Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a festive week we’ve had in Reception.
This week:
As part of our learning this week, the children discovered how Christmas is celebrated around the world. We “visited” Australia and Mexico to see how similar and different Christmas is compared to the UK.
Australia – similarities:
- Children celebrate Christmas school holidays.
- People give and receive presents.
- Houses are decorated with Christmas lights.
- A special meal is eaten.
Australia – differences:
- It is Summer and not Winter.
- People go to the beach on Christmas Day.
- Some people go camping over Christmas.
- Australians tend to eat BBQ/Picnic style food for their Christmas Dinner.
Mexico – similarities:
- There are Christmas markets for people to buy food, crafts and flowers.
- People have parties at Christmas time.
- Christmas carols are sung.
- Children are told the Nativity story.
Mexico – differences:
- The main celebration is called Las Posadas (Posada means “inn”). It lasts for 9 days and finishes on Christmas Eve. It remembers Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and every night children re-enact the search for shelter.
- There is a party or fiesta held in different homes during Las Posadas.
- Children break a piñata filled with sweets.
- A fireworks display then begins the Christmas celebrations.
The children really enjoyed discovering more about people and other cultures from around the world and had lots of opportunities to remind themselves of what they had learnt during CIL. We built Australian landmarks as part of construction, sorted seasonal clothing between Summer and Winter outfits, created puppets with clothing suitable for Christmas in Australia, wrote postcards of the children visiting the beach in Australia, made lists of party food for our Posada celebration whilst attempting to write the initial sounds in our words, coloured and cut out bright and colourful Mexican snowflakes and different shaped piñatas to decorate the classroom.
We also enjoyed a very special and busy day on Wednesday as the children celebrated Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas Dinner Day and the very first Samuel Lucas Santa Canta. All of the children looked so smart dressed in their Christmassy apparel. The children were able to create a picture of their very own Christmas Jumper and also had the chance to make a traditional Christmas party hat to wear during Christmas Dinner. They really concentrated and worked hard to cut out their very own crown shapes and adorn them with lots of jewels and colours. To top it all off, we had such fun doing the Santa Canta with Mr Smith as we kept fit and healthy whilst raising money for the school and having fun at the same time. There was some lovely Christmas running including running like a Christmas tree, a snowman and a penguin but to name a few. Thank you again for your kind donations to the SLPA Santa Canta.
We ended our week by learning about the Jewish Festival of Hanukkah (or the Festival of Lights). We watched a short film about a boy called Sonny who explained the story of Hanukkah. Some people who lived in Jerusalem called the Maccabees repaired their ruined temple and rededicated it to God by lighting a lamp. The Jews only had enough oil to light the lamp for 1 day, but miraculously, it stayed alight for 8 days. Sonny also showed us how his family celebrate Hanukkah today. A special candle holder called a menorah is lit with 1 candle for each day of the festival. Children play a game with a wooden dice called a Dreidel, they eat a special potato cake called Latke and they give and receive presents. To remind them about Hanukkah, the children practised their colouring, cutting and sticking to create a beautiful picture of a Menorah.
In Maths, the children thought about linking numerals to amounts. Children used their prior learning about counting using the 1:1 and cardinal principles to help them identify how many objects were there were and which numeral represented that amount.
In Phonics, the children were learning the following letter sounds: f, l, ff, ll and ss. They also revisited and reviewed all previously learned graphemes to practise recognising and saying the sound the letters make.
The children also recorded the songs for our Nativity ‘The Sleepy Shepherd’. They have done really well and worked so hard to learn so many words. We cannot wait to film the narration this coming week and put the finishing touches on our EYFS Virtual Nativity to share with you all.
Next week:
- We will be reading the traditional tale The Gingerbread Man.
- In Phonics we will be revisiting and review all previously learned sounds and practising segmenting and blending them to read words and simple sentences.
- In Maths we will be practising our counting through the Christmas song Twelve Days of Christmas and learn about positional language using the Gingerbread Man traditional tale.
Supporting your child at home:
- When talking with your child, encourage them to connect one idea or action with another using a range of conjunctions e.g. ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘because’ – “I like that game because it was lots of fun.”
- Share a non-fiction book about a topic of interest to your child and be clear to explain any new knowledge or technical vocabulary e.g. in a book about dinosaurs explaining that prehistoric means before written records.
- Blend sounds into words, so that your child can read short words made up of known letter-sound correspondences e.g. c – a – t, cat, l – u – ck, luck.
- Hold up some fingers on one or both hands and ask your child to count them and either draw the numeral to match or hold up a number card.
Any other information:
- PE KIT – Children will be doing PE next week. Please can they come to school dressed in their PE kit on their respective days.
- PICTURE BOOKS – Please could all picture books (non-reading scheme books) be returned by Wednesday 16th December.
- THE SLEEPY SHEPHERD NATIVITY – We are recording the narration for our Christmas Nativity Play on Monday 14th December. If your child has any words (see inside their reading record), please could you practise over this weekend, we would be most grateful. Once the video is ready we will notify you of where and how you can view it.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
Willow and Lilac Class Teachers.
