Welcome back after half term – I hope you all enjoyed a well earned break from the morning school routine/stress! We are now officially half way through your little ones first year of school, they have all changed a lot, becoming older and wiser already!
This week we have discussed our half term’ s and in number work concentrated on matching amounts/ numbers and numicon pieces. We also played lots of board games including Snakes and Ladders.
Snakes and Ladders proved a very popular choice with even a queue forming ready to play next! The children were excited to see a familiar game and were articulate in explaining the rules to each other. They used 2 dice and added up their scores, they moved their counter accurately, counting carefully and most children were able to recognise the tens numbers on the board squares. A great fun game if you are ever at a loss of what to do with your little one!
Our Out and About topic has taken us to analysing the weather! We have watched daily BBC weather forecasts – discussed our favourite types of weather and why and begun to make up our own weather forecasts in our class weather station. The writing table has had many children writing their own forecasts and everyone has come to the weather station to write weather words independently.
Our fine motor skills have been tested trying to thread ‘ raindrops’ from clouds …
The water tray has been transformed using various crates, tubing, drainpipes, sieves and funnels to make pathways for water to travel through. The children are so inventive and have used the equipment to create some convoluted and jolly impressive pipelines!
Weather and number work combine – the children had to measure mounts of water with the syringes and fill the buckets. They were able to read the calibrated syringes accurately and some able to add up how many millilitres of water they had added!
Construction, in its various guises is always popular. It leads to creativity, sharing equipment along with helping/ advising each other – all good skills to hone for the future.
On Tuesday we were very busy learning about Shrove Tuesday. Using up the provisions in the cupboard, by making pancakes and preparing to give something up for the 40 days of Lent until Easter. The children have all written their own Lenten Promise as well as made pancakes! In small groups we made our chef’s hats, followed by the pancake batter and later on in the day watched our pancakes being cooked before enjoying tucking into them as an afternoon snack!
Our favourite story of the week was: Mr Wolf’s Pancakes by Jan Fearnley. Get your child to tell you about the twist at the end!
On Wednesday Mother Helen, from our school Church St Matthew’s, came to our assembly and told us all about Ash Wednesday. She explained how Christians believe we came from dust and will return to dust. At the end of the assembly the children could chose to have ashes from last years Palm Sunday crosses be drawn in a cross on their foreheads.
On Friday Reception class had a very special visit from Mr Quinn and his dog Charlie:
The writing area was very busy this week too…
Hope you have all had a good week too. Enjoy the weekend 🙂