EYFS – Newsletter – 05.07.2024

It’s been apocalyptic in Reception this week as we’re nearing the end of our Dinosaur topic! We have learned about the popular theories that scientists have for the end of the Dinosaur era 65 million years ago. We watched videos that explained the theory that a large meteor strike caused a chain reaction of disasters that caused mass extinction. The children also learned of a second theory that supposes a huge increase in volcanic activity caused the environment to become hostile to most life. To link with this learning the children have had a lot of fun creating some amazing volcano artworks by blowing dripped paint to represent erupting lava. There has also been some more dinosaur models created in the DT area and lots more fun activities linked to this topic. 

On Friday we decided to explore the extinction event in a more hands-on way. With a tray of flour and water to represent planet Earth we watched in amazement as ‘meteors’ of different sizes made an impact. The craters left behind got bigger and the knock-on effects of displaced ‘earth’ and ‘sea’ got more obvious as the size of the ‘meteors’ increased. The children loved getting stuck into the tuff-tray to explore meteor impacts and craters for themselves.

As it has been some weeks since we saw any meaningful signs of the dinosaur that visited our playground at the start of the topic (though the children do keep finding clues and remnants here and there!) we have decided to reach out to the experts. As such, the children were tasked with writing to Dr John Hammond of Jurassic Park to ask if he could help find and recover the mystery dinosaur. We have had some fabulous letters written (see below) and are eagerly awaiting a reply!

Phonics work this week has concentrated on reading and writing words with three adjacent consonants (scr- or spr- for example) and has kept the children on their toes. Quite literally on their toes in one activity, where they were charged with rehearsing a dance routine using such moves as ‘strut’ ‘scrunch’ and ‘star-spring’. Much fun was had whilst practising how to blend these consonants when reading such words, which in turn helped their ability to recognise them when spelling words in their own writing.

Our Maths sessions have focused on practising our problems solving skills this week. We’ve recapped the meaning of ‘more’ and ‘less’ when talking about numbers and we have explored more abstract problems by considering how many legs might be in a boat when we can only see the top half of the people and animals onboard. 

Lots of children this week have been taking advantage of some time on the iPads to interact with some learning software. We have been very impressed with the number of children that can now open a programme and log-in completely independently!

PLEASE can ALL home-reading books belonging to school be returned by the end of next week, so that we can check they are all in good condition ready for the new school year in September. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend!

The Reception Team

DATES FOR THE DIARY:

Weds 10 – Fri 12 July –  Children to meet their new teachers and spend time in their new classes to help with transition to Year 1.

Wednesday 17 July – Reception end-of-year celebration – all parents and carers welcome!

Friday 19 July – Last day of Summer Term.