Highbury Infant School and Nursery

Red Class 

An insight into a year's learning in Reception

Autumn 1

Our topic is The World Around Us.

We learnt about local homes. We shared photographs of our homes and discussed whether they were bungalows, flats, terraced houses, semi-detached houses or detached homes. We looked at some of the materials used to made homes and found out how bricks are made. We made house pictures by using 2Simple to practise our drag and drop skills using the mouse.

Autumn 2

We made a beautiful display showing the very first Christmas.

We have enjoyed learning about Hanukkah and Christmas.

We all retold the story of the very first Christmas in our own words. We used our hands and feet to make Rudolf place mats and we also used our hand prints to make our Christmas cards for our families.

Each of us used oil pastels to colour some stars. The adults arranged them in the shape of a Christmas tree. It makes a beautiful display. 

This half term our topic is Light & Dark and Celebrations.

We began by learning all about Diwali. We read the story of Rama and Sita several times, thinking about the main characters and the sequence of events. The children enjoyed acting out the story using masks, drawing upon the new vocabulary that they had learnt from the story.

We also enjoyed making Diwali cards.

Next we learnt about Fireworks Night. We made beautiful fireworks pictures on the computers and made up group poems thinking about what fireworks look like, how they move and the sounds they make.

The following week we learnt about Remembrance Day. We made our own felt poppies and wore them on 11th November as we stood silently remembering those who have been affected by war.

We used the computers to draw pictures of poppies for our wall display.

Spring 1

The children have each painted a self-portrait by looking closely at themselves in mirrors. They chose colours that they felt represented their skin, hair, eyes and lips. Just like the children themselves, each painting is unique.

We have made birthday present pictures. They are up on a display which shows how many of us are 4 and how many of us are 5. 

Spring 2

Our new topic is The Word Around Us. We started by learning about homes from around the world. We discovered that children from around the world all live in different types of homes. We shared the book 'A Place to Call Home', which also, very sensitively, touched on the subject of refugees who have had to flee their homes to find safety.

We made homes from recycled materials and used them to make a display called Highbury Avenue.

Next we learnt about some of the different clothes that are worn in other countries from the book 'The Clothes We Wear'. Each child chose a picture in the book to copy. Together the pictures have made a beautiful and very colourful display in the hall.

Summer 1

Our new topic for the second half of the spring term is Traditional Tales.

We shared the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' and discussed keeping safe, including the reminder about not talking to strangers. We also talked about feelings in general and made a display about things that make us happy.

Our next story was The Gingerbread Man. We made storyboards to show the sequence of events in the story. We also experimented to find out why the Gingerbread Man didn't want to swim across the river. We put some real gingerbread men into some water to see what happened. We discovered that he went soggy quite quickly and then broke apart.

Summer 2

Our new topic is 'Let's Pretend'. We began by learning about castles and knights. We pretended that a fire-breathing dragon had come to scare us at school. We wrote letters to Sir Bash (a bold and brave knight from one of the stories we shared), asking him to save us from the dragon.

We turned our role play area into a beautiful castle and we are really enjoying exploring it with our friends.

We designed our own shields on paper, thinking about things that are important to us (such as pets, flowers or colours) and then we made clay shields to match our designs. They look amazing.

 Next we learnt about some jobs that people do. Some kind parents recorded videos of themselves talking about their jobs and describing the special clothes that they had to wear or the equipment they needed to use.