A very unsettled week weather-wise but we’ve carried on regardless in Reception! The children have continued to enjoy our dinosaur topic, with some shared learning around what dinosaurs ate. The children have learned the terms of carnivore, herbivore and omnivore and how to distinguish what a particular dinosaur might eat based on their features. We shared the story of ‘Tyrannosaurus Drip’ by Julia Donaldson as a way to further understand the relationship between predator and prey in the time of the dinosaurs – and some children had a great time retelling the story with props in our small world area. We also read the story ‘Dear Dinosaur’ by Chae Strathie and took inspiration from the main character of Max to write our own letters to a dinosaur, with the children asking some fantastic questions such as, “What is your favourite colour?” and “Do you like ice cream?” To get in the dino-mindset (and practise reading skills) the children took on a course with different stations asking them to try different actions, such as ‘peek’ ‘splash’ and ‘stomp’! As a way to help remember number bonds to 10, the children have used eggs in an egg box with ten spaces to help them match up eggs with their respective nest. In our creative area, the children have tried getting to grips with using stencils to produce their own dinosaur scene pictures, carefully using a pencil to mark out the shapes of the stencil before adding details such as rocks, trees and volcanoes.
The class also had another go at one of our shared drawing tutorials, with the children carefully following along with the step by step instructions to draw a T-Rex. As we have done a few of these draw-along sessions now, the children are getting better and better and we saw some fabulous results – with lots of care and attention to detail.
In Phonics this week we’ve been looking at words with adjacent consonants either at the beginning or end (so CCVC or CVCC instead of CVC). Often when trying to spell words that have adjacent consonants it can be tricky to hear both sounds, so some practice in reading and writing such words is great practise to encourage more fluent reading and more accurate spelling.
Out Maths sessions this week have continued to look at the concept of dividing but with a focus on ‘grouping’ a larger number into smaller parts, rather than sharing out equally. The children had a go at relay races where they had to get themselves into equal groups; they had a go at making towers of equal size from a selection of cubes and seeing whether there would be any remainders; and they helped our Snippy the crab at his shell shop on the beach by grouping the shells into boxes, making sure that each box had the same amount of shells.
On Sunday, Mrs Andrews and Mr Verdi (along with Miss Bourne and Mr Mawer) are running the Leeds 10k in an effort to raise money for ‘Abbie’s Army’. This charity has been chosen by a parent and works to fund vital research needed to find effective treatments, and ultimately a cure for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) which is one of the most aggressive and devastating childhood cancers. We are very thankful for all the donations we have received from families so far – you are all amazing! If anyone would still like to donate the link to the JustGiving page is below. Also, the finish line for the run is outside the Leeds City Art Gallery if anyone is at a loose end at around 9:45 (optimistic) and 10:45 (realistic) on Sunday – we’d appreciate any support!
https://www.justgiving.com/page/cookridgeleeds10k
Have a lovely half term!
The Reception Team.
DATES FOR THE DIARY:
Wednesday 24th June: EYFS and KS1 Sports Day (13:00-15:00)
Tuesday 14th July: EYFS Summer Celebration (14:15-15:15) – Parents are invited to attend for an afternoon of games, crafts and a mini certificate celebration!
Friday 17th July: Last day of Summer 2 Term
Tinshill Drive
Cookridge
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS16 7DH
0113 386 2500
