Maths in Reception
In our maths learning this week, we’re concentrating on counting and using numbers.
In order to count effectively, children need to:
- learn number names in order
- count objects by touching them
- understand that the last number they say is the total number of objects in the group
- transfer these skills effectively from one context to another
- move from counting concrete objects to counting abstractly
Children need to be motivated to count for a purpose. In Reception, we try to provide lots of interesting objects and activities for children to use and improve their counting skills.
Children should also have the opportunity to order numbers. At the moment, the children are enjoying matching the correct number of flies to the spiders’ webs.
Look here for more information and some ideas for you to try at home.
Day 1 – Healthy drinks update
So, here are some pictures of the eggs after 24 hours in the drinks:
27 November 2015
Next week, all children will be taking part in our sponsored Spellathon! Each child in Key Stage 1 has been given 30 spellings which they have already been tested on throughout the year so far. On Friday 04 December, they’ll be tested on all 30… happy spelling!
Braces, fillings and other teeth queries
This afternoon, Dr Natwer Tibrewal, a local dentist from Corner House Dental Practice, visited us to answer lots of dental related questions alongside discussing the importance of dental health.
- ‘What are fillings made from?’
- ‘How do you brush you teeth with braces in?’
- ‘Why does the dentist call out letters and numbers when you go for a check up?’
It was interesting to see how aspects of health are linked to the world of work.
One of your 5 a day for free
Our weekly fruit tuck shop runs on a Tuesday playtime. It’s for Key Stage 2 children, with a charge of 20p per portion and a pre-payment option available.
Today, as part of health week, all children, including Reception and Key Stage 1, were invited to an extra tuck shop free of charge. This gave children who might not normally come to the tuck shop the chance to try it out.
It was great to see everyone enjoying a fruit-filled playtime.
Polished performance
This week is the final week of our Autumn term after-school clubs.
It was great to see so many parents come to watch the routine learnt by children attending the popular dance club led by Edward Lynch.
Edward has worked with class teachers in curriculum PE to develop their teaching of dance and his enthusiasm for this subject has certainly rubbed off on the children who attended this club.
- ‘It was an amazing club.”
- ‘I like dance even more now.’
Healthy packed lunches
As it is health week, copies of our Guide to Healthy Packed Lunches have been given out at lunchtime today as a reminder for children who choose to bring a packed lunch to school.
We encourage at least one piece of fruit or vegetable in packed lunches and snack items occasionally, as a treat, but aim for healthy options. Lots of learning has taken place in health week looking at quantities of sugar in drinks and the importance of drinking water to keep hydrated. We therefore encourage water which is freely available for packed lunch children.
There were also some prizes for healthy packed lunches.
27 November 2015
Following our Health themed week, this week, our whole school homework is creative and is due on Wednesday 02 December.
I make healthy choices.
Each class has taken part in a variety of learning this week including a range of visitors to support our teaching of keeping healthy (please see our Class News pages).
Your child could present this creative homework in a variety of different ways:
- a quiz which tests the knowledge of other children
- art work
- poetry
- a poster
- writing: diary, story, letter, instructions, report
- a rap
- a mindmap
- your own creative idea
We look forward to seeing your creative ideas to demonstrate how to keep healthy and this homework will be the focus of our open afternoon, next week.
Homework open afternoon, 2.40pm on Wednesday 02 December – parents/carers of children in Years 1 – 6 are invited into the classroom to help you to be aware of the standards of homework in your child’s class; it will also give you an insight into how we give feedback to your child even if the homework does not appear to be marked.
Which drinks are good for your teeth?
We’ve started an experiment this week investigating the effect that different drinks have on your teeth. Unfortunately, the children weren’t willing to give up their own wobbly teeth as they needed to keep them for the tooth fairy. Instead, we’ve used egg shells which do a similar job to the enamel on teeth.
We chose these drinks:
Water which has no sugar or sweeteners.
Fruit Shoot which has sweeteners and some natural sugar from fruit juice.
Lucozade which has 62g of sugar in a bottle.
Milk which has a little natural sugar.
Coca Cola which has 54g of sugar in a bottle.
Monster Energy which has sweeteners but no added sugar
We immersed the eggs in the liquids – after Mr Wilks had spent a daft amount of time poking holes in them with a pin and creating little hooks so we could lift them out of the liquids to look at them:
Next, we made predictions about what we thought would happen. Here are a few of our predictions:
- “I think the egg in the Lucazade will crack because Lucazade has a lot of sugar in it.”
- “Because the Fruit Shoot is purple, the egg will change colour to purple.”
- “I think the egg in the water will not change as it has no sugar in it.”
- “I think the egg in the Monster drink will break because it is an energy drink and it will push it down.”
We will update you with some photos over the next few days.
Health week
We have had a brilliant week learning about how we can keep our bodies and minds healthy. Here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to.
