What a busy and exhausting last week of term it has been! The children have continued to work hard and in Literacy they have described what they can see in a nativity scene setting. In Maths the children ordered strips of green paper from shortest to longest, which when stuck down they realised resembled a Christmas tree! In readiness for the Christmas party to finish off the term, the children also made party hats. Their art this week involved making Christmas tree decorations by winding wool around cardboard triangles and then adding and threading on adornments - they looked lovely and very effective!

The children had a lovely last day which included a Christmas sing-song with the whole school. At this, they had the opportunity to stand and sing to everyone; they sang The Brussel Sprout Blues, which was a great hit with the rest of the school! They sat beautifully and joined in with the songs that they knew and were a real credit to the Reception teaching team. On returning to class, the children all listened to a live broadcast from Santa at The North Pole, who read the children T'was The Night Before Christmas. The day concluded with the class Christmas Parties, which included party games in the classrooms followed by party food, which we ate altogether in the dining hall. Thank you so much for all of your kind donations of food. For your information any party food that was left over, was donated to charity, so I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that nothing went to waste. The afternoon was finished off with a very exciting visit by Santa, who delivered Christmas presents to the children as they have been so good!

Congratulations to everyone who was awarded with a well-done or who celebrated a birthday. 

The first topic for the Spring Term is going to be Dinosaurs. A copy of our curriculum map has been attached below for your information, so you can see some of the activities and learning that will be taking place. This is a working document and so likely to change and evolve, but you should hopefully find it useful. For Show and Tell on the first Tuesday back next term (07.01.20), we would like the children to learn a dinosaur fact that they can share with their class. 

By now, I am sure that many of your children will have told you that they may be moving Read, Write Inc. groups. This is because we have spent the last couple weeks assessing each of them and then reorganising the groups so that they are all working in groups of the same ability. The results have been most pleasing with virtually every child making progress. We now have one group of children working in a Ditty group, which means that these children will now be bringing home a reading book linked to the phonics that they are learning in school. For the rest of the children, they will continue to work on phonemes and in particular blending, as this is the one skill that they must have to be able to move into a Ditty group e.g. Fred Talking (sounding out), for example, c-a-t and then blending to say 'cat'. For those children not in a Ditty group, they should continue to practice with the cards that they have been so far given and using these to compose words which they should then try to Fred Talk, blend and read. New cards will not be reissued, as the next half term will be revision of the sounds they have been taught so far but with a focus on Fred Talk and blending skills. 

Finally, thank you so much for your continued support. It's terrifying to realise that we are already one third of the way through the academic year! We hope you all have a happy, healthy and restful Christmas holiday and we look forward to seeing you in a new decade!

With Christmas fast approaching, we read the story The Jolly Christmas Postman in class this week. The children then used this as inspiration to think about what they would ask Father Christmas for if they were to write him a letter; so for Literacy  the children wrote lists of items that they would include in their letters. In numeracy, the children looked at 'part part whole' as a method for calculating addition. In RE, Panda class also managed to combine maths in their lesson of comparing the birth of Jesus to their own birthdays, by using Venn diagrams to identify the similarities and differences between these two events. The children's handwriting continues to improve through the dedicated handwriting lessons and practise in RWI, which is evident in other writing activities that the children do, including making snowmen using the letters of their names.

Thank you so much for your amazing support today at the Reception Christmas sing-a-long. We are all so proud of the children, as I'm sure you are, for the effort they all went to with learning so many songs and actions. They also made some lovely props to enhance your enjoyment of the performances. The  majority of the cohort are still only 4 years old, and for anyone to stand up on stage and perform takes real courage, so taking this into account, their achievements are even more impressive. All of the children that had speaking parts were also amazingly loud and clear and could certainly teach some of the older children how to project their voices! Great job everyone!

With next week being the final week of term, it will certainly be action-packed and exciting for the children, as there will be lots going on! To confirm, the Reception Christmas party will be taking place on the last day of term (Thursday 19th December), so please ensure that the party items that you signed up to provide are sent in to school in time. If you have already purchased items that don't need to be freshly prepared or refrigerated such as table cloths or crisps, you are welcome to send these in from Monday. This day will also be a non-uniform day.

Congratulations to the children that celebrated birthdays this week or who were awarded with a 'well-done'. 

For next week's Show and Tell, the children have been asked to bring in a Christmas decoration. 

Rushmere Hall Primary School have been selected to be the school of the day at Ipswich Town Football Club for tomorrow's match against Bristol Rovers. If you went into the draw for tickets for the match and were successful, I may see you there! Let's hope for a win!! Otherwise, I hope you all have a lovely final weekend before the Christmas holidays begin!

We have been reading The Gingerbread Man in class this week and linked lots of our learning to this lovely story. In Literacy the children have been using their phonic knowledge to label parts of the Gingerbread Man's body and in Numeracy, they have been learning the language of fewest and most by sorting the Gingerbread Men into order according to how many buttons they have. 

The children have spent time this week preparing goods for sale at the Fayre and also for the Art and DT showcase. The children had to cut and fold very carefully to produce a pop-up card where any mistakes would have meant they wouldn't have worked. Pleasingly, there were no disasters. We were particularly impressed with the cards, as they were quite tricky for the children, but they were so pleased and impressed with their efforts.  The cards are included for sale in the Christmas packs for £2.50 which also include a personalised snow globe and calendar. They look fab! All proceeds will be spent in Reception for the benefit of the children.

The children had a wonderful afternoon out at The Wolsey Studios this afternoon. It was quite an adventure, and for some, the coach was almost as exciting as the puppet show! The children were all beautifully behaved and a credit to the school and you. Well done Reception. 

Thank you to everyone that came to see the children's art work and to visit and spend money at the Christmas showcase event. I am sure you'll agree that it was most impressive. We are most grateful for your generous support.

Congratulations to the children that were awarded a well-done in the celebration assembly this week or who celebrated a birthday. 

Next week will be the last whole week of the term and so we will be in Christmas mode! I have attached a copy of our Christmas overview planning for your information, as I know that the last curriculum map of colourful Creatures was well received. 

For show and Tell next week, the children have to learn a Christmas cracker joke to share with the class.

Just to confirm, for the Reception sing-a-long next week, the children will be wearing school uniform. ​We're looking forward to seeing lots of you there and hope you'll also be bringing your singing voices!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.