Hello and welcome back to our class blog. This week we have been using the text Jack and the Beanstalk to help us with our learning. We have been exploring the repetitive refrains in this story and have had so much fun hot seating the different characters from the story. Ask your child to show you how to move and talk like the Giant from the story.  

We started the week off with our story map. Each week we take a different story and develop our language, communication and writing skills when we record it using pictures and then re-tell it. Each week we children talk about the beginning, middle and end of the story we are learning about and we map it out. A great skill designed to promote reading 

We have also been using the story to help us with our letter recognition. We created a beanstalk and then added leaves with letter sounds on them. Our challenge then was to go around the classroom and look for objects with those sound and then place them in the correct order. 

We have also been creatign and exploring lots of different building materials to see which would be best to use to create the Giants castle from the story. We had such a great time solving  problems, changing and adapting our designs to find the strongest materials. Here is the one we made together. Isn't it amazing?

We have also been exploring matching numeral and quantity. WE identified the number on the digit card, counted out the right number of counters and matched them up. Then if that wasn't enough we then looked at different ways to record that number. The children love to do this type of learning. We have been exploring in detail how we can use words, numbers, tally charts, clocks and money to represent numbers. Why not choose  a number at home and ask your child to show you as many ways as they can think of to represent that number?

We have also started out Loan Library this week. We hope that you will enjoy the book you chose. Remember please, books need to be returned to school every Thursday before you choose a new one. This helps the children to take ownership of the books, learn about the days of the week and helps us to ensure that we always have a large number of high quality lovely texts for your child to choose from. Thank you for your support with this 

And finally. Next week we will be exploring and learning all about Chinese New Year. Why not look on the Internet at the weekend or watch the local news to find out about the celebrations that will be going ahead next weekend in both Manchester and Liverpool. 

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit. I wonder if the children could find out what year they were born in? 

Have a great weekend

Staff and children in Reception W