PRE-RECEPTION
It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Harvest Service on Wednesday afternoon. We are sure you will agree that the children were fantastic, and their hard work learning the songs and actions was certainly worthwhile. We were incredibly proud of how confidently they performed.
This week, our learning has focused on Understanding the World as we explored all things Autumn. The children have been learning about seasonal change and enjoyed walks around our beautiful grounds, spotting signs of autumn and talking about what they could see, hear and feel.
The children had a fantastic time visiting our very own ‘pumpkin patch’ alongside their scarecrows. They worked hard to find the pumpkins and transport them back to the wheelbarrows by rolling, lifting and carrying them together. In Maths, we sorted the pumpkins by shape, colour and size, developing our early sorting and classification skills.
We also focused on Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language through a range of pumpkin-themed activities. The children practised listening carefully to instructions while playing games such as Pass the Pumpkin, rolling pumpkins to each other between their legs and passing them over their heads. These activities encouraged teamwork, turn-taking and communication skills.
Our Helicopter Story this week was The White Mitten. The children thoroughly enjoyed bringing the story to life and created some fabulous clay hedgehogs inspired by one of the characters. We also baked delicious leaf-shaped biscuits as part of our autumn theme, which we hope you enjoyed sharing together at home.
RECEPTION
It has been another busy and exciting week in Reception!
Literacy
Additionally, in Literacy this week we have been developing our phonics skills by using sounds to write CVC words.
Using picture prompts, the children were encouraged to say and repeat each word before segmenting it into its individual sounds, identifying the beginning, middle and end sounds. Subsequently, they recorded the sounds they could hear.
We have also continued to focus on correct letter formation, encouraging the children to form their letters carefully and accurately as they begin their journey towards fluent handwriting.
Exploring Autumn
This week, we also began exploring the wonderful changes that autumn brings. Additionally, we started our learning with an exciting visit to the farm for pumpkin picking on Tuesday.
The children thoroughly enjoyed walking around the fields and exploring the wonderful variety of pumpkins. They carefully observed the different sizes, shapes, colours and textures before choosing their own pumpkin to bring back to the classroom.
This provided us with a lovely opportunity to explore the natural world and develop the children’s observation and descriptive language skills.
Maths
In Maths, we began our new ‘Talk About Measure and Patterns’ module, with this week’s learning focusing on patterns.
We began by identifying patterns in the natural world before moving on to explore simple repeating patterns. The children practised copying, continuing and creating their own repeating patterns using two, three and four objects.
Furthermore, they demonstrated fantastic concentration, creativity and attention to detail.
Creative Learning: We Made Hedgehogs!
During autumn learning, the children worked in small groups. Then, they followed instructions and made their own salt dough.
We carefully measured:
- 1 cup of salt
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of water
The children poured, mixed and combined the ingredients to create a dough. They then used the palms of their hands to knead the mixture. As a result, this developed strength and control in their hands and fingers.
Next, they rolled, squeezed, squashed and shaped the dough to create their hedgehogs. Finally, they carefully added the spikes and their own creative details to make each hedgehog unique.
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