Hello from Lilac and Willow, what an exciting week we’ve had investigating.
This week
We spent much of our week as scientists in Reception this week. The children asked some excellent questions and so we spent the week trying investigate answers to the following questions:
- Why are there different animals in the day and the night?
- What happens in the day and the night?
- Where does light come from?
- How does light travel through things?
- How are shadows made?
- How are rainbows made?
At the start of the week, we enjoyed reading the story ‘Night Monkey Day Monkey’ by Julia Donaldson. In the story, Night Monkey and Day Monkey don’t think they have much in common. But when they spend time in the other’s world, they learn a lot, and they also learn to be the best of friends.
The children discovered some new vocabulary to help them understand why there are different animals in the day and the night – nocturnal and diurnal. Nocturnal means that animals sleep during the day and are awake at night and diurnal means that animals are awake during the day and asleep at night. We then had to decide which animals belong in which group using information we already knew or learnt about animals such as owls, bees, meerkats and the fennec fox.
The next day we thought about whether we (as humans) are nocturnal or diurnal, to which the children brilliantly recognised that we are diurnal. To reach that conclusion, we shared some examples of different activities people might do during the day or the night as a way of helping the children to decide including: when do you sleep, when do you eat dinner, when do you go to school etc?
On Wednesday, we spent some time trying to understand where light comes from. The children were able to come up with some fantastic suggestions such as: the sun, torches, lamps and stars. This then gave us the chance to talk about natural and man-made sources of light. The children were quick to remember the term man-made saying “We know that this means people make it.”
The final day of our week, the children were able to use torches, prisms and light screens to explore how light travels through things and how shadows and rainbows are made. All week long the children have been great scientists, particularly giving reasons to justify and explain their ideas and understanding of light and dark – well done Reception!
In Phonics this week we have learnt new graphemes f, ff, l, ll and ss as well as revisiting all of our previously learned sounds. 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, we have been continuing our learning about partitioning numbers by understanding the composition of the numbers 4 and 5. We have been using the part-whole model and the 5s frame to help support our learning.
Next week
- The children will continue visiting the Library in small groups as part of our weekly local trips.
- In Phonics, we will revisit and review all of the sounds learnt so far throughout Phase 2 and we will continue practising reading our tricky words as well as applying our phonic knowledge when reading and writing.
- In Maths, children will be learning to recognise and name shapes with 4 sides.
- We will continue to learn our songs for our Reception Nativity called “Whoops-a-Daisy Angel.’
- We will be learning about Scotland being part of the UK.
- We will be learning about the patron saint of Scotland St. Andrew’s and how people celebrate St. Andrew’s Day.
- We will be learning about the Christian festival of Advent and how it is celebrated in the UK and in other countries.
- We will be learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah and how people celebrate.
Supporting your child at home
- Reading with your child at home will significantly help them to develop their understanding of letters and sounds, as well become better readers and writers. The Monster Phonics books are designed to support the children with their learning and it is important that the children read these regularly however, additional books outside of Monster Phonics books will also help. Please write comments in your child’s reading record to let us know how your child has got on with their book.
- Discuss mathematical ideas throughout the day for example “I think Jasmin has got more crackers…”, “There are four of us, but we only have 2 chairs, how many more do we need?”
- Say how many there might be before you count to give a purpose to counting: “I think there are about 8. Shall we count to see?” Say how many there are after counting – for example, “…6, 7, 8. There are 8 balls” – to help children appreciate that the last number of the count indicates the total number of the group. This is the cardinal counting principle.
Any other information
- MONSTER PHONICS – From now on, we will be putting the monster phonics weekly sheet on Tapestry each week.
- WHOOPS-A-DAISY ANGEL – You should have received a letter telling your child which part they have in our nativity play. Please could you provide the relevant costume in a named carrier bag and bring it in to school by FRIDAY 3rd DECEMBER at the latest. The children will perform bare foot so please do not provide tights or shoes. We will make crowns, snowflake hats and animal ears at school. If you have any questions or need any help/ideas, please just let us know.
- COLD WEATHER – As the weather gets colder please can you please ensure that your child has a coat in school.
We hope you had a lovely weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
