We have been making the most of the sunshine this week by enjoying our outdoor classroom. The children have enjoyed gardening club in which we have been preparing the area for planting new bulbs and seeds as the weather (hopefully) continues to get better!
We seen more pictures of beanstalks and are so pleased to see how well they are growing and how much the children are enjoying watching them change. You are welcome to keep this at home so that the children can continue caring for their plants and watching how they grow and change over the next few weeks.
What have we been learning this week:
RE: This half term we are reflecting on Jesus’s ascension to Heaven to be with His Father and how He knew his apostles and disciples would miss him so He sent the Holy Spirit to be with them. These are some of the wondering questions that we are exploring: I wonder why Jesus went back to His Father? I wonder where we might see Him in our world? I wonder how Jesus friends were feeling when they waited for the Holy Sprit? I wonder how the Holy Spirit can help us?
Literacy: This week we have been consolidating our writing with some whole class shared writes. We have been thinking about what we need in a sentences and what things we need to look for e.g. capital letter, finger spaces, full stops, keeping our letters on the line and taking our time with our letter formation. We have also been using our ‘Fred Fingers’ to identify how many sounds are in a word before we write it, this way we are using all of our phonics knowledge to write with more confidence and accuracy. We can really see how much the children are thinking about their writing and how proud they feel of their achievements. Thank you for all of your support with the writing challenges at home, it really is helping with our writing in class.
Maths: This week in Maths we have continued to explore ‘parts’ of amounts. To begin with, we investigated a variety of amounts that had been made using objects from around the classroom. We had to identify how those amounts had been split into parts some were split by looking closely at their attributes e.g. their size, shape, material and colour and thought about how they are the same and how they are different. Having a deep understanding of when parts are equal / not equal and how they might be the same or different had lead us nicely to our next focus which will be exploring ‘even’ and ‘odd’ numbers.
Understanding the World: This half term our topic is ‘Water’. We have started this topic with a whole class ‘what do we know already’ discussion. This was a lovely opportunity for us to share our current knowledge and experiences before we explore those wondering questions and what we would like to find out next. The children worked as a team to create a large underwater picture sharing their existing knowledge and we also used water colours to create our own under the sea pictures which will be used as a collage for our next display which is coming soon!
Let’s Celebrate…
This week’s learning and virtue role models are:
Determined Sadie Spider: Emmett!
Emmett, we have seen so much determination in you this week and it has been brilliant to see how you have been determined in so many different ways. You have demonstrated this within your work by believing in yourself and taking on challenges and also in the choices and actions you have made within the classroom. You have such a proud smile and it’s lovely to see that you have also noticed your determination and how much it has helped you achieve. Emmett we are all very proud of you too!
Well done Emmet!
Enthusiastic Bobby Bee: Antonio!
Antonio, it has been lovely welcoming you into our class and we are so happy to have you as our new friend in Reception. You have had a wonderful enthusiasm from the very first day you joined and we can see how much you are enjoying making new friends and joining a new school. Each week you have grown in confidence and we are really excited to begin this new learning journey with you.
Well done Antonio!
Whole School Virtues - Learned and Wise: Izabelle!
Izabelle, we can see how you are taking all of your learning from Reception and are reflecting on how you can take it even further. We’ve seen how much you have enjoyed taking our class discussions and new focuses and applying this to your own games in provision. We saw this with our Maths double game and you were so proud to see you carrying on with these skills in your play; and with the huge smile on your face we could see that you were proud too!
Well done Izabelle!
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: Nellie
This weeks marvelous manors: Jemima
Thank you both for being such wonderful role models and for remembering those acts of kindness everyday!
Challenge Books!
The children were very excited to show me the challenges they have completed in their challenge books and we were very impressed! It’s wonderful that they have taken this on with such enthusiasm and determination; it is really showing in their writing.
Today you will find new challenges in your books and we are focusing on the letters ‘c’ and ‘a’. Remember to think about where the letter starts and which way it goes. If you say the rhyme in your head e.g. for ‘a’ we say “around the apple and down the leaf” that will help you remember to keep your pencil on the paper until the end of the leaf.
Please could these challenge books be kept in bags. Challenges are to be completed by Thursday, so we can prepare the next set of challenges!
Good luck Reception!
Optional Challenges!
It is wonderful that the children are so excited about their learning and to see how keen they are to continue this outside of school. We welcome any opportunity to share these learning experiences with you at home, which is why we have created ‘optional challenges’ across each year group which can be explored over this Summer 1 half term.
These challenges link to the wider area of our curriculum which in EYFS are:
Understanding the World (Science, Geography and History), Expressive Arts and Design (Art. DT and Music) and our Gross and Fine motor skills (PE).
Below you will find the optional challenges linking to the topics and areas of learning that we will be exploring this half term. These fun challenges are designed to cover a range of skills without being stressful or time consuming for you at home. You are welcome to complete them in any order you wish and it would be lovely to see pictures or examples of things that the children have enjoyed at home.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Important notices and reminders:
Keyrings on bags - we kindly ask that children have just 1 keyring on their school bag. There has been a large number of keyrings on some bags which has caused bags and coats etc. to get tangled up in our cloakroom. We have also seen keyrings with small parts and torches. These are not safe in school.
If children would like to have a keyring to identify their bag, it needs to be a small keyring with no loose or flashing parts.
Thank you for your understanding.Water bottles - Polite reminder that all children need to bring water bottles to school every day. It is really important that they are drinking plenty of water throughout the day and we always have bottles out of bags to encourage this. Please ensure these are labels as some have the same bottle and have been getting them mixed up!
Thank you.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