Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a fantastic week we’ve enjoyed in Reception.
This week
We have been learning about Scotland and talking about why Scots celebrate St Andrew’s Day. We began our week by reading the story ‘Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers’. It tells the story of a girl who lives on a small fictitious island near Scotland. As we read the story, the children were asked to think about where the story takes place and what it might be like to live there. We discussed some of the similarities and differences between Scotland and Hitchin. This then led us to look at a map of the UK and find out more about where Scotland is, what the national flag and the national flower, the thistle look like.
The following day, we used what we had learnt about Scotland to help us with our learning about St. Andrew; the patron saint of Scotland. The children heard that he was someone from the past that is important to the people of Scotland. We heard the story of how Andrew and his brother Simon Peter were fishing one day when they met Jesus. In the story, Jesus told Andrew and his brother to stop what they were doing and to follow him; becoming one of his disciples. As one of his disciples, Andrew saw many miracles Jesus performed and so he travelled around the world telling people all about Jesus. Andrew became the Patron Saint of Scotland because he was buried in the place where St. Andrew’s is in Scotland today. The children saw how people today celebrate and remember St. Andrew by having many festivities including performing a Scottish dance called a Ceilidh, playing the bagpipes and enjoying parties with food and drinks. As part of their provision, the children had opportunities to carry out activities that gave them the chance to explain what they had learnt about Scotland and St. Andrew.
Thursday was the 1st of December and as such marked the beginning of the Christian festival Advent. Children heard that Advent is the start of the Christian year and is the countdown the Christmas; the time Christians remember the First Christmas as Jesus was born. The children very much enjoyed hearing about all of the traditions we celebrate here in the UK to mark Advent, as well as sharing with us all of the exciting ways they were celebrating Advent at home.
In Phonics this week, we have been revisiting all of our previously learned sounds and tricky words. The children are becoming more confident at using their phonic knowledge in their writing. We have been practising writing CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words during our Phonics sessions and the children are really working hard to do their very best writing, great job Reception!
In maths this week, the children were learning how to recognise and name 4 sided shapes based on their properties. Children were able to recognise a square as having 4 equal sides and a rectangle as having 2 long sides and 2 short sides. They were able to identify squares and rectangles in various real life objects and sort shapes by their properties. Well done Reception.
Next week
- The children will continue visiting the Library in small groups as part of our weekly local trips.
- In Phonics, we will learn the new sounds j, v, w and x as well as revisiting and reviewing all of the sounds learnt so far throughout Phase 2. We will continue practising reading our tricky words as well as applying our phonic knowledge when reading and writing.
- In Maths, we will be focusing on numeral recognition, ordering numbers and matching numbers to quantity
- We will continue to learn our songs for our Reception Nativity
- We will be hearing about the First Christmas in the Nativity Story
- We will be learning about churches as special places of worship.
- We will look at the various traditions people have at Christmas in the UK.
- We will learn about a Victorian Christmas and look at traditions in the past compared to today.
Supporting your child at home
- Share pictures, stories, artefacts and accounts that are of significance to your child from the past explaining similarities and differences between then and now e.g. family photos of holidays or baby clothes/toys. This will help your child to understand chronology and give them a perspective of how things can change over time.
- Encourage positive interaction with the outside world, offering your child a chance to take supported risks, appropriate to themselves and the environment within which they are in. This will support your child to learn how to describe what they see, hear and feel whilst outside.
Any other information
- Next week we will not be giving out picture books as we are collecting them all in for an audit. PLEASE RETURN ANY SCHOOL BOOKS THAT YOU HAVE AT HOME
- If you have not yet brought your child’s costume into school, please make sure it is in school by Monday 5th December
- If your child has a line in the Nativity play, this was stapled inside your child’s reading record, please practice these lines with them at home
- Please make sure your child’s reading record is in school every day
We hope you have a fun filled weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mrs Murrell
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
