This week in Reception

Physical Development

In PE lessons we have been continuing to develop our ball skills and our focus this week has been throwing. The children learnt some specific vocabulary ‘underarm, target, overarm, aim’. First we discussed how we can throw a ball and how we can improve the distance that the ball travels. The children practised throwing both underarm and overarm, thinking about the way they were standing. They also learnt that having a target helps and pointing the opposite arm out to your throwing arm also develops their aim. The children had a great time practising this:

The children then enjoyed a game of ‘snowballs’ in their colour groups. The aim of the game was to get rid of the snowballs to the other side as quickly as possible, using their throwing skills. The team with the least amount of snowballs on their side, won!

UW E-Safety

Our topic word of the week last week was ‘E-Safety’ and the children learnt that this meant ‘to keep safe when using the internet’. We also had the help of Smartie the penguin’, who taught us this important message:

‘Before you tap and click, stop and think and tell someone’

Here is a copy of ‘Smartie the penguin’ powerpoint:

Smartie-the-Penguin-for-EYFS-Story-A.ppt (6.38MB)

Linked to this, the children have been learning how to make their own avatar using Purple Mash.

School Trip

On Wednesday we were all very excited to walk down to the bus stop and board a coach bound for the Natural history Museum in Tring! We were so fortunate to have such a beautiful day for it, too!

This week we started to learn about the museum and that ‘Natural History’ is the study of animals and plants. The museum has real animals that are not alive anymore and six galleries with over 4,000 animal specimens on display. We also learnt some of the history behind the museum and that it was a man called Walter Rothschild who had a love for animals and a natural curiosity about them, who started the museum. For his 21st birthday he was given land and money to make a museum as he wanted to teach people about animals. As he got older he worried about what would happen to the museum when he died so he asked some of his scientist friends at the Natural History Museum in London to look after it for him. Armed with this knowledge we were set up for a great day!

During our day the children were able to view the different animals and did a great job hunting for specific species; including an Emperor penguin, a spider crab and a zebra!

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We took part in a mini beast workshop where the children listened so well; they learnt about two different habitats and thought about the different creatures they would find there. Firstly they had a go at mini pond dipping and were excited to find lots of mini beasts; tadpoles, dragon fly larvae and water snails and enjoyed ticking them off on the sheet. Next we walked over to a meadow and each group was given a large net to try to catch some mini beasts hiding in the long grass, which they did successfully; spiders, flies and more snails!

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We all enjoyed lunch out in the sunny garden and sat beautifully in our groups. Afterwards we were able to have a little run around, play on the wooden trail and also in the willow house.