Spring 1 is our Fire and Ice theme, we’ve been using nature to explore freezing and melting- what a perfectly cold week it has been to do so!
Lost and Found
We’ve continued to focus on the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
We’ve been linking the story to topic work. We looked at a world map to see how the boy and penguin would travel from where we live (The United Kingdom), to The South Pole in Antarctica. We recalled what we know about the world map from our previous learning:
“The blue bit is the sea”- Isobel
“The coloured bits is land”- Finlay
“I see The South Pole at the bottom”- Norah
We’ve also been comparing our weather to that in the continent of Antarctica. Our word of the week is: climate.
We’ve been writing ‘Missing’ posters, describing the penguin from our story. In provision, we’ve been writing a list of things we might pack to take on an Antarctic adventure.
Penguin observations
We’ve been zoologists this week- observing the livestream ‘penguin-cam’, from San Diego Zoo
We’ve been making notes on how the penguins move and interact with each other. We were even lucky enough to catch feeding time during one livestream!
The children have loved this activity and it has inspired some wonderful child-led learning…
An amazing small world model was carefully created whilst watching the livestream and reading non-fiction books on penguins- “They need rocks here because that’s what they have in there”
The children were keen to find out about different types of penguins and their different sizes. The tallest penguin (Emperor) and shortest penguin (Little Blue) were marked on the height chart in Sunshine room and children compared them with their own height!
Ice painting
We made ice paintings by freezing paint mixed with water and creating art tools with them.
First, we collected them from the freezer
“it’s so cold in the freezer…it has to be in there a long time”- Charlotte
Then, we needed to get them out of the ice cube tray
“Our hands are warm, so we can get the ice out if we hold the ice”- Jake
We noticed the difference in how well the tools painted, as the ice began to melt.
“you have to wait for it to melt a bit, then it paints… it works!”- Heidi
We looked at the weather outside throughout the week and had a discussion about whether we needed to use the freezer. We experimented to see if we could make ice by leaving water trays outside, as the weather has been below freezing. The children were amazed to discover ice canvases we could paint on!
d:side
This week’s Living and Learning statement is: I know that some drugs can be harmful
d:side visited Reception and discussed different ways to keep our minds and bodies healthy:
- identifying and managing emotions- using a puppet with different facial expressions and some ‘real-life’ scenarios to identify feelings. We also played ‘Feelings bingo’
- making healthy food choices- filling a packed lunch box
- the importance of sleep
- keeping our bodies clean- identifying hygiene items such as toothbrushes and saying how and when we use them
- being safe around medicine- looking at a medicine bottle, discussing child caps, where medicine should be stored and who is allowed to give us medicine.
The children shared some great ideas and existing knowledge during the activities.
Phonics Phase 3 Stay and Learn
Thank you to the parents and carers who were able to join us for another Stay and Learn session this week.
We hope you enjoyed watching a lesson, getting to spend time in the classroom and hopefully getting some more ideas and information for the next steps in our phonics journey.
Maths; the staircase pattern
In Maths, we’ve been looking at counting and ordinality- specifically, the ‘one more’ relationship that creates ‘the staircase pattern’.
We were introduced to the concept by the Numberblocks, before moving on to create our own staircase patterns in small groups.
In provision, we’ve been using Frayer models to explore numbers- counting the corresponding amount of cubes/teddies, finding the Numicon and representing it on a tens frame.
Phonics
Spring 1 week 2 has focused on the digraphs oo, oo, ar, or
We’ve learnt the tricky words; was, you, they
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing roll and read.
Each week, we’d like to give you an idea of a game you could play at home to make reading even more exciting.
This week’s game is: Tricky Word Bingo
- Enter the list of tricky words you want to focus on into an online ‘picker’ (pickerwheel.com is an easy to use option) or write them down onto strips of paper, to be picked at random.
- Ask your child to choose 4-6 tricky words and write them down (they can copy these from a list), you should do the same and you could even ask a sibling to play along too!
- Pick the tricky words at random or by clicking the wheel- who will be the first to cross off all of their words and shout BINGO?!!
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called I can build a snowman
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem!
Help at home; Superheroes
Next week, our focus story is about a very special veggie superhero (can you guess what it is?)
We would love for your child to draw and write about their favourite superhero. It could be their favourite character or a real-life person who is a superhero to them- perhaps they know someone who helps others in their job, raises money for charity or is generally just super!
Please send them into class to be shown or email photos over to the usual email address:
scholesreception@spherefederation.org
Cancelled swim session
There will be no swimming (for Rainbow Class) on Wednesday 31.01.24.