week ending 18th October 2019
Hello and welcome back to our class blog. This week we have been using the text Zog as the focus for our learning. This text is great for helping us to compare and contrast different localities and we started the week off by looking at what happens in dragon school and thinking about what happens here at Westfield in different year groups. It was s very interesting fact finding mission. Here is just a little example.....
Inline with our Number of the Week work we have been creating a number 5 museum. We have been looking in and around the classroom and finding objects that we can use that link to number 5. This has prompted a huge amount of discussion. We have been looking at the title of songs for example 5 little ducks but then looking at the paper it is written on which has 4 sides. Can it go into our number 5 museum or not? Critical thinking at its best 
We have also been really lucky to have received a letter from Zog. Zog sent us some report cards for the dragons in his school and we had to decide how many stars we gave them. Not only this, we had to count, write and check our numbers AND then put them in order from the smallest to the biggest. Tricky but great to listen to the children explain their thinking. Well done everyone
A huge thank you to all those parents and children whom have spent time making musical instruments. This was one of our home challenges linked to the letters and sounds work we do in class. We have made a lovely display in the classroom and we would welcome you coming to look at it. What very creative children we have.
We are continuing our challenges in the continuous provision area. This week one challenge was to try and write the letters we have been focusing on in Read Write Inc in under 1 minute. Here we are taking part in the challenge.
In conjunction with exploring learning through the children's interests we have been looking at pumpkins. Some of the Julia Donaldson texts contain pumpkins and the children have been interested in exploring what they look like inside and how they are grown. So we set up an area in the classroom where the children could look, smell, feel and explore the insides of them. This prompted us to look at books, use the Internet and ask each other questions. A great fun learning opportunity.
What a wonderful half term it has been. We have been so very busy learning and we have so many new skills and knowledge to share. After the half term we will be continuing to use Julia Donaldson texts as the focus for our learning and we will be using classics such as Room on a Broom, Smartest Giant in Town and Stickman. Thank you also to Ava who has very very kindly shared her own personal Julia Donaldson collection with us. We have read 17 Julia Donaldson texts this half term. Amazing 
Have a wonderful week holiday
Reception Staff and children