Reception Class Weekly News

Reception class, well done on another fantastic week of learning.

Apples, apples, one, two, three
Apples for you, apples for me...

In our language and communication development we listened to and enjoyed poems about apples, linking to our story 'How to make apple pie and see the world.' With our understanding of how these poems were structured, we composed our own, starting each refrain with apples and then adding words to describe their, colour, shape, and texture.

In our reading activities we have been enjoying reading and listening to our class reading challenge stories as well as group reading in our daily phonics sessions.

Mathematics- In our mathematical development we have explored the different ways to make 10 on a part whole model building upon our prior knowledge of number bonds on a ten frame. We have become more confident with the concept and vocabulary of parts and wholes and matched 0-10 digit cards to show bonds to 10. In our reflection activity we practiced counting 10 objects from a larger group and moving them from the whole into two parts and then back again to reinforce the concept of the whole being two parts.

In our understanding the world development we have enjoyed taking part in lots of science activities as part of British Science week. On Tuesday we enjoyed an exciting (and very cold) morning with the hi impact team and their weather balloon. We discovered it was full of a gas called helium, that is lighter than air so the balloon could float up into the atmosphere. We needed to be quite strong to hold onto it and thankfully it didn't take any of us up into the air.

Carrying on the weather theme, we created rain clouds in a jar. This proved very exciting! If you would like to make one at home, you can follow our simple instructions:
Fill a jar with water.
Cover the surface with shaving foam to form a cloud.
Slowly drip food colouring onto the cloud and watch the rain fall!!

Linking with our story 'How to make apple pie and see the world' we explored different varieties of apples and conducted a tasting session where we recorded our findings as to whether they were sweet, sour, salty or spicy. I think our biggest conclusions was that we all love apples!

Our story also highlights about where ingredients come from and so we have spent time this week planting seeds for our vegetable beds in the garden. We have planted beetroot, spinach, salad leaves and radish. We have also received a lovely gift of some purple broccoli and tomatoes from Millie's mum, so thank you very much. We can't wait to see our garden bursting with new life over the coming weeks.

Continuing with our planting theme, we built an Easter garden, complete with a tomb as we explored why Christians tell the Easter story each year and celebrate in church as part of our people and communities development. Our enquiry question was 'Why do Christians put three crosses in an Easter garden. To help us consider this we read 'The story of Jesus' by Fiona Boon and as we neared the end of the story we could identify that Jesus dies on a cross alongside two other people. We will explore the story further next week as we add more details to our garden.

In our physical development this week we continued to focus on aspects of athletics in PE with Mrs Swan. We practised jumping with two feet and landing with two feet.

As it was science week, we learnt a song about building our own rocket and flying off into space. We also looked at the Gustav Holst piece 'Mars' in our expressive arts and design development.

Our Heartsmart focus, as part of our personal, social and emotional development was to think about how important it is to include everyone in our games. We explored what it means to include other people by playing a game as a class and by being detectives around the classroom during our choosing time. This was great to do as we were able to write a list of how we can include other people and at the same time we can look out for the good in others.

Do not look out only for yourselves. Look out for the good of others also. Corinthians 10:24.

And finally, what a fantastic way to finish off our week than by dressing as Superheroes and sharing jokes to raise money for comic relief. Thank you for all your kind donations.

Have a super weekend
Mrs Ward, Alex and Rachael