The Night Pirates
This week, we’ve started exploring The Night Pirates by Peter Harris.
Using our story map, we’ve enjoyed retelling the story with actions and expression. We’ve heard some fantastic pirate impressions and not forgetting our new pirate names.
Maths
This week, we introduced the children to Rekenreks. We continued to develop our subitising skills by using our “fast eyes” to quickly identify the number of beads shown. Rekenreks help children explore the structure of small numbers and build confidence in recognising quantities without counting.
We learnt that all of the beads should start on the right-hand side. This is known as the ‘ready position’. The children practised using the ‘pause (think), place (one finger), push (the beads)’ method. We always make sure we’re only using one finger when carefully pushing the beads.
Phonics
Now that we’ve reached the final half-term, we’ll be revisiting and consolidating all of our phonics learning in preparation for Year 1.
Have a happy and healthy weekend.
Cities and seasides
Summer 2: Seaside and Cities
Welcome to our final half term in Reception our theme is Seaside and Cities and our focus books this half term are
Have a fantastic half term everyone and enjoy the sunshine but be safe. Drink lots of water and don’t forget to wear some sun cream.
Staying Safe
This week, we’ve joined in with school’s safety themed week. We’ve learnt all about staying safe in lots of different situations.
In school, we explored how we can stay safe in our classroom and outdoor areas. We also set up our very own Forest School area in our garden, Year 5 and 6 came to see us in big Forest school and reminded us how we need to use the equipment to keep ourselves and each other safe. Sarah has been great at making the rules simple enough for us to remember them. Thank you to the big kids for helping us stay safe.
We also talked about the important adults who help to keep us safe, as well as the ways we can help to look after and support each other.
To finish the week, we watched a road safety video and discussed different types of road crossings and how to cross roads safely.
Reminders
We will return for our final term on Monday 01 June.
A visit from d:side
On Friday we had a special visit from d:side who talked to us about different feelings and what we could to to help us when we have these feelings. We had some fantastic responses and it was clear to see that our Feelings First sessions are a success.
“He is feeling cross and angry, when I am angry I rip up paper until I feel calm again.”
“She is sad, she needs to tell her mummy or the teacher. They can help her feel better.”
We also talked about being healthy and did some exercises in class. Dave was very impressed with how well we listened and answered each question.
Well done Reception, you showed our visitor how fantastic you are.
The Bug Collector
This week, we’ve been reading The Bug Collector by Alex Griffiths.
This book follows George as he visits a wildlife museum and discovers the fascinating world of bugs. After his visit, he collects all the minibeasts from his garden and puts them in jars, but they don’t seem very happy.
After reading the book, the children enjoyed being minibeast explorers in our own garden. However, they made sure to return the creatures safely to their natural habitat. We also finished off making our own bug house using the hand drill and putting up the sign in our ‘Air Bee ‘n’ Bee.’ I’m sure George and his Grandad from the story would be very impressed with us.
Fine Motor Control and Writing Stay and Learn
On Wednesday afternoon, we were so lucky to invite so many of our parents and grown-ups in to explore some fine motor challenges with us. We had the chance to show everyone just how well our pincer grips are developing.
Some of the activities included pegging out the washing, creating butterfly paintings using cotton wool buds, and filling the holes in LEGO pieces with water using pipettes. The children showed great focus and enthusiasm throughout.
Mrs Kendrew then spoke to our grown-ups about how we are developing both our gross motor skills (big movements) and fine motor skills (small and pincer movements) to support correct pencil grip. We also discussed the 4 P’s of handwriting: posture, pencil grip, paper position and pressure.
Finally, we talked about writing for a purpose—for example, creating shopping lists, labels, cards, letters and postcards. These are all activities that can easily be practised at home using the children’s phonics knowledge.
Help at Home: try some of the example above and bring them in to show the teachers. Don’t forget the 4 P’s of handwriting when you do.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This week we had a special delivery in Early Years the children were so excited to find what was inside the little cardboard box that arrived by post. Inside, there were 5 teeny, tiny caterpillars! They were so hard to see that we needed to use the magnifying glasses. We’ve been checking them everyday and they are getting bigger and bigger, just like the caterpillar in this weeks story The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be learning about life cycles. We’ll closely observe caterpillars to help us understand the four stages of a life cycle.
The weather has been perfect for some gardening outside too. We got our green fingers busy and planted some flowers and herbs in the garden. We talked about making sure that we watered the seeds so that they will grow.
We then finished the week with Forest school, we had such an amazing time with Sarah, we made butterflies and decorated them with flowers. We explored the slack line, the swing and all the exciting areas in forest school. We can’t wait to go again next week!
Life on Earth
Summer 1
This half term will be learning about bugs and will be going on lots of bug hunts. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and will hopefully set some free! We will be using some hand drills to build a bug hotel for our outdoor area.
We are also hoping to develop our outdoor space a bit more so if anyone has any compost, plant pots, tree stumps or plants we would would really appreciate them.
Reminders and Notices
Forest School- It is our turn to go to Forest School after the holidays. Please send your child to school in their PE kits on Friday with waterproofs and wellies in a labelled plastic bag.