Welcome to Penguin Class
Reception at Pulloxhill
Welcome to Penguin Class, where we learn through playing and working together in our wonderful classroom and outdoor environment with Ms Sullivan, Mrs Wolfe, Mrs McCormack and Miss McLennan. We believe that all children in Penguins should benefit from a wide-ranging curriculum with good breadth, balance and relevance, differentiated to meet the individual needs of each child. We believe that learning should be motivating, stimulating and above all fun, and should produce success, confidence and security in the children. We foster close links with our children’s homes, so as their experiences and interests can influence the planning of our curriculum. We believe in equal opportunities for all of our children.
Penguin Class has a rich and stimulating play based environment. Through play, the children explore and develop learning experiences, which
help them to make sense of the world. The children practise and build up ideas, and learn how to control themselves and develop an understanding
of our school’s values and expectations for their behaviour. The children are encouraged to think creatively and they communicate with other children and adults as they investigate and find solutions to challenges.
We are aspirational and strive for every child to achieve their full potential. We believe that every child is unique and we are committed to delivering the best to each of them. There are seven main areas of learning in the Foundation Stage Curriculum, which the children follow: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language, Mathematics, Literacy, Understanding of the World, and Expressive Arts and Design. Information on what we will be learning this half term is included in our curriculum news, which is available by clicking on 'curriculum news'. Our current timetable is available by clicking on 'timetable'.
Here are some things you might like to know about Penguin Class:
- We practise our phonics, reading, mark-making / writing and mathematics every day
- We enjoy 'story time' every day.
- We have assembly every day and we follow our school’s values, as we learn through playing together.
- We have PE on Wednesday and Friday.
- We visit the computing suite at least once a week, sometimes more often.
- We have ‘Show and Tell’ on Thursday, when we bring in small items from home, related to our topic or focus phonics, to share with our friends.
- We bring home a library book every week. Please share this book with your child and ensure that it is brought back to school the following week.
- We have a home - school communication book. Please ensure that this is sent in to school each day.
If we have not mentioned something you would like to know, please do not hesitate to ask.
Class Teachers - Ms Sullivan and Mrs Wolfe
Spring Term 2 2024
This half-term, the Penguins enjoyed their dinosaur topic and particularly liked our dinosaur-themed craft activities and Cosmic Yoga. Creating an eruption in the ‘dinosaur’ volcano that the children had made, using papier-mâché, was a real highlight!
Now that the weather has been a little warmer, it has been good to be able to spend more time outside, and the children have loved exploring our different activities. Indoors, the Penguins have enjoyed our ‘dinosaur’ park and gift shop, and it has been fun seeing dinosaurs in shopping trollies – they can be very expensive!
All of the children came into school dressed as their favourite book character on World Book Day – their costumes were fantastic! Everyone enjoyed our activities and sharing their favourite book.
The children have also liked finding out about Mother’s Day and Easter. We hope that the mummies enjoyed the biscuits and cards, which the children worked so hard to produce for Mother's Day! The Penguins did a super job during our Easter service at Pulloxhill Church and particularly loved their Easter egg hunt in school and making Easter chocolate cornflake nests.
Spring Term 1 2024
The Penguins really enjoyed learning about toys this half-term. When they returned to school in January, they were excited to share their favourite Christmas toy with their friends. They were particularly interested in learning about toys from the past, and making comparisons to toys that they play with nowadays. The Penguins also liked exploring the different materials that toys are made from.
The children had great fun making and then playing with a number of different toys: a car, cup and ball and ball-drop games, and fork and spoon puppets, to name a few.
The Penguins loved bringing their favourite soft toy into school for a week, which they shared in circle-time, wrote about, built homes for, painted using paints and on the computer, and made playdough models of. They all did a super job!
Over the last couple of weeks of this half-term, the children enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year. Amongst many lovely activities, they painted Chinese symbols, made dragon puppets, did some dragon dancing, made a Chinese drum and had a delicious Chinese feast! In the final week of this half-term, the children all had fun celebrating Pancake Day, choosing their favourite toppings and learning how to toss pancakes!
Autumn Term 2 2023
Autumn Term 1 2023
The Penguins should be proud of how well they have settled into school life. This half-term, they have enjoyed getting to know each other through our ‘Magical Me and the World Around Me’ topic. They have created self-portraits, talked about their families, their homes and what they like to do. As part of our values, they have been learning about respect and resilience, and have been celebrating their similarities and differences. The children have all been developing their imaginations and sharing skills, using our construction and small world toys, and our current role play areas.
This month, the Penguins have celebrated Black History Month. The children have particularly enjoyed finding out about Floella Benjamin, who came to this country as part of the Windrush generation. They have also loved painting in the style of Alma Thomas and have done a super job!
The children have enjoyed thinking about our initial alphabet sounds games each day and will be using this knowledge as they learn to read and write. In mathematics, they have been focusing on the concepts of sorting, comparing, matching and pattern. They are looking forward to using those skills as they begin to look at number in more depth next half-term.
A real highlight was the Penguins learning our Harvest songs and participating in school’s Harvest Festival. They all did a super job!
