It has been a particularly busy week in Reception with World Book Day on Thursday and our trip to St. Matthew’s Church on Friday.  We also managed to find time to squeeze in our usual phonics and maths lessons, as well as lots of opportunities for play, play and more play!

We started the week by reading the story of ‘The Cow who went Oink”.  This is a lovely story which encouraged the children to think about difference and how it can actually be a good thing.  The story is about a cow who only knows how to say ‘oink’ which puts him in a rather tricky situation with the others cows and with the other farm animals, who laugh at him. Luckily, he meets a pig who only knows how to say ‘moo’ and the two become firm friends.  Can you remember how the cow and the pig helped each other?  Can you remember why the cow and the pig have the last laugh?

During our maths lessons, we have been starting to think about how we can apply all our super number knowledge when we are solving tricky number problems.  This week, we wondered which creatures might be inside the Ark if we know how many legs there are in total.  For example, if there are 8 legs altogether inside the ark, which creatures might be inside? Remember, there is more than one correct answer!

Our number of the week was the number 2, so we started to think about how we can count in twos (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20).  We thought this might have been a handy way for Noah to have counted the animals as they went into the Ark!

Weekend challenge:  if there are 12 legs inside the ark, how many creatures could there be inside the ark?  how many different answers can you find?

We have also been singing a song about Noah and his Ark – you might like to sing it at home…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivDOQH1RQ0

On Thursday, I was a bit confused when I opened up the classroom door as none of the children had turned up for school!  Instead they had been replaced by two Snow Whites, Little Red Riding Hood, Elsa and Anna, a Dashing Prince, Captain Flinn from Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, Princess Mirror Belle, The Selfish Crocodile, the Witch from Room on the Broom, Superman, Batman and Batgirl, two Spidermen, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Sugar Plum Fairy, A Handsome King, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, a Ninja Turtle, Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a Brave Knight, a Scary Vampire, a Power Ranger, Bob the Builder and Curious George!  Here they all are, in their fantastic costumes, sitting in the Reception children’s carpet spots!

In keeping with our animal topic, lots of the teachers dressed up as animals.  There was a frog, a bird, a cat and a dog!  Can you remember why they dressed up as these animals? Which characters were they pretending to be?

During our phonics lessons this week we learnt two new digraphs – ‘oo’ and ‘ar’.  The ‘oo’ digraph is a bit naughty as it sometimes makes a long sound and other times it makes a short sound.  The trouble is, you can’t tell which sound it’s making just by looking at it. You have to try both and see which one sounds best and makes sense within the word.  For example, it makes a long sound in the word m-oo-n but a short sound in the word b-oo-k. Here is the action to help us remember ‘oo’ and distinguish between the two versions:

We also decided to pull our arms apart when saying the long ‘oo’ sound and push them back together when saying the short ‘oo’ sound.

Here is the mouth shape for the long ‘oo’ sound:

And the short ‘oo’ sound:

We also learnt the digraph ‘ar’ as in c-ar and f-ar.  Here is the action and mouth shape for this digraph:

Finally, we finished off the week with a very special visit to St. Matthew’s Church.  We walked to the church with our walk and talk partners thinking very carefully about how to keep ourselves safe when walking along the pavement and when crossing the roads.

Weekend challenge: can you make a road safety poster showing other children how to keep safe when walking on the pavement and when crossing roads? can you remember the three things to remember to keep safe? what is the curb and why do we stay away from it?

When we arrived at St.Matthew’s Church we were met by Mother Helen.  She explained that she would be giving us a tour of God’s House and she encouraged us to think about the things we have in our own homes and to look for similar things in God’s House.  For example, she asked us to think about one of the first things we do when we wake up in the morning (i.e. we wash ourselves) and to look for somewhere people might be ‘washed’ in the Church.  We also looked for somewhere to sit (just like our living rooms at home), somewhere to listen to music (just like our sound systems at home), somewhere special to eat and drink (just like our kitchen tables at home), somewhere special to read (just like a special reading place at home, perhaps snuggled up in bed) and finally, somewhere to keep our clothes (just like our wardrobes at home).  She also talked to us about how important it is to look after God’s House and, before we left, the children all helped Mother Helen to do this by doing some tidying and recycling.

A huge thank you to Mother Helen for inviting us to visit the Church and for giving us such a special tour which really helped us to think about the things we find in God’s House and how important it is to look after His House, just like we look after our things in our own homes.

Another huge thank you to the mums who came on the trip with us!