This week the children learnt the importance of staying safe on the internet. Mrs Horsley read the children a story called ‘Buddy the Dog’s Internet Safety Story.’ Through the story the children learnt how to use the Internet safely in a fun way!

The story specifically focused upon the safe use of tablets and smartphones. Throughout the story the children were asked their opinions on what Ben should do in each scenario. This initiated lots of discussions about key online safety issues. The children also learnt a catchy song to reinforce the key Internet Safety messages.

This afternoon the Year 2 students also came into Reception to share the stories they had written about the Antarctic. Each child had a reading buddy with whom they shared their stories with. After reading to several different Reception children the Year 2 children bid us farewell. The Reception children enjoyed having the year 2’s stories being read to them.

This week we have been reading ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad.’ We have been weighing fruit, creating fruit monster faces, making a fruit salad out of plasticine and writing about some of our favourite fruits. The children have learnt about how some fruits grow on trees in the UK and some fruits need to grow on trees in hot countries. They have also learnt that some fruit grows on bushes and some fruit grows on small plants in our garden.

The children have also tasted some familiar and some more unusual fruits in our fruit tasting session. All the children tried all of the different types of fruit and as a class we created a bar graph of our results. We discovered that apples, melon, raspberries, pineapple and mango were our favourite fruits.

We have also been on another trip to Sainsbury’s this week and we brought a wide selection of fruit so that we could make our own fruit salad. The children went to Sainsbury’s on the Number 50 bus, they selected the ingredients for their fruit salad and then they scanned the food and paid at the self-checkout. The children came back to school on the school minibus.

Back in the classroom we all worked together to make our own fruit salad. In our fruit salad we had apples, bananas, melon, mango, blueberries, cherries, kiwi, lemons, strawberries and pineapple. It was hard work chopping up all the fruit but the fruit salad tasted lovely. We enjoyed eating the healthy fruits!

We have had lots of fun in Reception this week celebrating Chinese New Year. The children have learnt all about how
Chinese people prepare for Chinese New Year, how they celebrate Chinese New Year and why they celebrate. The children have loved the Chinese Zodiac story and they thought it was very funny that they were born in the year of the goat or the year of the horse. The children have also learnt that this year of the rat!

The children have also enjoyed painting dragons. They concentrated very well and they selected their own colours carefully as well as trying to stay within the lines. Some children preferred to paint their own dragons as well!

Some children chose to thread numbers from 1 to 10 and 1 to 20 using coloured beads and some children sequenced numbers on the computers. Some children chose to sequence the animals in the order that they crossed the river and other children chose to make a dragon out of 2D shapes. Everybody practised their adding this week. They used the Chinese part, part, whole model to create, solve and record their own addition sums.

Lots of children have also worked extremely hard making their own Chinese dragons on the workshop table. The children worked independently and showed great perseverance. They were also very imaginative and creative.

However some children chose to make dragons out of play dough. These dragons were all very different and also very creatively designed.

While some children preferred to make a large dragon outside using a wide selection of resources. This dragon has a head, a body, a long tail, some wings, some arms with claws and fire coming out of his mouth!

The children have also enjoyed following Chinese traditions this week and they prepared our classroom for Chinese New Year. They have loved washing and cleaning!

The children have also had fun trying to use chop sticks this week to pick up pom poms and pasta. They have realised that it is quite a skill and that eating your dinner with chop sticks must be quite tricky!

The children have been fascinated with the lion, unicorn and dragon dances so we decided to create a dragon dance of our own. The children loved this so much that they are going to create some more dragon dances and music of their own next week in discovery time!

This week the children have been trying to persuade Goldilocks to eat her vegetables. They have continued making their own healthy dinners using a variety of different materials on the workshop table. The children have been fantastic at choosing their own resources. They have really thought hard about the colour and shape of each piece of food. Their dinners look delicious!

The children have also been on a trip to Sainsbury’s to buy the ingredients to make Goldilocks some vegetable dinners. The Bumble Bees family group wanted to make Goldilocks a carrot cake and some carrot and potato soup and the Honey Bees family group wanted to make Goldilocks a cheese and potato pie.

Ten children went to Sainsbury’s yesterday. They went to Sainsbury’s on the Number 50 bus, they selected the ingredients for the carrot cake, carrot and potato soup and the cheese and potato pie. They scanned the food and paid at the self-checkout, and they came back to school on the school minibus.

The children also entertained the customers at Sainsbury’s as they sang the Alphabet Rap and played improvised drums whilst they waited for the minibus!

Back in the classroom the children have been adding up carrots using the part, part, whole model.

And they have been writing about which vegetables they like and don’t like.

The children have also enjoyed playing imaginatively in our class farm shop, taking on the role of the cashier and the customer. The children have played cooperatively in the role play area to act out a narrative.

And of course they have helped cooked the carrot cake, the carrot and potato soup and the cheese and potato pie!

The best bit of the week has to have been eating our healthy meals. The children thought the vegetable dishes were delicious!