As well as looking after themselves and others, it is important for children to learn how to respect and care for living things in the wider world. With this in mind this week the children have focused upon developing a love of nature. The children have absolutely loved watching snippets from ‘The Blue Planet’ and they have loved learning lots of new facts from the wonderful David Attenborough!

Following this the children have drawn lots of different animals on the iPads this week. They have looked closely at the features of each animal and they have also tried hard to select the right colours and patterns for each animal they have drawn.

The children have also put themselves in David Attenborough’s shoes and they have shared some wonderful facts about specific animals. They wrote these facts down in their own fun fact file!

We have also encouraged the children to think about different ways that we could look after our planet and everything that lives on it. The children focused upon the text ‘Though we have come a long way… Just remember to leave notes for everyone else.’ The children then wrote their own notes explaining what they would want to tell other people so that they too can help make the world a better place for everyone and everything in it.

Self-care is an important part of settling back into school life. Now, more than ever, it is important that we learn to look after ourselves, keep ourselves safe and healthy and to use what we know to care for the needs of others around us. Therefore this week’s focus for our ‘Here we are’ project has been learning about ourselves, how to care for ourselves and for others.

The children began the week by discussing our bodies, our body parts and their functions. They drew upon the explanations given in the text and they talked about those body parts that are external and those that are internal. Following this lots of children chose to draw or paint their own bodies and label the different external parts.

However some children chose to work co-operatively together to label our body parts on a larger scale.

Whilst some children preferred to draw and label skeleton pictures using technology as a medium.

Some children chose to re-create our skeleton using playdough and they wrote a label for their play dough skeletons using their phonic knowledge.

Lots of children chose to be creative and independently make their own skeletons on the workshop table. They selected their own resources to represent the different bones in the body and they decided themselves upon the positioning of each bone within their skeletons. The children also talked enthusiastically about the bones in their skeletons.

Other children decided to learn about our skeletons through co-operative and discussion work whilst building a large scale skeleton using different bone jigsaw pieces.

The children have also been busy this week measuring bones using non-standard units and they have been number whizzes ordering bones from 1-20.

The children have also understood how they must look after their bodies “as most bits don’t grow back. The most important things for people to remember are to eat, drink and stay warm.” They have discussed in depth how we can keep ourselves safe and healthy. They have discussed what would happen if we didn’t eat or drink and why these things are so important. They also discussed more widely other things that they thought were important for keeping ourselves and each other safe and healthy. In particular the children have discussed the public health messages that have been given to support us in minimising the spread of viruses. We have used this as an opportunity to review existing and new routines with the children and we have stressed the importance of washing our hands, hand sanitising, socially distancing and mask wearing in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Below is an activity the children participated in to remind themselves how to wash their hands properly in order to minimise spreading germs and nasties.

This week the children have really enjoyed continuing their learning around the ‘Here we are’ project. Last week the focus was coming together as a class community and understanding our place in the wider universe. This week the children have been focusing upon engaging with our environment physically, learning to interact with the elements around them and gaining an understanding of the world we live in.

On Tuesday the children spent a lovely day exploring the forest. Minibeast hunting was the favourite activity of the day! The children explored the forest floor and found lots of interesting minibeasts. They very carefully collected and examined the minibeasts and they were very observant. They were able to look at the similarities and differences between the minibeasts as well. We found spiders, beetles, centipedes, millipedes, slugs, snails, woodlice and ants. All of the children demonstrated great care for living creatures and their habitats.

The children also thought it would be a good idea to look after our local wildlife so they set to work making bird feeders. It was hard work but lots of messy fun! They also enjoyed placing our bird feeders around the forest and we even remembered to put some bird feeders on their side for the Robins, as Robins can’t feed upside down!

This week the children have also discussed how we live in such a wonderful world. They listened to the song ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louie Armstrong and then they wrote an alternative class version!

After gaining inspiration from a picture book that was made using the text of the song lyrics by Tim Hopgood the children also enjoyed decorating their version of the song ‘What a Wonderful World.’

And of course the children enjoyed singing their version of ‘What a wonderful World.’ We hope you enjoy it.

This week the children have returned to school with enthusiasm and they have immersed themselves in our ‘Here we are’ project. The focus for this week has been coming together as a class community and understanding our place in the wider universe.

The children have learnt a lot of information about Earth. They have discussed how the Earth rotates on its axis, how it orbits the sun, how it is the third planet in our solar system, how the Earth is made up of land and water, that Earth has an atmosphere and how Earth is the only planet to sustain life. The children know that we live on Earth and that Earth is a beautiful planet.

The children then decided to make our planet Earth in different ways. Some children chose to paint the Earth.

Some children chose to draw the Earth. They drew the Earth using coloured chalks and then they wrote a sentence about Earth using their phonic knowledge.

Some children decided to collage the Earth.

Whilst other children decided to make the Earth out of play dough. These children also wrote a sentence about Earth using their phonic knowledge.

Lots of children also used their phonic knowledge to write their own sentences about what they have learnt about Earth.

This week the children have been learning all about why we celebrate Christmas and they have been very busy doing lots of different Christmas themed activities.

All of the children have made their own snow globe bauble. Don’t they look fabulous?

Some of the children chose to complete snowmen puzzles. These puzzles required the children to practise their segmenting skills.

Some children chose to put Christmas stars on Christmas trees. This activity required the children to practise their blending skills.

Other children chose to design and decorate their own Christmas jumpers. I’m sure you will agree that the children’s jumpers are all very busy, unique and sparkly!

Some children chose to play with the mosaic shapes and they skilfully built different Christmas items with them whilst other children made repeating patterns with my Christmas pegs.

Some children chose to decorate Christmas trees. They were set the challenge of decorating the trees in rows of consecutive numbers! The children certainly did a fabulous job.

Outside some children chose to build and decorate Christmas trees using the natural resources that they found in the forest.

Whilst other children chose to use their phonic knowledge to write to Father Christmas with their Christmas wish lists. Let’s hope Father Christmas is making notes!

The children are definitely looking forward to their Christmas party tomorrow. They have now completed their first term in Reception. Bubble closures, staff and children absences and a global pandemic have not stopped the children having a wonderful and productive first term in Reception. The children have worked so hard this term and they definitely deserve a lovely Christmas break. We would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of the children and their parents a very Merry Christmas and we hope that you all have a Happy New Year! See you all again in January!

Reception children raise money for Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham by wearing Christmas jumpers and non-uniform.

This week the children have been learning all about their ears. We have listened to lots of different sounds and we have learnt about how we hear sounds. The children have also listened to the story of the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff.’

In discovery time some children built bridges for the three goats to use to cross over the river. They had to be a solveosaurus as the bridges had to be tall enough to fit the troll underneath!

The children also built bridges outside. They enjoyed making the bridges big enough to fit themselves under! The children also acted out the story. They happily took on the role of the goats and the troll!

The children have also been working hard in Maths. They have made number line bridges using the digit cards 1-10 and they have been matching quantities to numbered goats in tens frames. The children are now using wonderful mathematical language to explain how / why they knew they had the correct number of items in each tens frame. The children used the language of it’s on its own, it’s one and another one, it’s one and another on and another one, it’s three and one more, it’s four and one more, it’s five and one more, it’s five because the top line is full, it’s ten because the tens frames is full etc.

Some children chose to make the troll out of play dough. They self-selected their own resources and they designed their troll themselves. The children also wrote some lovely sentences about their troll using their phonic knowledge.

Some children chose to make bridges and goats at the workshop table. The children were very independent in thought and action. They have been great thinkodactyls!

Some children painted lovely pictures of the troll. The children are becoming very independent at the painting table and they are beginning to choose colours for a purpose. Their paintings are wonderful!

The children are also working really hard in their phonic lessons as well. They are learning lots of graphemes and phonemes and they are now blending the sounds together to read words. The children were able to read lots of words which enabled them to cross the bridge!

The children have also been able to recall key events and phrases from the ‘Three Billy Goats’ story and lots of children chose to write sentences about what the different characters in the story said.

The children have been working super hard this week. We are very proud of each and every one of them! Well done Swans.