Hello and welcome back to this weeks class blog. This week we have been using the lovely text Commotion In The Ocean. Let's have a little look at what's been happening in class this week 

Firstly let's take a little look at some of the lovely invitations to come and play and learn we have explored this week. We set the classroom up with lots of lovely experiences that are designed to excite and enthuse the children and encourage them to come and explore. 

We started the theme off early this week in our phonics area. We looked at different sea creatures and identified the sounds that we could hear when we segmented the word and blended it back together. Here we are saying the sounds, finding them and putting them in the correct order to spell out words such as shell, shark, ship etc.

We have been busy thinking about what this habitat would look like. Under the sea would at time be dark and gloomy and on other occasions bright and blue - these were just some of the ideas the children shared in our talking time.  We took these ideas and explored them in the creative area. We added coral, fish, sharks and other things that we thought we may see deep in the ocean. 

In between our learning about the ocean we have also talked about Bonfire Night. This was the perfect time to use this theme to help us develop our writing and our fine motor control. Take a look at us getting creative. The children created their own firework words and had a great time saying the sounds out loud and recording. We also used our Funky Finger sessions to add small stickers to fireworks - great for developing our hand eye co-ordination 

We also explored clay this week in class. We created 3d sculptures of animals that live in the ocean linked to our story Commotion In The Ocean. Here we are exploring clay for the first time and we made some fantastic models. Well done everyone 

In Music this week we listened to the song Roll Alabama by Bellowhead. We talked about the instruments we could hear, joined in with the beat and then created our own actions and sounds linked to the familiar song I'm a little teapot. Here we are tapping out the beat on our knees 

We have also been continuing our Yoga journey. We use Cosmic Kids to explore Yoga and even managed to find one that took us on an under the sea journey. This session straight after lunch is most enjoyable for the children and helps them to calm, relax and get ready for our afternoon learning 

We have some budding artists in class and our creative area is such a popular spot to learn in class. Each week when we learn about a different animal we have created half portraits. The children's skills and ability to follow patterns and lines is ever improving and we are so very proud of their efforts. Here are just 2 examples of some art work 

We also researched on the Internet different sea creatures. Here are some of the facts we discovered on the Internet. Some of them really amazed us!

Next week we will be learning using the text What the ladybird heard at the Seaside. Please click on the link below to listen to the story before Monday 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvguZ1YvKLw

Have a wonderful weekend

Staff and Children in Reception W