Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a great week we’ve had in Reception.
This week
This week Reception have been learning about lifecycles and the children were excited that we have had some caterpillars arrive at school and we are watching them to learn about their lifecycle; from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle where a tiny caterpillar hatches from an egg and the first thing on his mind is food, so off he crawls looking for something to eat. Over the course of a week, the tiny caterpillar munches his way through all sorts of delicious goodies until finally he is not only full but has a tummy ache! And then the most amazing thing happens, as the caterpillar is transformed into a beautiful butterfly. To continue our learning about lifecycles we also read the story The Cautious Caterpillar. This story is about the life cycle of a butterfly but Cody the Caterpillar is reluctant to change, her friends including a ladybird, a bee and a grasshopper give her some encouragement. We also used this story to talk about the children’s transition to Year 1.
In Phonics this week, we continued reading the Monster Phonics version of The Enormous Turnip. The children used the story to practise applying all of the phonics they have learnt throughout Reception as well as continue blending three consonants in a row in whole words for example splash and spring.
In Maths we practised and consolidated the skills we’ve learnt so far this year by solving problems. Our first problem to solve involved three animal friends playing a bean bag toss game and we had to work out how much they scored. We then read a story called the Pattern Fish and we had to explain the unit of repeat in various patterns and the children then had to come up with their own patterns
On Friday the children were very excited to be given a sneak preview and watch the dress rehearsal for the Year 5 and 6 production of Peter Pan, although the weather tried to stop us we were still lucky enough to be able to watch it inside instead. The play was fantastic and the Reception children were very inspired by the performance. Thank you Year 5 and 6 for letting us come to watch!
Next week
- We will be reading the book Mad About Mini Beasts by Giles Andreae.
- In Maths, we will be describing routes and journeys using directional and positional language.
- In Jigsaw we will be talking about our worries and things we are looking forward to about being in Year 1.
Supporting your child at home
- Encourage your child to express their feelings if they feel hurt or upset whilst trying to use descriptive vocabulary. Help and reassure them when they are distressed, upset or confused. This will in turn help support your child to express their feelings and consider the feelings of others.
- When writing, help your child memorise the sentence they want to write by saying it aloud beforehand. This will help your child as they learn to write short sentences with words with known sounds using a capital letter and full stop.
- Plan and play games which involve partitioning and recombining sets or amounts of objects. For example, throw 5 beanbags, aiming at a hoop. Ask questions such as “How many go in the hoop? How many don’t?” This will give your child opportunities to explore the composition of numbers to 10.
Any other information
- WARM WEATHER – In warm weather children will need a named sun hat. Please apply long lasting sun cream before they arrive at school. Please can you make sure that a named water bottle is in school every day.
- OPEN EVENING – Open evening will be held on Wednesday the 6TH of July from 4-7PM.
- SPORTS DAY – Sports Day will be taking place on Tuesday the 12th of July from 1.30 – 3.00PM.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend.
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers
