Blog Week ending 12.10.22
It has been a Harvesty week in Pear Class!
In our maths work this week we have been thinking about size differences. We enjoyed reading the story Goldilocks and the three bears and the children ordered some items according to size using our key vocabulary to see which items would be better for each of the bears. We looked at the language of size: biggest, smallest and middle sized and the language of length: tallest as well as extending our descriptions to tiny, little and large.
This was also a good way to introduce the children to some vegetables that they may not already know - we all found the name squash very funny and even funnier when we compared this to Mrs Horne-Smith being the taller teacher and Mrs Johnson to being similar to the little pumpkin because she is the shorter teacher! An excellent way to develop your children's interest in healthy eating is to take them with you on a trip to the supermarket and allowing them to choose one item each week that they have not encountered before, allowing them to investigate how it looks, feels, the size of it and creating a tasty dinner with it to develop their interests in the healthy foods around them.
Using the Harvest vegetables from our Investigation Area in the classroom, the children size ordered and talked to us about the similarities and differences they could see, referring to the colours, the textures, the shapes and the size. A job over the weekend could be to have your child size order some items from your kitchen cupboards, encourage the use of description and comparison – difference is always an easy one because it is all about contrast, but the children are still struggling to understand that word similar.
We have also been thinking about capacity in our maths work as we helped Mrs Horne-Smith to decide which box each of her three bears would fit into. This was tricky because her biggest bear was only slightly larger than her middle sized bear.
Our topic work has centered around Harvest and the produce that we are lucky enough to find in our supermarkets due to the hard work of others. We enjoyed watching a video that explained all about the combine Harvester and how this large machine worked to harvest the corn, wheat, barley, oats and rye that is growing in farmer’s fields. We enjoyed singing the song Big Red Combine Harvester and if you ask your child, they may be able to tell you what the word threshing means and tell you all about the parts of the Combine like the teeth and the cab. We enjoyed taking this learning further outside as the children created their own Combines in groups using large loose parts. It was wonderful to see the team work involved and the differing ideas.
This week in Drawing Club we have been looking at the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We enjoyed talking about the story and discussing how we would have to create different sized items for the different characters. Many of us enjoyed drawing a house that all three of the bears would be able to fit into.
Our ‘gym in the jungle’ session this week was a bouncing, hopping and leaping lot of fun! We were all brilliant frogs! As the half term has gone by, Pear class have become ever more confident in using a range of movements and are challenging themselves each and every week. We have been thinking about the importance of keeping fit and healthy and we know that exercise is one of the ways that we can do this! Pear class have been feeling their beating hearts after our warm ups and recognizing that they are beating faster because of exercise. We enjoyed a game of ‘dishes and domes’ ‘follow the leader’, moving on the spot and moving in and out of space on the yard. We took P.E outside and the children enjoyed leaping, bouncing and jumping like frogs.
Our RE session this week allowed for lots of discussion- an excellent way to build up those language skills with turn taking, listening skills, learning, and using new topic specific vocab. Last week in RE the children thought about how Christians welcome a new baby into their family and faith by means of baptizing. This week the children have been hearing all about how people from different religions welcome a new baby. They learnt that some Hindu’s celebrate by pouring a small amount of honey onto a new baby’s head whilst whispering God’s name in their ear, they found out that Humanists usually hold a ‘naming ceremony’ for their new babies and they remembered that some Christians welcome a new baby by having a Christening.
Jerry cat helped us 'paws' for thought at the end of the week as we considered what our rights were. Pear class found out that all children around the world have many rights, such as the right to have a name, the right to go to school and the right to be safe from harm.
We moved and grooved again this week in our ‘Charanga’ music session this time to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’! We decided that the song was a happy song with ‘happy words’, ‘fast music’ and made us feel ‘like celebrating’! We kept the beat by clapping, stomping and clicking. We then performed our ‘pat a cake’, ‘ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5’, ‘This Old Man’ whilst dancing to each other’s performances!
Until next week....
We hope that you have a lovely restful weekend,
The Pear Class Team