Our topic for this half term is ‘Growing & Minibeasts’. WB 02/5/16 This week, Reception visited the woods at the beginning of the week and listened to the story ‘Snail Trail’ (Ruth Brown). The children collected story pictures hidden in trees and pieced together the pictures to find out exactly where the snail travelled. Following this, children worked together in small groups to create their own snail trails using natural materials. We took photos of each groups trail and used this as our basis for writing back at school. Make sure you come and read our sentences during the open classroom on Thursday after school. Perhaps ask your child to read their sentence to you. We have been practising re-reading our sentences to check they make sense. Children have been conducting their own snail races in the classroom. I have never seen the tuff spot so popular! Why not conduct your own snail races together at home as a family. Remember to reward the snails with a finishing position- 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Last week we found out about centipedes in one child’s information book and created our own centipedes. We used colourful finger prints for the body and added two legs to each finger print. This helped us to practise counting in two’s to find out how many legs the centipede had. You could practise counting pairs of shoes or socks at home together. If your child can already do this, give them some problems to solve e.g. if 5 people leave their shoes at the front door, how many shoes will there be altogether? This week we have spent lots of time talking about caring for minibeasts. As a class, we are learning to use our kind, gentle hands and make the right choices. Please help us in this quest by talking about this topic at home when opportunities arise. Our topic for this half term is ‘Growing & Minibeasts’. WB 02/5/16 Important Dates 9th May 2016- Provided the pool is ready, Reception will begin their first swimming session next Monday afternoon. Please conduct a ‘practise run’ at getting undressed/dressed at home if you have time. Remember; the faster we get changed, the more time we have in the pool! Please note: our Forest Friday Woodland Visits have now finished. Children will resume these trips in Year 1. 27th May 2016- Reception school trip to Wicken Fen In phonics we are working hard to sound out words containing digraphs and gain confidence in writing these words as well. Children are getting better at re-reading their writing. How many tricky words can you think of together at home? Perhaps you could think of a sentence using one of the tricky words in context then write it. Another book called ‘Snail Trail’ (Jo Saxton) allowed us to find out about the French artist ‘Matisse’. He created a famous portrait of a snail using a collage technique. Children used the same technique to create their own portraits of snails by carefully positioning colouring blocks of paper in a spiral shell before sticking them down. Ask your child at home what Matisse called this technique……