Reception Class News 14/03/25

Reception Class, what another fabulous week we have had. We have especially enjoyed conducting experiments for science week.

Let's find out what other things we have been learning about...

This week in Expressive Arts and Design, we began our music session by listening to Mars from The Planets by Gustav Holst. We learned that Holst was born in England in 1874 and had a deep love for astrology. His fascination with space led him to compose The Planets Suite, a collection of individual pieces, with Mars being the first. As we listened to the music, we closed our eyes and used our imaginations to picture ourselves in space. We then shared our ideas about what we could "see" on our space journey. Afterward, we explored the pulse of the music in different ways, starting with clapping and then trying other movements like marching, nodding our heads, tapping our knees, and jumping. Finally, we were thrilled to use the glockenspiels again! Each of us had our own instrument, and we played along to familiar nursery rhymes such as Wheels on the Bus, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Incy Wincy Spider. It was a fantastic experience!

In the garden, we were very excited to see that our daffodils had finally bloomed. We carefully cut them and placed them in a vase to admire their beauty. We also watched a tutorial on how to draw a daffodil. Following the steps, we first drew a circle, then added the trumpet and six petals before finishing with the stem. After sketching, we painted our daffodils, and they turned out beautifully.

In Physical Development, we had our first attempt at gymnastics! We started by exploring how to rock our bodies forward and backward as well as side to side while staying on the same part of our bodies. Then, we moved onto some apparatus work, where we performed a sequence of moves that required us to transfer our body weight from one part to another. We also practiced jumping with our feet together, keeping our head up and arms out for balance, and ensuring a controlled landing with bent knees and feet together. We absolutely loved our first gymnastics session!

In PHSED and Wellbeing, we focused on our emotions again this week. We began by discussing different emotions, recognizing that while some emotions make us feel good, others, like sadness or anger, can be more difficult to manage.Our wellbeing activity was to imagine being with the people who love and care for us.

In HeartSmart, we continued our theme of I am a good friend. Boris asked, Can we listen to each other? To test this, we played a game called Listening Ears. Sitting back-to-back with a partner, we took turns describing an object while the other person listened carefully and tried to guess what it was. We learned that listening carefully to our friends is an important part of being a good friend.
Our Bible link for this lesson was: "Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry." – James 1:19.

In Understanding the World, we were very excited to try a science experiment from the Ogden Trust to help the Billy Goats cross the river. Our science focus words were strong, fold, and roll. In our science tray, we found paper, card, tape, and straws, and we worked together to explore which materials would make the strongest bridge. After building our bridges, we evaluated our designs by asking: Was our bridge successful? What could we do differently next time? Which materials make stronger bridges?

We also tried the classic science experiment of putting washing up liquid and mentos into a bottle of coke to watch the reaction of the different materials. It certainly went up with a whoosh and provided great excitement when the bubbly foam continued to pour out long after the liquid explosion.

In Maths, we continued exploring number bonds to ten using a variety of representations. We began with concrete objects, then moved on to pictorial representations using counters, before finally using ten frames to visualize all the number bonds to ten. We are getting really good at answering how many altogether and how many more questions!

In Literacy Development, we planned and wrote the opening of our retelling of Little Red. We thought carefully about what key information should be included, such as the main characters, the setting, and how the story begins. Using our story plan as a guide, we wrote up our sentences. We then moved on to the build-up of the story, focusing on the part where the wolf gobbles up Grandma before Little Red arrives. Again, we drew the key information in our plan and used words from our working wall to help us. This made writing so much easier, and we are becoming fantastic writers!

It has been an exciting week full of creativity, exploration, and learning!
Have a lovely weekend Reception Class.
See you Monday