Reception w/b 6th November
Date: 10th Nov 2023 @ 4:34pm
Well Reception, what a wonderful week we have all had! I must just take this opportunity to say how proud our Reception team continue to be of our superstar class. They are making superb progress and are just a joy to spend time with.
Phonics success continues as the children are now very settled in their new groups. Our phonics team are all very much enjoying teaching the Reception children. You will find the sounds that they have focused on this week in the ‘How to help at home’ document. Please do continue to practise sounds and blending at home.
In maths this week, our focus has been deepening our understanding of 5 as a quantity by linking the number itself to the 5 fingers on one hand. We have been inspired by the rhyme ‘5 Little Peas in a Peapod Pressed’ and the Numberblocks episode ‘High Five’. We have explored ways to represent numbers to 5 using our fingers, die patterns and five frames.
In literacy this week, we have spent lots of time thinking about sentences. The children have been feeling (quite rightly!) very proud of themselves as we have started to read and write sentences. We thought about the sounds that we know; we can combine sounds to make a word. This helped us to understand that words can be combined to make a sentence. We have been reading simple sentences such as: ‘a dog can dig’ and ‘sit on a mat’. We introduced the concept of a ‘finger space’ and realised their importance in spacing out words in a sentence, making it easier to read. We have used a ‘finger space’ action between each word as we worked together to read the sentences. We have not yet discussed capital letters or full stops – these will be introduced in time. We did, however, introduce our very first red word – I. Red words are common words, used regularly in speech, which have exceptions to the phonics rules. These will be gradually introduce throughout the year. This week, we have practised saying ‘I’ in a sentence (e.g. ‘I am in Reception’ and ‘I like dancing’). We have then used this word in our secret superhero message writing. First, we created a superhero ‘mini me’. The children were given a body template and a photo of their own face. They then decorated their superhero however they desired, adding capes, boots, masks and lots and lots of sparkles! We have then each written a secret sentence to describe our superhero powers. For example: ‘I am fast’, ‘I have fire powers’, ‘I can freeze people’. We have been very impressed with the segmenting and letter formation skills observed! Reception, you truly are wonderful writers and I have been very proud to add your writing to our ‘Wonderful Writing Wall’.
We thoroughly enjoyed our music lesson this week. First, we listened to ‘The Fall of the Leaf’ by Imogen Holst played by Steve Isserlis. Each child had a piece of blank paper and a crayon and were invited to move their crayon with the music, imagining the leaf blowing around as they did so. We asked: How does the music make you feel? What instrument is playing? (Cello) Is the music fast or slow? Loud or quiet? We then learnt to sing the Autumn Song and began to add actions. https://youtu.be/n5Ov7KxpTqM
Our PE took place outdoors, where we particularly focused on our balancing skills.
Remembrance has been an important focus this week. We began by thinking about the poppy and what it represents. We know that people wear poppies to show that they are thinking about and remembering the soldiers that have fought in the wars. Buying a poppy helps to raise money to take care of soldiers and their families. We learnt that Remembrance Day is on 11th November each year and that, at 11 o’clock on Remembrance Day, people stay silent for two minutes to remember. On Remembrance Day, poppy wreaths are placed on statues and monuments. We watched a video of King Charles laying a wreath at the Cenotaph last year, and listened to The Last Post. The children were ever so respectful and asked insightful questions. We have then engaged in related activities throughout the week. The children have created poppies with loose parts and playdough, printed poppies with potatoes and many children chose to create their own paintings using watercolours. In Tuesday’s Forest School session, the children collected red leaves, green leaves and black/brown leaves to create a ‘nature picture’ of a poppy. Mr Simmons then showed the children how to use clay to make poppies. By today, the clay poppies had dried out so we were able to paint them. These look beautiful together. Finally, Mrs McLean led us in a Remembrance collective worship today. We will remember them.
Our Makaton signs of the week have therefore been ‘poppy’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j70_ppObU6o) and ‘to remember’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-DK2mtywAc).
We have also been learning lots and lots of new signs as we sign along to our new Nativity songs. We ask that you please begin to look at your child’s lines together to best support them in our Nativity preparations. We are so proud of how they are already progressing with these preparations. It promises to be a wonderful performance!
I hope that you all enjoy a lovely weekend and we shall hope for some sunshine, at least for tomorrow!
Miss Witham
