This week we had our Eid celebration! The children all helped to make chapatis and we used mint from our garden to make our own raita dip. We played party games in the hall and thoroughly enjoyed getting out our colourful parachute!

We have loved 'People Who Help Us' week! Our local PCSOs visited and told us all about their job and even let us sit in the police car! They set the children the challenge to learn their house number and road name so they know them in case of an emergency. We also had a visit from a doctor who helped us learn about the different organs in our body and how to keep them healthy. We talked about the different people in our school who help us and had a visit from our Lollipop Man, Paul, who reminded us how to cross the road safely and even left us a mini lollipop and jacket to play with on the playground.

Today we had a visit from our local fire crew. They told us all about the different equipment on the fire engine and the special uniform they wear. It was especially exciting when they turned the 'tap' on at the back of the engine and let some of the water come pouring out! They reminded us to check that we have smoke alarms at home and, if not, to call the St. Albans fire station so that one of the crews can come to visit our house and install them for us!

Kyrah's mum came to talk to us about Ramadan this week. We learnt about how Muslims observe Ramadan and different ways that families celebrate Eid. Kyrah and her mum made us a 'Kindness Box' so we could write some of the kind things that we do during the week and add them to the box.

We really enjoyed having a visit from the Year 6 class who came to be our 'Book Buddies' and read us a story. They were brilliant! In the creative area, we turned a potato into our favourite book characters. Can you guess who they are?

100 Days of School Celebration

Reception have been using a 100 square grid to mark off how many days they have been at school. We have been l;earning to count up to 100 in tens and ones. Today we celebrated reaching 100 days of school with lots of fun activities all around the number 100.

This week we explored homes from all over the world. We had to create our own homes to keep someone safe from the Big Bad Wolf by making sure it had strong walls and a waterproof roof. We considered the materials we used carefully and enjoyed testing whether they worked! We investigated different 3D shapes and learnt how to describe them. 

It was Valentine's Day this week so we also created heart sun catchers. It was tricky to cut out the heart in the middle without starting at the edge!

3D Maps

We are working towards our Curriculum Ambition of begin Imaginative Inventors by creating our own 3D Map; focusing on using a flap to attach pieces together. We read the story 'The Boy Who Loved Maps' by Kari Allen and then thought about what we would include on a map of "the perfect place". We came up with our own ideas, drew them on pieces of card and used scissors to make a slit in order to create a flap to attach it to the base.

Local Area Walk 

30th January 2024

We have been learning about maps and looking at ones of our local area. We have discussed, drawn and planned our routes to school and thought about any special landmarks we pass. Today we went on a walk along the River Ver through to the Nunnery. We used our senses to look and listen for different animals, signs or landmarks.

This week we thought all about our local area by exploring maps of St. Albans and seeing if we can find our own homes on the maps. We drew our routes to school and wrote instructions explaining how to get there.

We read the book 'Betty and the Yeti' by Ella Burfoot. We thought about the clothes we wear in winter to keep warm and then explored how different Arctic animals keep warm. It was a very cold week so we had lots of opportunities to investigate how water freezes to make ice and experiment with ways to make the ice melt faster. We also had a go at painting with cubes of ice!

We had our first PE lesson this week and had to get changed all by ourselves - we did a great job! PE is on Monday afternoons every week.

We read the story 'We're going on a bear hunt' and enjoyed making up our own hunts with clues and retelling the story with puppets. In the creative area, we used a variety of collage materials to create our own story maps and in Literacy we thought of our own settings that we could go through during our bear hunt.

We have had a great time doing lots of Christmas themed activities over the last couple of weeks! We have been sewing stockings, decorating our Christmas tree (including making our own decorations!) and writing letters to Santa to post at our Post Office. Outside, we made Santa's workshop and enjoyed building our own sleighs and wrapping presents to deliver.

We enjoyed making our own Pumpkin Soup this week! We had to cut the carrots, pumpkins and potatoes into small pieces before we cooked it and then everyone tried it afterwards! 

This week we learnt all about how Hindus celebrate Diwali and made comparisons with our own family's celebrations. We made Rangoli patterns using rice, paint and chalk and did a Diwali dance with scarves. In Maths, we explored pattern making and in our creative area we made our own Diva lamps using clay.

We made our own firework rockets using junk modelling. We had to choose the correct shape pieces and then consider the best method to attach them together.

This week has been a busy one! We explored capacity in Maths by making potions and recording our ingredients in Literacy. Then on Friday, we had our Magical Tea Party! We did magical themed crafts, played parachute games, decorated biscuits, went in the hall for party games and ate some party food. It was a great day!

This week we were visited by some of our parents who talked to us about life in other countries and even read stories or sang songs in other languages! We practised our cutting skills making Italian mosaics and joined in with some music from India by trying to find the beat. We enjoyed making tickets, building planes and taking on jobs in our airport role play as well as adding symbols and labels to our large world map.

Thank you to all the parents who came in to visit us!

This week we talked all about how we have changed since we were babies and all the things we still have yet to learn! Then we thought about the different jobs people do and  what we would like to be when we grew up.

This week we read the story 'The Smeds and the Smoos' by Julia Donaldson. We talked about how we are all unique and that is wonderful! Then we explored the story through our play by squelching in alien slime, making our own alien story puppets, experimenting with colour mixing and making aliens from playdough.

We had to look carefully in the mirror and choose the right colour to match our eyes, hair, lips and skin. We thought carefully about the  shape of our facial features and enjoyed discussing our similarities and differences.

A warm welcome to all of our families who have joined this year. We look forward to getting to know you all and hope you enjoy seeing what we have been learning about.