This week the Swans have been thinking about what makes a good friend. They have taken part in different circle time activities which have been centred round the theme of friendships. They have also brainstormed what they thought made a good friend.

This week the children have had the opportunity to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique by wearing odd socks for the day. The children have also helped to raise money to help those children who are less fortunate than themselves. They did this by wearing something spotty and donating money to Children in Need.

Continuing with our theme of “It’s ok to be different”, this week the children have been learning about how the Hindu and Sikh communities celebrate the festival of Light, Diwali.

The children have listened to the story of Rama and Sita and they have discussed the importance of the story in the Diwali celebrations. They have also learnt and discussed how a little girl called Jessica prepares and celebrates Diwali with her family.

The children were fascinated by Jessica and Ryan’s Mehndi patterns on their arms so they had a go at designing Mehndi patterns of their own.

The children have also learnt how the people in the village lit diva lamps to guide Rama and Sita back home after the battle with the demon king, Ravana and this inspired them to make and decorate diva lamps of their own on the play dough table.

As well as learning about Diwali it has also been our Stay, Play and Chat sessions.

Parents were invited into school to discuss their children’s progress and to play with their child. Lots of parents attended and the children really enjoyed playing and exploring with their parents. Below are photos of the children and their parents working together to make highly decorated diva lamps on the workshop table.

I would like to say a big thank you to all those parents that attended these sessions. The continued interest that you show in your child’s learning, progress and attainment has such a positive and profound effect on your child’s journey through school. Thank you.

This week in Reception we have continued to learn about our eye sight. We have focussed upon what it might be like if we were partially sighted or if we couldn’t see at all. The children wore blindfolds and they tried to guess what objects had been hidden in the sand or in the discovery tray.

The children also wore blindfolds outside and helped each other to complete an obstacle course that they had made. The children discovered that it was very tricky to complete the course when they couldn’t see where to go for themselves.

Lots of children wanted to paint their own eyes this week.

Some children prefered to draw their eyes on the iPads.

Everybody used their eyes to think write, using learnt letters, a sentence about our eyes and some children used their eyes to make and read some words.

And lots of children wanted to make some glasses so that they would be able to see better if they wore them!

However the highlight of the week has to be the visit from Karen and her guide dog John. Karen explained to the children that John was a guide dog and through discussions the children learnt how important guide dogs are to people who are partially sighted or blind. The children learnt how guide dogs are trained and how they help people with sight loss get out of their homes and engage with their community, rebuilding their confidence and independence. The children loved meeting John and they thought it was very funny how lazy John was when he was not working and they loved how he snores loudly when he’s asleep! Thank you Karen. We all loved John.

This week we have begun learning about our eye sight. We discussed how we use our eyes to see and we talked about where we go to get our eyes checked. We set up an optician’s role play area outside and the children had great fun pretending to be the receptionist, the optician and the customer. The language the children used in the role play area has been amazing and they loved trying on different pairs of glasses.

Inside the classroom, having looked closely at the different parts of our eye, the children made eyes out of play dough.

The children also collaged eyes at the workshop table.

We have also read the story of ‘Elmer’ this week and we have discussed how we use our eyes to see colour. We have also discussed the importance of being different and how special and unique it can make us. In discovery time the children had fun building bridges. They built a bridge for Elmer to cross so that he didn’t get wet and wash his ‘greyness’ off.

The children have also explored colour mixing and they painted their own patchwork elephants! The children mixed the paints independently and they painted the patchwork very carefully as well.

The children have also painted Elmer on the computers. They created Elmer’s of all different colours and patterns. They are very independent on the computers and they are becoming very skilled at using the mouse to select and drag.

In Maths the children have been learning about the number 2. They explored making patterns of 2 in discovery time and in our maths stop session they were introduced to the part, part, whole model. Miss Proctor was very impressed with the children.

In Phonics we are learning our letters. The children are enjoying reading and writing the sounds we have learnt and they are beginning to segment and blend some VC and CVC words!