Reception have had lots of new adventures this week and the children are continuing to impress us with the enthusiasm they show for all areas of school life.  This week we have been enjoying our Drawing Club story "The Little Red Hen". The children drew some fantastic detailed pictures of the Little Red Hen cooking in her kitchen.  It was a good job we have been reading this story as it meant we knew just what to suiggest when we received a letter from Farmer Bob asking what he should do with his crop of wheat. Luckily The Little Red Hen had lent us her bread recipe so we decided to take a trip to Abberley shop to buy the ingredients.

In maths this week we have continued to practise our careful counting and also looked deeper into sorting objects. This week we played "guess my rule" where we sorted objects into sets and our friends had to guess the rule we used for sorting.  We particularly enjoyed doing this with the safari animals where we came up with all sorts of amazing rules for putting the animals into sets. Maybe you can try this activity at home.

You may spot your child coming home with one our special "characteristics of effective learning" stickers. These are awarded when we spot the children showing one of our characteristics during free choice time.  Please don't forget to ask your child why they have been a "Go-for-it Gorilla" or a "Persevering Parrot" (or any of our other characteristics) if they have a sticker.

We have also started our "Concept Cat"  lessons which are a fun way of teaching the children different concepts. This week our concept was long.  If your child can find any examples of the word long at home and would like to bring in a photo to share we would love to add them to our display.  Thank you!

This week in English, we began an exciting new book by Jane Hissey called Old Bear. To introduce the story, we explored a bag of mysterious objects which the children used to make thoughtful predictions about the storyline and characters. It was wonderful to see their imaginations at work! Once we read the book together, the children were eager to see whether their predictions were correct. Throughout the week, we also explored the feelings of the characters using drama activities and picture work, helping the children to deepen their understanding of empathy and how others feel.

In maths, we have continued our work on number lines, taking things one step further by introducing estimation. The children used their knowledge of numbers to estimate positions on the number line. We also worked on comparing numbers, using the correct mathematical language and inequality symbols such as less than (<), greater than (>), and equal to (=).

In geography, the children have been learning about the five oceans of the world. They were able to identify each one and locate them on a map.

During our RE lesson this week, we explored the Christian creation story. This led to thoughtful discussions around the idea of God creating the world and how we, as humans, should live in it. The children shared some lovely ideas about taking care of one another, being respectful and looking after the environment.

In D.T. the children made their smoothies. They applied the preparation skills that we have practised such as cutting safely to make it. They really enjoyed making their smoothies!

Timetable

Monday: Wellies and appropriate clothing for outdoor learning

Tuesday & Thursday: PE kits - please can those with longer hair have their hair tied up ready

In English this week, the children have been planning their writing focus for next week, a narrative about the setting of our story 'The Whale'. We have been role playing the different characters, gathering ideas about words and phrases to help set the scene as well as thinking about all the different types of Writer's Knowledge that the children have - using expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, similes and personification.

In maths, we have focussed on rounding this week. We started by ordering numbers, to ensure the understanding of place value was secure, before moving on to rounding to 10 and then rounding to 100. The children were reminded that once you reach halfway, you always keep going and round up.

In geography, we continued with our topic of 'Why do people live near volcanoes?' This week we were looking at the different ways in which mountains could be formed and where mountain ranges were found in the world. The children learned that most mountains were found on or near plate boundaries and they were formed by the movement of tectonic plates.

In science, the next part of our topic of 'Living Things and their Habitats', was looking at the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates. The children were shown animals grouped into these categories and discussed with their partner how they thought the animals had been separated. Once we had established what the term vertebrate and invertebrate meant, the children researched and found animals that fell into these categories.

English: This week, the children have been busy planning their diary entries. They’ve impressed me with their fantastic vocabulary choices and use of more advanced punctuation.

Maths: In our maths lessons, the children have been working on formal methods for addition and subtraction. They have gained confidence in using these methods and have begun applying them to more complex reasoning and problem-solving tasks.

Geography: As part of our fieldwork, we enjoyed a walk around Abberley to explore the different leisure opportunities available in the local area.

Computing: This week our focus was 'respect each other'.  We thought about the different ways in which kindness can be shown, both in real life and online. We looked at how to be positive online and discussed what to do if someone was being unkind when online.

Science: We named the different parts of the eye and talked about what each part of the eye does.

Please see below information within the community but independent of the school