This week the children have been continuing to learn about their sense of sight. The children have been artists and they have painted observational paintings of their eyes. The children tried really hard to paint the white of their eye, their iris, their pupils and their eye lashes. We think they did an amazing job don’t you?

The children have also used their sense of sight when they went on a 2D shape hunt around the school environment. The children saw lots of 2D shapes on their walk around the school grounds. Below are some examples of the shapes the children saw. Can you name the objects and the shapes that the children saw on their walk?

Our theme for anti-bullying week has been ‘being kind’ and ‘it’s ok to be different!’ The children have been very busy and their anti-bullying themes have been taught through the ‘Elmer’ stories by David McKee.

The children began the week designing and making their ‘Bee Kind’ badges. The children proudly wore these badges all day all week!

The children have listened to lots of different Elmer stories this week. They have discussed how the other elephants loved him because he was different. Being different made him special. The children have also discussed how Elmer was always kind and helpful and how he always liked to make his friends smile and laugh. The children have enjoyed making their own Elmer’s for the Elmer day parade. Some children explored colour mixing when they decorated their Elmer’s.

Other children used their IT skills to design their Elmer’s. They skilfully used the track ball to move the mouse around Elmer and used the buttons to select different colours and brush sizes. All the Elmer’s were beautiful, unique and special in their own way.

Continuing this theme some children thought about how they were special or unique they were. The children used their knowledge of phonics and their think writing to write a sentence about themselves.

Some children also decorated their initial letter. All the initial letters were decorated in different ways but all were beautiful. This once again emphasised to the children how we are all beautiful and special in our own way.

The children also took part in an e-safety lesson discussing their self-image and identity. The children thought about their feelings and emotions and how they can be affected by others. They discussed how other people can have an effect on our feelings and emotions and they thought of some situations of when this might have happened. The children also discussed ideas and suggestions for what they might do or what actions they could take, in each arising scenario.

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.

The children have also learnt how important of Rangoli patterns are during Diwali. Some children chose to make Rangoli patterns on the workshop table.

Some children chose to make Rangoli patterns using a variety of materials and the play dough.

Some children chose to make Rangoli patterns using the Numicon shapes.

Some children chose to make Rangoli patterns using loom bands and the geoboards

Whilst other children chose to draw Rangoli patterns outside using the chunky chalks.

The children have worked very hard this week. Well done Swans!

This week the children have been learning about how to keep safe on Bonfire Night. The children have been very busy. Some children chose to paint a bonfire using their handprints as the flames.

Some children chose to make and decorate fireworks out of play dough and other resources. They also think wrote a sentence about their firework.

While other children chose to make a firework at the workshop table. They also think wrote a sentence about their firework.

Outside the children were very creative and imaginative. Some children chose to build a fire engine out of the big, blue bricks. The fire engine they built was amazing! They then pretended they were firemen putting out fires. Other children played with the small world firemen and fire engines. They built their own bonfires and they too pretended that there were fires that had to be put out.

Some children made fire engines of their own. The fire engines all had retractable ladders. The children also think wrote a sentence about their fire engines.

Some children chose to make firework rockets out of different shapes. They demonstrated good observational and detective skills as they hunted for the shapes that they needed.

While other children demonstrated great one to one counting correspondence as they stuck showers of firework stars next to numbered rockets.

The Reception children have certainly been busy bees this week!