Blackfell Primary School

Our First Week in Reception!

A very big welcome to all our Reception children. What a fantastic first week they have all had. They have been making some new friends as well as maintaining other friendships. They have settled into their new classroom environment extremely well and we are so proud of them. They have been learning lots of new routines and have been taking part in a range of activities showing us how clever they all are. We are all looking forward to a busy and exciting year in Reception. What a great start to your time in Blackfell School. You have all settled in so well and we will be one big happy family this year!

Well done everyone!

Booktime!

What a super time we had in our library today. We all received a special gift. Every year children in Reception receive a free book from ‘Booktime' to share and enjoy with their family and friends. This is to promote a love of reading for pleasure by encouraging

families to have fun sharing the books together. Inside our special packs was a book called… ‘Little Monkey'. We enjoyed listening to the story then we found out lots of facts about books and tried to spot things like... the title, the blurb, the book time logo, capital letters, familiar words, exclamation marks, full stops, speech marks, question marks and ellipses when we shared our books with our friends. We had great fun learning about books.

Well done Reception!

Snack Time!

Every day in Reception the children have a range of healthy snacks and drinks to choose from to encourage and promote healthy eating. They can choose to sit with their friends throughout the day to enjoy a snack, drink and a chat. It's a very popular part of the day!

Library Time!

We were so excited to visit key stage one library. We all set off to the library to choose a book. We listened to the rules about how to behave in the library and chose our books quietly. We enjoyed sharing our books with our friends and found each others books funny and interesting. We can’t wait to visit again to choose another book to take home to share with our family.

Books are fun!!

We are Tooth Defenders!

The children in Reception have been learning the importance of dental hygiene and how to brush and look after their teeth.  We learned how to be tooth defenders and looked at a poster carefully to find out how many stages there are to brush our teeth. We pretended to be dentists and checked one another's teeth. We also talked about different types of food and which foods are good and bad for our teeth. As part of raising the profile of healthy teeth and the importance of visiting the dentist on a regular basis the children were given a free toothbrush and toothpaste to take home. Happy brushing boys and girls! What brilliant tooth defenders you all are!

Our 5 R's 

The Beaver... Helps us to be Resourceful!

We have been learning all about ‘The Beaver’ and what he stands for. We found out that he represents being ‘resourceful’. We listened to what the word ‘resourceful’ means and thought about how we have been ‘resourceful’ in our independent learning time. We thought about what materials we needed to make our ‘Autumn headbands’ and how we have been helping to collect Autumnal items to create them. We also talked about how we can be ‘resourceful’ in class, thinking about things we need to get to enable us to do our jobs. The children came up with some really good answers and tried hard to explain to each other how they have been ‘Resourceful’.

Well done to everyone in reception for thinking hard about how to explain resourcefulness!

Autumn leaves are falling....

Under the harvest moon...

Reception made some headbands using a range of Autumnal items which they have collected. They have worked hard practising the song in class before performing the song ‘Under the Harvest Moon’ in assembly to celebrate ‘Harvest’. The whole school came to watch them perform their song along with some actions. It was their first time on stage this year and they all did extremely well, showing how confident they all were on this special occasion. They helped others by donating food to go to Washington food bank. They also enjoyed watching other year groups performing and they joined in singing some more songs. What a great way to celebrate harvest time! Well done everyone!

Computing Stars!

We had our first experience of I.C.T in our computer suite. We learnt how to switch on the computers and how to control the mouse. It was quite difficult to do but we kept on trying and got better at it throughout the lesson. We were able to follow instructions and use a simple program. We really enjoyed our first visit and we can't wait to come back to improve our computing skills. Well done everyone for trying so hard with this tricky new skill!

Happy Halloween!

We couldn't wait to go into the hall for our dinner today, we were all so excited to eat and enjoy our 'Spooky' themed food. The ladies in the kitchen made sure we had the best time ever. They decorated the hall with balloons and banners and they worked so hard to give us some special spooky food along with some tasty treats. We loved all of the food and had a Happy Halloween Lunch. A very big thank you to all the kitchen staff for making lunchtime a 'Spook...tacular' event for all of the children!  

Funny Phonics!

We have been drawing skeletons and writing lists to make spooky spells. We have tried really hard to hear initial sounds in words and form them correctly. Some of us were able to use our phonic knowledge to label our body parts hearing and writing sounds in the word and in the correct sequence. We have had fun developing our phonic knowledge through the story of 'FUNNY BONES!

Well done everyone!

Anti-Bullying Week!

Choose Respect!

As part of Anti-Bullying week we have been listening to the story of 'Elmer' This introduced us to patterns and how to repeat them. We took part in a range of activities to build on our friendships, work as a team and that helped us to develop our personal, social and emotional skills. We made some fantastic patchwork Elmers using the dough and used paint and other materials in the creative area. We were busy in the construction area creating ‘Elmer’ or making him a home and shared ideas with each other to enhance our model making ideas. We also used the '2d' shapes to create 'Elmer' and some of us are beginning to use our phonic knowledge to write initial sounds or simple sentences about him. We also learned how 'Elmer' was different and ‘unique’ just like we all are and how we have to respect each others opinions. We are beginning to understand the message that Anti-Bullying week was promoting which was … ‘CHOOSE RESPECT!’

Take a look at some of the other activities we took part in during this week! Well done everyone!

Making Christmas Treats!

We have been so busy making cakes and biscuits to sell at our Christmas Fayre to help raise money for our school. We enjoyed making and decorating cakes and then creating a snowman using a digestive biscuit, a  giant marshmallow, tic-tacs, skittles, twiglets and matchmakers to add his features. We hope everyone buys our lovely Christmas treats.

Well done Reception!

Snow Play!

We were so excited to go and watch ‘Snow Play’ at the ‘Art Centre’. The bus arrived and we all got on and we enjoyed chatting and singing with our friends on the way. When we arrived we were greeted at the door and led inside to enjoy colouring in some pictures while we waited to go into the theatre. Soon it was time to go into the theatre and we took to our seats and waited for the show to begin. We loved watching the story unfold as the actors came on to the stage and began to tell the story.
‘Snow Play’ is a showdown between ‘Winter’ and ‘Spring’... Two seasons fighting over who gets to stay and who has to go away… Will it be Mr Green or Mr White?
Mr Green returned from his holidays to discover Mr White had moved into his house and it was covered in snow. The children thought Mr White was hilarious playing all of his naughty snowy tricks on Mr Green. They even had a huge snowball fight at the end which was an interaction with the audience. We all had a few snowballs hit us but nice fluffy soft ones which really was the best part of the show.
What a magical tale to watch at this special time of year.
We all loved this magical tale of enchantment! What an exciting Christmas treat for everyone including the adults!

Christmas Jumper Day!

The children were so excited as they came into school wearing their Christmas jumpers and accessories and couldn't wait to show them off to their friends. They all looked lovely and enjoyed the day as the festive theme continued at lunchtime where they all enjoyed a traditional Christmas lunch with the rest of the school!

Let's celebrate!

We had a brilliant time at our Christmas party... Singing and dancing to all of our favourite songs. We played pass the parcel, musical statues, musical bumps and corners as well as showing off our dancing skills. We all had lots of fun! Happy Christmas Everyone!!

Snowjars!

We have been making a 'snowman' using a glass jar. We covered it in glue the rolled it in faux snow. We then decided which materials we needed for his eyes, nose and mouth. Finally we put a colour changing tea-light inside and put his lid back on for his hat. We displayed them in class and they look lovely when they are all lit up. We can't wait to take them home to light up Christmas! 

Delicious Dinners!

Another important first part of our day is choosing our dinner. First thing on a morning Miss Brooks tells us what is for dinner as we look at the pictures then we select our meal by putting our peg pictures into one of the boxes. At lunchtime we line up in the correct order and go to collect our knives and forks. We wait to be served our chosen meal then choose from a selection of desserts. We always remember to say 'please' and 'thank you' to our lovely kitchen staff too. We have more choices to make when we arrive at the salad bar to add some more healthy options to our meal. We sit down then finally choose a drink. We chat to our friends while we eat our 'Delicious Dinners'.

Well done Everyone!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all of our new Reception class for completing your first full fun packed week at school. The children have been learning lots of new rules and routines, making new friendships and enjoying all of the activities in their new environment indoors and outdoors. What a great start to your time in Reception!

We are so proud of you all!

Our First Circle Time!

We have enjoyed our first circle time together. We have been talking about what makes a good friend. We were introduced to the beaver and learned how he stands for resourcefulness and helps us to make good decisions like how to help each other. The children were able to talk about who they had been playing with and the sorts of things they had been doing that helps us to be a good friend like sharing, taking turns, helping and listening to each other. We then made a friendship bracelet for a friend using beads and pasta. We found it quite hard to thread at first but soon got the hang of it. We then played with our friends in the role play area. Well done everyone! What good friends you all are in Reception!

Our Five R's

The Monkey... The Risk Taker!

We will be learning about our 5r’s through our five animals that we have in our class. Each one stands for something different. This week we have been learning about the Monkey! He stands for being a ‘risk taker’. We talked about how he likes to take risks and how we were going to try to take a risk by doing something we find hard to do. We talked about trying new things even though sometimes we don’t want to because we might think it’s too tricky. We discussed how we could all help each other and we all talked about the risk we were going to take to improve ourselves.

We are going to do that...Monkey Business!

Great enthusiasm to start the new term! Well done Reception!

Our Five R's

The Elephant... Encourages Relationships!

We have been learning what the Elephant stands for in our circle time. We learned how he encourages ‘relationships’. We closed our eyes to think about how we have been a good friend. We thought about what we could do to show each other how we could be kind and helpful to each other. We then we took turns to hold  the ‘Elephant’ and share our thoughts on what made us a good friend to others. We came up with some good answers. We have all demonstrated how we are developing our feelings and behaviour towards others through our actions and words. Well done reception for trying so hard to help one another!

Balance Bikes!

We are developing our skills using the balance bikes. We already follow some important rules which include wearing a ‘helmet’ to protect our heads and to move around carefully to avoid any accidents. We put on our ‘helmets’ and listen to instructions. We set off around the yard using our feet to push us along and try to steer the bikes with some good control, watching out for obstacles and each other. We then played follow the leader making sure we didn't bump into each other. We took turns to show off our new skills and we have become more skilled, and some of us are more willing to have a go and can’t wait to get back outside and back on our bikes to try out our new found skills and ride with more confidence. We will all keep practising to develop our balance bike skills.

Well done everyone!

Hedgehog Bread!

We have been busy making hedgehog bread We mixed the ingredients together then we kneaded our ball of dough. We then shaped our dough to make it look like a hedgehog. Next we created it’s spikes using different techniques, we used the prongs of a fork by pushing it into the dough then pulling it backwards to get spikes or we used scissors by snipping into the dough. Some of us just used our fingers by pinching the dough and pulled it up. We buttered our bread and some of us had ‘strawberry’ jam on as well. We ate our bread, it was delicious and we even had a little treat later on in the afternoon… a lovely biscuit hedgehog! What a great way to end our Autumn activities!

Autumn Term 2!

Bat Sandwiches!

In preparation for our 'spooky' themed day we set to work preparing some bat's blood sandwiches. We spread jam on some bread and used a bat cutter to create our 'Bat Sandwiches'. We can't wait to eat them later today. Great job everyone!

Trick or Treat!

There were no 'TRICKS'... Just plenty of 'TREATS' as the 'spooky' themed day carried on into the afternoon. We got back into class only to find a table full of treats for us to share with our friends. We watched a film and enjoyed eating our...Bat Sandwiches, witches fingers, spectacular spider cakes, zombies fingers and ghoulish ghosts. We even got to finish it all off with some vampire's blood. We really had a 'Happy Halloween' and enjoyed all of the treats with our friends!

100 Years of Remembrance!

Reception have been busy making poppies to help decorate our school hall for the Remembrance Assembly. They listened to poems, watched year 1 perform and listened to some songs relating to world war 1. At lunchtime they enjoyed some traditional food from that era and listened to the songs again whilst chatting to their friends. Thank you to the kitchen staff for providing all of the children with a world war 1 lunch. 

To finish of the day reception enjoyed a delicious poppy biscuit! Well done! 

Creating Patterns!

We have been learning all about patterns and how to repeat them. Some of us made lovely colourful patterns using the mosaic tiles and some of us used other apparatus such as cubes, peg boards, beads, bobbins and paint to create repeating patterns using two or more colours. We are beginning to develop our knowledge of pattern very well indeed!

Well done Reception!

Children in Need 2018!

Once again the kitchen staff provided the children to a themed dinner. This time to celebrate... 'Children in Need'. They decorated the hall with lots of Pudsey accessories and even got dressed up. The children came to school dressed in 'Pudsey' accessories and enjoyed their Pudsey themed lunch time ... Especially the 'Pudsey' biscuits!

Well done to the kitchen staff for creating a Perfect Pudsey Pudding!

Christmas Counts!

It's Christmas production time again and ‘Reception’ children were first to take to the stage to begin our Christmas celebrations. They told the traditional story... simply called ‘Christmas Counts’ and they all looked fantastic in their costumes and performed brilliantly in front of all their families. The children all had a part to play and worked hard rehearsing the story and learning their lines. They did really well to remember when to go on and off the stage and they enjoyed singing a range of songs to accompany the story. Well done to each and everyone of them for being brave little superstars!

Everyone is so proud of them all!

Reindeer Dust!

We have enjoyed making our very important 'Reindeer Dust' ready for Christmas Eve. We put plenty of oats and glitter in our envelopes to make sure that Rudolf will find his way to all of our homes on that special night. We are so excited and counting down the days until Christmas Day finally arrives. Great work boys and girls!

Christmas Dinner!

The ‘ladies’ in the kitchen worked hard to cook a traditional ‘Christmas’ dinner for the whole school to enjoy. Everyone enjoyed sharing this special occasion with friends and staff. The children all enjoyed pulling crackers, telling jokes, listening to Christmas music and talking about their delicious food. And don’t they all look festive in their Christmas Jumpers!! Thank you to all the kitchen staff for all your hard work! We  all thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas lunch!

Party Food!!

To end our Christmas party fun we all enjoyed a party food box that the kitchen staff had worked hard to  prepare. The children loved eating their party food with their friends and had lovely sandwiches, pizza slices, sausage rolls, biscuits and a drink. Thank You to Wendy and her team for providing the Nursery and Reception children with their Christmas party box!!

Our Skeleton Calendars!

We have been using our imaginations and our creative skills to make our own skeleton. We  used a variety of different materials to represent all of our bones in our body. This helped us learn more about our skeleton and how our bones help us move  to do lots of different activities … Every day!

Look at our Super Skeleton Calendars! We really do have ‘Funny Bones’.

Our Superhero Chatterboxes!

To coincide with our topic...I'm a Superhero! The children made a Superhero Chatterbox during the summer break with the help of their families. They had to choose their favourite Superhero and they made some good choices. Some chose their favourite Superhero fictional character and others chose a family member. They have all had a super time sharing their Superhero Chatterboxes with the class and then with each other during their independent time. It was a great way of learning new things about each other and making some new friendships. It was great to see the children building on their confidence and communication skills.

Well done everyone!

We are Superheroes!

We have all become Superheroes in Reception! We talked about the colour of our skin and our features before we set to work creating our faces. We painted a bowl then selected various materials with some help to represent our features that are unique to us. We then chose a Superhero body and stuck on our faces. We enjoyed making ourselves into a Superhero! We now have a lovely display in our classroom of all of our Reception Superheroes!

You all look Amazing!

Shark Alert!

We had so much fun in our first P.E lesson. We warmed up then we listened to instructions on how to play a game. We had to pretend to swim around the hoops and pretend to be different types of  fish and when Miss Jackson shouted ‘SHARK’ we had to run and jump into the nearest safe pool. Each time we swam around the hall a hoop was removed and we had to hold each other and work as a team as the group in the hoop was bigger and tighter than before. We tried very hard not step out of the hoops into the shark infested water. If we didn’t make it into a hoop in time before Miss Jackson counted back from ‘5’ or if we accidentally stepped out of the hoop we were out. After running around using up so much energy we talked about the effect exercise has an effect on our bodies. We put our hands on our chest and felt our heart beating faster and talked about exercise keeping us healthy.

We really enjoyed our first P.E lesson and can’t wait until our next one.

Great team work Reception!

Ball Skills!

In our P.E lesson we have been practising our ball control skills. We sat down opposite our friend to work in pairs. We practiced rolling the ball to each other making sure we didn't roll it too far. We got better at controlling the ball then tried to control it using our feet, gently kicking it and stopping it with our foot. This was quite a challenge but we  gained better control after a few attempts. We then moved on to throwing and catching. We enjoyed trying to catch the ball and found it quite tricky but we know we will get better at these skills the more we practise them in our fun P.E lessons. We had lots of fun developing our ball control skills. Great work Reception!

Our Five R's

The Penquin... Helps us to be Resilient!

We have been learning all about ‘The Penguin’ and what it stands for. We found out that he represents ‘resilience’. We listened to what the word ‘resilience’ meant and thought about how we have been resilient in our independent learning time. We thought about the jobs we had been doing and talked about how we could be like the penquin and keep trying and keep on going with things that we find difficult to do. 

The children came up with some really good answers and have  showed us how they have demonstrated ‘Resilience’ in their independent learning time.

Well done to everyone in reception for thinking hard about this difficult word!

Autumn Time!... Is here again!

Reception invite you to take a look at all the exciting activities they have been doing to develop their learning through the theme of 'Autumn'. We have been listening to the story 'The Helpful Hedgehog' and have been trying hard to use some story book language to retell the events. We have been counting conkers and ordering them using the ten frames. We have been doing lots of art work to create an Autumn display and collected resources like leaves and twigs to help us to understand about being resourceful. We have also tried really hard to draw pictures of items from our 'Farmhouse Kitchen' and label them hearing some sounds in words. We have had so much fun learning this 'Autumn' Well done Everyone!

Our Five R's

The Fox... Helps us to reflect!

We have been learning about the 'Fox' and what he represents. We found out that the 'Fox' stands for 'Reflection'. We began to understand what the word ‘reflection’ meant in circle time. We needed to think about some of the things we had been doing and maybe change the way we did it to make it even better the next time. The children had some really good ideas and reflected on situations, friendships and other things they had been doing during the week. We now know all about the 'Fox' and how reflecting on things we have done can make us feel better about ourselves and make others very 'proud' of us. Well done Reception for trying so hard to think about another very important word.

Funny Bones!

We listened to the story ‘Funny Bones’ then we began to investigate all the areas in our indoor and outdoor environment. We have been so busy… We used the outline of a body in the construction area and worked together sharing our ideas of how to use the blocks to represent parts of our bodies, we also used the large blocks outside to create some fantastic skeletons. We have created skeletons using the dough, retold the story in the small world area and in the role play area. We counted out how many bones we could find in the sand and practised recognising and ordering numbers and so much more. Take a look at what we have been learning. We have used our imaginations, worked as a team and  learned so much about our bodies. We now know some of the correct names for our bones and how they help us move.

Well done reception! You are all working so hard!

Feeling Stones- What makes us happy?

In our circle time this week we have been thinking and talking about what sort of things make us feel ‘happy’. It was nice to hear all the lovely things that make reception children feel ‘happy’. They were all very ‘happy’ to share their thoughts with each other.

Well done everyone!

How can we help!

We have been learning how to be a good friend and ‘respect’ each other through the story of ‘Elmer’. We thought about what we have been doing to be kind, helpful and respectful. We then told our friends about how we had behaved in a ‘respectful’ way. We demonstrated how we are developing our feelings and behaviour towards others through our ‘actions’ and ‘words’ and learning how to respect others.

Well done Reception for trying so hard to understand this important word!

Friendship Biscuits!

To mark the end of Anti-Bullying Week we enjoyed a biscuit decorated with blue icing and colourful sprinkles to represent Elmer's patchwork. We know that 'blue' is the colour asscociated with this special week and we came to school dressed in something blue. We enjoyed playing and developing our friendships throughout the week!

Christmas in the classroom!

It's that time of year again and we have started to get busy with all of our Christmas activities in class. We are using all of the areas to  show off  our creative skills. We are decorating the tree and counting baubles to develop our number skills. We are developing our phonic knowledge through a range of Christmas characters that we have created. We are having so much fun and we were able to represent all of our great ideas in so many different ways. Take a look at some of the Christmas themed activities we have been doing. We have been working so hard and now need a well deserved Christmas holiday with our families! Well done to each and everyone of you! You have all worked so hard. We hope you all have a 'Happy Christmas' and a Happy New Year! From all the staff in foundation stage!

Party Time!!

Look at us! Don't we look ready for a PARTY! The children came into school so excited this morning in their party clothes ready for the fun to begin...But there was a surprise first... Take a look what happened next!

Christmas Presents!

We could not believe our eyes when we discovered a red sack under the tree this morning. We later found out that Santa must of had a magic key and got into school at the weekend and left us all a present under the tree. We all got to choose a parcel out of the sack and we can't wait to find out what it is. We opened the classroom door and shouted 'Thank You Santa' as loud as we could in the hope he heard us all the way to Lapland! We love surprises!

Handmade Christmas Cards!

We have been so busy preparing for Christmas here in reception. We made our Christmas cards using our hands to create our festive characters then used a range of materials to add their features. We think they are great and all unique just like us! We hope our families like them as much as we enjoyed making them with our very own hands!

Well done reception!