Spring 1
Welcome to 2025!
Core muscles:
Reception children have been developing their core muscles by laying on their tummies when writing. As well as using big movements when writing.
Our trip to Sudbury hall:
We had a lovely day at Sudbury's Museum of Childhood. We found the oldest toy in the museum which was over 3000 years old which was a ceramic ball and learnt about an old version of jacks made from sheep knuckles before exploring the chimney slide. We then explored lots of other toys and spotted three bedrooms on the ceiling. We discussed the difference between the three bedrooms and what is the same or different to their bedrooms. We then went on to explore timelines and explore groups of toys and place them in order. We then had lunch and later we became old teddy bear experts. We learnt to spot an old teddy bear you need to look at the arms are they long, the nose is it ling, does it have glass eyes? does it have ears on the side of it's head and is it hard when cuddled. A lovely trip well done Parks!
Number square work:
Year 1 children have been learning how to use a number square and spotting patterns on the number square. The children worked in pairs taking turns one child hid a number and the other child would say what number was hiding.
Our birds:
Wow! There are no words for how amazing our birds are. The children have worked incredibly hard learning how to draw birds and how to add detail to get the levels of texture to build up their artwork of a bird. Well done!
Number work outside:
We practised our number formation in chalk outside before going on an adventure around the playground. We talked about the places we could go and how we would get there. We then spent a little time discussing the clothes we may need for the different places such as, Australia we would need a sun hat and sun cream whereas, North Pole we would need a woolly hat and thermals.
Sound and tricky word mats:
Reception have been practising how to use sound mats and tricky word mats. Reception children love using the white boards and pens before writing in our books.
Shapes:
2d shape hunt in Mandela hall. Children found different shapes and then match them and then spent some time discussing the properties of each shape. You can support this by asking your child to spot a shape in the environment such as, a road sign or a clock face.
Playing games:
We spent some time playing games together taking turns, sharing as well as recognising the amount on a dice face. We have played snakes and ladders practising our simple addition and adding on from any number as well as, phonic games to practise recognising sounds and sounds within words.
Exploring water colours:
Year 1 and 2 children explored the use of water colour painting and how the amount of water can affect the colour and the detail which can be added to their drawings of birds.
Computing:
We paired up and explored laptops, how to turn them on and then log on. Year 1 and 2 children then completed a piece of artwork on their PurpleMash accounts which they then saved in their folder. We had lots of discussions and practise at each step of the process.
Planting trees:
The reception children helped Lauren to plant some new trees in our Eco garden as part of their forestry time. The children learnt what trees need to grow and how we can take care of them.
Sculptures:
We looked at sculptures from Hoang Tien Quyet. Then we experimented with paper and water and the impact it has on the paper and what we can do with it.
Great Fire of London:
We worked as a team to collect the information about The Great Fire of London and then used the poster to read the information before the class worked together to put it in timeline order of the events that took place in 1666.
Forest school:
Using tools in the forest.
The Tin Forest:
We introduced a new story of The Tin Forest and then looked at a metal rose to bring the story to life.
Number work:
Children enjoyed laying on their tummies to write their numbers. Laying on their tummy helps support core muscles.
Paired reading:
As a class we have been working on developing children's confidence with reading and reading in other contexts not just in a book for example, reading a poster on the wall or reading a maths question in your maths book. We have also been encouraging children to share their reading skills with others, as it is always nice to be read to. We have also been looking at special books in RE (Religious Education) and why they are special to us so we shared these too.
We also had a lovely book that was written in both English and in Thai.
Maths:
Children enjoyed using the smart board and working together as a team to order these random lengths. Children enjoyed using rules to measure different items in the classroom in cm. We discussed the difference between cm, mm and m.
Measuring items in the classroom.
Phonic:
Amazing work from Receptions who have started phase 3 sounds and really enjoy using whiteboards to get the feel for the shape of the sound before practising in their exercise books.
Number work:
Spotting numbers using our outdoor number square.
Art - sculptures:
Wow! We have been blown away with the amazing art skills shown this half term. We have been focusing on birds and the children have listened and followed all the steps in drawing a bird to then move on to building a paper sculpture of a bird. However, we first explored paper and how we can manipulate it. The children made, snakes, dolphins, snowballs and so much more. These were amazing!
Habitats:
We have also discussed habitats and different weather in different countries and how this is an important part of a habitat. Children worked together to place each animal in the correct habitat. Children discussed ones they were unsure of and were able to give reasons for their thoughts.
Science - experiment:
We have measured different temperatures of water and learnt that water begins to freeze at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees. We used thermometers to measure temperature of the water, the room and us.
Zoo building outside:
Wow! We had so much fun building our zoo outside on a large scale. We had fantastic teamwork and great communication between one another.
Zoo's and jigsaws:
The children have enjoyed building our seasons jigsaw puzzle and spotting what's happening in the picture. We have also built zoos.
RE The Lost Son:
Children got a picture showing the lost son returning and had to put the picture back together and discuss what they could see and what links they could make with their knowledge of Bible stories.
Base ten:
Action shot of using base ten to show what each number is for example, 25 has 2 tens and 5 ones (units) in it.
Indoor provision:
Reception children have enjoyed exploring the indoor provision. Children have made thank you cards in our office, barns for farm animals, played games, played with the jumping frogs, Active learn phonic games and played our dice game recognising how dots there are when rolled without counting them.
Art - drawing birds:
We have been learning how to draw birds. We have discussed different types of birds and the body parts that make up a bird. We have listened to instructions on how to draw a bird and then had a go ourselves. Wow we are amazed at the birds Parks' children have drawn. We then looked at feathers and how we could get the right shape of a feather and how we add detail and depth to our feathers.
Paired reading:
We enjoyed time reading to one another.
Our classroom as a Human zoo:
We arranged our classroom to reflect the story of Human Town we introduced this week. The children had to earn a zoo ticket to visit the Human zoo to explore the classroom as a human zoo where no human was left as they had all gone extinct. The children once in the zoo had to work in team to discuss what thy could see and why they thought the human had all gone. We had a fantastic discussion sat around our polluted river talking about our world and drawing upon our science and geography knowledge and vocabulary.
Forest school:
Reception explored our Eco area after a very wild weekend of weather. They enjoyed the thick oozy mud and splashing in it.
