Reception Class News 13/09/24

Reception Class, this week has flown by, and we have achieved so much in just our second week of school!

Let's take a look at some of the exciting moments from our week...

Baseline Assessments: Over the course of the week, we completed our baseline assessments in both Literacy and Mathematics. This helped us identify our starting points and areas to focus on next week as we dive deeper into our learning.

Expressive Arts and Design: In our first music session, we introduced the song "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang. Before listening, we had a great discussion about what a celebration is, sharing wonderful ideas, such as birthdays, Christmas, Easter, christenings, and wedding anniversaries. We also talked about how we celebrate--decorating, eating cake, dancing, and spending time with family. The moment the music started, we all wanted to dance! We enjoyed dancing together before listening carefully for different instruments in the song. We also found the beat in various ways--clapping, marching, waving our hands, and stomping. To finish off the session, we sang "Pat-a-cake" and had fun doing the actions. We're already looking forward to next week's music session!

Understanding the World: Last week, we were fortunate to pick a great harvest of green beans that had grown in the class garden over the summer. These were planted by the current Year 1 class. This week, we found a fantastic recipe to use them in and made a delicious pea, bean, and mint soup with a little crème fraîche to add extra creaminess. We all took turns to chop up the beans, add the ingredients, and after just 21 minutes in the soup kettle, our healthy snack time soup was ready!
We even shared some with our friends, Helen, Kim and Anna in Preschool.

Religious Education: In RE, we began our "I Am Special" unit. After listening to Clever Cub Explores Creation by Bob Hartman, we learned that some people believe God created the world and everything in it--day, night, sun, moon, stars, seas, and all living creatures, including the first humans. We also revisited last week's discussion about how we are all wonderfully unique. Inspired by Clever Cub's book, we created our own books, drawing pictures of our favorite things.

Physical Development: This week, we had our first Kick session with Coach Gabriel.We started by warming up with a game of "Simon Says" and doing stretches to get our muscles ready. Next, we played "The Bean Game," where we acted out different types of beans--runner bean, baked bean, and jumping bean. For the main part of the session, we worked on our throwing and catching skills. We learned that to throw accurately, we need to focus on the ball and look where we want it to go, and to catch, we need to keep our eyes on the ball and have our hands ready. We ended with a fun game of "Stuck in the Mud." The value of the month is kindness so we ensured that throughout the session, we shared nicely, took turns and showed Gabriel our kind natures through all our words and actions.

Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED): Wellbeing: In our second week of wellbeing, we shared our favorite colors and the reasons why we liked them. For our wellbeing activity we practiced muscle tensing and releasing.

This week in Heartsmart, we met Boris for the first time! We looked at a picture of Boris and talked about what we think he's made from--scraps from a scrap yard, things that people have thrown away. Then, we listened to the story of how Boris was made and met the other characters in his world. Boris reminded us, "Let love fill your heart," and we linked this to the Bible verse from Romans 5:5: "God has poured out His love into our hearts."

What a busy, fun-filled week it has been! We are so proud of how Reception Class is settling into school life.
Have a restful weekend, and we'll see you all on Monday for another exciting week of learning!

Mrs Ward