Remembrance Service
We started the week by meeting for the first time in our house groups, Anvil, Arlington and Watermill. The children were split between their houses and we were really impressed by the confidence they showed when working with the older children. This was also their first real experience of learning outside of the familiarity of the Robins classroom environment so well done Reception.
As the school year unfolds and the children’s interests change and develop, so we change our learning activities to further extend their learning. Last term, as the children entered the classroom each morning they ordered their lunch, sat at a table for at chat with a friend and engaged in some play doh fun, twisting, rolling, stretching etc, exercising all those small muscles in their hands in readiness for writing.
This term, they come in, take out their reading books and home school link books and put them in the basket, developing their independence in taking responsibility for their school equipment, order lunch and then sit at a table for a chat with a friend (chatting to a friend is of huge importance for both social and emotional reasons) and explore Numicon. This week I overheard,
“Look, I have three five plates all lined up, five and five and five makes ten”
“No it doesn’t, five and five makes ten and you have five and five and another five so that makes more than ten”
“Oh yes, (counting carefully) it makes fifteen, silly me it’s not ten at all”
How fantastic to be abe to listen in on a wonderful example of how the children use their language and knowledge to support each other’s learning in such a positive way.
In phonics this week we began the week by learning a new sound - ‘j’. The children played stand up sit down and were amazing at recognising when they could hear the ‘j’ in a word. They then had a go at saying words that began with a j and really tested Mrs Langford, coming up with some amazing words such as ‘jungle’, ‘jelly’ and ‘jaguar’ which we then segmented together on our arm so that Mrs Langford could write the words the board, with us helping to tell her which sounds came next. Great job Robins!
Out in the rainforest the boys also enjoyed a game of Jenja, ensuring they used very steady hands to gently take out a piece and place it carefully on the top….what amazing concentration skills! It was also lovely to see the children cheering each other on!
On Tuesday we continued to explore fireworks and had a go at creating our very own firework display using chalks. The children really enjoyed creating different patterns on their paper by mark making lines in different directions, using inspirations from their own experiences as well as a firework video that we had watched. As we created our firework scene we listened to some classical music to help us imagine the fireworks exploding in the sky, whizz…bang…pop! We also identified some famous landmarks found in Londoon such as the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the River Thames.
In the afternoon we created our very own edible sparklers! We loved getting a bit sticky and using icing and sprinkles to make a bright sparkler that we then enjoyed for our snack that afternoon!
On Wednesday, our learning focussed on the significance of why we wear a poppy. The children were thoroughly engaged and asked meaningful questions and added to the whole class discussion with some very insightful comments. We watched a short animation to help deepen our understanding. You may wish to watch this again at home with your child and it may lead to further discussions.
As well as our class discussions, watching the animation and reading stories, we also made clay poppies (which made their way home with the children on Friday afternoon). We have been making these clay poppies for a number of weeks now, the children have understood that it takes a while for the clay to fully dry, then a day or two for the paint to dry, then a few more days for the glaze to dry.
We also decorated poppies using the collage technique and took these into our whole school Remembrance Service - we will lay these poppies at the War Memorial at Chaddleworth next week.
And finally, before we sign off, we would just like to say how fantastic our first Show and Tell's were this week. We learnt all about Rupert the dog and Rainbow the sparrow - Rainbow even joined us in class for the day. Really looking forward to more Show and Tell's next week. The children know when it is their turn and also, they have a slip in their Home / School books as a reminder.
Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next week.
Polite reminder
P.E bags in on a Monday home on a Friday
Library books on a Thursday
Reading Books every day
Thank you