Canterbury Cross Primary School 
Where Bright Futures Begin'

This week Reception have been busy exploring the role of vets! We have enjoyed the role play this week taking care of animals and putting bandages on soft animal toys. In Literacy we wrote instructions for the three bears porridge. We also learnt about odd and even numbers! You can ask and test Reception children all about odd and even numbers as they have been superstars in this!

We have had a brilliant start to the term, where Reception have learnt about looking after the world and the responsibilities we have towards our planet. Children took part in different activities involving responsibilities. In literacy, we wrote a 'wanted' poster describing the bad wolf from the 'Three Little Pigs. ' For our new topic, People who help us,  we explored the roles of a police officer and made our own police ID badges. 

This week we have built on our prior knowledge of number bonds to 10 and we explored subtraction facts linked to number bonds to 10. In Literacy, we adapted the 'Farmer Duck' story and changed the main character to our own. Children enjoyed getting creative to change a familiar story to them. We also had a very special visit from the Animal Man, who bought in some beautiful animals- honeybear, tarantula, owl, a lizard and pac-man frog. 

This week Reception have enjoyed writing about the Little Red Hen story in Literacy. We have also been busy learning about sharing between 2 groups in Numeracy. We have really enjoyed learning about life cycles in our topic lessons. Well done! 

We have had a brilliant busy week exploring minibeasts and their micro- habitats. We even made out very own salt dough 'Superworms'. We also worked really hard on using adjectives to describe the different characters in Superworm. In Numeracy, Reception have loved creating their own repeating patterns. We loved dressing up as bears for World Book Day and created our own version of 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' Children thoroughly enjoyed making 'teddy bear' toasts and enjoyed eating them whilst listening to stories.  

This week we have continued learning about Ameila Earhart by creating a fact file about her life. We have also explored 3D shapes and found out how many faces and edges each shape has. Finally we have been planning journeys to different places using different transport. What a busy week! Enjoy your half term Reception! 

This week Reception have enjoyed creating trains using junk modelling and collage materials. They discussed how they made their trains with their peers. 

This week we have continued to explore our local area. We looked at symbols on a local map and identified local features in our area!

This week, we have enjoyed taking part in lots of different art and craft activities. We all made a calendar ready for the New Year. We hope you all have a lovely break and come back ready to learn lots more in the new year. Happy New Year!

This week we are reading 'Jack and the beanstalk'. We really enjoyed re-telling the story using props and puppets. Children have started writing captions to match pictures from the story. Children remembered to use finger spaces and sounded out. Wow!

This week we have been experimenting with different materials and objects to predict and test which objects float and sink! We made good predictions based on the weight and the density of each objects and discussed our observations and results. 

This week we have learnt about Diwali, who celebrates it and why. We took part in various activities including making rangoli patterns, colouring diyas, creating mendhi patterns and role playing the story of Rama and Sita.

This week we have been busy exploring and investigating light and dark. We looked at how shadows change and why shadows are formed. We loved making shadow puppets with our hands to re-create animals. 

We have had a brilliant week looking at culture and living in Africa. We read the story 'Lila and the Secret of Rain' and explored the differences of living in England and Africa. We selected and chose appropriate materials that would suit a village house in Africa. We all loved creating our village houses!

This week we have been looking at how to 'Fill a bucket' through showing kindness. Reception children have tried hard this week to show kindness to each other in different ways. 

The children in Reception have had a brilliant first week and settled well into their new classes.

This week we have looked at The Rainbow Fish story to promote sharing and kindness. 

This week we have read 'Little Red Riding Hood' and children worked super hard to write a short version of the story! They used their phonetic sounds, finger spaces and punctation to write the story. In maths, we worked on counting on jottings from a given number to add. Children can write numbers up to 30! As part of out 'People who help us' topic, we explored roles in healthcare. Children enjoyed the hospital role play and examining teeth to roleplay dentists. 

We have had a fantastic week in Reception. We all enjoyed our trip to Mount Pleasant Farm where we got to be farmers for the day. At school, we have been writing fact files about different farm animals and then learning to divide amounts in Numeracy. Well done Reception! Enjoy your break! 

This week in Reception we have been getting creative. We have been looking at the month of Ramadan. We explored the celebration of Eid and why Muslims fast during Ramadan. We made a crescent moon and star to symbolise the month of Ramadan.

As part of science week, the Reception children took part in a special workshop making slime. The scientist explained the process and then each child made their own cup of slime using glue, colouring and an activator. It was lots of fun! 

We have kick started the half term with our new topic 'Animals' For the next couple of weeks, we are exploring minibeasts. We investigated the features of different minibeasts looking at how many legs, wings and body structure. We made mini beast hotels and used our cutting skills to create spiders and ladybirds. We read the story 'Superworm' and the children enjoyed hearing and identifying rhyming words!

Reception have been busy learning about Amelia Earhart. We explored a new genre of writing and have enjoyed exploring Amelia Earhart's life. Children write sentences about her life. We also compared what life is like in Pakistan compared to England. We explored hot and climates in the world and how cultures are different to ours. 

This week we have continued our topic on 'Transport'. We read the story 'Red Lorry Yellow Lorry' and children loved discussing the different vehicles in the story. We have started writing simple captions using phonetic sounds and punctuation. We have been learning about how trains have changed from the past and sorting part and present vehicles. We have had lots of discussions this week about how vehicles will change in the future. Flying cars? 

This week Reception have been exploring maps. We discussed how we use maps and what they are for, and looked at familiar locations on Google Maps. The children made their own maps showing their route to school. 

This week Reception performed the Nativity! They sang the songs beautifully and showed great confidence saying their lines and performing on stage. Well done Reception!

This week in Reception we have been looking at hibernation. We read the story "Don't hog the hedge", discussed which animals hibernate, and we made homes for animals to hibernate in.  

This week Reception have enjoyed making gingerbread people. We mixed ingredients, rolled out the dough and decorated them once cooked. Well done Reception!

This week Reception have enjoyed learning about Elmer. We have celebrated Elmer Day, discussed how we are special and different, and took part in a range of creative Elmer activities. 

This week we have been reading 'Funny bones'. We have really enjoyed exploring skeletons and applying our newly learnt phonic sounds to writing cvc words!

This week, we have explored how we are all different and what makes us unique. We made 'I am special' mirrors to remind ourselves how fantastic it is to be different and what makes us special individuals. 

This week in Reception we have enjoyed exploring different areas of learning including counting, recognising numbers and recognising sounds. Our focus has been discussing likes and dislikes. The children have enjoyed creating a poster about their favourite food, colour, animal and cartoon!