'Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.'
Norman Vincent Peale
What a magical final week of the term we have had here in Reception! Our RE lessons have been filled with Christmas cheer as we have been learning all about Christmas Traditions from around the world. We’ve learned about the Filipino Advent tradition of Simbang Gabi, where people go to church very early in the morning for nine days before Christmas. Families pray together to thank God and prepare for Jesus’ birthday. After Mass, families come together for special hot chocolate and rice cakes, which we enjoyed recreating in our outdoor environment. We also learned how in Mexico, one very special day is called Three Kings Day, celebrated on January 6. On this day, families share a sweet bread called Rosca de Reyes, the Three Kings Cake. The cake is round like a crown and decorated with colourful fruit that looks like jewels. Hidden inside is a tiny baby figure! We had a go a making these cakes in our playdough area; the children couldn’t wait to discover if baby Jesus was in their slice!
Each week we will give you a question that we would like you to think about and discuss together at home. This could be over dinner time as a family, at bedtime, on a walk or even in the car. However you choose to discuss this question is up to you, but the idea is that it will help to give an insight in to what we talk about in school, help children to understand more about themselves or others.
Conversation starter:
Which Christmas tradition is your favourite and why?
What adventures have we been on this week?
We started on Monday by decorating Christmas biscuits and I’m sure you’ll agree, they looked amazing! I hope you enjoyed eating them as much as we enjoyed making them.
On Thursday, we enjoyed our Christmas party together. We even had a special visitor … Father Christmas! We ended the term with the infamous staff panto, where the children were transported into the world of Aladdin! The children loved watching their teachers perform.
Thank you for all the thoughtful gifts and cards, we really appreciate them.
Let’s Celebrate:
This week our certificate and star was voted on by the class. We thought carefully about who had worked hard and is a positive role model in our class.
Well done to our certificate awardees: Some of the comments were: you are a kind friend and you work hard in Phonics. You are such a kind and caring friend, you share and listen on the carpet.
Henry the Dog: Your name came up a few times from lots of children, for being a focused learner and a kind friend.
We agree with all of these comments from the children, well done :)
Important Information and Upcoming Events:
We return to school on Monday 5th January
Reception Plea:
Please can you bring in any old socks, shoes and return any you have borrowed from school we don’t have any left so we are struggling if anyone has an accident or gets wet feetfrom being outside in the rain.
If you have any old baking trays, toasters, kettles, kitchen utensils we would love them for our mud kitchen. Thank you we are grateful for anything you can donate.
Important Reminders:
Polite reminder that we are a Nut free school. Please can you bring in healthy snacks please refer to the poster for suitable snacks, we always have fruit avalible too.
PE
Our PE days are Tuesday (outside) and Friday (inside). On these days, children can come to school in their PE uniform and will remain in this for the day. We kindly ask that velcro trainers (white, black or navy) are worn as this allows the children to be indepoendent when taking their shoes off and putting them back on. Polite reminder that for health and safety reasons, no jewellery is to be worn on PE days. We kindly ask that this is removed at home before coming into school.if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at:
d.drummond@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk
Thank you for all of your support,
have a lovely Christmas break and see you in the New Year.
Miss Drummond, Miss Woodend, Mrs Summersall, Mrs Krol and Mrs Ely