Reception - Miss Tose

Welcome to Reception! This year we have 18 wonderful children who have settled in so well and are eager to learn new things! 

Here are some important reminders;

• PE is a Tuesday. Children can come to school wearing their PE kits. We have our wonderful new PE hoodies which look very smart and are ideal for when the cold weather begins! Children can wear black trainers on PE day but will need to bring a pair of plimsoles to school to wear for PE in the hall. These can be kept on your child's peg until the end of the half term.
• Reading books need to be in school every day. You have already received a booklet explaining reading in Reception so please look through this as it details everything you need to know. 
• We access the outdoors daily so children need to come prepared! Warm coats, hats gloves and scarfs when the weather begins to get chillier!

Chinese New Year 2026: The Year of the Horse 

We thoroughly enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year in the last week of Spring 1! We read the story 'The Great Race' to find out why it was the Year of the Horse. We then found out how other people across the world celebrate Chinese New Year and watched videos of dragon and lion dances. At the end of the morning, we were treated to a Chinese food tasting session which we all loved! We tried spring rolls, noodles and prawn crackers. They were all a huge hit with our children!

Pancake Day 2026!

One of our core texts this half term is 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes and what better way to learn about pancakes than to make them ourselves! We made shopping lists and checked Miss Tose's bag to make sure she bought the right ingredients. We then helped make the mixture and watched our pancakes being cooked by an adult. We then chose our toppings and then we ate them! I think we can all agree they were absolutely delicious! Miss Pickering makes a cracking pancake! 

Back on the Map Urban Garden February 2026 

We were very kindly invited to Back on the Maps new Urban Garden to explore and play. When we arrived, Darren showed us round and then we went off to play and explore! We loved the mud kitchen and the sandpit! We also enjoyed touching some of the plants and herbs that were growing as they all had different smells- our favourite was the lavender! We can't wait to go back in March! 

Backhouse Park January 2026 

We had a wonderful time visiting Backhouse Park to see what had changed since we were last there. We sae that lots of the trees had been cut down and some had fallen over due to the high winds we had. We used the fallen trees as an obstacle course and were very good at assessing risks. We found lots of fabulous sticks which we carried back to school and turned them into wands and pointers. At the end of our visit we had a play on the park which we thoroughly enjoyed. 

Reception visit Durham Gala Theatre for the Panto!

In December, we visited Durham Gala Theatre to watch their Panto production called 'A Christmas Eve'. It was all about a girl called EVE who with help from the magic fairy, tried to restore Christmas joy to Durham. We sang, danced, popped bubbles, closed our eyes and wished and had a brilliant time. 

 Autumn 2 

Funnybones

One of our core texts this half term has been Funnybones which the children have loved! We made a doctor surgery in our classroom where the children have been examining xrays and healing broken bones. Outside we have been using shaving foam to make skeleton outlines of parts of the body.

Snow and Ice in Grangetown!

We couldn't believe it when we woke up and saw it had been snowing outside! When we arrived at school the yard was full of snow and we couldn't wait to get our wetsuits on and explore! As well as snow we found lots of ice too which we picked up carefully. Look at our lovely pictures!

Backhouse Park visit 

We visited Backhouse Park to look for seasonal changes. We found lots of Autumnal leaves had begun to fall from the trees as well as conkers and their shells. We even saw a squirrel climbing up a tree with what looked like an acorn in its mouth! 

EYFS PUMPKIN PATCH 2025 

EYFS held their very first Pumpkin patch in October and it was a huge success!

A huge thank you to Terry from Asda Leechmere who kindly donated pumpkins to our lovely event!

Autumn 1

A trip to the post box 

It was Geraldine the Giraffes birthday in Early Years and we were planning a surprise birthday party for her! We planned games, music, food and wrote birthday cards. We posted birthday cards to see if they would be delivered to school and low and behold, they were delivered by the postman just in time! 

Outdoors

We have been busy developing our gross motor and balancing skills whilst outside using our bikes and scooters! 

Mark Making

Look at our fabulous mark marking! We have been drawing our families and using our new drawing ipads. 

Snack times! 

We loves to have a diverse range of food at snack times! We have fruit and milk daily but have crackers, cheese and dips and toast on a Tuesday and  Thursday. The children have loved this!