Gainsborough Class (Reception)
Teacher: Mrs Carr
Teaching Assistants: Mrs Drogan
Welcome to Gainsborough class page. Here you will find lots of information about the class; what we are learning about and what we have been doing.
Curriculum Overviews
Please click here to see a copy of our Yearly Overview.
Please click here to see a copy of our Autumn Term Overview.
Please click here to see a copy of our Spring Term Programme of Study for Parents.
Please click here to see a copy of our Summer Term Programme of Study for Parents.
Letters
Please click here to see a copy of our September Update letter.
Please click here to see our Autumn Programme of Study for Parents.
Please click here to see a copy of our Spring Term Letter to Parents.
Please click here to see a copy of our Summer Term Letter to Parents.
Our Learning Journey
Summer 1 - Growth and Change
This term we are thinking about growing and changing with a particular focus on mini-beasts. We will learn about the life cycle of a butterfly and hopefully even hatch our own!
Week 1
In Gainsborough class we have had a great first week back at school. We have come back to school with a fantastic attitude and are keen and eager to continue to our learning journey,
We started the term by learning about a famous author, Eric Carle. Eric Carle has written a lot of children's book including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Bad-Tempered Ladybird and The Very Busy Spider to name a few. We read these stories and voted on our favourite one. We discussed why they were our favourites and then wrote about them.
In Art we replicated Eric Carle by using tissue paper to create caterpillars, spiders and ladybirds as this is how he created his illustrations for his books.
Our focus in maths this week was counting in ones and counting in tens. We were super stars at this!
Week 23
On Friday 26th April 2 pots of baby caterpillars arrived in Gainsborough class. We are going to use them to observe how they grow and change in two adult butterflies. So far we have enjoyed watching them and seeing how they have already grown and shed their outer shell. We have also learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly and know how the caterpillars started life as eggs and then they will develop into chrysalis and then butterflies.
In English we have continued to think about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and have innovated the story and planned our own ‘The Very Hungry’ story and have chosen a mini-beast of to write about.
In maths we have learnt about addition. We now know that on both sides of = it means balance and they are the same. 4 + 2 is the same as (=) 6. We have also learnt how to count on from the first number whilst adding.
Week 3
Even though this week was a shorter week we still managed to fit in lots of fantastic learning in Gainsborough class. Our caterpillars are growing each day and we hope that they will soon be turning into chrysalis.
In English we have finished writing our own story in the style of Eric Carle and we are very proud of all out efforts. We have tried very hard to sound out carefully, use capital letters, full stops, finger spaces and read our work to see if it makes sense.
In maths we have caught the doubling ‘bug’. We have found doubles using lots of different equipment such as dominoes, cubes and numicon. We have also been able to draw dots to help find doubles as well. As well as doubling we learnt about number facts to 6 and 7.
Our Learning Journey
Spring 2- Healthy Me
This term we will think about how to keep our bodies fit and healthy with the help of some well known book characters.
Week 1
Goldilocks once again made an appearance in Gainsborough class with a new tale of how she wanted jelly and ice-cream for breakfast. The Three Bears however, helped her see the error in her ways and convinced her to eat a healthy balanced diet and leave jelly and ice-cream for a treat. We learnt about speech bubbles, designed Goldilocks a healthy breakfast and wrote her a shopping list to ensure she brought the correct food.
In maths we deepened our understanding of adding one more and two more. We used numicon to show our understanding and all now can use + and = when writing calculations.
In Science we thought about different types of wood and worked in groups to discuss the similarities and differences in the appearance, touch and smell. We used fantastic language when describing and worked well in our groups.
Week 2
Goldilocks finally left Gainsborough class this week and we focused on a new story and character; Oliver’s Vegetables. This is the story of a little boy who like Goldilocks did not enjoy eating his greens but after visiting his Grandpa and his garden tried lots of different vegetables and decided that actually they were really yummy. We sequenced the story, wrote a character description and planned our very own story for Oliver which we will write next week.
We love reading in Gainsborough Class so Thursday was a brilliant day as we celebrated World Book Day and we all came to school dressed as a book character. We had lots of fun sharing our stories, writing about our characters, voting on our favourite traditional tale and Mrs Taylor came to work with us and shared an alternative Cinderella story.
In maths we learnt about 3D shapes and used mathematical language to describe them.
Week 3
This week in Gainsborough Class we have started to write our very own story, Oliver’s Healthy Week which was the story we planned this week. Mrs Carr and Mrs Drogan have been very proud of us as we have started to write some fantastic stories. We are now starting to use capital letters, fingers spaces, full stops and apply all our phonic sounds.
In maths we have enjoyed exploring weighing. We have used spring scales and balance scales to find the heavier and lighter of two items, extending to ordering up to 5 items and even using non-standards units to weigh pieces of fruit. We have enjoyed using the scales in our play to weigh toys and fruit in our very own ‘Fruit and Veg Shop’.
In art we looked at the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo and in groups created our very own pictures of people using paintings of fruit and vegetables.
On Friday we came to school in red and donated money to help others through Comic Relief.
Our Learning Journey
Spring 1- Toys and Bears
Week 1
Our topic until half term is Toys and Bears and we kick started it by all bringing in our favourite toy from home. We drew some fantastic pictures of them which are now proudly on display in our classroom.
In English we read ‘I love you Blue Kangaroo’. We enjoyed reading the story and then creating a list of all the toys that the little girl, Lily, receives. We are going to continue reading other adventures of Lily and Blue Kangaroo next week and can’t wait to find out what happens next.
In maths we have been thinking of numbers and using the words more and fewer. We created towers, used numicon and tens frames all to compare numbers up to 20..
Week 2
This week we continued to read the stories of Lily and her Blue Kangaroo this week. We read a story about the times Lily kept losing Blue Kangaroo and then wrote our very own class book about our own toys and where we have lost them. We all tried very hard with our writing and are trying very hard with our learning.
In maths we were thinking about estimation and how many there were in different groups. We used our understanding how number and how many to make estimates. We explored this in our maths time and also in our play and had a go at estimating in our very own estimation station. We also thought about recreating patterns and using our communication skills to work in a group to do this.
Week 3
This week in Gainsborough Class we went 2D shape mad! We explored 2D shapes in many ways including sorting them by their properties, creating them using our bodies in PE, using geo-boards and elastic bands to create them and we explored shapes that were symmetrical.
In English we looked at two poems; The Toys’ Playtime and What’s in the Box? We learnt them both off by heart and performed What’s in the Box? in front of the whole school and parents in the Performance Poetry competition. We also wrote our own What’s in the Box? poem.
We enjoyed lots of collaborative learning through play; we worked in groups to create Lego models, we searched for tricky words hidden around the classroom and enjoyed be very creative making watches, colouring and drawing.
Week 4
Goldilocks and the Three Bears appeared in Gainsborough Class this week. We enjoyed learning the story off by heart then we drew a story map to match the story. By the end of the week we knew the story so well that we became the characters from the story and acted it out for all our friends.
In maths we were thinking about addition and adding one more and two more. We used numicon and dominoes to help us explore these concepts and enjoyed having a go in our own learning time.
As part of our topic work we explored what materials toys are made from and we discovered that most of our toys are made from plastic. We thought carefully about why this might be and came up with some great answers.
Week 5
Gainsborough class became Police Officers this week. On arrival in school on Monday morning we discovered that someone had broken into the Three Bears Cottage, there was porridge everywhere! We discovered that the culprit had left some evidence behind included a pink hair ribbon, a piece of blue dress and some golden locks. After reviewing the evidence we deduced that there was only one possibility, Goldilocks! We spent lots of our independent learning time writing notes on the crime scene and trying to discover where Goldilocks was hiding. We wrote some fantastic Wanted posters and Crime Scene Reports in our directed learning.
In maths we created lots of patterns using lots of different items including cotton reels, numicon, teddy bears, plastic animals and paint. We can all now describe, continue and create patterns.
Week 6
In Gainsborough Class we have ALL worked so hard this week! This meant that Mrs Carr and Mrs Drogan rewarded us all with Good Worker and Bee awards as they couldn’t choose between us.
In English we wrote fantastic Goldilocks stories where she visited other animal families and ate food other than porridge. We hop she doesn’t really visit other people as she still hasn’t been caught for what she did to the Three Bears last week!
In maths we have been thinking about the number 10 and all the different ways we can create it. We used numicon and tens frames to demonstrate our understanding and even started to learn about subtraction.
We can’t wait to learn even more next term!
Our Learning Journey
Autumn 2- The Noise of the Town
This term we will learn about different celebrations that light up our towns such as Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas. We also learn about Paddington Bear and his adventures and look at the story of 'The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse'.
Week 1
We have started our new half term by joining Kingsbury Class for a wonderful Outdoor Learning morning. We collected natural objects and used them to paint and create a brilliant picture. Then we thought about our natural objects and what words we could use to describe them. Finally Kingsbury class helped us to record our ideas.
For the rest of the week we thought about Bonfire night and how this is celebrated .We read a fantastic book called Sparks in the Sky and then thought about the different senses we use to experience fireworks. In our house groups we created sense poems that included lots of describing words.
Week 2
This week our theme was Diwali and Friendship. Once again we were joined by Kingsbury class who spent some time playing with us and reading us stories. In return we drew some fantastic pictures for our Kingsbury friends.
As part of learning about Diwali we listened to the story of Rama and Sita. We learnt how Sita was rescued from the evil King Ravana by her husband Rama and his friends including Hanuman. We learnt how Hindu’s celebrate Diwali by lighting Diva lights and setting off fireworks.
We also had time for a fantastic visit from a Fire Officers who taught us about their fire engine. We got to explore it as well as having a go at pumping some water through a hose.
Week 3
Our theme for this week was ‘In the Big City- Paddington Bear’. The children were introduced to Paddington who was found on Paddington Station in London along with his suitcase at the weekend by Mrs Carr. We read the original Paddington story and wrote messages on tags for Paddington in case he got lost again. Then we had a look inside his suitcase and discovered that Paddington was a very light packer as he only had a marmalade sandwich, a jar of marmalade and a picture of Aunt Lucy. We wrote a list of things we thought Paddington needed if he were to go on more travels.
In maths we learnt about 3D shapes. We printed with them, created towers with them and played games. We can now name a sphere, cylinder, cube, cuboid and cone.
At the end of the week we became a class full of Paddington Bears as we created masks and all wore them home!
Week 4
We continued our theme of Paddington Bear this week. We thought carefully about how stories are written and where, when, who, what happened and the ending for lots of Paddington’s adventures. In groups we created our own Paddington story using our team work and listening skills. We then created our own Paddington story maps and some of us even wrote words or sentences to go alongside.
In maths we started to explore money. We learnt how to buy items using pound coins and compared amounts to find the most expensive.
We continually work hard in phonics and have nearly finished learning all our sounds for reception. We are now trying to apply our knowledge to reading and writing.
Week 5
In Gainsborough Class this week we started to build up towards Christmas. Our focus has been understanding the Christmas Story and how and why Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. We sequenced the story, created stick puppets and masks to help recreate the story and used a small world nativity set to act it out.
Alongside Medlycott and Venn classes we have been rehearsing our Nativity Play- Happy Birthday Jesus! We have worked hard to learn stage directions, songs and dances. We can’t wait to show everybody how hard we have been working.
We have also been reviewing our learning and completing tasks with Mrs Drogan and Mrs Carr. We have all made noticeable progress especially in phonics.
Week 6
This week we finally got to perform our Nativity play - Happy Birthday Jesus! The children sang, acted and danced their way through the Christmas story and it all went brilliantly. All the staff are very proud of what the children achieved.
As well as our Nativity we were still able to fit in lots of learning. We looked at the story of The Jolly Christmas Postman. We sequenced the story, labelled The Jolly Postman and created and ordered sentences about him. We also linked our maths to the story, we ordered numbers up to 20 and counted characters.
The children have also enjoyed being Postmen and Postwomen in our role play corner, The Christmas Post Office. Another activity they have loved is the Christmas Wrapping Station, they became very good at wrapping boxes so if you have some wrapping you would like done perhaps you could ask the children to help you!
Our Learning Journey
Autumn 1- Where do we live?
We will learn about ourselves, our families and the communities that we live in.
Week 1
Our theme for week 1 was Bees and Trees. We had lots of fun exploring our new classroom environment and learning all about ‘The 7 Bees’, our school values. We know that we all need to work hard at school and be just like bees!
Week 2
Our theme for week 2 was ‘It’s Okay to be Different’. We read a fantastic book written by Todd Parr where we learnt that we are all different but amazing at the same time. We loved making lots of different faces with play dough and finding new things to play with. We also caught the writing bug and haven’t stopped all week!
Week 3
Our theme for week 3 was Families. We discussed our own families as well as drawing them. We learnt about the characters from the Oxford Reading Tree and spent lots of time drawing and colouring them. We fully immersed ourselves into numicon and enjoyed discovering how many different ways we could cover a base board. We have also started to learn the numeral to match the shape.
Week 4
Our theme for week 4 was Houses. We thought about different types of houses from around the world as well as our own homes. We drew our own houses and imagined what sort of house we would like to live in. We created houses using 2D shapes which was our focus in maths. We have continued to love writing and our mark making is developing to use letters and sounds that we have learnt.
Week 5
Our theme for week 5 was ‘The Three Little Pigs’. The children enjoyed using actions to retell the story. We developed our cutting and sticking skills by ordering the story and creating stick puppets that were used in our puppet theatre. In maths we concentrated on patterns which we did in various ways which included threading pasta shapes and cotton reels, building unifix and lego towers and painting using different shape sponges.
Week 6
Our theme for this week was the Little Red Hen. We retold the story and explored rhyming words. In maths we enjoyed different ways of finding one more, our most exciting was when we used the hopscotch outside. We also enjoyed two visitors this week. Michela Chiappa-Patching came and did some dance with us, which was lots of fun. Then at the end of the week Paul Strickland, a local author came to visit us as part of the Sherborne Literary festival. We loved hearing his book, Dinosaur Roar!
Week 7
We continued our theme this week of ‘The Little Red Hen’. We loved baking our own bread, it was delicious! After we made our bread we sequenced what we did and gave verbal instructions on how to bake bread. We continued to explore number and some of us thought about ‘teen’ numbers and how to represent them using numicon. We celebrated a lovely Harvest Festival in St. John’s Church where we asked questions about this time of year and Medlycott class kindly answered them for us as well as singing several harvest themed songs.
Week 8
Our theme for this final week of term has been ‘Autumn’. We read the book ‘Leaf Man’ which is about a man made of leaves and how he is blown away on an adventure. We went on a leaf hunt and collected leaves to create our own Leaf Men. In maths we have been learning about the different ways of making 5. We have used numicon as well as other physical objects to represent our equations.
We have had a brilliant first 8 weeks of life in Gainsborough Class. We can’t wait to see where our learning takes us next term!
