Week beginning 10th July 2023
This week we have had a great enrichment week. The focus for the week was taking care of ourselves both physically and mentally with a strong focus on mindfulness. We started the week off with a wonderful session with Emma from Relax Kids working on massage, mindfulness breathing and positive affirmations. Later in the week we enjoyed some yoga, mindfulness exercises, discussions around feelings and also some different ways to use a technique called 'shape breathing'. To finish off a fabulous week we all took part in the Rainbow Fun Run - it was so much fun and, luckily, the weather was perfect.
Have a lovely weekend - we look forward to welcoming you back on Monday for our final week together!
Week beginning 3rd July 2023
This week has been so busy with sports day, lots of end of year jobs as well as our usual English, maths and phonics work. This week I would really like to celebrate all of our amazing phonics work. It is wonderful to see how much the children have developed with their sound recognition, decoding skills, letter formation, blending and segmenting. I feel very privileged to be able to help the children begin their reading journey and, at this time of year, I always feel a huge sense of pride about how far they have come. The children have worked their absolute socks off all year in their phonics sessions. Fred the frog has been super impressed and the whole of the reception team are extremely proud of you all.
Hope you all have a lovely long weekend in the sunshine. Well done Team Gateshead!
Week beginning 26th June 2023
For the past half term we have been enjoying our gymnastics unit in PE. We have worked on our balance, shape, travelling and control skills. This week we travelled around like different sea creatures ensuring we travelled safely and with good control. We then developed our balance and shape skills by perfecting a range of different gymnastic poses including a pike, straddle, dish, front support and back support. The children improved their initial poses by ensuring their back was straight, head held high, fingers and toes pointed. I was very impressed with our co-ordination, control and movement - well done Team Gateshead!
Week beginning 19th June 2023
On Thursday morning we had a lovely trip to Crawcrook library. We listened to the story 'Daddy's Sandwich' then hunted around the library for all of the items which were placed inside of the sandwich. We worked so hard as a team to find every item! Kyle was very impressed with our hunting skills. We then worked together to make a huge sandwich - just like the one in the story. The children were super listeners for the story and a great credit to Emmaville. Thank you to our lovely grown ups who came to help us too - we hope you enjoyed your morning with us.
Week beginning 12th June 2023
Another lovely week of learning this week - the sunshine has certainly put a spring in our step, hopefully it will keep shining for us! This week I would like to highlight a lovely activity we took part in on Friday. We looked inside a wonderful artefact box which we had borrowed from the museum. The box contained a wide range of household items, both old and new. The children enjoyed handling and using the objects then identifying whether or not they were old or new. It was great to discuss how different the items were and talk about which ones we preferred. We particularly enjoyed trying out the old fashioned telephone - it was so much fun!
Week beginning 5th June 2023
Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a lovely half term break. The children have settled right back into school life and have had a great week packed with fun and learning. This week we started our new PSHE topic 'Changing Me'. We looked at parts of our body and discussed why they were so amazing and what we use each part for. Next week we will progress onto growing up and looking at how we have changed since we were babies. This will then lead us onto sessions around our transition into year one.
Well done for a super first week back Team Gateshead - have a wonderful weekend.
Week beginning 22nd May 2023
This half term our Talk for Writing focus has been the story of Supertato. We learnt the story using a story map and actions, innovated the story by changing the characters and explored a range of vegetables during our continuous provision. We also received a letter from the Evil Pea telling us he was still on the loose and causing havoc with the other vegetables. We thought that we could write him some letter replies to encourage him to be a kind pea instead. Each child wrote a letter to the Evil Pea which will be delivered to him and will (hopefully) help change his ways! To finish off our superhero theme we looked and learnt about lots of real life super heroes - including our friends, families, athletes and people who help us in general.
A great half terms work everyone - enjoy your half term break and we'll see you after the holidays.
Week beginning 15th May 2023
For this half term our PSHE focus has been 'Relationships'. We have explored building happy and healthy relationships between our family members and our friends. This week we explored managing our feelings; in particular the feeling of 'angry'. We listened to the story 'Alligator is Angry' and then looked at a range of techniques we could use to help us if we ever felt angry. Some of these included using our Jigsaw calm me breathing technique, clenching and unclenching our fists, counting to 10 or finding a soft toy or pillow to squash. Some great ideas to try if we are ever feeling angry.
Week beginning 8th May 2023
Another busy week - the time is passing by so quickly as we continue working super hard. This week I would like to congratulate all of the children on their super maths work. This week we were looking at 'doubles'. The children worked hard to understand that double means ‘twice as many’. We built doubles using practical equipment such as counters on ten frames, dice games, Numicon and blocks. The children were also encouraged to say the double that they had built, for example, "double two is four" and "four is double two". Finally, we looked at the link between doubles and symmetry using mirrors and the patterns on butterflies and ladybirds. Here is a link to one of the doubles songs we have enjoyed singing in class
Doubles Doubles (I Can Add Doubles!) (song for kids about adding doubles 1-5) - YouTube
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Week beginning 1st May 2023
We have had a wonderful week celebrating the Coronation of King Charles III. The children have enjoyed an array of activities including crown making, designing flags, drawing a portrait of King Charles, a Coronation parade with musical instruments, learning all about what happens at the Coronation and the National Anthem. We finished off a lovely week with a Coronation picnic lunch and a treat from Miss Whippy in her ice cream van. What a super week we have had!
Have a lovely long weekend and enjoy your celebrations.
Week beginning 24th April 2022
Another super week in Gateshead class. We have been really busy working hard across all areas - the children continue to enjoy their learning and show so much enthusiasm in class. This week they were particularly excited to take part in our Computing lesson. The children were introduced to Doc, the floor robot. We looked closely at his buttons and talked about how we could make him move by giving him instructions by pressing his buttons. We then had a try at programming him to move around the foam mat. The children were really good at remembering what they needed to do in order to make Doc move. To give the children an extra challenge pictures were added to the mat and the children then directed Doc to a targeted picture. It was a great session and we can't wait to use Doc again.
Have a lovely long weekend and we'll see you all on Tuesday.
Week beginning 17th April 2023
Welcome back to our summer term - we hope you all had a lovely Easter break.
On Wednesday we started off our term with a lovely day at the farm. We got to hold little chicks, guinea pigs and rabbits, and we fed goats and baby lambs. We even had a go at milking a cow - not a real one though! We also fed sheep, alpacas and even llamas. The children were amazing at feeding the animals and thought it was very tickly when they took the food out of our hands. We also enjoyed a very bumpy tractor ride and a play in the park .
A great day was had by all - thank you so much to all of the grown ups who came to help us, we hope you all had as much fun as we did!