It’s been another fantastic week in Reception! All week we have been exploring our five senses as part of our ‘All About Me’ topic. The children have joined in with a topic session for each of the senses. On Monday we discussed what we can see and the children were encouraged to speculate on the properties of a mystery object using describing words (shiny, dull etc.); on Tuesday we explored our sense of touch with a mystery object in a feely box using words such as smooth/rough and heavy/light; on Wednesday children volunteered to take a smell test, sniffing the hidden scents and trying to identify them; on Thursday all the children took part acting out an audio story to demonstrate their sense of hearing; and on Friday some children volunteered to take a blind taste test as they were encouraged to taste foods blindfolded and describe their taste and guess the mystery foods.
Our Phonics sessions this week have introduced the children to the first three sounds in our Phonics scheme ‘s’ (snake) ‘a’ (apple) and ‘t’ (teacup). We have spent time familiarising ourselves with these sounds: how they sound (phoneme) and what they look like (grapheme). The children joined in activities to rehearse recognising these letters and matching the letter to the sound it makes as well as discerning which words begin with the sound (its initial sound).
In Maths sessions this week, the children have worked in their family groups to practise thinking about how we compare amounts of objects with language such as more and fewer. To rehearse this in practical ways, the children have been comparing amounts of blocks; building towers of different heights with giant Lego blocks and acting out a story Julia Donaldson’s story ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ by adding more animals (we had to use our imagination!) to an already crowded group.
Every child was taken to visit the Book Fair in the dining hall this week and was encouraged to choose some books for their ‘wish list’. Thank you to all those that were able to support the book fair, as the school benefits from the sales and next week we should hear from Mr Gamble how much has been raised this year!
As ever, the classroom provision has given the children lots of opportunities to explore their areas of interest an develop their skills in different ways. We’ve been practising pen control; writing letters in the writing shed; building towers of various types; and we even had a surprise new arrival into the Reception pond as some Year 6 boys brought us a little newt they had found on the way to school! It soon disappeared into our pond, but inspired lots of determined searching in the depths!
On Friday, the first group of Reception children were invited to join in a ‘Bounce!’ trampoline session in the hall. Children from across school are being offered a time with the ‘Bounce!’ team to engage in some fun exercise on their mini trampolines. Each fortnight a group of Reception children will get a session on the trampolines so if your child hasn’t been today, they shall get a turn soon.
Have a great weekend!
The Reception Team
DATES FOR THE DIARY:
Thursday 10th October – Hello Yellow day in support of World Mental Health Day (children to wear yellow or bright colours).
Thursday 17th October – Reception Parents Phonics Workshop (5pm).
Friday 25th October – last day of Autumn 1 before half-term break begins.
Tinshill Drive
Cookridge
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS16 7DH
0113 386 2500