Hello from Lilac and Willow, it’s been another wonderful week in Reception.
This week
The children have enjoyed learning about different types of houses and homes and talking about which type of home they live in. We started our week by learning some names of various houses including: bungalow, detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats. To help the children remember their names and their features we played a game called Houses and Homes. When the children heard a different house name, they had to make different actions.
We spent some time looking at what buildings would have looked like in the past. We looked at a recent photograph of Hitchin Market Square and a painting by Samuel Lucas from 1840. The children then made observations and comparisons, talking about what was the same and what was different.
We introduced the children to Google Earth and we looked at where Hitchin is on a map. We pretended we were birds flying and talked about what we could see down below us. We then used the technology of Google Earth to zoom out and talked about where Hitchin is in the world. The children were given the opportunity to create their own maps, linking their learning to the maps they created in the summer of their route to school.
In Literacy we continued with our learning about the traditional tale ‘The Little Red Hen’. This week, the children were asked to see how much of the story they could remember, and try to retell it themselves using a story map. We were so impressed with how much of the story the children could remember.
In Maths this week, the children have been learning about repeating patterns. We have looked at what a repeating pattern is and learnt how to create one using various materials as well as continuing a repeated pattern. We also moved onto looking to see if we could spot a mistake in a repeated pattern.
Next week
- We will continue to explore the season of Autumn and notice the changes happening all around us
- We will learn about what happens at Harvest time as well as how it is significant to Christians
- We will enjoy our own Reception Harvest Festival in class
- We are looking forward to our Monster Phonics dress up day on Friday 21st October
Supporting your child at home
- Re read the story of The Little Red Hen and encourage the children to join in with repeated refrains. Perhaps you could read other stories or traditional tales and see if your child can spot any more repeated refrains to join in with as your read the story.
- When reading with your child, why not try asking the following questions:
– (Whilst looking at the front cover) What do you think the story is about?
– (Whilst looking at the illustrations) How do you think that character feels, and why?
– (Pausing halfway through the story) What do you think will happen next?
– (At the end of the story) Which was your favourite part, and why? - Look for repeating patterns around your home, on clothes and other fabrics. You could also have a go at making a repeated patterns using natural resources outside.
Any other information
- Monster Phonics reading books are electronic e-books. If your child has been allocated a Monster Phonics e-book then the book title will be at the bottom of the reading record on this week’s page with the web link to access this book. Please only read the book that has been allocated and not skip ahead.
- Please can you ensure that your child’s reading record is in school every day.
- Please ensure that your child has a coat and water bottle in school every day.
- Parents Evening. We look forward to seeing you for our first Parents Evenings. They are taking place on Wednesday 19th OCTOBER 5:00 – 8:00PM and Thursday 20th OCTOBER 4:00-7:00PM. This will be a brief opportunity for teachers to share with you how your child has settled into life at Samuel Lucas.
- Friday 21st October 2022 is Monster Phonics dress up day. Please send your child into school dressed either as one of the Monster Phonics Monster characters (these can be found on the handouts we sent home and on the website) or in the colour of a Monster Phonics monster.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
The Reception Team
