Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Reception

 

Welcome to our Headline of the week. This will give you a small taster of some of the learning taking place in your child’s class.

We hope you enjoy reading our Headlines each week.

12/04/24 

This week has been Pesach Mad! The children had the best time at their Seder on Wednesday and then covered themselves in red stickers to be the plague of boils.

05/04/24 

The children have loved rhyming this week. We have been reading the Oi books by Kes Gray. The children wrote their own Oi rhymes, including Miss Genn on a pen!

28/03/24 

Our maths this week has also linked with our frog theme! The children have been showing parts of a number by putting frogs in the pond and on the log to show a whole number.  

22/03/24  

Our class book is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. This week the children have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. Luckily, Year 5 have their own caterpillars that we went to visit this week. The children are excited to see how they grow over the next few weeks.

15/03/24 

This week in Maths, the children have been learning about odd and even numbers as well as doubling. They used Unifix to show doubles.

08/03/24 

The children have been learning about zoo animals this week. Our focus book was ‘Dear Zoo’. The children wrote letters to the zoo, describing their perfect pet and the zoo keepers had to guess which animal they were describing.

01/03/24 

This week our focus numbers have been 6,7 and 8. The children have been representing (their new word this week!) numbers to 8 (and beyond) on tens frames.

23/02/24 

Before half term, in maths the children were learning about making 5s, one of the lessons showed peas in a pod with 3 peas on one side and 2 on the other. At snack time this week the children have had peas, a few children opened up their peas and counted how many were inside, relating it back to their learning a few weeks ago.

09/02/24 

To consolidate our learning of parts of 5, the children split themselves into different parts of 5.

02/02/24 

We have been consolidating our learning of making 5. The children have been talking about the different parts that make a whole number. They used Numberblobs and Numicon to show the parts of 5.

26/01/24 

The children love subitising (seeing numbers without counting). It is their word of the week. They have been looking at dots on the table and matching different cards to them, some had fish, others had numerals and some had cakes. They loved this activity. Some children even noticed that 3 dots and 2 dots made 5 altogether.

19/01/24 

This week we have been learning about Antarctica and the animals that live there. They created Antarctica out of white sparkly materials and added penguins, orcas and blue whales to their display.

12/01/24 

The children have loved using stamps to create pictures this week. They noticed that some stamps had dots on and wanted to make their own number bonds with paint. Some children made dotty pictures and other printed a circle, put a number inside and stamped the right amount of dots round the edge.

15/12/23 

The children loved having the Mensch on a Bench in our classroom. They played games with him, read him stories and taught him how to be a good friend.

08/12/23 

The children have had so much fun making chanukiot out of salt dough. Miss Zairi taught the children how to make a kosher chanukiah. The children knew they needed 8 holes for the 8 nights of Chanukah and an extra one for the shamash.

01/12/23 

Our focus story is ‘Owl Babies’. The children have been making their own owls with lots of fluffy feathers and have been talking about different family structures as the owl babies only have a mummy. The children made their own family trees and drew lost posters to help the baby owls find mummy owl.

24/1/23 

Mrs Bloom our History Lead came in to Reception to talk to the children about the past, present and future. She read a lovely book about growing. The children then created pictures about something they could do in the past, something they can do now and something they want to do in the future.

17/11/23 

This week was Anti-Bullying Week, the children have been busy making friendship bracelets for each other. They have loved looking at the different types of beads, selecting which ones their friends would like. It was quite tricky to thread the small beads onto pipe cleaners but they loved making them!

10/11/23 

The children love using our Outside classroom whether it is rainy or sunny! The children moved a tuff tray stand to make a roundabout and then kept getting their bikes stuck in the roundabout!

03/11/23 

The children have been using the balance boards to spin round on, Miss Genn showed them how to balance on them and move a marble round the track. They loved moving the marble round the maze and were very excited when they got the marble in the hole.

20/10/23 

The children have been learning about the artist Alma Thomas for Black History Month. They learnt how she was a teacher with a love for art but was not allowed to visit any art galleries as she was black. The children noticed the details in her paintings and made their own versions with thick and thin lines to create a picture.

13/10/23 

In Jewish Studies, the children have been learning about how Hashem created the world. A few children wanted to create a giant Earth to surprise Miss Zairi, she loved it so much that she has stuck in up on the wall.

06/10/23 

The children collected leaves, twigs, grass and stones in the Forest School area. They were so excited to find all sorts of things, so we brought them into the class for the children to explore. They used magnifying glasses and added large toy minibeasts. Some children sat with Miss Genn and talked about the different types of minibeasts and even watched a National Geographic video about insects.

29/09/23 

Our topic this half term is ‘All About Me’. We have been talking about families, friends and who lives in our house. The children wanted to wash babies and look after them in the role-play area.

22/09/23 

The children have been learning about their feelings, which we have linked to the Colour Monster stories. They have been learning about how different emotions can be different colours. In our Art lessons this week, the children have learnt about Jackson Pollock and how he painted by splatting and dripping all different coloured paints. The children used toothbrushes and paintbrushes to splat paint, whilst they were doing this they were talking about the colour they used, which linked to how they were feeling.

15/09/23 

The children have been painting with water and mops on the floor. They decided to clean the climbing frame and asked for some soap. They worked together as a team to make it nice and sparkly.

12/04/24 

Miss Zairi has been reading the children the Pesach Story. The children love listening to the story and re-enacting it with props and puppets.   

05/04/24 

We started Pen Disco this week, the children listened to music and drew wiggly wavy lines to the beat. They swapped pens to make super colourful pictures. We are going to do this every Wednesday morning when the children come in.  

28/03/24 

The children have been so excited to learn about the life cycle of a frog… We were very lucky that a child in Year 2 had tadpoles in her garden and she brought them in to school for us to have in the classroom. The children are very excited to look at them and know how to keep them safe.

22/03/24 

In the library this week, a few children kept going up to Miss Genn to show her that they had found stories written by Oliver Jeffers (her favourite author). Three children found the same book and sat together reading each page.

15/03/24 

A few children from Year 6 came to Reception this week to help the children make playdough. They worked so nicely together and made the most amazing playdough!

08/03/24

In Maths the children have been looking at different ways to make 6,7 and 8. They enjoyed showing number bonds on ladybirds

01/03/24 

The children have loved learning about sea creatures, coral and plants under the sea. They have been creating pictures and posters of what lives under the sea. They loved cutting out sea creatures and talked to each other about what they look like.

23/02/24 

What an amazing week back after half term! The children were very excited to see our new playdough making station in the class. They made playdough independently, following a visual recipe and even tidied up the mess!

09/02/24 

The children have loved having a cafe in the role-play area. This week they made their own jam toast! They knew how to be safe around the toaster and how to use plastic knives sensibly. It was a super fun, sticky activity.

02/02/24 

This week we have been looking at different weather. The children played with messy play to feel different weathers and then put together a world map to show where different weather occurs.

26/01/24 

Our focus author this half term is Oliver Jeffers. Last week we read ‘Lost and Found’. This week we read ‘Stuck’ which linked very nicely with Tu BIshevat. The children drew and wrote what they would throw up a tree like Floyd did in the story and how the animals and people were feeling when they got stuck in the tree.

19/01/24

The children had a short assembly from NSPCC to talk about their Speak Out Stay Safe day. The children learnt from Buddy (the big green speech bubble) that they can talk to safe adults about any problems they have in school or out of school. The children then drew pictures of the adults that keep them safe.

12/01/24 

The children have been learning about the number 0 this week. They looked at numbers and pictures that had images to 5 on, they then sorted them out into groups of zero and not zero. The children coloured in pictures in different colours according to the amount. They talked to each other about the colours they had to use and whether they had used the same one for the same image.

15/12/23 

The children have loved making playdough this week. They measured out the ingredients and worked together to make a very colourful ball of playdough. Some children went to get plastic gloves to knead the dough and others liked having sticky fingers. Throughout the week, the children have used the playdough to make faces, animals and chanukiahs.

08/12/23 

The children have been drawing and writing about their favourite people. They used their phonetical knowledge to label their pictures.

01/12/23 

In maths, the children have been learning about different shapes. Our focus has been on circles and triangles. The children went on a circle hunt around the school and noticed that the buttons on their t-shirts were circles.

24/11/23 

The most exciting thing happened on Thursday! Our toilet broke and a real plumber came in to school to fix it. The children were fascinated by this and watched him take the back wall off and get his tools out.

17/11/23 

The children have been looking at their features and their differences. They then painted a self-portrait, whilst talking to each other about their differences. We also talked about how we are kind and friendly to each other regardless of how they look.

10/11/23 

The children have been learning about Remembrance Day this week. Miss Genn brought in a dried poppy for the children to look at. They liked listening to the poppy seeds inside and looking at it through a magnifying glass

03/11/23 

In maths this week, the children have been learning about matching objects. We played a game of matching pairs of socks, the children chose one sock and then had to find the matching pair, if someone else had the other sock they could take them. It was a very fun game with lots of turn taking and learning about being fair.

20/10/23  

The children asked Miss Genn to bring in pumpkins for the Autumn table. Miss Genn found lots of funny shaped pumpkins. They looked at them through magnifying glasses and drew what they could see.

13/10/23 

We have loved reading the story ‘Leaf Man’ over the past 2 weeks. The children have been creating their own leaf men with leaves, googly eyes and sticks. This week we have looked closely at the sequence of the story. The children, alongside Miss Genn, drew out their own Leaf Man story map. Some children even went to show Mrs Martin!

 

06/10/23 

The children have loved starting phonics, they took the sound mat out the phonics drawer and took them out into the outside classroom. These children practiced writing the sounds they have learnt as well as their names.

29/09/23 

We started Phonics this week and the children love it! We are so proud with how far they have come already. The children have been learning new sounds, how to write them and even starting to blend sounds together to make words

22/09/23 

We have started our pre-writing activities. The children have loved mark making in the glitter. Some children wrote their names and others made swirly lines.

15/09/23 

The children have love learning about Rosh Hashanah this week. They have been singing songs and learning brachot. The children loved rolling apples in paint to make pictures, some children rolled the apples in the tray and others moved the apples around to smear the paint across the paper.