Reception w/b 26th June
Date: 30th Jun 2023 @ 3:56pm
Another week draws to a close, and it has been a week packed full of learning and experiences. We have had a class full of busy bees, learning lots and having fun.
This week, I have completed another handful of reading assessments. Please do not worry if you have not heard anything yet as I am completing a few assessments each week as children become ready for a move. You can find information about your child’s phonics sounds of the week within the weekly Dojo message. Thank you to all of those parents and carers who continue to support their child with learning to read and write through phonics; this is so very appreciated. We know that it must seem very repetitive at times but it is this consistency and repetition which is vital to help children to make continued progress throughout Reception and Year 1, enabling them to move beyond phonics in Year 2. We must commend the children on their focused approach in every session; maintaining this focus and positive attitude to learning will help them to soar.
In maths, we first continued to look at adding on a number line before showing our understanding in an independent task. It has been lovely to see so many children building on this learning in their provision time. For the remainder of the week, we looked at subtracting on a number line. We realised that, when taking away/subtracting, we make a number smaller. We therefore needed to travel backwards along our number line, noticing that the numbers got smaller as we did so. Once again, we started with a physical number line comprised of number tiles. For example, if answering 7 – 4, we knew to start on the number 7. We then jumped 4 jumps backwards on the number line, landing on 3: 7 – 4 = 3. As the week progressed, we moved to a paper number line, using the pen to draw the jumps. In this case, we would circle the starting number (e.g. 7), then jump carefully (e.g. 4 jumps), before circling the number we landed on (3). We were once again blown away by our marvellous mathematicians!
In our extra shape maths session, we looked again at 3D shapes, naming them as a sphere, cone, cylinder, cube and cuboid. We explored whether they would stack or roll. We are looking forward to a ‘shape hunt’ next week. Why not try to spot some 3D shapes around your home?
Much of our learning this week has been inspired by our butterflies. On Monday afternoon, we were simply delighted that three of our butterflies had emerged! It was just magical watching the children observe the butterflies up close and such awe and wonder ensued. One chrysalis remained, and we crossed our fingers that we would welcome one more butterfly friend. On Tuesday morning, our wish was granted and our butterfly family was complete. Last week, the children had suggested a variety of names and the winning four were: Buttercup, Cornflake, Cat and Helen. Such fabulous butterfly names! We waited for the sunshine to appear on Thursday and then it was time to release our butterflies. We had hoped that they may land on us to say hello but, we had looked after them so well that they were very strong and ready to fly. Mrs North carefully lifted each butterfly out of the net and then they happily flew away. Luckily, the butterflies kept flying back to say hello, landing on the grass and trees. We hope that Buttercup, Cornflake, Cat and Helen will visit us in the new butterfly house we have made for them. Our writing activities of the week were inspired by the butterflies. The children could explain the lifecycle of a butterfly with such confidence, using scientific vocabulary. They wrote their explanations in full sentences, using time connectives including first, next, then and finally. It was wonderful to see confident use of phonics and red words as well as application of sentence rules such as capital letters, finger spaces and full stop. Reception, you are superstars!
In RE this week, we continued to think about the Creation story. We know that Christians believe that God created the world. We sang all of the songs we have been learning about God’s world. We then thought further about how God would want us to look after the world. Our suggestions for looking after the world included: growing plants and food in our school garden/outdoor area; caring for creatures (like we did with the butterflies); organising a litter pick; composting our fruit peels from snack time; turning off the board/lights when we leave the classroom; asking for there to be recycling bins in each area of the school, including the playground. The children were so passionate about caring for their environment. They then created artwork to show how we can care for God’s world, as well as art to show their understanding of the 7 days of Creation.
Thinking about the natural world also linked to our EAD focus, continuing to look at Claude Monet. This week, we used tissue paper to create collages inspired by his ‘Water Lilies’ series. We tore and cut the tissue paper, thinking about the shapes and colours we were using. We then layered the tissue paper to create a 3D effect. These look beautiful! Excitingly, we chose to complete this activity in the Year 1 classroom whilst they were on a trip. This was received so positively by the children and they enjoyed feeling so grown up, completing an activity at the Year 1 tables. They noticed similarities to our classroom, such as the Read Write Inc. phonics posters, the visual timetable and the red words display. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to find opportunities to spend time in the Year 1 classroom so that it becomes a familiar space for the children.
In our PSED session, we focused on internet safety. We were introduced to Smartie the penguin, who had just received a tablet for his birthday. Smartie encountered a variety of situations with his tablet, including: false information (a website saying polar bears lived on the beach); a scary image popping up on the screen (a scary polar bear); playing on a game where another player asks for information (a player on ‘Snowcraft’ messaging ‘Where do you live?’); an older sibling leaving a game open on the tablet that is too old for Smartie; players saying unkind things to others in a game; adverts popping up during a game. In each of these scenarios, we agreed that Smartie should immediately tell his trusted grown-ups. The grown-ups helped Smartie each time and praised him for coming straight to tell them. We talked about who our trusted grown-ups are.
In Monday’s Forest School session, the children wanted to continue with Mr Simmons’ weaving bracelets challenge – a super fine motor activity. Another fine motor activity that we have enjoyed this week has been balancing marbles on golf tees using tweezers – a challenge indeed!
On Thursday, Reception were very lucky to have been invited to join Teddy Bears for a wonderful performance of Punch and Judy. They had an opportunity to explore how the puppeteer worked and to see the puppets close up. We have also enjoyed welcoming Mrs North’s children, Emilia and Toby, to the classroom this week to play their violin and cello. Beautiful performances which were received with joy and amazement.
This afternoon, Mrs Edwards focused our athletics session on preparing for Sports Day. We most especially enjoyed practicing our egg and spoon race skills! The session was unfortunately cut slightly short by the rain. We are looking forward to more Sports Day preparations over the next couple of weeks.
Another exciting week! Next week promises to bring yet more wonderful opportunities, including our class visit to St Oswald’s Church on Thursday. Parents and carers are more than welcome to join us on this visit.
I hope that you all have the most wonderful weekend and I shall look forward to seeing many of you at the disco and garden party!
With many thanks and best wishes,
Miss Witham
