This Week in Reception

Mindful Mondays & Expressive Art and Design

The children in Reception are learning to, “Explore, use and refine a variety of artistic effects to express their ideas and feelings,” (Development Matters 2023) We have been finding out about the artist Andy Goldsworthy and finding out what sculptures are. As part of our learning we have used natural materials to make sculptures outside during Explore Time.

Red group worked together to make this beautiful natural spiral.

The children then worked together to draw their own chalk spiral and covered it with natural materials. Some children extended this further by creating sculptures with the construction materials. Can you spot The Eiffel Tower?

In the malleable area we continued to work on spiral sculptures using tweezers to select small objects and place them on the line. We used this activity to help the children “Develop their small motor skills so that they can use a range of tools competently, safely and confidently,” (Development Matters 2023).

Literacy

We have been working very hard on our writing. Dinosaurs names are difficult to say and even trickier to write but that has not deterred us from having a very good go.

Physical Development

Continuing with the dinosaur theme we have started putting our dinosaur dance sequences together. Here we are dancing as a Brachiosaurus sequencing STOMP, SWISH and BIFF and BASH movements. Look at our terrifying faces. We worked very hard to dance silently using only our bodies and actions to convey the movement words.

Maths

This week we have been proving that, when counting in steps of 1 the sequence of numbers always stays the same. We have been using Numberblocks to help us see the staircase pattern from 1-5, understanding that each block goes up by 1 each time. The children have been enjoying building their own towers of blocks using unifix as well as the larger blocks outside to investigate this further.

They have also described numbers in a feely bag to their friends, which were then matched to the correct number block! We watched a clip from Numberblocks which also showed this. If your child would like to watch the whole episode ‘Off we go” please click on the link below:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08cr0y7/numberblocks-series-1-off-we-go

Understanding the World

In Forest lessons this week we have taken part in the RSPB Big Bird Watch. We had lots of fun trying to identify the birds on the field. We had to be very quiet so we did not scare them off, then we used the iPads to take photos. We identified robins, magpies and blackbirds.

Phonics

Here are the phonemes we have learned this week:

The mnemonics to help us remember them are:

ow – prowl and growl

oi – coin in the soil

ear – clear that smear

air – a pair in the lair

The children have been brilliant at spotting these phonemes in words during the lesson and having a go at writing some!

How you can help at home:

Please continue to read with your child daily.

We have been trying to make sculptures of plants using toys and construction in the environment. Why not have a go with lego, counters and fruit you have at home?