Reception Class News 24:03:23

Reception class, in a week of rather mixed weather, we have ventured out around the school grounds and found lots of exciting signs of spring and new life. We are looking forward to Easter!

Here is a little snapshot of our learning...

Understanding the World Development: In our RE unit we explored the concept of resurrection by first discussing what is new in springtime. So coats on and off we went for a spring walk. We found buds on plants and trees have have laid bare and dormant all winter, daffodils swaying in the breeze. white flowers emerging on the Bergenias in the community garden area and lots of new shoots coming through the soil in the veg patch. We discussed how something can look dead and then come back to life with new growth.

We reread our simple version of the Easter story and the events of Holy week and sorted pictures into sad and happy categories. We then discussed why Christians celebrate Easter as a happy time and give and receive why people give and receive Easter eggs as a sign of new life.

Mathematical Development: We have continued developing our understanding of number bonds to ten this week but using the part whole model, gaining our confidence with the concept and vocabulary of parts and whole and that a number can be made up of two or more parts which when combined make the whole. We are also really confident to give our answers in a mathematical sentences, for example: 'In my first part I have 4 and in my second part I have 6, altogether I have 10,because4 and 6 make 10 altogether.

Literacy Development: Very excitingly we have heard from TRex at the museum this week, he loved our letters to him, finding out a little bit about us and what we enjoy. He was most interested to hear about our science project last week and has sent us a dinosaur egg to incubate in the classroom. It is currently sitting in some water and we have spotted a few cracks in the shell. He asks that we write back when it has hatched, hopefully it wont be long now! In our writing tasks this week we have written thank you letters to Miss McCurrie for the great Oi Frog series of books she has bought us for our reading challenge basket. We have loved reading them all week. We have also labelled body parts of the dinosaurs, understanding that they each had features that helped them be good predators or defend themselves against other predators.

In phonics, all groups have continued learning special friend sounds and applying them in our reading and writing activities. We have also continued with daily handwriting activities this week as we have focused on forming the down letters p k h j and b more accurately.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: This week in heart smart we have been learning that we can use words that are kind when talking to our friends. We started the session by sitting in a circle. Cotton wool balls were passed around the circle and the children were invited to take one.
We thought about how we could describe how the cotton wool feels; soft, fluffy, warm. We talked about how the cotton wool feels on our skin. Then we passed the sandpaper around the circle and invited the children to take one. We described how the sandpaper felt; rough, scratchy, hard.

We talked about how when we are talking to our friends we can use 'soft, fluffy' words or we can use 'rough, scratchy' words. 'Soft, Fluffy' words are kind and help the other person feel good; like the soft feeling of cotton wool on our skin. 'Rough, scratchy' words are unkind and can make the other person feel sad; like the rough feeling of sandpaper on our skin.
Next we said some phrases, "I like your smile" "your drawing is rubbish" and the children held up the cotton wool if they think it is a phrase that would make their friend feel good or hold up the sandpaper if they think it is a phrase that would make their friend feel sad.
Finally the children thought of their own kind words and phrases to share with the circle.
Boris says, 'We can all use kind words when talking to our friends!'
Bible link "Kind words are like honey-sweet to the taste and good for your health" Proverbs 16:24

Physical Development: In PE we continued with our unit developing our fine motor skills. We warmed up our bodies with the bean game, for example: Runner Bean – Run on the spot, Jumping bean – Jump up and down, String Bean – Stand up tall, Broad Bean – Stand in wide position, Frozen Bean – Stand still, Jelly Bean – wobble like jelly. You'd be surprised how many beans we invented!

We then moved to our main session where we practiced finding a good space, each time traveling safely around the hall being different animals, being aware of our own bodies and the proximity of others. Then we lined up in teams and raced against each other and the timer to collect beanbags of different value depending on their colour.
We then moved to the games session where we raced against teams to collect the most Jenga blocks using a peg. This is as tricky as it sounds! We finished our session by picking up an elastic band on one hand, stretching it using our five fingers and then carefully putting it onto a beaker. There was plenty of flying bands until we mastered this one!

Expressive Arts and Design Development: This week we have created a dinosaur stick puppet and landscape for it to travel through. First we identified the dinosaur we would like to make into a puppet, drew round it and cut it out. We then used images to accurately paint it's dinosaur colours, once dry we attached a lollystick to the back with glue and tape. Then we explored 10 different habitats that dinosaurs lived in during their time on earth and chose which one we wanted to replicate in a painting. once dry we folded and cut a line horizontally through the painting so that the dinosaur puppet could travel through its habitat. They look fantastic and a lot of though and care has gone into making them. This activity has led to lots of puppet and habitat making in independent learning time.

We began our music session this week by listening to "Frog's Legs And Dragon's Teeth" by Bellowhead. We learnt that this style of music is known as folk music. We talked about how it has no words but we can still understand that it is an upbeat song and makes people want to dance. Next we played the song again and danced to it pretending to be dragons and frogs. It was great fun.
We were very excited as for the next part of the session we were able to play the glockenspiels again. We talked about how to hold the beater correctly and how to tap the keys gently.

We talked about what the role of a conductor is, to guide the musicians in how to play their instruments, we followed the conductor playing our glockenspiels loudly when the conductor's hand was up and quietly when her hand was down. Finally we played along with some different nursery rhymes, finding the specific note that we needed and playing it at the correct time, keeping the beat of the song.

Have a super weekend Reception Class
We will see you on Monday for Messy church at 9am and a fun filled last week of term.
Mrs Ward and the reception team, Mrs Wainright and Louise.