Reception Weekly Blog (3.5.24)
Date: 3rd May 2024 @ 10:52am
A busy, busy week in Reception!
We can’t quite believe how fast the weeks are going and how much the children are learning.
On Monday, the children designed their very own ‘mini greenhouses’ to hang in the classroom, which are now home to a handful of small, dried peas! After dipping a sheet of kitchen roll in water and wrapping the peas up inside, we are hoping we can all grow a pea plant. The children are eagerly observing the peas each day for any signs of growth!
On Tuesday, Reception really enjoyed being a part of a SWACA healthy friendships workshop with Sefton’s local social workers. We discussed the qualities of a good friend and talked about where we feel safe. We ended our session with ‘finger breathing’ to promote mindfulness. Ask your child to show you how to be mindful using the ‘finger breathing’ technique.
Our two focus children this week shared a love of all things outdoors! To celebrate their unique interests, our Reception environment was transformed into a mini festival, complete with tents, vibrant decorations, and a lineup of super talented live performances! One of the highlights of our week was creating our very own tie-dye bunting, reusing old bed sheets, and using vibrant, colourful dyes. The children were so proud of their work and could easily spot their own, individual designs apart from their friends.
No festival is complete without delicious food and drink, and our mini-celebration was no exception. We all enjoyed custard creams with hot chocolate on Tuesday, and our star bakers served up tasty rainbow cornflake cakes on Thursday, providing the perfect fuel as we danced and played the day away.
In Maths this week, Reception has explored a new counting tool: a rekenrek! A rekenrek is a newer version of an abacus and is a key component in improving children's 'mastering’ of numbers. The key difference is that on each bar of a rekenrek, the first five beads are red and the last five are white. This transforms the rekenrek from a counting tool to a subitising tool! By “showing 8” on the rekenrek, children see that 8 is 3 more than 5. This helps them understand that 5 and 3 make 8, and that 5 + 3 = 8. Children are encouraged to push the beads to the left as a group rather than one bead at a time, which helps to move children on from counting in ones. We are very proud of how hard the children have worked at mastering this new counting tool. We will continue to use the rekenreks in many different ways throughout year 1 and year 2!
This week's Speed Minute films, Red Word films, and ‘Special Friends, Fred Talk’ films are:
Speed Minute (Lesson 2) https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/RWdbkokj/RHA2lVVf
Red Words (Lesson 2) https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/92k8QbSj/EJU7KnWl
‘Special Friends, Fred Talk’ (Lesson 2) https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/BEQ4FxS6/q19n7hnj
We look forward to more outdoor learning next week as we explore our favourite ‘growing’ stories: The ‘Supertato’ series by Sue Hendra and ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle. We will be planting sunflower seeds and choosing the best location for them to grow.
Exciting news on Friday, as we discovered a small birds nest in our story-telling garden, Reception will be creating bird feeders using repurposed yoghurt pots and leftover ingredients from our baking supplies. If you have any used yoghurt pots at home, we would be very grateful if you could send them in to Reception.
As the weather becomes warmer, if and when required, please apply sunscreen to your child prior to coming to school. We will ensure they always wear their sun hat outdoors on sunny days and have plenty of water to drink. Thank you.
We hope you have a lovely bank holiday weekend. See you on Tuesday.
The Reception Team
