Reception Class News 27/01/23

Another busy week in reception Class, Let's share in our learning...

Mathematical Development
Our mathematical focus this week was comparing numbers up to 10 where objects differ in size. Through practical activities we understand that the size of objects doesn't matter when comparing the size of objects as well as introducing the mathematical language of fewer and more in our explanations. We then began to represent groups of objects with cubes and lined them up to compare quantities and how many more or less a group had.

Literacy Development
In our daily Read Write Ink sessions, we have continued to increase our letter sound knowledge and apply this 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 u , b, f and curly letters e and s more accurately.
After completing our literacy work on 'The Gingerbread Man' we have begun to read another traditional tale 'Hansel and Gretel.' As we explored this story more, we identified the different characters and their roles in the story, labelling their names. Fantastic 'Fred fingers' Reception class, sounding out words and writing down what you could hear.

Physical Development
We have continued with our gymnastic unit: rocking and rolling and began our session by warming up by jumping in the style of different animals- kangaroo, frogs, crabs, bunnies, cats, then finding a friend when instructed to make a balance standing on one leg, using our partner to steady ourselves.
Then we recapped our pencil roll, from side to side and then back to our original starting position, trying to improve our technique by keeping knees and ankles together and pointing our toes. Challenging ourselves, we then tried to vary our rolling by starting in a star shape on our back, which became a pencil shape each time we rolled onto our back attempting too smoothly transition from one move to another. We then added an egg and shoulder roll to make a sequence of 3 different rolls.
In our apparatus work, we found a starting point and travelled the same way around the equipment. Ensuring we included a forward roll and/or a variety of log roll and a jump off the piece of equipment each time we performed a sequence. In our finishing activity we demonstrated different gymnastic shapes – tuck, straddle, pike, arch and dish.

Understanding the World Development
During Forest School this week, we built our very own minibeast habitats, thinking carefully about the types of habitats we would need to create, using the natural resources of the forest school area to create them in our teams with our Year 6 buddies.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development
In our Heart Smart this week we are learning appropriate ways to show care and affection for others. We talked about different ways that we can greet someone when they come into the classroom. We thought of lots of different ideas; say hello, give them a high five, handshake or a smile. We even said that we could say hello to them in another language, like from our morning greeting.
We listened to the 'Hello song' and moved around the classroom greeting as many of each other as possible by saying 'Hello', giving a handshake, high 5 or a wave. We have set a challenge for this week to ensure that if we have any visitors to our classroom, we give them a warm greeting and make them feel welcome.

Boris says, 'Greetings are a great way to say we're glad you are here!'
Bible link 'Show respect for all people.' 1 Peter 2:17

In our 'My happy mind' we created a thankful tree, discussing what we are grateful for, drawing a picture and writing our thankful thoughts on the back of a leaf which we then attached to the branches of our tree.

Creative Arts and Design Development
This week in music we started the session by listening to' My Mum Is Amazing.'
We listened really carefully to the song and found out that it is known as a 'Nasheed' which in the Muslim world is a song usually without musical instruments with lyrics that resemble hymns that praise God. My Mum Is Amazing was written by a Muslim poet called Zain Bhikha and performed by Naadira Ali who sings about how amazing her mum is.
We all really liked this song and a lot of us said it was because it reminded us of our own mums. We said it was a lovely quiet song and made us feel peaceful.

Our focus for this unit is Everyone! We used some words related to family or friendship and then clapped the rhythms for the children to copy. Next the children had the chance to come to the front using their name and clap a rhythm for the class to copy. We also spoke about different countries that people might be from and clapped those out as a rhythm as well.

Next week we look forward to celebrating International Interfaith Harmony Week and NSPCC numbers day next Friday.

Have a good weekend
Mrs Ward and the Reception Team