Spring Term Highlights from Reception

The Summer term has been in busy in Reception! However no challenge has been too tricky, and the children have been so engaged to learn more, independently find out more and ask questions about the world around them.

We started off by looking at growing, through our topic – “Down in the Garden”. We grew cress, beans and potatoes in class all together; learning what they need to grow and how to care for them (even though the extreme heat did not help our potatoes to survive!). Children wrote their own facts about plants and were comparing different sizes of plants and trees. We also looked at healthy eating which fit in perfectly with our supervised toothbrushing. We perfected our toothbrushing technique so much this term that we even helped the school get a “Healthy Smiles” award.

Summer 2 we then looked “Under the Sea”; starting with exploring beaches, the history of beaches and what you find on them before looking at under the sea animals, habitats and pirates. By this point in the year, the children were enjoying independently reading about all the sea creatures that we had learnt about and making their own fact files. They also really enjoyed “Pirate School” where we learnt what our pirate names would be, how pirates talk and pirate actions. We also celebrated world oceans day which fell well into our topic, where the class liked making our own collage fish to display in the room which always brighten everyone’s day. During our Science day this term we then tested floating and sinking; and looked at how the boats that we had discussed were able to float, and sea creatures could swim.

Reception have especially enjoyed using the outdoor areas increasingly this term. We explored new outdoor resources including a new water wall - which was greatly appreciated in the heat waves. We also made many dens around the garden, used the small world shed to take cover and found that under the tables were just as good to draw under as on them. We also participated with a “stop and read” challenge alongside all the other REAch 2 schools and thought that it was so much fun to read on slides, under tuff trays and in covered corners.

We then finished off the term with transitional activities to prepare for Year 1 and our annual trip to Prospect Park and railway to celebrate.

Class of 2026-2027 are now finishing their time in EYFS and all the Reception team wish them all the best in Year 1 and their futures at Ranikhet Academy.