Today we re-homed our froglets.
The children were very excited to find that our tadpoles had finally grown legs and are now froglets. They were carefully scooped out and we took a walk down to the burn to release them into the River Don. The children all waited on the bridge while Mrs Davidson bravely walked down to the waters edge to release our froggy friends
Some of the Reception children visited the beach for our first ‘Beach School’ with West Boldon Lodge. We made our own beach school necklace, talked about the beach rules, went on scavenger hunt, listened to a story about a singing mermaid and then worked as a team to create our own mermaid using objects found on the beach. We had a fabulous time and can’t wait for next week!
On Friday morning Reception were inspired to create their own version of the Royal Wedding. The bakers decorated the cake, the invitations were written, the vicar, groom and other guests got suited and booted and the Queen and Meghan visited the Miss Simpson dress designs for beautiful one of a kind outfits to impress! Our bride even threw her bouquet which was eargerly caught!
Our second focus book this term is Superworm by Julia Donaldson.
Click on the image of the book to watch a rap version of the story!
Last week Reception spent a day exploring the story and other linked learning opportunities in a Learning Challenge.
We started the day by sharing the story and exploring some of the vocabulary.
The children were then able to choose one of three challenges – ‘Watch him wriggle, see him squirm…how can we watch Superworm?’ , ‘Superworm is super strong, Superworm is super long…how long is Superworm?’ and ‘Hip, hip hooray for Superworm…but what does Superworm say?’
The challenges provided a range of learning and inquiry across a vast range of areas of learning. Children explored a diagram of a wormery to create their own instructions to make their own. Some explored length and measurement, while others created props to retell the story. Some children even had the opportunity to take photographs, add them to a word processing package and add text using the iPads.
This term in Reception we have been covering some new concepts, doubling, halving and sharing. The children have been posed questions and problems to enable them to apply their own ideas and thinking.
We have used objects to solve our problems but we have also moved on to using a number line to help us solve calculations.
in our continuous provision the children have loved using the Shut the Box game. They have been. The children are becoming skilled at writing the formal calculation and using more effective methods to find answers, e.g. counting on and doubling.
The Reception children have been working hard at our Daily Mile this week. They are building resilience and determination. Despite finding it tough going to keep running or walking for 15 minutes lots of the children have developed a strategy of running on the long lengths of the play ground and walking the short lengths.
Click below for more information about the Daily mile
This term the children helped Mrs Davidson to discover a new location for our Forest School sessions. We have loved exploring this area and noticing the changes around us moving from Winter into Spring! We have been so busy collecting natural resources, designing and making houses for our resident fairies, using tools to whittle sticks and of course climbing trees (our favourite thing to do!). The children have been developing so many skills throughout our sessions, they have been deepening their knowledge and understanding of the world we live in, they have been challenged physically when climbing, the children have been encouraged to use their imaginations and think creatively and most of all we have had lots of fun!
We will be concluding our sessions with a celebration around the campfire next week…oh and of course some tasty treats!
This week we have noticed that there have been changes in our pond. Lots of the tadpoles have hatched and are now exploring their home. The children have been very excited to see this change, many children sitting for quite some time and sharing with their friends what they could see. The more we looked the more we noticed.
You may have heard the Reception children talking about some evil peas this week. Let us fill you in on the mischief these naughty peas have been causing in Reception.
The idea originates from our focus book ‘Supertato’. On Tuesday afternoon we returned from lunch to find a letter addressed to the Reception children, it was from the evil peas and explained how they had captured our prized Fred Frog puppet GASP!!! They even sent us some photographic evidence of poor Fred tied up.
As you can imagine the children were beside themselves and full of excitement. The children used the magnifying glasses to look for clues and took photographs of clues using the Ipads.
Some children decided to make signs for our school warning those evil peas to stay away. Whilst others made traps to capture those evil peas if they returned.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts we couldn’t find Fred anywhere in our garden (but we did find lots of clues) so we ventured further afield…into the big yard! We stuck our signs up around the school as we searched for Fred.
We finally arrived in the allotment and there we spotted our beloved Fred! We rescued him and took him back to the safety of Reception.
**We have told the children that the best way to get rid of evil peas is to gobble them up…just in case anyone is suddenly refusing to eat their peas at teatime** 😉
This term in Reception we will be using Supertato by Sue Hendra as our story ‘hook’. The children will retell the story in our small world, using real fruits and vegetables for the characters. The children will have the opportunity to take photos and videos of their stories, adding speech bubbles and superhero power words. The children will become superhero story authors by planning, recreating and writing their own superhero stories.
If you would like to explore this story, click on the picture to watch the story on youtube.
