Hello!

A busy week back in Reception Oak Class this week. Lots to concentrate on including revising our sounds. This week we have revised:  m a s t d. We have practised recognising these sounds for reading, forming these letters, saying these sounds, thinking of words that start with these sounds and independently writing cvc words ( consonant vowel consonant )  starting with these sounds. To help with this at home it would be a good game to see who can think of 5 words beginning with one of these sounds.

Our writing area has been choc-a-block all week, much to my delight!

The children came up with some fabulous words to match our sounds… here are some examples…

Of course with Bonfire Night being on Thursday of this week we concentrated ourselves with learning about Guy Fawkes. We ‘talked around a picture’ of Guy Fawkes laying a trail of gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament. We got some super ideas, thoughts and language from the children including ‘ lurking, camouflaged and looming’ as they described how the picture made them feel, what they could see, what did they think was happening, who did they think it was.

Our activities continued to be based around the same theme with a Discovery lesson discussing a candle. What is it? Where might  you find one? What shape is it? What does it smell like? What does it feel like? What colour is it?  Taking an everyday object or an obscure object and talking about it is a great way to gauge your child’s understanding of the world around them,  which you may be taking for granted that they understand already,  as well as ensuring links are being made, and enabling the children to be exposed to a variety of language they may or may not have used before.  Try it at home – the conversations turn out to be rich with language, and enable any misunderstandings to be ironed out in a safe environment as you are simply discussing an object. Some of the language we gathered from the children included – ‘ We’ve got a candle at home on the table and it’s a rich crimson colour not boring like your white one!’ Fabulous – how often in a day would a child think or need to use such evocative describing words? These little activities turn the children, hopefully by the end of the year, if not during their Year 1 year into creative writers using a wide and rich language.

We played matching games with onomatopoeia firework sound words. Good reading practice and turn taking as well as fun making the sounds!

On Wednesday, instead of afternoon snack and play we visited the Merriman Garden at school. We lit a campfire and enjoyed toasting marshmallows for our snack. ( Those children unable to have gelatine enjoyed some tasty biscuits instead.) I will post the photos next week as they haven’t downloaded from the class ipad successfully at my time of writing this.

The children were able to tell me exactly what I  needed to do to build a fire – the children who have been to a Forest School nursery setting were particularly vocal – talking about pyramids of sticks / paper screwed into balls beneath the pyramid and to stand back from the flames! Lots of health and safety rules covered here!

We had a small world play ‘bonfire making station’ in the classroom this week too… it was received with mixed reviews as ‘ it’s not even real Mrs Bibby!!!’

Our role play area is currently a campfire/ camping area – the children are enjoying putting up tents – gathering around the campfire and telling stories – I’ve enjoyed hearing about lots of your recent family camping adventures!

Various firework pictures were created while we listened and recognised sounds from a firework night. We ended our session listening to Handel’s Music for The Royal Fireworks.

We used 2D shapes to create some firework pictures – this was helpful to teach names/ revise properties of shape.

Following on we sorted shapes too.

Our RE lessons are following a topic: God’s Wonderful World. This week we examined the word ‘ beginning’ and discussed its implications. We read and then watched an animated version of The Creation Story. The children are certainly interested and engaged when we have our quiet prayer time and light our candle. Our ‘ beginning of our world’ discussion enabled a full range of ideas and views to be discussed. The children listen well and understand that there are differences in each others understanding and beliefs. RE is such a key topic to enable the children to celebrate each other’s cultures and learn about the world.

We are getting ready for Remembrance Day in Reception and have learnt about the significance of the poppy and why we wear them at this time of year. Our class need lots of fine motor skills practice so we are sewing a class poppy and have used card to make a poppy display. The children had to rip the card and then stick to make their poppy. They found both of these activities really hard, They persevered but it highlighted how much work we need to do on our fine motor skills to enable their letter formation and then writing to be easy and enjoyable.

 

These are just some of the weeks activities and highlights. It’s great to be back – we’ve missed the children very much.

Stay well and we can’t wait to continue our learning next week!