Reception Penguins
.. Miss Haynes-Teacher Mrs Ryan-Early Years Educator
View our animoto of a year in Reception
Summer Term 2 2016
Prime learning challenge question
Was it once upon a mixed up time?
Subsidiary questions
What are the dangers in a house of straw?
Is it a good idea to make my house out of sweets?
Fairy Godmother, why did your magic stop at midnight?
Do you feel sorry for the big bad wolf?
A long, long time ago was there an ogre called Shrek?
Suggested texts:
Hansel and Gretel
Cinderella
Shrek
Big bad wolf
Home learning:
Watch this link with your child and discuss whether ogres really exist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYejzdBwvY4
Reception had a fantastic day performing for Penguin's Got Talent before breaking up for half term! The sun was out and the stage was decorated all ready for the big show! The children had been practicing in groups or individually throughout the week and were very excited to show everyone their performances. We had a variety of acts ranging from break dancing, a play, playing musical instruments and singing Little Mix's black magic! The children and adults absolutely loved the show!
Reception have really enjoyed learning all about Mexico for cultural diversity day. We watched Barnaby Bear on his trip to Mexico and learnt so many facts which we enjoyed writing about during child-initiated time. We particularly enjoyed designing our own moustaches and designing the Mexican flag. We also learnt the Mexican hat dance and had a lot of fun dancing around to it!
Penguins class have had a brilliant week learning all about people who help us. This week we looked at the story of Florence Nightingale and what life was like many years ago in hospitals. The children really enjoyed the story and we wrote all about how Florence Nightingale helped people. We were SO proud of all the children's independent writing this week that the sparkly writer award was awarded to everyone-they all wrote fantastically well and they have been very proud of themselves too!
Here is some of our super work...
Summer Term 1 2015
Prime learning challenge question
Who can I ask for help?
Subsidiary questions
How does Bob the builder help us?
What does Postman Pat do?
Why do some people need to wear special clothes at work?
Why do you go to school?
Why is it important to have a hospital?
When would Fireman Sam be very helpful?
Have a look at how busy Reception have been during their latest topic.
View our photographs of our visit to Brandon Marsh.
Summer Term 1 2015
Prime learning challenge question
Are all minibeasts scary?
Subsidiary questions
Why does a spider need a web?
Do minibeasts have birthdays?
Why does a snail carry it's house around?
Why does a ladybird have spots?
Where did the butterfly come from?
Does a worm have legs?
Suggested websites to support this learning challenge:
http://www.ictgames.com/minibeasts.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/mini-beast-adventure-with-jess-snail-adventure
Reception have had a fantastic first week learning all about space. We have been dressing up as astronauts in the role play area, blasting off into space and enjoying the dark den using torches.
In Maths we have been exploring weight and measuring the weight of asteroids using scales. We also used prepositional language to describe where each planet was in the solar system using fruit.
We have enjoyed reading the story "Whatever next" by Jill Murphy-we acted out the story and made our own story book. We also used a box as a rocket and got a space helmet to share our thoughts of where we would like to go in a rocket just like Baby Bear. We had a range of answers from going to ice cream land, to Africa and to go and play on Saturn!
Thank you so much to all parents who spent a lot of time making a solar system with their child throughout half term- they are absolutely fantastic and the children have been so excited to show them off and put them on display!
Spring Term 2 2015
Prime learning challenge question
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?
Subsidiary questions
How many stars are there?
Why do stars twinkle?
Do stars make patterns and what are their names?
Can we see 'stars' on the television?
Can you see a star in the day time?
Reception have had a great week learning all about Chinese New Year.
We used our senses and tried Chinese food, listening to the sounds the food made when we ate it, what the food looked like and more importantly what it tasted like! We then wrote down some describing words on our senses chart.
A Chinese restaurant was set up in the role play area and we pretended to use chopsticks to eat noodles and have a meal with our friends. We enjoyed using paintbrushes and glitter to form some Chinese numerals in the builders tray.
In Maths we had lucky red envelopes which we learnt are put under children's pillows on Chinese New Year with money or sweets in. Ours had money in so we had to count very carefully how much money was in each one, and then work out who had the most amount of money and who had the least amount.
We hope you all have a lovely half term!
Reception have had a busy few weeks learning about favourite characters in story books. We looked at 'Room on the Broom' and came up with our own questions to answer. One group decided to make their own magic potion for the witch and went outside to find ingredients. Another group wanted to see if they could all fit on a broom just like the witch's broomstick! We made our own magic potions in Maths and added together bats and spiders.
We had a 'super' week looking at superheroes last week! A superhero had visited over the weekend and the only trace was his handprint on the door. Reception had to measure a number of handprints using cubes or rulers to find out which superhero it was...turns out it was Superman! We designed our own superhero masks and made a superhero vehicle out of junk modelling. We also made our own comic strips and learnt all about speech bubbles which look great on our display along with our superhero paintings!
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Spring Term 1 2015
Prime learning challenge question
Who are the famous characters inside my books?
Subsidiary questions
Could you be a superhero like Traction man or Super Daisy?
Where are the wild things?
Is there any Room on the Broom for me?
Could you help the three Billy Goats Gruff get to the other side of the bridge?
Would you like to have tea with The Gruffalo?
Suggested text:
The Jolly Postman (Janet Ahlberg)
Suggested websites to support this challenge:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/literature-games/wild-things-are.html
Reception ended last term with a very special visit from Father Christmas who gave everyone a very exciting present! We had a party where we were treated to a very yummy pizza and lots of other treats and enjoyed dancing in our Christmas jumpers!
We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and thank you for the lovely cards and gifts.
Christmas has arrived in Penguins class!
We have had lots of fun with our new Santa's house role play area where we have enjoyed dressing up as Santa, delivering presents, wrapping presents and decorating the Christmas tree! Our learning this week has been linked to the Snowman and we have been exploring why the snowman melted. An experiment was conducted and we had to predict what would melt the ice the quickest out of sugar, salt, warm water or using our hands.
We have been recognising bigger numbers to 20 and matching quantities by putting buttons on the snowmen. We also wrote our letters to Santa and really worked hard to segment and blend words.
Our outdoor stage is now ready and we have been thinking of different ways to perform to our friends, creating new dance routines and making up songs using the instruments!
We are also working hard rehearsing our Christmas play- we can't wait for you all to see it!
Reception have been finding one more than a number in maths in a range of activities. They really enjoyed playing the Zap it! game in teams where they had to find 1 more than the number on the stick-if they got the answer right they got to keep the stick, if someone pulled out a zap it! stick everyone had to put their sticks back and start over! The aim was to get as many sticks out of the pot as possible! We also had superheroes in the classroom who needed to escape from the padlocks. The children were very excited to find the keys that were one more than the number on the padlocks to unlock the superheroes!
In phonics we are showing perfect partner work when reading and really helping and praising our partners.
We have also planted some bulbs in the outdoor area and are very excited for the Spring to be able to watch them grow!
Autumn Term 2 2015
Prime learning challenge question
Why is it always cold in the Winter?
Subsidiary questions
Are you as cuddly as Cuddly Dudley?
Where do animals go in Winter?
Where did the snowman go?
How can I keep warm?
Why can I see my breath?
Where does Father Christmas live?
Autumn Term 2
Why are there so many leaves on the ground?
Subsidiary questions
Why do I know that it won't be hot and sunny tomorrow?
How can I create Autumn's colours?
How do I know that it is colder now than when I was on holiday?
Are all the leaves the same shape?
What happens to all the leaves that were on the ground?
Helpful websites to support this learning challenge:
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/autumn
Reception had a super week last week before breaking up for half term. In Maths we made wanted posters to put around the school to help find the 2D and 3D shapes that had mysteriously disappeared in the night! We also played musical shapes and had to tell each other facts about the different shapes. In PE we followed instructions through team games where we had to practice our balancing and throwing skills. On Friday we had a spooky themed day for Halloween and used tools safely to create scary pumpkins for Halloween!
We have been working so hard in our phonics lessons and have been having lots of fun learning new sounds with Fred the frog!.
We had a great time on our walk around the local area looking at the similarities and differences between houses. We looked at whether each house was detached or semi-detached, the different colours, shapes, what materials are used to build a house and recognised lots of house numbers.
Autumn Term 1
Is everybody's home the same?
Subsidiary questions
What is your home like?
What is a home like in the Arctic?
What can we do to be safe at home?
Who lives in a house like this?
What does every home have?
Who lives in a castle?
Helpful websites to support this Learning Challenge:
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/castles/defence.htm
http://www.castles.org/Kids_Section/Castle_Story/
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/
We have been having lots of fun in Reception learning all about ourselves, the different things we can do with our bodies and exploring our five senses. In Maths we have been looking at money and what different coins we can use to pay for items. We have also been really enjoying the reading igloo and sharing books with a friend!
We had a fantastic day painting our self portraits with Professional Artist Angie Cox!
Autumn Term 1
Prime learning challenge question
What do I know about me?
Subsidiary questions
How am I the same? How am I different?
What makes a family?
Why do I look like I do?
What I like best is...?
Where in the world do my family come from?
What can I do with my body?
Helpful websites to support this Learning Challenge:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/allaboutme.shtml
http://www.getinthezone.org.uk/schools/ages-4-11/ages-4-5/game-brilliant-bodies/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/my-story-game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rf0f2-6c4I
Please click on the picture below to view the PowerPoint that was shared at the Learning Parents Meeting on 17/09/15
