There has been a buzz around the school this week, as the children were welcomed on Monday morning to the arrival of 10 chick eggs! The chicks must have been eager to meet the children, as it took just two days before they began to hatch and dry off, before moving into their new comfy home. Reception have done lots of group activities focused around the life-cycle of chicks, which many children were inspired to incorporate into their child-initiated learning. Next week, the children will have the chance to hold the chicks and take care of them for the day.
To add to the excitement, the caterpillars in Reception have now created their chrysalis in preparation for becoming butterflies! The children have had many questions about the changing state of the caterpillars and have continued to create lovely pieces of artwork based around them, which has contributed towards our lovely topic display.
This week in RE, we have been learning all about Judaism. The children learnt about key elements of the Judaism religion. We talked about synagogues, the Torah and different Jewish events and festivals. This week, we specifically learnt about what the Shavout Festival is and why/how it is celebrated. During CIL, the children were eager to create their own Shavuot flowers, using a range of different materials and techniques.
This week we have been refreshing our knowledge of a range of different mathematical skills in our group activities. Following the excitement from the chicks, the children have been creating their own chicks using 2D shapes, putting different sized chicks in order from smallest to biggest and have been using their new knowledge of tens-frames to solve addition and doubling problems.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have introduced ‘Helicopter Stories’ to our Reception, which is an exciting way for the children to create their own narratives, which are then performed in front of the class at the end of the day. The children have eagerly and confidently dictated their stories to us and some children have taken the challenge of writing it themselves! We have had an amazing range of imaginative stories which include fascinating characters and unique settings. It is amazing to see the children in Reception taking so much pride in being authors and illustrators at such a young age!
