Personal, Social & Emotional Development

Physical Development

We loved our new ‘Trim Trail Fridays’. We’re going out on to the trim trail to build our strength and gross motor skills and get our bodies ready to write. The more climbing we do, the better our writing is. Win win!

We have been learning new dances in the dance studio. The caterpillars are getting really good at following the routines and doing the dance moves in the right order. 

Literacy

Our first story of the half term is Jack and the beanstalk. The children have been learning the story using a story map and putting actions to each word in the sentence. Then have loved using different expressions, especially for the Giant!

Minibeasts

Reception have been reading a variety of non-fiction books about insects and the story 'The Bees that Buzzed Off' as we have spotted some insects in our outside environment. After reading some information books they have come up with their own questions for what they want to find out about bees. 

We had a great time in the forest continuing our learning about bees. We played bee, bee, buzz. Which was our own version of duck, duck, goose. We also took part in a nectar relay race. We were the bees who needed to move the nectar from the flowers back to the hive. The Caterpillars did a great job. 

Maths 

Subitising

We have started the half term revisiting subitising to number 6. The children could arrange their counters and describe where they had put them using positional language. This led into us discussing all the different ways we could compose number 6. 

Measures

We have been learning about the language of long and short. We have been exploring our classroom and measuring items against 'The Giant's' foot. Next we looked at comparing objects by weight and capacity using the correct mathematical vocabulary. 

We have been using the balance scales to find heavy and light items in our classroom. We saw how the heavy object went down and the light object went up. We have been talking in full sentences about what we have discovered. 

Composing Numbers

We began by re-capping the numbers bonds to 5 by playing a game where one child hid some counters and left some visable. Their partner had to calculate how many counters were hidden using their numbers bonds to 5. They absolutely loved playing the game. Next we moved on to composing numbers to 6 and 7. 

This week the children have played track games to develop their understanding of numbers in order. They also had to take it in turns and experience winning and losing. The children loved playing the games and even decided to make some of their own track games using number lines to help them write the numerals in order. 

Understanding the World 

We have enjoyed reading some non-fiction texts on how plants grow and the plant life cycle. We dug up some dandelions and looked at the different parts of the plant and discussed what each part of the plant is for. We also learnt lots of dandelion facts. We now appreciate them much more then being a weed!

Expressive Art and Design 

We have completed our termly self portrait. It's so lovely to see how much the children have progressed with their drawing and fine motor skills. Well done Caterpillars!

The children have loved leading their own learning in the craft area. They have been busy making monsters, laser shooters and computers just to name a few!

We have started our D.T project. We are working together to build a beanstalk using sensible materials. Our first task was to sort the materials into bendy and straight. 

The children have worked in groups to design their own beanstalks, thinking about which materials they will use for each part, taking into account the materials properties. 

Create!

The children worked in their teams to follow their plans and make their beanstalks. They had to think about how to make it strong so Jack could climb to the top. We were really impressed with how they worked as a team, discussing the best way to do things and compromising on ideas when necessary. Well done Caterpillars! I'm looking forward to testing them next week!

The Caterpillars have been choosing to make traps using the junk modelling. They have thought carefully about how they are going to capture Jack, either if he falls off the beanstalk, or when he arrives at the castle!

We made honey on toast for our Class Wide Reward. We used our knowledge from our farm topic to make the butter, toasted our bread and added lots of delicious runny honey. It was very tasty.