During our Spring 2 term, the theme / topic that we will be exploring is ‘Change’. To introduce this new topic we began with a whole class discussion about the word change and what we thought it might mean.

We had some fantastic partner talk and lots of ideas were being shared: “change means when something is different”, “if it’s not the same anymore”, “maybe something swaps and changes”.

Then we dug a little deeper and thought about what things change and what we would like to investigate and find out more about: "leaves change in autumn”, “weather changes”, “the cloth on our worship table changes”, “water changes when it turns into ice but how does this happen?” “but then ice swaps to water again when it melts”.

Following this discussion we asked the question, ‘how do we change?’ and to explore this we used some of our baby pictures! We had great fun trying to work out who the baby was before revealing the picture of how they look now and I’m sure we will continue enjoy these as we look at more over the next week - the children had so much fun exploring these pictures, thank you for sending them in!

What have we been learning this week…

RE: This week in RE we have been thinking about Lent and how this is a time where we show how we can care for others. We thought about Lent as a journey; a journey lasting 40 days that begins with Ash Wednesday and leads us to Jesus’s resurrection at Easter. We reflected on how we can join Jesus on this journey by doing small acts of kindness to show how we care for others. We talked about our Lenten boxes and how these will help others.

Literacy: This week in drawing club we have explored the story ‘Rosie’s Walk’. We read and explored the story together, discussing and describing the characters using our new vocabulary: creeping, oblivious, soaking, immersed, covered, vaulting, clatter and scarper. We have challenged ourselves to try and use these words to label the characters e.g. ‘creeping fox’ and ‘oblivious hen’ or to write short sentences about them e.g. ‘The hen is oblivious’. We are really enjoying the opportunity for creativity new vocabulary that Drawing club brings!

Maths: This week in Maths we have been exploring the composition of 5. We used the song, 5 little speckled frogs, to help us explore the different ways 5 can be made. Each time a frog jumped off the log, we used the word ‘minus’ as this helps us to remember that the frog didn’t disappear completely, it hadn’t been taken away, it was still there is had just been moved to another part.

Lenten Boxes

On Thursday, Reception and Year 6 walked to Church together for Mass and later that day we met again to swap our Lenten boxes. Reception were so excited to give their Lenten box and it was clear how much time, thought and effort had gone in to making each and every one of the boxes. Reception were incredibly proud and year 6 were very impressed! These Lenten boxes can now be kept at home and used to collect coins for the acts of kindness that the children do throughout Lent. We have thought about different acts of kindness that we could do at home from playing with younger siblings, helping grown-ups with the tidying jobs to giving someone a hug and a smile to cheer them up. As we reach the end of Lent these boxes will then be returned to school and the money will be collected and donated to CAFOD.

Thank you for your continued support with our Lenten boxes.

Let’s Celebrate…

This weeks learning character and virtue awards goes to:

Determined Sadie Spider: Mia!
Mia, the determination and confidence that we have seen in you over the last few weeks has been inspiring! You have set yourself some tricky challenges (especially with your writing) and you have been determined to complete them to the best of your ability. What you are achieving at the moment makes us very excited to see what you will achieve next!
Well done Mia!

Co-operative Roger Robin: Arya!
Arya, you have shared some brilliant ideas during our class discussions and have been a cooperative learning partner to the people around you. You remember to listen and acknowledge their ideas whilst also sharing your own. That’s the key to working collaboratively and it doesn’t just help you to grow your brain but those around you as well!
Well done Arya!

Whole School Virtue - Year 6!
During our class council meeting we discussed our new virtues, loving and compassionate. When we thought about who had demonstrated these virtues this week, Reception all agreed that Year 6 had been loving towards them on the walk to mass and guided them compassionately through their first mass service.
Thank you very much Year 6, you have inspired Reception and they cannot wait to be Year 6 buddied just like you!

Lunch time awards:

We also have lunch time certificates which are awarded by the lunch time team to those children who they see being wonderful role models and using marvelous manors:

This weeks role model: Well done April!

This weeks marvelous manors: Well done Sophia!

Thank you both for being such wonderful role models and for remembering those acts of kindness everyday!

Important notices and reminders:

World Book Day - 7th March.
Children are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. As part of our book day celebration, all children in school are asked to bring a magical object that we can use in class to create stories. This could be a special stone, shell, feather etc. We look forward to making some creative stories with these!

If your child has an achievement or something they wish to share they are welcome to bring it on their house teams day:

Mondays: Bamber (Yellow team)
Tuesday: Harcourt (Blue team)
Thursday: Marsden (Green team)
Friday: Plessington (Red team)

(Please note this is not compulsory and doesn’t have to be each week, it is only if they have something they wish to share).

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs Hartley
s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend
God Bless,
The Reception team