Reception Weekly Review

 Learning Through Play  

This week the children have really enjoyed using more of the our outside learning environment. As the weather gets warmer it is a real pleasure to be outside and make the most of our beautiful garden. We have a system of ‘free flow’ during Learning Through Play which means that the children get to choose where they go and what they want to do. The classrooms, middle room and garden area were all popular and in all areas our children showed the values of determination, creativity , kindness, happiness, respect and honesty.

 Physical Development  - The Early Years Playground

When using the outside learning environment, the children get to develop and refine their gross and fine motor skills in a fun, hand-on way. This may be through pouring, stirring, climbing, running, jumping, pedalling, digging, construction and building. Children are able to practice their spatial awareness and negotiate space as they engage in their own self-chosen play endeavours.

 Phonics 

Phase 4 learning continues in Phonics and we have kept our focus on CVCC words and begun looking at CCVC words with short vowel sounds in them like ‘smell’, ‘shrink’, ‘plug’, ‘drink’ or ‘smash’. Our new Tricky Words are ‘some’ ‘come’ ‘love’ ‘do.’ The children enjoyed their three sessions of Reading Practice this week and just like our plants, their early reading skills seem to be blossoming. We are so proud of their progress.

Maths

In Maths this week, we continued our learning on doubles in order to embed these number facts. We also looked at sorting and especially focused on odd and even numbers. During Maths Meetings, we also introduced the concept of measuring weight. We had a lot of fun putting this into practice by measuring equal weights on a balancing scale to make the most amazing mud pies!

 Understanding the World  

This week we looked at the world. Inspired by our work on the book ‘Lost’ we explored and learnt about what life is like in the Arctic and compared this to the life we know and live in the city of London. The children were able to use the pictures in our book alongside their own experience as the basis for these comparisons.

We were also so inspired by last week’s book, ‘the Bowerbird’ by Julia Donaldson, that we decided to make our own bower. Each child planted some sweet pea seeds in the hope that we grow our own bower on the frame we made. We talked about what the seeds need to grow – i.e. sunlight, water and soil and tucked the seeds into the soil with great care and attention. Fingers crossed they grow and bloom.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Very best wishes

Georgie, Jessie, Tara and Maftuha

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Showing assembly

This half term:

Jessie's class will be in the middle hall.
Georgie's class will be in the lower hall.

Reception children will get certificates each week but we will not start sharing our work until after the first half-term break. 

Fund
A huge thank you to the parents who have donated to the school Reception fund.  Please remember to contribute if you can. 

Keep an eye on our important dates:
We will try to add on the relevant dates below but please check the main calendar and Parent Mail for all important dates.

See our 'Reception Information' page for all you need to know about the year.

Remember to follow us on Twitter to see what we are up to during the week. You can find us @RavenstoneEY

Things we need

Fund

In Reception, we often buy items to supplement the children's learning.  From ingredients for playdough to art supplies, small items for you termly themes to large exciting things like the ducklings.  To help pay for all this, we are for a £1 a week voluntary contribution.  If you would like to help, just give anything you can to us in the mornings.  Thank you.

Art

Do you have any of the following?

• Plastic bottle tops
• Boxes – large and small
• toilet rolls
• egg cartons
• cardboard boxes
• plastic bottles
• yoghurt pots
• bubble wrap
• newspapers and magazines
• shells
• CD
• recyclable straws
• Buttons

If you have any of these, we would love to have them.  Thanks