What a busy week it has been in Reception! Following on from the children’s interest in the characters in The Three Billy Goats Gruff story, the children were amused by the Troll and his unusual characteristics. We have had a week of scary, gruesome and creepy monsters! In the Imaginary Room the children used construction and imaginative ideas to create a den for the monsters to hide in. Additionally, in the Explorers Room they have enjoyed collating responses from their peers to create a tally chart of their favourite monsters; some children counted in fives to find the total. In the Art Studio, it has been particularly lively with monster creations; this included making clay monsters, junk modelling, and blow painting using straws and masks of characters from ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. We have noticed that this interest has encouraged many children to confidently communicate and develop their social skills.
We would like to say first and foremost how proud we were of all of the children on our first Year 2 school trip to Leeds Castle on Friday 12th January. We were extremely lucky with the weather and the children behaved beautifully and represented Joydens Wood Infants extremely well demonstrating all of our school values.
The children loved walking around the castle and learning about Lady Bailey and all of the other owners of Leeds Castle. A couple of lucky children were even invited to cross the security rope to see what was behind a secret door in the wall (a bathroom!) We had a lovely picnic lunch courtesy of Mrs Quinn and then the children had some free time to play in the amazing adventure playground where they had loads of fun!
Back in the real world, following up from our trip, we have created story maps based on our day, followed by detailed recounts of the trip. We have had some absolutely fabulous writing. We have been tackling time in Maths, learning how to tell the time to 5 minute intervals! This is quite a tricky concept to grasp but the children have worked so hard to understand the difference between times past the hour and times to the hour – please practise this at home!
In Science the children have been investigating different materials, making predictions about which materials would be best to build a castle. They will test their predictions by building their own castles and deciding whether their material choice was the most appropriate.
Their next step question was to decide whether Tom was right to make an umbrella out of cardboard. Do you agree? Discuss some ideas with your children why this may or may not be such a good idea!
This week the children have been searching for the wolf around school! We have made maps of the school building and plotted them with different labels and key locations the wolf might hide. We then went on to learn more about wolves and what they are like. The children have made fact files about the wolf and have designed an ideal home for him. In Challenge Time the children have fed this into their other subjects; they have been artists, learning how to mix the colour grey, have made clay wolves, and have used charcoal to blend different shades.
At home task: See what you can learn about wolves. Perhaps you can share this on Tapestry.
In Maths the children have been learning about time, we have looked at seconds and minutes; how long these are and what can be achieved in different times. We have also read the time on a clock to o’clock and half past.
At home task: Practise reading the time with your child – there is a task on Mathletics to help with this!
Library Club
Every Monday and Friday lunchtime, the school library is open between 12:15 and 12:45pm – come alone for some relaxation or with a friend and share a book.
Book Swap Stop
It’s totally free and a great way of recycling reading material! Visit the Book Swap Stop in the main reception area and begin swapping; bring in a book you no longer wish to own (in good condition) and take a new one, to keep, in its place.
Miss Hately and I are looking forward to hearing from you at the next Parent Forum. Make sure you book a place!
We are very excited to be launching Master of Mathletics where children will be able to compete against each other in Mathletics competitions!
This week in Reception, the children have been really excited when learning about the Three Billy Goats. Across all three classrooms the children have been engaged in activities from acting out the story to making clay goats. Lots of learning has been taking place!
Welcome back after hopefully a lovely and relaxing Christmas break. We are ready and raring to go in a fresh, new term and the children have settled in really well back into the routine of school.
It has been a busy start to the new year for Year One. We have quickly settled back into the school routine and are thoroughly enjoying learning about the Three Little Pigs!
