Reception weekly news

Rooooaaaarrrrr!!!

Or rather I should say, welcome back to a new term Reception!

We have been very excited learners this week as we embraced our new theme for learning: Dinosaurs. Whilst sharing our own knowledge about this subject, we used words like 'extinct' to discuss that dinosaurs lived along time ago but are no longer alive today. When we questioned how we know so much about them now if they are no longer around, we discussed how their bones are found in the ground and displayed, which are called fossils and many of these are displayed in museums. Some of us have shared our experiences of seeing some dinosaur skeletons in museums and we are all looking forward as a class to visiting a museum this term to find out more!

As we started to read our book 'Dear Dinosaur' we discovered that the main character Max likes dinosaurs and visiting museums and starts to write to the T. Rex at the museum to find out more about him. In our independent learning time, many of us have attempted to write letters or cards to our friends and families. How lovely to see such enthusiastic independent writers!

With our understanding of dinosaur fossils being found in the ground, in particular dessert areas we created some dinosaur fossil artwork using penne pasta as bones and arranged them carefully to create different dinosaur shapes. Once secured to our card with glue we then carefully applied paint with different brushes and sponges using yellow and brown to create a texture similar to the ground conditions they were discovered in from the images we had sourced from the internet. They look very realistic !

We have learnt a few facts this week from the T.Rex in our story. Did you know that a T.Rex's tooth is as long as a ruler? Or that it's head was as big as a sofa? We would love to find out more facts, so we are hoping to compose our own questions ready for our visit?

In our power maths activities this week we have started to look at number bonds within 5 using the part-whole model. This consolidated our earlier work on sorting as we practised the concept of breaking a whole into two parts. Once confident we challenged ourselves to find different ways to sort groups into parts for number bonds to 3, 4 and 5. Can you show your families how to do this at home this weekend on 'Space Jam' ?

A huge thank you to our mystery reader this week for sharing one of our favourite stories in french, it was lovely to see the story being told in a different language as we followed the story using the pictures.What a lovely treat for us!

In music this week we have been listening and responding to different styles of music, looking at disco music in particular and describing how it made us feel.

We have begun to explore gymnastics in our PE session, practicing balancing as a skill using one part of our body and then two parts of our body. We have also learnt to present our sequence of balances and sit like a gymnast!

Have restful weekend and we look forward to seeing you all again on Monday
Mrs Taylor and the reception team