Welcome To Reception

Please also see our school Twitter page @stmichaelswales or our class Seesaw account for further information and updates. 

Contact details: 
 

Mrs K Allen - kate.morris@stmichaels.wales
Mrs S Sims - s.sims@stmichaels.wales

Check out the below pages for any important information, upcoming dates and home learning tasks.

Our Class Learning Journey

2023/24

Important Information

To ensure that our children are keeping on top with their phonetic knowledge, we will be putting the sound(s) of the week, CVC / CCVC words and High Frequency Words on our class page so you can practice and revisit the sound(s) with your child. 

Please click on our Home Learning page

then go to Monster Phonics.

Week Beginning 22nd April 2024!

Mrs Sims - The children have been busy in Maths by recording data onto the J2easy software. They were able to vote for their favourite minibeast and ask their peers to vote as well. Most of the class preferred butterflies, which is no surprise as they are intrigued by the caterpillars in our class! They were able to look at the data and discuss which minibeast was the most popular and least popular. 
 

The children have also made beautiful symmetrical butterflies with paint as they explore symmetry. They were fascinated to open up their butterfly paintings to reveal the beautiful swirls, colours and spots that they had created with the paint. 

In RE, the children have been looking closely at the Holy Spirit,the special friend that Jesus sent to us when he went to Heaven to be with his father. We looked at why the disciples were sad when Jesus left but excited for the Holy Spirit. The children were able to go outside into the prayer garden to feel the Holy Spirit and know that it is always with us wherever we go! 

Week Beginning 15th April 2024!

We started off the week by reading 'Oliver's Vegetables' by Vivian French. Each day Oliver tries a new vegetable from his Grandad's garden so we tried some of the vegetables too!

We tried carrot, spinach, beetroot and peas.

If we liked the vegetable we put a multilink cube onto our giant bar graph in order to show which vegetable was the most popular!

Our results showed that carrots came out on top, peas closely second, beetroot next and then lastly spinach! 

Week Beginning 8th April 2024!

Welcome Back!

We hope you had an enjoyable Easter and a much needed rest.

We have been back to being busy bees in Reception and have wasted no time in getting stuck in to our new theme!

Let's Explore Summer!

Before the Easter holidays we discussed all of the things we wanted to learn about Summer with one of our key questions being..

"What is in my garden?"

So we kicked things off by looking at different types of gardens before designing our very own. 

Our focus text this week was Grandpa's Garden by Stella Fry and Sheila Moxley

We received a letter from Grandpa who asked us to think about the types of things we would like to grow in our garden.

We used our knowledge of sounds to label our gardens.

In Expressive Arts our focus artist was Vincent Van Gogh.

We particularly enjoyed looking at his paintings of sunflowers and decided to paint our own.

We also had a go at sewing pictures of sunflowers using plastic needles, wool and fabric. This was really good for our fine motor skills and got our funky fingers ready for our writing activity.

Mrs Sims: In maths, the children have been comparing objects and numbers. They are beginning to look at the symbols < > = and have understood that the greedy crocodile likes to eat the larger amounts. 
In RE, we have been looking at Easter and Good Friday - recognizing that Jesus died for us all. The children planted cress to symbolize new life and growth. 
In expressive arts, we have been making salt dough food for our role play cafe. We were able to make the dough, shape it and paint it in readiness for next week!

Some exciting activities happening in Ponty Park over the Easter holidays 🐣🐰🩵 

If you do attend any local activities/workshops over Easter I would love to see some photos.
Please email them to kate.morris@stmichaels.wales 

or you can upload them to our class SeeSaw page 📸 
 

Happy Easter ✝️🐣🐰

Week Beginning 18th March 2024!

Holy Week 

Palm Sunday

Mrs Allen: As part of our Holy Week celebrations we enjoyed performing our class collective worship for our parents on Monday. 

We retold the story of 'Palm Sunday' and asked our parents to

"Take time to remember Jesus at this time of year". 

Thank you so much for taking the time to join us!

Maundy Thursday

"I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done for you" - John 13:15

We have been learning about the events of Maundy Thursday, including when Jesus washed His disciples feet. We followed in His footsteps by washing each others feet and discussed why this was a significant event during the Easter story.

The Last Supper

"Do this in remembrance of Me" - Luke 22:19

We re-told the story of The Last Supper by sitting down to eat bread and "wine" and spoke about the symbolism behind it being the body and blood of Christ.

Jesus visits the Garden of Gethsemane

"Watch and pray" - Matthew 26:41

Jesus visited the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.  

We have made gates to the Garden of Gethsemane and included googly eyes to represent the sleepy disciples who couldn't stay awake and keep watch.

To end Tuesday we ate some hot cross buns with our milk. 

They were DELICIOUS!

We talked about the significance of the cross on the top of them.

Mrs Sims: As well as our Easter celebrations and Holy Week celebrations, we have been excited to discuss our new topic for next term 'Let's Explore Summer'. The children were able to give their pupil voice about what they would like to learn, explore and discover. Here are a few ideas ...

- Can all animals live under water?
- Can a kangaroo live in the cold?
- How many vehicles can take us around the world?
- How long does it take to grow vegetables?
- Are Sharks fast or are whales faster?
 

We have had many more ideas which will inspire the teacher's planning for next term! 

In Literacy and Health & Well-Being, we have looked at the story 'Grendel: A cautionary tale about chocolate' which spared the children's problem solving and imagination.  They had to help Grendel think of a solution for his third wish. He was in a bit of a pickle and needed our help! We even had a chance to think of what we would wish for if we had to make three wishes! 

Week Beginning 11th March 2024!

"Fee Fi Fo Fum! Watch out everyone, HERE I COME!"

Mrs Allen: OH NO! Jack needs to escape the Giant quickly... 

To help him we made him a zipwire and tested the different variables that would get him to the bottom of the beanstalk the quickest!

We used language like heavier than and lighter than to make predictions about which items would get to the bottom first! We tested the different outcomes to see who was quicker and who was slower. We figured out that if Jack stole all of the items at the same time this would help him to escape the quickest as the weight of them all would push the zipwire faster!

British Science Week!

Mrs Allen: To kick off British Science Week, which was all about Biology, and to link with our new R.E theme 'Growing' we have been planting bean seeds to see if we can grow a beanstalk as big as Jack's! We discussed what our seeds need to help them grow -

water, soil and sunlight!

Over the next few weeks we will observe what happens to our seeds and update you on how they have grown.

We have also been exploring the changes in apples and looking at the life cycle of an apple seed.

We tasted different varieties of apples including 'Jazz', 'Gala' and 'Granny Smith' and gave our opinions on our favourite discussing which was the crunchiest, juiciest, sweetest and sourest!

In our continuous provision we have been observing the apple cores and have been curious about how they will change over time.

We have also been getting creative using apples to do some apple printing. 

Mrs Sims: We were excited to discuss Farmers and how important they are to us all! We discussed what a famer does and what a farmer looks like before watching a live video of a real farmer (Farmer Fiona) and saw what she does on a day to day basis! We saw lambs being fed with a bottle, how she feeds the cows, what she does with her crops and we helped her find a solution to fix her tractor. 
We looked closely at a flower as a class and read the story 'Don't touch that flower'. The children were able to label the different parts of a flower and learn why the nectar is important. We even watched a time lapse of a flower growing.

Get the balance right...

We have a new feature to our outdoor area - some amazing balance beams! 

We have had lots of fun practicing our gross motor skills and figuring out the best way to distribute our weight evenly so we can balance better. 

Week Beginning 4th March 2024!

Mrs Allen: The week started off with an exciting discovery. 

Sir Gadabout Knight of St. Michaels had left his Castle Diary in our classroom, where he had written an entry all about the banquet last week! He wrote about jousting, archery, medieval dancing and a magnificent feast! 

We were inspired by his diary entry and decided to write our own and recount our own experience. So we took our quills to paper and wrote our very own Castle Diary!

Mrs Sims: In maths, we have had a lovely week exploring, recognising and using money (1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p). The children were able to do coin rubbings, buy biscuits at the Dosbarth Derbyn Shop and matched coins in the sand. 
As part of our World Book Day activities, we listened to the story 'Somebody Swallowed Stanley' where we discovered that Stanley was being eaten by sea animals making it very dangerous for them. The children were able to reflect on how to keep our seas and beaches safe from rubbish by making information posters to stop littering. 

Week Beginning 26th February 2024!

The Kingdom of St. Michael's Banquet Welcomes Young Princes and Princesses, Noble Knights of the Realm and Fearsome Dragons!

We started the morning with some medieval dancing lessons from a Noble Knight and Wonderful Wizard, then we partnered up and took to the dance floor to show off our moves.

Next up it was time for some jousting! We chose our very own horse and lance and took to the tiltyard to challenge our enemies... 

Finally it was time to take to our thrones and enjoy a feast fit for Kings and Queens! We enjoyed jam sandwiches, cheese, grapes and Welshcakes!

Mrs Sims: Following our excitement about the features of castles and why they are important, we were able to compare castles from around the world. Take a look at these castles, can you see any similarities and differences? 

Eistedfodd 2024

What a fantastic week for all the children in participating and performing in the Eisteddfod.
Thank you parents for sending in your child in their team colours and for making your child's art/craft homework. Here are picture of some of our Art and Design competition winners. Da iawn! 

Week Beginning 19th February 2024!

Mrs Allen: An exciting start to the week for Reception class! We arrived in school to a message from a V.I.P - "Sir Gadabout, Knight of St. Michael's" who asked us to write an invitation worthy of Kings and Queens to our Medieval Banquet which is taking place next week. 

In R.E we have continued our theme of "gathering" and have begun to learn about how the Parish Family gathers for Mass in church. We re-enacted arriving at Mass where we made the sign of the cross with holy water from the font, gave out Bibles, sang hymns, welcomed the priest and alter servers and learnt the phrase "The Lord Be With You.." "..and with your Spirit". 

In Expressive Arts we have been designing our very own goblets to take with us to our Medieval Banquet. We thought about what we wanted to put on them including glitter, shiny paper, gems and jewels. Next week we will bring our creations to life!

Mrs Sims: In Humanities, we have been looing closely at the features of castles. Most castles have special features like a drawbridge, turrets, towers, battlements and mottes. We were able to make actions for each word to remember the features. We found out that castles that had round towers were less likely to collapse during an attack as they are strong builds. We also found out that castles that were built on a mountain were harder for enemies to attack as it was to high up or tiring to reach. The children were able to have a go at making castles with different resources such as boxes, bottles and paper to see if they could make it tallest and sturdiest structure.

In maths, we have been looking at one less and subtraction. We were able to take away an item of food in a banquet to find the total amount. We even had a sneak peek at what the symbol '-' looks like and used the language 'take away' ' one less' .

Week beginning 5th February 2024!

Mrs Allen: We have been looking at the story "How to Catch a Dragon" by Adam Wallace and thinking of ways we can catch our lost baby dragon which hatched last week! We have been writing instructions on how to catch him inspired by the children in the story - we discussed how we could make masks to disguise ourselves, leave some meat out to lure him back, make a big net like the one in the story and use music and a 'dragon dance' to entice him back. We even went in to the hall and performed our dragon dance. In Health and Well-being we met Dougie the Dog again, we stroked him and fed him treats. We drew pictures of him and spoke about how he makes us feel - "loved, calm and happy".

In our continuous provision we have been having a Chinese feast and making Chinese symbol marks with paint. We have been painting cherry blossoms and making Chinese lanterns using collage materials. 
 

Mrs Sims: In maths, the children have been looking closely at one more any given number using a range of resources like; numicons, blocks and numberlines to find one more. We even used a tens frame to help with learning making sure that it is represented visually before writing it as a number sentence. 
During our Health & Well-Being week, the children have been able to complete various activities like creating a kindness flower and played emotions bingo. We were lucky to have a story performed to us by Clever Cubs!

Week beginning 29th January 2024!

Mrs Allen: On Monday we became the Guardians of the St Michaels Kingdom as we made repeating pattern shields! We also retold the Presentation Story where Simeon and Anna were very happy to meet the special baby Jesus in the temple. On Tuesday we made a trip to Meadow Street Community Garden where we fed the birds, listened to a story and explored the wonderful surrounding grounds. We enjoyed it so much that we came back and wrote thank you letters to Dawn from RCT and told her our favourite parts of the morning. In our continuous provision we have been busy building castles, making potions for Merlin, painting dragons using water colour paints, making bird biscuits in the Hungry Beak Bird Cafe, digging for dragon bones in the Sandy Suitcase and using our new 'St Michaels Community Garden' role play area. 

There was lots of fun in our outdoor provision this week...

Mrs Sims: The children have enjoyed looking at two stories, with the same title! 'How to catch a dragon!'. Our magical golden egg hatched in our classroom, we did not know where the dragon went! We made posters to describe the features of our dragon which we displayed around our school - we made sure we warned St Michaels about our dragon as it is still a baby. We looked at how we could catch a dragon and in groups, we collaborated and made traps to catch our dragon! 

Week beginning 22nd January 2024!

Mrs Allen: This week we have had a very special visitor after reading 'Dragon Post' by Emma Yarlett. 

A dragon popped by our classroom while we were playing at break time and left us an enormous golden egg and a very special letter. The Dragon asked us how we were and if there was anything we wanted to ask him. We spent the mornings writing back and asking the dragon some questions we wanted answers to like "how did you find our school?", "do you like tea?", "how long until the egg hatches?".

We were lucky enough to have a look at some real robins eggs in a nest and watched a time lapse of them being born! We then sequenced the life cycle of a robin and gained a better understanding of the feathered friends that have been visiting us for a few weeks. 

We looked at the story of 'The Egg' by M.P Robertson and how George looked after the enormous egg he found. We discussed how we can look after our golden egg and how we can make sure we keep it safe. We suggested ideas like making it a bed, keeping it warm with a blanket, reading it a bedtime story and making it food. We wondered what may come out of our special egg - we can't wait for it to hatch!

In our provision we have been using water colour paints to paint wonderful pictures of birds like robins, blue tits, blackbirds and sparrows. We have been using our digital skills by scanning QR codes to listen to stories about dragons and have been enjoying immersing ourselves in our new castle role play which opened on Monday! We have been ringing the characters from the story Dragon Post to ask them questions and note down the answers! 

A very busy start to the week!

Our focus texts this week...

Mr Sims: In RE, we looked closely at the Parish family and why they are important to us. We looked at the different celebrations we ay have in church and how our parish family can help us prepare for this. We looked at the important role Pastor Gareth has in our school community as he performs baptisms, weddings, communions etc. He welcomes us into the church family as we join God's Family. We went to our school chapel to look at the different areas and resources that we may find in church such as; a bible, the lectern, the alter, the stations of the cross etc.

Important information for 23rd January 2024

Week beginning 15th January 2024!

Mrs Allen: This week we have carried on with our RSPB Big Schools Bird Watch and have been inspired by "Otto Blotter, Bird Spotter"! We gathered our clip boards and binoculars and headed out into the school grounds where we made our own tally charts of the different bird species we saw. 

We carried on our new R.E topic of 'Celebrations' where we looked at our very own family photos of different celebrations we attended and talked about what we were celebrating. We looked at pictures of weddings, baptisms, New Years Eve parties, graduations, baby showers, Christmas and birthdays. 

In expressive arts we listened to the story 'Georgie Grows a Dragon' and imagined what our very own dragon would look like if we grew one like Georgie. We then used paints, glitter and googly eyes to create our imaginary dragons. 

Mrs Sims: As the children enjoyed the story 'Once Upon a Dragon' they finally found out the final part of the story. The dragon was sad and alone in the cave. The children needed to find a solution on how to help the dragon become happy - as happiness sparked the fire in the dragons heart which stops the awful weather in the town.
In Welsh, the children have been practising their understanding of 'Sut mae'r tywydd heddiw?' (What is the weather like today?) in which they have learnt the sentence structure and words heulog (sunny), wyntog (windy), cymylog (cloudy), stormus (stormy), bwrw glaw (rainy), bwrw eira (snowy) and niwlog (foggy). We have incorporated our weather song and language patterns in our morning routine. 
In our Fertile Heart session, we have been listening to the story of Genisis and how God created our world. The children could recognise the animals and living things that God created and used their expressive art skills to create an animal mask.  

Week beginning 8th January 2024!

Welcome back!

Mrs Allen: After a restful Christmas break we have started off the New Year by taking part in the RSPB Big Schools' Bird Watch where we have been learning about the different types of garden birds we might see in our school surroundings. We have been describing the characteristics of the different types of birds and learning how we can look them during the Winter. We have been outdoors making bird feeders out of pine cones, oranges, seeds and peanut butter and have attracted some lovely birds which we have been watching from our new bird watching station. 

In R.E we have been talking about the Feast of the Epiphany and how this was the day the Three Kings came to visit baby Jesus. 

Mrs Sims: The children have been investigating shapes this week by going on a 2D shape hunt, played a Kim's Game to recognise the features of the shapes and tried to find shapes in the sand. 
In science, we have been discussing and understanding the different seasons by looking closely at the change in seasons and weather. The children enjoyed creating 4 types of trees that represents each season along with discussing what we might wear. enjoy, eat or see during each seasons. 
In Literacy and topic, the children have enjoyed the story 'Once Upon a dragon's fire' which is about two characters, Sylas and Freya, who go on a journey to stop the miserable weather in their town. Once they arrive at the top of the dragon's cave they see something! The children had to make a prediction about what was going to happen next! We had some exciting predictions! 

Week beginning 18th December!

Last week before Christmas!

What an exciting week we have had! 

First we enjoyed breakfast with Santa where we wore our handmade crowns as we went into Santa's grotto and told him how good we have been this year. Then we enjoyed a yummy breakfast!

We also had Christmas dinner and Christmas jumper day which was an all around hit.

We watched Christmas movies, enjoyed hot chocolate and said goodbye to Dave the Elf as he headed back to the North Pole ready to help Santa on Christmas Eve! 

It's safe to say we are very excited for Christmas!!!

Week beginning 11th December 2023!

This week we have been hard at work writing our letters and posting them to Santa! We have also enjoyed writing Christmas cards to our family and friends, making Christmas cookies out of playdough, cinnamon, cranberries and dried orange and learnt how to make a Christingle by scanning a QR code which we found in our Curiosity Cube!

A huge thank you to everyone who came to see us in our Christmas concerts we had the best time and hope you did too!

Week beginning 4th December 2023!

We have been focussing on our number of the week which is number 10! We have been introduced to Tia Ten from Ten Town and have been making towers of 10 blocks and practicing our number recognition with a game of bingo! We have also made Numberblocks 1 - 5!

We have been making magic wands for Tricky Witch from Monster Phonics Land and colouring penguins and polar bears! We have been decorating pine cones in our outdoor area with different colour pom poms which make them look like Christmas trees!

Dave the Elf was back and brought some friends from the North Pole to have a party in our class! 

Week beginning 27th November 2023!

This week in Reception we have carried on with our strong start at Monster Phonics! We have been practicing our letter formation and making CVC words with pebbles and sand! In Maths we have been using cubes to measure tinsel and have also had lots of fun making the Numberblocks.

We have focussed on all things Winter and have been making igloos out of sugar cubes and learning about what happens when a puddle turns into ice!

We welcomed our class elf who has come all the way from the North Pole to see us. We have decided to name him 'Dave'!!

To end our week we enjoyed some POPcorn as the sounds we learnt this week were 'P' and 'O'! 

Week beginning 20th November 2023!

We have welcomed Christmas into our outdoor area this week as our brand new 'Christmas Tree Farm' opened up! We have enjoyed delivering trees, making hot chocolates and roasting marshmallows on the fire. We have also made a strong start with our new phonics scheme 'Monster Phonics'. We have loved getting to know all of the characters and have been forming letters in glitter and making CVC words.

In R.E we have begun our new topic 'Birthdays' as we prepare for the birth of Jesus. We have made our very own birthday chart and even had a birthday party complete with cake, balloons, hot chocolates and dancing! What a week!

Week beginning 13th November 2023!

This week we have been discussing Diwali and have loved listening to the story "The Best Diwali Ever". We learnt about all the different ways Diwali is celebrated and made our very own Diva lamps made out of salt dough, coloured paints, glitter and sequins. We also used coloured sand and paintbrushes to make our own Rangoli patterns just like in the story.

We have also had a very busy week as we began to learn the songs for our Christmas concert with Nursery and Year 1! We can't wait for you to see us in 'King! A Christmas Rapsody'.

Week beginning 6th November!

After a relaxing week off school we have had a busy start to this term in Reception.

We have been learning all about Seal Six from Ten Town and even went fishing for ducks when learning about 1 more and 1 less! 

We have been making predictions on whether items from around our classroom will sink or float. We did this by voting before we tested if we were correct. We have enjoyed discussing Bonfire Night and the wonderful colours and sounds we saw and heard. We made some firework pictures using salt and water colour paints. 

We made our own poppies to wear on Remembrance Day and planted poppy seeds in our outdoor area to remember those who we have lost.  

Week beginning 23rd October 2023!

This week we have been looking at how we welcome people into the Church, particularly through baptism. We went down to the Chapel and had our very own baptism where we all had a very important part to play!

We also had lots of fun writing our very own shopping lists to make a healthy stew! We enjoyed discussing which foods were healthy and unhealthy and deciding which vegetables we were going to put in our stew!

Week beginning 16th October 2023!

This week we have read the story of the Funny Bones and painted our own skeletons.

We have carried on learning about Freddie Four adding 4 things to his backpack so he can go on his adventure. We also went on an Autumnal walk to collect leaves and look for signs of Autumn. We used to leaves to do leaf rubbings.

As part of Black History Month we have been learning all about Martin Luther King Jr and his famous speech 'I have a dream...' and have been discussing what our dreams are for the future. 

Week beginning 9th October 2023!

This week we have been learning and labelling the different parts of the body!

We have also been talking about our families and using natural materials like stones, conkers, leaves and twigs to make our family portraits! 

We have started our R.E topic which is all about 'Welcoming' and have been making a big banner to put outside our class to welcome visitors. We have also made 'Welcome to St. Michaels' cards for our new friends, the Nursery pupils. We have been making potions in the water tray and learning all about Freddie Four from Ten Town!

Week beginning 2nd October 2023!

This week we welcomed King One from Ten Town and have been setting the table for him with one plate, one knife, one fork and one cup. We have decorated his castle by adding one item in each room. 

We have explored the way Autumn looks in our environment and used cotton buds to create Autumnal trees with orange, red, brown and yellow paint. Our Curiosity Cube was filled with signs of Autumn such as hedgehogs, pumpkins, pinecones and brown crunchy leaves.

Week beginning 25th September 2023!

This week we have been continuing our 'Marvellous Me' topic by exploring our senses and matching our first and last names! We have welcomed the first signs of Autumn in our new Pumpkin Patch outdoor role play, looking at the different sizes of pumpkins and using money to pay for them. We have also been very creating making Autumn stencil pictures but not using paint, using coffee granules! It smelt delicious. We finished off the week by exploring the stories of 'The Colour Monster' and 'The Magical Yet' and have discussed our feelings during circle time, what makes us feel that way and all of the things we want to learn to do in the future.

Week beginning September 11th 2023

This week we have enjoyed settling in to our new class and getting to know our new teachers. We have enjoyed exploring all the areas of our new classroom and beginning our 'Marvellous Me' topic by painting pictures of ourselves which are now on display in class. We have been talking about all of the things that make us different and unique. We have been making our names using magnetic letters, using our fine motor skills to thread, making some yummy Autumn recipes in our outdoor area and making music using pots and spoons!