The excitement has gained momentum here at school as the children have noticed the addition of decorations, Christmas trees and flashing lights. They have also been delighted to see their very own inflatable Father Christmas on top of the school building roof! You can only imagine how long it takes Reception children to travel anywhere across the playground without the need to stop, marvel and have a chat with Father Christmas!
We had a Zoom assembly with Father Aran on Monday where he taught us all about the meaning of advent and the importance of the star in the Christmas story.
On the 1st December we had a particularly long circle time as the children were extremely excited to tell us all about their advent calendars and what the mischievous elves at home had been up to in the night!
We have taken the opportunity to discuss with the children how Christmas is celebrated around the world. We have thought hard about our own Christmas traditions and looked at Germany and other countries to see how they mark the occasion there.
We have of course been making many Christmas decorations at school. You will soon be receiving an abundance of Christmas artwork!
In our literacy lessons we have been busily making our way through the initial sounds and this week we have concentrated on y, w and th. The children are all doing extremely well indeed. If you have any time over the Christmas holidays maybe you could help us to keep the momentum going by playing games of “I spy”, finding items inside and outside the house that begin with a certain letter, spotting road signs and words in the supermarket with specific letters and playing memory or matching games with letters. Please keep practising!
In French this week we have been learning the words for different parts of the face and counting up to eleven. We have been singing lots of French songs and continue to learn our colour names. Next week will be even more exciting as we will be learning about Christmas in France.
We continue to do our own music lessons in our Reception ‘bubble’ and at the moment these are all based around the story of Christmas and our nativity – all will become clear to you next week.
The children enjoyed the dance and movement session this week as it was Christmas Cosmic Yoga. Both the adults and children joined in and there was lots of fun and laughter involved!
