This week in Reception we have looked at nature and how changes in weather impact the natural world around us. We made the most of the conkers, falling leaves and rain water we collected to use in our learning.
In maths, alongside mastering numbers we have also compared weights of objects we have found in the class. First we compared the objects and predicted which objects we think might be the heaviest before we used balancing scales to test our predictions.
During our forest session this week we began to talk about Black History Month. Our Mini Explorers began by sharing a presentation about Mae Jemison.
The children listened carefully and some children could relate to having an older sister or brother like Mae. When discussing her favourite subjects in school, we also shared a love of science, like Mae, and some of us said we could speak different languages like her also.
This week our Golden Rule focus has been, “Do Work Hard”. This was something Mae was very good at and helped her to progress to university to study medicine. We decided we would make our own medicines in the forest by collecting items from the forest floor and taking them to our friends in the kitchen to turn into potions.
We made several potions for pets, lots of strawberry flavoured medicine, and medicine for tummy aches.
Some of us chose to role play in the forest, pretending to be a woodland animal and hiding from our friends. We also noticed some signs of autumn and were able to talk about the changing colours of the leaves.
At the end of our damp forest session we really impressed our teachers by recalling key facts about Mae such as her flying to space in a rocket for 8 days and for helping to make many vaccines to help people stay well.
How you can help at home:
The children are learning to, “understand the effect of the changing seasons around them,” (Development Matters 2021). As part of this please take time to notice and talk to your children about the changes in colour to the leaves on most trees but not all, such as evergreen trees. Please collect conkers and pine cones from the ground and send them in so we can use them to keep making medicines like Mae Jemison in our mud kitchen at school.