DIWALI CELEBRATIONS IN RECEPTION

 DIWALI   CELEBRATIONS   IN   RECEPTION

We have been learning about Celebrations in Reception this half term. 

The children have talked about their Birthdays and other cultural family events like Eid, Christmas, Weddings, Chinese New Year, Easter and Diwali.

(Understanding the world: People and communities; Enjoys joining in with family customs; Recognises and describes special times or events for family or friends 30-50, 40-60)

The common themes have included dressing up, having special food, decorating the house, giving and receiving gifts, writing cards, parties, dancing and music.

We have also celebrated Children in Need, Remembrance Day, Black History Month as you can see in our BIG BOOK.

These pictures are a selection from our week of Diwali activities which included making cards, Diva pots, learning the story of Rama and Sita, mask making, Rangoli patterns, dancing and singing.

Unfortunately we were unable to invite parents in due to the pandemic but we can share the experience through the School Website & Class Dojo.

The children love to dress up in traditional or celebration clothes (PSED;Health and Self Care 30-50)

Expressive arts and design: Exploring and using media and materials; 40-60 builds up repertoire of songs and dances

This is a big year for the children as they learn to read and, here, writing cards for a purpose (Literacy; Writing 40-60 - gives meaning to marks)

Making thumb pots really helps to develop fine motor skills and decorating them enables their creative skills to shine through. (Physical Development: Moving and Handling;  Handles ... malleable materials safely and with increasing control)

Here are some children making masks to act out scenes from the story of Rama and Sita which we read and answered Who? What? and Where? questions (Expressive arts and design: Being imaginative; create props to support role-play)

The children have learned a lot about Diwali and celebrations.

Let's see what we can learn about Christmas...

WE ARE ENJOYING SETTLING INTO OUR NEW ENVIRONMENT

We are enjoying settling into our new environment and making friends and relationships. We have been playing together using a variety of resources, learning our friends names, learning

where all the resources go and having fun! Here we are enjoying our Reception space.

Reception Visit to Mount Pleasant Farm

27.03.20

Visit to Mount Pleasant Farm

Reception went on a trip to visit Mount Pleasant Farm. 

We had a very enjoyable day finding out about all of the animals,how to look after them and what the animals produce. 

First, we learnt how to look after the chickens. We fed them and gave them water. We collected their eggs. 

Next, we fed the sheep and lambs. We felt their woolly coats.

Then we went to see Pinky and Perky pigs. We watched them eat carrots, apples and cabbage.

Finally, we went into the cow shed. We saw calves and cows. We saw a calf being born.Also the children enjoyed meeting Tinkerbell the farm dog. 

                                                     






'The chickens enjoyed pecking'

           

                                        

'Look at me feeding the sheep!' 

                                                            

  'I was brave stroking the cow'                     

     

                   'We had a brilliant time and what an experience!'

PSED/CL/UW: Children know about similarities and differences in relation to living things. They talk about how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes. They learned farm related topic vocabulary.

                                                                                                       
                                                                                         

Chinese New Year

🥳 Reception staff and children invited parents into school to celebrate Chinese New Year-the Year of the Rat characterising wealth and surplus. Many parents joined us in class to learn about the origin of Chinese New Year and how it’s celebrated around the world. Children sang a quick Dragon song for parents before the activities began. 

Ms Subb was creating a tasty stir fry with children developing their fine motor skills by cutting up the vegetables.

Mrs Thompson improved children’s creativity by supporting them to make dancing dragon puppets.

Mr Reid and Ms Crawford facilitated the remaining activities - writing Chinese New Year cards, cutting out Chinese New Year animal masks, collaging large images of rats, folding Chinese New Year lanterns, taking orders and cooking in pop up Chinese restaurant, good luck red money envelopes.

Kung Hey Fat Choi! Thank you.                                              for your support parents. 

Reception Class Nativity Assembly 'Whoops A Daisy Angel'

Whoops-A-Daisy Angel Nativity Performance

                                                                                                   

Reception have worked really hard and performed their Nativity Assembly to entertain the rest of the school and parents on Friday 13th December 2019. 

The children have learnt about the Christian story of Christmas and they  were very confident in  learning words and actions to 7 SONGS! which they sang beautifully with percussion instruments for the Nativity.

The children were confident in expressing themselves during the assembly, all the children  looked  amazing with their sparking and dazzling outfits!

 Whoops A Daisy made everyone smile 😊

The Reception Teachers are really proud of the  children, they are developing in confidence and showed their maturity during assembly.

Well done to ALL our Reception children for this wonderful experience.

 Reception children are all sparkling for the nativity

                     

          

'We all had a great time.'! 

THANK YOU ALL FOR WATCHING.   

                                                                

       

                                                    

  

    

                                

        





Understanding The World

During the year Reception go for Seasonal Walks to look at the immediate natural environment within the grounds of the school.


In our Autumn Walk children were able to -

• Comments and asks questions about aspects of their familiar world such as the place where they live or the natural world.
• Can talk about some of the things they have observed such as plants, animals, natural and found objects.
• Talks about why things happen and how things work.
• Developing an understanding of growth, decay and changes over time.
• Shows care and concern for living things and the environment.
• Looks closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.

We look forward to seeing what changes happen over winter and spring.

Celebrations Topic "Let's Party"

We have been learning about different Celebrations in Reception and what are the common features across each of them eg food, decorations, dressing up, parties, religious significance, gift giving and receiving.

Having celebrated Diwali  before half term you can see our previous Blog for examples of children's work and parental support. Straight after the break we created some pictures of fireworks for bonfire night.

We launched our by mark making our title page and colouring some iconic images related to Xmas, Eid, Easter and Diwali with a focus on presentation - leaving no white areas when colouring a picture. Well done Zayaan.





We completed a mindmap to establish what the children already knew and what they wanted to find out more about.
Then we celebrated British values through Remembrance day by talking about a short age appropriate clip explaining its significance and creating lots of lovely poppy images using different techniques.

 



  

Both Remembrance day and Children in Need gave us the opportunity to raise money for good causes whilst learning and having fun - And we never miss the chance to dress up!

Following the childrens' interests we focussed on Weddings from the Sikh, Muslim and Christian viewpoint realising that there are many similar themes across all three. Children enjoyed trying on outfits from these special days (thank you GK/ST).

The most popular aspect of this topic was talking about Birthdays, which the children did in abundance-great opportunity to talk about family customs. Here are some examples of children's work.

 

The children have gained the knowledge that celebrations have similar themes and practised their writing, number, speaking and listening and creative skills along the way.

Look out for our next Blog all about the Nativity performance

"Whoops-A-Daisy Angel".....