Hello Parent’s and Carers of Oak Class !
I hope you are enjoying the long weekend. A brief overview of last week in Reception which saw us all still emerged in farm life. A particular highlight being our Muddy Puddle Farm – it was such a job keeping the farm and animals clean!
Our class tractor proved so popular last week that the children decided to make a second tractor. The boys worked hard to make it!
The real highlight of the week came with the arrival of an incubator with 10 chick eggs! We learnt all about hens laying eggs and keeping them warm by sitting on them- incubating them for 21 days. We understood the hens turn the eggs every so often to prevent the embryo ‘sticking’ inside the egg. Unfortunately we couldnt look after the hen too so our eggs arrived in a warm incubator. We kept a careful eye on it at all times! On listenening very carefully we could hear some peeping from inside the eggs! The chicks started their pipping – tapping on the inside of their shell – to tap their way out. We watched each egg gently crack and the chicks hatch. One was so fast, by the time we returned from assembly on Friday, she had hatched!
Once the chicks were dry and fluffy we carefully transferred them to a brood hutch which had a special lamp inside to keep them warm. We now have to keep their brood hutch clean and give them fresh chick crumb and water twice a day. We have worked hard writing about the lifecycle of a hen and doing some fantastic observational drawing of our chicks along with singing a variety or chicken / egg themed songs!
In number work this week we have counted in twos! We have sung ‘ The animals went in two by two’ and lined up endless farm animals ready to go and climb into Noah’s ark all in twos!
The children were fantasic at counting in two’s and we moved on to counting in 10’s – we built fields using dienes rods ( plastic rods with marked divides of 10 sections therefore each rod equalling 10.) We all made varying size fields with our dienes rods – some square, some rectangle. We counted in 10’s to find the size of our field. The children went on to fill their fields with cotton wool sheep and see whose field could hold the most sheep.
In reading and writing we have concentrated on ‘ ur’ and ‘ow’ tricky diagraphs – examples being picture, adventure, treasure and cow, crown, town, brown and so on. The children recognised and spotted the sounds and used them in their own writing.
We love a good story in Reception and keep our stories relevant to our topics. A favourite this week has been The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett.
Enjoy this long weekend … the fun and learning continue next week, see you there!