Reception w/b 27th March
Date: 31st Mar 2023 @ 4:37pm
We have had a simply wonderful day to conclude a wonderful week in a wonderful term! I have been so proud of how thoroughly and thoughtfully Reception have remembered and understood the Easter story. They show such a beautiful understanding of the importance of Holy Week and it has been such a delight to observe their enthusiasm for sharing this ‘good news’ with others. This really shone through as we delivered Easter cards and daffodils around the village. The children were just delightful and were very chatty and polite when talking to the residents of Brereton. The children were so excited to have brought such joy to others. I was a very proud teacher! Today, we have also enjoyed making our Easter nest cakes. This linked beautifully to British Science Week as we talked about the reversible change of melting chocolate over hot water to turn it to liquid and then cooling it in the fridge to turn it back into a solid. The children worked very well in teams to break up the shredded wheat, mix it with chocolate, add it to their cake cases and then add the eggs. Reception, we hope they are delicious! We concluded our afternoon with an Easter egg hunt. The children managed to find all of the eggs and then we enjoyed some Easter maths as we counted our total and then shared them out equally. It was also wonderful to observe several children giving up some of the eggs that they had found to other children who hadn’t found any – totally unprompted and beautifully kind! Finally, this week we have been making Easter cards. We asked children to paint either a Good Friday or Easter Sunday card. All of the cards are unique and it was so lovely to see the children’s interpretations and representations of the joy of Easter. We hope that you enjoy all of these Easter treats.
Within worship this week, in preparation for Holy week starting this Sunday, each day we have read, reflected and prayed about the days that led to Jesus’ crucifixion and Resurrection. Looking at the paintings of artist Nebiyu Assefu has helped us think about the emotions and feelings of Jesus and his disciples during this time.
To conclude our RE unit, we looked at photos of the inside of churches in Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday and on Easter Sunday. We spotted the differences and asked: Why are there differences? We first noticed the differing coloured cloths on the altar. We loved the palm leaves decorating Church on Palm Sunday. We understood the significance of removing any decorations on Good Friday, the saddest day. Contrastingly, we noticed all of the flowers and the white cloth on Easter Sunday – a celebration! We then watched a CBeebies clip following a little boy who explains how he celebrates Easter at church before painting our Easter card designs.
This week, we have also been celebrating Science Week. Thank you ever so much to Amy’s mummy who visited us to talk about how her job relates to STEM. The children were absolutely fascinated by the video, photos and equipment that Mrs Williams had brought to share with us. They asked some interesting questions and had lots to share! They especially enjoyed smelling some feed, milk powder and silage (although the silage didn’t smell as pleasant!). This year, the theme of British Science Week is ‘Connections’ and we have enjoyed several activities from the pack of ideas. On Tuesday, we carried out the ‘Confusing Cans’ experiment, identifying the contents of each can (beans, tinned tomatoes or mushy peas) based on the distance they rolled. As these things often do, this experiment did not quite work out as expected! The heaviest can did not roll the furthest. However, this prompted some more super science as children explained that Tuesday’s windy weather made this unreliable – gusts of wind affected how far the cans rolled. On Thursday, we enjoyed the ‘Happy Smells’ activity. In 6 cups, I placed: lime, ginger, vinegar, orange juice, coffee and cinnamon. I then covered the cups over with foil with holes poked in the top. The children had to use their sense of smell to identify the contents. They were very successful, with ginger and cinnamon being the only two to trip us up – these were hard to distinguish between. We then voted for our favourite scents – orange juice and cinnamon came out on top with vinegar and coffee being far less popular! On Thursday afternoon, we went on a minibeast hunt outside, finding a range of minibeasts, including woodlice, bees, worms and ladybirds. We have also included several of the activities in the provision, including: adding photos of people of different ages in the home corner to encourage discussion about changes as we grow up and role-playing people of different ages; adding photos of halves of faces of woodland wildlife so children could identify these animals and paint/draw the other side of their face; making maps and building bridges in the construction and junk modelling areas.
On Thursday morning, it was our class visit to Church. The children walked down beautifully, already observing changes in nature since our visit for the Mothering Sunday service. For example, the blossom on the tree was darker and beginning to fall off. Reverend Sandi led a service as we learnt the structure of a service and where and how we would respond. We enjoyed singing ‘Jesus’ love is very wonderful’ and singing the children’s creed. Reverend Sandi also introduced us to Scratch. We then explored the Church. Children especially loved looking at the stained-glass windows and identifying events from Holy Week. We saw Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, the Last Supper and Jesus on the cross. The children shared their knowledge and understanding of Holy Week very eloquently with Reverend Sandi. We then enjoyed juice and a biscuit before returning to school.
This week we have also been very lucky to have had two separate performances in school. On Tuesday we watched a production of ‘Wind in the Willows’ and on Wednesday we watched ‘Scrooge’. Both were very energetic and interactive performances and it was lovely to see the children so entranced.
In between all of these wonderful things, we have still managed to squeeze in phonics, reading assessments, maths, English and PSED! I shall share the sounds/red words that your child now knows with you on Dojo to help you to support them at home. Subtraction continues within maths and we shall look forward to securing and applying our understanding of addition and subtraction in the Summer term. In English, we have finished our stories and these are simply beautiful retellings of The Something – well done Reception! Finally, in PSED, Mrs Edwards read ‘Judging Jake’, a character on Friendship Terrace who makes fun of people who are different. By the end of the story, Jake learns to value people for who they are.
Phew, what a very busy week! Reception, you have been an absolute joy this term and it has been such a privilege to watch you all flourish and grow. I am very much looking forward to spending the next half term together, working hard and having fun! I hope that you all very much enjoy a well-deserved break that is safe, restful and joyful. I can’t wait to hear all about it. We wish you all a happy and blessed Easter.
With enormous thanks,
Miss Witham
