Welcome to Mrs Usher and Miss Humphries class page. Here you will find all the relevant and latest information about upcoming events and will be able to see what we have been getting up to in Reception. 

Summer 2

Ar lan y mor

Welcome back to the final term of the current school year.  I can't believe how quickly the term has gone!  This term we are learning about 'Under the Sea.' (Ar lan y mor).

Week 1

Splash into Summer

This week we have been learning about what we do, wear and where we go in the Summer.  We have been designing T shirts linking to summer objects.  We have been playing 'Kim's game' using Summer themed objects, naming the items then hiding one and guessing which one is missing. 

We have been comparing the seaside now and then, looking at clothes and pastimes.  The children have been learning about 'bathing machines' and how Victorians used to change in the bathing machines before they went in the water.  Some children thought it would have been better to live a long time ago than now!!  I'm not so sure!!

We have also been learning to write postcards, talking about special day trips or holidays and choosing who to send them to.

We have also talked about how to stay safe in the sun.

Week 2

Commotion in the Ocean

This week we have been learning about sea creatures that live in the ocean. As part of their pupil voice, the children wanted to explore real sea creatures so we brought in a variety of fish including sprats and a spider crab.  The children thoroughly enjoyed feeling,smelling and talking about their experiences.  I think I can still smell them a few days later!!

The children also made their own 'fish in a bag' choosing and making their own fish and pouring some bubble bath in a bag to use at home.  Some children wanted to keep them in the bags!

As some children requested in pupil voice,  we made a class book about our favourite fish.  We have nearly finished but it looks amazing already.  Their writing has come on in leaps and bounds since they first started in Reception.

In Maths, the children have been practising 'taking away' finding out how many turtles they started with, how many they take away and how many they have left.

The children have also enjoyed playing 'sblat' this week, reinforcing topical Welsh words and exploring the seaside role play and small world.

We are looking forward to our playpals day as we are sharing kit kats and making friendship bracelets.

Week 3

Go Fish

This week we have been reading 'Rockpool Rap' in readiness for our school trip to Rest Bay, Porthcawl.  The children had an amazing time.  We were really lucky with the weather, it stayed dry right up until the time we left! The children explored rock pools, climbed over rocks and ran across the sand.  

We managed to see sea snails, starfish and crabs. We took lots of pictures so we can share them with you later. We saw windsurfers, swimmers, kites, boats and surfers.  The children couldn't resist feeling the sand on their toes so we apologise if they came home full of sand  but we managed to change them all to make them more comfortable.  I'm sure they'll sleep well tonight!

We have also been using musical instruments to make up our own rap and making our own musical instruments to accompany it.  We will also be writing about our experiences in our own class book about Porthcawl.

Week 4

Summer Fun

This week we have been learning about the Seasons, in particular, Summer.  We read 'Seasons' where we found out about the clothes we wear, games we play outside,where we go and what we eat in the Summer. In our Pupil Voice Groups, some children wanted to find out about coconuts! So this week we will be exploring coconuts. They also wanted to set up an ice-cream parlour where they made their own ice-creams from cones and spheres. We have also been doing some problem solving,making combinations of different flavours.

The children have also been learning to make their own ice-cream, investigating how the properties of ice-cream change from liquid to solid.  We haven't tasted it yet, it's in the process of being frozen.

We are all looking forward to Sports Day today, let's hope for good weather and a fun time!

Summer 1

Wriggle and Crawl

Welcome back to the Summer Term everyone!  It's lovely to see all the boys and girls again, refreshed and ready to go.This term we are learning about minibeasts and thank you to everyone who made some amazing minibeasts for homework over the Easter holidays. The children have shown their creations to their friends and talked about how they made them.  They will shortly be on display for all to see. We have been learning about minibeasts without legs this week and we read 'Superworm.' The children have learnt how to bring worms above ground and exploring their characteristics. They have also been making some fantastic snails with glitter trails.  In language, the children have been composing worm poems using adjectives to describe worms and they have come up with some really interesting and imaginative words.

In Maths, we have been measuring worms (not real!!), choosing a variety of equipment to do so to reinforce words such a longer, shorter and using 'length' sentences such as 'The worm is longer/shorter than the pencil.'

It's Reception children's turn to participate in Forest Schools on Mondays and Tuesdays. They have had so much fun and learnt so much about bugs and the outdoors, working together and being respectful of their environment.

For outdoor classroom day Reception went on a bug hunt around the school grounds!! We found so many different minibeasts living in a variety of different habitats! some even ended up landing on us!!!

We had SOO much fun!! 

Week 2

Incy Wincey  

This week we have been learning about spiders.  It has been such a short week but we have been learning so much!  We have been playing 'guess the minibeast.' The children have been using adjectives to describe the minibeast. As a result their vocabulary has become much more interesting and varied.

In Maths, we read 'Spinderella' which is about a spider who doesn't know how to count. Using this as a stimulus, we have been learning to group and count objects in 2s.  

In the creative area, the children have been making their own spiders and they have made some amazing things from junk modelling. 

Week 3

Things  with wings

This week we have been reading 'The Boy Who Lost His Bumble.'  The children have been using this stimulus to plan their own learning in the continuous and enhanced provision.  They have come up with some amazing things for us to explore.  They wanted to learn more about honey and honeycombs, where bees live and what they need flowers for.  In the creative area they wanted to use clay to make creatures with wings.  Some children wanted to paint stones to resemble a bee or ladybird.  

In maths the children have been applying their doubles knowledge to create ladybirds with the same number of spots and write the number sentence to match.  In language the children have been writing factfiles and matching magnetic letters to the names of bugs. 

Week 4 - Butterflies and caterpillars!

This week we will end our minibeast learning journey by learning all about butterflies and caterpillars! Our book stimulus will be 'The very hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle.

With Miss Humphries we will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and using different pasta shapes to represent the different stages of a butterfly's life!

Mrs Usher will be teaching the children about 2D and 3D shapes and we will have lots of extra opportunities to apply our learning about shapes throughout the classroom - e.g.  by creating symmetrical butterflies with shapes and using our giant glittery 2D shapes to create minibeasts outside. As well as this we will have lots of other activities set up like sorting mini beasts, scanning QR codes on the iPad to access mini beast videos and also creating a bug hotel outside!

We also look forward to welcoming Zoo lab for our school visit where the children will be given the chance to hold some of the mini beasts we have been learning about! Both reception classes are very excited!

Spring Term 2

Bwyd (Food) 

Welcome back everybody!  I can't believe we have already been in school for a whole week!  We had such a busy time last week.  We celebrated St.David's Day on Wednesday.  The Reception children performed confidently in front of Years 1 and 2 and the children who took part in the Art competition all received certificates.  They all looked amazing in their outfits so well done to everybody!  

On Thursday we celebrated World Book Day and it was great to see so many different characters and talking about their favourite books.  The teachers read extracts from their favourite books and poems.  

Vegetables

This week we have been reading 'Oliver's Vegetables' and 'Supertato.'  They have been learning the names of different vegetables and exploring their shape and size. They have been making their own 'super vegetable hero' using Mr Potato head as an example.  We have had some wonderful creations.

Fruit, Discovering where food comes from and Food from around the world.

During the last few weeks we have been  reading 'Oliver's Fruit Salad' and been tasting lots of different fruits. We had lemons and limes in the water where the children were comparing, smelling and touching the different textures.  We also looked at the work by Guiseppe Arcimboldo where he created pictures using fruit and vegetables.  We have also been learning the names of Welsh fruit and playing 'sblat' in our Helpwr Heddiw sessions.

We read 'The Little Red Hen' when we were learning about where food comes from and we made our own bread but we didn't do the same as the Little Red Hen because we all shared making and eating it!!

On Monday (1st April) we read 'Handa's Suprise' and found out which fruits came from hot countries.  We also had a great day yesterday as we watched the Theatre Group arranged by Healthy Heroes. We learned how to keep ourselves healthy, eating and drinking the right things and doing lots of exercise.

Finally, we had a sneak preview of the Easter Bunny who hopped into Reception classes just to keep on eye on us ready for the big event next week!!

Starry Night

This week we read 'How to Catch a Star' which was about a little boy who wanted to catch his very own star but didn't know how to go about it. So we gave the children a challenge to explore different ways to catch a star which they depicted in their language books. Some of the children came up with some very imaginative suggestions which involved ladders, wheelbarrows, trees and rockets!

We have also been doing lots of estimation and their estimation skills are now developing well. We have been guessing how many objects in cups and the children write down their guesses and checked by counting to see how close they were.  They also estimated how many stars in the sky. They came up with some very big numbers and some of the children are beginning to understand the concept of 'big' numbers and even trying to write them!

The children have also been making star biscuits, making suggestions and choosing what they would need and learning new vocabulary such as 'ingredients' and 'recipe.' They smelled good too!

We also explored the painting 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gough. Their reproductions are absolutely amazing, We've just put them on display and everyone has noticed them and said how fabulous they are.

The children have also been developing their problem solving skills by playing 'shake and spill' where they have been partitioning numbers to 5 using 2 coloured beans.  Many of the children have been recording their work for the first time and have made a great job.

Planets

The children have absolutely loved learning about planets this week and we've all been amazed at how much some of the children already know about them.  We read the story 'Little Moon' about a moon who travels through space, searching for a place to stay. On his travels he visited all the planets and the black hole which really fascinated the children.  

They painted their favourite planet which are now proudly on display. 

This week was also Chinese New Year and the children celebrated by tasting some Chinese fortune cookies and some of the children were telling us about the Chinese food they had eaten at home from the Chinese Takeaway! They also tried to use chopsticks, manipulating them to pick up pretend noodles (wool). Some were better than others!  We read 'Chinese New Year' and Mrs Barry took the children outside to replicate the animal race, discussing ordinal numbers, finding out who came 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. 

Zoom! We're going to the moon!

This week we read 'Whatever Next' which inspired us to think about what we would take with us if we travelled to the moon. We made owl on toast (which obviously wasn't really 'owl!') and had a 'pretend' space picnic. We have continued to travel to space in our amazing space role play rocket, walking and talking like real space people. We even bumped into some aliens!

We created a moon landscape which we used in our small world area, together with rockets and lunar buggies. 

The children also made their own moon rocks and painted their responses to what they thought the moon looks like. The results are fantastic and we've put them on display for all to see.

Aliens in outerspace

This week we have been learning about outerspace.  We all loved this week's focus text 'Aliens Love Underpants.'

The children enacted the story outside and in the role play. Some of them pretending they were aliens travelling to Earth in their space ships, taking everyone's underpants! We have been doing lots of sorting and matching underpants, designing our own underpants and using our fine motor skills to peg out underpants on the line.  The children have also been doing lots of problem solving, 'feeding' the aliens with different types of food such as 'curved and yellow' objects or 'blue objects taller than a pen.'

Miss Jenkins, our student has been teaching the children all about symmetry, making symmetrical pictures and finding symmetrical things in the environment.

Mrs Field has been doing some amazing experiments with the children, making aliens grow using vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. It was great to see the 'alien balloon' getting bigger and bigger!  We also made our own aliens by choosing from a range of materials.  I know some of the children took them home so you'll agree they are fantastic!

Planet Earth

This week we have been learning about planet Earth and we have been amazed at how much some of the children know!  So far we have learned that we live on planet Earth, there is land and sea and that Earth is round.

The children created their own planet Earth, they have been exploring globes and atlases, looking at different countries and finding Wales.  We have also been using the chrome books and ipads to learn about Google Earth, allowing them to access different places from a birds eye perspective.

They have also been learning about fiction and non fiction books, talking about why a book would be an information book. 

In Maths the children have been learning about their daily routines, talking about the things they do before and after lunch, using connectives such as next, later, last and first.

In language, the children have been developing their rhyming skills and singing rhyming songs. 

We have been continuing our daily mile and daily yoga sessions.

Winter wonders

Welcome back everyone. It's fantastic to see everyone back after what seems such a long time! The children seem to have grown a few inches at least! 

Our topic this term is Space and thank you for the amazing homework you have done! Four dojos for each contribution but for the first week we are learning about Winter and the seasons. We went on a Winter walk yesterday and started our Winter interest table. We found catkins, cones and berries.  Today, some children found some icy leaves on their way to school.

The children have been exploring ice and paint and investigating where ice comes from and what happens to it when it starts to get warm.

Christmas

This week we read 'The Christmas Story' so the children had a good understanding and awareness of what Christmas was all about.  The Christmas Nativity Play went really well. The children seemed to thoroughly enjoy performing in front of an audience!  

We made some lovely Christmas stockings and puddings for the children to take home. The children worked hard making and writing inside their Christmas cards.

Our trip to Brecon Mountain Railway was a great success. For most, it was their first experience of a train and for all, a steam train! The children were in awe of the sounds and sights coming from the train.  They were all so well behaved, we were so proud of them! Even Santa thought they were amazing!  Apologies for anyone whose money box train was broken. No one made us aware of how fragile the presents were. We did ring up to complain as some children were naturally upset to see their present broken and they did say that if you take the broken one to them they will replace it. They are still open until Sunday.  

Finally, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

See you all in the new term.

Trains

This week we have been reading 'The Train Ride.' The children have been sharing their experiences about trains. We talked about trains in the past and how they are powered by coal and steam. We also talked about rhyming words in the story and the children are getting better at recognising words that sound the same.

We have made a start on our Christmas decorations, they look very festive! 

The children have been learning about 2d shape with Miss Humphries and in Literacy we have been singing nursery rhymes, identifying the rhyming words and exploring rhyming strings.

We have also been exploring shiny objects and the children have been using words such as 'glittery,' 'shimmery,' and 'reflection.' The children have been adding to the collection as they find shiny things both inside and out.

Transport that moves in the air.

We read books about aeroplanes and flying and talked about how aeroplanes move and the names of the different parts.  Mrs Dawkes was showing the children how to make paper planes by carefully listening to and following instructions. Some of them even managed to fly!  Miss Maria made hot air balloons and we explored how hot air balloons moved.  

We managed to write our lists and send them off to Santa.  We walked to the local post box and posted their letters.  Hopefully, we will get our replies soon!

Mrs Barry has been sorting vehicles into land, sea and air.  They were very good at explaining their reasons. 

Our role play is now Santa's Grotto and the children dress up as elves, wrapping presents and writing lists!

The Christmas concert is progressing well, keep reminding the children to use their 'big' voices!

Transport that use the water to travel.

This week we have been learning about all the things that travel on the water.  We read the story 'Noah's Ark' and learned that the story comes from the Bible.  We talked about the promise God made to Noah and we talked about promises that we could make, remembering that promises are things we need to keep. Some made promises to clean their rooms! Try not to be naughty! Even trying to remember their glasses every day!

The children made a wonderful rainbow and we talked about colours used in both English and Welsh.

In maths we were learning to count in 2’s just like Noah counted the animals on his ark and we practiced this in our outside area as well!

We were also learning about floating and sinking and thought about what happens when it's neither on top or at the bottom of the water.

Mrs Dawkes was helping the children make their own boats from apples which they tested in the water tray.

Finally, we have started practising for our Nativity Play, so far so good though we do need to keep learning those lines at home!

Road Safety

This week we have been learning about road safety. We read the story 'Stay Safe' and talked about safe places to cross the road. We also made a poster on the chrome books and on paper to remind us to:

FIND A SAFE PLACE TO CROSS

HOLD HANDS WITH A GROWN UP

KEEP LOOKING AND LISTENING
WAIT FOR THE GREEN MAN
STOP WHEN WE SEE THE RED MAN

Mrs Barry took the children onto the playground where they practised crossing the road safely.

Mrs Dawkes was helping the children to make road signs for outside and in the small world role play. They made some amazing STOP signs, zebra crossing, no entry, speed control and traffic lights. I hope they notice them when they travel around with you!

In Maths, we made a pictogram with the children where we collected information about our favourite vehicles.

The children also made 'traffic light' biscuits and talked about ingredients and recipes. They talked about the process of making the biscuits and the changes observed before and after cooking.

In the Discovery area, the children were challenged to make rectangular biscuits from playdough then had to place the relevant coloured counters, red, green and yellow. Their next challenge was to make another traffic light using the same colours but in a different order. Some children managed to do three!

Wheeled vehicles

We learnt about vehicles that have wheels, such as motorbikes, cars, bikes and buses. We read the story of 'The Naughty Bus' by Jan and Jerry Oke and recreated the different scenes within the story. Our maths focus this week was data handling and we went to the car park to find out which was the most and least popular coloured cars. We recorded the data by mark making and used this to create a graph as a group!

We transformed our outside area into a car wash, where the children took turns to pay and clean the cars. Outside, we also tested out how fast cars went down the ramp and recorded 1st, 2nd and 3rd, giving suggestions as to why some went further than others. We created a range of wheeled vehicles from junk and learnt the song 'Olwynion ar y bws' in Welsh. We learnt the language pattern 'ble mae...' to ask 'where is the...' and to answer by saying 'ar y...' to describe where the different vehicles were placed.

Teithio (Transport/Are we there yet?)

Welcome back everyone! Thanks to everyone for the fantastic models and pictures of different types of transport. They are proudly on display for all to see and they look amazing!

This week we have been reading 'Rosie's Walk,' a lovely book using positional vocabulary. The children have been using these 'position words' during their everyday classroom activities.We have also been hiding 'Rosie' outside and the children described where Rosie was hidden using their positional vocabulary.  

The children have also been responding to the story by painting their favourite part or character.  Some of the detail has been outstanding!

Some of the children have been introduced to story maps where they use their map to retell the story, others have been drawing their favourite part and using their sound knowledge to write key words.

In Maths, the children have been finding out 1 more of a number.  

The children look fabulous today (Friday) dressed in red celebrating our new defibrillator. I think it was only Mrs Usher and Mrs Humphries who forgot!

This term's topic is 'Pwy wyt ti?' We will be learning all about ourselves, families, friends, senses, feelings and where we live.

                        Lunch           

Reception children eat their lunch with the upper Foundation Phase classes and join them on the school playground.  It is your choice whether your child receives a hot school lunch or a packed lunch from home.

School Lunch

A healthy, well balanced meal is available for all children every school day.  The cost of a school lunch is £2.50 per day.  Please put money in an envelope, clearly labelled with your child's name every MONDAY.  If you feel your child may be eligible for free school meals, please request a form from the office and return it to County Hall.

Packed Lunch

As part of the 'Healthy Schools' initiative driven by the Welsh Government, please provide your child with a healthy, well-balanced packed lunch to eat in school.  Please ensure that all lunch bags, food pots and bottles are clearly labelled with your child's name and class written on it.

                  Breakfast Club                  

As part of the Welsh Government's 'Healthy Schools' initiative, Bryn Hafod provides a free, well balanced breakfast for all children aged 4 and above.  If you would like your child to attend Breakfast Club, please request a form from the office.  Breakfast Club begins at 8 am.  Please arrive on time.

        Reading Books                          

Once your child is ready for a reading book, we will send one home for you to share with your child.  Please bring reading books to school EVERYDAY in the book bag provided.

P.E 

In Reception, we have continuous access to our fantastic outdoor area and garden so we are developing our physical skills all of the time.  We have a focused PE lesson in the main Foundation Phase hall every Wednesday.

Daily mile

Each day we will be doing our 'daily mile' around the playground as part of effort to be a healthy school. 

Please ensure your child has suitable footwear for them to be able to take part!

Friends, Families and our Amazing Bodies.

During the last few weeks we have been learning about friends and family. We read the story of 'The Rainbow Fish' and made our own rainbow fish.   We have been making friendship bracelets for our friends and  taking photographs of our friends on the ipad.  We painted pictures of our friends and talked about why they are special.

Last week we read the story of 'The Three Bears' and talked about our families. We made our own family trees, talking about and counting the number of people in our family.  In Maths, we have been learning about size and measuring, comparing amounts linked to the story.  We were also learning to re-tell the story of 'The Three Bears' thinking about the beginning, middle and end of the story.  Our role play is 'The Three Bears Cottage' where we matched different sized items for each bear. We have been singing 'How many people live in your house' and 'When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears.'

This week we are learning to write our names, recalling the names of the letters in each name, starting with a capital letter. We will be measuring our feet, comparing them to others, finding who has the biggest, smallest and why.  We read 'Funny Bones' and have been creating our own skeletons.  We also had a special visitor (Mr Boney the skeleton) and the children came out with some amazing facts about bones and our bodies! We have also just started talking about Healthy Lunchboxes and healthy eating and today (Monday) we all did our first daily mile!

The 5 Senses

This week we have been learning all about our 5 senses. 

We read the book 'My 5 senses' and have explored our sense of taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight in a range of senses activities...

In Maths we have used our sense of taste to sort different foods into sweet or savoury groups during a tasting activity.

With Mrs Barry we have had the change to explore our sense of touch on a sensory walk! We walked through a range of different things like jelly, rocks, and even beans! We even used 'WOW words' to describe how they felt.

We tested our hearing when we went on a listening walk around the school, and we were quiet enough to hear a range of different noises! We also played a listening game where we had to use our listening ears to identify everyday sounds (this was tricky!).

We have been learning about our different body parts and learnt how to say them in Welsh. We sung the welsh version of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' = 'Pen, ysgwyddau, coesau, traed' to help us remember!

This week we have carried on with our 'Music and Movement' PE sessions with Upbeat Wales, and look forward to moving our bodies again in next weeks lesson with Miss Charlotte!

Feelings

This week we have been reading 'Trumpet, the little elephant with the big temper.' We have been exploring our different feelings in both English and Welsh.  We have been making masks and responding to 'Sut wyt ti?' and painting our feelings on plates. We have also been making biscuits and made a face according to how we were feeling.

We talked about how we felt each day and how it was ok to sometimes feel sad or angry but we also found out that these feelings didn't last for long and we soon felt happy again.

We have also been learning about natural and man made objects and have been making faces using a variety of these materials and talking about which materials we used and why.

In Maths we have been learning about money and matching 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins. We talked about each coin and described them by colour, shape and size.