Copper Valley Infant and Nursery
Academy
Class Blog for Reception
February 2026
We've been learning about what homes were like in the past. We talked about our kitchens now and the appliances we have in them. We discussed the fact that many of these need electricity in order to work. We then watched a short video about kitchens in the past. We talked about things that were different to our kitchens now. We learnt about how people washed their clothes using a dolly peg, washboard and mangle. We then moved on to talking about bathrooms. We watched another short video about bath time in the past and talked about the fact that most houses didn't have a bathroom. We then sorted objects into two different sets according to whether they are found in our homes now or were found in them in the past.
In RE we talked about places that are special to us and why they are special. We talked about the fact that churches are special places for Christians. We looked at some photographs of churches and some of the objects found inside them. We also watched a short video showing some of the features of a church. We then visited our local church and drew some of the features.
In maths, we've been learning about doubles. We've been practising what we've learnt during continuous provision. We've sorted dominoes according to whether they're doubles or not, made playdough spots for the ladybirds and drawn spots on butterflies to make doubles. During some of our lessons we learnt how to compare the weight of objects and how to use balances to identify which is the heaviest and which is the lightest. We then used the balances to weigh the fruit and vegetables when selling food on the market stall.
In PE we've been learning to make various shapes with our bodies. We've been focusing on keeping stable with straight arms and legs and while pointing our toes. We've also been learning to balance on various parts of our bodies.
After half term we focused on activities to develop the children's perseverance. I gave the children some challenges to have a go at. These included balancing a ball on a tennis racquet whilst walking across the hall, making a card house, bouncing a ball into a bowl and throwing darts at a target board. They also had some that involved working together with a partner. These included walking along with a large ball pressed against their backs and seeing how many bears they could save from the lava using only 3 cups and 5 lolly sticks. Many of the children found some of these activities very difficult but they kept on trying. We talked about how they were being determined like a dung beetle. We also talked about how they felt when they managed to achieve what they set out to do.
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January 2026
We've been learning about winter and the changes that occur. We started by looking at the trees and then moved onto talking about the weather with a particular focus on ice. We predicted what we thought would happen when we added cold water, hot water and salt to ice cubes. We then observed what happened and talked about whether our predictions were correct. We were challenged to see if we could pick up the ice cubes using string. We also investigated what happened when we painted the ice. We added salt and paint to see what happened. We also investigated how to get toys that were frozen in the ice out.
We then looked at maps. We started off by looking at a map of the United Kingdom. We looked at where England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were located. We also identified Cornwall and discussed the fact that this is the county that we live in. We then looked at a map of our local area. We identified our school, the roads, fields, houses and woods. We then switched the map view to an aerial photograph and compared the two. Next, we looked at a map of Gunnislake and identified the features that were the same as the area around our school. We also identified where the river was and the bridge that crosses over it. We drew our own maps. We thought carefully about the colours and shapes used on the maps we had looked at to show the different features. Later in the week we compared where we live to Plymouth. We talked about Plymouth and whether the children had been there. We discussed what it was like. Were there any things that were the same as our school area? Were there any differences? We looked at a map of Plymouth city centre and compared it to the map of our local area. We then sorted some of the features found in the two different places.
Next we learnt about people in our community who help us. We looked at a poster showing lots of different people who help us. We identified the people and discussed what they do and how they help us. We then took part in various activities throughout the week which helped us learn more about some of these people. We learnt about some of the people who work in hospitals such as doctors, nurses, surgeons and receptionists. We then made a hospital and took on some of the roles of these people. The children were really caring towards each other. This was also a great opportunity for the children to practise their writing as they made notes about their patients symptoms and treatments. We watched a short video about firefighters and learnt how it's really important that they stay fit and healthy in order to do their job. We talked about the importance of smoke alarms in our houses to warn us if a fire starts and what to do if this happened. We also practised the stop, drop, roll move in case any of our clothes ever caught on fire.
We learnt the number to call if we need help but that it's important to only call in a real emergency. We enjoyed a visit from some carers and residents from a local care home. They told us all about their home and how the carers help the people who live there. We enjoyed dressing up in the protective equipment the carers use.
In PE we've been practising finding our own space using the spot markers. We've also practised moving in lots of different ways, such as sidestepping, crawling, jogging and skipping, taking care to avoid bumping into anyone or anything. We've learnt how to make some gymnastic shapes with our bodies. Some of these included the straddle, pike, arch and dish. We've also been practising how to balance on various parts of our body.
In maths we've been learning a lot about the composition of numbers and have investigated number bonds for numbers to 7. The children have been brilliant at practising these skills independently during continuous provision and in drawing club. We've also been focusing on counting backwards as the children are now all very confident at counting forwards.
Our phonics learning continues everyday and the children have now moved onto reading and writing short sentences. We're also learning to read and spell words with four sounds.
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Spring 2026
Happy New Year! Please see the newsletter below to find out what we'll be learning about this term.
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December 2025
We've been learning about the Arctic. We looked at a globe and identified where we live and where the North Pole is. We discussed the difference in the weather and the day length. We then watched a video of the northern lights and created our own representations using chalk and oil pastels. Later in the week we learnt how to change colours and types of brush to create different effects on a drawing app. We then used these new skills to create representations of the northern lights on the iPads.
We read the story 'Poles Apart' and discussed the fact that polar bears and penguins do not live in the same place. We identified where they both live on a globe. We then made polar bears and penguins which was great for practising our cutting skills. We also made our reading area into a snowy land. The children were challenged to look at the pictures and write down a list of 5 animals they might see if they went to the Arctic. I was impressed that everyone remembered that penguins don't live there!
In maths we've been continuing to learn number facts, practise our counting and subitising skills. We've also been learning about 2d shapes.
We've been very busy practising our nativity. The children have demonstrated fantastic listening and attention skills to learn the 10 different songs and have shown great enthusiasm when performing these using different dance moves and actions. I was so impressed with the confidence they showed to get up on the stage to perform to their families.
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November 2025
We learnt about Bonfire night and why we celebrate this. We created fireworks pictures and discussed how to stay safe around bonfires and fireworks.
On Tuesday 11th November we observed the two minutes silence. We talked about why we wear poppies and made some of our own to wear.
A big focus this month has been on the importance of listening to each other and working together. We worked with partners to complete various activities. These included building tall towers with bricks and working together to create a picture of a monster. We filmed the children whilst they completed these and then watched some clips from the videos. We discussed the different behaviour that we could see. We also looked at children's facial expressions and talked about how we thought they were feeling and why. We discussed any changes we could make to ensure that in the future everyone is listened to and that their ideas are valued. We then tried completing some activities with partners again. After each activity we talked about how we felt and whether our partner was listening to us and letting us take part in the activity. The children now all recognise how we should work together with a partner and have had many opportunities to do this. They are all developing the listening, negotiation and communication skills in order to do this successfully.
On Tuesday 11th November we observed the two minutes silence. We talked about why we wear poppies and made some of our own to wear.
A big focus this month has been on the importance of listening to each other and working together. We worked with partners to complete various activities. These included building tall towers with bricks and working together to create a picture of a monster. We filmed the children whilst they completed these and then watched some clips from the videos. We discussed the different behaviour that we could see. We also looked at children's facial expressions and talked about how we thought they were feeling and why. We discussed any changes we could make to ensure that in the future everyone is listened to and that their ideas are valued. We then tried completing some activities with partners again. After each activity we talked about how we felt and whether our partner was listening to us and letting us take part in the activity. The children now all recognise how we should work together with a partner and have had many opportunities to do this. They are all developing the listening, negotiation and communication skills in order to do this successfully.
In maths we've been learning number bonds to 5. We've also been practising our counting skills every day. We've learnt to compare groups of objects and to say whether there are more, fewer or an equal amount.
We've continued to learn different sounds in phonics and have practised using these sounds to read and spell words. We've also continued to practise how to form these letters correctly.
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October 2025
As we've been learning about ourselves I asked the children to draw a picture of themselves. We then looked at their pictures and discussed what was missing or what could be improved. We then came up with some success criteria to help us remember what we needed to draw when drawing ourselves. The children then had another go at drawing themselves whilst checking the success criteria. We then compared the pictures and discussed which was better and why.
In maths we've been learning to recognise 2, 3 or 4 objects, pictures or sounds without needing to count them. We've also started to learn number bonds for 3 and 4. We've been investigating different ways of making these numbers using fingers, beads and objects. In addition to this we've also been learning about capacity.
We've been learning about our fives senses. When exploring our sense of taste the children tasted a variety of foods including lemon, salty crisps, celery, very dark chocolate and milk chocolate. We then talked about whether they liked the taste of the various foods. There was a real mixture in terms of whether they liked the taste or not. Some children liked the crunch and the juiciness of the celery while others thought it was disgusting!
We explored our sense of hearing in a variety of different ways. We went on a listening walk around the school. We closed our eyes and listened to what we could hear. We listened carefully to a piece of music and then had to decide whether we needed to move slowly or quickly, loudly or quietly. We explored making loud, quite, slow and fast sounds with the musical instruments. We also made our own shakers and had great fun dancing to some music!
When learning about our sense of touch we had fun putting our hands in the feely bag and describing what we could feel. The children came up with some fantastic adjectives to describe the different textures. These included fluffy, scrunchy, bumpy, lumpy, smooth, rough and scratchy. We then explored our forest area to find smooth, rough, bumpy, hard and squishy things.
When learning about our sense of sight we took part in a range of activities where the focus was looking carefully and talking about what we saw. We even practised in PE by looking where we were going to avoid others when running around really fast!!
The Rainbow Walking Water Investigation
We set the investigation up and talked about what we thought might happen. We then looked at what had happened the next day and talked about what we could see. "Wow, it's a rainbow!" "It's green because the yellow's gone in and the blue's gone in."
Mixing Colours
We investigated this by painting one hand one colour and our other hand a different colour. We then rubbed them together to see which colour they made when they mixed together. We were also challenged to paint rainbows. We had to mix the colours because we only had red, yellow, blue and white paint.
Bubble Painting
We had so much fun blowing bubbles in the paint! We then experimented with printing different patterns. We talked about all the different colours we could see.
Diwali
One of the children brought some clothes in that her family wear when celebrating Diwali so we had fun dressing up. We also created rangoli patterns using shapes and drew mehndi patterns on hand templates.
One of the children brought some clothes in that her family wear when celebrating Diwali so we had fun dressing up. We also created rangoli patterns using shapes and drew mehndi patterns on hand templates.
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September 2025
We started the term by learning the school rules and have focused on being kind to each other. We looked at photographs of different people and discussed how we thought they were feeling. We talked about what makes us feel happy, sad or angry. We then thought about how we could help our friends if they were feeling sad or angry. We introduced a class reward system so that the children can add beads to the jar when they are being kind to others and when they are following the school rules. The children are very excited about this as when they fill the jar, they can bring a toy into school.
We've been learning about ourselves and how we are all unique. We drew around one of the children and labelled the parts of the body that we knew. We talked about the fact that we have a skeleton inside us and were introduced to 'Mr Bones' a skeleton model. We identified some of the parts e.g. skull, spine and rib cage and talked about why they are important. We then made skeleton pictures by cutting and sticking art straws onto black paper. We also looked in mirrors to look closely at our facial features. We then painted self portraits. Our inside role play area has been a doctors surgery. The children have been brilliant at taking on the different roles such as doctor, patient and receptionist.
In phonics we've been learning letter sounds and have started to blend the sounds together to read simple words. Fred the frog always joins in with phonics and the children have really enjoyed meeting him. We've also started to learn how to write the letters. Some of the children have been taking part in daily dough gym to help strengthen their fingers to enable them to hold a pencil correctly.
In maths we've been learning to recognise 1, 2 and 3 objects without needing to count them. The children are getting very speedy at representing the number of objects using their fingers. We've also been practising our counting skills by counting objects using 1:1 correspondence. We've learnt to sort and match objects and to identify what is the same and different.
In PE we've learnt how to keep safe whilst in the hall. We practised moving around the hall safely without bumping into anyone or anything. We've been practising fundamental skills such as running, jumping and moving in different directions.
In music we listened to a variety of different music from classical to pop. We showed how it made us feel using our facial expressions. We then moved in different ways in response to the music. The children were very good at identifying whether the music made them feel happy or sad. We also learnt to sing a song together, gave ideas on how to change the words and used instruments to express different feelings in the song.
During forest school sessions we've learnt how to carry sticks and branches safely. We've played imaginative games, hunted for bugs and built dens together.
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Welcome to Reception
Please take a look at our newsletter below to see what we will be learning this term.
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