Reception w/b 2nd October

Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 9:13pm

A busy week indeed but, as it draws to a close, we are feeling ever so proud of each and every child. There is a lot to celebrate as detailed in the blog below.

With a visit to church this week, we have only introduced to three new sounds. The children were ever so disappointed to not have revealed the next sound on our chart! They can’t wait to find out on Monday and what a true delight it is to observe this thirst for knowledge. From Monday to Wednesday, Fred the Frog introduced us to the sounds: g, o, c before reviewing on Friday. We noticed a pattern when forming these letters as they all begin in the same way. We used the following handwriting phrases:

g – round the girl’s face, down her hair and give her a curl

o – all around the orange

c – curl around the caterpillar

We are also regularly showing the sound cards to children throughout the day e.g. when sending them to wash their hands. These repeated, ‘quick-fire’ opportunities help children to practise and embed their sound knowledge. This would also be great to practise at home. For example, writing the known sounds on a post-it note each and sticking them around the house. How many can children recognise? ‘Word time’ with magnetic tiles continued, spelling CVC words with more recently taught sounds. This meant that there were more sounds to choose from on our board, a good opportunity to practise hearing the sounds and recognising how they are written. The children have impressed us with their speedy blending!

In maths this week, our focus on counting continued and therefore, Counting Croc returned. We taught Counting Croc:

• That the last number in the count tells us ‘how many’
• To say one number for each object that he touched
• You don’t need to see something to count it – for example, we counted sounds!
• How to use a ‘counting wand’ to count larger objects that couldn’t be moved.

Much of our focus next week shall be patterns, as we have noticed that this is something the children find tricky. We started to investigate pattern this week. Next week, we will start with AB patterns (e.g. red, blue, red, blue, red…) before progressing to AAB, ABC and ABB patterns. At home, could you use objects around the home to make repeating patterns? For example: knife, fork, spoon, knife, fork, spoon, knife… The children could begin by copying the pattern, then move on to extending the pattern before finally creating their own.

Of course, much of our week has been dedicated to learning all about harvest. We have thought about this year’s harvest appeals and why we are supporting them. We have looked at how a variety of foods are harvested and have been especially fascinated with windmills and the process of grains becoming flour! The children have enjoyed using a pestle and mortar in the nature kitchen to replicate this process on a smaller scale. We continued to practise retelling ‘The Little Red Hen’ and this has extended to children’s role play and small world play in the provision. It was wonderful to celebrate our Harvest festival with you in Church on Thursday. We were exceptionally proud of all of the children after their very joyful retelling of The Little Red Hen and, of course, their beautiful signing. The children had also learnt the Makaton signs ever so well. Thank you to Reverend Sandi and Mrs Pulle for helping us to reflect at this time of harvest, thinking carefully about our hard-working farming community and, of course, the very important work of Chance Changing Lives and the Brereton Food Pantry. It was lovely to walk with so many of you on the journey back to school and we must thank you for all of your help. We do so enjoy the chance to spend time with our school community and watching children and grown-ups getting to know one another. After a biscuit snack, we then collected conkers at the park – a truly incredible amount of conkers! These have been very popular in our outdoor provision, from their use in a nature kitchen recipe, to making chutes to transport them.  

In Forest School, Mr Simmons first made links to our understanding of harvest time, talking to us about hedgerow harvests and the ways in which the berries/seeds/nuts on the hedgerow bushes and trees provide food for the wildlife and will fall onto the earth and grow again next spring. Next, we started to think about autumn and the seasonal changes that it brings. We enjoyed collecting natural autumnal treasures and then pressing them into clay, to explore the textures and patterns created.

In PE this week, we were most excited to be using the apparatus. As hall space was therefore limited, we warmed-up with a ‘wake and shake’ in the classroom. Once in the hall, we thought back to the jumps that were introduced last week: rocket jump and star jump. We especially emphasised the importance of bent knees before jumping and when we land. The challenge this week was to perform these jumps as we jumped off of the apparatus. It was wonderful to see all children having a go. Rotating through a carousel of activities was both enjoyable but also helped to build confidence; some people initially preferred to jump off of the higher apparatus on their bottom rather than from standing but, after a couple of rotations, were feeling brave and had a go at jumping from standing. It was so lovely to see the children feeling so proud of themselves. Reception were ever so sensible and trustworthy during this lesson so we can most definitely have the apparatus out again!

In PSED, we have been thinking about families and homes. We enjoyed ‘The Great Big Book of Families’, focusing on what makes people the same as each other and also different from each other – all families are different. We asked questions such as: Does every family have to have a mum and dad? Does every family have children? Are we (Reception) a family? What other families can there be? We then thought about all the different kinds of homes that people live in, using yet another story, ‘Come over to my house’ as a stimulus for discussion. We asked: What different kinds of houses are there? Which is your favourite? What do you like about them? What things make them different? What things make them the same? Just like families, homes are the same in some ways and different in other ways. The children spent time turning to their talk partners to share information about their families and homes; some beautiful conversations ensued. The children have then been drawing their families and homes. I have loved talking to each and every child and hearing all about their family and the people that they love.

We had an extra bit of excitement this week when Rock Steady came to visit, encouraging us all to have a go at playing a range of instruments. We learned about steady rhythms, beats and the effects of an amplifier for electric guitars. Some of us even featured in a little band on vocals singing ‘Shotgun’ by George Ezra.

This week, our Makaton signing focus was on embedding the signs we have introduced at harvest time. A particularly useful sign that we will regularly use throughout each day is the sign for ‘help’, which we learnt in our Little Red Hen repeated refrain ‘Who will help me…?’ There is a video below so that you can enjoy learning this sign together at home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWqIqmi5bU

Reception, Mrs McAree, Mrs Mayson, Mrs Ball and I have thoroughly enjoyed our week with you all. What superstars we have in our class! We are already looking forward to next week when we shall embark on a bear hunt together.

I hope that you all enjoy a sunny weekend.

With many thanks,

Miss Witham