Around the  World

We hope you had a fantastic half term holiday and enjoyed spending time with your families. If you have any photos that you would like to share, please upload these to your child's learning journal. 

This term our topic is `All around the world` and the children will be learning about different countries and cultures and discussing similarities and differences. We will be starting our learning this week by exploring the continent of Africa and reading Handa's Surprise and the sequel Handa's Hen. Throughout the term, the children will continue to read stories in their phonics lessons by applying their sounds and writing sentences using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. In our Maths learning, our focus will continue to be on numbers to 20 but also exploring doubles, halves and sharing. 

PE lessons will take place every Monday and Tuesday afternoon so please can all children have the correct PE kit in school. This term the children will be practising their athletic skills and taking part in Gymnastics sequences. This will prepare the children for Sports day but also continue to support them with working collaboratively with others too. 

With the weather improving, please can I ask children come into school with plenty of water and a sun hat to protect them when playing outside. 

Maths - Repeating patterns

This week, the children have been using the outside objects to create repeating patterns. They challenged each other with the colour, shape and sizes. 

Djembe Drumming

The children have been learning about music in other cultures. They were quick to find a rhythm and continue the pattern of beats.

Construction time

The children decided that by working together they would be able to build something larger. They were able to build a castle and a headquarters. Lots of discussion around which sized brick would be needed. Great team work!

Reflective Garden time

As part of our PSED time, we spent some time in the Reflective Garden discussing hope. The children listened to a story about Jesus calming the choppy waters and then we discussed how faith can provide hope. 

Creative skills

To support the children's fine motor development, the chidren have been cutting, threading and tying to make their own necklaces and crowns. They worked hard and produced some lovely outcomes. Well done Reception.

Being active

Alongside the PE curriculum, the children access the Trim Trail daily and have certainly built up their confidence and understanding of how to use it safely. So much fun is had and lots of conversations overheard helping one another.

Handa's Surprise

In Literacy, the children have been reading the story and then describing how the fruit feels, smells and by the end of the week tastes. They have used their senses and knowledge of set 1 and 2 sounds to record a description.

Fine motor development 

As part of the children's work about the continent of Africa and Handa's Surprise, the children have been making cutting out, making holes, cutting string and attaching it to create their own mask. Impressive team work was at play, as well as excellent progress seen with cutting skills.

Outside - creating their own potions

Whilst exploring outside, the children used the water tuft tray to create their own magical potions. The children were describing the quantities of liquid being placed into containers as well as saying what was going to happen with the mixture. 

Gross motor development

In Gymnastics, the children developed the skills of certain jumps - straight, star and tuck jump! No fear was shown and the children worked hard to perform them off the benches too. Impressive work!

Independent play

After learning some more information about Africa, the children decided to make a boat and telescopes so that they could sail there. One child then drew some pyramids and explained how they were near sand.