Reception w/b 22nd January

Date: 26th Jan 2024 @ 3:38pm

We have just loved Week 3 of the Spring term in Reception and it has been a delight to see the children so enthused about all aspects of their learning. We have been blown away by the hard work that we have observed this week as the children adapted beautifully to some new routines which made them feel ever so grown-up.

Our reading, spelling and handwriting in our phonics sessions just gets better each week; our phonics teachers are very pleased with our progress. This week, we began our new guided reading timetable and what a pleasure it has been to read with these lovely groups each day. Thank you ever so much for your support with reading at home; it really does make such a difference.

We have been such busy bees in our literacy lessons each day. On Monday, we began by drawing a self-portrait, captioned with the sentence ‘I am [name].’ to practise our use of finger spaces and a full stop. On Tuesday, we turned our attention to our working wall and could not believe our eyes…Naughty Bus had disappeared! As we know the mischief that this little bus can cause, we were keen to find him as soon as possible. We created ‘Wanted’ posters for Naughty Bus, drawing careful pictures and writing sentences to describe him using the red word ‘he’ (e.g. He is red and fast.’). These are now up all over school and our whole school community are helping us to look out for the escaped bus! Alas, Year 1 alerted us to some unusual activity in their classroom. Naughty Bus had created such a mess in the maths area and then tangled bead strings in Hermelin’s typewriter. He had also disturbed the ‘n’ for naughty in the Year 1 alphabet display. Evidence of Naughty Bus was not only found in Year 1 as there were crime scenes all around school. In small groups, we discovered: a huge mess in the entrance to school (a leaflet stand had been knocked over, deliveries were scattered across the floor and the photo frames had been tipped); an open printer drawer with paper covering the corridor; Key Stage 2 book baskets that had been emptied; pots of pens in Year 6 had been emptied on the floor. What a mess this was! We decided that it was imperative that we write evidence reports based on our investigation around school. Finally, we wrote a witness statement for Mrs Pulle to describe how she had felt upon discovering the disruption to the Year 1 classroom (e.g. I am upset and cross.). This has certainly been a motivating hook for our writing this week. I wonder if next week will bring a visitor to assist in our investigation…?

In our maths sessions, we have been consolidating our understanding of the composition of 5. Composing and decomposing numbers involves the children investigating part–part–whole relations, e.g. seeing that 5 can be made of 3 and 2. We have focused on the nursery rhyme ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’, drawing out number bonds of 5 from practical experiences involving moving frogs from a log to a pool (e.g. 4 frogs on the log, 1 in the pool, 5 frogs altogether… 4 + 1 = 5). Activities have included:

• Throwing beanbags (frogs) into a hoop (the pool). How many beanbags landed in the hoop? How many did not? How many beanbags are there altogether? We then represented this in a number sentence.
• Using Numicon to investigate ‘5 jigsaws’. Starting with a 5 Numicon shape, we investigated which shapes could combine on top to create the same shape (1 and 4, 2 and 3, 0 and 5 etc.).
• Playing hiding games. The children closed their eyes whilst some of the frogs were hidden in the pool (under a blue cloth). How many frogs are still on the log? So how many must still be in the pool? How do you know?
• Using cubes in 2 different colours to build towers of 5 e.g. 3 blue cubes and 2 yellow cubes. 3 + 2 = 5.

In Forest School, Mr Simmons introduced us to a map of our school grounds. He challenged us to read the map, spotting representations of the different areas of our playground/Forest School e.g. the Reception outdoor area, the trim trail, the Forest School hut. When we found each place, we marked it on our map using ‘nature’s paint’…mud! This is one of many practical experiences we will enjoy over the next few weeks to develop our map skills. Thank you, Mr Simmons!

 In Spanish, we built on the language learnt so far (¡Buenos días! = Good morning!; ¡Hola! = Hi!; Me llamo… = My name is…) as well as learning how to ask ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?).

Our PE objective was to move with a ball around obstacles, using our feet. After a warmup game of ‘crowns’, we recapped learning from last week, thinking about how to successfully dribble with the ball. We thought about using gentle touches, using the inside of our foot (not our toe), keeping the ball close to our body, looking both at the ball and around the space, and stopping the ball by placing our foot on the top. In this lesson, we had to dribble to a cone, stop the ball with our foot, place a ‘crown’ on our head, and balance. We then dribbled with the ball whilst keeping the crown on our head. Finally, Mrs McLean and Miss Witham tried to steal the balls! It was a tricky challenge as the children were so great at keeping the balls close to their bodies. We had so much fun that we didn’t take a single photo – my apologies!

This morning, it was time for our next music lesson in our ‘Weather’ unit, entitled ‘Thunderstorm’. We began by singing the song, ‘I hear Thunder’. We then watched Mr Tumble’s version of the song a few times to help us to learn the Makaton signs, using them whilst we were singing. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/something-special-i-hear-thunder . We then watched a video of Vivaldi’s ‘Storm’ https://youtu.be/Riub5ycByCY . We discussed the dynamics of the music (how loud or quiet it is) and the tempo (speed of the music). We then listened to actual sounds of a rainstorm, identifying the sounds we could hear such as rain falling, claps of thunder and a crack of lightning. We initially created a class thunderstorm using body percussion and our voices. We then added instruments to the piece, thinking carefully about which instruments would be best suited to rain, thunder and lightning.

After last week’s lesson focused on what goes on our bodies, this week’s PSED session focused on what goes into our bodies. We immediately suggested food and drink and then considered what we may need when we feel poorly. Our body is very clever at getting better by itself but sometimes it needs a bit of help. When we’re not very well, things that can make us feel better include: rest, sleep, water, fresh air, healthy food, a cuddle, and sometimes medicine. We focused on the fact that adults look after medicines for children because medicines can be harmful if they're not used properly. We read the story ‘Hold on Harold’ to consider some scenarios. Harold’s feeling hungry. He wants something to eat. Harold sees something in a packet that looks just like a sweet. But hold on Harold, is it safe? We decided that Harold should leave the packet where it is; not touch it; and ask a grown-up what it is. Harold’s feeling thirsty. He wants something to drink. Harold has seen a lot of bottles under the kitchen sink. But hold on Harold, is it safe? Again, Harold must not touch the bottles; he should always ask an adult before he drinks anything from a bottle as they will help him to find something safe to drink. The children were ever so sensible and had lots of great advice for Harold!

In RE, the children were keen to listen to another of the stories that Jesus heard. First, we discussed the fact that Jesus would not have read these stories in the beautifully illustrated, printed books that we have been sharing. We looked at images of scrolls to better understand how Jesus would have experienced reading and hearing these stories. We then explored the Bible story of Noah and the Ark, listening to Miss Witham read the story aloud before watching a retelling by ‘Stories of the Bible’. We focused on the rainbow of promise at the end of the story and considered why this was so important for Christians. It teaches that God will guide us through every storm and that God will always love and forgive us. We made our own rainbows to remind us of God’s promise.

Wow Reception, you are all such superstars! A week of hard work indeed and what a pleasure it is to observe the fun that has been enjoyed whilst the children engaged in this learning. Next week promises to bring yet more exciting experiences.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend and that the children enjoy a well-earned rest!

With huge thanks,

Miss Witham