Reception class news 01:04:22

Woohoo! We've made it to the end of term Reception Class.
Well done for another busy week, let's share in our learning...

Mathematical Development

Our learning focus in mathematics this week has been complex patterns building upon our knowledge of simple patterns from last week. We have learnt about ABB and AAB patterns specifically through using various shapes, colours, sizes, actions and sounds. We can now confidently identify the core of a pattern and the number of repeats that it has. When exploring the core of the pattern we referred to each individual part as a separate letter, for example: red triangle, red triangle, blue square would be an AAB pattern. In our journal work we have continued building complex patterns and then replicating their AAB or ABB structures using different maths resources. We have enjoyed this so much so this week we have made lots of complex patterns in class provision and independent learning time.

Expressive Arts and Design Development

In our music session we listened to Conga! by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. We loved it and couldn't help but move our bodies to the music! We listened carefully and could hear lots of different instruments, including: drums, singing, trumpets, bells, piano, guitar and many more. We knew that we move in time with the rhythm of the music, sometimes slow and sometimes faster.

We talked about what a Conga is and found out that it is a type of dance where people are in a line and dance along to the music. We made our own conga line and had a great time moving around the classroom. Next, following on from talking about rhythm we learnt to clap our names to a rhythm "My name is..." We worked really hard on this and all shared our rhythms with each other.

Understanding the World Development

In our RE lesson we explored the concept of forgiveness and why people say sorry. We discussed occasions where we have done something wrong and the need to say sorry and that saying sorry was an action as well as a word. When we say sorry we should try our very best not to do it again. Then we drew pictures about being sorry and wrote simple sentences about why we were sorry. Mr Ward was very surprised to receive one about his missing jelly beans, especially when he had no idea they were missing. Thank goodness the apology was accepted!

We then considered why Christians think it is important to say sorry when they get something wrong and thought that it was because God would be upset but he would show forgiveness if they said sorry. Thinking a bit deeper about what happens to the person who receives an apology by looking at some words from the bible in Luke 6:29-31 that Jesus' taught, explaining what we should do if someone hurts us.

Using puppets we acted out examples of different endings for turning the other cheek, discussing the idea of loving others, using self control and avoiding conflict. We understood that sometimes it is hard to follow Jesus's example and turn the other cheek. We concluded our unit of work by role playing saying sorry and apologising and forgiving people. We understand that if God forgives when people apologise, we too should forgive.

Physical Development

In PE we focussed on the skills of dribbling a ball with our foot using good control, stopping the ball with our foot and passing the ball using the inside of our foot across a short distance with accuracy.

We started with a warm, up, where we did some stretches to warm up different parts of our body. Then we played dishes and domes; we split into two teams, dish team and dome team. There were small cones across the hall, some where dishes and some domes, the aim of the game was for the dish team to turn all of the cones over to dishes and the dome team to turn the cones to domes. We had a great time playing this game and we're really good sports people, clapping when the other team won. With a partner we worked on our ball passing skills, using the inside of our foot to pass the ball between us.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

In our Heartsmart session we learnt that we can choose to be kind to others even when they are not. We read the beginning of our story of Boris the Robot and talked about the Scrapman in the story, we described him as grumpy, angry and mean. We then considered why he might be feeling this way, did he have any friends, was he feeling jealous of Boris being loved by a family? We understood that when a person feels grumpy there is a reason why they feel this way.

We know that we should always treat people in a kind way just like we would want to be treated, even if they are being mean and grumpy we should not be mean and grumpy back. With this in mind we thought about what we would do or say if we met the Scrapman.
Boris says "We can always choose to be a kind friend"
Bible link "Do what is right to other people. Love being kind to others. And live humbly, trusting in your God" Micah 6:8

Across school this week we have been exploring First Aid. Firstly we considered what is first aid? We learnt that first aid is looking after someone when they are sick or injured.
We spoke about ways that we can help ourselves or a friend if we or they get hurt; we decided that we can ask them if they are ok, help them up if they have fallen over and tell an adult.
Next we became first aiders, we learnt what to do if someone has grazed or cut themselves, firstly we washed our hands, then we cleaned the injury, next we applied a plaster. We practiced this skill on our teddies and dolls.

Communication and Language Development

We are very excited to have completed our courageous advocacy virtual worship to share with the school community and our families on Tapestry. We have become more confident speakers and have enjoyed sharing our message, we hope you have enjoyed watching it.

Literacy Development

In our daily phonics sessions we have continued to recap known sounds and explore new special friend sounds ng, ch and long and short oo in listening, reading and writing activities. We have also practiced our formation of 'zig zag letters' v, w, z and x in our daily handwriting activities.

All that is left to say is a huge thank you to everyone.
It has been a challenging term with many absences, children and staff.
We have cared, looked after and shown our love for one another by being the great team we are.
Our lights well and truly shine.
Enjoy the Easter break and I will see you next term.

Mrs Ward