Spring 1: Week 1
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a fantastic break. Thank you so much for sending in some past Christmas photos. We’ve really enjoyed listening to the children’s memories.
This half-term’s topic is called Fire and Ice. January’s typical frosty weather is a stimulus for our learning. As scientists we’ll investigate ice: making and melting it. We’ll use our senses to describe how the weather has changed and the effects on our environment. Linking to geography, we’ll find out interesting facts about Antarctica and learn about animals which live there and its climate.
Through our focus on fire, we’ll learn about the emergency services. We’ll develop our drama skills by taking on the roles of doctors, paramedics and police officers. Finally, we’ll learn about the Chinese New Year and learn about Chinese traditions.
Literacy
Our focus story for the first two weeks is Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. Before reading the story, we made some predictions.
Arthur – I think they’re going to get lost.
Edie – I think they’re going on holiday.
Jasmine – The umbrella might sink.
Gurjeevan – I think they’re going to get found.
Zara – I think they’re going to fall into the water.
We’ve also been learning about Antarctica! We located England and Antarctica on a map, we watched a clip from Frozen Plant and we also used pictures to identify the differences between the climate in England and Antarctica.
Sam – Leopard seals look a bit like mermaids.
Niam – Penguins swim like dolphins.
Edie – Penguins are really good swimmers.
Harry – It’s looking for food.
Our word of the week was iceberg. We looked at some pictures of icebergs and talked about an iceberg is.
Help at home: Ask your child if they can remember what an iceberg is.
For our writing activity, we looked at a picture from the book and wrote an ‘I can see…’ sentence. We used our phoneme fingers when segmenting the words. We also made sure we checked our writing before showing it to Mrs Wood!
Poetry picnic
This week’s poem was called Let’s put on our mittens. We hope you enjoy watching it.
Maths
This week, we’ve been using our ‘fast eyes’ to subitise (seeing the quantity without counting) more complex arrangements of dots. We took a picture of the arrangements with our eyes, closed our eyes and then explained what we saw. We used spatial language to describe the arrangements. For example, ‘There are 3 dots on the top and 2 dots on the bottom.’
Help at home: Draw some linear and paired arrangements of 3, 4, 5 and 6. Ask your child to take a picture with their eyes and close them. Can they explain the arrangement with their eyes closed? They could draw it in the air.
Take a look at some of this week’s winter learning…
Reminders
- PE is every Tuesday.
- Funky Phonics Phase 3 Stay & Learn – Tuesday 16 January
9am-9.30am – phase 3 phonics lesson.
9.30am-10am – phase 3 phonics presentation
Due to limited space, only one adult per child can attend this session.
Home-Link Challenge
New year, new topic!
Happy New Year! We hope you had a great break from school and are feeling refreshed.
With a new year, comes a new term and a new topic. This half term, we are being historians and learning about the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.
Before we spend time learning about how the Romans came to invade Britain and how the Anglo-Saxons lived after the Romans had left, we needed to know what the timeline of British history looks like.
A timeline shows us the chronological order of events.
Here is what we came up with:
From the longest ago to the most recent, we had Stone Age Britain to the Coronavirus. Before the Romans, was the Iron Age Britain so this is where we begun our learning.
The Celts:
- lived in tribes
- were farmers
- lived in wooden, thatched huts
- had no rulers but did have chiefs
- made tools and weapons out of bronze and iron
Help at home by comparing the Celts lives to our lives. What do you think the children did in the Iron Age? Is there anything that we have in common with them?
History Topic – Shopping in the past
History is the focus of our topic learning this half term. During this topic, we will be ordering significant events in our lives and we’ll be discussing them using historical vocabulary.
As the half term progresses, the children will discuss how significant things have changed over time: the food that we eat, the shops that we visit and how trade has changed.
This week, we will be ordering key events in our lives on a timeline, ordering events within living memory (the last 100 years) and discussing the key vocabulary past and present.
Help at home by talking about what shopping was like when you were younger. Have shops changed? How about the way you pay for things?
We are looking for someone (maybe a grandparent) to come into school to answer the children’s questions about how shopping and life in the 1950s is different to today. Please talk to Mrs Taylor or Mrs Lake if you have someone in your family who would like to come into school in the next few weeks. Thank you!
Reading and Music: Sounds Like A Story
Today, we welcomed back Liz from the British Library to do another workshop with us.
This time, we linked together reading and music. It started with us listening to The Phoenix of Persia by Sally Pomme Clayton. As Liz was reading, we had a soundtrack playing in the background; each page had a different song.
Afterwards, we were then able to practise with instruments and then in small groups, create our own soundtrack for the rest of the book. 
Living and Learning
This week’s living and learning statement is I know what a drug is. Yesterday, we discussed that medicines are drugs to help us feel better. Lots of sensible contributions were made by the children.
Rayaan – Last time I had a cough, my Mama gave me some medicine.
Bryher – Once my brother went to the doctors and he needed to have a special thing in his ear.
Xara-Mae – Last time, when I was ill and had a cough, my Mummy gave me medicine and it was pink.
Gurjeevan – When my sister was poorly, she needed to stay off school.
Edie – I have a cough and my Daddy gave me medicine.
Teddy – The teachers give you medicine at school.
Ayah – My Mummy put my cream in the office to keep it safe at school.
Art: Our Sculpture Show
At the end of last term, we had a sculpture show to showcase our amazing sculptures. If you were unable to make it, here are the final pieces of artwork.
Help at home: Discuss how your child’s sculpture related to Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Family of Man’.
Reading and music – Sounds Like A Story
Today, we had the pleasure of welcoming Liz from the British Library to do another workshop with us.
This time, we linked together reading and music. It started by us listening to The Phoenix of Persia by Sally Pomme Clayton.
In groups, we practised with some instruments…
…and then analysed the story to match the characters to the desired sound.
It was a unique experience to think about the characters of a story compared to music in this way – describing music is called timbre.
Finally, it was time to create the rest of the story using our compositions. What a performance we gave!
PE superstars!
On Thursday in PE we had an amazing lesson! We got out lots of equipment and practised all the skills we had been learning this half term. We did balancing, jumping and moving. We were all very brave and very safe! Sorry the pictures aren’t perfect but they were moving too fast!!
We ended the lesson with our balance challenge. How long can you balance on one leg? We have got so much better at this over the half term! I wonder if you could practise at home!
Have an amazing break everybody and thank you all so much for the generous gifts and words of thanks. I will see you all in the new year!
Merry Christmas,
Mr McGriffiths
Autumn 2: Week 7
What a busy final week we’ve had in Reception! We’re so proud of all the Reception children for their FANTASTIC singing. Thank you to everyone who came to watch. We hope you enjoyed!
Literacy
This week, we’ve been learning about The Christmas Story. We used actions to help us remember the story. Click here to watch us.
We also wrote a sentence about a picture from The Christmas Story.
Poetry Picnic
We love learning new poems in Reception! Switch the kettle on, click here and enjoy having a cup of tea – cheers!
Christmas party
This morning, it was PARTY time! We had lots of fun playing party games and showing off our best dance moves. After all that dancing, we enjoyed eating some party food with our friends.
Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy break. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family. Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of the Reception Team!
See you in 2024!
Our final sculptures
As promised, take a look at some of our final sculptures from this half term’s art learning!
We had so much fun creating these and exhibiting our knowledge of colour and shape.
On behalf of all the Year 4 staff, we hope you have a lovely holiday and a very happy New Year.
See you on the other side!
