Reception - Mrs Varney

Welcome to

Mrs Varney's Reception Class

2023 - 2024

Mrs Varney - Reception Teacher & Deputy Headteacher

Mrs Gibling - Intervention Teaching Assistant

Mrs Bailey - Teaching Assistant (Reception and KS1)

Mrs Holt - Teaching Assistant (across EYFS and KS1)

Mrs Bacon - Teaching Assistant and Midday Supervisor (Reception)
 

In Reception, we learn how to be a good friend and the importance of following rules to keep us safe and happy.  Fundamental values are reinforced through our exciting, enriched curriculum.

Summer 1 2024

"Let's Go!"

In Reception this half term, we will be thinking about different types of transport. We will be building models, comparing old and new transport and investigating how different types of transport work.  We will be listening to a story from the Old Testament called Noah's Ark and exploring different materials to find out which one is the most waterproof. 

We will be starting our fabulous

Welly Wednesday's too!

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Our First Welly Wednesday!

On Wednesday 24th April, everyone was really excited in Reception.....it was our first Welly Wednesday!! We brought our wellies to school and couldn't wait to put them on.  We went outside and explored lots of interesting activities, including gardening, painting with water, frogs and logs, the playhouse, socks in the sand, water and construction.  We also looked under our "trapdoor" to see whether any minibeasts were hiding there. Have a look at our photographs to see how much fun we had!

All Stars Cricket

On Wednesday 17th April, Joe from All Stars Cricket, came to visit us at Larklands.  We all took part in a cricket session and practised our batting and bowling skills.   Take a look at our pictures, we had a great time!

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Happy Easter Everyone!

During the last week of the Spring term, we have been thinking about Spring and Easter.  We explored the outdoor environment for signs of the season and lots of children have shared their fabulous homework about the Spring.  We have listened to the Easter story and made Easter cards, too.

We were excited about taking part in an Easter Bonnet parade - take a look at our amazing creations! 

Spring 2 2024

This half term, the Reception children will be thinking about People Who Help Us, Spring and Easter.

There are some other special days at this time of year too, including St.David’s Day and World Book Day.  We are looking forward to seeing lots of different characters in school!

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British Science Week

As part of British Science Week, we have been investigating magnets and metal in Reception.  We used magnets of different shapes and sizes when exploring the classroom to find magnetic objects.  We also had great fun using the metal detectors in the sand - it was a very noisy afternoon with all that beeping!

Come and Visit the Vets

As part of our work about "People Who Help Us," we have opened our own Vets Surgery in Reception.  We have been exploring lots of different roles including the vet, nurse, receptionist and the owners of the poorly pets.  We have been very busy looking after lots of different animals.

A Visit From a Nurse

On Thursday 14th March, we had a visit from Mrs Holland.  Mrs Holland is a nurse and she came to talk to us about her job.  She wore her special uniform and she told us about some of the different things she has to do.  We enjoyed looking at some of the equipment she uses in her role, including a stethoscope and a blood pressure machine!

World Book Day

On Thursday 7th March, we celebrated "World Book Day" in school.  It was such an exciting day!  There were lots of different characters in Reception - who can you spot in the photograph below?

During the day, we did lots of activities about the traditional tale of "Little Red Riding Hood."  We also shared our favourite books and took part in a parade in the school hall. 

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A Special Visit From Mrs Woolley

On Wednesday 6th March, Mrs Woolley came to talk to us about her important job as a Lollipop Person.  She told us about her special uniform and she brought her big "STOP" sign into the classroom. We went onto the playground so that we could learn some more about road safety - we used the track as a road and the bikes and scooters as the traffic.    

Take a look at the photographs below to see what a great morning we had!

Bears, Breakfast and a Magic Pot!

During the second part of this half term, we have enjoyed sharing the stories of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and the Magic Porridge Pot.  We have taken part in lots of activities about the stories, including sequencing events, acting the stories out, finding out about a woodland environment, drawing maps, ordering objects by size, writing captions and sentences, playing with sparkly porridge oats, collaging characters and creating stick puppets. 

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What's For Breakfast?

On Monday 5th February, we tasted 3 different types of breakfast to find out which one was our favourite.  We tried;

We voted for our favourite breakfast by choosing a picture and adding it to a chart on the wall.  The "porridge" column had the most pictures in it, so we knew that this was our favourite!  Take a look at the photos below to see how much we enjoyed our tasty treats.

Investigating Ice

We have had great fun investigating ice!  We held the ice and talked about how it made our hands feel - "cold, freezing and wet!"  We found out that ice is frozen water and that our warm hands and the warm room made it melt.  We put the water outside and looked at it every morning to see if it had frozen again and it did!  

Winter is Here!

We have been exploring the outdoors, looking for signs of Winter.  We noticed that the flowers had all gone, the trees were bare and there were berries growing on some of the bushes.  We looked for butterflies, but couldn't find any and it felt much colder - we all wore our warm coats, hats, scarves and gloves. 

Spring 1 2024

During the first few weeks in Reception this half term, we will be thinking about "Winter."  We will explore the outdoors for signs of Winter, investigate ice, find out about cold places and create our own art work based on cold, wintery colours.  We really hope it snows!

Traditional Tales

We will also be thinking about traditional tales.  We will be finding out about different ways of telling stories and we will explore books, dance, art, actions, songs and music.

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Christmas Jumper Day 2023

We all looked very festive wearing our Christmas jumpers and hats in school today!

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Reception Winter Workshop

On Tuesday 21st November, it was our Winter Workshop.  Our families and friends came along to join in with the fun!  We made robins, mittens, snowflakes and snowmen using lots of different materials. You can see from the photographs how busy we were.

Thank you to everyone for all your help! 

The Little Red Hen

In Reception, we have been doing lots of activities based on the traditional story of the 'Little Red Hen.'
-We have learned to say the Pie Corbett version of the story, using words and actions.
-We had a letter from the Little Red Hen, asking us to bake her some bread because the farm animals were being unkind to her.
-We made our own bread...the classroom smelt lovely and the bread tasted delicious!
-We created hen pictures using cotton buds and paint.

Take a look at our baking photographs - we really enjoyed wearing our special hats!

            Bonfire Night!       

During our first week back after the Autumn half term break, we have been thinking about Bonfire Night, including how and why it is celebrated.  We found about Guy Fawkes and his plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament! 

We worked as a group to make our own "Bonfire Night Sky" collages.  We also used chalks on the playground to design our own fireworks and we added different firework sounds using a range of percussion instruments.  We talked about keeping safe around fireworks, too. 

We ended our week by tasting some bonfire night food - mushy peas!!

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Weeding, Weighing and Wonderful Fun!

We have been working together to tidy up our "Bug Hotel."  It took a lot of hard work but it looks amazing now - we hope the bugs will like it!

In Maths, we have been exploring weight using the balance buckets and scales.  We compared the weight of different objects and talked about whether they were heavier or lighter than each other.

On Wednesday 18th October, the fair came to town.  We were all so excited!!  Throughout the week, we did lots of activities about the fair and on Friday 20th October, we used real money to have a go on our own "Hook a Duck" (and we bought a doughnut too! Shhhhhh....) 

Take a look at our slide show below to see how many ducks we managed to "hook."

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Our First Few Weeks in Reception!

Our first few weeks in Reception have been so busy.  We have made lots of new friends, met lots of new adults, got used to daily routines, explored new activities, practised reading in a group, baked fairy cakes and not forgetting, we have also started PE!

Take a look at the photographs below to see how busy we have been...

Autumn Term 2023

Our topics this term are;
"Super Special Me" and "Let's Celebrate!"

We will be thinking about;

- Back to school

- All about me
- Making new friends 

- Special celebrations including Sukkot and Diwali

- Ilkeston fair
- Autumn and harvest
- Bonfire night
- Winter and Christmas

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