PRE-RECEPTION
It was wonderful to see so many families at our Harvest Festival Service on Wednesday. We were so proud of the children, not only for their performances but also for their behaviour during the service. All the generous donations will go to Bromley Food Bank.
In the classroom this week, the children have enjoyed learning about autumn and seasonal changes over the past two weeks. To support this learning, we have been on many walks in the grounds to observe these changes with them.
Literacy
For our Literacy sessions this week, we have read the traditional story The Gingerbread Man. We have shared the story with the children regularly throughout the week and are encouraging them to use the vocabulary during their play.
In the book, the characters make a gingerbread boy, so we decided to make one too! The children were encouraged to listen very carefully to instructions. Additionally. they also worked hard to take turns using the different utensils. All children were encouraged to decorate their biscuits and think about what happened in the story. Happily, our biscuits did not run away, but they did get eaten at the end of the story!
Phonics
In Phonics this week, we have explored the different noises that animals make. The children were encouraged to make these sounds using their voices or body percussion.
Maths
In Maths, we have matched objects by size, colour and shape.
Jigsaw PSHE
In Jigsaw PSHE, the children learnt about their right to play and learn. To reinforce this, we played a game of ‘fruit salad’ and gave each child a fruit name. When their fruit was called, they swapped places with someone who had the same fruit. When we called ‘fruit salad’, all children swapped places. We then spoke with the children about how they felt while playing the game.
Next Week
In Maths, we will continue to look at shapes and matching them to their outlines. The children are learning to recognise the same shape in different sizes and orientations. We are encouraging them to answer the question, “How do you know?” when naming a shape.
RECEPTION
It has been another busy and exciting week in Reception! The children performed beautifully at Wednesday’s Harvest Service.
Literacy
This week, in Literacy, we have been learning all about autumn. The children thoroughly enjoyed exploring and discussing what they had found. We explored environmental changes that occur during autumn and talked about hibernation and migration. In addition, we discussed some of the celebrations that take place in autumn, helping the children build connections between the seasons and their everyday lives.
Maths
In Maths, we continued with our current module: ‘talk about measure and patterns.’ This week’s focus was on patterns. Firstly, we began by identifying patterns in the natural world and then moved on to looking at simple repeating patterns. The children practised copying, continuing and creating their own 2-, 3-, and 4-object repeating patterns. They showed wonderful creativity and attention to detail! Earlier in the week, in a separate Maths activity, we also matched objects by size, colour and shape.
Phonics
In Phonics this week, we learned the phonemes: ck, e, u and r. We practised:
- Saying the sounds aloud
- Blending sounds to read words (e.g., d-u-ck)
- Writing the letters using cursive formation
We also introduced the tricky word: ‘I’. Tricky words are those that cannot be easily decoded (sounded out) and need to be recognised by sight.
Find out more about Early Years here.
