Hello!

This week the children have been learning how to write the story of Jasper’s Beanstalk. We have been orally retelling the story using our story maps and working on writing sentences using our phonic knowledge.

In maths we have been learning about 3D shapes. We have been using the language faces, edges, vertices, curved and flat. The children have learnt about a cone, a cylinder, a sphere, a cube and a cuboid. They have grouped objects by looking at the properties of the shape, they have been hunting for objects which match the shapes and they have been printing with shapes and talking about the shape of the faces. Can you find any 3D shapes at home? How can you tell it’s a cube? (square faces) or a cylinder? (circular faces at each end) or a sphere (no vertices) Can your child use the mathematical language? We have also been recapping pattern, making different patterns with words and movements. We have looked specifically at AB, AAB and ABB patterns. AB (stomp, clap, stomp, clap…), AAB (red, red, yellow, red, red, yellow), ABB (jump, clap, clap, jump, clap, clap). Can you make some patterns at home? You could use objects, pens or pencils to draw a pattern or make a movement pattern. We’d love to see your ideas on Tapestry. Here is a great book about pattern to share at home. Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_mqVCewsYA

We also enjoyed some snowy days! The children had great fun out in the snow, making snow spheres (otherwise known as snowballs!), collecting snow in buckets, scraping with spades, rolling snow down the chutes, brushing the snowy floor. We hope you can enjoy some more snow today and over the weekend and that you stay safe in the snowy conditions.

Next week we will be learning about growing up through the story ‘Once There Were Giants’ by Martin Waddell. We will be exploring all the new things we can do as we grow up and will learn about time order (chronology). The children will be using words associated with chronology such as the present, the past, the future, long ago, new/recent, lifetime. We have sent a separate message on Tapestry about sending baby photos for our history topic. Thank you in advance for helping us with this. We will be using these pictures to compare ourselves to how we were as babies and talk about the changes we have gone through in the last few years.

At home, you might like to dig out some of your family photos to show your child the changes you have gone through from babyhood to adulthood. If you have a selection of around five, can your child put them into the correct order? We will be looking at the stages: baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult.

In maths next week we will be looking at the number 10 and ways to make 10. We will be learning our number bonds to 10 in lots of different ways.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The Reception team