Spring Term 2021

W/C 29th March 2021

We had the most wonderful day on Wednesday (Farm experience day). We really enjoyed meeting Farmer George via zoom and asked some wonderful questions about his farm. Farmer George was really impressed with our knowledge of tractors and baby farm animals. Once we had finished our talk with Farmer George, we set off and took part in a variety of activities:

-planting seeds
-making bread
-exploring different flour (we noticed the subtle differences between granary, whole meal and white).
-we investigated ears of wheat
-Singing Farmers in the Den

One of our favourite activities was investigating the ears of wheat. We learnt a new word 'chaff'. We used our hands to separate the chaff from the grains of wheat. We read the story 'The Little Red Hen' to help us understand how we can mill the wheat into flour. We used rocks to grind the grains and we were amazed to see flour.

In Maths, we have been learning about length; we have measured a variety of objects including out feet. We also used a trundle wheel to measure the length of our outside area.

Thank you for the great Farmers outfits!

W/C 15th March 2021

 We have really settled back into school life this week and been engaged in a variety of activities.

We have:

• Planted our seed potatoes in our garden and broad beans.
• Made a fruit salad linked to our farm and healthy eating work. We enjoyed reading ' Oliver's Fruit Salad.'
• Chopped vegetables in our outdoor kitchen.

We are working really hard to write sentences. This week we wrote a sentence about what fruit\ vegetables we like or dislike.

We have also mastered number 6 and 7, using dominoes to help understand how many altogether. We are also improving our reasoning and subitising skills. We have explored odd and even numbers too by putting different quantities into pairs.

 W/C 8th March 2021

We have had a super week back in Reception. The children have settled really well and are beginning to adapt to being back together again. It has taken staff some time to adapt to the increased noise levels but it has been lovely to hear children laughing, talking and catching up on lost time!

Our Literacy book focus is 'I will never ever not eat a Tomato.' We have been discussing fruits and vegetables and talking about our dislikes/likes. The children have engaged well in our fruit and vegetable role-play area.

We have continued our 'Farm' topic and discovered the role of a farmer and recapped our previous learning on farm animals and their offspring.

We have been talking about feelings and the children have been encouraged to find their lollipop stick and place it in the coloured bowl to let us know how they are feeling. This has opened up some lovely discussions.

On Friday, we took part in Science Day. Our Science investigation was 'Walking water'. We put food colouring and water into cups. We then put strips of kitchen towel into each cup, joining each one. We patiently waited as the strips absorbed the coloured water. We also dissected some vegetables to see what was inside and learnt all about 'chipping' potatoes.

We are looking forward to planting out seed potatoes and planting broad beans.

We hope you liked the beautiful Daffodil cards that the children carefully painted for Mothers Day.

W/C 1st February 2021

Our week started off great with making pizzas. The children really enjoyed making their own pizzas and hopefully eating them too! The next day we had a go at writing some simple instructions.

The children also wanted to create a shared writing piece with all the facts that they have learnt about Penguins; they amazed us with their knowledge.

In Maths, we have been combining two groups to find the total. We explored this skill by joining two pieces of numicon together and counting the holes to find the total. We also used dominoes to develop this skill.

We also carried out Phonics assessments and are really pleased with their progress.
Please keep an eye out for information on your child's progress and next steps.

W/C 25th January 2021

We have had a great week. The children have really impressed us with their advancing writing skills. The children are progressing well with writing sentences.

We had a problem... Forky from Toy Story 4 went missing from our classroom. The children had a great idea to write posters and stick them around school to make everyone aware to keep an eye out for him. The children created some fantastic posters. The next day Mrs Smith from Year 3 returned Forky- he was found on the back playground!

We have been learning about Antarctica. We found Antarctica on the world map and discovered that most penguins live there. We looked at the different species and learnt that the Emperor Penguin is the tallest Penguin in the world. We had a go at drawing our own penguins and placed them on the world map. We also learnt some facts about Penguins.

W/C 18th January 2021

Bear Grylls has been an interest this week. The children have worked together to create maps and dens. Lots of discussion and problem solving skills have been developed this week.

In Maths, we have been learning about capacity. We have made predictions and developed vocabulary linked to capacity.

We have continued to develop our sentence writing skills too. We are learning to start with a capital letter and end with a full stop.

We ended the week with talking about internet safety. We learnt that if we have pop ups appear, then we must always ask a grown up for help.

W/C 11th January 2021

We had a really busy week.

Starry Night by Van Gogh- We have been studying a painting by Van Gogh. We discussed the colours we could see and some of the techniques used. We have been focusing on practicing some skills before we paint our final piece. We practiced creating swirls and long and short brush strokes. We then explored adding white to make dark blue lighter.

Snow- We had great fun in the snow!

Doctors and Nurses- The children have shown great interest in role-playing being medics. We used plants from the garden to make our own medicines. We will continue to find out more about the role of a Doctor\ Nurse this week.

W/C 4th January 2021

We have settled well into our 'Key Worker' group. The children have certainly showed some resilience as they have had a super week building new friendships.

We have been talking about our Christmas toys and comparing them to toys from the past. We have really enjoyed playing with some toys from the past - in fact the children have not left them alone!

We have also been talking about challenges and how we overcome them when we find something tricky.