This week the Swans have been learning about our skeletons. We began with a brain storm in our family groups. We drew around one child in each family group and the children wrote down their ideas using their Think Writing .

During Discovery Time all our activities were based around the skeleton. On the Maths table the Swans used the plastic cubes to measure bones and record how long each bone was using the numbered log pieces and also ordered the characters from the Funny Bones story by size.

On the IPads some children chose to use the paint sparkle program to draw their own skeletons!

The Swans copied the example of a skeleton to create fantastic skeleton paintings.

During phonics this week the children have learned to write the letters s and a. During Discovery time the children practised forming these letters in the blue sand with a paint brush.

On the play dough table the children carefully manipulated the playdough to roll it out and form it into bones. What super skeletons they have made!

The Swans enjoyed putting the jigsaw skeleton together!

On the Work table the children created skeletons using a variety of resources.

Finally the Swans using their Think Writing to decide what the characters from the ‘Funny Bones’ story could be saying!

As you can see we have very busy with our learning this week!

This week the Swans have been exploring their emotions and feelings. Mrs Hill read the story ‘The Colour Monster’ to start us off.

The children have a variety of themed activities to choose from and complete during Discovery Time, trying hard to earn as many Dojos as they can. When they have earned 20, they can choose a prize out of the special gold prize box. All the children have worked really hard this week to achieve this goal.

The Colour Monster is confused about his feelings when he is ‘multicoloured’. When he is yellow he feels happy, when he is blue he feels sad, when he is red he feels angry, when he is green he feels calm and chilled, when he is black he feels worried and when he is pink he feels loved.

The children sorted the different coloured objects onto the correct colour sheets.

We made houses for a colour monster on the construction mat. Stickle Bricks were very popular!

On the painting table the children chose the colour they wanted to match how their monster was feeling and used their ‘Think Writing ‘ too!

The children made some fantastic play dough monsters using the resources to add facial features and arms and legs if they chose to. They also told us how their monster was feeling!

We sorted the googly eyes by colour and some of the children counted each eye in the sets and added the correct number. Well done Swans!

On the work shop table the children created their own colour monster using the felt tip pens to add a face.

Finally on the writing table, some of the children chose the colour to match how their monster was feeling. They then coloured it in carefully, cut it out and stuck it onto their piece of paper, writing a sentence using their ‘think Writing’ to describe how their monster was feeling.

As you can see the Swans have been very busy this week!

This week the children have been learning about the importance of keeping clean. They have been learning all about ‘Germs and Nasties’ through the Little Princess story ‘I don’t want to wash my hands!’ Below are some of the activities the children have been doing.

The children have been examining magnified pictures of germs and nasties.

And they have been washing the germs and nasties off babies in the water tray!

At the workshop table some children have been very creative and they have been collaging germ infested hands!

Lots of children chose to be creative in a different way at the workshop table by imaginatively creating some play dough clean portraits of themselves!

To help the children understand the importance of keeping clean the children took part in a ‘hand wash’ experiment. Some children covered their hands with margarine and hundreds and thousands. (These were the germs and nasties.)

The children then tried to wash the germs and nasties off with just a towel but the germs and nasties were still there!

The children then tried to wash the germs and nasties off with cold water but the germs and nasties were still there!

We then tried to wash the germs and nasties off with soap and warm water. The germs and nasties disappeared! We have learnt that we must wash our hands with soap and warm water if we want them to be really clean.

The children have also learnt a very important hand washing song. Take a look at the video of the children singing!

All the children have now started Reception. They have settled in very well and they are beginning to become more familiar with our rules and routines. They are making new friends daily and they are already becoming quite independent with their learning across the environment. Here are our first day photographs. Don’t we all look smart?

During their first week of school the children painted some wonderful self-portraits. We think they all look wonderful! Don’t you?

Music and Art Week – The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens

This week in Reception the children have been learning what an orchestra is. They have looked at the different instruments in each family of an orchestra and they have listened to the classical piece of music ‘The Carnival of the Animals.’

The children really enjoyed a musical quiz based upon carnival of the animals and they were very competitive! They had to listen carefully to each piece of music and discuss, in pairs, what animal they thought the music represented.

The children then worked in groups to produce a dance, a piece of music and a piece of Art work. The Art work was based upon Van Gogh’s painting entitled ‘Between wheat and Sky’. The children all worked independently and produced some lovely masterpieces!

The children have created animal dances of their own. Can you guess which dance is representing a lion? Can you guess which dance is representing an elephant? Can you guess which dance is representing fish in the aquarium?

The children have also created animal music of their own. Can you guess which music is representing an elephant? Can you guess which music is representing a swan? Can you guess which music is representing a kangaroo?

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Over the past two weeks the children have been learning about caterpillars and butterflies. They have learnt a lot of caterpillar and butterfly facts and they have explored the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’

The children have written some super sentences about caterpillars.

They have also drawn some fabulous caterpillars on the iPads.

And the children have been great tryceratops’ when they read different phase three CVC words on caterpillar’s bodies and matched them to the corresponding caterpillar heads.

Lots of children chose to make caterpillars using play dough and a selection of carefully self-chosen resources.

Some children chose to make paper chain caterpillars instead. The children were fantastic stickosaurus’ as it took a lot of patience and skill to join the paper chains together.

The children have also learnt about symmetry this week. They have explored symmetry in a variety of ways. Some children chose to make symmetrical play dough butterflies.

Some children chose to make symmetrical butterflies using the computer programme ‘symmetry painter.’ Whilst other children chose to design and colour their own butterflies on paper

And symmetrical butterfly painting was a very popular activity!

The children have also learnt about repeating patterns. Some children explored repeating patterns by completing multilink caterpillar cube challenges whilst other children completed a variety of finger printing caterpillars.

The children have also been very creative this week and lots of children demonstrated their understanding of the life cycle of a butterfly at the workshop table. They selected their own resources to represent the four stages of the life cycle: the eggs, the caterpillar, the chrysalis and the butterfly. The children all worked independently and were great thinkodactyls.

Today the new Puffins from reception had their transition day. They all had a fantastic day meeting their new teachers and were amazing at following their new routines. Well done Reception you will make excellent Puffins in September.

Ladybirds!

This week we have continued to learn about Minibeasts and we have focused upon ladybirds. We began the week by reading the stories ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ and ‘What the Ladybird Heard.’ The children loved the stories and they have been finding ladybirds in our outdoor area all week!

In the classroom some children chose to explore the life cycle of a ladybird. They watched a video on YouTube and then they cut out the life cycle stages of a ladybird. The children then sequenced the life cycle pictures. It was very interesting to learn that the larvae goes into a pupa just like a caterpillar!

Lots of children chose to paint their own ladybirds. Each ladybird is unique in its own way. Did you know that ladybirds can have up to 20 spots?

Lots of children also chose to make ladybirds out of play dough as well. The children were great stickosaurus’. They chose their own resources and decided upon how many spots their ladybird was going to have. Did you know ladybirds have six legs and the most common type of ladybird has seven spots?

The children also made ladybirds at the creative table. We love how the children all made ladybirds but each one is so different. The children have been great thinkodactyls and solveosaurus’. It was very tricky to make the ladybirds and it needed a lot of perseverance!

At the Maths table there were lots of different activities taking place. Some children used the ladybird as a part, part, whole model which they then used to create and solve their own addition calculations. Other children ordered ladybirds from 1-20 and some children used the spots on dominoes to find different compositions of numbers. This required the children to use their problem solving skills!

Lots of children chose to draw ladybirds or play the sequencing and ordering ladybird games on the computer. Once again the children were developing their mathematical language of smallest and largest.

The children have also been super independent writers this week. They have used their phonic knowledge to write some fantastic sentences about ladybirds. Their writing is amazing! Well done Swans.

This week we have continued to learn about Minibeasts and we have focused upon worms. We began the week by reading the story ‘Super Worm.’ The children loved the story and they have also enjoyed learning about the common earth worm. In class we suddenly had a worm infestation! The children made worms by threading pasta onto wool and by threading small beads onto pipe cleaners. This required the children to have good hand eye co-ordination and they were definitely stickosaurus’ as it took a lot of time and patience to complete. The children have also used a mixture of everyday and mathematical language throughout the week to describe and compare the lengths of the worms that they had made.

Lots of children chose to make worms out of play dough as well. This was quite a tricky task as it was difficult to roll out even shaped worms. The children made worms of different lengths and compared them to each other and to the printed worms on the table. They also spent time adding in the segments and the hairs onto their worms. Some children even added on the worm’s saddle!

The children also made worms at the creative table. They enjoyed finger printing worms of different lengths!

At the Maths table there were lots of different activities taking place. Some children found worms of different lengths and ordered them from shortest to longest. Other children sorted worms according to their own criteria. Some children paired up worm number bonds to 10 and some children even made worms out of construction and tried to make the worms as long as themselves!

Lots of children chose to draw worms on the iPads or on the computers. The children were great artists as they really paid attention to detail in the drawings of their worms.

The children have also been super independent writers this week. They have used their phonic knowledge to write some fantastic sentences about worms. Their writing is amazing! Well done Swan