Summer 2
Expressive Arts!
Ahoy! In expressive arts, we have been role-playing pirates!
Science!
In science, we have been exploring ice. Crushing ice, drinking ice cold water and melting ice!
Splash Park!
We enjoyed out a trip to the splash park in this gorgeous weather, we had a fantastic time!
As the year draws to a close this last half term our topic is Splish Splash Splosh. We shall be learning about all the creatures we can find in and around the sea. This topic lends itself well for plenty of lovely art and craft activities making fish galore!
This science-based topic allows us to spend time having lots of fun with water in many ways. As sand and water play works alongside each other so well, we shall be messing around with sand too, learning as we play. We shall be experimenting with objects that sink and float, and hopefully finding some surprises along the way. We will also be exploring changes of state and observing how water can change into ice and steam. The children will explore a variety of resources in water to see if they dissolve and conducting lots of other water experiments!
Maths will be, as usual, focus around the topic so we shall be looking at big and little fish, finding the heaviest treasure, exploring bottles of water and comparing full and empty, heavy and light. We shall be doing some counting using fish, making groups of fish, and making fish using shapes.
Cookery this half term is focussing on milkshakes of all sorts of flavours with shortbread biscuits, we shall be focusing on the skills of rolling the dough and making shapes using biscuit cutters.
We have lots of songs for this half term, you can watch them below!
Summer 1
Collages this term
Take a look at our picture collages below.
Maths
We have had super fun in maths this term, take a look at our photos below.
Cookery
We have been super busy in cookery this term! We have been practising our cooking skills including stirring and washing up. The highlight of cookery this term was the fruit salad we made! it was delicious.
Science
We have been super busy in Science this term! We have completed animal puzzles, planted strawberries, practised our cutting skills on vegetables, made lovely flower pictures, made flower bouquets and named parts of a plant!
This half term our topic is “Down on the farm”. We shall be breaking the term down into different areas; crops, pets, who’s baby, large farm animals, feathered animals and ending in a barn dance. Our trip to Mead Open Farm was a huge success; the children enjoyed feeding the goats and giving bottles of milk to the lambs. We have also been growing lots of plants in class, cress, beans, radishes, strawberry plants and we have explored, smelled and sometimes tasted herbs and flowers.
In Math's lessons we will be using animals to help us count, to learn about big and small and to match and sort animals into groups. We can use our beans to talk about height and with some children we will be measuring them with alternative methods such as Lego bricks.
In story this half term we are focusing on books by Eric Carle which includes a simplified sensory story of The Tiny Seed and in the second half of the term we shall be reading The Very busy spider. Both of these books are available at amazon if you click on the links below.
The children will be experiencing switches to help make the animal noises in the story and practising their listening skills by matching animals to their sounds.
In science as you would expect we will be extending our learning into the growth of plants and how to ensure they are healthy, alongside learning about animals, their habitats and what they like to eat.
Spring 2
This Half Term
This half term in Canary class we have been exploring colour and light in Science. The children have been mixing colours to create new ones, seeing the difference of looking through different coloured cellophane, making sun catchers and exploring coloured lights in the dark.
Maths
This week in maths we have been exploring hot and cold. We have painted ice, melted ice in warm water and with salt and have frozen some little men in ice. The warm water was very popular too!
Den making
We have been making dens again this week, but this time we used some light toys in the dark, it was fun to watch the colours spin. We also used a black light in our dark den and painted with some ultraviolet paint. The colours were amazing.
Literacy Photos
In Literacy we have been reading a story called 'I ain't gonna paint no more'. The story is about a little boy whose mum has asked him to stop painting because he painted the floors, the walls and the ceiling! However, the little boy did not want to stop painting so he decided to paint himself! The children have been encouraged to find the different colours and pretend to paint the correct body part!!! The children have also helped to paint different pictures of body parts for our display! Look at some of the photos ...
Working with shapes in Maths was fun
We love getting messy with paint!
We have been exploring light and colour in Science!
We had lots of fun building Dens!
Topic
Leave your mark.
Maths
We have been matching by colour this week.
Leave your mark!
This half term is a very short one, so not much time in which to squeeze lots of fun activities. This topic is an art and DT topic and will include plenty of mark making in various ways. We shall be making a class sculpture with papier mache and modelling with salt dough. The art projects will combine the use of materials with using our senses; smelly paint and smelly play dough; edible resources that feel different to the touch, some messy, some not; painting while listening to different styles of music to see if this effects how the children approach their art; and creating collages with materials and photographs.
In cookery this half term we are making all sorts of biscuits and hopefully not burning them!
We are covering two stories this half term; an adaptation of “I ain’t gonna paint no more” by Karen Beaumont and “Monsters love colours” by Mike Austin. We shall be learning to name colours and pretend to paint parts of our bodies with that colour. We shall be encouraging the children to take an active part in the story by imitating adults. Secondly we shall learn how to mix the primary colours to make new colours and exploring many different ways to change the colours of things. This then links into science and the exploration of light and colour.
Maths will continue with the creative approach, matching by colour and creating patterns with various resources. We shall use shapes to make shape pictures and match shapes. Here a couple of examples that we hope to create.
For Number work we will be using the monsters love colours theme and feeding monsters coloured or numbered blocks; matching by colour; number hunt with the ipad to take photos; and printing with numicon.
Finally, we shall be using lots of colourful things to explore measurement.
Spring 1
We shall be using the story as a basis for our performance and will use music, dance and yoga to act out being a Wild thing. We shall build sailing boats both big and small. We shall be making some masks, crowns and costumes as props for our performance. If you have any costumes at home that may be useful for this performance please could you send them in.
In Science we are learning about materials and will be exploring man made and natural materials including wood, shells, stone, metal, plastic, paper, water, mud and sand. We shall be using these materials for exploring, sorting and creating art.
This half term the children will be learning to wave “Hello” and we shall continue our work on recognising our names and learning to match the letters of our names.
In PE we will continue with rhythmical gymnastics which includes throwing a variety of equipment.
The children will also be working hard to develop their fine motor muscles, which again helps with fiddly finger work such as doing up buttons and zips. This will also aid their development in holding and manipulating a pencil.
In cookery we are focusing on learning the ingredients and then mixing them in the correct order to make Jam tarts. The children will be encouraged to mix the ingredients, roll the pastry out and use cutters independently. Some children will be able to name all the ingredients needed for the tarts and will demonstrate their understanding of the order in which we do things by the end of this half term.
Autumn 2
Whizz Bang
This half term we shall be exploring light and dark as part of our topic Whizz Bang! In science we will be exploring a variety of light sources such as the sun, torches and light toys, but we shall also be experiencing darkness when we close ourselves in the sensory room and turn off all the lights! During this half term there are lots of celebrations to do with light, so we shall be learning about Diwali, Halloween, Bonfire night, Hanukah and Christmas.
In circle time we shall be continuing with our light and dark theme by turning off all the lights and using little torches on the end of our fingers to sing “One little finger”
We shall also be teaching the children how to respond to their name by waving “hello” when we sing to them using the tune for “Tommy Thumb”.
Our story this half term in The Gingerbread Man, you can find many versions on You Tube but the song we shall be using in class will be this one
In Maths we will be basing lots of activities on the story including money, counting and weighing, through playing in a role play bakery. For literacy we will be matching characters from the story and trying to make the sounds of the animals in the story. We shall also be developing our dramatic skills by trying to act the story out.
In attention skills we have moved on to stage 4 to help the children learn to focus on an individual activity.
This half terms cookery topic is tarts, we shall be cooking some savoury and some sweet tarts, and of course some Gingerbread men.
Towards Christmas we shall be getting festive and creating decorations, cards, chocolate truffles and mince pies.
Keep an eye on this page as we shall be uploading photographs of all the things the children have been up to.
Autumn 1
Tasting Collage
Cookery Collages
Maths
Correspondence, Coin Play, Matching, Number Run, Positional Language, Puzzles, Sorting, Water Play, Bead on a Rod, Building & Geometry
Literacy! Stories & Threading
Our Class Portraits!
Welcome to Canary Class! The class team are Chrissie (Teacher), Jemma (TA2), Emily and Lisa (TA’s). We are looking forward to a fun packed year filled with loads of exciting activities to help your children develop and grow.
As a reception class we shall be focusing on getting the children to a place where they are ready to learn. As such we will be concentrating on communication, attention and listening skills. This will entail children taking part in sessions such as Attention Skills (bucket time), PECS, Intensive Interaction, Shoebox activities and Colourful Semantics on a daily basis.
In addition to this we will have exciting sessions such as dough disco and write dance, which not only assist fine motor and pre-writing development but also teach the children to engage with adult led activities and follow simple instructions.
Our target for the whole year is to help the children become independent people, able to begin to dress and undress themselves, ask for help, and understand choices. We will help them to begin to understand how they are feeling and will show them how to express their emotions in appropriate ways.
Canary class is a very relaxed environment allowing the children to explore their surroundings and learn through play and exploration. The adults in the class will provide support for children on an individual basis depending on their needs, so that all the children in the class will learn and grow at the speed that suits them.
This half term our topic is “All About Me”. It provides us with the opportunity to get to know the children, their families and all the things they like to do.
Our story will be based on “Monkey Puzzle” by Julia Donaldson. The children will be encouraged to move and make sounds like the animals in the story. They will have the opportunity to choose more animals to add to the story, and some will be able to join in the repetitive sequence of the story.
Science will be linked to the topic and will provide the children with the opportunity to learn all about using their senses, and which parts of their body they use to explore the world. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures will all be experienced and the children will be encouraged to show us whether they like or dislike them. Some children will name the parts of their body and begin to label the experience as good or bad.
Our songs in Circle Time will provide an opportunity for the children to learn the names of the other children as well as the adults in the class. We shall also be learning to move to the song “From Head to Toe” by Eric Carle.
During our computing lessons, we shall be using the computers and ipad to make marks begin to create pictures. The art based programs that we shall use will support the children to learn how to change colour, to fill a space, to drag and drop and to explore a variety of artistic techniques. We hope to create mini Picasso and Monet portraits!
This half term the cookery sessions will be making sandwiches and tasting them. The children will be shown how to spread, grate, and cut, and shall be trying jam, chocolate spread, cheese, tuna, cucumber, and eggs.