Year R 2022/2023
Welcome to Acorn's Class Catholic Life Page
Please join us on our journey of faith as we learn to explore what it means to be part of God's family. Each week, we will share examples of how we are living out the Jesuit Virtues. We will share special times of prayer as well as the things that we are learning in our religious education. We hope that you will enjoy joining us as we take this important step in our faith life.
During the month of October We are learning to say the Rosary. Our chaplaincy team are helping us to say the Hail Mary and Our Father. Can you learn these prayers at home?
We are learning about the importance of prayer. We know that when we pray we are talking to God and He is listening to us. We are learning to Sign of the Cross. Can you practise talking to God at home at night before bed?
We have been learning about the Sacrament of Marriage. We role played a wedding 💒 we enjoyed learning about the special promise people make to care for each other and their children. We talked about special wedding symbols. Did you know that the ring symbolises a promise to always love each other. It is a circle with no beginning and no end.
We are reflecting upon the wonders of Gods creation. We are exploring all of His gifts in all our learning this half term. We used fruits and vegetables in our art work. We counted using autumn leaves. We have also been learning about how we can use the Bible to find out about how God created the world for us.
In Reception we are reflecting on our first wonderful year in school. We gave thanks for a positive and sucessful year with new friends, teachers and a loving school family. We gathered together in prayer and sang 'Who Made the Twinkling Stars'. We reminded ourselves that prayer is a special and sacred time when we commune with God. We have developed in our prayerfulness and reverence this year so that we were able to sit in quiet thought and contemplation. We each held a special stone that represented our blessings. We took turns to say what we are thankful for and placed our stone in a jar. We have so much to be thankful for!
Thankyou parents for joining us for our parent lunch.
Reception class were fantastic ambassadors for our school. They were caring and observant when feeding and petting the animals. They know to show love and kindness for all of God’s wonderful creation.
We visited the prayer area and said The Hail Mary for our families.
We are learning how Mary is the mother of the Church. We visited Church to find statues and artwork of Mary. We know that we honour Mary when we say Hail Mary.
Reception are learning about the different branches of Christianity ✝️
Reception have been exploring the story of Pentecost through drama, art and song. We reflected upon how the gift of the Holy Spirit encouraged the Disciples to be active and faith filled in spreading the word of God. We will try to share Gods love through our words and actions.
The Paschal candle is an important symbol of the risen Jesus. We created our own Easter candles and decorated them with our chosen symbols that show our love for Him.
We were inspired to retell the Easter Story during free flow activities. Some children used objects to create the empty tomb whilst others role played the last supper.
Reception took part in a Marian assembly and procession. We enjoyed learning about apparitions of Mary from around the world.
May is the month of Mary. We have been learning about apparitions of Mary around the world. We are learning to pray the Hail Mary.
G is living out the Jesuit virtues by being curious and active in his care for God’s creation. He designed a special device to protect the bird feed from squirrels. He was awarded highly commended in the primary engineer project. An engineer in the making!
We shared the story of the Last Supper and thought about how we remember the words and actions of Jesus every time we celebrate the Mass.
Reception were prayerful and reflective during Stations of the Cross led by Y5
We are focussing on the prayer of sorrow during Lent. We know that when we say sorry, we move closer to God.
Reception enjoy exploring religious symbols during play. Some children have chosen to create their own prayer area. Other children were curious about the rosary beads and asked lots of questions about how we use them during prayer.
Reception heard the story of the lost sheep during our ‘Pray & Prepare’ Lenten workshop. We know that when we make the wrong sheep, we become lost like the sheep. But if we are sorry God will always find us and call us back to the flock. Thankyou parents for joining us to reflect upon how we can pray and prepare our hearts during Lent.
We are learning about prayer. Can you learn these prayers at home?
We have been studying artwork of Mary appearing to Bernadette in Lourdes and created our our own. We looked closely and noticed lots of details including roses, the holy spring, candles and Mary’s halo. We know that these symbols have special meaning and help us to understand more about God’s love for us. Can you find any religious art works that include these symbols? Can you find out what the symbols mean?
We have been learning different types of prayer. We know that prayer time is communion with God. We are finding things to be grateful for throughout the day. Today we are grateful for the delicious food prepared by our school cooks. During our grace before and after meals, we listen carefully to the words of the prayer and thank God for his gifts. What else are you grateful for? How will you thank God in your words, prayers and actions?
We are getting ready to celebrate the special feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. This is is a very special day for our parish. We have been sharing the story of Mary appearing to Bernadette in the grotto in Lourdes. We visited our own grotto and some children touched the stones as pilgrims do in Lourdes. We said a Hail Mary and asked our Lady to pray with us and for us. Please practice saying the Hail Mary prayer at home, particularly on the 11th February.
Today we spent some prayerful time in our beautiful prayer area. We spent time talking to God. We know that prayer is a special time of communication with Him. We reflected upon the image of Mary and asked her to pray with us and for us.
Today we joined our school family to prepare for our Mass to celebrate the feast day of Saint Wulstan. We celebrate this special feast day on the 19th January. We remember his special work teaching people about God and preaching the Gospel. We will teach people about the love of God through our words and actions.
We went to Church to visit the crib. We know that this is an important symbol of our faith and a focus of our prayer intentions. We offered our prayers to Jesus and shared our feelings about his coming.
We have created a display to show the Christmas story. We enjoyed making the angels that told the shepherds that baby Jesus had arrived. We will spread the good news of Jesus, just as the shepherds did.
In the second week of Advent, we are thinking about how we can be agents of peace in the world. This week, can you be a peace maker?
During Advent, Reception focus on the symbol of the Advent wreath. We know that a candle is lit on each one of the four Sunday’s of Advent. As we light each candle, we get closer to the birth of Jesus.
We joined with the whole school to take part in our Red Wednesday Assembly. We know that on this day we will unite with ACN to support persecuted Christians throughout the world.
We shared the story of the The Presentation in the Temple. We celebrate this special day as candlemas. While Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were at the Temple, they met Simeon, a holy man who had been told that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. At this time, Jesus was proclaimed as a light to all nations. We talked about the symbol of light and how it guides us, makes us feel safe and illuminates the darkness. We know that Jesus is our light and reflected upon how we can be guiding lights like him.
Reception class have been learning about the signs and symbols of Baptism. We know that at this special celebration, we are welcomed into God’s family. Every time we make the sign of the cross we remember this. Our families love and care for us and we are loved by God.
We are learning about All Saints Day in preparation for Mass this week. We will be reflecting upon how we can be more like the saints.
We are sharing s few moments from our child initiated learning this week. In R.E we are learning about Baptism. The children’s Baptism photos are on display in the classroom. We all enjoyed looking at the photos and talking about them. We spotted signs and symbols and there was lots of talk about Deacon Tim and Father Sean. This led on to children accessing the prayer table resources during free flow. ‘Can we play church?’ Has been a question that has been asked many times this week in Reception.
Reception class are learning about Creation. We have been exploring the wonders of creation in our work and play. We know that God created the world for us to share and enjoy and we must treat this incredible gift with care, love and respect. How can you show gratitude and curiosity for God’s amazing gift?
O shared his prayer bag liturgy with us. He thanked God for Fr. Sean and Dn. Tim and all the work they do for us in our parish and school.
We took part in the St Bernadette relic live stream. Reception are learning that the rosary is a special prayer for our lady. Each time we pray the rosary we remember how Mary said yes to God. We think of how we can be like Mary by living with love, compassion and service
E shared the beautiful prayers that she wrote for her prayer bag liturgy with the class. Great news! She got a golden certificate too!
We enjoyed hearing the story of Harriet Tubman and how she took action to fight injustice. October is black history month. We will be talking about equality and how all people have the right to be treated fairly. We know that all people are created in God’s image and we treat everyone with love, care and respect.
Thank you S for sharing your prayer bag liturgy about 'The Good Samaritan'. We will think carefully about how we treat others and always be kind.
Reception class have been learning about their class saint. We visited the grotto and enjoyed learning about Saint Bernadette and how Mary came to visit her in Lourdes. We thought about how Bernadette listened carefully to Mary.
We are learning about the Sacrament of Marriage. We know that a marriage is a special promise between two people to love and care for each other and their family. We have been thinking about love. We show love for our families at home and school by treating them with kindness and respect. We are thinking of ways that we can show small acts of love every day. ❤️
Thank you Deacon Tim for visiting us and blessing us and our classroom for the year ahead.
Our Prayer area is the focal point of our prayer and learning. Each morning, our prayer monitor guides the children in daily prayer. We are learning about the importance of prayer and spending time with God. Here N is showing how to make the sign of the cross. Our prayer table has resources to help us grow in our understanding of prayer and books to support our learning in R.E.
Reception class gathered in prayer and gave thanks for the new school year. We will show compassion and love to all in our school community.
