Hello from Lilac and Willow, what a delightful week we’ve had in Reception!
This week:
As part of our learning about festivals, the children explored the festival of Thanksgiving. We heard about how the pilgrims set sail to find a new home and arrived in America. The children discovered that the Native Americans helped the pilgrims, by teaching them how to farm produces, hunt for food and build homes. The pilgrims shared a meal with the Native Americans as a way of showing how thankful they were for all of the help they were given. This first Thanksgiving started a tradition that is celebrated every year, with people sharing a meal and something they are thankful for. Why not ask your child about something or someone they are thankful for and why?
We also learnt about the festival of Advent. Advent means “coming” and it’s the period leading up to Christmas. It is a time for Christians to think about the arrival of Jesus. To help celebrate Advent, people will use a calendar to help them count down the days to Christmas. The children brilliantly used their counting, cutting and joining skills to make their own Advent Snowman. Why not ask your child if they know how many days there are during Advent?
In Phonics this week we learnt the sounds j, v and w. As well as revisiting and reviewing all of the sounds we’ve learnt so far this year, we’ve continued working hard with our blending and segmenting.
In PE, Mr Smith continued looking at take off, flight and landing as part of gymnastics. This time, he challenged the children by introducing a new piece of equipment for them to use – a cat ladder. All of the adults are so proud of how much progress the children have made since the start of the year. Why not ask them to create their own routine. Firstly, ask them what they have to do with their knees and arms when they land? Secondly, ask them how they stand to show they’ve finished their routine?
Next week:
- In Phonics, we will be learning the sounds x, y, z and zz.
- In Maths, we will continue combining 2 groups to make a total.
- As winter approaches, we will be finding out about animals that hibernate and we will be exploring ice. To support our learning, we will be reading the book ‘Sam’s Snowflake’ by Gillian Shields.
- We will be starting our Reception Reverse Advent Calendars – thinking of good deeds we can do each day in the run up to Christmas.
- We will be busy practising our Nativity, which we are getting very excited about.
Any other information:
- RECEPTION CLASS OUTCOME – Thank you for your support by coming to our class outcome. It was really lovely to see so many people, the children really enjoyed the chance to share their learning with you. We’re so proud of all the learning they have done this term, well done! Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback, there were some useful points that we will take into consideration for next time.
- LIBRARY VISIT – We’re planning a trip to the library on Tuesday 10th December. For us to be able to provide this visit we will need some parent volunteers to help up. If anyone can accompany Willow Class from 9.00 – 10.30 and Lilac from 10.15 -11.45, that would be greatly appreciated. If you can let your child’s class teacher know and we will confirm with you once we know how many volunteers we have.
- NATIVITY COSTUMES – Thank you to those who have already given us your child’s costume, please could we ask for costumes to be in school by Friday 6th December ready for the dress rehearsal the following week.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Fisher and Mr French
