We have had another wonderful week of learning in reception.
This Week in Reception
We enjoyed learning all about the Chinese New Year. We started by learning about the origins and the story behind how the Chinese New Year began. The story tells of how the Jade Emperor wanted to have a way of measuring time. To do this, he decided that there should be a great race across a river between the animals. The first 12 animals to cross the river would be rewarded by having a year in the calendar named after them. As the children listened to the story, they also discovered a little about the personal qualities and characteristics of each animal to help explain where they finished in the race.
As we continued throughout the week, we thought about the key traditions and festivals celebrated by people during the Chinese New Year.
We also learnt about how Scottish people celebrate Burns night and made links with our previous learning last term on St Andrews Day.
In Phonics, we were continuing our learning in Phase 3 by learning new digraphs long oo and ar. The children used the different colour coded monsters to help them identify which sounds to use. This week we also revisited sounds that we had learnt in phonics in previous weeks. As always, the children are practising applying their phonic knowledge when reading and writing.
In Maths, we have been learning about making comparisons about the mass and capacity of different objects. The children used balance scales and bucket scales to compare the masses of different objects and to compare if they were heavy or light. We also used various containers and discussed the capacity of each.
In Jigsaw (RHSE), we continued our learning about ‘Dreams and Goals’ and talked about how we can make others feel good about their own goals by using kind words of encouragement. We discussed how we all achieve our goals at different times and we are all on our own journeys.
Next Week
- We will continue our ‘Once Upon a Time’ topic.
- Our story focus next week will be Goldilocks and The Three Bears. The story will be reflected in our provision so that the children get to know the story really well. The children will have the opportunity to ‘hot seat’ the characters to think about how the different characters must be feeling at different stages of the book
- We will be making porridge and linking this to our maths learning about capacity.
- We will be re-visiting our learning on materials and their properties to create a suitable chair for Baby Bear.
- We will be learning about bears from around the world and talking about habitats
- In Phonics, we will recap the diagraphs and tricky words that we have recently learnt.
- In Maths, we will be looking at the composition of numbers 6, 7 and 8.
- In Talk for Writing, we will get to know the story of Goldilocks and The three Bears really well and then adapt the story by changing the characters, setting and the food that she eats. The children will then create their own adapted versions of the story. They will also have the opportunity to perform these as ‘Helicopter Stories’ with the rest of the class.
Supporting your child at home
- Complete week 3 of the reading challenge and upload it to Tapestry.
- Read three times this week and record in your child’s reading record.
- Remind children of previous events: “Do you remember when we forgot to wear our raincoats last week? It poured so much that we got drenched!” This will help them to connect one idea or action to another using a range of conjunctions.
- Use sequencing words with emphasis in your own stories: “Before school I had a lovely big breakfast, then I had a biscuit at break time and after that I had two pieces of fruit after lunch. I’m so full!” This will show your child how to describe events in some detail.
- Congratulate children for their kindness to others and express your approval when they help, listen and support each other. This will help your child build constructive and respectful relationships.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Fisher, Mrs Murrell
