4.11.22
We have had a fantastic first week back in Plum Class with lots of busy brains hard at work!
In our maths work this week we have been looking at numbers 1, 2 and 3 .The children enjoyed singing the song ‘one finger, one thumb keep moving’ and watching the Numberblocks episodes 1,2 and 3. As we watched, we talked about the 'one-ness' of one, the 'two-ness' of two and the 'three-ness' of three. The children worked hard to think about and compare these numbers with different representations. We had to sort these representations according to whether they showed 1 or 2 and whether different representations showed 3 or more than/less than 3. When looking at picture representations, some children saw a nose and thought this showed 1 nose, whilst others could see that his nose had 2 nostrils therefore it could represent both 1 and 2. We know that 1 pair of items equals two items that are the same.
Alongside making the numbers 1,2 and 3 and creating our own numberblock representations, we looked at the shape of these number block numbers. The children described the shape of numberblock 1's face as being a square and a square has 4 sides, not 1. However, we discussed how the numberblock is not a flat square, but infact a cube shape. This helps us to understand that number can be represented in many different ways. By learning more about number in depth, this will help to develop a strong foundation for our later maths work and help us as we begin to understand the composition of different numbers.
In our topic work this week it has been all things Bonfire Night. Our key vocabulary for this week has been: Parliament, gunpowder, plot, Guy Fawkes and King James. We will revisit these words regularly in the classroom, but please try to use these at home in your discussions with your children.
The children enjoyed learning all about the story of Guy Fawkes and his plot to blow up the houses of Parliament with gun powder. We looked at pictures of Guy Fawkes and King James and discussed how we thought that these people dressed differently to how people dress today, they wore funny hats and clothes! We were able to decide that this story happened a long time ago, long before we were born – in the past. The children thought it was very sad that because these people had different ideas that we call ‘beliefs’ that they wanted to hurt one another. Check your child’s understanding to see if they can recall the story and the reason why this story has led to our Bonfire Night celebrations and customs!
As part of this topic the children have had a wonderful time creating elaborate Houses of Parliament, creating computer firework pictures and enjoyed discussing their own present day Bonfire Night traditions.
In drawing club this week we enjoyed watching a firework display and listening to the wonderful sounds we could hear. We were introduced to a wow word- onomatopoeia (a word that sounds just like the thing it is describing) such as bang, pop etc. The children drew what they had seen in the firework display and either tried to write some words using onomatopoeia or used these words to tell us the noises their fireworks made .We are beginning to see some fantastic writing from many of our children but please do not be concerned if your child is still not choosing/able to form words at home. In reception children do not all develop in a linear way but I can assure you there is huge progress with all of our children!
Alongside this learning, we have enjoyed role-playing the story, talking about safety with fireworks and making our own firework rockets. We have been very busy!
In PE this week the children had their first NUF coaching session. They thoroughly enjoyed this despite the chilly weather. As we have PE outside, please ensure that your child is wearing black joggers and a school hoodie. We will continue to wrap up warm as the weather gets colder.
In RE we have began to learn about what Christians celebrate at Christmas time, the birth of Jesus. We thought carefully about birthdays and how we celebrate. Lot of us noticed that we receive presents. Our discussion about birthdays helped us to understand the Christmas story a bit better as we later learned that the three wise men brought gifts to Jesus when he was born. We took some time to think about what gifts we would give Jesus.
All in all it has been a busy first week back with lots of learning happening in and out of the classroom. Next week we will spend some time learning about Remembrance Day and the later in the week we will continue to think about seasonal changes as we focus on the darker Autumnal nights.
Have a restful weekend- Miss F