Reception

We have really enjoyed having Zoo Labs in today! The children got to experience holding and touching different animals from a rat to a salamander. We were very brave and touched most of the animals we were invited too. We learnt fun facts about the animals and enjoyed learning about their life cycles. Spiders and snakes shed their skin as they grow and we even got to see an old spider skin! 

Did you know that snails have 10,000 teeth on their tongue? 

Bridges

This week was Design & Technology Week in school. As we have been enjoying The Three Billy Goats Gruff story we decided to design and make bridges. We looked at different types of bridges such as beam, arch and suspension bridges then we designed and made our own. 

Water fun in the sun! 

We had a great time today exploring our lovely new outdoor water resources! 

The children have taken a huge interest in the story of the week which is Supertato! They have fantastic recall of this story and have decided they wanted to make their own supertatos! We made our own supertatos and also wrote about them too! How amazing do they look! We are so proud of them and had so much fun making them and writing about them. 

The children decided they wanted to have a picnic. They got out the picnic basket and the picnic blanket. He wind kept blowing the blanket away! The children then used their problem solving skills to put tyres around the blanket to stop it blowing away. The next problem the children wer faced with was that it was too cold. They kept moving the blanket and all of the picnic things to different areas to see if they could find a warmer place. In the end they decided that the lock up would be the warmest place for he picnic. 

We have taken a big interest in puppets so we decided to make our own puppet show. The children got a large box and painted it all different colours. An adult helped cut out the hole to do the puppet show through. Lacey and Layla made us some puppet show signs for the front of it. The children are really enjoying using the puppets to create their own stories and well known stories such as the gruffalo.

The children have been very excited about the fire session. They researched what we needed for a fire first and how to keep safe. The children then collected sticks for the fire they made sure they got some big thick sticks for our safety zone. We whittled down out sticks so we could put our marshmallows on to roast them. We looked at the changed to the wood when they were on the fire and looked at the changes in the mRshamallow when we roasted them. We had lots of fun and the marshmallows tasted yummy!

Snow Days!

We hope that you have all been having a lovely time playing in the snow whilst school has been closed. Don't forget there will be a 'Best Snowman' competition when we return to school, all you need to do is take a photograph of your snowman and bring it into school with you next week.

While the snow is still with us why not...

• Draw a picture of what you can see out of your window.
• Draw a picture of someone dressed for the snowy, cold weather and label the clothes they are wearing to keep warm and dry.
• Find out about animals that live in cold countries.  Draw a picture of your animal and learn a fact to share with your class next week.
• Go for a winter walk with a grown up, what can you see/feel/hear?
• Design a scarf - you could draw it/paint it or make a collage out of different materials. Can you make a repeated pattern on your scarf?
• Make a bug or small animal home out of home recycling items to provide shelter for them outside.

There's lots of snow related activities to keep you going but if you'd prefer some maths activities have a look at the games on these websites or open the 'time games' document below for activities to do at home.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/numeracy 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html

Forest School

We have really enjoyed exploring the puddles in forest school. We have experimented with what floats and sinks and were really surprised that some sticks float. The children were very keen to find the deepest part of the puddle and we had lots of fun exploring which parts we estimated to be the deepest and which parts turned out to be the deepest. 

The children also had lots of fun making marks in the thick mud with a stick. We wrote our names and the names of our friends.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Reception have been learning all about Chinese New Year. We learned about the story of the animal race and that this was the year of the dog. Well done to all the children who performed in our special Chinese New Year assembly for parents on Thursday, I think the dragon dance was definitely everybody's favourite part! On Friday we also had a lovely Chinese cuisine themed lunch at school to celebrate the new year, there was spring rolls, noodles, stir fry, chinese curry, rice, prawn crackers and dumplings - the children really enjoyed their lunch and lots of children tried new foods. 

Forest School!

The children have started their afternoon forest schools sessions and we have been having lots of fun and learning about the woodlands. Take a look at our floor book in the Reception cloakroom to see our weekly adventures! 

We had a lovely visit from the firemen today! We looked at the fire engine and even got to have a turn of squiring the hose to hit a cone. It was amazing! Lots of us have decided we now want to be firemen and women. The children thought of lots of questions to ask them and we will learn a lot more about them as we are very interested to know more. At the end we waved goodbye and we got to hear the siren which was " ace" and " awesome" as described by the children. 

We are getting very creative with our block and construction area. Children are really thinking about what they can make and the details of the project. They are taking their play to the next level instead of just building towers. Here are some examples of the creations the children have made. We are working on creating storylines to go with our play to extend this even further. 

The children are working really hard to perfect their reading skills this week. We have been doing lots of work on sounding out words and blending them together to read. Lots of our children have managed to get worded reading books! Well done reception!! 

Our Trip

We all went to Hardwick Park today and did a Room on the Broom workshop! The children really enjoy this story and enjoyed taking part in hunting for the different characters and making a new broom! We even found the dragon which was very exciting!!!! The Reception Team are so proud of how the children listened to instructions from their adults and conducted themselves out of school! A BIG WELL DONE RECEPTION!!!!! Please take a look at the photos to see what amazing things the children have been up to!