Reception - Turrets, Tiaras and Traditional Tales

Reception have been busy learning all about Bonfire Night, they thought carefully about what bonfires look like and sound like. The children even thought about how to keep safe whilst watching fireworks. Their artistic skills were put to good use to produce some amazing firework display pictures which the children were all extremely proud of. They printed with straws, pipe cleaners, forks and star cutters. They worked on dipping the art resource into several colours of paint at the same time, then dabbed, twisted and dragged it to make a variety of different shapes in the sky. The children also experimented with a variety of metallic and neon coloured pencils, metallic oil pastels and wax crayons, as well as chalk to draw fireworks onto black paper. A very messy but productive (as usual) art lesson indeed.

The children have been looking into the characteristics of effective learning and thinking about what good learning looks like. Children have enjoyed taking it in turns to take on the role of our ‘Learning Lookout,’ with binoculars and clipboard in hand, they have thoroughly enjoyed seeing whether children are being like Mr Bump (someone who is showing persistence by keeping on having a go when they find something tricky) or whether they can spot a Mr Clever (somebody who is always coming up with new ideas). They have thoroughly enjoyed sharing what they have found and children like hearing about what they did well from their peers.

The highlight of this half term so far though (it was difficult to choose with so much fun that has been had) is most probably our school trip to Oxford Castle. Reception’s topic is Turrets, Tiaras and Traditional Tales and Oxford Castle seemed like the perfect place to learn all about Kings and Queens and everything in between. For some children it was their first time travelling on a coach and they were lucky enough to have a very friendly coach driver who greeted everyone with a smile. Once we arrived at the castle, the children met a knight and a servant who guided them through a spiral staircase that went up St George’s Tower. The children listened carefully to stories of King Henry’s daughter Matilda and how she cleverly escaped from the castle. A visit to the old prison was also a highlight where the children found out that it was open until 1996. The knight told the children about the story of a seven year old girl who was put into prison for seven days for borrowing (maybe stealing) a pram. During their lunch break the children walked up the mound where the old tower of the castle used to be. What an amazing first school trip!