Cygnus - Reflect and Review

Dear Reception families

Welcome back to the summer term!

Our new topic this term is ‘Into the wild.’

We will be focusing our learning on the animals and plants that live in the rainforests and looking at the geography of the rainforests locations. 

The children have been exploring their new rainforest explorer area where we have animals and insects to look at. We learned about tropical and temperate rainforest geographic locations this week. The children also learned some fun facts about rainforests. Rainforests cover less than 3% of the world's surface and yet over half of all the plant and animal species live there! The Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the world's oxygen! 

The children came up with some great ideas and questions they would like answered about rainforests this term.

Our new caterpillars also arrived this week! They will be helping us learn about life cycles over the term. 

In Maths we counted and grouped larger numbers beyond 20. 

The children also practised counting things they could not see such as music beats, and how long it takes to do an obstacle course. The children also surveyed each other's snack preferences and counted their results. We introduced the concept of estimation this week and will work on it more this term.   

This week our Drawing Club book was ‘Where the wild things are’ by Maurice Sendak.

We tried to help Max deal with the wild things and find a good way to get home. 

Vocabulary this week:  escapade, navigate, coronation, evade, vegetation, disembark, shimmy, irritated.

Big 3 and Me this week focused on acting brave. The children learned the British sign language signs for brave, frightened and nervous. The Big 3 and Me challenge this week was to be brave and ask for help if things are hard. 

Next week at a glance

We will be learning about which animals live in the rainforest.

Our personal, social and emotional health focus will be ‘Thinking big.’

Don't forget to join us at our Book Fair next week - in the Hall after school Tuesday 21st - Friday 24th April! Special Offer: Buy 3 for the price of 2!

Dates for your diary: 

Outdoor learning dates this term: 17th April, 1st May, 15th May

21st-24th April School Book Fair 

14th May Cygnus class visit to St Lawrence church

14th May Zoolab visit to the school (please see separate email from the school)

25th-29th May Half term

Notices:

The children are now all reading books in phonics and will be bringing new books home every few days. Please make sure they always have their reading books in their books bags and bring the bags to school every day. The day we change books will change depending on the timetable. 

Children need a pair of indoor shoes/plimsoles to change into to come into the classroom and a spare set of clothes, including pants and socks, for any accidents. These should be brought to school every day please. 

Please make sure the children have a waterproof coat every day. We have outdoor play as often as possible and we need to be ready for changes in the weather. Please make sure the children have a sunhat/cap at school to wear if it is a sunny day. 

If your child is going home with someone else, please make sure you email the school office to advise us of the change: office@nhps.org.uk 

Best wishes

The Reception Team