This week has been a fun-packed adventure through South America as we continue our tour of the globe in our Around The World topic. We spent a lot of time talking about Peru, especially as it is the home of one Paddington Bear. We looked at some videos of the spectacled bears that Paddington is patterned after and learned a bit more about the tropical rainforests that they call home in South America. The children were challenged to write a postcard back to the UK to Paddington as if writing from Peru to tell him some of the animals or landmarks they had seen on their travels.
We also learned a little about Machu Picchu and enjoyed exploring the ruined city via Google Earth. We also took a look at some bright and colourful patterned fabrics worn by the people of Peru and challenged to carefully colour their own design for a poncho (the woven blankets traditionally worn in Peru).
Many children also took on a further challenge to sort through a selection of various flora and fauna and determine whether they would be found in our local area in the UK or in the Amazonian jungles of South America.
This week there has been two further challenges set to the children to test their learning in our recent maths sessions and to test their balance and co-ordination. Inside we challenged the children to build small-scale models of castles using 3D shapes by copying a photograph. Once the castles were complete the children were tasked with counting up how many of each of the 3D shapes were using in their construction. Outdoors, we put the children through their paces and invited them to complete an obstacle course whilst balancing a bean bag on their head. Much concentration and determination was needed as this proved more challenging than it looked to keep the beanbag from slipping!
As a new initiative this week, we have issued everyone with their own challenge card, which they can get stamped for each of our weekly challenges they complete. This has proved very popular, and has involved some children to explore areas of the classroom they are not always drawn to during our free-choice provision time. Any child who completed all the challenges and got five stamps on their card received a highly coveted smelly sticker of their very own and their name was entered onto our spinning wheel to win a prize of their choice. Well done to all those hard-working children who completed challenges this week and extra congratulations to Vinnie who went home with the prize this week!
Friday’s Eid celebration day was a big hit with the children. They loved watching (and in some cases, taking part in) the fashion show in the morning’s assembly before coming back to class to engage in some Eid themed activities. Children enjoyed colouring in mehndi patterns and painting their own crescent moons and we had lots of traditional muslin clothing for the children to try on. We all joined together for an interactive story-time in which the children acted alongside the protagonist in getting ready to celebrate Eid with their family. Most exciting of all was the chance to go down to the dinner hall and sample some delicious foods provided by parents and staff of the school community. It was all delicious and was a lovely end to a fantastic day.
Phonics sessions this week have seen us revisiting more of the phase 3 sounds we’ve learned this year, with the children really getting more and more confident to apply all this knowledge and understanding into their own reading and writing activities.
In Maths, we have been looking at two digit numbers from 10 to 20. The children have been given the opportunity to explore how these numbers are composed and what the two digits represent in these larger numbers in fun and practical activities.
Have a lovely weekend!
The Reception Team
DATES FOR THE DIARY:
Thursday 2nd April: Foods of the World Parent Event (2:00pm) – Parents and carers are invited to join us in Reception to share in our learning and enjoy some delicious foods!
Thursday 2nd April: Last day of Spring 2 Term
Tinshill Drive
Cookridge
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS16 7DH
0113 386 2500
