How to Catch a Star

Friday 29 November 2024

Literacy

This week our focus story was ‘How to Catch a Star‘ by Oliver Jeffers. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).

In the writing area, the challenge was to think, draw and write about what we might see if we went into space.  At the end of the week, we thought of our own ways to catch a star. We had lots of amazing ideas.

Maths

This week, we have built on our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5.

We composed and de-composed numbers by investigating the part, part, whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2.

After watching an episode of Numberblocks, we enjoyed making our own Stampoline prints to show different ways of making 5.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we learn a new poem and we recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to  children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Mice.

Art

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been inspired by Monet’s series of paintings, Houses of Parliament. We looked at the colours that we could see in the sky and thought about what time of day it might be.

The colours are reflected in the water. It’s the morning.

We created our own art work by using blocks to print shapes and make a building silhouette. Then, we explored using water colours to create the sky. We thought carefully about how different colours can change the feeling of a painting and represent the sky during different weathers or times of the day.

Help at home

Dates 

Learning Journey drop-in sessions 

Every child in Reception has a Learning Journey book that celebrates their learning – this might be with photos, our observations and your updates from home. Come in and share with your child their Learning Journey so far. There are four sessions planned next week – we look forward to seeing you at one of them.

Tuesday 03 December and Thursday 05 December

Times – 8.45 am-9.15am   and   3.15pm-3.45pm