October- December 2023

Our learning this half-term has been about Space.   We have enjoyed listening to lots of different stories, information books and creating class story maps to help with our retelling of ‘Whatever Next’ and ‘How to Catch a Star’.  We have used the Usborne information book to explore answers to our questions. 

 We found out that astronauts go into space. We have enjoyed reading ‘Astro Girl’ about her wishes to become an astronaut when she is older.  It was fascinating to watch a real astronaut, ‘Tim Peake’ inside the International Space Station. We could see where the astronauts go to sleep and what jobs they have to do. We loved watching the astronauts floating around and wondered why astronauts float around and found out about gravity.

Another question we wanted to know more about was What the moon is made of?   How do rockets work? We learnt about the different parts of a rocket and made our own space rockets using junk modelling materials and used different materials in the construction area too.  

We have been exploring the stars and made our own star constellations.

We got to look through a real telescope with our visitor, Mr Cunliffe.

Our music and movement lessons with Mr Clarke were themed around space, and we used instruments, words and moves to help us learn about the planets, solar system and the role of an astronaut. 

In PE we travelled around safely and negotiating space.  We have been playing team games and learning rules and fair play.

In our phonics we have now introduced all the letter sounds of the alphabet. We listened to the beginning sounds of words and blending sounds together, making three letter words. 

In Maths we looked at the different ways we can make numbers up to 5. We investigated 1 more and less than any number up to 5 and have been exploring measure, positional language and shapes too.

 Have a look at the photographs to see what we have been busy learning ..... 

 

 

 

September- October 2023

We are so proud of all the children and how they have settled into Reception. 

We have loved reading a number of different texts.  

We began by reading ‘The Colour Monster’ about a monster who needed help to put names to the feelings he had. The children were so confident in using their words and gestures to communicate how they are feeling at different times. 

We had great fun joining in with the story ‘From Head to Toe’ We quickly joined in with the repeated phrases and loved making the different animal actions then making up our own movements. We developed our story telling further through exploring the story ‘You Choose’ We made our own choices on each page to make up our own story. 

We have enjoyed learning the story ‘We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt’. It was fun going on our own leaf hunt in the big garden. We made a class story map and retold the story following the pictures and adding actions. We then drew the settings from the story and used our phonics to write the words. 

We have also been learning Autumn poems, we have added actions and performed these to the other Reception classes.  

In Phonics, we have learnt 4 graphemes a week and have almost learnt the whole alphabet. We have worked hard on practising our oral blending of words – ‘b-i-g’    ‘p-a-t’     ‘l-i-p’ 

We have explored the season of Autumn including how the weather has changed, what happens to the trees, what animals we can see outside and how some animals hibernate. We painted autumn leaves using autumnal colours. 

In Maths we have been matching objects by what is the same and what is different. The children were excellent at working out the matching rule by applying their knowledge of shape and colour. We have been exploring measures including height and length as well as patterns. We enjoyed creating different patterns with the musical instruments. 

In PE  we have practised our throwing and catching. We started with smaller throws and gradually made them higher as we grew in confidence. We have developed our skills at moving in different ways, changing direction and stopping on command.  When moving around the hall we have been trying to keep our head up to ensure we do not bump into our friends.      

We have designed and created our own fruit kebabs as healthy snack. We thought about what our favourite fruits are and about how fruit and vegetables keep us healthy. We had a great time making our fruit kebabs, following the design we created in our sketch book and of course we enjoyed eating them! 

Our visit to the library van!

 

 

 

When Tullie Mouse came to visit us!  We explored familiar household items from a long, long time ago