Reception

Easter egg hunt

Egg and spoon race

Our trip to Central Library

Central Library Visit

On Tuesday we visited Central Library in our city centre with some of our families and we had a great time sharing books, having a look around the children section of the library and even going onto the roof to see the skyline of  Liverpool.

Happy Eid!

The children had a wonderful time celebrating Eid at school. We had a dance party to celebrate!

Happy Eid!

Today we continued with the Eid celebrations. The children looked amazing in their special Eid clothes and had some fun doing some lovely Eid activities! We finished off the day with a dance party to celebrate Eid

Central Library

Reception families and parents if you are joining us at Central Library this week, please meet us at 9.45 at the main entrance of Central Library on William Brown Street.
Miss McFarlane’s class will go to the library tomorrow Tuesday 1st April and Miss McNally’s class will visit on Thursday 3rd April. Below is a map link for our school to the library.
The postcode for the library is L3 8EW.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Smithdown+Primary+School,+Chatsworth+Drive,+Liverpool+L7+6LJ/Central+Library,+William+Brown+St,+Liverpool+L3+8EW/@53.4053523,-2.9861237,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x487b21022e52ea2d:0x4c6d8550a6cc4176!2m2!1d-2.9511929!2d53.3992227!1m5!1m1!1s0x487b213b05a3aa69:0x5f4ca882f45b6b5d!2m2!1d-2.9802884!2d53.4098392!3e0?hl=en-gb&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMyNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Many thanks.

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak to all of our families and children.

Carrot Footprints

We have had fun making carrot footprints today as part of spring and Easter.

PE in Reception

We had lots of fun playing games using hoops in Reception.

We enjoyed making cakes for our mums and special people on Friday.

Mother’s Day Story Time

Thank you very much to all parents who cam along to our Mother’s Day story time on Friday.

Bronze Dojo awards

We got 100 dojo points this week. A big well done

Star of the week

Our star of the week certificates go to two fantastic hard workers. Well done!

Fantastic work today

This week we have been looking at rhyming strings in literacy and subtraction in maths.

Happy Mother’s Day

Wishing you all a very happy Mother’s Day!  A big thank you to everyone that attended our special Mother’s Day story time this morning. We hope you enjoyed it.

Peg Board Play

We are enjoying playing with our new peg board games in Reception.

Making play dough frogs

Red Nose Day

Painting sunflowers

We enjoyed painting sunflowers as we watched our own sunflower seeds begin to grow. We shared a story called Camille and the Sunflowers and looked at a famous sunflower painting by Vincent Van Gogh to help us with our painting.

Slimy Rhymes!

We enjoyed playing a rhyming game this week!

Rhyming in Reception

In Reception literacy this week we are practicing continuing a rhyming string and enjoying lots of rhymes. We are sharing a story called Oi Frog and below is a link if you’d like to share the story at home.

Subtraction in Reception

This week in Reception maths we are practicing subtracting and writing numbers and subtraction number sentences.
Below are some links to some subtraction number songs to share at home.

https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/bottleTakeAway/index.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zjjbnrd

Eid and Mother’s Day Card Making

We are busy in Reception making Eid cards and Mother’s Day cards.

Red Nose Day

Railway safety

We watched an assembly about how to stay safe at the train station.

Violin in Music

We listened to the lovely sounds of the violin and sang along to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Jack and the Beanstalk

This morning we voted as to whether we would climb the beanstalk or not! The children standing said they would climb and the children sitting down said that they would not!

Claves in Reception

We have had a great time playing the claves in music. We had to keep to a beat and then stop!

Jack and the Beanstalk

This week we are learning about Jack and the Beanstalk. Below is a link to the story if you would like to share it at home.

Painting and Planting Beanstalks

This week we are learning about Jack and the Beanstalk as part of our topic of Growth. We have painted a beanstalk and have planted beans and peas. We will be watering them to watch them grow.

Addition in Reception

This week we are practicing adding 1 using the part whole model.

Creating a beanstalk

We created a beanstalk using green ribbon and paper. We imagined it was leading up to the giant’s castle.

Decorating sunflower biscuits

We had fun decorating sunflower biscuits this afternoon.

Silly hair day

Decorating sunflower biscuits

Science week

To celebrate science week, reception read The Gingerbread Man and talked about what might happen if the gingerbread man fell into the water. We decided to see what would happen if we dunked biscuits into milk, oil and water.

PE. Using ropes to balance

PE. Balancing skills using beanbags

PE. Balancing skills

Using our balancing skills in PE today.

Planting Outdoors

This week we have planted sunflower seeds, made scented play dough using lavender, rosemary and mint and planted vegetables, daffodils and herbs. We will be watching the changes to the seeds as they grow.

Biscuit Experiment

As part of Science Week we did an experiment about which biscuit is the best for dipping! We have used a variety of biscuits to dip into milk, water and oil. We looked to see which liquid was the best to use. Thank you Mrs Kelly for giving us great ideas for a fun afternoon!

Science Week

This week we are celebrating Science Week at school. Reception are learning about a scientist called Sarah Boone who helped to create the modern day ironing board.

Taking care of our sunflower seeds

We will water our seeds everyday and watch them grow into beautiful sunflowers.

Planting sunflower seeds

After carefully listening to the instructions, we planted our sunflower seeds.

Errol’s Garden

This week our focused story in literacy is Errol’s Garden. If you would like to share it at home, here is a link to the book.

Planting Sunflower Seeds

We have had a great time beginning our topic of Growth by planting sunflower seeds. We will observe the changes to the seeds over the next few weeks. We are also celebrating Science Week at school this week.

Pancake Day

We had a great time making pancakes last Tuesday!

World Book Day in Reception

We enjoyed World Book Day! We found lots of Dalmatian dogs and hid from Cruella de Vil!

World book day

What a fantastic day we had dressed up as our favourite book characters.

Stars of the week

We are so proud of our super stars Well done!

World Book Day

We loved celebrating World Book Day!

World book day

Super fingers

We used our fine motor skills to rescue the princess and Spider-Man.

Pancake picnic

We chose different toppings for our pancakes and had a picnic!

Pancake day

We used flour, eggs and milk to make our pancakes.

Super sentences

What a fantastic start to the day! Look at our super sentences.

Evil pea fruit kebabs

We made Evil Pea inspired fruit kebabs.

Star of the week

Well done to this weeks super stars. You are both amazing

Superheroes at Work

We had lots of being superheroes and creating dens outdoors for the superheroes to live in.

Name writing

Getting creative with Supertato

We made some fantastic Supertato pictures using real potatoes to print with.

International Mother Language Day

In Reception we have celebrated International Mother Language Day by counting in other languages and learning the names of our snacks in different languages.

Making 6 and 7 in Maths

This week we are counting up to 7 objects and making 6 and 7 using other numbers including 5.

Supertato

This week we are learning all about Supertato the supermarket hero! Thanks to all parents who have helped their child to make their own Supertato at home. We have also had fun making them at school and below is a link to this week’s story if you’d like to share it at home.

Superheroes

Our new topic is Superheroes! How many superheroes can you spot in Reception?!

Valentine’s Day Story Time

Huge thanks to all parents for joining their children in celebrating Valentine’s Day. The children had a lovely week creating cards, hats and hearts in cookery.

Superheroes

We dressed up as superheroes today.

Valentine’s week

Valentine’s Day story time

A big thank you to everybody who attended our Valentine’s Day story time. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. ♥️

Happy Valentines Day

2-D Shape in Reception Maths

This week we have practiced learning about 2-D shapes. We talked about shape names and what they look like, created police car pictures using 2-D shapes, found real  2-D shapes outside and problem solved by making shapes using string.

People Who Help Us-The Police

We have been learning all about the police and what they do. We have dressed up as the police, cut out police cars and talked about how important they are.

What the Ladybird Heard

This week as part of our People Who Help Us topic, we have been learning about the jobs of the police. We have also shared and re-enacted the story of What the Ladybird Heard as part of our learning. Below is a link to share the story at home.

Reception Parent Maths Workshop

Our last parents maths workshop was all about measures and the children took part in a range of activities with their mums. Huge thanks to all parents for coming along each week and hope to see you for future workshops.

Cosmo the Therapy Dog

Reception had a great time meeting Cosmo and learning all about what he likes.

Question time

We asked the policeman questions about catching Lanky Len.

PE moving like different forms of transport

We had to move around the hall like a car, a train or an airplane.

Shape printing

Cosmo the therapy dog

We had a very special visitor today. His name was Cosmo. We loved getting to know him.

Slow and fast music

Using our body to to move fast and slow to the music.

What the ladybird heard

This weeks story is called What the ladybird heard. We dressed up as police officers and looked for ladybirds.

Making pizza

We had such a good time on Friday making pizza.

Stars of the week

A big well done to our stars of the week. You have been great

Dragon Dancing

The children have been inspired by the dragon dancing workshop they attended yesterday. They got creative and made their very own dragon costume – they took turns being at the front of the dragon and dancing to the music.

Lunar New Year Story

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/lets-celebrate-chinesenewyearperformance

Here is a link to the story about Lunar New Year if you would like to share this at home.

Lunar New Year Dance

The children enjoyed the dragon workshop today and had lots of fun doing a lion dance.

Tesco Shopping Trip

We had great fun shopping for pizza ingredients in Tesco today!

Our trip to Tesco

We had a great time shopping for pizza ingredients. Tomorrow we will make pizza!!

Reception celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year 2025

Reception learned about the Chinese Lunar New Year this week. We celebrated by doing some Dragon Dancing.

Celebrating the Lunar New Year

This week we are celebrating the lunar new year. We have been making lanterns, mark making and playing in our Chinese restaurant. We have been so busy!

A visit from Chef

A big thank you to our school chef who came to visit us today. She told us all about the different food she cooks for us. We love our school lunches.

Year 1 and 2 Outdoor Club

IMG_7322 IMG_7321 We are enjoying playing lots of games in Outdoor Club!

Maths in Reception

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zf3r96f

The children have had fun counting objects and matching and recognising numbers to 5 over the last two weeks. The link above will take you to a game to play home to further support the children’s learning.

Reception Parent Maths Workshop

Thanks so much to all parents who have attended our maths workshop to support our children’s learning both at school and at home. Our next session is this Tuesday 28th January at 2.15pm.

PE in Reception

In PE over the last three weeks we have practiced ball skills, developing listening skills through games and developing fine and gross motor skills using hoops and bean bags.

People Who Help Us- Chefs

Last week the children had great fun creating their own menus and creating their own sandwiches. We also learnt about the job of a chef and how they help us. We had fun in our supermarket role play area too!

People Who Help Us- Doctors and Nurses

As part of our doctors and nurses week, the children had fun sharing the nursery rhyme Miss Polly had a Dolly and making fruit salads.

People Who Help Us- Doctors and Nurses

We began our People Who Help Us topic by learning all about the job of doctors and nurses and how they help us. We painted Ness the Nurse after sharing the story in class, created doctor bags, wrote prescriptions and helped Billy Bear to get well soon.

Outdoor Play in Reception

We have had lots of fun over the past three weeks exploring the different types of winter weather.

Making jam sandwiches

We made black currant and strawberry sandwiches this afternoon. Yummy!

Stars of the week

A big well done to our superstars this week.

Making Chef hats

PE – body parts

Playing a cone game to find our head, shoulders,knees and toes

Litter picking

Keeping our garden tidy.

Stars of the week

A big well done to our stars of the week. You are fantastic!

Plaster cast dolls

We have been using mod rock today . We wrapped it around the dolls arms and legs to make plaster casts.

Movement – PE

In PE today we tried different ways of moving around the hall. We practiced being Mr Tall, Miss Small, Mr Rush and Mr Slow.

Doctors and Nurses Numbers!

We ordered numbers 1-10 and found the correct numicon to match.

Ness the nurse

Our story this week is Ness the nurse. We have been painting pictures of her.

Doctors and nurses

This week as part of our ‘People who help us’ topic, we are looking at Doctors and nurses and finding out the things they do to make us better.

Ice shapes

We used ice trays to make 3D ice shapes. We then added them to our winter tuft tray to have some messy fun!

Fun in the snow!

We had so much fun playing in the snow yesterday. We even made a little snowman.

Snowflake Making

As part of our winter topic, we are having lots of fun creating our own snowflakes using paint and paper. We have also been practicing our cutting skills in creating our very own snowflakes.

3-D Shape

This week in maths we are learning all about 3-D shapes. We have been learning some 3-D shape names and trying to find real life 3-D shapes in class and outdoors. We have also been building towers using 3-D shapes and seeing how many shapes we can use to make the tallest tower. We have also been problem solving about which shapes will be the best at the top of the tower!

The Snowman

This week we are sharing the story of The Snowman in Reception. Here is a link if you would like to share the story at home.

https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/snowman-eng.pdf

Dressing Teddy for Winter

We dressed Teddy for the snow. We thought about what kinds of clothes Teddy would need and how he would need to wrap up warm to go outside.

Winter

We had great fun yesterday exploring the snow!

Making playdough snowmen

We rolled the playdough into sphere shapes to make our snowmen.

Recognising and counting numbers 1 to 5

We used our counting skills to make the correct amount of snowman buttons.

Eddie the elf

Eddie is going back to the North Pole. We enjoyed seeing all the things he got up to every morning . Goodbye Eddie,see you next year.

Star Pizza Making

Last week we had a great time making pizzas in Reception. We took our pizzas home after rolling out the dough and adding cheese and tomato sauce. Some of us also decorated our pizzas using tomatoes.

Christmas stockings

A busy day cutting and decorating our Christmas stockings.

Glitter fun

Lots of fun today decorating our stars.

Reception in Winter Time

Here are some of our activities this winter time.

Reception at Winter Time

IMG_6845

Here are some of our activities in Reception from this week.

Homework

Last week we had some wonderful stamp design homework!

2-D Shape

This week in maths we are learning all about flat shapes or 2-D shapes and creating pictures using a selection of shapes.

Christmas Dinner Day

Today has been a lovely day. We have had a visit from Santa and enjoyed a lovely lunch. We have played party games too. Everybody looks fantastic! Thank you Smithdown Primary for a wonderful day.

Posting Letters Home

We had a lovely time visiting the local post box to post a letter home. The children worked very hard on writing a wish for a special person/ people in their lives. Our learning had been about how to post a letter home. The children placed their letters into envelopes and put on a stamp. We hope that everybody has received their letters. Many thanks to all parents who joined us for the walk.

Retelling the story of The Polar Express

The Reception children of RAG have enjoyed listening to the marvellous Christmas story, ‘The Polar Express’. They even managed to retell the story in sequence, from start to finish, using pictures. Well done!

Christmas party and pantomime

We have had the best day today…

First, the children were visited by Santa who told the class how good they had all been. We were then all treated to the most tasty Christmas dinner. We then went back to class to enjoy yet another favourite treat of ice-cream whilst watching the ‘Beauty and Beast’ panto. What a great party day!

Building using small blocks

We worked as a team this afternoon to make a landscape using big blocks.

Christmas card inserts

This week, the children have loved writing Christmas Card inserts to their families. They enjoyed practicing their early writing skills using the knowledge they have gained. This afternoon, they are excited to begin designing their cards…I am excited to see their creativity!

Making a shape picture

After our shape hunt, we created Christmas pictures using different shapes. We talked about all the different shapes we used.

Shapes in the environment

Today in maths we named and described the features of shapes. We went on a shape hunt and found different shapes in our playground

Sending a letter home!

We had the best time posting our letters this morning, Eddie the elf came with us too! I wonder where our letters will end up? Thank you to those parents who were able to join us at this busy time.

Christmas Twinkly Nativity

Reception and Nursery B have really worked hard to deliver a magnificent performance, full of wonder and magical singing in front of all our wonderful families this week. I would like to thank all of you for your support in taking the time to come and watch the children, as it really makes the difference to your child’s growth, as it builds their confidence. We loved learning all about the twinkly story, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed performing it to you.

Post Office Play

We are enjoying playing in the post office in Reception.

Elfie in Reception

This week we found snowy footprints and an elf called Elfie! He has flown into Reception to spread kindness all around.

Christmas Decorating

The Twinkly Nativity

Thank you so much to all parents and families for coming to watch The Twinky Nativity performed this morning by Nursery A and RLMc. We hope you enjoyed watching all of our wonderful children here in Smithdown Early Years.

Christmas elves

Eddie the elf has swopped our dressing up clothes for elf clothes!

Sequencing

This week in Mathematics, the children in class RJP have been focusing on sequencing. We explored the vocabulary, how ‘sequencing’ means to repeat a pattern. The children used paint to create an ‘ABBA’ pattern firstly, following the pattern, ‘red, green, red, green’. We then had lots of fun demonstrating the ‘ababab’ pattern using Christmas pictures, and designing a colourful paper-chain. To extend the learning, we explored different patterns, expanding on the number of picture cards, colours, and using shapes which have been learned previously. This helps the children problem solve sequencing in a fun way.
Why not keep up this learning at home, by asking the children to make repeated patterns using different objects.

A special visitor

Yesterday we saw some snowy footprints in our classroom. We followed the trail and found our special visitor. We called him Eddie the elf.

Year 3 campfire

What a lovely morning with parents we had! We all had a toasted marshmallow, cup of hot chocolate and sang some songs.

At the Post Office

This week we are learning all about what happens at the post office and have shared a story called

The Jolly Postman. We are also writing special wishes to post home next Friday 6th December. We have a,so had lots of fun painting and creating a post box.

Wheels on the Bus

As part of learning about different types of transport, we made wheels on the bus biscuits and used photographs of vehicles to choose which ones we would use to help

Weighing in Reception

This week in maths we are finding out which items are heavy, light and the lightest and the heaviest.

Cutting skills

We made letters today. We used our fine motor skills to cut, fold and stick.  We then posted the letters in our new role play post office.

Painting a letterbox

We have been very busy using red paint to make a letterbox. We can’t wait to use it to post our letters.

Comparing weight of items, using mathematical language, ‘lighter and heavier’ than.

This morning, Reception have been using their problem skills to firstly estimate which objects will be heavy and which will be light. They had so much fun, pretending to be human scales, and placing objects in their hands, rocking the balance to show heavy and light. To reinforce the learning, the children were introduced to weighing scales, whereby they weighed different everyday items to determine which was heaviest and which was lightest. Some of the children took it a little further, by weighing three objects, then placing them in the order from lightest to heaviest. Good job,

Snow Fun

  We have had lots of fun exploring the snow!

Snow Fun!

Great to explore the winter weather this morning in Reception! We’ve had so much fun!

Pudsey Bear Biscuits

We had fun making Pudsey Bear biscuits today as part of Children in Need.

The Gruffalo

Last week we had a great time making Gruffalo Crumble in cookery!

Parent Literacy Workshop

Huge thanks to all parents for attending our group of workshops in supporting children with their early literacy skills. The children joined their parents for the last few minutes of our writing session and had lots of fun making unicorn play dough and threading pasta to raise the importance of developing fine and gross motor skills.

Speke Hall Trip

We all had a great time at Speke Hall! We walked around and found a sleeping giant on the Childe of Hale Trail, collected leaves, had a picnic lunch, sang songs and explored the maze and playground.

PE in Reception

We practiced playing listening games and moving in a variety of ways before half term in PE.

Magical Wands

We made magical wands before we finished for half term using food and we then took them home.

Comparison in Maths

This week we are comparing amounts of objects up to 10 to see which groups have more, fewer or the same.

Reception Literacy Workshop

Reception parents please remember our last literacy workshop will be tomorrow at 2.15pm. Looking forward to seeing you there!

The Gruffalo

We are enjoying sharing the story of The Gruffalo this week! We have painted The Gruffalo and are describing The Gruffalo as part of our literacy and writing about what we can see. We also shared The Gruffalo song and below is a link to share this at home.

Pumpkin Exploration

We had great fun exploring a pumpkin in Reception.

Reception Parent Literacy Workshop

Huge thanks to all parents for coming along to session 3 of our literacy workshops which focused on nursery rhymes. The children then had fun with their mums making play dough to create Humpty Dumpty at home.

Room on the Broom

This week we are having lots of fun in literacy with Room on the Broom! We have made our own broomsticks, created spells in writing and sequenced the story using pictures.

Clothing Week

Last week we had fun making gingerbread biscuits and decorating with our school colour of blue to give the biscuits a uniform.

Campfire in Reception

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Campfire in Reception

We had lots of fun with our families at our very first campfire. We toasted marshmallows and had hot chocolate and had a great time singing songs around the campfire!

Phonics in Reception

We are working hard on learning our set 1 sounds and blending sounds together to make words.

Clothing

This week in Reception literacy have been learning about clothing names and what we are wearing for school. We have shared a funny story called Monster Clothes and designed our own uniforms.

Here is a link to the story-

PE in Reception

We had fun on Friday with lots of PE opportunities with Danny Butler activities and playing The Floor is Lava outdoors.

Danny Butler Visit

We had a visit from the athlete Danny Butler on Friday and we had such fun being active and heard lots about how important it is to be active.

Maths in Reception

We looked at number 4 this week and different ways to make 4. We also looked at other numbers that can be used to make 4. We also looked at patterns of 4.

Teddy’s Birthday Party

We celebrated Teddy’s birthday on Friday! We decorated biscuits, had a party and played party games including musical chairs and pass the parcel. It was great fun!

Amazing Writing

Wow. Look at this writing from reception children. How amazing!

Phonics in Reception

We are working hard on our phonics this week.

Reception Literacy Workshop

Huge thanks to all parents for coming along to our first workshop today. A link to all information shared is on our parent app for everybody to access. Many thanks and see you next Tuesday 15/10 at 2.15pm for the next session!

Teddy’s Birthday

We are having lots of fun celebrating Teddy’s birthday this week.

Making Cakes

We enjoyed making cakes last week. 

PE

We enjoyed our first PE session last Friday! We played games and went to the hall. PE for RLMc is each Friday.

Phonics

We are working hard on our phonics this week.

Phonics Meeting

Fabulous turn out at our phonics meeting. Keep an eye on the app for each weeks videos and activities.

Weather Exploration in Reception

We enjoy exploring different weather types in Reception.

Imaginative Play

It’s been a super first few weeks in Reception.

You Choose

This week our focus story is You Choose. Here is a link to share at home.

Our Homes

n d This week we are talking about our homes  to paint, draw and create homes.

Maths in Reception

IMG_4739 This week we are practicing counting objects and counting how many objects in total. We are also sharing counting songs and helping our Teddy to count the correct number of objects.

Phonics

We are working hard on learning our sounds in Reception.

Outdoor Fun

It’s been lots of fun outdoors today.

Malleable Play in Reception

We are having lots of fun developing our fine and gross motor skills using foam!

Friendships in Reception

We are having a lovely time with friends we know and also making new friends.

Rainy Days in Reception

We have had great fun exploring the weather this week.

Making Play Dough

We had great fun making play dough for our class.

Music in Reception

We really enjoyed singing songs and listening to the sounds of the ukulele in music today.

Our First Week in Reception

It’s been a great first week in Reception!

The Big Teddy Bear Sleepover

Wow we have had a great time for our Big Teddy Bear Sleepover! First we started with a super singing assembly with Mrs Naylor. It was fun singing and dancing with our teddies. Then we made our teddies a bed to sleep in. We could not believe what they got up too when we went home. This morning we woke our teddies up with a lovely breakfast.

Sports Day!

We had a great morning for our sports day! Thank you to all of our families who came to watch!

Eid Picnic

We were picnic ready last week as part of our Eid celebrations at school. We had a wonderful time and it was lovely to share so much delicious food from our parents.

Refugee Week

Last week we talked about what home means to us as part of Refugee Week.

Fantastic Family Picnic

A fantastic community picnic. The sun shone.

An amazing community food table with so many lovely dishes to share.