play matza factory. 

In Physical Development this week, the children have used tools to make the playdough matza. They’ve also used thin paintbrushes to make hieroglyphics. They made cement by mixing sand and water to different consistencies to see which worked best to stick the bricks together. There’s been lots of cutting and sticking so scissor skills are improving. The water spray bottles came out again for cleaning the kitchen for Pesach which they were really good at. Please ask them to help you at home! In PE Reception developed their handling and striking skills through different tennis activities and exercises.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing prior phonics knowledge as well as looking at new tricky monster words ‘little, one and do’. Please try to go over these at home. I know there are a lot and it’s important to find ways to keep the learning playful.

We have been watching some short videos with tricky word songs to help the children learn them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NOzgR1ANc4

You can also find online games https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/4

You could get the children to make a tricky word hopscotch with giant chalk or do a tricky word treasure hunt around the house! 

Early on in the week, the children wrote sentences under photos of them dressed up for Purim. It is amazing how well many of them engaged in this activity. They produced phonetically plausible sentences with limited support. We had some Mighty Writer sessions this week. The children are getting better at thinking of adjectives to make our stories more dramatic.

In Maths this week, we have started the unit ‘Building 9 and 10’. We have used subitising skills to identify images which were 9 or 10 as well as sorting dominoes into more than, less than or equal to 9 and 10. We have aslo used ten frames and manipulatives to find ways of building 9 and ten with either 2 or three amounts. This ensures a deep understanding of those numbers.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children have helped make the props for our outdoor matza factory. Some children also tried their hand at hieroglyphics. There was also plenty of opportunity for open ended creativity with the children enjoying autonomy over their art and design using the help yourself craft trolley. In music, the children listened to Beethoven and then took turns to play instruments and dance to Pesach music. They also played the ‘where is my bone?’ game. Elijah and Odelia were the dog and bone hider.

In Understanding the World this week, we have been linking Pesach learning with some facts about ancient Egypt. We found out that many things we take for granted today were invented so long ago. For example, toothpaste, makeup, perfume, door locks and even board games.

In Forest School, Emma began the session by introducing our theme for today which was the legend of Ostara (a goddess associated with the arrival of spring and the awakening of nature) and spring equinox which is today. The spring equinox is one of two times a year (the other being the autumnal equinox) when the sun is directly above the Earth's equator, resulting in nearly equal daylight and nighttime hours. It marks the end of winter and beginning of spring.

Our first activity at Forest School today was a fun sensory circuit. Sensory circuits consist of a series of physical activities designed to first stimulate the brain, then regulate, and finally conclude with an activity that calms and grounds the children. They really enjoyed it. 

Next, the children went on a hunt to try and find all the hidden eggs in Forest School. There was a lot of excitement to try and find them all! After this, Emma told the children the Goddess Ostara story and they helped join in as the hare tried to discover why he was laying eggs. Everyone was surprised to learn that he was once a colourful bird who had been changed into a hare by the goddess.

During their independent choosing time, some children worked with Emma to make rabbits out of wool, pine cones, and other natural materials that they found together. Other children decorated cardboard eggs by weaving fabric or adding plant material to it. Many of the children were very excited to try all the different elements of the hanging slackline. They needed strong muscles to hold onto the hanging bars. A lot of children were also eager to try out the walking slackline. This involved a lot of bravery as they held onto an adult and balanced along the slackline. After their first turn, many of the children decided to challenge themselves further and asked to walk across holding just one hand. What a courageous bunch!

To finish, we sang ‘Oh Pine Tree’ and ‘I walk into the Forest’. Some children chose to keep the beat using sticks, so we might try to find more ‘natural’ instruments next week!

In Ivrit, the beautiful Aviv season is here, and we’ve begun exploring it through a new story: The Three Butterflies (שלושת הפרפרים), written by Levin Kipling. This charming tale follows three butterflies—one Adom (red), one Lavan (white), and one Tzahov (yellow)—who are the best of friends. Their friendship is put to the test when they search for shelter from the Geshem (rain), learning valuable lessons along the way. The children had a wonderful time creating their own Parparim on sticks, which they can now use to reenact the story and continue the fun at home! Here is the link to the story for you to watch with your child:

https://youtu.be/6sN0g1sy6oA?feature=shared

In Jewish Studies this week, we started our Pesach learning. We remembered and told the story of Bnei Yisrael and their time in Mitzrayim. They had a bitter time as slaves and cried salty tears! We reviewed the different makot (plagues) that Hashem sent to persuade Paroh to let the Bnei Yisrael go free. And we recalled how Paroh changed his mind and chased them to the shores of the Yam Suf, which miraculously split before their eyes. The children asked such wonderful insightful questions this week including ‘who was worse: Paroh or Haman?’ Here is a great video Pesach Story pj LIBRARY that you might like to watch again as a fun way to review the story of Pesach. 

We are going to be making a Haggadah to help us tell the story of Yetsiyat Mitzrayim at seder and this week the children have been working so hard to prepare the beautiful pages to be carefully collated into something that will enhance their Seder. The children have also been preparing the classroom for Pesach, by taking down the Purim decorations and carrying out a very thorough hunt for chametz using big feathers, spoons and candles- see Tapestry for pictures! 

This week we looked at the letter Mem, which says ‘m’ and comes at the start of the words:

-Maggid - a stage of the seder where we tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt

-Matzah

-Marror, meaning ‘bitter’ 

This week the Reception children on the Shabbat table were:

Ima- Leora

Aba- Jacob

Ben- Elijah

Bat -Sarah

Reminders:

Please continue to encourage the children to make a note, letter, card or map to post in the class post box! 

Please ensure all boys arrive at school with a named kippa clipped on ready for the day. If the children can have spare kippah in the bags as well as spare clips, that would be great.

Please bring back reading books and HW folders regularly so that we can send more home!

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and a restful weekend.

 Mrs. Freedman, Mrs. Tapper, Miss Le Fort and Morah Cassie

Friday 14th March, 2025

Dear Parents,

This week has flown by quickly as Reception prepared to celebrate Purim!

In Physical Development this week, the children engaged in activities to promote the development of their fine motor skills; they used playdough and tools to make pretend hamentashen, some did weaving, used tongs to transfer conkers from the water outside. They have also used the scissors more adeptly to make masks and puppets for Purim. On Wednesday, all the children formed and decorated their own hamentashen in groups with Mrs Dagul. In PE, Reception focused on developing their hand-eye coordination skills through different bowling, throwing and catching activities.

In PSED, we talked about how the characters would feel at different points of the Purim story. Some children then wrote a sentence about how they might feel on a thought bubble. As a class, we have been working on remembering the expectations so that we can be ready to learn: stopping, listening, following instructions. They have also started to learn their lining up order to help with transitions. I hope you noticed how they stopped and answered ready to line up after the Seed event on Thursday!

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have continued to review prior phonics knowledge as well as looking at new tricky monster words ‘some, come and there’. Please try to go over these at home as they have now to help them retain and embed this knowledge. In our sessions, the children wrote short captions for pictures using phase 2 and 3 sounds and tricky words. We managed to fit in some drawing club this week based on ‘Not Now, Bernard’, a boy who really needed his parent’s attention! They didn’t even notice when the monster gobbled him up. Poor Bernard. 

In Maths this week, we explored time in different ways. We used timers to see how many claps, jumps or start jumps we could do in 1 minute or 30 seconds. Some children made up their own challenge. They decided to see how many times they could run to the bench and back in one minute. Some children wrote their name lots of times in one minute. They recorded their findings on a chart. The children also ordered number stones to 20 and did some simple calculations within the classroom environment and outside. In our groups, the children filled in a diary of the week with the things they do regularly. For example, PE on Tuesdays, swimming lessons on certain days, Shabbat meals etc. Many of them knew their parents wrote important things on the calendar at home to remember what needed to be done each day. Perhaps the children could help you add to your calendar at home.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, some of the children made their own parchment by dipping paper into a coffee solution. They look quite like the parchment of the real megilla which we hear read out in shul. In music, the children clapped along to a Purim song loudly and quietly, some children were chosen to be the leader. Then they played instruments along to the Purim song and took turns with the parachute, lifting it in time with the singing. Finally, Savvy the tortoise came to visit.

In ivrit, we had another wonderful and exciting week learning about Purim! The children listened to a fun story in Ivrit called גן חיות של פורים (Purim’s Zoo), where they met four different animals:

• קוף (Kof) – Monkey

• ציפור (Tzipor) – Bird

• ארנב (Arnav) – Bunny

• אריה (Aryeh) – Lion

The children had a great time coloring and cutting out their own animal face masks from the story. They enjoyed pretending to be the animals, using their masks to “hide” just like in the Purim tradition!

We also explored how Purim is celebrated in Israel and watched lively parades full of costumes, music, and joy. It was exciting for the children to see the vibrant energy of Purim in the streets of Israel!

Wishing you all a joyful and festive Purim celebration!

In Forest School, we observed that some of the children who find the cold weather particularly challenging, were finding it cold and uncomfortable today but they were coping with that discomfort. We feel that they are growing in resilience in this area and in their capacity to cope with the cold and we praised them for this.

Emma explained our themes for today and then all the children took part in a nature colour hunt. They each had a small piece of card with double-sided sticky tape attached to it and Emma challenged them to find as many colours as they could. They took a small piece of each colour (e.g. part of a leaf or plant) and added it to their card. The children enjoyed wandering through the site and discovering different colours that they could add to their card. There were many different shades of green, which made for an interesting talking point.

After that, all the class came to sit with Emma at the log circle to listen to the story ‘How Colour Came into the World’. They enjoyed listening to how a small butterfly made all the world colourful. At the end, Emma emphasised the message of the story which is that even if you are small and young, you can still do amazing things. 

For the rest of the session, some children chose to experiment with hapa zome (‘leaf dye’). Hapa zome is a Japanese art technique that involves hammering flowers and leaves onto fabric to create prints. The technique uses the natural pigments in the plants to create the prints. Other children were keen to explore the den that the older children had made in the morning. Some children helped Emma make a nature obstacle course with different logs and sticks. They had fun balancing, hurdling, and jumping. Towards the end of the session, the children enjoyed throwing colourful Holi powder with Emma on a sheet hanging in a tree. Some children got really into the spirit of Holi and added some of the powder to their faces!

To finish the session we sang ‘Earth, Stone, Feather and Bone’ which a child had requested last week.

At the start of this week, we looked at the parasha of Ki-Tissa, in which we learn that one of the Asseret Hadibrot (Ten Commandments) is to keep Shabbat. Hashem tells Bnei Yisrael to keep Shabbat on the seventh day. We make Shabbat special and different by saying Kiddush over wine and having three meals, at which we make a brachah over two challot and sing zemirot. At the end of Shabbat, we look for three stars in the sky and make Havdalah. During Havdalah, we smell sweet spices as we say goodbye to Shabbat and hello to a brand new week. Reception children made their own sweet-smelling besamim bags with dried rose buds, cinnamon, cloves, and gems for added sparkle!

In Alef-bet this week, we looked at the letter Kuf, which says ‘k’ and comes at the start of two new words/phrases:

-Kadesh- the first stage of the Pesach Seder

-Kabbalat Shabbat 

Reception children celebrated Purim in style by enjoying a gorgeous show from Skittleman, which was such a treat! Everyone looked fabulous in their Purim costumes and strutted down the catwalk with such confidence and pizzazz at our special Purim gala fashion show. Children, I hope you enjoyed your Mishloach Manot, which your classmates so diligently and creatively decorated and prepared for you today. We reviewed our Purim learning this week, covering the key points and characters of Megillat Esther and the four mitzvot. Each of the children made their own rather special tzedakah boxes to cherish at home and remind them of the mitzvah of Matanot L’evyanim. They also made delicious hamantaschen as a reminder of the mitzvah of the Purim Seudah.

On the Shabbat table this week we had the following Reception children:

Ima- Alana

Aba-Aaron

Bat-Lexie

Ben-Micah

Reminders:

Now that the weather is warmer, please ensure your child has a labelled spare set of clothes for changing into if necessary after water play.

Please continue to encourage the children to send in whatever writing they choose and post it in our letter box. Try using our new tricky words in a sentence!

Mrs. Freedman, Mrs. Tapper, Miss Le Fort and Morah Cassie

Friday 7th March

Dear parents,

It has been a really busy week in Reception and every one of the children have shone in their own way, finding opportunities to engage in the learning provided and taking ownership of the direction it goes! 

In Understanding the World this week, we talked about changes from the past to the present, what they did in previous times and what we do now both in communication and transport. We talked about the time it might take to get somewhere by horse compared to a car or van. We also compared communication from the time of the Purim story to the present day. The megilla would have been written with a quill and ink on parchment. Sending written letters by post is quicker than that but emails are the fastest. We also looked at phones from the past and phones now. 

It was also Science Week at Kerem. We had two lovely sessions with Miss Dalwai. Ms Dalwai is the Year 6 teacher and the school science lead. The first was an introduction to explain what scientists do, and to hear some of what the children knew about growing and changing and adapting. The second session was very active, with yoga movements based on different animals and their features, which help them survive in their habitats. Outside, children tested out a variety of items to see if they would sink or float and recorded their findings on a chart. We finished off the week with a second attempt at an elephant toothpaste experiment as the first one was not very successful! We were very impressed with the chemical reaction between hydrogen peroxide and a yeast mixture as well as fairy liquid and food colouring. Science is so much fun!

In Physical Development this week, the children have had a number of activities to promote the development of their fine motor skills; conkers and tongs, geo boards and elastic bands and playdough and tools. They have also used the tapes and scissors more independently in the creative area.

In PE, Reception focused on developing their core motor strength, balance and coordination through different skills and activities including hurdle running, squats, box jumping, hopping and balancing on the beam.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have continued to review all prior phonics knowledge as well as looking at new tricky monster words ‘have, like and were’. Please try to go over these at home as they have now learnt so many and we want to help them retain and embed this knowledge. In our sessions, the children wrote short captions for pictures using phase 2 and 3 sounds and tricky words. All the children also chose 3 cards each in mighty writers and were supported in their groups to write down their stories, focusing on adding adjectives to make them more detailed.

In Maths this week, we explored height, using the language ‘tall’, ‘short’, ‘taller and shorter’, ‘the same’ or ‘equal’. The children worked in groups to build towers using large construction in the classroom and outside. They were able to use the appropriate mathematical language and made some intricate designs. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children were encouraged to think about what they could make to create a Purim palace as well as the costumes to wear. Outside, the children acted out their own narratives in the house. There was still life spring flower painting in the sunshine, with many of the children mixing the desired shade and skillfully representing the flowers. In music, the children were played some music by Beethoven and they had to follow Mrs Cohen’s actions. Then a child was chosen to pretend to be a dog, facing away from their friends. Another child was given a bone to hide behind their back. The dog sang ‘Who has my bone’ and the hider sang ‘I have your bone’. The dog had to guess who had the bone by their voice after singing the song. This involved super listening! Then all the children played instruments along to a Purim song.

This week, we introduced a delightful book called Abeytza She’hetchapsa (The Egg Who Dressed Up). It’s about an egg that didn’t want to stay just an egg—it wanted to dress up as something new! The children had fun guessing what the egg dressed up as and discovering what happened in the end.

Inspired by the story, we dressed up our own Beytza (ביצה) in creative costumes. Can you guess what our eggs became?

Here is a link for the story to watch with your child:

https://youtu.be/x2lt15pGC6E?feature=shared

In Forest School, the Reception children were thrilled with the new, fun pathway to get to Forest School! It required a lot of focus and balancing skills. 

After our welcome routines, we played ‘Creeping Comanche’ again. There was a definite improvement in the creeping from last week. Back at the log circle, Emma read the children a story called ‘Yucky Worms’. The book is about a boy helping his grandmother in her garden. When she digs up a worm he is disgusted at first but then he learns how amazing these creatures are. There are lots of great facts in the book including the fact that worms have five hearts!

For the rest of the session, some children chose to make their own worms out of elder wood. This involved using a small palm drill to push out the soft pith inside and threading the wood onto pipe cleaners. Other children made nature ink prints with Emma. They collected natural materials including bramble and ivy leaves and used an ink roller to print with. They looked very effective. A few children continued to adapt the debris den in the woods and others were keen to hunt for worms. The hammocks were popular today too. 

To finish, Emma taught the children the second verse of ‘Spring is Coming’ which is about spring flowers and then we sang the song in its entirety. 

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception looked at the parasha of Tetzaveh, where we learn that some of the people who worked in the Mishkan were called Kohanim. Their jobs were to light the Menorah every day and to receive the gifts which Bnei Yisrael brought to the Mishkan. They helped the Bnei Yisrael to come closer to Hashem. The most important Kohen was the Kohen Gadol, who wore special clothes called Bigdei Kahuna, including a beautiful turban and the ‘Choshen Mishpat’, a jeweled breastplate with a coloured stone for each tribe. The children made miniature Kohen Gadol turbans and took turns dressing up and role-playing as the Kohen Gadol lighting the Menorah in the Mishkan.

In Alef-Bet this week, we looked at a new letter, Sin, which says ‘s’ and comes at the start of our new vocabulary words:

• Sameach, meaning ‘happy’, and
• Sarah, the wife of Avraham.

We played a game to review the difference between Shin and Sin. They look very similar and are often confused with each other. Do have a go at this shin and sin game if you can. If it helps, remind your child that Shin has its dot over its Shema hand (so on the right).

We continued to explore Purim, which is coming up next week. This week we focused on the 4 Mitzvot of Purim - Mishloach Manot, Purim Seudah, Tzedakah, and Megillah. We learned that we dress up and make a noise when the name of Haman is said during the reading of the Megillah, so in preparation for listening to the Megillah at shul, each of the children made fabulously noisy raashanim (greggers). Well done, children! Each one was bright and unique, just like you!

We joined Nursery for an EYU Kabbalat Shabbat and from Reception class, on the Shabbat table we had: 

Ben - Noah

Bat - Hannah

Ima - Nava

Aba - Benji 

Reminders:

Now that the weather is warmer, please ensure your child has a labelled spare set of clothes for changing into if necessary after water play.

Please continue to encourage the children to send in whatever writing they choose. One parent had a great idea of a shopping list!

Purim Friday 14th March  

We are so excited to celebrate Purim with your child in school!

Your child can come to school in fancy dress. Please ensure that their costume is easy for them to take on and off for toileting purposes. Trousers and dresses should not be too long to avoid tripping. Any props, including hats and glasses, must be clearly labelled. No swords or guns please.

To help your child fulfill one of the mitzvot of Purim, please can you send them in with some Tzedaka. 

The children will be exchanging Mishloach Manot with each other. To ensure that everyone has the same items, please send:

1 small bag of crisps

1 carton of drink

1 packet of raisins. 

There is no need to gift-wrap these, as the children will be decorating special bags to put their Mishloach Manot in. 

All food must be on the Kashrut list. Please send these items in a small, named plastic bag no later than Wednesday 12th March.

As usual, please send your child with a fruit snack for the day.

 Mrs. Freedman, Mrs. Tapper, Miss Le Fort and Morah Cassie

Friday 14th February, 2025

Dear Parents,

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional development, we focused on the amazing story, ‘The Colour Monster’, where we discussed the different types of emotions we might feel throughout the day. We also used this time to discuss the difference between small, medium sized and large problems. We went over different scenarios using our friendly puppets and we had the children in pairs and they had to explain what size they thought the problem was and why. 

In Communication and Language this week, the children each shared something new they learnt this week about Antarctica. We have spent the last two weeks focusing on this southern continent and it was so great to hear and see that the children have retained so much of their new knowledge. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed working on their fine motor skills using playdough and the children also used Tap Tap to create icebergs, avalanches, glaciers etc.. They also utilised the outdoor area, building gross motor skills with the climbing equipment, balance bikes and lots of collaborative large construction using loose parts. In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their bat and ball skills through different striking and tennis activities. The children also baked delicious Moroccan bread this week and learnt all about the different Moroccan foods and spices.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have spent the whole week reviewing all prior phonics knowledge. This was a really good time to consolidate the previous week's learning as we have learnt so many new digraphs and trigraphs in the spring term and it is crucial for the children to feel comfortable with them before we move onto the next ones. The more you can continue to practice over the half- term break, the better! We also learnt two new tricky monster words ‘when’ and ‘what’. 

In Maths this week, we learnt the difference between odd and even numbers. The children used their own bodies in order to visually understand this when they split into groups. They then used different types of manipulatives and had to split the given number into two equal groups. If they were able to correctly do so, they understood the number was even, if they weren’t, they knew it would be an odd number. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had the opportunity to create their very Mount Erebus volcano using junk modeling! The children have been fascinated by this volcano and therefore we thought it would be a super creative moment for them to create it! The children also finished their penguin booklets this week and there was plenty of time for free painting (with an Antarctic theme). 

In Music with Mrs Cohen the children learnt to listen to different rhythms and copy these by clapping their hands. The rhythm got more challenging. Every child had a turn to play a percussion instrument to accompany the song, ‘Frere Jacques’. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children learnt about the ‘Faces of Morocco’, in line with the whole school. We smelt different moroccan spices, baked a delicious moroccan bread and we also learnt a bit of french! This week in Forest School, our focus today was Tu B'Shevat and tree buds. Emma told the children that something exciting has been happening in the woods - the trees are waking up from winter! Emma showed them some buds from different trees. This is another sign that spring is on its way and the buds are a great way to identify the trees at this time of year. The children looked at the different shapes, sizes, colours, and the positioning of the buds on the sticks. Then the children became Bud Hunters and searched the site for different buds. It was lovely to observe their curiosity and excitement as they found a variety of buds and some leaf bursts in the woods.

Emma told Year 1 and Reception an old Polish legend called ‘The Story of the Pussy Willow’. It is about a willow tree who saves some kittens from drowning by extending its branches into the water. Every spring since, the willow's branches sprout soft, fur-like buds where the kittens once held on. 

For the independent choice section of the sessions, some children chose to weave with buds and long pieces of fabric. Others used buds to make patterns in clay. Some children were interested in returning to the wheat craft from last week and experimented with a different plaiting design. Other children enjoyed playing in the woods and relaxing in the hammocks.

In Jewish Studies this week we looked at parashat Yitro, in which the Bnei Yisrael stood at Har Sinai to hear the Aseret Hadibrot (10 rules). Hashem and Moshe told the rules to Bnei Yisrael. One of the rules of the Asseret Hadibrot was ‘Keep Shabbat’. Another rule was ‘Listen to your father and mother’. Each of the children made a gorgeous Moshe Ascending Har Sinai textured craft and tried singing along with a rather catchy little tune called Hashem Gave Us a Present follow the link to listen at home and see if your child can remember some of the words. Can you think of any other presents Hashem has given your family?

In alef-bet this week we looked at the letter Alef, which does not have a sound of its own, but can take on the sound of the vowel ‘helping’ it, such as in our new word:

-adam, meaning ‘man’. 

The children were introduced to their first Hebrew Vowel called Kamatz, which makes the sound ‘u’ as in fun or cup. We practised using the Kamatz with Alef and the other letters we have learned so far, which was a lot of fun! Children I am so proud of how you took all of this in your stride! To extend learning at home try this game Morah Cassie's letters with Kamatz that we looked at in class. 

We also continued learning about Tu B'Shevat, focusing on the Shivat HaMinim (Seven Species of Israel): figs, dates, pomegranates, olives, grapes, barley, and wheat. On Wednesday, we joined Nursery and Morah Sari for a beautiful Tu B'Shevat Seder, where we tasted the Seven Species, made a Shehechiyanu over a delicious pomegranate, nibbled on dragon fruit, mango, lychees and other delicious fruity morsels and sang Tu B'Shevat songs. It was so special to come together to celebrate the start of Spring with our lovely seder!

On the Shabbat Table this week, we joined Nursery for a joint EYU Shabbat party and we had: 

Ima- Hannah
Aba- Isaac
Bat- Lielle
Ben- Michael

Reminders:

From 28th February – 28th March 2025: EYU will finish at 2:00 PM.

Children will need a packed lunch on Fridays. Please ensure that the packed lunch is milky/parev, nut-free, sesame-free, and pesto-free to protect staff with serious allergies. If any of these foods are included, the child will not be allowed to eat them, and we will contact you for a replacement if they form the main part of the lunch. 

Please if you have any old artefacts ( cameras, computers, rotary phone (not an iPhone), typewriter etc. ) email Mrs. Freedman and let her know. This would be very helpful to have for the first week back. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all and have a wonderful half-term break! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Freedman, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 7th February, 2025

Dear Parents,

This week is children’s mental health week and this year’s theme is ‘know yourself, grow yourself’. On Tuesday, the children spent time with Mrs. Freedman talking about our emotions and mental health which is just as important as physical health. We acted out feeling, sad, angry, happy and worried. We talked about how being aware of our emotions can help us and also sharing our emotions can help those around us as we can’t always see them from the outside. We also talked about having a growth mindset. In groups, the children shared something they are really good at and something they would like to get better at. It was a lovely way to get to know the class better. We then finished off with a short yoga session to help us calm before lunchtime.

In Communication and Language this week, the children each shared something new they learnt this week about Antarctica. Our focus for the last two weeks of the half term is on this continent as we are able to relate it to our current freezing, icy, weather climate conditions here in the UK! (kind of feels like we are in Antarctica at times!) 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed working on their fine motor skills using playdough and we also made moon sand. They also utilised the outdoor area, building gross motor skills with the climbing equipment, balance bikes and lots of collaborative large construction using loose parts.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been learning one new trigraph and two new digraphs. We worked on ‘ure, er and ow’. Also, this week's tricky monster words were ‘ ball and tall’. Many of the children also wrote sentences about their learning on Antarctica. Many of the children will finish this off next week. 

In Maths this week, we continued to work on simple addition equations. The children have been using counters in order to find the sums. This gets them to practice writing their numbers and also learn how to solve simple additions. Soon they will know their number bonds to 10- how exciting! We also used the dot method to add up the simple sums as well! Many of the children still find it challenging writing their numbers 1-10 so we are using the support of a number line to help us! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had the opportunity to create their very own penguins! There is a huge love for penguins currently in the Reception class and they absolutely loved being able to use shapes, cutting, gluing etc to make their very own! Next week we will be writing our fun facts inside the penguins bellies! The children also did some junk modelling when it came to creating Mount Erebus which they learnt about as it is a volcano in Antarctica. They loved making their own volcano! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children really enjoyed learning all about Antarctica. They learnt about icebergs, glaciers, expeditions, strong winds, how water freezes and so much more. I was hoping the temperature would be below zero so we could make our own ice, but we will hopefully be able to save that for another day, if not, we will complete a water/ freezer experiment! 

This week in Forest School, Reception, Emma and Carrie met the children at the beginning of the path to Forest School with an exciting discovery. There were lots of tips of leaves emerging from the soil. These leaves are daffodil leaves and a sign that spring is on its way. Emma pointed out some of the bulbs that were showing. We will keep an eye on when the flowers bloom.

When we got to Forest School, Reception learnt how to tie an overhand and reef knot with Emma using special teaching ropes. This was a challenging task and we will keep practising knots as it is a valuable skill and great for fine motor development. Then they played a fun game of ‘Jellyfish Tag’. 

Ater the game, the children learnt about the festival of Imbolc and listened to Emma tell a story about goddess Brigid waking up and the returning light of spring.

For the rest of the session, lots of children chose to challenge themselves on the slackline in the woods. Other children were interested in debris den building and adapted the den they have been working on over the past few weeks. Some children chose to make snowdrop folk with Emma. They worked hard to press the white petal fabric onto the top of a stick and then needed to use their knot skills to tie on pieces of green fabric. Emma supported them to hold the fabric in place while they completed the knot tying and they remembered what to do from earlier in the session. There was even more dragon egg excitement this week when one of the children found a thank you letter from Mummy Dragon!

To finish, Emma started teaching the children a new song called ‘Oh, Pine Tree’ in preparation for Tu BiShvat next week.

In Jewish Studies this week We have looked at the parasha of Beshalach. In this week’s parasha of Beshalach the Beneh Yisrael leave Mitzrayim. Paroh and the Mitzrim chase after them. They arrive at the Yam Suf where Hashem makes a miracle happen and the sea splits so that Bnei Yisrael are able to walk across on dry land. Wow! What an exciting miracle to behold! Our lives are full of miracles and we keep our eyes peeled for each one: Mrs Ranson’s baby growing and getting ready to come into the world is a miracle Reception class has truly been blessed to experience first hand this year, and even the miracle of the sun coming up in the morning is nothing short of miraculous. Can you think of any big or small miracles that your family has experienced this week? Each of the children made a 3D collage of Moshe leading the Bnei Yisrael through the Yam Suf. Well done children they came out very nicely. 

In alef bet this week, we have enjoyed doing a bit of a review of the letters and vocabulary words that we have covered so far. Reception children are really enjoying learning the sounds and shapes of each new letter and are having lots of fun with their new words. It was great to have an opportunity to just go over a few familiar sounds and reinforce them before we march on with the next ones. 

We also started to prepare for Tu B’shevat this week. Tu B’shevat is the New Year for Trees and will be happening on the 15th  of Shevat (next Wednesday night and Thursday). We had a good think about all the amazing things trees do for us, giving us: food, shade, shelter, clean air to breathe and they give us conkers to play with and wood to make things. And so much more! As Spring comes the trees are going to start to get ready for the warmer weather. They will start to blossom. We listened to a beautiful version of a song we sing in shul each week, describing the Torah as the Tree of Life, which you can hear here ETZ CHAIM - The PORTNOY Brothers ft Joel Portnoy. Each of the children made a fabulous blossomy tree to bring home and cherish. As part of a school-wide Tu B’Shevat project, the EYU children all made a brilliant paper plate kiwi- yum! 

On the Shabbat Table this week, we joined Nursery for a joint EYU Shabbat party and we had: 

Ima- Odelia
Aba- Micah
Bat- Sarah
Ben- Jacob

Reminders:

-Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the day as it has been very cold lately. 
- Please can all boys ensure they come into school wearing a kippah every morning.
- Please remember to bring in your child's special fruit for our Tu BiShvat celebration on Wednesday 12th February. On Thursday 13th February, the children are allowed to come in tree colours. (This is green, brown or floral clothing)
- Please can you bring in small boxes for us to use for junk modelling for the last week of half term. ( please only small boxes!!!)

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 31st January, 2025

Dear Parents,

In Personal, Social and Development this week, we discussed what ‘ privacy’ means and we had a circle time about when and why something would be considered private. 

In Communication and Language this week, the children each shared something exciting they did over the weekend. We have a routine of doing this every Monday during fruit break. It is so lovely hearing the children speak proudly in full sentences. The children also discussed a fun fact they learnt over the last two weeks about South America. Each child had the opportunity to share one new thing they’ve learnt. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their hand eye coordination skills through different bowling, throwing and catching activities.The children also baked with Mrs. Dagul for the Lunar New Year on Wednesday! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing previous learning. We also went over last week's digraphs and trigraphs which are: ‘ow, oi, ear and air’. The children found these quite challenging which is why I wanted to spend an extra week going over them. 

In Maths this week, we continued to work on simple addition equations. The children have been using counters in order to find the sums. This gets them to practice writing their numbers and also learn how to solve simple additions. Soon they will know their number bonds to 10 -how exciting! We also used the dot method to add up the simple sums as well! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had the opportunity to create their very own snake for the Lunar New Year. As the celebration is this week, we’ve been learning all about the new year and the children’s craft this week was creating their very own snake using folded paper. Please be sure to have a look on Tapestry so you can see your child’s work before they go up on display! 

This week in music, the children said hello to each other in Gujarti. Mrs Cohen gave out some instruments for them to use. The children sang a planting song followed by a song using the parachute.

In Understanding the World this week, the children really enjoyed learning all about South America. We looked at where it is located on a world map, what countries are in South America, what animals live there, what famous landmarks can be found etc. It was truly eye opening for them to see how different life is on the other side of the world and I think many children now want to go and visit a rainforest!

Also, this week in Forest School, Reception began their session with a story. Today it was a picture book story called ‘The Great Race’ and Emma had finger puppets to tell it with, too. ‘The Great Race’ is a folktale that explains how the 12 animals of the zodiac were chosen. After the story, the children all took part in a hunt for all the zodiac animals hiding in Forest School. 

For the rest of the session, the Lunar New Year-inspired resources really captured the children’s imagination. A group of children were fascinated by Emma’s dragon toys and eggs. They had a lot of questions involving the eggs and the Dragon Mummy who left the eggs with us to look after!  They included: “What did Mummy Dragon tell you?”, “Will the baby dragons fly in the sky?”, “Can you tell them not to blow fire on us when they hatch?” They wondered how to keep the eggs warm and started by keeping them in their pockets. One child found a feather on the floor and they thought that may have come from Mummy Dragon. They children decided to make a small den for the eggs and covered them in leaves to keep them warm. The child who found the feather decided to leave it close to the eggs so the babies would remember their Mummy when they hatched and “cuddle the feather”. It was lovely to observe their imaginations being sparked and the care they showed to the eggs. Other children made their own snakes with Emma to celebrate the Year of the Snake. They worked hard to drill pieces of elder wood and threaded them onto a pipe cleaner. This required a lot of focus and hand-eye coordination. Then they bent the pipe cleaner into a wavy snake shape. Other children were involved in imaginative role play with the dragon toys in the woods. 

To finish, Emma taught the children a new song with actions called ‘I’m a Little Robin’ sung to the tune of ‘I’m a Little Teapot’

In Jewish Studies this week we looked at Parashat Bo. In parashat Bo, Paroh still says ‘no’ to letting Bnei Yisrael go, so Hashem sends another three punishments (plagues/ makot). These are: locusts, darkness, and sickness of the firstborn. That makes ten makot in total! Can you remember any of the other makot that came before these ones? Hashem rescues Bnei Yisrael from slavery and takes them out of Mitzrayim to be free to become the Jewish Nation. Hashem gives Moshe instructions to tell to Bnei Yisrael. Bnei Yisrael listen to Moshe and follow all his instructions. Bnei Yisrael do exactly as Moshe and Aharon tell them to. We sang along and followed the instructions of follow the leader by DJ Rafi just like the Bnei Yisrael followed Moshe’s instructions. Well done Reception class, you are very good at following instructions! Each of the children made super cool ‘darkness’ glasses to take home. 

In alef bet this week, we explored the letter Ayin, which doesn’t have a sound of its own, and comes at the end of two new vocabulary words:

-Shema, and
-Sefardeya, which means ‘frog’

We also learned the letter Fey Soffit, which says ‘f’ and comes at the end of our new vocabulary word:
-off, meaning ‘chicken’. 

We also completed our Jewish Way of Life exploration into Berachot, this week looking at the beracha for drinks - shehakol and touched on the fact that for wine and grape juice we say ha-gafen. Each of the children made a place mat with lots of different berachot as an aide memoir. Children they came out so well- I hope you love using them at home! For a bit of extra fun, have a look around your kitchen, can you find any hamotsi foods? How about shehakol drinks? Can you spot anything yummy and mezonot? 

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Leora
Aba- Jesse
Bat- Nava
Ben- Joseph

Special shabbat guest from Year 1 - MJ

Reminders:
-Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the day as it has been very cold lately. 
- Please can all boys ensure they come into school wearing a kippah every morning. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 24th January, 2025

Dear Parents,

In Personal, Social and Development this week, the children discussed inclusion and what it means to be inclusive. We had a circle time discussion and the children came up with lovely ideas with how to include one another. 

In Communication and Language this week, the children each shared something they did over the weekend. The children also shared one fun fact at the end of each day about South America. Many of the children choose to say something exciting that they learnt that day! 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their core strength through exercises such as squats and star jumps as well as learning team skills, playing games.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing previous learning. We also learnt two new digraphs and two new trigraphs. They are: ‘ow, oi, ear and air’. 

In Maths this week, we worked on simple addition equations. The children practiced solving equations using manipulatives in order to help them. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had the opportunity to create their own Toucan’s. The children have been learning about various South American animals this week, so they truly enjoyed using paper plates and paints to create their very own toucans! We are very excited for you to see their gorgeous creations on Tapestry. 

This week in music, the children practised their listening skills as they played different percussion instruments at the right time to music. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children really enjoyed learning all about South America. We looked at where it is located on a world map, what countries are in South America, what animals live there, what famous landmarks can be found etc. It was truly eye opening for them to see how different life is on the other side of the world and I think many children now want to go and visit a rainforest!

Also, this week in Forest School, Emma told the children about the Big Garden Birdwatch, she discussed what bird’s nests look like and the food that birds normally eat. Then the children created a giant bird’s nest together to play the ‘Feed the Baby Bird’ game. All the children were parent birds who needed to feed the hungry baby chick in the nest. In order to do this they had to search Forest School and find the colourful woolly worms that were hidden. It was a good game for keeping everyone moving and warm and the children had to look carefully in the environment to find all the worms. 

After the game, we all came together under the shelter to listen to Emma tell a story called ‘How the Robin got his Red Breast’. Everyone joined in with the actions of different animals as they helped Robin put out a fire in the forest. 

During the children’s independent choice time, some chose to help the birds during this cold season and made bird feeders. This involved threading small blocks of cheese and apple onto a wire and fastening it at the top to make a circle. This was a tricky task and it required a lot of concentration to fasten the wire successfully. Some children chose to hang them in the forest and others wanted to take them home to put in their gardens. Carrie was sawing wood with the bow saw and lots of children wanted to have a turn. It made them feel very strong! Some chose to decorate the wood slices they had cut. The rain created some very muddy puddles that a few children were having a lot of fun in! Other children enjoyed looking at the bird books and pressing the buttons of the book to hear the different birdsong. 

In Jewish Studies this week we looked at parashat Va’era, in which Hashem told Moshe to go to Paroh to ask him to let Benei Yisrael leave Mitzrayim. Paroh refused, so Hashem sent seven plagues: blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, animal sickness, boils & hail. Reception children sang along with an old favourite song Frogs Here Frogs There and had a go at some of the actions. Well done Reception class! Each of the children made their own bouncy frogs to take home and cherish. The children also got to meet a real frog this week, as we welcomed Mr Faik from Wild Fangs Animal Encounters to the EYU. The children saw and touched lots of different and fascinating creatures and asked lots and lots of questions, which Mr Faik so patiently answered! Children, I am so proud of how gentle and calm you were with the animals and how much you connected with this week’s parasha and the plagues that Hashem sent to the Mitzrim through this animal encounter. 

In alef bet this week, we explored the letter Gimmel, which says ‘g’ and comes at the end of the new

vocabulary words:

-dag, meaning ‘fish’
-etrog, that we shake at Sukkot and
-chag, meaning ‘festival.’
We also looked at the letter Chet, which says ‘ch’ and comes at the end of our new vocabulary word:
-Pesach. 

Reception continued to look at the Jewish Way of Life topic of Berachot (blessings), this week focusing on the berachot for cookies, cakes and bread. We had a hot debate on which cakes and biscuits are the yummiest (brownies came out on top!) and we had a ball trying to name as many different types of bread as possible. How many can you name? We concluded that we are so lucky to have so many delicious things to eat and that when we say a beracha we can really concentrate on being grateful for the food that Hashem has given us. Each of the children made a fabulous bakery picture with delicious Mezonot and Hamotzi baked goodies. Yum!  

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Sarah
Aba- Joshua
Bat- Leora
Ben- Elijah

Reminders:

-Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the day as it has been very cold lately. 
- Please can all boys ensure they come into school wearing a kippah every morning. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 17th January, 2025

Dear Parents,

In Personal, Social and Development this week, the children discussed what it means to be a good friend. We discussed what an adjective is and we wrote a list of adjectives as a class that would make a good friend. Some of the key words were: someone who is kind, caring, considerate, playful, funny, good at sharing etc. It was so lovely hearing the children share some of their own examples and experiences. 

In Communication and Language this week, the children each shared something they did over the weekend. The children also shared one fun fact at the end of each day about the country we worked on that day. This week we finished learning about North America and many of the children throughout the week, shared a fun fact that they learnt about either Canada, America or Mexico. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their core motor skills such as running, jumping, hopping and balancing. The children also baked delicious blueberry muffins where they had to measure, weigh and mix all of the ingredients. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing previous learning. We also learnt 4 new digraphs and 3 new tricky words. They are: ‘ ar, ur, oo, or’ and the tricky monster words are, ‘ they, all, are’. The children also each wrote their own beautiful postcard which you should all be receiving any day now in the mail. They really enjoyed working on this! We also welcomed back Drawing Club this week and focused on, ‘ The Picnic’. The children all had to choose, draw and write about what items and foods they would like to bring to a picnic. ( Let’s hope it’s warm enough soon and we can actually have one!) 

In Maths this week, we worked on zero and then subitising 1-5. Being able to subitise to 5 in Reception is incredibly important! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had the opportunity to create their own Mexican Sombrero’s. The children loved painting and creating their own sombrero’s and sharing them with the class. They all came out so beautifully so please do make sure you have a look on Tapestry. 

In music this week the children were introduced to the composer, Beethoven. We listened to a piece of his music and clapped along to the rhythm. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children really enjoyed continuing to learn about North America. This week in Forest School, the sticky mud was back on the main path to Forest School again today! Walking through it is a great opportunity for young children - their gross motor skills are stimulated as they navigate their way through it and they have to use their whole body to stay upright which encourages balance and coordination.

To start the session, we played the Jack Frost game that the children had been taught last week. Then Emma read the children a story called ‘Here Comes Jack Frost’. It is a sweet tale about a lonely boy who befriends Jack Frost in the wintry weather and the adventures they share together.

For the rest of the session, the children were very busy with different activities. Emma had brought some berries & peas frozen in ice blocks to encourage the children to consider how difficult it is for the birds to find food in winter time. They worked together to ‘free’ the food from the ice. Emma observed lots of problem solving and good communication with each other as they shared ideas. Some children spent time painting with watercolors and experimented with sprinkling salt on their pictures at the end to create a wintery effect. One child explained to a friend, “We’re doing experiments over here!” A lot of children were keen to cross the slackline again and they are gaining confidence on it. Some children had fun jumping in a muddy puddle in the woods and were enjoying the sensory experience of feeling the mud underfoot. 

To finish, we sang the song ‘I Walk into the Forest’ again. The children’s singing voices are getting louder and it is nice to see them becoming more comfortable with singing as a group outdoors.

In Jewish Studies we looked at the thrilling Parasha of Shemot. In Shemot, Moshe is born into a Jewish family in Mitzrayim just as Paroh, the King of Mitzrayim wanted to get rid of all Jewish baby boys! Moshe's mummy, Yocheved was very kind and brave and hid him at home for as long as she could. When she couldn’t hide him any longer, she chose to put him in a basket in the river, hoping that he would reach safety. Moshe’s sister Miriam watched after him as he floated along the Nile to make sure he was alright. Paroh’s daughter Batya spotted him and reached and took him out of the water. She took Moshe home to the palace where he grew up. Wow! Yocheved was kind, Miriam was kind and Batya was kind, and they were also all extremely brave! We discussed the people in our lives who are kind to us, and we listened to ‘Try a Little Kindness’ by Tori Kelley and the cast of Sesame Street which everybody loved. We learned some actions to a sweet song that you might want to listen to at home: Rabbi B - Where is Baby Moshe? and read Moses in the Bullrushes by K.Sully. Each of the children made their own rocking Baby Moshe craft as an aide memoire. Children they look absolutely beautiful- I am so proud of your wonderful efforts and your engagement in the topic. 

In alef bet this week, we explored two new letters
Chaf Soffit, which says ‘ch’ and comes at the end of our new vocabulary words:

-melech, meaning ‘king’ and 
-choshech, meaning ‘darkness
Samech, which says ‘s’, and comes at the end of our new vocabulary words:
-sus, meaning ‘horse’
-cos, meaning ‘cup’ and 
-carpas, which we eat at the Pesach Seder. 

We reviewed the letters we have learned so far since September and we played lots of games to practise recognising Samech and Mem -Soffit, which look very similar and often get mistaken for each other. For a bit of extra practise at home you might like to play this game which we enjoyed in class Final Mem Vs. Samech.

Over the next few weeks, our class will be exploring Brachot as part of our Jewish Way of Life curriculum. This week, we focused on blessings for fruits and vegetables. For fruits like apples, olives, oranges, cherries, and pears that grow on perennial trees or vines (plants that do not renew their stems annually and grow away from the ground), we say the blessing בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָעֵץ (Borei Pri Ha’etz – "Who creates the fruit of the tree").On the other hand, fruits such as melons, bananas, and pineapples, as well as vegetables, are considered “fruits of the ground.” For these, we say the blessing בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה (Borei Pri Ha’adama – "Who creates the fruit of the ground"). Reception children painted, snipped, stuck and bejeweled lots of different fruits and veggies to go on a colourful display in the hallway of the EYU. Do have a look next time you are passing through.

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Sarah
Aba- Noah
Bat- Lielle
Ben- Josh

Reminders:
-Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the day as it has been very cold lately. 
- Please can all boys ensure they come into school wearing a kippah every morning. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 10th January, 2025

Dear Parents,

Thank you all for such a fantastic first week back! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year! It was so lovely seeing your children again and hearing all about your holiday, trips, time together as a family and the many exciting activities that you all participated in. It was also really exciting to welcome another new student to the Kerem Reception family! 

In Communication and Language this week, the children each had the opportunity to speak in front of the class and explain what they did over the holidays. The children were amazing at using full sentences and giving detail. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception focused on developing their core motor skills such as running, jumping, balancing, squats, throwing and catching through different activities and movements.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing previous learning. As it was a short week and we had such a long break, we really wanted to ensure the children had a good review and felt confident before learning new digraphs next week. We learnt one new digraph which was ‘ oo’ as in ‘book’. You will see this weeks homework is practising writing and reading words with this digraph. 

In Maths this week, we worked on writing our numbers. The children are very confident counting 1-10 and saying one more/ less than, however they find writing the numbers and ensuring they are using the the correct number formation challenging.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had the opportunity to create their own totem poles. As we started learning about the 7 continents this week with a key focus on North America, the children learnt about totem poles, what they were used for, why they were used and they loved making and designing their own! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children really enjoyed learning about the 7 different continents. They learnt what continent we live on and what continent their family comes from. We also discussed facts about some of the continents that the children already know before we dive into learning about each continent individually.  We also had a wonderful time at forest school. Reception were excited to be back at Forest School with all the crunchy ice on the ground! We began the session with a game of Ostrich Tag to warm our bodies up.

Next Emma told the children a story called, The Red Mitten’. It is a lovely folktale from Ukraine about a group of animals including a mouse who take shelter in a lost mitten. 

For the rest of the session, some children made little mice based on the story. They used palm drills to make a hole in a small piece of elder wood and then used a pipe cleaner and pine needles to make the whiskers and tail. They were very proud of their creations. Some children enjoyed using the bubble wands made out of willow and had fun trying to pop the bubbles they had made. We had a slackline in the woods today and lots of the children were keen to have a go. It is great for developing balance, gross motor skills, coordination, and for improving core strength. Some children chose to continue building a debris den that was started in the morning. They pulled long sticks safely and placed them on the structure. They also added pine tree branches to cover the sides of the den. They were very pleased with their efforts and thought that a squirrel who lives in the woods will come and visit it, hopefully!

We finished the session with a new song, ‘I walk into the Forest’ which involves different actions and the children really liked it.

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception class really worked hard! Before Winter break, we got up to parashat Vayishlach, where Yaacov and Esav meet after a long time apart. So this week, we zoomed ahead a little and learned about Yaacov’s wives and his many children. We discussed Yaacov’s beloved son Yosef, his special cloak, his brothers’ jealousy and his journey to Mitzrayim! We focussed on this week’s parasha of Vayechi in which we learn that Yaakov, now a very old man, shows his love for his children and grandchildren. First, Yaacov blesses his grandchildren and hugs and kisses them. Yaakov then calls all his sons to gather around him and gives each son a special blessing. It is in this parasha that Yaacov recites a blessing called  ‘Hamalach Hagoel Oti’ that even nowadays, Jewish Mummies and Daddies often sing their children at bedtime as a beautiful lullaby. We listened to a version of Hamalach Hagoel Oti by Kippalive which you might like to listen to at home. Can your child remember the tune? Can they spot the names Avraham and Yitzchak? Each of the children made a fabulous Hamalach Hagoel Oti craft with intricately cut hearts to represent the love that Yaacov felt for his children and grandchildren and that our mummies and daddies and grandmas and grandpas feel for us.

Reception reviewed the alef-bet letters and some of the vocabulary words we have learned so far. No new letters or words will be sent home this week. Now Reception class is comfortable with lots of the letters, we took down the beautiful alef-bet letters hanging in our classroom given to us by last year’s Reception class and we made and hung our own new alef bet letters. Reception class- I am so proud of each of you for reaching this auspicious milestone in your learning and the classroom looks absolutely smashing with your sparkly colourful letters!

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Lexie
Aba- Benjamin 
Bat- Hannah
Ben- Benji 

Reminders:

-Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for the day as it has been very cold lately. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 13th December, 

Dear Parents,

In Communication and Language this week, the children all participated in the show! It was so amazing to see the children remember and recite their lines with such confidence. Performing in front of an audience is always quite daunting, so we were all very proud of our amazing Reception children! 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE, Reception focused on developing their core and leg strength through different exercises such as squats, lunges, hopping and star jumps. The children also enjoyed baking delicious chocolate muffins on Thursday as a little end of year treat! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing previous learning and additionally, we’ve been focusing on words ending with ‘es’. Example: wishes, misses, kisses etc. It has been so great being able to have the time to review the last few weeks of digraphs and we will continue to do so after the holidays as well. There will be no homework during the holidays. I kindly ask that you continue to work on the phonemes, digraphs, trigraph  and tricky words with your child to ensure they are ready for January. 

In Maths this week, we worked on writing numbers 1-10 and we also revised all the names of the 2D shapes we’ve been working on throughout the autumn term. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children had time to do free painting of whatever they wanted! They absolutely love this as they get to be creative and expressive and we truly have some wonderful future artists in the classroom! 

In music this week, the children said hello to each other in Gujarati and Mrs Cohen gave out some instruments for them to use, the children who didn’t have an instrument danced in the middle.

In Jewish Studies this week, we looked at parashat Vayishlach. In Vayishlach, the time has come for Yaakov to return home with all his family. He is frightened to meet his brother Esav because the last time they were together Esav was angry with him. Yaakov wants to make friends so he sends lots of presents to Esav. He sends lots of goats, sheep, cows, donkeys and even some camels. When they meet this time, Yaacov and Esav don’t quarrel. We learn from this that even if we don’t get along with someone very well, we still have to be polite, respectful and nice. Each of the children made a fabulous textured sheep picture as an aide memoir. 

In alef bet this week, we reviewed the letters and vocabulary we have learned this term. There will be no new letter or vocabulary to take home but please do have a look over the letters and words we have studied so far so we don’t lose our brilliant momentum! 

We also looked into Chanukah a little more with the focus this week on the miracle of the oil and the significance of latkes and sufganiyot. Reception children made absolutely gorgeous sparkly golden olive oil jug collages to take home and cherish. 

The Reception and Nursery children joined forces and participated in an amazing Chanukah Extravaganza! First the EYU was visited by Captain Fantastic who amazed us all with his wise cracks and his cool magic. What a wonderful Chanukah treat! Everyone then made their way over to the Main School to join their big brothers and sisters and mummies and daddies for a beautiful and meaningful Chanukiah lighting. Children, you have worked so hard this term and we are so excited to have shared another wonderful chag with you. We cannot wait to welcome you back to the EYU to learn about the next chagim after the winter break.

Wishing you all a fabulous Chanukah and an enjoyable and very well deserved rest.

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Lielle
Aba- Noah
Bat- Lexie 
Ben- Aaron

Reminders:

-Please return your child's wellies washed for Thursday 9th January. 
-There is no set homework over the holidays, however please do continue to revise the phonemes, digraphs and trigraph learnt this term to ensure a smooth January start. Please do continue to read with your child as well. (eBooks have been assigned as well!)
- Please can each child bring in a few kitchen towel rolls for the first day back ( please no toilet paper rolls) 

Shabbat Shalom to you all, happy Hannukah and a very happy and healthy new year to you all! 

We look forward to seeing you in 2025! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 6th December, 

Dear Parents,

In Communication and Language this week we started rehearsing for our Hannukah show. It was great to see the children reciting their lines and being comfortable speaking in front of the class with such confidence! 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception developed their core motor skills and played games that focused on their agility, hand eye coordination and reflexes.The children also had a wonderful time learning about latkes and baking them with Mrs. Dagul! The children enjoyed measuring, mixing and weighing all of the ingredients. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have been reviewing previous learning and additionally, we’ve been focusing on words ending with ‘es’. Example: wishes, misses, kisses etc. It has been so great being able to have the time to review the last few weeks of digraphs and we will continue to do so next week as well. 

In Maths this week, we worked on one more/ less than a given number. We used manipulatives where the children either had to count the objects or some of the children were able to subitise. They then had to say one more/ less than a given number. We also continued to work on counting in 2’s and 10’s. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children made their own mittens! They traced their hands, painted and decorated them and then proudly hung them up to be placed on display throughout the classroom! They also had to do some threading in order to hang them up, this a great activity for their fine motor skills. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children had a wonderful time at forest school. 

Reception enjoyed a game of Squirrels to start the session today.  They are getting very good at playing it now and have got quicker at finding partners when the ‘fox’ comes.

Next Carrie read the children a story about the animal that we were focussing on today, a badger. The story was called ‘Badger and the Great Storm’. It is a lovely story about helping others and friendship. The children said how much they liked it at the end.

Then Emma gave all the children a special tool safety talk about the bow saw. 

During the rest of the session, the children took turns to use the bow saw with Emma and sawed a piece of log to make their own badger. Everyone listened carefully to the instructions and took up the challenge of sawing despite it requiring a lot of strength. Charcoal and card were available for the children to draw badgers. Lots of children were interested in the animal footprint stamps Emma had bought with her today and looked carefully at the different shapes of the footprints as they pressed them into the mud and clay.

To end the session the children learnt and sang a new song, ‘The Woodland Animals’.

In music this week, the children sang the song ‘Everyone Do This” and took turns doing actions. They then sang some Chanukah songs. They sang a song whilst holding the parachute.

In Jewish Studies this week, we looked at Parasha Vayetzei, in which Yaacov leaves home and travels to Charan to find a wife. On the way, he stops for a rest and has a dream in which Malachim are going up and down a ladder reaching all the way up to the heavens. In Yaacov’s dream, Hashem tells him that he will have lots of children and that they will inherit the land of Israel. Reception class really got into the swing of the parasha, by playing snakes and ladders, making a Yaacov’s ladder collage with pom-pom Malachim and by building and crafting ladders out of all sorts of materials around the EYU (from foam bricks to magnetiles and pipe cleaners) and using their maths skills to count, measure and compare the rungs. Reception, you did so well! 

In alef bet, we looked at two new letters this week: Yud, which says ‘y’ and Tsadi Soffit, which says ‘ts’. These letters come at the end of this week’s new vocabulary words: 

-pri, meaning ‘fruit’
-Sinai
-etz, meaning ‘tree’ and 
-eretz, meaning ‘land’. 

Well done children and parents, we are doing so beautifully with our alef bet letter learning. Next week we will be reviewing the letters and words we have learned so far, and we will move on to the next ones after the Winter break.

Reception continued to look into Chanukah this week. We focused on the sevivon/dreidel and how it was used by the Jewish people to trick Antiochus’ soldiers into thinking they were playing a game instead of learning Torah- what a clever ruse! We decorated our own tiny sevivonim/dreidels with the letters Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin, for Nes Gadol Haya Sham and sang lots of Chanukah songs including Sevivon, Sov Sov Sov, I Had a Little dreidel and of course we practised Maoz Tsur for the Chanukah Show. The children had a fabulous time making some gorgeous colourful abstract art by spinning paint dipped sevivonim on card. Reception class, I think they are worth framing! 

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Nava
Aba- Isaac
Bat- Sarah
Ben- Michael

Reminders:

-Please can children remember to bring in Tzedakah every Friday, it is important that the children understand the importance of giving.
- We won't be going to the library now until we are back in January, please can kindly all library books be returned. 
- Hanukkah show is on Wednesday 11th December at 9:30am. Please can all children wear hannukah jumpers. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 29th November, 2024

Dear Parents,

In Communication and Language we each discussed what we did over the weekend. The children had to say their favourite part of the weekend and explain why. We also finished each day with sharing our favourite part of the day and why. Additionally, throughout the week we discussed different types of snowmen, where they come from and how they designed their own this week in expressive arts! Finally, the children all presented their lines/ songs at the wonderful Chaggigat Ha siddur ceremony this morning! 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception developed their core motor and hand eye coordination skills through different tennis related drills and activities. The children had another fun baking session with Mrs Dagul. They made biscuits in the shape of people. This was linked to this weeks parasha. They helped to measure out all the ingredients and mix them together to make a biscuit dough. They then used the biscuit cutter to make the shape. They added different features to their biscuits to make them different like  Esav and Yaacov. We reiterated to the children it is okay to be different and whatever our differences are we must still be kind to everyone. This is also linked to the area of Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt three new digraphs and one new trigraph. They learnt ‘ai,ee,igh and oa’ which are also tricky but we have done loads of practise to ensure the children feel confident! In Drawing Club this week, we looked at ‘ The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as it was a special request from the class. We learnt all about the life cycle of a butterfly and we connected it to the life cycle of a human! 

In Maths this week, we worked on subitising numbers 4 and 5. We used our Whiterose curriculum exercises in order to learn this. The children used many different objects and manipulatives in order to subitise. 
 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children made their beautiful snowmen! As the weather has been slightly frostier this past week or two,  we weren’t able to make actual snowmen with snow, so why not pain them? This also brought about really interesting conversations about the seasons changing and why that might happen. We also had fun watching water freeze due to the cold temperature change. The children watched this happen with such excitement is was so wonderful to see! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children had a wonderful time at forest school. The Reception children were wrapped up warm again today allowing them to enjoy their session fully.

Our focus for today was hedgehogs. To start we played a game called ‘Hibernatring Hedgehogs.' The children pretended to be hedgehogs snuffling around and then ‘hibernated’. One child hid with Emma and the other children had to guess who was missing when they woke up.

Then Emma read a lovely book called ‘Helga the Hedgehog’. In the book, they found out lots of amazing facts about the hedgehog including that they have over 5000 spines and clean their teeth with snail shells.
During their independent activity time, Reception children manipulated clay and used sticks to make their own mini hedgehog. We were lucky enough to spot the fox again today and some of us went to look in the mud for tracks to see if we could spot where he had been. The children enjoyed exploring the marks their wellies made in the mud and guessing what made other shapes they spotted. Lots of children enjoyed exploring the woods with our swatch guides today, spotting different fungus and looking for other tracks. We also had those who had a need for movement and enjoyed having this need met in the hammocks.

We finished our session with a round of Boom Chicka Boom.

In music this week, the children said hello to each other in French. They then practised their “Siddur”song and Chanukah songs. They sang a song whilst holding the parachute.

In Jewish Studies this week, we explored the parasha of Toleot in which we learn how Yitzchak and Rivkah got married and had twin boys – Esav and Yaacov. The twins grew up and were very different in appearance, character and behaviour. Esav was a hunter and Yaacov loved to study. When Yitzchak was old he asked Esav to hunt an animal and prepare a tasty meal. Esav listened to his daddy and went immediately to prepare a meal. Rivkah asked Yaacov to do the same thing, and he did as she asked. We learn from Esav and Yaacov how important it is to honour our mummy and daddy. We call this middah ‘Kibbud av va-em’. Reception class had a vibrant discussion about ways we show honour and love to our parents, be it by helping daddy with the cooking or giving mummy a hug. Each of the children made a beautiful and meaningful handprint craft for their parents to cherish. In the outside space, Reception children had a ball role playing Yaacov and Esav preparing all sorts of delicious and nutritious meals. 

In alef-bet we looked at the new letter - Hey, which says ‘h’ but is actually a silent letter when it comes at the end of a word, as in our new vocabulary:

-Torah
-tefillah, meaning ‘prayer’ and 
-yaldah, meaning ‘girl’

The children are really enjoying exploring each new letter, and thank you so much for reviewing them at home with your child, it really helps them to feel comfortable with the different shapes and sounds. 

Towards the end of the week, Reception started to look at Chanukah. We focused on the significance of the Chanukiah and how it resembles the Menorah that was in the Beit Hamikdash. Reception children dressed up and role played the Kohen Gadol lighting the Menorah and each child made fabulous Chanukiah crowns which they wore with pride at their gorgeous Chagigat Ha Siddur party. Well done children, I am so proud of how beautifully you sang your tefillot for your mummies and daddies and I am so looking forward to using your beautiful new siddurim with you! 

Reception and Nursery children joined forces this week to make Chanukah cards for Jewish school children in Uganda. The children heard a little bit about the Abayudaya Jewish Community and how the tefillot and minhagim combine Jewish law and liturgy with African melodies and customs. Each of the children made a card for a specific child in Uganda and we decided that really we ought to have a Kerem school trip to visit the children in person and hand deliver them! 

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Odelia
Aba- Jesse
Bat- Hannah
Ben- Benji

Reminders:

-Please can children remember to bring in Tzedakah every Friday, it is important that the children understand the importance of giving.
- Library is on Monday, in order for your child to take out a new book, it must be returned Monday morning. 
- School finishes at 12:30pm each Friday until the February half- term break. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 22nd November, 2024

Dear Parents,

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we looked at playing kindly with our friends. We discussed how we can play and help the Nursery children when we play with them at lunch time and help facilitate their play and their learning. 

In Communication and Language we each had the opportunity to share our robot with the class. Each group/ child came up to present their robot on Friday to the class. It was amazing seeing the children speak in full sentences and be able to explain their ideas. They were all so incredibly creative! 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, reception focused on developing their balancing, coordination and leg strength through different motor activities.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt new digraphs. They learnt ‘ sh, th, ng and nk’.  These are definitely the hardest digraphs so far! This week's tricky monster word was ‘ push’. This week in Drawing Club, we looked at the one and only, ‘ Little Red Riding Hood’. Most of the children loved it, although a few children found the wolf a little bit scary. We also had some amazing hands on materials from the local library to enhance the children’s learning with the story. Please make sure to have a look on Tapestry so you can see what they were! This week, I also spent time assessing each child individually on their phonics. We do this towards the end of each term, so it was really great to see how the children are progressing and where they need more support. 

In Maths this week, we worked on shapes, specifically triangles and circles. We looked at different shapes and how they’re used. We also had a box full of objects and the children had to describe what shapes they can see in each object. We also discussed the special properties of each shape.

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children made their very own 3D robots using recycled materials! The children were absolutely enthralled with this task and loved working collaboratively in a group in order to design, create and then decorate their robots! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children had a wonderful time at forest school. It was a lot colder today and we were really impressed with the Reception children’s resilience faced with the drop in temperature. They kept active and had lots of fun.

Our focus for today was birds. To start we played a game called ‘Fill Your Nest’. The children were all birds and worked in pairs to make their own nest out of sticks and leaves. Then they had to run to Emma’s basket and collect an egg in their beak (hand) to take back to their nest to keep safe. Once all the eggs were safely in their nests the children counted how many they had been able to collect. Then, Emma made the game more challenging and she was a bird called a kite that was trying to catch the other birds and take their eggs. It was a lot of fun and was a good running around game to keep everybody’s bodies warm!

For the rest of the session, some children chose to work with Emma and make their own birds. They manipulated clay into the shape of a bird and then decorated it with colourful feathers and other natural materials. Other children decided to be ‘Bird Helpers’ and made bird feeders with pine cones, vegetable fat and seeds. Some of them decided to hang them up in our woods for the birds and others wanted to take them home to put in their gardens. The children had fun in the woods with a swing and zipline for birds that the Year 3 children had made and wanted to leave for them. We also saw a baby mouse which was really exciting! It was a brave mouse and quite happy to scurry along while we observed it quietly. 

We finished our session with a sing song back in the circle together.

In Jewish Studies this week, we looked at the parasha of Chayei Sarah. In Chayei Sarah,  Avraham and Sarah have had a son named  Yitzchak. When he grows up Avraham sends his trusty servant Eliezer to find a wife for him. Eliezer meets Rivkah at the town water well where she gives water not only to him but to all his camels! When Eliezer sees what a kind person Rivkah is, he knows that she must be the right wife for Yitzchak. The children each built their own a fabulous tiny well crafts to take home. We talked about different ways we can show kindness to others - each of us in our own way, be it offering a kind word or inviting others to join in with a game or activity. Some of the children also chose to make camel puppets and we each had a go at building Rivkah's Well out of Lego, wooden blocks and big spongey bricks. We listened to this song in class: Eliezer Made a Test .

In alef-bet this week, we looked at the letter Daled, which says ‘d’ and comes at the end of our new vocabulary words:

-yad, meaning ‘hand’
-echad, meaning ‘one’ and 
-yeled, meaning ‘boy’.

Do take a look at our recent Tapestry pictures and see how we explore each new alef-bet letter here in the EYU!

This week we looked into some new aspects of Shabbat and how we mark Shabbat as special in our homes and communities, in particular, through making Kiddush, saying hamotsi on two challot and by wearing our finest clothes. Shabbat is such a precious gift that gives us the opportunity to re-centre ourselves, treat ourselves kindly and connect with those we love. Each of the children made a collage of their favourite aspects of Shabbat!

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Leora
Aba- Joseph
Bat- Alana
Ben- Elijah

We also took part in Mitzvah Day this week, and Reception and Nursery classes joined forces to participate in a joint Mitzvah Day project for North London Hospice. The children were asked to make a picture showing ‘My Favourite Thing!’ for a big display in the North London Hospice’s main entrance. The children really did us proud with their bright and cheerful pictures of animals, foods and even robots! 

On Friday 29th November each child will be presented with their own siddur at our Chagigat Siddur ceremony. We will be sending out song lyrics and lines to review at home. 

Reminders:

-Please can children remember to bring in Tzedakah every Friday, it is important that the children understand the importance of giving.
-Please remember to return your child’s reading book after you feel like they are confident with it. Please also remember I assign an eBook each week which should also be read. 
- Library is on Monday, in order for your child to take out a new book, it must be returned Monday morning. 
-Reception Chagigat Siddur is on Friday 29th November at 9am.
- All children with long hair should have their hair up during the school day. 
- School finishes at 12:30pm each Friday until the February half- term break. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all!

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 15th November, 2024

Dear Parents,

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we did numerous activities for Anti-Bullying Week. We had Miss Mimi come in from Streetwise and she spoke to the children about the importance of being kind to one another. We also wore odd socks on Monday and talked about the significance of being ‘different’ and what that may look like. We also learnt about Remembrance day as we had a moment of silence and made our very own poppies on Monday! 

In Communication and Language we each had the opportunity to share our beautiful tree puppet that we made. It was lovely seeing the children present their puppet to the class and explain what they’ve made. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE today, Reception focused on developing their hand-eye coordination skills through different tennis activities and games. These skills included holding the racket, swinging the racket and striking the ball.  We also baked with Ms. Dagul on Wednesday. We baked delicious autumn biscuits. The children had to weigh, measure and mix all the ingredients! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt new phonemes and digraphs (sounds). We learnt ‘y’, ‘z and zz’, ‘qu’, and ‘ch’. We also learnt three new tricky words, ‘we, me and be’. This week in Drawing Club we read ‘Ruby’s Worry’. As it was anti-bullying week, we wanted to explain to children how if they’re feeling sad or going through a bit of a wobble, that it is always best to speak to someone. The key words we looked at this week were: alone, forever, enormous, shrink, tumbled. 

In Maths this week, we worked on subitising. This is when the children have the ability to look at a group of objects and without counting, be able to tell how many objects there are. This is a crucial part of Maths and being able to have good number correspondence is a key fundamental skill. It was lovely working on this with the children using numerous different objects! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children made these beautiful tree stick puppets! Thank you so much for bringing in all the leaves as this was very helpful. The children loved making them and then using them for acting out some scenes/ plays! As an extension, if children wanted to they were then able to use the leftover leaves in order to make a collage. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children had a wonderful time at forest school. We began by thinking about the animals you typically find in British woodlands. The children took part in a hunt and matching game with pictures of badgers, moles, foxes, hedgehogs, deers, and bats.

Next Carrie told the children a story called ‘Little Mushroom’ as they were so interested in the fungi we found last week. It is a really lovely story about the life cycle of mushrooms. 

The children were all very busy during their independent play time. Some children continued with the light theme from last week and made small clay pots to put a candle in. They carefully chose leaves from the site to cut up with scissors and place around the edge as decoration. Lots of children were fascinated by the little torches Emma had brought along and experimented with the colours they made in a tent in the woods. A couple of Year 2 children had made a swing in the morning and left it up for the Reception children to play with. It was very popular! Some children went back to fungi hunting and they had retained information from the story which was lovely to observe (“We don’t pick them because they are doing an important job”, “They might be poisonous”). Other children enjoyed playing with the soft toy birds and sorted them into families.

We finished with a sing song back in the circle together.

In music this week, the children sang our “Bonjour” song and came up with an action for our “everybody do this song”. Each child took it in turns to play a percussion instrument and a chord, very gently, on the ukelele. 

In Jewish Studies this week, we looked at parashat Vayera, in which Avraham and Sarah have now settled in Eretz Cana’an. One day, they welcomed three very special visitors, who were actually angels (Malachim) to their tent. Avraham brought them water to wash their feet and asked them to rest under a tree. Then he hurried to organise and prepare a meal for them. We discussed the importance of hachnasat orchim (welcoming guests) and how we can play a role in making others feel welcome even if it is just offering a kind hello or a drink. In the parasha, Avraham and Sarah receive the news from the Malachim that they will soon become parents! Reception children made gorgeous textured Vayera scenes- depicting Avraham serving his three celestial guests under the shade of a big leafy tree. Well done Reception class, they came out looking very smart indeed! 

In alef-bet this week, we looked at the new letter: Lamed, which makes the sound ‘l’ and comes at the end of the new vocabulary words:

 -ohel, meaning ‘tent’
 -gadol, meaning ‘big’
-degel, meaning ‘flag,’ and
-Yisrael, meaning ‘Israel’ 

The children are doing so well with their vocabulary and recognising their alef-bet letters. Thank you so much for taking the time to play with the letters and vocabulary with your children and for your lovely comments and feedback that we are getting in the reading logs, it is much appreciated!

Reception continued to look into our Shabbat curriculum, and this week we focussed on the mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles. We learned that when Sarah lit her Shabbat candles with a bracha every Friday the light was said to have lasted all week! Sarah’s tent was filled with light and warmth. We discussed the fact that when we light our own Shabbat candles we are joining generations and generations of Jewish people (and especially Jewish women) who have brought their own unique beautiful light of Shabbat into their homes for thousands of years. We touched on the topic of the women who have come before us in our families and the children so sweetly shared their thoughts about their beloved mummies, grandmas, aunties and sisters. We discussed how some families have the tradition of lighting a candle for each child, and so each of the children in Reception class made their own Shabbat candle in a silver candlestick for display in the home corner. 

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Lexie
Aba- Micah
Bat- Lielle
Ben- Josh

On Friday 29th November each child will be presented with their own siddur at our Chagigat Siddur ceremony. We will be sending out song lyrics and lines to review at home. We will also be sending home a page with a box for parents to write a message to their child, which will be stuck into their siddur for them to read and cherish. Please make sure to return your messages to school by Monday November 18th. 

Reminders:

-Please can children remember to bring in Tzedakah every Friday, it is important that the children understand the importance of giving.
-Please remember to return your child’s reading book after you feel like they are confident with it. Please also remember I assign an eBook each week which should also be read. 
- Library is on Monday, in order for your child to take out a new book, it must be returned Monday morning. 
-Reception Chagigat Siddur is on Friday 29th November at 9am.
- All children with long hair should have their hair up during the school day. 
- School finishes at 12:30pm each Friday until the February half- term break. 
- We will need boxes again for next week please as we will be making our very own robots!

Shabbat Shalom to you all!

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 8th November, 2024

Dear Parents,

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we worked on different scenarios using our friendly Sophie Says puppets! We looked at different situations and discussed what we could do to help Sophie and her friends.

In Communication and Language we each had the opportunity to share the house we worked on both last week and this week. Each child stood up in front of the class and explained what they made and how they made it. It was truly wonderful seeing how proud they were of their creations!

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! In PE this week, Reception continued their focus on developing their team skills through different activities and games that require strategic thinking, teamwork and collaboration. They also worked on their core motor skills and strength.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt four new phonemes/digraphs (sounds). We learnt ‘j’, ‘v’, ‘w’, and ‘x’. We also learnt three new tricky words, ‘ he, she, buses’. This week we finished our first full week of drawing club where we focused on the story ‘ The Gruffalo’s Child’ which is an all time favourite. The key words we focused on were ‘tougher, scratched, gleamed and enormous.’ The children loved answering questions based on the text using pictures. Some of the children even started writing their first words using their current phonics knowledge. Please make sure to have a look on Tapestry so you can see!

In Maths this week, we worked on our number 1:1 correspondence with numbers 1,2,3. It’s important children are able to subitise and recognise these numbers just by looking at them. To extend the children, we also looked at doubling these numbers and then doubling those. ( example double of 3 is 6, double of 6 is 12)

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children finished creating their ideal homes from last week and we also had a wonderful time using the leftover pumpkins in order to work on pumpkin painting printing! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children had a wonderful time at forest school. We began our session with our welcome song and we recapped the Forest School rules that keep everyone happy and safe.

Our theme today was light, fire, and the recent festivals of Diwali and Bonfire Night. We played a game called ‘Forest Fire’. It is a running tag game and the children played different British woodland animals including badgers, squirrels, hedgehogs and foxes. 

Next Emma told the children a story called ‘Fox and the Fire’. It helps children understand how fire can be very useful but how we need to remember the importance of treating fire with respect and caution. It also reveals two ideas of how the rabbit got his short tail and how the fox got his black paws.

For the rest of the session, lots of children worked hard to make their own firework rockets with Emma. This involved using palm drills to create a hole in a piece of elder wood and manipulating pipe cleaners and ribbons. The children really enjoyed launching their rockets and seeing how far they would fly! Sometimes they needed to come back to the ‘repair shop’ if part of their rocket flew off which was a good exercise in building resilience and flexibility. Other children worked together to make a firework scene on a sheet and large piece of paper using paint and sticks. During the session, a group of children were fascinated by some fungi they discovered. There is a lot in the woods at the moment and they were eager to hunt and find more. We found different types including bracket fungi and what looked like a fairy ring around a tree! 

We finished the session with a new song, ‘We are the Wild Ones’.
 

In music this week, the children said hello to each other in French. The children sang ‘open shut them’ then they danced with their Autumn leaves (scarves). Then one child was chosen to wear a special hat, the rest of the class had to copy the action. Some of the children hid under the parachute for a song before Savi came to say hello.

Jewish Studies: This week we took a look at the parasha of Lech Lecha where we met Avraham Avinu and his wife Sarah.  Avraham and Sarah were the first ever Jewish people, and they loved Hashem! Hashem told Avraham to take his family and leave his home and travel to Eretz Yisrael. Avraham and Sarah listened to Hashem and did what He told them to do straight away! They took all their possessions, their animals and their servants. They also took their nephew Lot, his family and his animals. We made intricate shadow collages of Avraham’s camels travelling to Eretz Yisrael loaded up with lots of bags and suitcases. We sang and counted along to the song Alice the Camel, and some of us had a go at tracing different camel shapes. We learned that Avraham was sad that he and Sarah didn't have any children and in parashat Lech Lecha Hashem promised Avraham that one day he and Sarah would have lots of descendants - as many as the stars in the sky! Reception class used cookie-cutters and other tools to make lots of play dough stars. 

In alef-bet this week, we looked at the letter Reish, which makes the sound ‘r’ and comes at the end of our new vocabulary words:

-siddur
-shofar
-or, meaning ‘light’ and 
-ner, meaning ‘candle’

The children had a brilliant time finding and matching alef bet letters on a letter hunt around the classroom and our outside space. Well done Reception, you are excellent letter hunters and you did so well recognising each one!

Reception also started looking into Shabbat as part of our JS General Knowledge curriculum. This week we explored Shabbat zemirot. We listened to a beautiful verison of Dror Yikra by the Maccabeats, and discussed the fact that Shabbat zemirot can have lots of different tunes and melodies, each one bringing new life and energy to the words. Variety really is the spice of life! We had a go at singing the first verse of Shalom Alechem with two very different but very lovely melodies. Do you have a favourite Shabbat song? Do you know more than one tune for it? The children made posters of Shalom Aleichem using different textures, materials, colours and media to represent the different melodies out there.

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Sarah
Aba- Aaron 
Bat- Nava
Ben- Noah

On our Friday 29th November each child will be presented with their own siddur at our Chagigat Siddur ceremony. We will be sending out song lyrics and lines to review at home. We will also be sending home a page with a box for parents to write a message to their child, which will be stuck into their siddur for them to read and cherish. Please make sure to return your messages to school by Monday November 18th. 

Reminders:

-Please can children remember to bring in Tzedakah every Friday, it is important that the children understand the importance of giving.
-Please remember to return your child’s reading book after you feel like they are confident with it. Please also remember I assign an eBook each week which should also be read. 
- Library is on Monday, in order for your child to take out a new book, it must be returned Monday morning. 
-Reception Chagigat Siddur is on Friday 29th November at 9am.
- Odd socks day is Monday 11th November, please if children can wear odd socks on this day to kick off anti-bullying week. 
- All children with long hair should have their hair up during the school day. 
-Please can each child bring in 5-10 leaves of different colours and shapes for Monday 11th November in a clear zip-lock bag with their name on it. Please, please, please, ensure the name is clearly labelled! 
- School finishes at 12:30pm each Friday until the February half term break. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all!

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 1st November, 2024

Dear Parents,

It was so lovely having all of your children back at school this week! We have had an amazing week in Reception, filled with so much fun and learning! 

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we worked on kind touching. We used our puppets to explore this topic and we discussed and modelled kind touching and how friends should and shouldn’t play with one another. 

In Communication and Language we each had the opportunity to share about our half- term holiday. Some of the children even chose to draw a picture or write about their holiday! It was amazing hearing the children use full and complete sentences in order to describe their holiday. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson on Tuesday with Mr. Antony! Reception focused on developing their team skills through different activities and games that required strategic thinking, teamwork and collaboration.The children also loved baking with Ms. Dagul special treats for Diwali! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt four new phonemes/digraphs (sounds). They learnt ‘h’ ‘b’ ‘ff’ and ‘ll’. The children also learnt two new tricky words ‘as and his’. This week the children also officially began ‘Drawing Club’ which is something we will incorporate in our weekly learning. We focus on one specific book a week, with a few chosen vocabulary words and each day the children draw a picture answering a specific question based on the book. Sometimes writing is incorporated too! It is amazing because by the end of the week, the children have learnt several new vocabulary words, increased their understanding of the story all while having fun, being artistic and learning through creativity! 

In Maths this week, we reviewed mass and weight which we learnt before the holidays. We looked at various pumpkins and discussed the different types of sizes. We used keywords such as: lighter, heavier, bigger, smaller, more heavy, less heavy etc. The children all then had the opportunity to place the pumpkins in order from either lightest to heaviest or heaviest to lightest. We also spent time reviewing 2D shapes as many children still find their shapes a little tricky! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children created their own 3D models of their ideal homes! They were hard at work with the recycled junk! They love getting messy with any construction and they had the opportunity to decorate and design their own ideal homes. The children then had the opportunity to present them to the class should they wish to do so. 

In Understanding the World this week, the children learnt about Diwali. The children created Mehndi patterns and also had the opportunity to paint their own fireworks (which was definitely very popular). Additionally, they baked delicious treats and learnt all about the Diwali traditions! 

In music this week, the children learnt the ‘ hello/ bonjour’ song in french. They sang and danced along to it and really enjoyed their lesson with Mrs. Cohen! 

Jewish Studies:

Although Bereshit was last week’s parasha, it is such a fascinating parasha, we couldn’t resist giving it at least a quick glance this week. We tried out a guided meditation;  closing our eyes and imagining ourselves swimming back through time to when Hashem had yet to create the world! We imagined the colours we might see, swirling and sparkling around us. We imagined the smells we might experience, perhaps the scent of oranges or soil or other interesting fragrances. We imagined what it would be like to hear the rustle of leaves or the swish of clouds and waves. We discussed the different elements of the world that were formed by Hashem over the 6 days of creation; from the sea and the heavens, to the grass and beasts, and how Hashem had a well deserved rest on Shabbat. We discussed how everything comes from Hashem and that we have a duty to look after our beautiful world. Each of the children made their own Days of Creation collage, which came out beautifully! Well done Reception class. 

In alef-bet, we reviewed the sounds made by previous letters covered so far: Shin, Vet, Tav and Mem Soffit. We looked at a new letter, Nun Soffit, which comes at the end of the following new vocabulary words:

-ben, meaning ‘son’
-shemen, meaning ‘oil’
-sevivon
-yayin, meaning ‘wine,’ and 
-gan, meaning ‘garden’

Here is a link to a game Morah Cassie's Letter Sounds - Shin to Nun Soffit  your child might enjoy for bit of extra practise.

Reception class also looked into Parashat Noach this week. We learned that Noach was a good man but the people all around him were horrible to each other. Hashem told Noach to build a tevah (ark) because He was going to bring a mabul (flood). Hashem told Noach to take his family and lots of animals into the tevah so that they would be safe. Noach and his family looked after all the animals. Noach was kind. When the flood was over a dove brought Noach a branch from an olive tree. Hashem placed a rainbow in the sky and promised never to make such a big flood ever again. When we see a rainbow we can say a bracha  to remember Hashem's promise.  We read lots of gorgeous Noach themed books from the EYU library, including The Littlest Pair, by S. Rouss and The Chameleon that Saved Noahs Ark by Y. Molchadsky. Each of the children made minibeasts and insects from paper plates, sequins, paints, feathers, pipecleaners and glitter, which will be gracing our fabulous new display of Noachs Teva in the hallway.

On the Shabbat Table this week, we had: 

Ima- Alana
Aba- Benji
Bat- Hannah
Ben- Jacob

Reminders:

-Please remember to return your child’s reading book after you feel like they are confident with it. Please also remember I assign an eBook each week which should also be read. 
- Library is on Monday, in order for your child to take out a new book, it must be returned Monday morning. 
-Forest school will resume as normal Thursday 7th November so please ensure your child has the correct clothing. 
- School now finishes at 12:30pm each Friday until mid February. 
- Thank you all for being so amazing with returning your child's homework folders and reading books this week! 

Shabbat Shalom to you all!

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Tuesday 15th October, 2024

Dear Parents,

Short and sweet, but a great start to the week nonetheless! 

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we worked on team building. We discussed sharing and why it’s important. Reception are brilliant when it comes to working in a team as they always have such amazing ideas, but sometimes they find sharing tricky so it was really good to discuss this and talk about some real life examples! 

In Communication and Language they each had the opportunity to share one thing they are grateful for as we spent Monday celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving. We modelled examples and first discussed the many things we should all be grateful for. Then the children all had the opportunity to share their own personal examples. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE session with Mr. Antony where they competed in numerous different games this week.  They also had the wonderful opportunity of celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving by making delicious Canadian decorated cupcakes! We hope you enjoyed the red and white theme! This also links with Maths as the children had to measure and weigh all the ingredients. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt the phoneme ‘r’ and we learnt the tricky word ‘into’. You will see on this week's homework sheet that we are working on writing the tricky words we have recently been working on! 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children finally finished their puffer fish! We are excited to now be able to hang them down from our ceiling! (Thank you Ishmail!) When the children come back after half term, it will look like we have our very own little aquarium! 

Jewish Studies:

In Jewish Studies this week we reviewed our learning about Sukkot from last week. The children had a fantastic time building their own mini Sukkot outside from big spongy bricks and leaves, and inside from Lego and wooden blocks. The children used alef-bet counters to match the letters spelling out Sukkot-themed words and they also decorated some rather snazzy Sukkah decorations from upcycled CD’s.

Reception, you did a brilliant job! We heard a gorgeous version of Vesamachta Vechagecha by Boys Town Jerusalem which you might enjoy listening to at home. Reception class also learned about Simchat Torah, which comes up at the end of Sukkot. We talked about how Simchat Torah is a happy time because we have finished reading the whole Torah, and we start to read the Torah all over again! The children danced outside with mini Torahs and sang some old favourite Simchat Torah tunes, including David Melech Yisrael and Torah Tsiva Lanu Moshe. Each of the children made their own Simchat Torah flags to wave on Simchat Torah. Chag Sameach! 

Reminders:

-Please remember your child should be reading their book at least 3 times in order to consolidate the new phonemes/digraphs. 
-We will need each child to bring in another 3D rectangular box ( about the size of a shoe box). Please don’t worry if it’s slightly smaller or larger. The children will be making 3D versions of their very own homes the first week back! 
-There will be no forest school Thursday 31st October. The next Forest School will be Thursday 7th November. 
-Please remember that on Friday's we finish at 12:30pm. 

Wishing you all a wonderful half term break and Chag Sameach! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 11th October, 2024

Dear Parents,

Another week of Reception has come and gone! It is definitely starting to feel more like autumn now! We hope you all had a wonderful long weekend celebrating the new year with your family and it was so nice hearing about it from your children. 

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we worked on things that make us happy. Sophie (our puppet friends) discussed things that make her happy and everyone in the class went around and shared things that make them happy. They also had the opportunity to draw it as well. 

In Communication and Language we each had the opportunity to share our poster of what makes us happy. Many of the children opted to share their drawings with the class and they had to speak in full sentences in order to explain what they had made. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed the challah bake on Thursday! It was such an amazing experience for them and they each baked their very own challah! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt four new phonemes(sounds). They learnt ‘ k’ ‘ck’ ‘e’ and ‘u’. Their sound talking and blending is really coming along, it’s been so amazing to see. The tricky words for this week were ‘to’ and ‘go’. 

In Maths this week, we worked on mass, weight and capacity. We discussed the sizes of many objects, ordered objects from lightest to heaviest, weighed objects, balanced objects and we even used ourselves as examples! (tallest to smallest etc) The children loved getting involved, weighing, measuring and ordering!

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children painted their beautiful papier mache puffer fish! It was messy, it was fun, it was exciting! We can’t wait for you to see them once they’ve all dried! 

In Understanding the World this week, the children had a wonderful time at forest school. We were glad that Reception brought the sunshine with them this afternoon! They enjoyed walking through the muddy puddles on the path leading to Forest School. This is great for their physical development. When children walk through mud their gross motor skills are stimulated as they navigate their way through it. Slippery or sticky mud results in children using their whole body to stay upright which encourages balance and coordination. 

After our welcome routines, we played the Squirrels game that the children learnt last week. They were quick at following Emma’s instructions and had great fun quickly making a tree with a classmate or pretending to be a squirrel.

Next, Emma told the children a story called ‘The Nut Thief’. It contains valuable lessons about not making assumptions about others, talking through problems when they arise, and showing kindness and sharing.

The children were very engaged during their independent activity time. Some children explored rolling conkers in a tray with paint and created different paintings with them. This activity provoked some thoughtful predictions as the children worked out which conkers were the best for rolling (some were flatter at the bottom) and how and where to roll them. They thought carefully about how to manipulate the tray to move the conkers in different directions on the page. Other children expressed their creativity by manipulating clay with herbs and the seed heads of teasels. A group of children enjoyed exploring in the woods and became very interested in some fungi they found growing on a tree branch. They used one of our fungi ID cards to try and identify it. 

We came back together at the end of the session and sang ‘Grey Squirrel’. Then the children shared what their favourite moment of Forest School had been this term. 

~ We wish all the children, their families and staff a lovely break and a meaningful Yom Kippur.

Jewish Studies:

In Jewish Studies this week, we learned a bit more about Yom Kippur. We reviewed the story of Yonah from last week, and some of the children chose to do Junk Modeling of big fish with googly eyes! We learned that before Yom Kippur we try to say sorry to people we might have made sad or upset during the year. During Yom Kippur, grown ups don’t eat or drink, this is called fasting but it tends to not go very fast! We learned that we wear non-leather shoes on Yom Kippur, and discussed our different footwear options- unicorn sippers, wellies, crocs…. The children made brilliant sandals, some with jazzy zebra stripes and pom poms and others a more austere plain blue. 

Reception class learned that as soon as Yom Kippur is over, we start to prepare for the beautiful autumnal chag of Sukkot. We learned that when Bnei Yisrael left Egypt they lived in huts - Sukkot, and so during the chag we sit, eat and enjoy life in our own Sukkah. We learned that we say a bracha before we shake the Lulav and Etrog and we touched on some of the symbolism behind the willow, myrtle, etrog and palm. Each of the children made beautiful Lulav and Etrog posters that will look fabulous hanging in the Sukkah.

On Thursday, Reception and Nursery joined together for a special EYU Challah Bake to mark the anniversary of the sad events that took place in Israel last year. We shared a few thoughts on the importance of tikun olam and of Jewish unity and our hopes for a lasting peace in Israel. 

This week we had such a treat, as Reception class was joined by Year 1 for their Shabbat Party. On the Shabbat table, we had:

Ima- Odelia
Aba-Jacob
Bat- Leora
Ben- Joseph

Reminders:
-Please remember to put your child’s name in all their school clothing, including their kippah.  We still have so many jumpers with no names! 
-Please remember that every Thursday is forest school and to bring waterproofs each week. Please make sure that you look at the weather each morning and ensure your child has the appropriate clothing.
-Please remember your child should be reading their book at least 3 times in order to consolidate the new phonemes/digraphs. 
-Once again as it was Yom Kippur over the weekend, please only complete the handwriting sheet should you have time, it is not mandatory. 
-Next Tuesday 15th October we end the autumn 1 term at 3pm. We will see you again next on Monday 28th October. 

Shabbat Shalom to you all and have an easy fast.

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Wednesday 2nd October, 2024 

Dear Parents,

What a lovely (but short) week we have had in Reception! We welcome Miss Zara, who is a pupil from JFS studying the Cache (Councils for Awards in Care, Health and Education)  course. She will be in the class most weeks on Monday and Tuesday and was absolutely brilliant with the children! 

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we had our ‘Sophie Says’ friends join our lesson. We spoke about ‘All About Me’ and discussed our likes/interests and hobbies and our favourite things about us and our families. 

In Communication and Language we each had the opportunity to share our ‘All About Me’ worksheet which the children loved! We modelled our to use full sentences and the children each had a go at presenting their work in front of the class. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson with Mr. Antony. Reception focused on developing their jumping, balancing and coordination skills through different exercises and challenges.

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt three new phonemes(sounds): ‘g’ ‘o’ and ‘c. We also learnt a few new tricky words ‘ put, of, is’. We focus on the recognition of the tricky words and pronunciation of the sound and also how to write them correctly. It is always great when the children can then put the tricky words into a sentence! 

In Maths this week, we finished working on sorting objects and we worked on counting forward and backwards. The children are great at saying one more than a given number, but they find it really difficult when it comes to saying one less than, which is why we’ve worked on counting backwards loads this week! It would be wonderful if you continued to do so at home!

In expressive arts and design this week, the children started to work on creating their own puffer fish! We did this by using some papier mache fun techniques! Sometimes I like to say the more mess, the more fun. This was definitely the case for this project! We used photocopied pictures of the beautiful fish from the book Flotsam as examples. 

Jewish Studies:

In Jewish Studies this week, we finished our Rosh Hashanah preparations and focussed on the idea that Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world! This year Rosh Hashanah will mark the start of the Jewish Year 5785! The Reception children each made their own blue and green planet Earth with a tiny happy birthday crown.

Some of the children also chose to make themselves fabulous bright birthday crowns to get into a festive Rosh Hashanah mood. Each of the children received their Rosh Hashanah work folders filled with the beautiful crafts, cards and treasures they have made to prepare for the chag. 

This week in alef-bet we looked at the new focus letter, Mem Soffit, which says ‘m’ and comes at the end of the following vocabulary words: 

-adam, meaning ‘man’
-adom, meaning ‘red’
-lechem, meaning ‘bread’
-mayim, meaning ‘water’
-geshem, meaning ‘rain,’ and 
-orchim, meaning ‘guests’

Reception class I am so happy with how well you have taken to the alef-bet vocabulary and letters we learn each week and I am glad that you are enjoying the materials. Kol hakavod! 

Wishing you a Shana Tovah, and a healthy, safe and fun year ahead!

Reminders:

-Please remember to put your child’s name in all their school clothing, including their kippah.  We still have so many jumpers with no names! 
-Please remember that every Thursday is forest school and to bring waterproofs each week. Please make sure that you look at the weather each morning and ensure your child has the appropriate clothing.
-Please remember your child should be reading their book at least 3 times in order to consolidate the new phonemes/digraphs. 
-I know this week you will all be very busy with the holidays, however I have sent home a handwriting sheet should you have time. 
-Next Friday 11th October, we finish school at 12:30pm. 
-This week I sent out an email with your child’s focus meeting date. Please do not swap with each other, but contact me directly if there is an issue with your timing. 
-Finally, please for Monday 7th October can each child bring in a small box ( shoe box size) or smaller. 

Happy new year to you all and we wish you all the very best! 

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend when it comes! 

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 27th September, 2024

Dear Parents,

What a lovely week we have had in Reception. There is always so much that goes on in one week, it’s so hard to ensure everything is mentioned! 

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we were introduced to our Sophie Says Puppet friends. They will be with us throughout the year in order to help reinforce kindness, love, friendship and so much more! We started off with singing the ‘Sophie Says Song’ which is a favourite and we then acted out scenes of being kind and what we can do in certain situations to help our friends. (just like Sophie!) 

In Communication and Language we discussed our time machine project! The children were put into groups and they had to make a time machine using an assortment of different resources (mostly recycled objects) in order to go back in time and visit a specific time and place. Just like in the book Flotsam that we are reading in class, when the main character sees photos from back in time! This also links to Expressive Arts and Design. 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson with Mr. Antony. Reception focused on developing their coordination skills, awareness and game strategy through different activities and games. On Wednesday, the children all had the wonderful opportunity of baking delicious honey cakes with Mrs. Dagul! I hope they tasted as mouth-watering as they smelt! 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt four new phonemes(sounds): ‘i’ ‘m’ ‘n’ and ‘d’. We also learnt a few new tricky words ‘ I, the, no’. We focus on the recognition of the tricky words and pronunciation of the sound and also how to write them correctly. It is always great when the children can then put the tricky words into a sentence! 

In Maths this week, the children worked on sorting objects into various groups and we also worked on sorting objects into different groups. For example, the children were given pots of buttons and they had to recognize the buttons with two holes should be placed together and the ones with four holes needed to be placed together! 

In Understanding the World, Reception children were excited to be at forest school. Today it was Reception’s first time under our cosy den in the woods! This is where we shelter on rainy days. 

After our welcome routines, Emma read a fun story called ‘The Squirrels Who Squabbled’. Two greedy squirrels both have their sights on a very special prize: the last nut of the season! It is a lovely rhyming tale about friendship and sharing.

Then Emma taught the children a new game called ‘Squirrels’. Emma called out different squirrel activities that the children had to act out (e.g., bury your nuts, climb a tree). At various points Emma shouted ‘Fox is coming’ and in order to be safe from the fox the children had to hold hands in pairs to be a ‘tree’ or be a squirrel in a tree by going under the arms of the ‘trees’. It was a lot of fun. It is good for developing listening and cooperation skills.

During their independent activity time, some children chose to make conker necklaces with Emma. This involved them using small drills called palm drills to make holes in the conkers in order to thread them with cord. Drilling objects with palm drills helps to develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and promotes independent risk management. The mud kitchen was popular again, with petals and leaves added to a mixture to make a special soup with ‘herbs and spices’. The children really love the hammocks and today was no exception. They provide a good opportunity to practise sharing just like the squirrels in the story! 

To end our session, the children gathered under the shelter together and we sang ‘Grey Squirrel’ with actions.

~ We wish all the children, their families and staff a very happy Rosh Hashanah for next week. Shanah Tovah!

Jewish Studies:

In Jewish Studies this week, we delved a little further into our Rosh Hashanah preparations. This week we discussed the fact that during the month of Ellul we prepare ourselves spiritually for Rosh Hahanah by doing Teshuva (saying sorry for any of our mistakes or for hurting others) and by doing lots of Mitzvot. We talked about how it is a lovely minhag / tradition to eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashana to remind us that just as pomegranates are brimming with beautiful gem-like seeds, so too we hope for a new year brimming with beautiful mitzvot! The children played counting games with some giant pomegranate hoops, dice, beanbags and counters. Each of the children made and decorated their own sparkly pomegranate decorations, which can be used to decorate your home and come Sukkot, can also be used to decorate your Sukkah. 

In alef-bet, we looked at the letter Tav, which says ‘t’ and comes at the end of out new vocabulary words, which are:

-talit
-Shabbat
-tsitsit
-bayit, meaning ‘house’
-bat, meaning ‘daughter’, and 
-zayit, meaning ‘olive’. 
Well done Reception class, you are picking up your letters and words so well, what an impressive bunch you are!

This week, we started to look at the fascinating story of Yonah, as the next Yom Tov after Rosh Hashanah is Yom Kippur, and in shul we will read the story of Yonah. The children 
recalled how Yonah tried to run away from Hashem and spent 3 days in the tummy of a big fish. He did Teshuvah and davened to Hashem from inside the fish. The fish spat him out on dry land.  Phew!  Yonah went to Ninveh and told the people to do teshuvah and change their ways and be nice to each other & they did!  Hashem was so happy with the people of Ninveh for doing teshuvah and becoming better people!  The children had such a ball reenacting the story and roleplaying, making and using Yonah and Big Fish masks. Everyone had the chance to make their own textured Yonah craft which came out fantastic! There is a brilliant song of the Story of Yonah that you might enjoy listening to at home - look for www.bimbam.com/jonah/. 

On the Shabbat table this week we had:

Imma- Nava
Aba- Jacob
Bat- Sarah
Ben- Isaac

Reminders:

Please remember to put your child’s name in all their school clothing, including their kippah.  We still have so many jumpers with no names! 
Please remember that every Thursday is forest school and to bring waterproofs each week. Please make sure that you look at the weather each morning and ensure your child has the appropriate clothing.
Please can you kindly bring in any newspapers that you no longer need for Monday 30th September. (we need LOADS!) 
Please remember your child should be reading their book at least 3 times in order to consolidate the new phonemes/ digraphs. Some children are bringing home CVC word cards in order to work on sound talking. Example: Show your child the card and they will have to sound talk h-a-t… hat! Just like we showed you at the curriculum evening. Children are also going home with a handwriting sheet in order to work on writing this week's phonemes. 
Additionally, I have placed your child's Oxford Owl eBook access username and login in their homework folders. Please take a picture of it in case you happen to misplace it. 
Wednesday 2nd October, we finish school at 12:30pm for Rosh Hashana. 

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend! 

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 20th September, 2024

Dear Parents,

What a lovely week we have had in Reception. Children are coming into class really excited for the day 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!

This week in Personal, Social and Emotional Development, we have been discussing being kind to our friends. How we can help our friends, speak to our friends in a kind way, how to include everyone in our play, etc. It is really heartwarming to see the little ones showing compassion and often empathy to their friends. We also discussed the importance of touch. How we can touch people kindly and when we should or should not touch somebody. Personal space is really important! 

In Communication and Language we continued to discuss our holiday especially as we brought in a photograph. We had to explain what happened on this holiday, why it was special and why we chose this photo! This is linked to the Flotsam book we’ve been working on and the children have absolutely adored! 

In Physical Development this week, the children enjoyed their PE lesson with Mr. Antony. Reception continued their focus on developing their core motor skills such as running, jumping, bear walks, squats, throwing and catching through different activities and games. The children also enjoyed baking apple crumbles on Wednesday. They helped to weigh out and mix the ingredients. This links to our upcoming celebration; Rosh Hashanah. 

In Literacy and Phonics this week, the children have learnt four new phonemes(sounds): ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’ and ‘p’. The children have really enjoyed their phonics lessons. They have also been practising sound talking each day as discussed at the meeting. After each phonics lesson, the children learn to write the grapheme (written sound) that they have learnt. 

In Maths this week, the children practised counting forwards and backwards from 20. They are great at counting backwards from 10! In the first lesson of the week the children were introduced to the concept of identifying sets of different objects. The children also had to look at various objects in a mystery box and sort the objects in groups. For example, some were transport toys, some were unifix cubes, some were objects we find in the autumn. They then had to find other objects in the classroom and create their own sets! They worked collaboratively in groups in order to accomplish this. 

In Expressive Arts and Design this week, the children were making their very own replicated paintings from their holiday photo! It was super special having them each bring in a personalised photo and it was wonderful to hear the exciting stories behind the photographs, but even more, it was amazing to see the children re-make their very own version! 

In Understanding the World, Reception children were excited to be back at forest school. It was great to welcome Reception back today! The children were more confident with our welcome routines and making different actions to go with their name to share with the group. 

We played our ‘1,2,3 Where Are You?’ game again and the children enjoyed the challenge of finding Emma in different places at Forest School. After the game, Emma showed the class the brambles that are very common at our site. It is good for the children to recognise them as they are spiky and are to be avoided due to this! Despite their thorns, they have an important job and we discussed how good blackberries are for us and for different animals. 

Next, the children demonstrated that they had remembered the rule of how to carry sticks safely and collected a bundle for us to use creatively. We all made a giant person together and decorated it with leaves. 

For the rest of the session, children chose activities that interested them. Some children made clay and stick puppets, others took part in a leaf and apple printing activity, and some children got very creative in the mud kitchen and made chocolate milkshakes complete with stick straws! In the woods, a child discovered a sparkly snail trail and other children joined in to see if we could find the snail. Some children were Earth Friends and used the litter pickers to pick up some litter they found. The hammocks were popular and the children are gaining confidence in how to get in and out of them properly. 

We finished our session with a resounding rendition of ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

In Jewish Studies this week, Reception continued to look at Rosh Hashanah, this week focussing on The Sounds of The Shofar; those being Tekiya, Sevarim, Teruah, and Tekiya Gedola. The children listened carefully as Morah Cassie blew the Shofar, and they had a go at naming the different notes they heard.  Well done Reception! Every child made a colourful collage showing the different Shofar sounds, which we are going to be putting up on a display here at the EYU. Some of the children chose to work on their pattern marking/ pen skills and decorated Shofar pictures with fabulously intricate doodle designs to take home. 

In alef-bet this week, we looked at the letter Vet, which says 'v', and comes at the end of our new vocabulary words:
-Lulav
-lev, meaning 'heart'
-chalav, meaning 'milk'
-tov, meaning 'good', and 
-zahav, meaning 'gold'. 
Bravo to those who were able to practise last week's words at home and who brought back their JS folders for me to fill with this week's words. I hope you have had fun playing with the cards at home! 

This week's parasha is Ki Tavo. In it we learned about how Bnei Yisrael were about to enter Eretz Yisrael. Hashem had given them a wonderful land with mountains and rivers, beautiful trees, delicious fruit and vegetables and lots of different animals and birds. Eretz Yisrael is referred to as ‘Eretz zavat chalav u’dvash’- a land flowing with milk and honey. We are so lucky to have been given this special land as a present from Hashem. We sang the song 'Eretz Zavat Chalav' with gusto, as the children decorated their own sweet little honey dishes with gems and sequins. You might like to use your honey dish to grace your table over Rosh Hashanah.

On the Shabbat table this week we had:
Imma- Lielle
Aba- Elijah
Bat-Odelia
Ben-Jesse

Reminders:

-Please remember to put your child’s name in all their school clothing, including their kippah.  
-Please remember that every Thursday is forest school and to bring waterproofs each week. Please make sure that you look at the weather each morning and ensure your child has the appropriate clothing.
-Please for Monday 23rd September, can you kindly bring in large rectangular or squared recycled boxes for a new art project. I’ll give you a hint, we are going back in time! 
-Children have been sent home with the phonemes for the week in their homework folders. Please can you kindly show your child the card and get them to say the sound. An extension would be to ask them for words beginning with that sound. Children will also have a book they have brought home. We will be going over this at the curriculum meeting on Tuesday. Please leave a comment in the reading log after each new book and bring it back the following week. You will see my comment as an example! 
-Children took home their very first library book on Monday, please kindly return it for Monday in order to ensure they can take out a new one.

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend! Long may this sunshine last! 

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss, Le Fort and Morah Cassie
 

Friday 13th September 

Dear Parents,

What a great first week we have had! It has been so lovely getting to know all of you and your wonderful children.  Despite some children finding it difficult getting back into a routine,  all the children have persevered and had a wonderful start to a new academic year! Thank you to you all for your wonderful support over the last week! 

In Personal, Social and Emotional Development this week, the children have been settling back into school and learning their routines. We wrote together a ‘class contract’ with the Reception rules which included being kind, being a good friend and being a good listener. We all put our hand print on it as our very own personal signature. This way, we can revert back to it throughout the year should we need to.  

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 heard about some wonderful holidays and it was so great to hear that so much learning continued to happen throughout the summer outside the classroom!  The children also spoke at the end of each day and shared their favourite part of the day using full sentences which we have been modelling. It’s so nice to see how in just one week, their vocabulary has expanded! 

In Physical Development, the children have been practising their cutting and sticking as well as their pencil grip. They’ve also been painting their self portraits for their ‘All About Me’ topic. The children also used their imaginations when it came to building large construction forts, using the balance grass bars and I must say, I was very impressed with their balancing skills when it came to riding bikes. 

In Literacy this week, the children have heard many stories. 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. The main story we are currently working on is being shared across the entire school. It is called ‘Flotsam’ and it is a beautiful book that we will continue to work on over the next few weeks going over numerous topics and themes covered in the story. (I am going to leave you in suspense!)

In Maths this week, the children have been working on a lot of counting. We have been doing the date board on a daily basis. 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.  I have also been assessing the children’s maths skills on a one on one basis. We worked on counting and ordering numbers using our special penguin puzzle pieces! 

In Understanding the World, the children have been playing with our very new pirate ship!  The children have also been using the dressing up clothes in the classroom in our role play area. They have also absolutely loved the playhouse in the outside playground, and it was so nice to see many of the children doing some cooking- I even tasted a delicious meal! 

In Expressive Arts and Design the children have been creating their own self portraits! The children had to discuss their physical features and explain the steps they were doing in order to make their beautiful portraits!

This week in forest school, it was wonderful to meet the new Reception class and welcome them to the beginning of our  year together!  We sat in a circle and sang the Forest School welcome song. Emma introduced us to some of the trees at our site. The children started to learn the names and will be getting to know them well over the year. Next, Emma explained the rules we have to keep everyone safe and how we care for nature during our sessions.

Then we played a game called ‘1,2,3 Where Are You?’ to help the children become acquainted/reacquainted with the site and to be able to come back together as a class quickly when they hear the special call from Emma. Everyone was very good at following the instructions and coming back to Emma as fast as they could!

After the game, Emma introduced the children to the wooded area of Forest School and our next activity. Everyone worked together to sort different natural objects into similar groups. Then the children collaborated to make a giant face on the ground with the natural objects they had found.

The rest of the session was spent playing and exploring. Children enjoyed manipulating clay, time in the hammocks, digging and making dens for our Forest Friends with sticks, and investigating all the new resources.

We finished our session back at the circle together and sang ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ with actions and a Forest School twist! 

Jewish Studies: In Jewish Studies this week, Reception class has started to explore Rosh Hashanah, focussing on the custom of eating apple and honey, in the hope for a sweet and good New Year. We sang and made actions for an old favourite song ‘Dip the Apple’ and we enjoyed a new song by Rabbi B, called 5 Red Apples. Do have a listen at home! Reception children had an opportunity to make their own little honey bees out of card, paper, tissue and other craft materials. Everyone made a beautiful folding apple Shana Tovah card, which we will be sending home closer to the chag. 

Reception had their first alef-bet lesson this week, and they all did so well. Reception class, I am so proud of how you took all of the learning in your stride and with such enthusiasm. Welcome to the exciting world of alef-bet! We explored the letter Shin, which says ‘Sh’ and comes at the end of this week’s vocabulary words, which are:
-rosh, meaning ‘head’
-dvash, meaning ‘honey’ 
-kiddush
-shemesh, meaning ‘sun’
-esh, meaning ‘fire’ and 
-chamesh, meaning ‘5’

Each of the children took home a plastic zippy folder containing a set of vocabulary cards and a card with the letter Shin. There is an instruction page and a welcome letter, giving some fun ideas as to how to get the most of using these cards. Please make sure to have a look over these with your child and fill in the signature page and return the folder to school next week. 

This week, we also looked into the parasha of Ki Tetzei. In Ki Tetzei we learned that if you find something lying about, you should not simply pick it up and keep it. It belongs to someone who has lost it. We talked about how the Torah tells us to find out who it belongs to and give it back. If you cannot find the owner, give it to the teacher. We had such fun making our fabulous imaginative collages of a ‘Lost and Found box’ with lots of different exciting items, to discuss at home over Shabbat. 

On this week’s Shabbat table, we had:
-Ima - Leora
-Aba - Aaron
-Ben - Micah
-Bat - Odelia

Reminders:
Please remember to put your child’s name in all their school clothing, including their kippah.  
Please remember that every Thursday is forest school and to bring waterproofs each week. Please make sure that you look at the weather each morning and ensure your child has the appropriate clothing.
Please for Monday 16th September can each child bring in ONE printed photo from their summer holiday. It would be great if it was on the beach, but don’t worry if not.  This is for an art project that will begin on this day. 

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

Shabbat Shalom

Mrs. Ranson, Mrs. Tapper, Miss Le Fort and Morah Cassie