**We still have limited spaces for Pre-school and Nursery for September 2026. Please call for more information 01353 664742**
**We still have limited spaces for Pre-school and Nursery for September 2026. Please call for more information 01353 664742**

Autumn 1

All About Me is our topic for our first half term in Reception. We will be finding out about each other, our families, our school and our community. The knowledge organiser below features key vocabulary that we will be teaching the children.  
To support our learning we suggest that you could try to engage with the following low, or no cost activities from 50 things to do before you're 5.
Visit 50 Things to Do | Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and look for these activities!
 
#34 Woodland Wandering
#17 Hocus Pocus Potions
#33 Home from Home
#13 Shout and Shhh
#43 High Five
Week 1 

What a busy first week the children have had! We have been so impressed with their bravery and independence as they tried new things and explored their new surroundings.

We introduced the children to 'The Colour Monster goes to school' and talked about how they could be experiencing lots of different feelings when starting something new. The children thoroughly enjoyed painting their own version of the 'mixed-up' colour monster. 

The children had so much fun participating in dance on Monday, making new friends and learning to write and say the sounds 'm, a, s, d, t' in phonics. 

We have had a fantastic week and can't wait to continue our learning together this year! 

Week 2 

We have enjoyed some more exciting learning together this week in Reception! We introduced the children to 'The Colour Monster' story and discussed different emotions as a class. The children focussed on feeling 'happy' and 'calm' at the beginning of the week and they drew different things that make them feel happy. We had drawings of slides, chocolate, family members, favourite colours and favourite foods!

We then enjoyed making happy potions with lots of different yellow ingredients! The children also expressed their creativity and worked in a team to collage a giant calm colour monster and a yellow one too! 

In dance this week, we thoroughly enjoyed dancing to 'Let it Go' from Frozen. This involved us dancing with scarves and throwing them in the air in time to the music. 

Many children have been enjoying exploring our outdoor area; building obsticle courses for their friends, getting messy in the mud kitchen, performing with musical instruments on the stage and playing with bubbles in the water tray!

The children continued to work hard with their phonics, learning 'i, n, p, g, o.' We have been practising writing these sounds alongside the ones from last week. Another fantastic week full of learning and we can't wait for more! 






Week 3

This week, we have been super busy learning about the 'Owl Babies' story. At the beginning of the week, the story was introduced and the children were wondering where mummy owl went. We had lots of great ideas; at the shops, on holiday, and sleeping! We have been retelling the story using actions and props too! 

We continued this learning during our COOL time, creating owl collages, pictures, paintings and even writing 'o' for owl! 

We began our 'All about Me' topic learning and focussed on our bodies. We sang 'head,shoulders, knees and toes' to practise identifying body parts and the children talked about the different things they can do with their bodies. 

The children continued their phonics learning, practising saying and writing the sounds 'c, k. u, b, f.' Some of the children challenged themselves to write these on their drawings during COOL time. 

In Maths this week, the focus has been on sorting objects. The children impressed us by coming up with different ideas to how objects can be sorted and why. 

Week 4 

The children have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm and creativity within their learning this week! We have continued our 'All About Me' topic and focussed on families. We discussed who we live with, who else might be in our family and how families can grow and change. 

In Maths, we have been busy sorting objects into groups. We practised with some buttons and worked together to sort them in different ways; round and not round, yellow and not yellow, 2 holes and more than 2 holes. The children continued practising their sorting in their COOL time too. 

We have still been focussing on the 'Owl Babies' story and the children supported the adults in retelling the story and creating a story map to show what happened. The children enjoyed using lots of fluffy feathers to create their own owls. 


Week 5 

In Reception this week we have been getting busy!

We have continued our learning based on 'Owl Babies' and created an innovated version of the story! We had Fox babies in Bluebells and Bat babies in Buttercups! We worked together to create a story map and the children impressed us with their drawings of the animals in the story. 

In Topic, we have been talking about where we live and where we go to school. We created a map of the school as a class and some of the children made their own maps of where they live! We talked about what we might see when travelling to school. 

The children have continued to impress us with their determination and enthusiasm for learning in their Maths lessons. We introduced them to the words 'heavier' and 'lighter' and they applied this knowledge during COOL time, using the big scales outside to determine whether something is heavy or light. 

We have been practising lots of songs at the end of the school day. The children are enjoying learning the Makaton signs to go with the lyrics!

 

Week 6

This week, we introduced the children to a new story - 'Farmer Duck'! They thoroughly enjoyed joining in with parts of the story and recreating Farmer Duck's 'quack' during play. They practised implementing their phonics knowledge by writing 'hen' as there is a hen in the story. 

In Maths, we have focussed on ABAB repeated patterns. We worked as a team to create different patterns using objects from around the class, natural items from outside and even ourselves!

Our Topic learning focussed on people who help us in the community. The role play area became a doctors surgery where the children dressed up as doctors and bandaged each other! We also had a fire station small world section and a giant fire station outside for the children to explore. 

Thank you to the parents who joined us for 'Learn with Parents' and Buttercup parent lunch, the children loved sharing their school day with you!

Week 7

We are so proud of the children for completing their first half term in Reception and can't wait for more learning after half term! 

On Tuesday, the children were delighted to have a visit from 'Little City.' They had the chance to play in the doctors surgery, vet, post office, hairdressers and more! Some of the children really got into character and dressed up too. 

We have continued looking at the 'Farmer Duck' story and the children practised writing 'mud' and sequencing the different parts of the story. 

The children also painted self portraits this week, they used mirrors to see what they needed to add to their pictures and they also practised mixing colours together,

Thank you to the parents who joined us for Bluebells parent lunch this week - we loved seeing you!