Week ending 3rd July 2015

 

We have had an amazing week learning all about space. We have used the computer and lots of information books to help us work out what is going on in space. These are some of the facts we have learned.....

Alfie - Planets are sphere shapes

Harvey Lee - The sun is very hot place

Chloe - Astronauts need to wear special helmets to save their eyes

As you can see we are full of interesting facts.

 

We started the week off thinking about planets and naming them and finding out more information about them. We looked at colour, size and thought about whether anyone had actually landed on them. We read a story called The Spaceship all about a little boy and his dog who landed on a planet full of aliens and strange, wonderful creatures. We loved it! We then decided to make our own creatures using a variety of different materials. Here are the finished pieces.   

We also created space rockets as part of a science experiment. We thought about how air would propel a rocket up into the sky. We had great fun sending our rockets shooting off into space. 

We also thought about what materials we could use to create a similar texture to those that we discovered are on different planets. We found some really good pieces of bubble wrap, experimented with colours and made some prints to create our own galaxy. The display is on the wall in the classroom, please take a minute to come inside and have a look at it. It is out of this world! 

We also finished the week off thinking about what it wold be like to be an astronaut. We have some wonderful ideas and just look at the writing we can produce. We have learned so very much in Reception this year and the efforts we have made are truly outstanding! 

Thank you for visiting our blog and please remember to come back again next week. Don't forget you have been invited to come into school on Monday to receive your child's report and to meet their new year 1 class teacher. We also have sports day on Wednesday and a fun filled week of learning to get through. Have a great, sunshine filled weekend. From staff and children in Reception W

Week ending 26th June 2015

 

Well what a week it has been. We have continued learning about zoo and wild animals and we have learned so many new facts and information. We started the week off by thinking about how some of the animals in the wild can camouflage themselves and appear hidden. We talked about why this is so important for them to be able to do so. We then set about creating our own tiger stripes using paint and shaving foam. We read and followed a series of instructions and then set about following them. Look at the work we have produced. 

We also used a range of collage materials to make animal masks, we measured, cut, attached and altered our plans as we worked in order to produce some fantastic pieces of art work. Look how proud Jessica looks with her lion mask. It's wonderful!  

We also retold the story of Rumble in the Jungle outside using animal masks. We recreated the actions, noises and movements of many different jungle animals. Here are some quotes from the children

Alfie - I can roar loud like a lion

Chloe - I am a gazelle, i can jump through the air

Kacey - I am a snake, i slither on the ground and no one can see me

We also looked at the story Dear Zoo. We talked about the different animals that we could be sent and why they are just not suitable. We created labels and pictures showing what was inside the crates. Look at our writing. 

We have also had a very exciting surprise this week. Mrs Evans had a large letter delivered. we were sooooo excited to find out what was inside. Have a guess? Need a clue? It was from Buckingham Palace. Can you guess yet? Remember a little while ago we talked about us writing letters, drawing pictures and painting about Princess Charlotte? Well we have had a reply. This is the letter we received. We took it into assembly so that everyone could share in the excitement.  

How amazing is that? We are so proud of ourselves. 

And if that wasn't exciting enough, for the second week running we have someone in our class who was awarded pupil of the week. Last week it was Harvey Lee and this week it is Laiba. Here she is with her certificate and trophy for her independent writing that included finger spaces, full stops and capital letters. Well done Laiba.

Next week we will be learning all about space. If you have any photographs, books or information then we would love to have a look at them and will look after them. Thank you for visiting our blog and please remember to come back next week and find out what we have been learning about. Bye for now 

Week ending 19th June 2015

 

This week we have been busy preparing ourselves for our forthcoming trip to Blackpool Zoo. We started the week off looking at the zoo on the website. We are so good at knowing that we can find out information by using the computer or a book. We talked about the different animals we would see, where they live, what they eat and what country they originally came from. It was fascinating 

We talked about the role of the zoo keeper, what is his job all about and why is it so important. We then thought about what we would do if we were a zoo keeper for the day and what we would do if an animal escaped. Gasp!

We decided that we would have to create wanted posters. Describing the animal in detail. 

We then used the story Walking Through the Jungle as the starting point for our list of animals that we would see in a jungle or a zoo. We talked about the animals that we would maybe see on a farm, in houses and at the zoo and what was different about them. We sorted, organised and shared our learning with our friends prior to writing our lists. This is what we produced. 

We are rightly very proud of our work. We have tried so hard to develop our skills as independent writers and all that hard work is paying off 

We have also been busy using information books to create paintings about different animals. We looked at size, shape and colour and these are our images. 

Remember to come back and visit our blog next week as we learn more about the animal kingdom!

Bye for now!

Week ending 12th June 2015

 

This week we have been developing our understanding of the Gingerbread Man and repetitive refrains. We listened to the story and joined in with the key parts such as Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man. We love this part of the story. So we looked at lots of other traditional stories and found out their repetitive refrains. This is what we learned ........

 

Nicola - The Enormous Turnip has they pulled and they pulled but it didn't come up

Harley - The Three Bears has Who has been sleeping in my bed

 

We then took it in turns to retell the stories that we know so well. We had a great time and we helped each other.

Alfie read us The Elves and the Shoemaker

Jamie read us The Enormous Turnip

Harvey Lee read us Little Red Riding Hood

 

The adults in the classroom couldn't believe just how amazing we were using different voices and pretending to be the teacher. Amazing and very talented children children we have in our class.  

 

We have also been busy developing our independent writing. We thought of an idea and then the number of words in the sentence, capital letters, finger spaces and full spaces. This is a piece of writing from Laiba. Without any support. Fantastic work! 

Please come back and look at our blog next week. Net week we are going to be thinking about Wild animals, linked to our forthcoming trip to the zoo. We  are going to be writing about, finding out information, sharing ideas and creating animals. An action packed week. Have a great weekend. Staff and children in Reception W.

Week ending 5th June 2015

Welcome back to our first blog in our very last term in Reception. We have so much to fit into the next few weeks so we better get cracking.

 

This week we have been learning all about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and we will be learning more about traditional stories for the next few weeks. We thought carefully about what we already knew, we learned about the different characters, how traditional stories started and how they ended and how sometimes the language used in them repeated itself. 

 

This is some of our favourite stories......

Isabel - I like Sleeping Beauty it's my favourite

Alfie - My favourite story is The Elves and the Shoemaker, it's so funny when the little elves make the shoes

Chloe - I love Snow White, I like it best when the prince comes and kisses her and wakes her up.

 

We thought about how different characters feel in different stories and we decided to write a letter from Goldilocks to the 3 Bears saying sorry for what she did. The finished results looked fantastic. 

We finished the week on a high. We invited all of our grown ups to come into school on Friday and take a look at the work we produced when we took part in the Express Yourself enhancement. I am sure that our families were very proud of us as are our teachers. Here we are showing off our achievements. 

Thank you to everyone for their support. Please remember to come back and look at our blog next week. Reception staff and children

Week ending 15th May 2015

 

Welcome back to or blog. This is week number 1 of our Express Yourself Art and Design two week enhancement and what a very busy and productive week it has been. We started the week of by using clay, this was a very new experience for us and we developed a range of different skills as a result of using new tools. We talked about sunflowers and how they grow, the colour and how they smell. Then we created some fantastic 3D representations. 

We then took this new found knowledge into the great outdoors. We planted lots of different types of plants into our planters, talking about the roots and what their purpose is, the petals and learned the names of various parts of a plant. We intend to look after them by giving them lots of water and hoping for lots of sunshine. Fingers crossed! 

In learning about different media we talked about how it would be fun to paint on different surfaces. We talked about rough surfaces and bumpy surfaces and smooth shiny surfaces. We then had an idea. What would it be like to paint on a shiny, smooth surface? We thought about what materials we could use and came up with the idea of using tin foil. Here are the results of our efforts. We painted individual flowers on a square and we intend to put them together to create 1 big collage. 

Having used clay, paint, chalk and pencils we then used ribbon to create a large scale weaving outside. We talked about the different ways we could weave and talked through the motions, in front, behind, in front, behind. We added different colours and we all had a go at it. It looks great on the fence outside. 

And finally, we even managed to fit in an art exhibition. We produced a range of wonderful, vibrant art work and took it down to Profiles gym and displayed it for all to see. All of the grown ups in the room were really proud of our efforts and our ability to follow instructions. Here we are proudly showing off our work.  

Please come back and visit our blog next week to find out about what we have been learning about. We will have some more fantastic art work to view. Have a great weekend. Staff and children in Reception W 

Week ending 8th May 2015

Ahoy there everyone!! As you can see this week has been all about pirates and what a fantastic week of learning we have had!

 

We started the week off listening to a story about Gingerbread Pirates, it was soooooooo funny! It was based on the story of the Gingerbread Man. The gingerbread escaped and  climbed aboard a ship and looked for a crew! It was great!

 

We then thought about how we could share the recipe with others. We talked about the different ways we can share information and decided upon writing. We talked about the information we needed to include for example ingredients and the way we can use bossy language to tell people what they need to do.

 

We also talked about what we would see ad hear if we were stranded on a desert island. We had some really good ideas. We talked about the different ways we could communicate with the outside world and why we couldn't make a telephone call. We decided to make a message in a bottle and send it off and wait for the response. Fingers crossed someone rescues us. 

We also made our own gingerbread pirates, we talked about the patterns and what defining features you would find on a pirate. Take a little look.

We also made a list of all of the things we need to make a den on a desert island. We talked about why we needed to stay safe and keep warm on the island and what the best way to do it would be. We then created a list and went to search for the items. We then created a den. We had so much fun with the string and scissors and talking about how we would position it. Here we are in action

We also talked about and made desert islands in the playdough area. We rolled, pinched, squeezed and made up our own stories. Here we are with our treasure island. aye aye captain.

Next week we are going to embark on a two week EAD (Expressive Art and Design) enhancement. We are going to use the theme of Old McDonald had a farm and use it as a basis for creating some art work, sculptures and story telling. We are also going to be displaying our work. More information to follow. Have a great weekend. Staff and children in Reception W.

Week ending 1st May 2015

Welcome back to our blog. Where has the time gone? Our 2 week Maths enhancement has come to an end and we have learned so very much. Take a look below to find out exactly what we have been doing.

 

We started the week off in PE using positional language - we used hockey sticks and balls and cones and carefully guided the ball in and out and around the different cones, talking about directions as we did so. We really impressed the grown ups - they were amazed at how focused we were on the task. Here we are in action.

We also learned more about 2d and 3d shapes. We talked about their properties and we used both 2d and 3d shapes to make some sailing boats. We used and developed lots of different skills and they make a great addition to our creative area

We also used the computer to create shape monsters, we used different tools and clicked and dragged shapes and developed our hand eye co-ordination. They look great on the wall and this was another opportunity for us to talk about and describe shapes.

We also went on a shape hunt around school and looked at the different shapes we could find in the environment. We were surprised that we found so many, this is what we had to say.....

Alfie - the tiles on the ceiling are square and there are lots of them

Jenny - I found a circle on a door

Harvey-Lee - I saw numbers and shapes and they were everywhere

We have also played shape dominoes, played in the toy shop adding 2 groups of coins together to find the total and been busy measuring. So as you can see Monster Maths has been a really big success!

 

Next week it is all about pirates. We asked the children to think about what they wanted to learn about and our learning is going to be based around pirates, so next week expect plenty of pirate writing, lots of pirate numbers and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of pirate baking. Watch this space.

 

Thank you for remembering to bring your blue language and communication bags back every week, we love reading your comments about how much your child enjoyed interacting with the resources, so a big   to all you grown ups!

 

Remember reading books are changed every Monday and it is really important that you return them so that we can read your comments and work together to develop your child's reading skills.

 

Have a great long weekend and we will see you all fresh and ready to learn on Tuesday.

From Reception staff and children x

week ending 24th April 2015

Welcome back to our class blog. We hope that you had a fun filled Easter holiday

For the next two weeks we are going to be taking part in a Monster Maths enhancement. As part of the local cluster of schools we are having a two week Maths enhancement. We will be learning all about Maths in lots of different, practical ways. So here is a peek at what we have been up to this week.

The first thing we did this week was to talk about what Maths means to us - we created a mind map with some of our ideas and as the weeks progress we will add our new learning and understanding to it. Take a look at our initial ideas.

We also learned a little more about shapes. We talked about, named and described lots of different shapes and then we used this knowledge to help us design a shape monster. When selecting shapes we had to tell the grown up 1 piece of information. We have some amazing designs and we then used shapes to actually create our design. These are on display in our classroom so please come and take a look at them.

We also looked at patterns. We talked about how we could make patterns using shapes, objects and in fact there are patterns all around us. Here we are using monsters to create repeating patterns, we are now getting really good at patterns and can make them using many different attributes.

We also celebrated St George's day on Thursday. We learned so much, we found out about him being a knight and slaying a dragon. It was really interesting. To help us understand more we made dragon sock puppets and used these to tell the story. We also designed shields and talked about what and how they were used.

We have also been busy exploring the changes in our classroom that were made during the Easter holidays. Mrs Evans has been busy adding different writing materials to the different areas in the classroom. We have been so proud of our achievements and our writing is developing beautifully. Here are some images of us using our new writing tubes and completing some book reviews independently in the reading area

And finally, we wanted to share just a little more of our learning about numbers and shapes with you. We have had a great week finding out about numbers, counting, adding, doubling and making number sentences. Here is a photograph of some independent work on the whiteboard in class.

Have a great weekend and join us again next week to look at more Monster Maths work. Staff and children in Reception W

Week ending 2nd April 2015

Welcome back to Reception W's blog. This week we have been busy learning about the Easter story. We started the week off thinking about what happened in the Easter Story and we talked about our own feelings and thoughts and how we can use them to make a positive difference to our own lives and the lives of others.

These are some of the quotes the children have said ....

Megan - Jesus was inside a cave

Alfie - Hot cross buns have a white cross on them

Kacey - Jesus was born again to help his friends

We have also been busy developing our skills when following instructions. We talked about the recipe and what we needed to do to make bunny bread. Yes you did read it correctly, bunny bread. Here is a picture of the recipe and the finished product. This is what we said after tasting them...

Mmmmmm they taste good - Harvey Lee

They are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside - Lewis

We also thought about patterns and shapes when learning about Easter. We looked at the packaging of eggs and looked at colours, patterns and shapes and talked about and designed our own. We made repeating patterns using different shapes and colours. It was great fun!

We also had a great time on our Easter Bonnet parade, the hats looked amazing and the children loved showing them off to everyone in the school. We talked about how everyone's looked different and that they were all equally special, just like we are! Here is a photograph of us, 1,2,3 Happy Easter! Smile!

We also did an experiment. We hid lots of different objects inside large plastic eggs and then talked about whether we thought they were heavy or light and we predicted whether they would sink or float in a bowl of water. Here is Suzanne weighing using her hands and testing her predictions

We are so very excited about our Easter picnic. We are going to have an Easter egg hunt outside (lets hope it doesn't rain, an Easter picnic and pin the tail on the Easter Bunny. All that's left for us to do is to wish you all a very happy and relaxing Easter and we will see you all again rested and ready to learn on the 20th April. Reception staff and children.

Week ending 27th March 2015

This week we have been learning all about Australia. We started the week off looking at the differences and similarities between Australia and all of the other countries that we have been learning about and this is what we found out.......

Chloe - I know that there is desert in Australia and lots of animals live there

Alfie - If you throw a boomerang it will come back to you

Dylan - Kangaroos have a baby in their pouch

 

In PE this week we moved like different Australian animals, we slithered like snakes, bounced like Kangaroos and climbed like a Koala. We had a great time and this helped us to develop our knowledge of what happens to our bodies after we exercise.

We looked at some boomerangs and thought carefully about how they were made, what from and what decorations they had on them. We learned that if they are thrown correctly they will come back - we didn't try inside the classroom just in case they didn't come back! 

What we did do is design our own boomerangs, they look amazing, we talked about colours, shape and textures and why they had certain patterns and animals. Take a look at our work.

We also followed a recipe to make Anzac biscuits, we learned about ingredients, why they were made and followed it step by step. This is the result. We had them for snack. They tasted delicious. 

The following day after tasting our delicious biscuits we got busy writing our own recipe so that if anyone ever wanted to try to make Anzac biscuits we could help them. We are so proud of our writing skills, they are developing all of the time, this is because we practice in lots of different ways. Take a look at our detailed recipes. 

In learning about Australia we talked about the history of the country and learned about the Aboriginal people who lived there. We looked at lots of examples of pictures that they created using dots and mainly about wildlife. We then used this information to help us make our own pictures. This took a lot of fine motor control and concentration and focus on the task and these are the results. We are so very proud of our work and rightly so. 

So many children have brought us in daffodils and other flowers on their way to school so we thought we would learn a little more about them. We talked about the different kinds of plants and flowers that would grow in Australia and compared them to what would grow in England. We developed our observational drawing skills and this is the outcome. We talked about shading, light and dark and how to blend. 

On Friday we developed our Maths skill by holding a doubling and halving picnic. Pictures to follow. We hope that you have a great weekend and please come back to our blog next week because next week we are learning about Easter. Reception staff and children x 

Week ending 20th March 2015

Welcome back to our class blog. What another very busy fact filled fun week in Reception W. As you know we are learning about a different country each week and this week we have been learning about England, in particular, London.  We have talked about the different iconic buildings that are in London, looking at Big Ben, London Eye and Buckingham Palace. We used a map to locate these buildings and talked about their structure, what they are made from and their varying sizes. We then set about creating our very own 3D structure. We used a variety of resources and worked together as a team developing our turn taking skills, conversation and ability to work together as part of a team. 

We have also been looking at the fruit and vegetables that are grown in England. We compared and talked about how these are very different to the fruit and vegetables grown in other countries that we have learned about. Here is Abbie using a magnifier to investigate the vegetables. We learned a lot of new language linked to textures and smells whilst taking part in this activity. 

We have also taken our new knowledge about England into the construction area. Here we have been designing and building structures, talking about shapes, sizes and what materials would be best used to build with. Here is a picture of Suzanne with her design of Tower Bridge. Just look at the detail on her design and how similar it looks to her model. Well done.

We have also been really busy preparing for our afternoon tea party. I am sure the children have told you just how exciting it was. There was a lot of work that went into organising it and a lot of learning took place as well. We decorated our table cloths and wrote lots of different words all over them linked to afternoon tea. Have a look at our fantastic writing 

We had an amazing time. Even Mrs Peet one of our governors joined us and commented on just how hard we had worked and how well behaved we were. We make all of the grown ups in our room so very proud. Here is what we thought of afternoon tea .......

Alfie - Oh wow I loved it. It was so much fun. I know all about England now and i made the London Eye.

Logan - I love the scones. I had cream and jam

Jenson - Mmmmmmmmm

What can we say? a definite success.

 

Next week the children have decided that they would like to learn more about Australia. If you have anything at home that you think may help us in our learning then please bring it into school. Thank you!

 

Also thank you to all of those parents who attended our parents evenings. I am sure you will agree that the work and effort you saw in your child's learning journey was fantastic. We have learned so very much and will continue to do so.

Week ending Friday 13^th March 2015

Thank you for taking the time to come back and visit our blog.  Yet again we have worked our socks off this week. Each week we are taking a new country and learning as much as we can about it. We are finding it so very interesting and we now know just how important books and the computer are in helping us find out information. So this week has been all about India.

 

At the start of the week we thought about the differences and similarities between Indian food and English food, we learned about exotic spices and samples some poppadum’s, chapatti’s and naan bread along with mango chutney. This is what we said about our tasting session ……..

Alfie – I like the poppadum’s, they are round like a circle and crunchy like crisps

Chloe – It’s very spicy and smells fruity

 

 

We also have been busy making and learning about dream catchers. We thought about our wishes and what is important to us and kept this in our minds when we started to create. This was really interesting and there was a lot of problem solving involved for example, how could we make the holes, how could we thread the string, what different ways could we attach the feathers. We thought out loud and shared our ideas and tested them. Amazing. These are now on display in our reading corner and every visitor we have had in our room has commented on how good they look.

We have also been learning about the weather and climate in India.  We have talked about and learned about the sunsets and how the colours all merge together and light up the sky. We used tissue paper and watered down glue to make our own Indian sunsets, we developed our tearing skills and talked about top to bottom and left to right orientation as well as developing our hand eye co-ordination. So much learned from just 1 activity. We are now going to add animals to these sunsets and put them on display.

We have also been learning about celebrations and festivities and how they are celebrated in different cultures. We have spent some time looking at and making Rangoli pictures and Mehndi patterns. We loved these. We talked about colours, textures, sizes and patterns. We focused and concentrated really carefully on what we were doing. The results are outstanding. We have made 1 giant display of all of our learning so that when it is parents evening we can celebrate our hard work and achievements. 

We also developed our senses, we talked about Indian cuisine being beautifully created with lots of different spices. We created our own smell pots. We used ingredients such as coffee beans, tomato sauce, mixed spices, oranges and placed all of these into little pots. Then the tricky bit, we used a blindfold to cover our eyes and then used our sense of smell to try and guess what was inside the pots. This was really interesting.  Some of them were difficult to identify but we could talk about and share our opinions regarding what we liked and what we disliked.  

On Friday we are going to celebrate Red Nose Day. We can’t wait to post a picture of us joining in with the celebrations so watch this space!

 

Remember to come back to read our blog next week and find out what we have learned about Great Britain.  Have a great weekend. Staff and children in Reception W.

p.s. If anyone has any empty pringles tubes we will be more than happy to take them off your hands. Pictures to follow! 

Week ending 6th March 2015

Hello and welcome back to our blog. We have so much we want to share with you this week. As you know we have been learning about Africa. We have thought about the similarities and differences between England and Africa. We have found out so much information and we have really learned such a lot. Take a look below.....

We looked at the different types of clothing and talked about why they were so different, we learned about the weather, the types of homes that might be built and about why certain foods can only come from hot countries. Here we are making and taking about patterns when making African bracelets. As part of this activity we learned about shapes, patterns, size and the importance of jewellery to different cultures. It was very interesting!

In learning about the climate and weather in Africa we used a giant map of the world and we collected lots of different labels from food packaging, thank you to all those people who brought them in, we then looked at where our food comes from, why it comes from certain countries and we recorded this on a map. We found out lots of information such as fruit grows best in hot counties, lots of spices come from India and that here in Britain we have a lot of chocolate produced. Here is our map. 

We also learned about Khamsa hand, our helping hands, we talked about the things that we need our hands to do and how important they are to us in our everyday life. We learned that these hands are decorated in lots of bright, rich colours and that they show our hands are important and very precious.

This is what some of us said about how we use our hands .....

Jenny - I use my hands to eat my dinner

Alfie - I use my hands for lots of things and I like helping my friends with things

Georgia - I use my hands to write and draw pictures.

As you can see we have thought very carefully about our hands and what we do with them.

We have also been busy weaving using the patterns that we would see on African animals. We talked about shades of colours, patterns and texture, we described how we thought these animals would feel if we could really touch them. This is what we said .......

Phoebe - I think an elephant would feel lumpy and bumpy

Chloe - I think a giraffe would be fluffy and soft

Logan - I think a tiger would be hard

We had an amazing time celebrating World Book Day and we did lots of activities linked to reading and books. The costumes were fantastic and thank you to everyone who got into the spirit and brought their favourite book into school, we had our photograph taken and have written clues about different characters, very soon these will be on display in the classroom so feel free to come inside and take a look at them. For now, here is a picture of the class dressed up. Say cheese!

Please remember to visit our blog again next week as we will be learning all about India. We will be developing our knowledge and using the computer and books to find out more information about this fascinating country. We hope that you have a great weekend. From the staff and children in Reception W.

Week ending 27th February 2015

Hi and welcome back to our class blog.

Firstly can we say Kung Hei Fat Choi!

I am sure you know what this means as this week we have been learning all about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated. We have found out so much information from using the book and the computer. Take a look at what we have been doing!

We also have been developing our fine motor skills. We looked at Chinese fans and made our own. We used silver and gold pens and decorated them with symbols, blossom and dragons. We folded the paper in a concertina fold and secured the ends. We had such a good time doing this and we now can fold any size of paper. Here we are in action.

We have been learning about how to write using Chinese symbols. We looked on the Internet and found a website that would translate our names into Chinese symbols and then we used a real Chinese writing set to copy it. They look fantastic, we really had to look carefully and copy what we could see.Come into our class and take a look at them on display. 

We also looked at the food aspect of Chinese New Year celebrations. We used chopsticks to eat our snack consisting of noodles. It was very tricky but after a while we managed to master it. They tasted delicious. 

We also transformed our role play area into a Chinese restaurant. We talked about the different roles we could be, we talked about the language we could use and we learned about money. Here we are having a great time eating our 'pretend' noodles. One very happy customer! 

We also found out about how people decorate their houses to celebrate Chinese New Year. We talked about the use of lanterns and made our own to decorate our Chinese restaurant. We had to cut carefully on the lines and follow a series of instructions, listening carefully and doing as we were asked.They make a welcome addition to our restaurant. Here is Laiba, look at the concentration as she cuts. Fantastic! 

We also made Chinese drums. We developed lots of skills such as following instructions, problem solving, matching shapes, threading and much more. We are going to use them to make our own dance to Chinese music. 

Please remember to come back and visit our blog again next week, we are going to be learning about the World for the next 5 weeks and we are going to be finding out information and doing activities linked to a different country each week. Next week is Africa, if you have any information, ideas or photographs that you would like to share with us please send them into school with your child. Thank you!

Week ending Friday 13th February

We have had such an amazing and very busy and productive week.

 

We started the week off with the really friendly people from WCLT who came to work alongside us in the classroom on Monday. We talked about all of the things we had learned during the 5 week programme, ranging from why we need to eat a variety of foods to how long we need to clean our teeth for and how often. 

 

We have also been thinking about the different things we can do to stay healthy. This is what some of the children said

Alfie – running around and exercise makes you healthy

Chloe – Being happy can make you healthy

Nathan – drinking lots of water makes your brain work

 

We thought about the variety of things we eat for snack and thought about something we could make that would be healthy and warm us up on a cold winter’s day; we came up with the idea of soup. We chopped lots of different vegetables into small pieces and placed them into a pan, we boiled them and blended them and made a really tasty, homemade soup. Delicious!

 

We also used the balances to weigh different foods, we talked about how we could use our hands to weigh things and learned some new language such as heavier than and lighter than. We then started to order different food and talked about things that were heavier than and lighter than others. A great learning experience.

We looked at the biggest set of teeth we have ever seen and got to busy using a toothbrush and toothpaste and times ourselves cleaning them for 2 minutes, this was great fun and we could really see exactly where we needed to scrub and what our teeth look like at the back of our mouth. 

 

We have also taken our staying healthy theme into the maths area, we talked about numbers, what comes before and after a given number and some of us ordered them from 0 – 20. Try asking us a tricky question; we are really good at identifying 1 more and 1 less. 

 

And finally, our Chatterbox challenge, thank you for your donations. We have really helped to make a difference to this very worthwhile cause. Here we are doing the actions to See the Little Bunnies

 

The staff in Reception W would like to wish you all a relaxing weeks holiday and we cant wait to see you all again on Monday 23^rd February. Bye for now

Week ending 6th February 2015

What another fantastic week we have had. We have been very busy this week learning all about staying healthy and what kind of things we can do to look after our bodies.  Firstly, we learned about the importance of exercise, we talked about why we need to exercise and what happens to our bodies before and after exercising. We took a 1 minute challenge and talked about how our heart was beating before the exercise and then after the 1 minute we placed our hands on our heart and talked about why is was beating faster.

We then went into the hall with the staff from Wigan Culture and Leisure trust and talked about how we need to eat the right types of food to stay healthy, we learned all about food that we eat that we call treats and the food we eat everyday like fruit and vegetables that help our bodies to work. We used a wrap and lots of different types of vegetables and made a happy smiley face. We also talked about how being happy was another way in which we could help ourselves to stay healthy and safe.

We also made ourselves a healthy fruit salad for snack. We talked about where different fruit comes form, what it feels like, what it smells alike and perhaps most important what it tastes like. Safely, we used knives and set about cutting up the fruit into smaller chunks. Whilst doing this we talked about how we needed to keep ourselves safe and look after each other.

 

We also then made ourselves a healthy lunchbox. We looked at lots of different types of food and talked about how they gave us energy, made our bones and teeth strong and why we need to have some fatty foods in our diet. Here we are with our healthy lunchboxes

 

 

 

We also have been thinking about our chatterbox challenge rhyme and I am sure that the children have told you all about or new song. The theme for the chatterbox challenge is Ben and Holly and their garden adventures. So the first rhyme we have been singing is called Royal Fairy Picnic Time – log onto www.chatterboxchallenge.org.uk to find the words and you too can join in with the challenges at home.

 

In fact, speaking of singing we have also changed the words to another well-known song – If you’re happy and you know it to If you’re healthy and you know it. Here are the words.

 

Healthy Song (To the tune of ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’)

To stay healthy you should always eat good food

To stay healthy you should always eat good food

If you’re healthy and you know it and you really want to show it

To stay healthy you should always eat good food

 

You need lots of fruit and veggies in your diet

You need lots of fruit and veggies in your diet

You need apples, you need peas

You need bananas, and green beans

You need lots of fruit and veggies in your diet!

 

You need cereals and bread and pasta too

They’re all carbohydrates and they’re good for you

You need cereals and bread - and rice and pasta too

They give you energy for what you need to do!

 

You need protein to make your body grow

You need protein to make your body grow

You need fish and meat and eggs, if you want strong legs

Yes you need protein to make your body grow!

 

And you must not eat too many snacks and treats

Have an apple and not a bag of sweets

Always eat your 5 a day

To keep those illnesses away

And eat fruit and veggies as your snacks and treats.

 

When you’re thirsty you really need to think

Always try to choose a really healthy drink

Go for water and milk

Not coke or something pink

Always try to choose a really healthy drink!

 

To link in with our chatterbox challenge we have also been busy designing and making our own fairy-tale and elf castles. We thought about how we needed to design it before we could begin to construct it. Have a look at some of our amazing designs. The children took so much care and attention when creating them and were rightly proud of their work.

 

 

Remember to visit our blog again next week to find out what we have been learning about in class. Have a great weekend. Staff and Children in Reception W

 

 

Week ending 30th January 2015

Welcome back to our Superhero blog Part 2!!!

This week we have explored Superheroes in a very different way. We first had to pretend to be a detective, we had been left a note from Batman explaining that someone had frozen his Superhero friends and could we help him to think of different ways to defrost them. 

We also developed our investigation skills further by using a balloon, piece of string and a straw. We attached the string to two cupboards and threaded the straw on. We then blew the balloon up and watched it go, we were amazed at just how far our homemade Superhero rocket went propelled by air. 

We also developed our maths skills. We used tin foil and pretended that they were pieces of moon rock. We used balances ad talked about heavy, light, heavier than and lighter than. It was so much fun leanring about how to make the balances level. Here we are in action.

Tin foil features heavily in our plans this week. We used pipe cleaners, foil and materials and combined all of these materials to make our own bendy Superhero figures. These are now on display in our classroom, come inside and take a look at them.

Don't forget that we are asking the children to come dressed as their favourite Superhero on Friday this week, we are going to have a Superhero party to celebrate all of our hard work. 

We even managed to fit in a game of pin the spider on spider man, giving each other clues about which direction to go in - go forwards, move to the left, turn to the right. It was great fun! 

We also had a special visitor! Can anyone guess who this is?

We hope you have a great weekend. Staff and Children in Reception W

Week ending 23rd January 2015

Crash, Bang, Kapow, Boom!!!! What an amazing superhero week we have had in class. We started the week off by creating very detailed paintings about Superheroes. We studied their costumes, talked about their powers and thought about how they help others. Take a look at our work. 

We also created our own comic strip. We dressed up as Superheroes an used a computer programme to insert speech bubbles. We thought about what a superhero might say and this is the result!

We pretended that we could fly and made a space in the classroom and create a role play area where we used boxes as houses and a sparky curtain was used to make the night sky. We had such a lot of fun! 

We also got busy in the creative area. We used various boxes and containers and designed and made our own superhero rocket. We continue to show again and again just what fantastic imaginations we have in Reception W.

We have also been busy in the other areas of the classroom. We changed different areas and transformed our writing areas into a Superhero station and a Frozen writing corner. These areas have been so popular and the writing the children have produced this week has been great!

We have also developed our number skills through the theme of Superheroes. We attached Superhero numbers to skittles and rolled the ball and counted how many we had knocked down, how many were still standing and some of us even managed to add 2 numbers together. Amazing!

We also developed our knowledge of speech bubbles in text and what they mean. Look at Lacie's writing using speech bubbles 

Thank you for looking at our blog. Have a great weekend. Staff and Children in Reception W

Week ending 16th January 2015

Thank you for returning to look at our blog. As promised last week, this week we have been learning all about farm animals. We have talked about how they differ to other animals and why their needs are different. We have spent some time this week busy researching. We have learned that by using the Internet and books we can find out lots of valuable and important information.

We started off thinking about the things we already knew, then we thought about what we wanted to learn and that at the end of the week we finished off our work by thinking about and discussing with our friends all of our new learning. These are now on display in our classroom. Please make the time to come and read them we are sure that you will be very impressed!

We also developed our classification skills. We looked at a range of different animals, talked about where they live, what they eat and whether they were a wild animal, mini-beast, farm or sea creature. Then we sorted them into the correct habitat and talked about why and how we knew these to be true. We have now learned so much new vocabulary and are generating our own questions that we want to find the answer to.

We have also been busy practising our segmenting and blending both as part of Read Write Inc and in the classroom. We are really good at saying the letter sounds and putting letters together to make words and reading them. Here are some of us showing off our skills.

This week sees the start of our Maths bags, thank you to those parents who remembered to return them on Friday as requested, if you haven't yet returned your bag please do so on Monday so that we can swap them and send home another fun and exciting maths activity for your child. Please don't worry if your child hasn't had a bag as of yet we are working on an 8 week cycle and every child will receive one at some stage of the term.

And last but not least .......

Thank you to all of those parents who brought in a superhero costume. Here is a sneak peek as to what we will be doing with them next week!

Have a great weekend.

Week ending 9th January 2015

Happy New Year! Welcome back to our class blog and we can't wait to show you what we have been learning about in 2015!

 

This week we started to learn all about animals and their habitats. We have learned so much about jungle animals, talking about rain forests and the types of conditions you will find there. We talked about the animals and what food they eat and why they chose to live in the jungle. 

 

We have also looked at patterns and we made hand prints and then used pastels to add the detail to them. The are now on display in class and they look truly amazing. 

We have also been thinking about the written clues we could give to people to help them identify the animal. We started our clue off with I spy something beginning with .....

 

We also played a memory game and talked about the Mother and Baby animals when trying to find a matching pair. Jack P said " I know that's the mummy elephant because she has big ears"  what a great explanation! 

We also used our observation skills to look closely at jungle animals and to paint them including as much detail as possible. We obviously have some very talented artists in our class. These are now on display in our classroom, please come in and take a look at them. 

Next week we will be learning all about farm animals and finding out about where they live, what they eat and learning some new interesting facts. Have a great weekend. Staff and Children in Reception W

Week ending 12th December

We have had an amazing week this week and we have learned so very many new things.

 

We started the week off thinking about the sights, sounds and smells that are associated with Winter, we used them to help us with our writing. We also developed our skills further by thinking about the colours and textures of baubles and we used shaped paper to write our ideas down.

We were also given a fantastic house with lots of brand new furniture, this has really helped us develop our speaking and listening skills and we have had a great time 'pretending' and taking on different roles. Who would have thought we had such good imaginations.

We also really enjoyed our film night, we had so much fun in the hall with popcorn and biscuits watching Elf. We laughed so much. We thought it was really funny

Chloe - This is so much fun

Ryan - I liked the bit when he hugged the animals

Alfie - Wow, it was just great

We even made our very own Elf masks!

We also made our own Rudolph bags, we are really hoping that Santa's Elf might visit us and fill the bags with something tasty.

We had an amazing time at Underwater Street, there were so many amazing things to see and do. Here are just a few of the exciting things we did......

We have also managed to fit in some practice for our Nativity, we are certain that you are going to be very impressed.

Thank you for visiting our blog and please remember to come back next week and find out how we are spending Christmas Week in Reception. Bye for now

Week ending 21st November 2014

 

We have really enjoyed learning about numbers and what we can do with them this week. We linked it to Autumn and had a great time learning about adding groups together and how to add 1 more and 1 less to a number.

 

We started the week off playing conker bingo, when we matched a number and completed our grid we shouted Bingo!

Alfie said - I love Conker Bingo it's so much fun

Indie said - I said my numbers

 

We then thought about how we could use conkers to make numbers. We had some fantastic ideas and we made many different numbers, here are just a few of them.

We also created leaf crowns. We talked about and identified numbers and then recorded them in the middle of our crowns. Afterwards, we counted out the correct number of leaves and added them to our crowns. Have a look at us in the process of making our crowns

We also thought about the different ways we can record numbers, we talked about using our fingers, writing them down on paper and drawing them in the shaving foam. It was messy but we really enjoyed ourselves.

We also used Autumn to help us develop our writing skills. We thought about the different ways we could describe Autumn colours, we had lots of discussions and we produced some really amazing work. Take a look!

Don't forget that next week we are asking all of the children to bring into school just 1 of their favourite stories so that we can develop our speaking and listening skills and share it with our friends. Please remember to write your child's name in the book so that we can make sure it gets returned. Thank you for your support and if anyone has any empty boxes, or tubes (please not toilet roll tubes) or yoghurt pots we could really use them to help build up our stock of box modelling. Have a great weekend. Reception Staff

Week ending 14th November 2014

 

What an amazingly busy week we have had in class. We just haven't stopped learning. This week we have been busy talking about and learning about Autumn. We have used lots of new describing language and talked about the changing colours and textures. 

We also observed the 2 minute silence on Tuesday and thought about the soldiers and what happened in the war. We watched the 2 minute silence live on the television. We loved looking at all  of the poppies and we even used our cutting skills to make our very own poppies. 

We also had a visitor in our classroom on Wednesday morning. Mrs Houghton came into class to find out all about what we have been learning about numbers. We created tally charts, talked about adding and taking away and showed her how we could count out the correct number of sticks for the squirrel to make a nest. This is just a selection of our work. 

We also went outside when it had stopped raining and recorded some missing number sentences using chalks. We can count forwards and backwards and tell  grown up what number is missing. We are so very clever.

 

We also got busy in the Creative area using paints, feathers and twigs to write numbers. Here is Lewis writing number 8.

We also have spent some time outside creating dens outside for the squirrel and hedgehog. We talked about how best to make the den, what we could use and how to sort out the jobs for the people in our team. 

We also had a fantastic time celebrating Children In Need. Thank you for all your donations and we are sure that they will go a long way to helping make a big difference. 

Please remember to visit our blog again next week to find out what we have been learning about. Have a great weekend.

Week ending 7th November 2014

Hi and welcome back to our blog. We really enjoyed the half term rest and have come back ready and raring to go again. This week we have been learning all about Bonfire Night and we have done some amazing work and we can't wait to show you. Are you ready for this?

 

 

We started the week off learning about how Bonfire Night came to be celebrated. We knew about London and the man called Guy Fawkes and we talked about what he wanted to do. We then followed a series of instructions to make our very own sparklers. We read the recipe and then followed the instructions really carefully and we made chocolate finger sparklers. We watched a story about Bonfire Night and ate them at the same time. 

We described them as ....

Alfie - they are crunchy and delicious

Jamie - Yummy!

Abbie - they make my lips water 

After that we talked a little more about what season Bonfire is celebrated in. So we used a range of autumn objects such as leaves, twigs, conkers and acorn cases and made some ice lanterns. They were amazing. We learned all about how water turns to ice and things that float and things that sink. We had lots of talk and were really pleased when we followed the instructions and our experiment worked. We were even more excited when we lit them and had a story by candlelight.

We also made firework streamers and danced around to music making our fireworks move in different directions from side to side, spinning round and up and down. We had such fun.

We also explored textures and used a range of natural materials to make models. We used our imaginations and created some fantastic examples. Take a look.

We also used chalks and made pictures about fireworks outside. We could draw things really big and use lots of different colours. Look at Thomas's sparkler.

This is our amazing Bonfire Night collage, we used glitter, shiny paper, twigs and stitched it all together. We then thought about some words that we would associate with the sounds on Bonfire Night. Come and have a look at it in our role play area.

We made our own pictures using twigs, leaves, conkers and more. We designed our picture and thought about what we wanted to make. We have taken lots of photographs and put them in our learning journeys. 

Join us again next week to find out what we have been learning about. Have a great weekend.  

Week ending 24th October 2014

Well we have had yet another very busy week and we have been learning so very much. We started the week off learning all about what we would be doing in our celebration assembly on Friday afternoon. Shhhhh we can't say too much as we want it to be a big surprise.

We made some pictures about owls and thought about their size, shape and how they look, we then recorded some of our ideas from the story in speech bubbles. We know all about speech bubbles and that they mean someone is talking. Look at our fantastic work.

We used the owl baby puppets to retell the story. What good memories we have. We remembered all of the parts and we loved using different voices when we pretended to be Bill, Sarah and Percy.

We made our own salt dough and used it along with straw and leaves and twigs to make nests. We will be showing off our work at the end of our assembly but here is a sneak peek.

We have also been thinking about the different seasons and we have been learning about Autumn. We explored different natural materials and explored how we could use them to paint. We talked about light and dark strokes, scratchy twigs and fluffy feathers and how we can create different texture. This shows us busy in the creative area.

We have also created portraits about our friends. We used mirrors and spent a lot of time looking at our friends and talking about what colour hair they have, what colour eyes etc and then using pastels to create our images. We have some very talented artists in Reception W. Take a look at our work.

Don't forget our assembly on Friday afternoon at 2.30. We are so excited to welcome you into school for our very first Reception assembly.

We hope you have a fantastic weeks holiday. Enjoy the rest!

Reception Team

Week ending 17th October

We have been busy this week learning all about the Owl Babies. We have been thinking about how the babies felt when their Mummy had gone hunting. We had some fantastic discussions and generated some great work.

We used a range of natural materials such as twigs, leaves, conkers and pine cones to create a nest for the owl babies. We talked about textures, sizes and how to make a strong nest. 

We also create owls using playdough and other natural materials, we talked about how to make the owls wings and what would make a good beak, we have had some amazing models

We also thought about the different features that an owl has. Harvey Lee spent a long time in the creative area and thought really carefully about how he could make the eyes stand out. 

We also have been thinking about and learning about what makes a good friend. We created our own helping hand and sounded out the words using all the things we learned in RWI.

We have also been exploring a range of different media. We used paint, pastels and collage materials and created our own owl babies. They are now on display in the classroom, come inside and take a look. 

We had a wonderful time on the ALPS. We worked in teams of 3 and used lots of different natural materials to make a nest for the Mother Owl and her babies. We used lots of language and shared ideas and worked as a team.

This is what we said when we returned to the classroom.....

Alfie - We need to do this as a team, teamwork!

Jamie - It won't keep them warm we need to use cotton wool

Harvey-Lee - Cotton Wool will make a nice, cosy and warm nest

We also went on a nature walk first thing on Friday morning to collect all of the things we needed to make our owl nests. It was a great adventure!

Join us again next week and find out more about our celebration and look at some more of our amazing work. 

Week ending 10^th October 2014

We have had such a busy week learning all about letters and the alphabet this week.

 

We started the week off thinking about the initial sounds in our names. We talked about how they look different to the other letters in our name and then got busy finding as many as we could in magazines and newspapers. We also found out lots more information and our detective letter skills are improving all of the time.

Then using cutters we each found the first letter in our names and made our own initial letter sound biscuit, they look and tasted great and when it came to snack time we had great fun finding which one belonged to us.

Also this week, because we are learning about letters, we had alphabet spaghetti. What a fun time we had looking through for a particular letter and then eating it. We enjoyed it. 

In PE we thought about balancing and how we can make quoits and balls move between ourselves and our partner. We worked really well with a partner and it’s all about communicating and talking to each other and working together.

We have also been developing our writing skills. We created I Spy captions and people had to guess what we were describing. We had some great ideas and we can really use our Read Write Inc knowledge to help us identify and write the first sound in different words. Have a look at our work it's looking great.

We have even been learning about letters and making them in the playdough area. 

This week has also been parents evening. Thank you to all those parents who came and we look forward to catching up with some of you next week. Don’t forget we need PE kits and reading bags on a Monday and Read Write Inc bags everyday please.  

Week ending 26th September 2014

What a very busy week we have had in Reception this week learning all about Anna and her amazing magic glasses that when she looked through them turned everything a different colour!

We started the week off making our very own magical binoculars. We had tubes and looked through different coloured cellophane and used scissors and sellotape to join it all together.

In PE we have been thinking about the different ways we can move across a bench. We had lots of great ideas and we are really gaining in confidence and balance when we do this.

We took our magical binoculars around school and looked at how they made things look different for example what happened to the green grass when we looked through our red binoculars? We have learned so much about how colours can change.

We also explored colour mixing using brusho and kitchen paper. We had to wet the paper ever so gently and then carefully drop brusho onto it. It was amazing. The colours mixed into one and this is what we thought ....

Nicola said it was like firework night

Alfie said he could see lots of different colours

Kacey said that she had a t-shirt just the same

We have displayed these in our classroom, come inside and take a look

 

We also explored colour mixing using food colouring and shaving foam. We chose 2 different colours and predicted and tested what we thought might happen when they mixed together. We were surprised with some of the results. We then used the shaving foam to create pictures talking about shapes and patterns and colours.

We have also been busy writing about what we would like to see if we had magic glasses, we have such a good imagination and we have been busy putting into practise all of the new skills we have learned in Read Write Inc.

Next week we will be learning all about patterns. We are going to read the story Aliens love Underpants. We are going to be changing our house into a space rocket. Wow!

 

Remember to look at our blog next week to find out all about what we have learned.

 

Reception boys and girls

Week ending 19th September 2014

Welcome back to our blog. What an exciting week we have had in Reception this week learning all about the Rainbow Fish. First of all we listened to the story and then thought about as many different words as we could to describe how he looks and moves. We then added these words and created a fish mobile and hung it from the ceiling in class. What a clever idea! 

 

We also sorted materials into piles of dull and shiny. We talked about how they felt and whether they reflected the light or not and whether the Rainbow Fish might be able to use them to make his shiny, glittery scales.

We also made rainbow coloured ice lollies and talked about how we colour water, what happens when it goes in the freezer and how the colours mix together to create new colours. It was really exciting and we can't wait to go onto the Alps to eat them!

In learning about dull and shiny fabric we used different types of materials and made alternating patterns when weaving. It was a little tricky but we had great fun and it really has helped us with our hand-eye co-ordination.

We have also been busy developing our understanding of numbers, in particular, what comes before or after a given number.

We have also been very busy in Read Write Inc. We have been learning the letter sounds m, a and s and the children love the rhymes that go with the letters for example ...

m - Maisie mountain mountain

a - Round the apple and down the leaf

s - Slither down the snake

Thank you for remembering to bring your Read Write Inc bags everyday as this helps us to look at the work your child has done at home with you and to celebrate it.

Remember that we ask reading books come back to school on a Monday so that we can change them and please remember to sign your child's reading record so we can see what they have enjoyed reading.

Have a great weekend.

Staff and children in Reception W  

Week ending 12th September 2014

 

Welcome back to our blog!

This week we have been learning all about Elmer and thinking about the things that make him different to other elephants. We listened to stories, looked at pictures and got busy designing our own Elmer designs. Have a look at our pattern work.

 

We have also been thinking and learning about colours, after all, Elmer was special because he was different to the other elephants due to his many colours. So we used our hands and talked about what happens when we mix two colours together. We have discovered many exciting things.

In keeping with our Elmer themed week we made cookies using various ingredients and used an elephant shaped cutter. We then used icing pens to add the colourful detail to Elmer, each one of our cookies looks different and that is what makes them special. How delicious do they look?

We have also been writing about the things that we make each and everyone of us special. We talked about the different things we are good at and how this makes us special. 

Remember to come back and visit our blog next week and find out all about the Rainbow Fish and what he got up to.

Remember to bring your child's reading book back into school to be changed on Monday and that Monday is also our PE day. Have a great weekend! 

Week ending 5th September 2014

 

What a fantastic end to our first week in Reception. We started the week off by learning all about the story Giraffes Can't Dance. We have been so very busy learning about the author and the illustrator and what their job is all about.

 

We made posters advertising the dance and we are going to put these on display in our classroom.

 

We also painted pictures about giraffes and talked about their long necks, long legs and swishy tails.

 

Towards the end of the week we decided to use salt dough and to creates models about giraffes. Just have a look at some of the amazing 3d models we made.

 

We have also had a great time exploring our classroom both inside and out!

This is what we think about the outside area so far ....

Harley said "I had a great time with the bats and ball"

Alfie said "I loved rolling the hoops"

Lewis said "All that running round makes me so tired"

We also explored our creative area and we used lots of different resources and tools to make pictures about where the story was set. We thought about colour, shapes and designed our pictures first.

Next week we will be bringing home a reading book for the very first time. We are all so excited about that!

 

Remember, PE is on a Monday morning and we need to have our PE kits in school for then.

Next week we are going to be learning all about Elmer the Elephant and in particular, all about colours and patterns and shape. Remember to look at our blog again next week to find out what a great time we had.

 

See you all again next week