Donaldson Class

Reception - Mrs Cossey & Mrs Hilton


We are a lively happy class full of enthusiastic 4 and 5-year-olds who love learning, playing and investigating.  We have chosen the name Donaldson after the famous Julia Donaldson, she inspires so many of our English lessons as well as all areas of the curriculum.  We absolutely love reading her stories and learning new things from them.  We are so excited when a new book comes out and can't wait for our teachers to read these to us! Listen to what we have to say about our favourite books.....  

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The Ugly Five 

"He has a cheeky grin on his face"

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Stick Man 

"It has the Christmas Tree in it"

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Tyranasaurus Drip

"It's got my really favourite pictures inside"

Donaldson Topic Web Summer 1 2024.pdf

Enrichment Week 2024 - Wow! What an amazing week we had! We were joined by Little Einstein Class for science workshops, forest school adventures and we visited The Tara International Kadampa Retreat (Buddhist) Centre and Conkers.  The children and staff all had a wonderful week and learned lots along the way. Please scroll through the photos below to see what we got up to.




Outdoor Learning 

We absolutely love learning outdoors - Look at what we have been getting up to in January! 

Colour mixing learning about primary colours 

Learning about colour and fine motor with journey sticks 

Building temples and churches in the construction area. 

Reading the bible in continuous provision - looking for our favourite story

Bird Feeders 

This half term we have been learning all about the seasons and what happens in the winter when the birds don't have anything to eat.  

We made bird feeders to hang on the fence to encourage the birds to come and so we can make sure they have something to eat whilst the ground is hard. 

George Seurat Artist Focus 

We have been learning all about the artist George Seurat - we know that he lived in Paris in France and that he used dots of different colours to make his artwork.  We loved trying this out and are looking forward to creating our very own George Seurat inspired artwork. 


Spring Term Outdoor Fun!


We've thoroughly enjoyed getting back outside and having lots of fun in our outdoor area.  We have enjoyed using the big easel to paint and use our knowledge and learning in art to paint and draw.  We love using the large bricks to create large scale construction - we especially loved the house we built that we could go inside.   The mud kitchen is always so much fun too! 

Custard Powder Investigation 

We loved investigating custard powder and how we can hold it in our hands and it could also dribble through our fingers! Look at the mess we made! 

Christmas Gingerbread Making 

What fun we had making gingerbread in the last week before Christmas - We had to work really hard to roll out the dough! 

We had the best time in the forest when we visited.  We looked at where animals might be able to find food, the water and how thr animals might get across and we also played some forest team games.  We had so much fun and can't wait to visit again! 

Subitising Number 4 and 5  

We have been super keen to find different ways of showing numbers - we focused today on numbers 4 and 5.  We used lots of different resources to show how we can make number 4 and 5.



Donaldson Class have been eagerly building bridges this half term.  We had to work hard to find ways of making the bridges wider and taller without letting them fall into the river!



We LOVE having our grown ups in school to join in with our learning.  This half term we invited our grown ups to help us with our art work - collage our faces in the style of Eric Carle.  


Maths Glorious Maths! 

Autumn weighing using a range of practical objects - Which one is the heaviest? 

What better way to spend an Autumn day than making mud pie cupcakes? 

Autumn Fun Outdoors 



Donaldson Class have loved being able to get outside and have lots of water play this week.  We have been making potions, exploring pouring with water beads and painting the planters with water to practise our gross motor. 




Donaldson Class have been getting stuck into the mud kitchen and planting some bulbs and flowers into our new beds to make our outdoor area look beautiful. 

Donaldson Class had a wonderful time this week learning to ride bikes on our bike ability experience day. It was very rainy and wet but we worked really hard to ride without the stabilisers - Look at us go!