Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Summer Term 2025
Week beginning 9th June '25
Welcome to the land of Castles, Knights and Dragons! This week has been our first week learning about our new topic. Role play areas are well underway and children are enjoying being imaginative and taking on the roles of people ( and creatures) that lived within the castle grounds.
In maths, classes have been reinforcing odd and even numbers from last week, as well as assessing previous learning. In English, children have been showing off how far their writing has come, as well as demonstrating their phonic knowledge.
On Tuesday, we all enjoyed Forest School with Mrs Lovell. Children made dens together and then were able to play in them! Lots of fun was had!
Week beginning 2nd June '25
This week has been our last week studying dinosaurs and our main focus has been fossils, including reading non-fiction books about them. Other linked activities have included creating fossils using pasta, as well as cotton buds.
In maths, we have been looking at odd and even numbers, recalling number bonds and recognising doubles.
Classes have been very excited about starting our new topic 'Castle, knights and Dragons' next week and children have started preparing resources ready for the role play area. They have already started to come up with facts that they know. We look forward to finding out more in the coming weeks.
Week beginning 19th May '25
Over the last week or so, there have been lots of mysterious stones found all over the school. As so many have been found, seemingly not placed by anyone, staff or pupils, we have done some research. We have found out about some 'Hoebble' creatures, similar to little goblins, who leave piles of stones in places to help them find their way or if they are lost.
This week, we have been researching where they come from and have been guessing what they might look like as they are quite elusive! We all decided that they must be small, but some of us thought that they might be animal like and others thought that they would look like very small people. We drew and coloured our ideas of what we think they might look like. Children also used charcoals to sketch piles of stones similar to ones we have been spotting.
After doing some more reading, reception found out that Hoebbles need safe, quiet beds or homes in the places that they live in. When they build their bed, they use natural materials like sticks, moss, dandelion fluff, flowers, leaves and other outdoor objects. They also like shiny items and use objects like spoons to help them dig, plant and look after the plants. As classes, we wrote a set of instructions for how to make a hoebble bed and then in Forest School time, classes looked for objects for making their beds. Groups then used these items to make little Hoebble beds/houses, working together, and trying to include a bed, some comfortable objects, food and drink and some shiny objects to make them feel welcome. Some children even made holiday homes!
On Thursday, we found a letter from the hoebbles thanking us for our kindness and we realised that they had moved on. Children wrote back letters to say that we hoped that they were happy and safe.
Reception classes also enjoyed Sports Day on Thursday. Children were very good at staying in their school house teams and took it in turns brilliantly to take part in a number of activities, including hurdles, carrying a racket and beanbag, running and throwing a beanbag into a hoop. We are very proud of both classes for their enthusiasm, team spirit and perseverance. Great skills everybody!
Week beginning 12th May '25
It has been all about the animals this week with an amazing start to the week, visiting Hertfordshire Zoo. Children were enthralled by the Sun bear talk and equally captivated by all the other inhabitants of the zoo- even some rather prehistoric ones! We are so proud of Elm and Beech Class for their exemplary behaviour, curiosity and interactions.
Linked to our trip, we have taken part in lots of linked activities post trip, including writing about what we saw at the zoo, as well as writing dinosaur facts.
In maths, we have been manipulating shapes to rotate and make shape pictures. Children have also been practising writing numbers, thinking about how to form them correctly.
In P.E., we have been preparing for Sport's Day and taking part in lots of team games, including getting into our houses ready for next week.
Week beginning 5th May '25
Despite a shortened week, due to the May bank holiday, reception have enjoyed an action packed week, culminating with our VE learning and celebrations on Thursday. Here, children enjoyed singing, dancing and taking part in a special Jubilee picnic with their families, after learning a little of the history of VE day and making flags and bunting for it.
There was also excitement in our outdoor area, with the introduction of a new climbing dome. Children have had lots of fun exploring the equipment and are also enjoying the new opal playtimes at break time with the older children, where they can access lots of fantastic areas, such as the large sand pit, the mud kitchen and the digger area.
In some of their other learning, children have been reading Dinosaur information books, creating 'Lost egg' posters, forming their letters carefully while writing tricky words and subtracting a small number from either ten or a number less than ten.
Week beginning 28th April '25
This week, our main text has been 'Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs.' We have continued to take part in lots of dinosaur related activities, including labelling parts of a dinosaur and describing dinosaurs. Classes have also been sharing poems and reciting them.
In maths, we have spent a lot of time adding two groups together to work out the total, as well as looking at number bonds.
We have enjoyed exploring the larger apparatus in P.E., thinking of different ways of travelling and making safe landings.
Children have had lots of fun exploring their new topic through lots of different media, including creating their own painted and stencilled dinosaurs.
Week beginning 21st April '25
Welcome back everybody! It has been fantastic hearing about what children have got up to during their Easter break. On Monday, we went back in time millions of years to start our topic of Dinosaurs. Classes have been very engaged, asking questions and imparting the knowledge that they have already. We've even found a mysterious egg of giant proportions that we have made a nest for and we are wondering if it will hatch.
In English, we have been describing the egg and reading the story Brenda's egg. We have also become more confident at reading longer words. In writing, we have practised forming our letters and have written about our Easter holidays.
In maths, children have named the numerals on cards and then counted out the correct number of objects to it. We have also been comparing dinosaurs in terms of length, as well as continuing repeated patterns.
Classes have had lots of fun in P.E. moving in different ways, including incorporating apparatus. We have thought about travelling over benches in different ways, as well as moving under benches-through the gaps.
On Tuesday, it was Forest School. Children explored the mud kitchen alongside their peers and also had the opportunity to create a ladybird using some egg cartons and paint. On Friday, reception joined other year groups to watch the Year 3 and 4 performance. Despite it being a fairly long show, reception sat beautifully the whole way through- amazing!
