Hello!

This week we have welcomed a very exciting addition to our reception classroom: an incubator complete with eight eggs! The children began the week by writing predictions about what might be inside the eggs. There were some very interesting ideas! And then on Tuesday afternoon the first chick hatched out. Since then, four more have hatched. The children are enjoying our new class pets which we will look after until next Friday when they will return to the farm.

We have been learning all about life cycles this week. We have learnt about the different stages of a human life then we also looked at a frog’s life cycle and a chicken’s life cycle. Next Friday we will be visiting Swithens Farm where the children will get to see and feed baby and adult animals.

In maths we have been revisiting the principles of counting and we have been exploring the ‘5 and a bit’ composition of the numbers 6, 7 and 8. We have investigated the 1 more and 1 less pattern of the numbers 1-10 and have been working on describing and explaining the relationship of numbers to each other eg 6 is one more than 5, 7 is 5 and 2 more, 4 is one less than 5, 7 comes after 6.

We watched an excerpt from the following Numberblocks episode in class when learning about 1 more. You might like to watch it in full at home: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08q39b4/numberblocks-series-2-just-add-one

Next week we will be learning the story of Jasper’s Beanstalk for our new Talk 4 Writing unit. The children will be learning the story, using actions and then creating story maps to help retell the story.

In maths next week we will be focusing on the comparison of numbers, considering where numbers to 8 are in relation to each other. We will be noticing when numbers are increased or decreased and will be working on explaining our thinking.

Thank you for your support in encouraging your child to practise their maths skills on Numbots. We will continue to give certificates out for effort and attainment.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

The Reception team