Our Year 6 story heroes came down to Reception for the first time on Friday afternoon. We were very keen to share our best stories with them and we loved hearing other stories. Some of the buddies read our stories out loud so everyone could hear.

As with every year we finished for Christmas with the peaceful Christingle service. We enjoyed building our Christingle with Mrs Gomez – learning about the symbolism of each part. In the peace of the candlelight we shared our carols.

As with every year we finished for Christmas with the peaceful Christingle service. We enjoyed building our Christingle with Mrs Gomez – learning about the symbolism of each part. In the peace of the candlelight we shared our carols.

Literacy is taught in very many ways in Reception, from our adult interactions in provision; the vocabulary we try to instil in the children; our talk for writing oral learning as well as the daily phonics sessions. However, one of our favourite ways to engage with stories is from our weekly storytelling sessions and subsequent opportunities for children to write their own visual story maps. As practitioners we are there to facilitate the children’s storytelling, to write down their ideas and capture their enthusiasm. I can’t wait to see what stories will be told this year!

We are currently training our own expert team of play dough makers. This week we are exploring smell and we made dough with cinnamon to explore. We’ve been making prints and patterns with cloves, star anise and cinnamon sticks and experimenting with crushing, stamping and rolling with these.

We are currently training our own expert team of play dough makers. This week we are exploring smell and we made dough with cinnamon to explore. We’ve been making prints and patterns with cloves, star anise and cinnamon sticks and experimenting with crushing, stamping and rolling with these.