Week 8

Welcome back! We have enjoyed listening to the children’s recounts of their half term. This week in Reception we have focused on the celebration of bonfire night and the story of Guy Fawkes. The children enjoyed learning about real events from over 400 years ago. We looked at and compared things that would have been used when Guy Fawkes was alive and what we use now in 2023. The children discussed and sorted the items. We watched videos of fireworks and the children recalled their own personal memories of seeing them. They wrote about fireworks and used many different ways to create them such as modelling, painting, chalks and collage. They have brightened up our outside area beautifully with their chalk firework pictures on the shed doors.

In maths we have started to look at 1,2,3. The children have been practising their subitising skills. (Watch the video to help understand how and why your child is learning to subitise) We have focused on the composition of numbers up to three through games and activities.

The children have enjoyed getting back outside using the sand pit, climbing and using the water area.

Week 9

This week we introduced our new big question, ‘What is my body telling me?’ For this half term we will be investigating our 5 senses and learn why they are so important. The first sense we explored was our sense of touch. We read the story- Going on a bear hunt- and thought of lots of words to describe how each obstacle the family met would feel. We re-enacted the story and joined in with the repeated refrains. The children then used their sense of touch to feel grass, mud, water, sticks, ice and fur. They wrote down what each felt like using their phonic knowledge. We also looked at how we could draw a map to show the journey of the family on the bear hunt. The children drew or painted their maps and then used them in the outdoor area to go on a bear hunt of their own.

In maths, we continued consolidating our understanding of 1,2 and 3. We played games using dominoes, building block towers and a throwing into hoops game.

The Hindu festival of light, Diwali was at the weekend. We enjoyed learning about the traditional way Hindus celebrate Diwali and the story of Rama and Sita. The children learnt how to make traditional Rangoli patterns using coloured rice and created many colourful Rangoli patterns. We learnt a Diwali dance which was great fun.

Week 10

The sense we focused on for this week was our sense of hearing. We read the story of the Owl Babies and then pretended to be one of the owl babies, Percy, Sarah or Bill. We listened to lots of noises that could be heard in the forest, animals, the weather and other owls. We discussed how we thought the owl babies would feel being left alone in the forest with all the noises around them. The children all wrote a letter to the owl mummy to tell her what they could hear and how they were feeling. They used props and toys to retell the story and made their own owl baby stick puppets too.

Maths was all about circles and triangles! We looked at the properties of the shapes and did lots of sorting, exploring and learnt vocabulary to describe each shape. We looked at the work of Kandinsky, especially his work on concentric circles. The children were encouraged to replicate his work using various media. Some wonderful artwork was produced.

We have started to learn the songs for our nativity play. The children have been learning about the story of the first Christmas and how that relates to the story we are telling through our play. They have used a small world nativity set to reinforce their understanding of the story.