This week, we completed our Lenten Project. Each class at St. Matthew’s completes a sponsored challenge during Lent to raise money for charity. In Reception, our challenge is to complete the route taken by Rosie the Hen (in the story of Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins). We complete the route five times.
The playground was set up to resemble the different parts of the story and the children were encouraged to remember both the sequence of the story as well as the meaning of the prepositions used to tell the tale (across the yard, around the pond, over the haystack, past the mill, through the fence, under the beehives). They took their challenge very seriously and kept track of how many times they had completed the course on their tick sheets. Well done Reception! Now don’t forget to collect in all your sponsorship money!
One of the charities we are collecting money for is the Lunchbowl Network which provides food for the orphaned children living in Kibera in Nairobi. We watched a video of the children in Kibera and tried hard to imagine what it might feel like to have very little food. We thought about just how lucky we are to have families, food and a school full of friends to learn with everyday. Feeling thankful, the children each wrote a prayer to say thank you for something they appreciate having in their life. They also printed some beautiful Easter eggs using pom poms dipped in paint.
We also found time to learn the final sound on the Phase 3 sound mat which is the digraph ‘er’ as in ‘ladder’ and ‘hammer’. This digraph makes the same sound as ‘ur’ (which we have already learnt) but it is made up of different graphemes (letters).
To distinguish ‘er’ from ‘ur’, we decided to come up with a new action for ‘er’. Our action is to walk our fingers upwards as if walking up a ladder.
Next term, we will be spending lots of time making sure the children feel confident with all of the phase 2 and 3 sounds. If you have time over the Easter holidays, please spend some time going over the phase 3 sounds and actions. Try being a digraph detective: listen out for digraphs in different words (can you say if the sound is at the beginning, in the middle or at the end?) or see if you can spot any of them in stories or on signs when you are out and about.
Our Star of the Week did a fantastic job of filling up the number bag with lots of pictures representing the number 7. Our next number of the week has been chosen as number:
We finished the week, and the term, with our Easter Service in St. Matthew’s Church. Listening to the prayers read by some of the older children gave us all another reminder of just how thankful we are for the lives we have been blessed with. Mother Helen led the Service and the Reception children did a super job of joining in with all of the singing.
Back in the classroom, we took a moment to say goodbye to one of our classmates who will be moving house and school during the Easter holiday. We are very thankful for his friendship and wish him and his family all the very best in their next adventure! A huge thank you to one of our lovely mums who organised a school T-shirt for the children to sign and present to him as a leaving gift.
The children have all worked so hard this term, made super progress and grown up so much. We would like to thank all the parents for your continuing support and encouragement and we wish everyone a very happy and restful Easter!