Blog Week ending 11.03.22
This week in RWI we have been developing our confidence within our new groups working on Ditties or red Ditty books. For some children this week they have learnt some new Set Two sounds :
'ay' - may I play
'igh' - fly high
'ee' - What can you see?
In our number work we enjoyed reading the book Ten Black Dots. We have been considering how number can be represented in different ways. In the story, we discovered how the black dot arrangements can make up pictures showing a number. We may see one tree but that tree has nine apples on it so we can see both the number 1 and the number 9. We may see a boat but it has three black windows on it. Understanding that number can be represented in different ways and through different patterns and arrangement is key to developing number sense and the children really enjoyed creating with loose parts in our classroom environment, explaining to me what the different items represented and the number(S) that it showed.
We have also been working hard on our counting skills and looking at and listening to the patterns in numbers - making it easier for us to count on to much bigger numbers. We counted all the way up to 50 because we recognized that if we can count to 10 we just repeat that as we make our way into the teen numbers and the twenties etc. Our jobs in the classroom have all involved counting and we all enjoyed playing a game where we had to subitise the number on two dice and add the amount together before adding rungs to our Fire Fighter’s ladder. Whoever built their ladder first was the winner. Our 1:1 correspondence with number has improved so much!
In our topic work we have continued to think about the people who help us and have been considering the people who help to keep us safe. We have been reading the story ‘Burglar Bill’ and have been discussing whether the job of a Police Officer is to simply ‘stop the bad guys!’ We decided that an emergency is when something serious is happening and we need help quickly. As a class we thought about all of the different scenarios when we might need to ring 999 to get some help from the emergency services and we decided having a burglar in your house is definitely an emergency but that the Police have so many other jobs where they help to keep us safe and protect us by making sure people follow the law! During Drawing Club we thought about the character Burglar Bill and discussed with our friends why we thought he wore a mask and a hat. Many of the children decided it was a disguise but they were not sure why he wore a stripy shirt as that made him stand out!
Alongside this we thought about the other people who worked for the Emergency Services like Fire Fighters, Paramedics and Coastguards and we enjoyed lots of discussion during circle time discussing the roles and responsibilities of these people. We also started to think about stereotypes. Many of the children seemed to believe that these jobs were for boys only, so we watched some videos of female Emergency Service workers to show that all of the jobs done by the people in our community can be done in the future by any one of us in Pear Class!
We had an eggciting time again this week investigating the results of our teeth decay experiment. We took turns to use a toothbrush to brush the shell of the eggs that had been inside the different drinks for several days. We discovered mould growing on the top of several of the drinks and we enjoyed looking at the ‘green splodges’ as we discussed how this is fungus growing on the top and it shows us that the drink is off and should no longer be drank as it can cause us to have a sore tummy.
We then took turns to brush the eggshells(teeth) to see what would happen. We discovered that coffee turned the egg shell brown - even when we brushed we were unable to remove all of the stain. Sugar free pop created some small dents in the egg shell, sugary fizzy pop created some huge cracks in the shell and the fresh orange shell shockingly removed all of the egg shell – if this was our teeth we could imagine them just crumbling away. We have made a deal in Pear Class to only drink fresh orange occasionally and preferably with a straw! This experiment showed us all that sugar can cause cavities and decay to our teeth causing them to colour, dent, crack and in extreme cases crumble! Like true Scientists we then worked hard to write up our findings.
Later in the week we have continued looking at people who help us to keep safe, particularly focussing on firefighters and the tall ladders they need! Our maths has focussed on taller and shorter, ordering items by their height. We've had lots of fun pretending to be firefighters and working out if we need a taller or shorter ladder to rescue people.
We also had a special visit from the people who help us recycle and empty our bins. The bin lorry came to school so we had a go at sitting in the driver's seat to see how high it was and had a go at pressing the horn. They then spoke to us about what we should put in the blue recycling bin. We all had great fun looking at the lorry and seeing how huge the wheels were! You should all have got a poster to help reinforce this at home so it'd be great if you can model recycling and get your child involved.
In music, we're really enjoying listening to songs from different genres around the world. This week, we've particularly enjoyed listening to the orchestral piece "Mars" from Gustav Holst's "The Planets".
Our PSHE this week focussed on all the different sports and activities we like to do to keep our bodies healthy. We enjoyed talking about the things we like to do and having a go at some and acting others out. At home, why don't you share your favourite childhood games that you liked to play and have a go at playing them as a family?