The reception children have enjoyed a glorious week of spring sunshine!

Three weeks since the holiday and three weeks to go before the Easter break and so much to pack into this half term.It has been great at last to get the children out into the spring sunshine at break times and for them to extend their classroom play into the outddoor space.

With the theme of houses more established, the wall hanging of ‘Our Houses’ was started on Open Morning as the children traced their houses ready to be ironed onto the wall hanging. It should be completed on Monday and up in the classroom for all to see on Friday. The clay houses were made and will be ready for painting next week.

Something else to work on, but a fundamental for every child and that is to be able to say their address e.g. ‘I live at 33 Bensolw Lane, Hitchin, Hertfordshire’. I have given house points to everyone who could do this but about a third of the class cannot. Please practise.

It was nice to see so many Reception parents at the Open morning on Tuesday. The children’s levels of concentration were very different to a normal day with so many distractions. However, it gave you a taste for the sorts of activities that take place in a ‘normal’ day. The pictures of houses using 2-D shapes made from art straws were finished later in the day and will come home in their folder at the end of term. They certainly provided the children with lots of conversations about the shapes they were trying to make, the features of houses that they were trying to create and their confidence to ‘have a go’.

The potatoes are due to be planted on Monday and hopefully we will get out for our spring walk next week as we continue to work on the RSPB Wildlife Action Rewards scheme. This scheme will recognise many of the outdoor activities which are part of learning in reception and give us a few new projects to try over the coming weeks.

Our mental ‘warm up’ in maths this week was centred on the language used for adding and taking away, (Add, plus, more, count on/ take away, subtract, minus, less, count back). We have looked at the pairs of numbers that make 10 (number bonds) and investigated which numbers are even and which are odd numbers. Any problems with this week’s maths were addressed and work sent home for further practising.

Please don’t forget Show and Tell for Tuesday. All children need a photo or drawing of their bedroom to put under the visualiser to show as they talk about it. Sport Relief on Friday, £1 to dress in sports clothes, this includes football kits, Sport Relief t-shirts or joggers and t-shirts, no jeans or dresses. Children please bring your scooters for our ‘scoot a mile’. Any other donations will be collected on Friday and if your child wishes to purchase a wrist band they will be on sale in school.

Have an enjoyable weekend and enjoy the spring sunshine!