This week the children have continued to learn about measures through the story of ‘The Smartest Giant in Town.’

Some children chose to build some castles for the giant to live in. Some children chose to build with wooden blocks and logs whilst other children chose to build their castles using 2D shapes.

After giving away his tie for a scarf for a cold giraffe the children decided that they needed to design and make the giant a new tie. They were very creative in their designs weren’t they?

Some children chose to paint the giant. Some children chose to paint George, the giant, in his scruffy clothes whilst others chose to paint him in his smart, new clothes before he gave them all away to his friends in acts of kindness.

Some children chose to practise their fine motor skills by tracing a very large picture of the giant. They had to concentrate as there was lots of small, detailed patterns inside the giant to trace.

Whilst some children chose to write about the smartest giant in town using their phonic knowledge, other children chose to use their phonic knowledge to write down the objects that the giant gave away to his friends.

Another busy week in Reception!

This week the children have continued to learn about measures through the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ The children have been busy making beanstalks of varying lengths at the workshop table, in the construction area and on the light table. The children who had made beanstalks last week on the workshop table, went back to the workshop table this week and they improved upon their work by adding on leaves that they had cut out independently. The children have shown me that they can be great solveosaurus’ because they encountered a few difficulties making their beanstalks but they persevered to find their own solutions.

The children have also been wonderful stickosaurus’ when they chose to build Jack and the Beanstalk characters and artefacts with the unifix cubes. It was very tricky to click the cubes together and they needed great perseverance to complete the activity.

The children have also been fantastic artists this week. They have drawn some lovely pictures around the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ on the iPads and the children have tried to choose colours for effect.

The children have also been fantastic writers this week. They have written labels for the pictures they have painted or drawn and they have written labels for the models they have made. Some children have also used their phonic knowledge to write down key words from the story.

While some children even had a go at writing their own version of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. Wow!

The children have also completed a range of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ Maths activities such as using beans to help them solve more and less than a number and measuring beanstalks using non-standard measures. It has been a very busy productive week!

This week the children have been reading the story ‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’ by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. After reading the story the children wanted to plant their own beans. We hope they grow into beanstalks just like Jasper’s did!

In the meantime the children have painted their own beanstalks. Aren’t they lovely? Each one is unique in its own way. There are some lovely paintings of Jasper too. The children are really thinking carefully about their choice of colours now.

Some children chose to make beanstalks using the play dough. The beanstalks are all different and carefully made. Some are so intricate too!

Lots of children chose to build their own beanstalks on the workshop table. Some beanstalks even had lots of carefully cut out shaped leaves!

Jasper thought that there may be giants at the top of the beanstalk. The Swans thought differently! The Swans thought that they may be a castle, a house, a school, a plane, a farm and even a dinosaur. Here are some of their ‘top of the beanstalk’ models.

Other children chose to write about what they thought might be at the top of the beanstalk. While other children wrote sentences about what they could see Jasper doing in the story. All the children used their phonic knowledge to write their sentences.

Some children chose to practice their spellings of words containing the /ai/ and /ee/ digraph this week. They played ‘Forest Phonics’ on the computer.

Some children decided to find the number bonds to 7 using beans as counters. They recorded their number bonds on a part, part, whole model.

Other children chose to measure the leaves from a beanstalk using non-standard measurements such as paper clips. While other children chose to practice their cutting skills and they cut our different sized beanstalks which they then ordered from shortest to tallest.

Lots of fun and learning has been done this week. The children are looking forward to next week as Jasper’s friend Jack is going to inspire the children. I wonder who Jack is and I wonder what he will do …

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.