Reception weekly news

This week we have focused on the changes taking place with our growing seeds in the classroom. Carefully taking a seedling out of it's pot, we were able to observe how the seed had changed shape and now had white roots that looked like hairs growing downwards towards the soil. It also had pale green shoots growing out of the top of the seed towards the sunlight. The stem of the seedling had then turned darker green as it emerged.

We then made observational drawings on the seedling and labelled the different parts. We knew the science word for this process: 'germination' and in our literacy work we wrote about the simple steps that had taken place. We are becoming confident writers, using our knowledge of phonics and special friend sounds to write words accurately.

Our mathematics focus this week consolidated our knowledge of number bonds to 10 by using the part whole model. We refreshed our memory of the two parts making the whole number and started by working out the different compositions to ten using a bead string, reminding ourselves that if six and four made ten altogether, then four and six made ten altogether. We repeated this each time we moved another bead along the string to make a different number bond. As the week progressed we were confident to look at the abstract method and added the digits to our pictures, recognising the bonds as a pair of numbers the went together.

During snack time this week we have used the opportunity to develop our speaking and listening skills by talking to our friends about the different plants and flowers that grow in our gardens at home. Interestingly we all seem to have fruit trees in our gardens and enjoy eating fruit as part of a healthy diet.

Thursday saw us all dressed up as our favourite book characters for World Book Day. We looked fantastic! In our circle time we talked about why we liked our characters and a little bit about our favorite parts of stories. We enjoyed spending our quiet moments in the day reading and sharing our favourite books with our friends.

In PE with Mrs Swan we continued with our gymnastics unit and perfected our teddy bear rolls, helping and supporting each other. In music we practiced clapping to the beat ready to play our glockenspiels next week. We are becoming very skilled at clapping a 4 part pulse beat!.

In our independent learning time we enjoyed writing stories about characters, making get well cards for family members, planting seeds, composing sunflower watercolour pictures like the artist Vincent Van Gogh and using the colouring app on the iPad to create starry night pictures.

In our mindfulness session this week we focused on our breathing, closing our eyes and counting our breaths slowly to four. We thought about how we can cheer ourselves up for when we are feeling a little sad. After passing a smile onto a friend we talked about the different things we do, I liked the splashing in puddles and smelling flowers in the garden ideas.

Have a lovely weekend
Mrs Taylor and Miss Alex