Design and Technology – Food
This week, 1,2B have been using their food preparation skills to create their latest product – fruit smoothies.
This forms part of our Design and Technology food learning which involves following a recipe to create a product each term.
The recipe was taken from this healthy eating website. We read it so we could understand the instructions before we made our smoothies.
First, we got ready to cook by washing our hands.
We used lots of different food preparation skills including peeling, chopping, measuring and pouring.
Then, the best part, children got to enjoy their smoothies.
We always evaluate our product afterwards to see how it could be changed next time. In a link to our learning about adjectives (words that add information about a noun), there were plenty of adjectives used to describe the smoothies – yummy, flavoursome, sweet, creamy and delicious.
Help at home by encouraging your child to demonstrate some of their food preparation skills by making this again at home, or a different smoothie recipe!
Topic – Art
This half term, we are learning about art – both practically and some art history too.
We are learning about Georges Seurat, who used pointillism (dots), and Bridget Riley, who is an optical artist (uses shapes, pattern and colour to create illusions).
We have created dots using cotton buds and bubble wrap and are beginning to use them as backgrounds to add shapes, exploring which colours go well together.
Help at home by talking about your preferences for certain artists or colours and shapes.
1A’s purple smiles and moustaches
Today, Class 1A set off for The Hub to make our own smoothies. Before we could start preparing the food, we needed to wash our hands with soap and water to make sure that they were germ free. After that, we could get started on prepping the fruit. Independently, we used great peeling skills, cutting skills and practised our bridge hold when slicing the banana. We used equipment such as knives and spoons and noisy hand blenders. Our teachers helped us to press the button to make it work. We loved seeing how the colour changed as the ingredients were blended together. Someone said that “it looks like purple rain” and someone else thought it looked like “purple lava.”
Here’s what we did:
We peeled the banana, 
sliced the banana, 
spooned in some fruit, 
spooned in some yogurt, 
poured in some milk and then blended it all together before serving. 
Help at home: You could recreate the recipe below at home. Perhaps you could substitute some of the ingredients to make a different kind of smoothie which includes some of your favourite fruits.
You could also include your child in some other cooking recipes at home. For inspiration of other child friendly recipes, you could watch some episodes of Big Cook Little Cook on CBeebies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/big-cook-little-cook
Whatever Next!
This week, we listened to another one of Jill Murphy’s stories about a family of bears, titled ‘Whatever Next’. It’s about a little bear who went on an adventure to the moon in a cardboard box rocket.
This book sparked lots of conversations and interest in space. We watched some real rockets launching and used our small world area to imagine what it would be like on the moon.
Children loved making their own rockets in the creative area using different shaped boxes and bottles. It was quite tricky working out how to attach the different parts together. Some children used PVA glue, some tried a stick of glue and for some things, only Sellotape would hold the parts in place.
We loved singing ‘5 Little men in a flying saucer‘ and counting the aliens in our maths corner.
Outside we developed our throwing skills by “launching” our on foam rockets into space. We counted down for the blast off
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 BLAST OFF!
Could they reach the planets ?
Next week’s learning:
As space has been such an inspiring theme for the children we have decided to continue this into next week.
We will then look forward to reading ‘Stickman’ by Julia Donaldson in our story times later in the week. If you don’t have a copy of the book at home, you might enjoy watching the BBC animation together.
In maths, we’re learning about length so will be using the words long, short, longer and shorter to compare different objects.
Nursery rhyme of the week – Twinkle, twinkle little star
Sound of the week – i for iguana
Pull your lips back and make the i sound at the back of your mouth i.
How to Catch a Star
Literacy
This week our focus story was ‘How to Catch a Star‘ by Oliver Jeffers. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
In the writing area, the challenge was to think, draw and write about what we might see if we went into space. At the end of the week, we thought of our own ways to catch a star. We had lots of amazing ideas.
Maths
This week, we have built on our understanding of the composition of numbers by investigating the composition of 3, 4 and 5.
We composed and de-composed numbers by investigating the part, part, whole relations, e.g. seeing that 3 can be composed of 1 and 2.
After watching an episode of Numberblocks, we enjoyed making our own Stampoline prints to show different ways of making 5.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we learn a new poem and we recite this poem every day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Mice.
Art
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been inspired by Monet’s series of paintings, Houses of Parliament. We looked at the colours that we could see in the sky and thought about what time of day it might be.
The colours are reflected in the water. It’s the morning.
We created our own art work by using blocks to print shapes and make a building silhouette. Then, we explored using water colours to create the sky. We thought carefully about how different colours can change the feeling of a painting and represent the sky during different weathers or times of the day.
Help at home
- Spot some signs of winter. You may choose to take photos, draw pictures or talk about the change in season, from autumn to winter. Let us know if you spot any signs of winter – send us an email, bring in your pictures or tell us about what you found.
- Please remember to complete your child’s reading log every week to let us know how they are getting on with their reading book at home. Thank you.
Dates
Learning Journey drop-in sessions
Every child in Reception has a Learning Journey book that celebrates their learning – this might be with photos, our observations and your updates from home. Come in and share with your child their Learning Journey so far. There are four sessions planned next week – we look forward to seeing you at one of them.
Tuesday 03 December and Thursday 05 December
Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
PE – gymnastics
We have been thoroughly enjoying gymnastics this term. We have worked on different routines as part of a group that incorporate a range of gymnastic skills. The children began by moving in different ways and then they challenged themselves to add in a balance and a piece of equipment such as a hoop. This week, we’ve been thinking about different jumps. We discussed the importance of landing safely to avoid injury. We practiced different jumps in groups and then attempted to perform jumps in time with each other or in a ‘Mexican wave’ style.
Topic – practical art (printing)
This week, Year 5/6 students have been working hard on creating prints as part of their art topic. In a previous lesson, they designed leaf patterns on polystyrene tiles. This week, the children added more intricate details to their leaf designs, such as veins and blemishes. They also chose different colours to print over their designs. It was important to carefully consider their colour choices. It was lovely to see the students discussing their artwork, sharing ideas, and thinking about how to refine and improve their initial creations.
Help at home by asking your child about the process of creating prints.
Y2 football superstars!
Well done to our Y2 footballers for playing some fantastic football yet again last night! We saw some brilliant goals scored and the children worked well as a team.
See below the results.
Well done Scholes A and B!
Thank you to all of the parents for supporting the children and a big thank you again to FOSP for providing the kits. We look forward to more games in the New Year!
Peace at Last
We loved reading ‘Peace at Last‘ this week. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip).
We especially enjoyed listening to the sounds that Mr Bear heard during the night and joining in with them BRRRRRRRR, NEEEEEOOOOW, TICK TOCK, SNUFFLE SNUFFLE!
We decided to go on our own listening walk around school. We heard lots of different sounds, diggers in the village playground, cars and buses on the road, teachers voices, doors creaking.
On Tuesday morning we woke up to snow! We had a super day in Nursery exploring our garden. We noticed that all of our wellies had different patterns on the bottom Some had stripes, some had zigzag patterns. Which ones are yours?
We made snowmen and even some snow dinosaurs! It was lots of fun.
We looked at all of the changes in the garden, how the snow had even fallen on the small stalks of the plants.
Help at home: What noises can you hear around your house or in the garden? Go on a listening walk and talk about the sounds you hear. Can you make the sound? If your child has a favourite bedtime story, try adding some sound effects to different parts of the story.
Next week’s learning:
Next week, we’re going to read another of our favourite stories written by Jill Murphy. It’s called ‘Whatever Next‘
Nursery rhyme of the week – 1,2 ,3 ,4 5, Once I caught a fish alive. We’ll also be singing a number rhyme 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer
Sound of the week –P p (p for penguin)
Bring your lips together push them open and say p, p, p.
Reminders
- We have our Parent Teacher Consultation evenings on Monday and Wednesday. Please check your emails for the Zoom link. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for no technical difficulties!
- The weather has certainly got colder this week. Please make sure that your child has a warm coat, a hat and some gloves to wear every day. We play in our garden throughout winter, so children need to be wrapped up to keep warm and enjoy learning outside in all seasons.
Night Monkey Day Monkey
This week in our light and dark topic, we’ve been learning about day and night.
Night Monkey, Day Monkey
We’ve been reading Night Monkey, Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson.
The story follows two monkeys who find themselves awake at their opposite times of day. They are very confused by what they see and need help understanding everything! Our word of the week is: nocturnal. We know that nocturnal means “active at night”
We’ve been writing about nocturnal animals and features of day/night.
Science: shadows
We’ve been making further investigations into shadows, by spotting them outside and by using our dark tent. We know that to make a shadow, we need a source of light. When that source of light is blocked, it casts a shadow. We explored using mirrors to reflect lights differently and used colour paddles to change the colour being projected onto the tent wall.
Maths; part-whole
In Maths, we’ve been looking at the ‘parts’ that make the whole of something. For example, the parts of us that make our whole body. Our head, eyes, legs etc. are the parts, our body is the whole.
This leads on to understanding the composition of number; the parts that can be added together to make a whole number.
PE; Gymnastics
This half term, Friday PE sessions are gymnastics. We are exploring movement and balance, developing fundamental skills and learning how to demonstrate our skills to others.
Phonics
Autumn 2 week 3 has focused on the single letter phoneme z and digraphs zz, qu, ch
We’ve learnt the tricky words; go, no, to, into
Tricky words are words that should be read by sight.
In provision, we’ve been playing what’s in the box and reading the words to match pictures we find.
Poetry Picnic
Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Shoes.
We talk about how a poem sometimes has rhyming words and sometimes doesn’t. We also talk about how a poem can have a fast rhythm or a slow rhythm.
Click below to watch Reception recite this week’s poem
Help at home; Stars
Next week, we’ll be looking to the skies again! We are learning about the night sky and stars.
We know this is a topic of interest for many children in Reception. If you have any books or resources to share that are linked to this topic, we would love to see them.