Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a great week it has been in Reception!
This week:
With so much going on this term, the children started their week by focusing on their well-being. In our classes, we talked about well-being as being happy, healthy and safe. We spent the day discussing all the different things that make us feel happy, healthy and safe and spent time doing some of those things during CIL. We used our fine motor skills to make some friendship bracelets, we used our observational skills to draw and paint portraits of our friends, we practised our turn taking and sharing by playing table top games with our friends, we drew pictures to give to our friends and we also had the change to do some Yoga and mindful breathing exercises too. It was lovely to see the children not only try to find ways of making themselves feel happy, healthy and safe but also to find ways to help their friends as well – well done Reception!
On Tuesday, the day started with lots of the children very excitedly sharing their stories of opening doors on calendars at home and finding a surprise waiting behind. Being December the 1st the children spent some time thinking about why we have these calendars. We learned that the first door is opened on December the 1st as this marks the start of the Christian Festival of Advent and a new door is opened each day during the 4 weeks of Advent. The word Advent means the arrival of something or someone important and for Christians; it is a time for them to prepare for the celebrations of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. We also learnt that Advent is a very important time for us to enjoy with our family and friends. To remind us of Advent the children practised their cutting, sticking and decorating skills to make Advent wreaths and Advent calendars with the days of Advent forming parts of Father Christmas’ beard. The children also practised their collaborative skills by working together to make very long paper chains to decorate the classroom – the end results look amazing.
The rest of the week, the children began to think about seasonal changes. We reminded ourselves of the defining features of Autumn such as leaves turning brown and falling from trees, the weather getting colder and wetter and some of the festivals people celebrate during Autumn including Harvest and Diwali. The children were quick to notice that Winter follows Autumn and we then became detectives trying to look for clues and signs of Winter. The children soon discovered that the temperatures drops and we might notice more rain, frost and even snow and ice. We also noted that many of the trees in our outside area have lost their leaves and have bare branches. The children also said that we wear different clothes because we need to keep warm and the saw more people wearing gloves, hats and even wellies. We also thought about the types of animals we might associate with winter such as penguins and polar bears. The children came up with some fantastic adjectives to describe Winter, they painted pictures of a snowy day using cotton buds, they also were carefully making patterns in paper to cut out snowflakes, they built igloos using construction blocks and materials and they used 2D shapes to build pictures of penguins.
We ended our week by becoming Scientists as we conducted an investigation using ice. The children agreed that building snowmen is fun but it is sad when they disappear. We talked about why the snow and ice melted and we attempted to see if we could find different ways of stopping ice from melting. The children had to make suggestions about how we were going to carry out our investigation, so each class had several ice cubes and decided to position the ice in different parts of our classrooms, all with different coverings. The children then made predictions about what might happen to the ice and decided that the ice that had melted the least was the one that worked best. The children came up with some fantastic observations and used their knowledge and understanding of the world around them to help them with their learning – well done!
In Maths this week, we have been learning about find one more and one less of a given amount. The children have been using their prior learning about counting using both the 1:1 principle and the cardinal principle. As they count an object, the assign it a number name (1:1). When they finishing counting, the final number they say is the total amount (cardinal). The children have been using the language of more, most, less and fewer all week and are really starting to get the hang of it!
In Phonics this week, we have learnt new graphemes u, r, h and b as well as revisiting all of our previously learned sounds. The children have also started to use their prior knowledge to help them segment (sound out) and then blend to read simple CVC words such as cat, pat, pin, dog. The children are working hard making attempts to apply their phonic knowledge in their writing. We are really proud of their perseverance and determination to do their very best writing, well done Reception!
We have also been enjoying some rehearsal time with Mrs Footer in music as we get closer to our performance of The Sleepy Shepherd. We are sure you’ll agree with us that the children have worked so hard to learn all the words to their songs and are sounding fabulous – we can’t wait for you to enjoy the real thing!
Next week:
- We will be learning about how Christmas is celebrated around the world.
- We will also be discovering more about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
- In Maths, we will be learning using the number 5 to help us link numerals to amounts, to experiment with our own symbols and marks and to solve real world mathematical problems.
- In Phonics, we will be learning the sounds f, ff, l, ll and ss as well as reviewing and revisiting our previously learned graphemes.
Supporting your child at home:
- As we move from Autumn to Winter, the children will be wearing clothes to keep them warm. Encourage your child to practise putting on gloves and wellies, as well as zipping up their coats.
- Some animals live in cold places around the world. Draw a picture of an animal that lives in a cold place and find out 2 facts to share with the class about that animal.
- Go on a Winter walk with your child and look around at the things that have changed since the summer before they started school.
- Tell your child a number. Place this number of raisins or cereal pieces on their plate or bowl. If you say ‘one more’ encourage your child to add one more and say the number they have. If you say ‘one less’, allow your child to eat one then count the number they have left.
Any other information:
- JUNK MODELLING – Thank you so much for your donations, we very much appreciate them. If possible, please could we ask for small boxes with thin cardboard as the children can find thick cardboard slightly trickier to model with.
- WINTER WEATHER – If possible, please could you provide your child with gloves to wear in school.
- WORDS FOR NATIVITY – We are planning to record the words for the Nativity on the 14th of December. If your child has been given words to say in our Nativity play, please could your practise them if possible.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
