Our Learning > Our Classes

Hello from Willow and Lilac

We have had a wonderful 2 weeks in reception. Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for our Nativity performance. We are very proud of all of the children.

We have enjoyed the snow and have been making icy discoveries in our outdoor area. The ice and cold weather has led to interesting discussions about where the ice and snow has come from and what will happen to it once the temperature rises.

Last week, during our P.E lesson the children took part in the Santa Canta. Because of the icy conditions outside the children did this in the hall. They didn’t just run however, they galloped like a reindeer, waddled like a snowman and jumped like a star. Then made lots of Christmas poses when the music stopped. Great fun was had by all.

On Wednesday, last week, we made crowns and hats and wore them during our Christmas dinner.

Our main teaching input has been about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. We looked at similarities and difference between how we celebrate Christmas in the UK and how it is celebrated in other countries. We chose to focus on countries that are familiar to some of our children in school so that they had the opportunity to talk about traditions that they have at Christmas. We learnt about how in some countries like Hungary St Nicolas visits the children on 6^th December, where new boots are placed on the windowsill and filled with presents. We learnt about Italian traditions such as in some towns in Italy shepherds come into the towns playing bagpipes and singing carols and that the traditional Christmas cake in Italy is called ‘panettone’. In Spain we learnt that most families have a traditional family meal on Christmas eve. We read about Christmas in Japan and that although only 1% of the population is Christian they still celebrate Christmas by decorating homes, towns and cities with lights and sharing a family meal together. We learnt that in the Netherlands, Santa Claus is known as ‘Sinterklaas’. Between his arrival and the 5th December, many children fill their shoes or clogs with hay and sugar for Sinterklaas’s horse and awake to find them filled with little presents or nuts and candy. In Poland we learnt that it is a tradition to leave an empty chair at the dinner table in case there may be an unexpected guest. We also learnt that Poland is renowned for its Christmas baubles and so we designed and decorated some of our own.  Many French children receive gifts from Père Noël. He travels with a stern friend, Père Fouettard, who reminds him how well behaved each child has been. A tradition in France is to have a bûche de Noël (Christmas log).

Some similarities we noted whilst learning about these traditions were the decorating of houses with lights, getting together with family, having delicious food and giving and receiving presents. Father Christmas visits children all over the world, but he is known by a different name in each country.

In phonics we continued with our Monster Phonics scheme and we learnt the new sounds; y,z,zz, and qu as well as revisiting our high frequency words and tricky words from this term.

In maths this week we have been revisiting our learning from this term and looking at one less/one more. We used the book Ten Little Elves to help us with this.

We ended the term with a Christmas craft session and a movie afternoon where we had crisps, kindly donated by the SLPA. We watched Arthur Christmas and the children all enjoyed it.

Next Term:

• We will continue with our Monster Phonics scheme
• In maths we will be matching numbers to quantities and using a fives frame to help us to subitise
• Our main teaching focus will be ‘Once upon a time’ where we will be exploring traditional stories and supporting the children with getting familiar with key texts

We hope you all have a wonderful and restful Christmas and we look forward to seeing yo in the new year.

Mrs Fisher and Mrs Murrell