Reception Class News 23: 09: 22

Reception Class, it may have been a shorter week this week, but my goodness we have packed a lot of learning and fun into it!
Let's share in our learning...

Mathematical Development

Our mathematical learning focus this week has been to build on our knowledge of counting to three, by counting to four, linking the skill of counting concrete objects to the pictorial representation of four and then the abstract numeral 4. We have explored using a five frame for the first time and showing the different ways to make numbers. In our practical work we have discovered that not all the object need to be the same shape, color or size to be counted as a total number. In our journals we reflected on our learning and demonstrated the different ways to represent numbers on a blank five frame.

Expressive Arts And Design

In our music session we listened to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. Most of us really liked this song but a couple of us said that it was a little bit loud and that they preferred more gentle music like lullabies.We enjoyed finding the beat whilst listening to the song and used our bodies in different ways to keep the beat, we clapped, marched and tapped our shoulders.For the next part of our lesson we practiced the song that we started to learn last week; 'pat a cake' it was great fun and we loved adding our own name into the song again.We finished our lesson by practicing some of our songs for our welcome service on Friday at church. We were really excited to share these with you.

Personal, Social, Emotional Development and Wellbeing

In our Heartsmart session we learnt the different ways to be heart smart. Started the lesson by recapping the story of Boris the robot, we talked about how Boris was made out of rubbish but was loved by his family.

We learnt that Boris has a very special tool box with a set of tools that he uses to remind him to be heart smart, these are;
Hammer – I am special
Screw driver – I love others
Spanner – I am a good friend
Pliers – I can tell the truth
Saw – I can do it
Then we enjoyed making our own tool belts so that we could be just like Boris, we coloured in our tools and then cut them out to attach to our belts.

Boris says "We are learning to be Heart Smart!"
Bible link "Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts." Proverbs 4:23

We have also enjoyed meeting two new characters to our classroom this week called Betty and Berty. Over the coming weeks and months we will explore stories and share activities with them as they share what amazing work our brain does and what we can do to develop a happy mind.
We have remembered Betty's words of advice throughout the week 'When you try something new, your brain remembers and it gets easier each time you do it.'

Communication and Language Development

This week we have enjoyed a range of daily stories linked to journeys from our reading challenge basket, exploring new vocabulary and their meanings. We were very excited to find another John Burningham book: 'Mr Gumpy's Motor Car' and discover that it had the same characters in it and they all got messy at the end and ended up in the river. We liked the look of this fun!

Literacy Development

In our literacy development we have continued with our daily Read Write Ink phonics sessions. This week we have practiced reading and writing the sounds: i, n, p and g. Fred our phonics frog has joined us each day, as we have helped him orally blend sounds into words. In our word time we are beginning to identify the first, middle and ending sounds in words and to make them up with letters. We still need a lot of practice on this, but as Betty says ''When you try something new, your brain remembers and it gets easier each time you do it.'

Understanding the World Development

This week we have explored different local maps of Wybunbury to compare with how we travel through the village to how Mr Gumpy travels through his. We could identify local landmarks: our school, the tower, the pub, the post office, the church, post office and the playpark. We then looked at how paths, roads and the small brook were represented on the map and the different modes of transport we could use on each one. Carefully we drew a map to represent our journey through the village to school which we make each day. I think we have some budding cartographers in the making as we produced some very accurate and detailed maps.

And finally we finished off our week by joining our families down at St Chad's for a worship service led by our amazing Year 6 buddies to welcome us and our families to the wonderful family that Wybunbury Delves is and to share our vision.

Matthew 5:14-16
"Here's another way to put it: You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand-shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

We hope that over the coming years reception class, you will feel valued and encouraged to find ways to shine your light into the world.

Have a well earned rest and a fabulous weekend
Mrs ward and Mrs Wainwright.