During 2025-26, news will be shared here each week.

---

Welcome to Reception! We love to play and explore, in our Indoor and Outdoor areas! 

Our Class Padlet 

Padlet is a secure online board where our class can post ideas, photos, and learning in one easy place. By scanning the QR code, you will be able to view and comment on stories and resources that we have enjoyed sharing together. 

Developing our climbing and balancing skills

Reception were very excited to explore our apparatus in our PE sessions. We are becoming so confident to climb and balance!

                                            

Gymnastics 

In PE this term, Mr Hitchings is teaching us how to develop our balance, control and co-ordination in gymnastics sessions. 

 

Winter 

In Spring 1, Reception will be learning all about Winter, exploring seasonal changes, weather, appropriate clothing, hibernation, and creative writing through our Jack Frost Drawing Club. We’ll also discover animals from the Arctic and Antarctic and use our imaginations when Elsa pays a frosty visit to our classroom! 

Frozen fun!

Reception had an exciting Frozen‑themed week, where Elsa magically froze some of our toys, and the children were thrilled to discover them trapped in blocks of ice. Working together, they used warm water and tools to help set Olaf free, exploring melting and problem‑solving along the way!

 

Penguins

Reception have loved learning all about penguins, discovering where they live, how they move, and what makes them special. The children have enjoyed creating penguin art, sharing fun facts, and were able to locate the Antarctic on a globe. 

 

The Northern Lights 

Reception travelled to the Arctic and used The Northern Lights as inspiration for our Drawing Club and Creative Arts sessions. We shared the story The Lights that Dance in the Night and thought about the patterns and colours in the sky that the animals and characters could see. 

 

Hibernation

Reception have been really interested to learn that some animals hibernate in winter. We now know that this means that some animals, such as bats, bears and hedgehogs have a long sleep during the cold winter months to keep safe and save energy. 

Our class teddy bear asked us for help as he needed to start his hibernation. We worked together to make him a cosy den, using our construction resources. 

              

Magical Maths! 

Martin the Magican showed us some amazing maths magic tricks. 

     

Exploring in the Snow! 

We wrapped up in our warm clothes and headed outdoors for lots of snowy fun. We made snowmen and took turns to ride on a sledge! 

Celebrations

During the second half of our Autumn term, Reception will be learning about important celebrations. We will encourage the children to share their own experiences of Harvest, Diwali, Birthdays and Christmas.

Making Gingerbread Men 

This week in Reception, we dove into the fun story of ‘‘The Gingerbread Man’. To finish off our learning, we had a super special activity: we baked yummy gingerbread men to take home!

 

We have been using our skills in phonics to write cvc words. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas 

Christmas has been a joyful and meaningful time in Reception. The children have deepened their understanding of the Nativity story, exploring the birth of Jesus through our performance and through rich opportunities in provision. They have loved taking on roles, retelling the story, and sharing this special celebration with our school community. 

 

Birthdays

Pedro the dog, our class teddy celebrated his 5th birthday!  We talked about Birthdays as celebrations and shared our own experiences.

In Drawing Club we used ‘Cake’ by Sue Hendra and created imaginative Cake characters. Provision supported our understanding of Number by counting candles on our play dough cakes. We wrote cards and invitations and finished the week with a party, complete with traditional party games and a cake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children in Need 

Reception enjoyed supporting children in Need by joining in lots of fun activities! 

              

      Remembrance 

This week in Reception, we marked remembrance day by making poppies, sharing stories and reflecting together. We used the Cbeebies short story, Poppies to aid our discussions and this guided our work in Drawing club. 

        

Bonfire Night 

 

We have been talking about our own experiences of Fireworks and used lots of vocabulary to describe the colours we could see and the sounds we could hear! We made fabulous Firework art, using printing techniques and lots of glitter! 

      

Diwali

Reception explored the Hindu festival of light. Through stories, art and sensory play we learnt how families prepare for Diwali by lighting lamps (diyas), sharing gifts and cleaning their homes. 

 

Harvest 

We took part in our first Harvest Assembly. We explored a range of fruit and vegetables, using our senses of touch, sight and smell to describe them. We produced some lovely observational drawings of some of our favourites. 

 

 

 

                                     In the first half of the Autumn term, our topic will be 

All About Me 

We will be talking about our favourite things, our homes, our family and our feelings. 

This week, we enjoyed our first week of full days together. We've been talking about our favourite things and celebrating what makes us unique and special. We shared Super Duper You by Sophy Henn to help us to talk about all the brilliant things that make us....us! 

 

Our Family 

This week, Reception really enjoyed sharing their family photographs with Mrs Varty and Miss Wilson! We talked about important members of our family and our pets. Reception listened to the story All Kinds of Families, also by Sophy Henn and learnt about how families can be different.

Houses and Homes 

Over the next two weeks, Reception will be talking about their homes and who lives in their house. We introduced the topic by sharing the story of The Three Little Pigs. We expressed our imaginative ideas through our Drawing Club sessions and in construction activities. We picked up Mrs Varty's Three Little Pigs song really quickly-well done, Reception! 

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Feelings 

We used The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas to explore our feelings. In drawing club, we thought about our own colour monsters and used magic code letters to bring them to life! 

                               

 

The Message Centre 

Reception have really enjoyed our new exploration of the Message Centre! We have made secret symbols for our friends, which have been hidden in lots of different places around the classroom. We have been so excited to explore mark making!

 

Our bodies

We have talked about our bodies and how we can stay healthy. We really enjoyed using our doctors kits to listen to our heart beat!