The buddying relationships between our Reception children and their older peers in Year 6 are always precious. The children met on Monday and have had the opportunity to start getting to know one another during lunch time play this week. Reception parents will meet their child’s buddy at the ‘All about Me’ box exhibition on Wednesday 24th September.
Caring for our chicken
We have also had the opportunity to meet our chicken. We talked about how we can keep her healthy – by giving her space to exercise; fresh water; food and a clean straw bed, on which to lay the eggs (which we love to collect and count). Wrapping the eggs carefully is a DT challenge! We would love to see how you eat your eggs. If you have any pets at home, we would enjoy seeing photos and hearing about how you care for them – via Tapestry, please.
This week, we welcomed nearly all of this year’s RS into school. School bears were cuddled, self-portraits were drawn, friends were reunited, new friendships were made, ‘All about Me’ boxes were delved into, delicious lunches were enjoyed in the dinner hall, indoor and outdoor areas were explored, models were created in the workshop, tea parties were held in the home corner, sorting and tidying was practised and we made our first visit to our class tree: a Ribston Pippin. The adults were really impressed by the kindness, good manners and wonderful approach to our early learning on display. Well done, children, and thank you, parents, for your support.
On Monday, one more member of RS will arrive and, in the afternoon, we will meet our wonderful and caring Year 6 buddies: how exciting!
Can you believe that you have finished your Reception year? This year seems to have flown. We hope that you will take time to reflect and to celebrate all that you have achieved this year: the friendships you have made; the songs you have learned to sing; the art you have created…..and so much more. Be proud of yourselves, enjoy your summer break and come back refreshed for Year One.
Thank you to all of the families for your support this year. It is always appreciated.
Happy birthday to our summer-born children. Enjoy your special days when they come.
Thank you very much to everyone, who was able to join us for our Arts Celebration today. The children have engaged so well in our creative learning since returning from Knaresborough and were very excited to share it with you: our collaborative mosaic, which was inspired by the one we saw on the station platform; our Knaresborough maps, which tied in with our maths topic; our crayon landscapes of the scenes we recalled from the train window; the castle sketches from the tri[ days; our sponge painting, block print and oil pastel train pictures and our postcards.
It was also wonderful to see how much the children wanted to involve you in making their individual mosaics and photo frames/boxes this afternoon and to pull you up to join in with the fun dance that Miss Fraser had choreographed: thank you for your enthusiasm and support.
This week’s blog is brought to you by Aaliyah, who has been with us on work experience. Thank you, Aaliyah.
Letters to our new teachers
This week, in Reception, the children experienced their Jump Up day and had lots of fun meeting their new teachers: Miss Dench, Miss Cannon or Mrs Barnes. Some children were initially nervous to move up a year but found themselves enjoying their first day. Alma said, “I was nervous; now I am not because it was fun!” and Reggie said, “I can’t wait for next year!”. The children had time to explore the classrooms after their introductory circle time, with Edie and Leyan agreeing that their favourite activity was painting and Ian enjoying the building area of the classroom the most. The children did a writing activity based on ‘Little Rabbit Foo Foo’. Maria said, “I had fun, it was good”. Zoe, Ahmad and Yousaf played ‘Buried Treasure’ together before the children came back to Reception at the end of the day.
We have returned to the concept of repeating patterns this week. The children have been deepening their understanding of different patterns, developing a more secure knowledge of pattern rules and becoming more confident in verbalising their thinking. Children have been supported in drawing out the unit of repeat from a pattern shown to them. They then enjoyed inventing and describing their own patterns. In a next step, children looked carefully at a friend’s pattern and tried to copy it.
Why not have a go at acting out a repeating pattern at home, for example, head, shoulders, knees, head, shoulders, knees….? Or head, head, knees, knees, head, head, knees, knees?
Preparing for Wimbledon
The racquets and balls have been out to get us in the mood for the start of Wimbledon next week. Budding Jack Drapers and Emma Raducanus have been learning to control the ball and develop their hand-eye coordination.
One Colour Day
Thank you for supporting School Council’s rainbow creating efforts today, raising funds for our four House charities: Homeless Angels; Yorkshire Air Ambulance; Elephant Human Relations Aid and Make a Wish.
On Thursday, we noticed how much our potato plants had changed since we planted them. The stems stood tall and firm; the leaves were softy on one sided and covered in veins on the other. The roots ran through the soil, delivering nutrients. Most importantly to the children, though, new potatoes were visible and waiting to be harvested.
We counted the potatoes and discussed ways of sharing them equally with RDT, considering both number and size.
The potatoes were then used to practise the grouping skills that we have been developing this week. We discovered that we could make two equal groups of five potatoes or five equal groups of two potatoes. When we made two groups of four, there were two left over and when we made three groups of three, we had one left over.
The potatoes were washed, chopped, boiled, buttered…..
and finally eaten!
Some of us enjoyed them more than others.
Thank you again to Mrs Wake for supplying the seed potatoes for us to plant and telling us how best to care for them.
Refugee Week
We used the thought-provoking questions in Kate Milner’s book – ‘My name is not Refugee’ – to help us empathise with those children, who have to escape from their homes in search of safety. All of the children drew a picture of something precious that they would take with them if they had to seek refuge away from home. They explained to their friends why they had chosen those items
Thank you to Mr Carter for transporting us in the school minibus to Headingley station so that we could board the train to Knaresborough. We wandered down the cobbled Water Bag Bank, noticing the thatched roofs and chequerboard cottages. Reggie described the echoes we created under the viaduct as ‘the clouds talking back to us” – fabulous! By the time we reached the riverside, we were all “starving” so had to snack on a biscuit, attracting a duck or two and a black headed gull (thank you, Lucas’ grandma, for the identification). The 117(/118/120? steps – depending on who was counting steps were a challenge but we were rewarded with this spectacular view of the River Nidd flowing through the valley below. After a delicious picnic, we sketched the castle. You will have to wait to see more photos and our forthcoming art work at the Arts Celebration. An ice-lolly offered a refreshing treat before we headed back to the station for our return journey. Thank you to the family members who joined us.
Welcome Molee
Thank you to Hector’s mummy for delivering a caterpillar to our classroom on Tuesday. The children held a discussion around what we might call him. Hector chose Molee (an inspired suggestion from Alma). We are taking our responsibility as Molee’s guardians very seriously and researched how to give him the best chance of flourishing. We discovered that he needs a ventilated habitat, a warm environment and food: ideally the plant on which he was found – in Molee’s case, a broad bean plant. Isaac signed up to the poo-removal rota with gusto. A bit of sticky tape on the end of a finger seems like the most hygienic way to undertake the task.
Hatching chicks
Mrs Garden very kindly let us borrow the nursery chicks on Thursday afternoon. Miss Whiteley shared a fact book about chicks. We heard about: where chickens live: their life cycle; what they eat; how the egg functions; how the chicks hatch and what happens shortly afterwards. The children were invited to hold a chick very gently and then we wrote about what we noticed.
Father’s Day
If you are sharing happy memories or being thankful on Sunday for daddies and other special role models in our lives, enjoy the day.
The children have enjoyed their learning at ‘ACE ices’ this week. They have taken on the roles of staff and customers with enthusiasm and it has been wonderful to hear the development of relevant vocabulary. They have also demonstrated their number sense in deciding how much to charge. Patience and understanding with turn taking has been evident, revealing how much children mature during the Reception year.
The ice-cream flavours they have invented for ‘the specials board’ are very creative.
Look at the height of our class bean plant!
The children have been delighted to measure its recent growth: now 20 cubes tall. We also noticed the curved shape of the soft leaves. If the plant is to flourish further, we may need a deeper pot (and a more appropriate stake).
It has been wonderful to hear about how the children are looking after their own plants at home. Please do send in progress photos (via Tapestry) if you have any.
On Friday, during storytelling, we allowed our imaginations to take us on an adventure to the top of a beanstalk. Can the children tell you what happened in their story?
When we think about being healthy, we often think about our bodies. Whilst it is important to look after our bodies, we must also look after our minds. We learned that our mental health is how we are feeling and the thoughts we are having. It is normal to experience a range of emotions each day and how we feel can affect our behaviour. When Colour Monster handed round compliments, we noticed that we felt happy. There are many options for maintaining a healthy mind: having sufficient sleep, dancing, playing a board game, singing, drawing, sharing a book, painting, playing with family and friends, exercising outdoors, baking a cake. When we have feelings that make us feel uncomfortable, we know that we can talk to a trusted adult and they will help us.
Maths – developing our spatial reasoning by selecting and rotating shapes
This week, the children have had the opportunity to explore the attributes of shapes and select them for a purpose. They have been encouraged to explain why they have chosen a particular shape and why other shapes would not be suitable. We have been rotating shapes (noticing that they are still the same shape whatever their orientation) to fill a given space. It was fun to find the shapes that we needed to make our pictures.
It was also fun working in teams to solve a tangram square puzzle. We completed the challenge with such confidence that Mrs Shipley took the picture away to see if we could remember how to fit all of the shapes in the square. We were very proud of ourselves when we were successful (even if a few of us cheated – you know who you are!).
Jigsaws offer a brilliant opportunity to develop our spatial reasoning skills If you do not have one at home, you can make one from the front of a cereal box, a photo or a drawing.
