Summer 1 Curriculum Information and Weekly Learning Updates
Summer 1 -Week 6. The Three Little Pigs
This week we started our learning looking at a map of the Three Little Pigs to see if the children could unpick the information from the map to identify the story. The children unpicked lots of information from the map to help some of them identify the 3 little pigs or the big bad wolf. We then spent a lot of time reading the story and learning the structure of the story and some of the repeating story language. We all enjoyed joining in with the story retelling and we also all loved reading the books in our classroom to our friends and acting out the story using the story spoons and story masks.
We all used our phonics knowledge to write the repeating phrase from the story. We were so proud of how readable our writing was to others.
We then spent a lot of time looking at the houses the pigs built and discussing the properties of the materials used to build the houses. We discussed why straw and sticks would not be good for houses and why bricks are a really good choice. We talked about the work of builders and how they need to lay the bricks to make the house as strong as it can be. We loved building houses with our mini bricks and we made some super representations of the houses the pigs made.
We then looked at pictures of our own houses. We found it funny seeing our own houses up on the whiteboard. We looked at the features which were common in all of our houses and why each house needed them. We then drew and labelled drawings of our house using our phonics to label the features all houses have in common and which are important for a house to have.
We did lots of other 3 little pigs jobs to help us develop our story telling while also developing our fine motor cutting skills.
In our continuous provision we had lots of resources which allowed us to practise quick recall of our doubles. Lots of us loved showing our grown ups doubles we found and telling them what the double is,
Summer 1 Week 5 - Our local area
This week we have been learning all about where we live and what we can find in our local area. We started the week standing on the hill in our school grounds and looking all around at what we could see. We started to put names to some of the features we could see. We then used Google earth to spot these features on a map. We then drew our own map showing the geographical features around our school.
We then explored the local area around our school to see if we could see some of the features first hand. We also used this opportunity to visit the local post office and post our cards to the King. We hope we get a reply 🤞🏻We used the map from Google earth to help us follow the right route.
We then looked at how the immediate area around our school is different to Hetton Centre. We looked on Google earth and then we walked into town to see if we could spot the physical and human features we talked about on the map. We also used this opportunity to visit the local fruit and vegetable shop and buy our own snack. We were complimented on our manners and how well we walked and our behaviour by local people more than once!
Back at school we used everything we learnt while we were out and about to work collaboratively to make a huge map of our local area.
Reception now know so much about our local area and how and why we use maps.
Summer 1 Week 4 - King Charles III
This week we continued our learning about King Charles and the significance of his coronation. We looked at the ceremony and the crown he was given as King. We looked at money and stamps from when the Queen reigned and looked closely at the design. We noticed that she was depicted wearing her crown. We then looked at the stamps and coins made when King Charles became king and observed the fact that he wasn’t wearing a crown. We discussed why linking it to the Coronation. We then designed what we think the new coins and stamps will look like. We also discussed how each new monarch has their portrait done. We did our own King Charles portraits.
We also wrote our own cards to the King to say we are glad he is our King and that we hope he enjoys his job of being the King. We are going to go to the post office and post these to the King ourselves. We hope we get a reply 🤞🏻🤞🏻
We then read ‘The King’s Hats’ - a book about all the jobs the King does. We spent lots of time talking about different jobs and jobs we want to do when we are older. We then designed our own hats to show what we would like to be like when we are older or what we would like to do. We have put them into our English books.
In maths we started to learn about doubles. We painted folding butterflies and we counted the spots and we used dominoes to match doubles. We are getting really good at quickly recalling doubles up to double 5.
We have also really enjoyed exploring outdoors this week. We used some of our equipment to make bridges between the hills in our outdoors. We had good fun and demonstrated super team work and amazing imagination.
We also became mini gardeners and used our learning from previous weeks to plant our own plants in our garden.
And look at how tall our beanstalks have grown! We have sent them home now to see how tall we can grow them.
Summer 1 Week 3 The King’s Coronation
This week has been all about learning about the King and his Coronation which will take place on May 6th. We remembered the Queen and her reign and we learnt about Charles and how he will become the new King. Lots of us thought he applied for the job so we looked at families and family trees and learnt about the Queen and her 4 children and what it means to be the heir to the throne. We learnt about what will happen at the coronation and the meaning behind The Union Jack.
We looked in detail at the crown Charles will receive and me made our own crowns ready for our crown parade for our parents. We tried really hard with our accurate cutting skills and holding our scissors safety and using them the right way up when we were cutting.
Friday the 5th - today we have had a lovely day. This morning some of the residents of Primrose Care Home came to visit and we sang for them, chatted to them, did some crafts with them and shared a special Coronation tea. It was lovely and all our guests smiled the whole time. ❤️🤍💙👑
We then had a super Coronation street party style lunch in the hall with our very own cream and jam scone! Then this afternoon we Song Bombed our school hall full of parents and sung our hearts out about the the Kings’s Coronation. We have certainly made this monumental moment in history memorable in Reception.❤️💙🤍👑
Summer 1 Week 2- Jack and the Beanstalk.
Following on from our work last week we have continued to use the story of Jack and the beanstalk as the focus for our learning. This week we made our own story map and we learnt to retell the story using the pictures. Our story language and our sentence formation was very impressive. We then decided to write our own version of the story and to make this into a book for our classroom and for Nursery who have also been using the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Because we knew the story so well we were all able to write our part of the story well and use our ever growing phonic knowledge to spell some of the tricky words we needed. Our book isn’t quite finished yet but we can’t wait to show you the finished item next week.
This week we read several different versions of Jack and the beanstalk and we found what was the same and what was different. In one story there was a magic harp - this was different to the story we were learning to retell as this one had a magic hen. We were so interested in what a harp was and how it was played that we spent lots of our time this week looking at a harp and listening to harp music. We also investigated other instruments which are plucked. We had a go at playing instruments which are plucked - we played a ukulele and a guitar. We used quiet and loud cards to make and play our own music. We also made our own plucking instruments and formed our own band!
Ashley then came in and showed us how to play the ukuele properly. She also worked with us on shaking and tapping and jingling instruments, We decided to make our own shaking instruments too! Our classroom has been full of music this week!
This weeks maths has been all about 10. We have counted to 10 forwards and backwards and we have ordered numbers to 10. We have also been learning about how to use tens frames to find pairs of numbers to make 10. We had a super game of find your 10 partner. We loved it so much we played it lots of times.
Look at what else we have been up to this week.
And our beans are growing! We hope they grow as big as Jack’s.
Summer 1 - Week 1 - Beans, beans and more beans.
This week we have started to look at the story of Jack and the beanstalk and we have used this to introduce and guide our learning about growing plants. We have read the story lots of times and we have used our developing story language knowledge to retell the story in our play.
We also used the story to look at plants growing and we extended our learning to understanding what plants need to grow well and how to look after plants. We have all planted our own seeds and are being mini gardeners to make sure they grow big and tall just like Jack's did.
We have also done some super writing about plants. We wrote about how the beanstalk grew and grew and grew and we wrote our own instructions for how to plant a seed and then we made an information sheet about what plants need to grow well. Ask to look in our writing books to see our super work. In our spelling you can see that we are using the right sound in our words - we might just not know the correct spelling of that sound yet!
In maths we have been consolidating our learning of numbers to 10. We have been looking at the composition of numbers to 10 and we have also been practising ordering numbers to 10! We have been amazing at our maths this week!
In PE we have been practising our balancing and jumping. We were so proud of ourselves as we all pushed ourselves to do all the tasks independently. At first we might have needed a little bit help from the grown-ups as we just were not 100% confident but by the end we were all working independently and safely and showing how well we could develop both our skills and our confidence. We were all smiling as we were so proud of ourselves - our teachers were too!
This week the sun has also been shining and we have loved just being outside!
Summer 1 - Curriculum Information
Please find attached the curriculum information for Summer 1 for Diamond Class. This will give you an over view of the learning focuses for this term and also so key information. Any questions then please just ask the Reception Team.