Hello Oak Class Parents!

Another busy week in Reception Oak Class. We have moved from pastoral farming to arable with the children selling fruit and vegetables in their class Farm Shop and counting crops. Our Farm Shop has been a big success with the children, but not so much with the school cleaners … straw everywhere!!

Our hand print chicks have finally dried and are in pride of place on display.

In maths we have done lots of activities around ‘more’ ‘less’ and ‘fewer. 

We have been learning how to play Mancala an ancient Ethiopian game dating back to between 500 and 700 AD. The word mancala is derived from the Arabic word naqala, which means “to move.” It’s a simple game that concentrates on turn taking and counting, however the more you play,  the more tactics become apparant, making it a good fun game for all family generations to play. Highly recommended!

More maths has been hidden in our vegetable patch with the children grouping the crops and counting how many of each crop we have grown.

Revising ordering and counting in twos with our 10 green bottles…

Our writing has been going from strength to strength with the children enjoying writing about what they imagined might be inside the two eggs that sat side by side on the sand in Alexis Deacon’s wonderful story : Croc and Bird. Our imaginations ran wild with suggestions from dinosaurs to duck billed platypus’ and penguins. On reading the story we found out , of course,  that the two eggs encased a crocodile and bird. Well worth a read.

On a Friday, instead of the directed writing tasks that take place on Monday to Thursday, we have ‘ Free Writing Friday’. This involves a picture stimulus that might be taken from our story, our BIG Question or something else we have enjoyed during the week. The children then ‘ free write’;  which is writing without adult support,  tricky word walls or sound mats! This is obviously the ultimate goal and we are slowly but surely getting there. Two class members have taken their free writing to another level and over 3 days this week, written and illustrated their first book!

Our new reading pairs have been well received. Everybody decorated a lolly stick which the childen use to point to the words as they read. The children read their books with a partner and help each other with sounding out words when they get stuck. Along with group reading, one to one reading, perceptual reading ( where we hear, and then all read a text together as a class) and home reading, the children should all be making great strides!

Our weekly trip to the ICT suite is a highlight for the children. They are getting more adventurous as they click away!

Next week is BOOK WEEK at St Matthew’s and we have an exciting week instore for the children of Oak Class.

Check back next week to see what we got up to!